Free Republic

Bocca Baciata (Lips That Have Been Kissed) |1859 | Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828–1882)

A leading art gallery is facing a furious backlash after taking down a Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece in a bid to 'provoke debate'. Manchester Art Gallery has temporarily removed John William Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs in an attempt to rethink historical artwork that 'presents the female body as either a 'passive decorative form' or a 'femme fatale'.'

Boulder High rules! A student groups' campaign to rename one of Colorado's oldest high schools Barack Obama High after the new president fizzled today in the face of widespread opposition from students and residents of left-leaning Boulder. "It's become a lot more controversial than we wanted to. It's garnered a lot of negative reactions," said 16-year-old Ben Raderstorf, president of the school's Student Worker Club, which drew national publicity when it proposed the idea Wednesday. "We were somewhat naïve about it," Raderstorf said of the backlash. The goal was to use the attention to stir up support among fellow students....

If Boulder is serious about meeting the goal it set in 2002 when city leaders agreed to meet the Kyoto Protocol -- reducing greenhouse gas emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels -- it's time for city officials to play hardball in their negotiations with Xcel Energy. That's the message a group of business, community and environmental leaders hope to convey to the Boulder City Council on Monday when they meet at the Stazio Ballfields to listen to speakers rally the crowd from a pile of faux coal. With the slender towers of the Valmont Coal Plant as a backdrop, the...

Program could create door-to-door energy consultants. It’s time for an in-your-face approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Boulder City Council decided Thursday night. The council unanimously approved increasing the city’s voter-approved carbon tax from its minimum to its maximum level beginning Aug. 6, providing an additional $810,000 annually toward meeting the city’s carbon-cutting goals. The tax, built into utility bills, is expected to help the city reach 95 percent of the Kyoto Protocol — which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels — before the tax ends in 2013. Kara Mertz, an environmental affairs manager...