Free Republic

I recently re-watched one of the most eye-opening programs on the 20th century, The Century of the Self (BBC 2002). It looks at the development of advertising, particularly the theories and work of Edward Bernays. You’ve seen his work, but you didn’t know it. He was one of the pioneers of modern advertising as well as modern government propaganda. Particularly in the 1920’s, he played a key role in moving America from a need-based economy to desire-based consumerism. One result was a flourishing and growing wealth across the land (except for the collapse in the Great Depression). America moved past...

Just as Rome never had a king after deposing the last Tarquin, yet breathed her last under unlimited Emperors, America will never have an unlimited, absolute monarch. Instead, it has an oligarchic, arbitrary Supreme Court. While it is Constitutionally limited to the judicial power, as a practical matter Scotus recognizes no limits on its illegitimate power to legislate.1 It writes law. It rewrites law. It permits executive branch agencies to write laws. It creates rights. It denies rights. It denies religious liberty. It justifies murder and other crimes against nature. When Scotus simply disagrees with a state statute, it justifies...

ESCONDIDO, Calif. - Laid out in rows stretching longer than a football field, 1,513 pairs of black military boots gave a sunsplashed park the quiet, somber mood of a cemetery. The traveling exhibit, a reminder of the U.S. troops lost in Iraq (news - web sites) , arrived on the West Coast this week as divisive as the war itself — especially for the families of the fallen men and women. To some of the families, it is a cathartic, fitting memorial in a nation they say seems largely anesthetized to the pain of a distant war. For others, it's...

Passions run deep under the Iranian chador as young lovers outfox the hardline clerics By Leonard Doyle in Isfahan, Iran 02 November 2002 Nazar Street in the heart of the ancient Persian city of Isfahan is crackling with sexual energy as Iran's Saviour Day holiday gets into full swing. When darkness falls, the shopping street heaves with young people, men in jeans and T-shirts, women hidden behind chadors, with a heavy police presence ensuring things do not get out of hand. There is the occasional thwack of night-stick across the shoulders of Isfahan's young blades, to keep them moving and...