Free Republic

Don LaFontaine, the voiceover king whose "In a world ..." phrase on movie trailers was much copied -- and much parodied -- has died, according to media reports. He was 68. Don LaFontaine was featured as "that voiceover guy" on a recent Geico commercial. LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, according to ETOnline, "Entertainment Tonight's" Web site. He died from complications from pneumothorax, a collapsed lung that causes air to build in the pleural cavity, his agent, Vanessa Gilbert, told "ET." LaFontaine, who was born in Duluth, Minnesota, began as a voice actor in the...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's reform communist PDS party voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining forces with a new far-left party on Sunday and agreed to change their name to The Left Party for a general election in September. The party, which pollsters forecast could win 12 percent of the vote, has the backing of about 30 percent in the formerly communist east and has moved ahead of the Christian Democrats as the most popular party in the region. Delegates to an extraordinary PDS party congress in Berlin on Sunday supported the measure by 74.6 percent to easily clear a two-thirds...

<p>DETROIT -- Mike Ilitch, under whose ownership the Red Wings have risen from the depths of the NHL to win three Stanley Cups, was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday.</p> <p>"It's very humbling," Ilitch, 73, said. "When I received the call, I started to tremble and my eyes watered. I choked up."</p>

GERMANY’S Social Democrats, facing almost certain defeat in regional elections next week, are calling for the return of Oskar Lafontaine, the left-wing firebrand once dubbed the “most dangerous man in Europe”. For some of his former colleagues, Oskar Lafontaine is beginning to look like a saviour If Gerhard Schröder’s former Finance Minister returns to centre stage it will be one of the most remarkable comebacks since the war; for three years he has been pronounced politically dead. “We should no longer shut the door on him,” Ludwig Stiegler, deputy leader of the Social Democratic parliamentary group, said. “He is welcome...

(Excerpt only: rest of rant in German at link). "Der internationale Strafgerichtshof sollte nicht nur Terroristen, sondern auch Wirtschaftskriminielle zur Verantwortung ziehen." The Internationational Criminal Court should hold to answer not only terrorists, but also economic criminals." Basically, Lafontaine is predicting the end of captitalism, and all the old hoary Stalinist cliches come out. The CEO of Oracle is singled out for pocketing $750 million. I wonder if Ellison is supporting the ICC?