Free Republic

15 Ron Howard made JD Vance’s bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy into a major Hollywood movie four years ago. Now the filmmaker has publicly turned on the GOP vice presidential candidate, saying he is “surprised and disappointed” by the “rhetoric that I’m reading and hearing.” At the Toronto Film Festival to promote his latest movie Eden, Ron Howard faced questions about JD Vance from multiple news outlets, some of which clearly had an ax to grind against Vance.

BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - A 42-year-old Chico man was arrested early Thursday morning by CAL FIRE arson investigators, assisted by District Attorney investigators, on suspicion of starting the Park Fire. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey has identified the suspect as Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico. Ramsey said Stout has two prior strikes. The first one was a felony conviction for child molestation and this was in Butte County. The second one was a felony conviction for robbery with great bodily injury. This was out of Kern County, Ramsey said. Butte County DA Mike Ramsey said the man...

VIDEOThe fight was over before it even started. The younger guy should have known better than to pick a fight with the Hillbilly named Big Al. However, what makes this fight truly interesting is the uniquely southern lexicon used by both the belligerents as well as the bystanders. This video could serve as training material for students of colorful dialect.

If I looked up 'GRAVITAS' in the dictionary, Shelby Foote's picture and voice should be there. Anyway, while I just happened to enjoy this YouTube replay of a Brian Lamb GENUINE interview (as opposed to what we see these days), up pops a PROPHETIC statement by Mr Foote on the acceptance of history versus the desire to 'cancel' history.

Bread doesn’t get any faster, easier or simpler than this. There are no special ingredients or equipment needed. Just a few minutes in a skillet on the stove and you can have fresh hot bread for sandwiches or to serve with dinner any time of the day without heating the house up with the oven. My Granny would usually make this for lunch if all the breakfast biscuits got gobbled up in the morning. In the days before we all lived air conditioned housed, we didn’t turn the oven on in the middle of the day during Summer. This skillet...

Five people are dead, including two North Carolina sheriff's deputies, after a check on a person who did not show up for work ended in gunfire and a 13-hour standoff, authorities said. Watauga County Sheriff K-9 Deputy Logan Fox died at the scene in the Blue Ridge Mountain town of Boone, and Sgt. Chris Ward died after being flown to a local hospital, the sheriff's office said in a statement. The deputies were shot after entering the home. They were responding to a call for a welfare check Wednesday after the homeowner's employer reported that the person did not show...

Vance is the best-selling author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which is a culturally compliant — namely unflattering — account of poor, white America. Provided your thesis allows for a cozy convergence over agreeable storylines — you are well-positioned to peddle a national bestseller to the approving left, libertarian, neoconservative and pseudo-conservative smart-set. Yes, Vance is a sellout. Not that they were asked for their take, but the archetypical folks depicted in Hillbilly Elegy contend, justifiably, that “Vance [is] not an authentic hillbilly or an example of the working class.”

MOLALLA, Ore. (Reuters) - Nicole West steered her bulldozer through the smoldering forest, pushing logs into the underbrush and away from the wildfires ripping through Oregon's Cascade Mountains. Her border collie, Oink, rode shotgun as West and a volunteer crew raced to clear a fire line. Behind West, on the front lines of the 136,000-acre (55,000-hectare) Riverside fire, two young men pulled a water tank behind their pickup truck, struggling to douse the flames. These are the men and women of the "Hillbilly Brigade" - about 1,200 in all who came together this past week to fight the state’s biggest...

“Travel to Memphis, where Sun Studios artists Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley usher in the era of rockabilly. Ray Charles crosses America’s racial divide by recording a country album. Patsy Cline shows off Music City’s smooth new Nashville Sound.” As the 1960’s began Country & Western music was being heavily influenced by the rock & roll sound. A new generation of artists, songwriters and shrewd producers would record some great American music during this transitional era.

Prominent presidential historian Douglas Brinkley doesn’t think Donald and Melania Trump‘s marriage is “hinged right.” “In modern times, we haven’t had such an awkward marriage — one that seems to be frozen. It doesn’t seem to be a very organic thing,” Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and CNN’s presidential historian, tells PEOPLE. The first couple’s public image has been defined by viral video of Melania, 48, swatting away her husband’s hand when he’s tried to hold hers. “That scene of the hand swat,” says Brinkley, “is a visual metaphor for a marriage that isn’t hinged right.” It’s...

Editor's Note: This blog originally appeared at Academe Blog, the blog of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). A decade or more ago, at a faculty party in New York City, I listened in as a diverse group of faculty spoke casually and disparagingly of "hillbillies," "rednecks" and "white trash." I reminded them that they were speaking of my own people (my ancestry is completely Appalachian), though they shouldn't really be demeaning any group, no matter who might be around. I was met by fish-eyed responses, including the comment, "Well, you left there." My experience is not unusual. Author...

Joe Dan can use more than four of the offered topics on FR.

Now Playing: Brain Cloudy Blues (milk cow blues) performed by Merle Haggard from his Salute to Bob Wills album...

According to the Daily Caller, not signing the “formal separation agreement” (OF-109) upon departing employment at the State Department can have “dire consequences.”These comments come from well known State Department security agent and whistle-blower, Richard Higbie: “Ramifications for lower-level State Department employees include the withholding of retirement benefits and possible investigations conducted by the agency into why employees declined to sign the form, whistle-blower Richard Higbie says.” Per the State Department’s own rules, employees leaving the agency must sign the OF-109 document, certifying that turned over any and all documents in their possession related to any State Department business.If what...

"Rosalie was affectionately known as the "Queen of the Hillbillies" "...."Country Music History Books may fail to mention her name. And hardcore honky tonks may scoff at this northeastern gal who based her cowgirl career in New York City. But Rosalie Allen made a splash well over half a decade ago that still manages to send in ripples to those lucky enough to have found her. Before country music decided to pack up and move to Nashville, Rosalie took it to the Big Apple hosting an immensely popular radio show ("Prairie Stars"), opening the city's first country music store and...

Grammy award-winning singer Garth Brooks told CNSNews.com that he "fully" supports President Barack Obama and that it must be "hell" serving as President of the United States.

Considered lovingly as Branson's first "hillbilly" comedian, Lyle Mabe has died after a long illness. Mabe and his three brothers started The Baldknobbers Show in Branson in 1959. Known as George Aggernite, Mabe played the washtub bass. In the 60s, Mabe went on bus tours during Branson's tourist-offseason spreading word of the city. During the 70s and 80s, Mabe was a pitchman for Empire Gas of Lebanon. Many commercial spots became popular on KY3 starring the comic. Second and third generations still perform for the Baldknobbers Jamboree. Lyle Mabe was 71.

Yesterday on Daily RFT we had a couple bones to pick with a misleading headline in the local daily and the bible-thumping defenders of Burrell E. Mohler Sr. Along with his brother and four sons, the 74-year-old Independence, Missouri, native is accused of repeatedly raping his elementary school-aged granddaughters. Turns out the article in the Post was cribbed from a much longer and much more compelling piece that led Sunday's Kansas City Star. The latter feature lays out the Mohler family tree, details all of the disgusting deeds in question and sets it all against the backdrop of the family's...

Sen. Hillary Clinton, viewed last year as virtually unstoppable in her bid to become the U.S. Democratic presidential nominee, is now seeking to portray herself as the underdog against rival Sen. Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign has labeled the Illinois senator the "establishment" candidate as she tries to wrest from him the message of a vow to bring change to Washington. But political analysts saw some irony in the New York senator's effort to seek the status of a challenger to the establishment, given that she has been a household name since her husband, Bill Clinton, ran for president in...

**EXCERPT** Hillary Rodham Clinton had hoped her strong showing on Super Tuesday would halt Barack Obama's momentum - but that notion was shattered yesterday as Obama scored blowouts in Washington state, Louisiana and Nebraska. The Clinton camp had tried to downplay the widely anticipated losses as old news - and her campaign had ceded Louisiana and Nebraska to save their resources for the bigger March 4 contests in Texas and Ohio. But the big wins for Obama could fuel the perception that he's on a roll, and victories could be scarce for Clinton over the next few weeks if she...