Free Republic

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said on Wednesday that she does not want to hear the “coup-supporting GOP talk about ‘blue lives’ ever again” in the wake of the Capitol protests, concluding that Republicans care more about “preserving the social order and the mythology of whiteness” than democracy. “I don’t want to hear these coup-supporting GOP talk about ‘blue lives’ ever again,” the New York lawmaker told her 11.5 million Twitter followers Wednesday afternoon.

NEW ORLEANS -- A White House appointee says preserving a Gulf Coast ecosystem damaged by decades of erosion and months of crude oil that gushed from a deep-sea well off Louisiana will be an enormous undertaking, the "grandaddy" of restoration projects. "I have been involved in many ecosystem restoration projects, but this is the grandaddy of them all," said John Hankinson, a veteran of restoration projects in Florida. Hankinson was appointed in October as executive director of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a group that will recommend how to use the heavy fines likely to confront energy company...

Preserving the Earth, One Joke at a Time By MICHAEL JANOFSKY Published: November 19, 2005 Jeffrey Tambor performing at the comedy show "Earth to America." Isaac Brekken for The New York TimesLAS VEGAS, Nov. 18 - Ice caps are melting. Oceans are rising. Villages are disappearing. Wild animals are not quite sure what is going on. Pretty funny stuff, eh? Well, on Thursday night it was, as a parade of comedians and a few serious actors joined forces here at Caesars Palace for two and a half hours of environmental consciousness-raising in a live show called "Earth to America," focused...

Democrats are maintaining their grip on the top of the ticket races in California in the final days of the election campaign. U.S. Sen. John Kerry has a seven-point lead over President Bush, and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer is dominating Republican challenger Bill Jones, according to the last statewide Field Poll on the contests before Tuesday. In the presidential race, Kerry leads Bush by 49 percent to 42 percent among likely voters, and has maintained a consistent distance in the competition for California's 55 electoral votes. But support for Bush in the inland valleys has prevented the blowout some expected...

With reality shows like Paris Hilton's The Simple Life and MTV's Rich Girls drawing attention to the high-crass wealthy, it's a perplexing conundrum for those of us who haven't achieved independent means: Just how do the rich manage to stay that way? Of course, many don't. Plenty of celebrity cases -- Michael Jackson comes to mind lately -- are reminders of how surprisingly easy it is to blow large sums of money. The stock-market millions of so many dot-com investors that evaporated even quicker than they materialized are further testament to the fact that it may actually be easier to...