Free Republic

A citizen’s phone call to Connecticut state police about a letter ordering gun owners to dispose of their unregistered so-called “assault” weapons and standard-capacity magazines is sending shockwaves through the national gun-rights community after being recorded and posted online. The heated phone conversation over the document took place amid rapidly escalating tensions between gun owners and state authorities determined to impose more gun control on Connecticut residents. In the recording, state police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance – who did not know he was being recorded and told WND it was illegal to do so – can be heard telling the...

In a video posted Thursday to YouTube, Connecticut State Police Spokesman Lt. Paul Vance is heard telling a woman identified as "GMN Producer Guerilla Girl Ashley" that she sounded anti-American for questioning the state's new gun control law. ***** "I want to know, if it comes down to it, will the police go to my home if my husband refuses to give up a weapon that was formerly legal and now has been made illegal by a corrupt legislature?" she asked. "Will the police actually go to my home and threaten my family, 'cause I'm scared to death?" "We don't...

Michelle Malkin has been hot on the trail of Bilal Hussein, the AP photographer who has ties to Al-Qaeda, and who--as Michelle reported--takes photos from Al-Qaeda terrorists' perspective. Now, there is yet another reason not to believe what you see--and read--from AP. Tuesday, AP reported that Paul Vance--the man who co-wrote the famous song, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"--was dead. But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of his demise were highly exaggerated. And, in fact, not true at all. Paul Vance is alive and well. The man who actually died, Paul Van Valkenburgh, was a phony who...

HARTFORD, Conn. - Songwriter Paul Vance, who earned pop culture immortality with the 1960 smash about a bashful bather, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," has died. He was 68. The New Milford-raised Vance, whose real name was Paul Van Valkenburgh, died Sept. 6 at his home in Ormond Beach, Fla., said his wife of 32 years, Rose Leroux. He had been battling lung cancer for two years. Vance and songwriting partner Lee Pockriss also co-wrote "Catch a Falling Star," a No. 1 hit for Perry Como in 1958. But they had their biggest success with the song...

Songwriter Paul Vance, who earned pop culture immortality with the 1960 smash about a bashful bather, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," has died. He was 68. The New Milford-raised Vance, whose real name was Paul Van Valkenburgh, died Sept. 6 at his home in Ormond Beach, Fla., said his wife of 32 years, Rose Leroux. He had been battling lung cancer for two years. Vance and songwriting partner Lee Pockriss also co-wrote "Catch a Falling Star," a No. 1 hit for Perry Como in 1958. But they had their biggest success with the song about the girl...

The man who co-wrote the song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" had the unsettling experience this week of reading his own obituary the result of an impostor who went through life claiming to be the author of the 1960s smash hit. On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported on the death of a 68-year-old man named Paul Van Valkenburgh of Ormond Beach, Fla., who claimed to have written the song under the name Paul Vance. The story cited the man's wife as the source for that claim. But the music industry's real Paul Vance, a 76-year-old man from...

A songwriter who co-wrote the 1960 pop hit “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” was stunned to read on a television screen this week that he had died — apparently after another man who claimed authorship of the song died and left behind confused survivors. The Associated Press on Tuesday carried an obituary reporting that Paul Vance had died on Sept. 6 at his home in Ormond Beach, Fla., citing his wife as its primary source. The A.P.’s managing editor, Mike Silverman, who is based in New York, said yesterday that the news service report was prompted by...