Free Republic

In 2018, director James Gunn was fired from the film for gross tweets. But this comic book sequel shows the value of his gross-out sensibility. It's easy to forget, but James Gunn, the schlock visionary behind Marvel's first two Guardians of the Galaxy films, almost didn't get to make a third entry. In the summer of 2018, Gunn was fired from his job directing the movie, which was then in development, after right-wing trolls dug up a slew of old tweets that were in decidedly poor taste, and which included jokes about violence toward children.But poor taste was, of course,...

The state of Oregon received $303 million in federal grants—more than all but two other states—to build and operate a health insurance exchange, dubbed Cover Oregon, under Obamacare. One of those grants was a $48 million "early innovator" grant for states whose exchanges were intended to serve as models for the nation. The state was among the most enthusiastic about implementing the law, with Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber touting both the law and his state's work building the exchange. The state's work on its exchange recieved praise throughout the media, and it was reportedly loved by the Obama administration: In...

What is a revolutionary? A man with ideas? A man with a gun? An inspirational leader? Judging from Che, Steven Soderbergh's four-hour biopic on the life of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevera, the answer is none of the above; instead, it's just a guy who talks your ear off about being a revolutionary. In fact, the impression you'd get from Che is that he hardly talks about anything else — including the guiding philosophy that drove him to revolution. Che seems to be an attempt to understand the revolutionary mindset while ignoring revolutionary ideas. Sure, it's offhandedly mentioned that Che is...

Star Trek — the Kirk version — was the first television show I ever watched regularly. By age three, I had become convinced that, just as mid-afternoon was naptime and early morning was breakfast time, Sunday nights were always and forever to be designated as Star Trek time, and I began a lifelong interest in all things science fiction. My social life has been in decline ever since. To a small town, midwestern boy still learning to read picture books, Star Trek seemed both awesomely exciting and delightfully familiar. On one hand, I revered Kirk, Spock, and McCoy as space-faring...