Free Republic

I’ll bet that everyone who knew him has a favorite Alan Dundes story. Here’s a couple of mine. To understand both, you have to know that Dundes was larger than life in many ways, including physically. I somehow don’t want to apply the adjective “fat” to him, although, yes, he was. Some called him “a tank,” others, “a rhino.” He was so formal and so formidable that I resort to an old-fashioned word, “portly.”I only ever saw him in a charcoal gray suit, white shirt, and dark tie. And he knew everything about his field. Students would line up in...

The Blue Scarves: A Fable A Fable on Performativeness, Looking Good over Doing Good And no, it isn't my blog.

Last week, I published The Ever-Expanding Catalogue of Obamacare Fables. This week, MRCTV and BreitbartTV bring you an excellent and handy video of Obama’s favorite health care takeover tall tales in his own words. All it needs is an “Unhappily Ever After” end page. Watch:

"Many years ago, as a small child, I was told one of those old-fashioned fables for children. It was about a dog with a bone in his mouth, who was walking on a log across a stream. The dog looked down into the water and saw his reflection. He thought it was another dog with a bone in his mouth -- and it seemed to him that the other dog's bone was bigger than his. He decided that he was going to take the other dog's bone away and opened his mouth to attack. The result was that his own...

"Once upon a time . . . " Sometimes it seems that news reports about guns or gun owners should begin with that phrase. Those four short words would inform readers that while the story to follow will be presented as fact, it is really fiction, or better said, a myth or a fable. Unfortunately, non-truths, through constant repetition, have come to displace facts in the public dialog about guns in America. Some of these fables, as many fables do, started out with a grain of truth, but were later misrepresented and twisted to serve a particular political purpose. Others...

In this world there are things that seem on the verge of being discovered every so often, yet never quite materialize. The "Lost City" of Atlantis, for example, has been "found" at least a half dozen times. One researcher is pretty sure it is in Bolivia; another says it is Antarctica; a third claims that Bimini beachrock may be from the lost civilization. So it is with Noah's Ark. The difference is, of course, that the implications of Noah's Ark actually being found extend far beyond archaeology. The weight of all the paired animals in the world is nothing compared...

FORT MEADE, Md., August 2, 2006 -- A step through the doors of the Military Entrance Processing Station here blows away the myths that the military is struggling to get enough recruits, dropping its standards to get those it does, or glossing over the fact that it’s recruiting into a wartime force. July 31 was the last day of a month in which all the services had already met their quotas for recruits. It was a relatively slow day at the station -- one of 65 dotting the country. Yet the station buzzed with activity as 102 men and women...

Defend your nuts: a parable on property rights and hippies Suppose you were a squirrel. You would work hard to find the biggest nuts, and then stash those large nuts in secret places. You'd only do so if you had a high degree of assurance that those nuts would be there, unrotted and ready to eat, when your life depended on them. You'd have to depend on other squirrels to not steal your nuts, and assure them that you would do likewise. Now suppose that a pack of liberal chinchillas, calling themselves the Friends of the Forest, came along preaching...

Dear Respected scholar! We have recently received a paper talking about a Qur’anic miracle. The paper reads: “The collapse of the WTC located in ‘Jurf Har’ street on 9/11/2002 is depicted in the Qur’an in Surah no 9 (referring to the month of the accident) chapter 11 (the day of the event) verse 109. Counting the number of the words from the beginning of the Surah till we reach this verse, we will see that the number is 2001 (the year when the event happened). This is a new miracle of the Qur’an that necessitates meditation and deep reflection. The...