Free Republic

A New York Times reviewer criticized Disney's new children's movie, The Little Mermaid, because it lacked — are you ready? — "kink."According to BizPacReview:Disney's live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid" is a dud, according to one woke critic.It's "everything nobody should want in a movie," wrote Wesley Morris for The New York Times, "dutiful and defensive, yet desperate for approval. It reeks of obligation and noble intentions."What the film, starring singer Halle Bailey, needed, according to Morris, is more "kink.""Joy, fun, mystery, risk, flavor, kink — they're missing," he stated.How'd that get past the editors?And what, exactly, did this guy...

Two policemen in plainclothes visited the home of a person living in the United States for tweeting against US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). The police officers were from the California Highway Patrol and paid a visit on behalf of the Capitol Police. The individual speculated that he was paid a visit because of a tweet where he said that AOC’s response to a question on Israel and Palestine was underwhelming. Twitter link- The individual said that the visit was outrageous. He said, “I felt scared, intimidated, and violated. They knew my name and where I live. It was done on...

Nineteen-year-old Wang Jingyu was summoned back to China from overseas on Feb. 21 after he criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for underreporting Chinese deaths during the June 2020 China-India border clash. Beijing authorities have since detained his parents, who live in southwestern China’s Chongqing, raided their house, dismissed them from their state-run company positions, and tortured them, in an attempt to force Wang to stop talking to overseas media and go back to China. On Feb. 27, Wang told The Epoch Times that he couldn’t reach his parents by phone and was threatened by police from Chongqing that they...

A former Colorado state representative has filed a lawsuit against recently sworn-in GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert after being blocked by the lawmaker's Twitter account. ... Buentello's lawyers argue Boebert has limited their client's constitutional right to free speech by blocking her.

There have been many strange scenes in this era of coronavirus pandemic, anti-racism unrest, and woke recriminations, but perhaps none have been stranger than one that took place on Zoom late last month, when 115 people, appearing in little squares on computer screens, held a kind of trial, a somewhat secret one at that, closed to the press, its participants barred from talking about it to outsiders afterwards. The episode illustrates the tense workings of cancel culture preoccupying an American institution. In the dock, and visible in his own little square, was Carlin Romano, a writer, philosopher, book critic and,...

Trump voters in the flyover states are often referred to as “the forgotten” — the men and women whom the media and other presidential candidates failed to understand. An entire cottage industry has materialized around them, intending to “humanize” them, or explain their perspective to a baffled coastal audience. J. D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, is typically seen as the prototype of this group. But Will Arbery’s riveting off-Broadway play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, dramatizes an even more obscure group, a forgotten sub-category within “the forgotten” — a group Rod Dreher, whose influence weighs heavily on the play,...

An Ohio man charged after writing on Facebook that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "should be shot" told police he was "very proud" that he did it. Timothy James Ireland, 41, was indicted in Toledo for making interstate threats against AOC in addition to separate counts of being felon and fugitive in possession of a firearm, the US attorney's office in Ohio announced on Friday. Officials say a concerned citizen reached out to U.S. Capitol Police on July 23 to warn of the threatening Facebook post, which they later confirmed was written by Ireland. "She should be shot. Can't fire me, my employer...

Robert Parker: Farewell to the Emperor © The Wine Advocate | Robert Parker has finally hung up his tasting glass and pen.Wine's most influential writer of the past 40 years has retired. W. Blake Gray pays tribute to a legend. Posted Saturday, 18-May-2019 I come to praise Robert Parker, not to bury him, because this is not quite an obit.The most important critic in the history of the world officially retired this week, leaving yours truly as the best-known active wine writer from the Baltimore area. (Thanks Bob, and go Orioles!) Related stories: Robert Parker: The Man Becomes the Brand...

As would be expected, the loss of Brennan’s security clearance was the first thing anchor Lester Holt got to during NBC Nightly News. “It looks a lot like payback tonight for some former senior government officials who have spoken out against President Trump,” he bitterly declared. “The President yanking the security clearance for former CIA boss John Brennan today accusing him of using his access to ‘sow division and chaos’ at the White House.” “Unprecedented,” White House correspondent Kristen Welker proclaimed at the start of her report. “President Trump tonight revoking the security clearance of one of his harshest critics,...

Jemele Hill has been selected as the 2018 Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). The annual award recognizes a black journalist who has amassed a distinguished body of work with extraordinary depth, scope and significance to the people of the African Diaspora. Known for her provocative commentary on what’s happening in sports and in the news, Hill is a senior correspondent and columnist for ESPN’s The Undefeated. She uses her platform to address national, social and cultural issues, in addition to sports. Hill nearly broke the internet last year when she criticized President Donald...

Pulitzer Prize winner was known for his well-reported pieces and policy influence Joseph Rago, a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer at The Wall Street Journal who was known for his richly reported pieces and influence on policy makers, was found dead Thursday evening at his home in Manhattan. He was 34 years old. “It is with a heavy heart that we confirm the death of Joseph Rago, a splendid journalist and beloved friend,” Mr. Gigot said in a statement. “Joe and his family are in our thoughts and prayers, and we will be celebrating his work in Saturday’s paper.” Mr....

Richard Schickel, the longtime film critic for Time magazine who also wrote 37 books, mostly on film, and directed a number of documentaries on film subjects, died on Saturday in Los Angeles of complications from a series of strokes, his family told the Los Angeles Times. He was 84. “He was one of the fathers of American film criticism,” his daughter, writer Erika Schickel, told the Times. “He had a singular voice. When he wrote or spoke, he had an old-fashioned way of turning a phrase. He was blunt and succinct both on the page and in life.” He wrote...

"It is not the who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes back short and short again; who knows the great enthusiasms,the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause;who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring...

John Campea labors as the senior producer of Collider Video and headlines the daily webcast Collider Movie Talk. Each week, at the start of the week, Campea and his crew break down the weekend box office and offer insight into what those numbers mean.Since the release of War Room two weeks ago, the box office segments have been a little awkward. On Fridays, the crew predicts which films they believe will be in the top five. Nobody predicted War Room’s number-two opening weekend. In fact, no one on Collider Movie Talk thought War Room would be in the top...

2016: Obama’s America was a movie directed by Dinesh D’Souza. The movie is the second most popular documentary in history. This week a Democratic judge ordered Dinesh D’Souza to seek psychological counseling. Judge Richard Berman also ruled D’Souza must continue community service for four more years. World Net Daily reported: At a hearing Monday in Manhattan in which he ruled filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza must continue community service for four more years, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said he considers D’Souza’s violation of federal campaign-finance laws to be evidence of a psychological problem and ordered further counseling. D’Souza’s defense counsel...

Charles Champlin, the former Los Angeles Times arts editor, film critic and columnist whose insightful, elegantly written reviews and columns informed and entertained readers for decades, died Sunday at his Los Angeles home. He was 88. The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease, said his son, Charles Champlin Jr. The Harvard-educated Champlin had worked 17 years at Life and Time magazines before joining The Times as entertainment editor and three-times-a-week columnist in 1965.

The United Nations has tapped as its next High Commissioner for Human Rights a Jordanian prince who has said that Palestinian suicide bombings are “no less horrific” than Israel’s efforts to prevent civilians from terror attacks. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced over the weekend that he has nominated Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, a member of Jordan’s royal family and its current UN ambassador, as the next high commissioner, a senior official who monitors human rights across the globe. The post has been used in the past as a bully pulpit to target Israel for criticism over its...

BOSTON (AP) — After taking heat from some of its own over a decision to grant an honorary degree to an advocate for Muslim women who has made comments critical of Islam, Brandeis University withdrew the honor Tuesday night. The university said in a statement that Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali would no longer receive the honorary degree, which it had planned to award her at the May 18 commencement. Ali, a member of the Dutch Parliament from 2003 to 2006, has been quoted as making comments critical of Islam. That includes a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine in which she...

D. J. R. Bruckner, a retired book and theater critic for The New York Times who was previously a nationally syndicated political columnist for The Los Angeles Times, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 79.

The Obama administration is secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Americans -- and it's been going on for years. "It is sweeping, it is not what I would expect from the United States," Mark Rumold, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said. In a secret program code-named PRISM, major Internet companies like Microsoft, Apple and Facebook are allowing the NSA and FBI to tap into their central servers to track people. This latest revelation comes on the heels of a discovery by Britain's The Guardian newspaper that the NSA is collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon...