Free Republic

The balcony is closed. This is the last season of "At the Movies," the long-running syndicated review show made into a hit in the 1980s by dueling Chicago critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. The show's roots go back to 1975's "Sneak Previews." Here's a statement from distributor Disney-ABC Domestic TV: After 24 seasons with us in national syndication, the highly regarded movie review show "At the Movies" (formerly known as "Siskel & Ebert" and "Ebert & Roeper") will air its last original broadcast the weekend of August 14, 2010. This was a very difficult decision, especially considering the program's...

'We're the ones with the babe on the ticket." -- Rush Limbaugh, crowing about the Republican ticket. Rush was talking about Sarah Palin, right? But hey, maybe he's got a man-crush on McCain. As Limbaugh and others drool over Palin's Suzanne Pleshette-circa-1975 attractiveness, the governor of Alaska has become an overnight celebrity. Of course, such fame is relative. As of Sunday, if you googled "Sarah Palin," you got 453,000 hits. If you googled "Kim Kardashian," you got more than 7.8 million hits. God Bless America. But over the last few days, a lot of us were learning all about the...

Shut up and Sing has gotten a "two thumbs up" review today from Ebert and Roeper (with Michael Philips filling in for Ebert). In his review, Roeper claims that the "rightwing blogs" were the last to jump in on the story after the media, followed with background footage rolling of Natalie blaming Free Republic. Concluding the review, Roeper exclaimed he "was proud to be from the same country as the Dixie Chicks."

Real conspiracy theorists never admit they're wrong. No matter how many facts and bits of logic you throw at them, they'll always say, "That's all well and good, but you haven't proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm wrong. Why can't you produce concrete evidence that the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist?" Well, because it's a little tough to prove a negative. If Lee Harvey Oswald materialized from the beyond, knocked on the door of the JFK Assassination Conspiracy Headquarters and said, "I want you to know that I acted alone," the typical JFK conspiracy theorist would say:...

This one's for the Undecideds. If you're planning to vote today and you haven't made up your mind, here are 50 reasons not to vote for President Bush. Osama bin Laden: Looking rested, fit and loony. Still not captured. Bush just says "Yes" to attending fund-raisers. Bush says "No" to attending military funerals. He's not much of a reader. Said he doesn't read newspapers, and didn't bother to read an August 2001 brief titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S." He's the president of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Morris and Ann Coulter. Wore a flight suit, landed on...

"Our goal is to change the direction of the government and change the current administration come November." -- Bruce Springsteen, writing a guest editorial in Rolling Stone magazine. Attention, all Bush-loving conservatives! We need to talk about your taste in music. Do you have anything by any of the following artists: Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Usher, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Five for Fighting, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Jurassic 5, Keb' Mo' and/or Death Cab for Cutie. If so, I regret to inform...

Any list of the great TV characters of the 1980s would have to include Bill Cosby as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on ''The Cosby Show'' (which ran from 1984-1992), Ted Danson as Sam Malone on ''Cheers'' (1982-1993), Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton in ''Family Ties'' (1982-1989) -- and Ronald Reagan as the president of the United States in ''The Reagan Years'' (1981-1988). He was not only the president, he played one on TV. In politics, Reagan achieved something he never managed in show business: He became an A-list star. Forget about all those years playing second fiddle in the...

You'd think the political media as well as operatives for the Democratic and Republican parties would have learned two valuable lessons from Bill Clinton's election victories: 1. Sexual high jinks, real or alleged, do not necessarily doom a candidate. In 1992 and in 1996, tens of millions of Americans probably agreed with the GOP assessment of Clinton as a horny, rutting pig -- and yet they voted for him anyway, because they didn't think his sexual habits had that much relevance to his strengths as a world leader. 2. Military history (or the lack thereof) probably won't be the determining...

THE D.C. SNIPER'S JIHAD By MICHELLE MALKIN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Email Archives Print Reprint December 10, 2003 -- FROM the moment John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo were arrested in the Beltway-area sniper case last fall, the media and Muslim activists wanted us to believe that the serial killings had absolutely nothing to do with Islamic terrorism: * CNN downplayed Muhammad's religious conversion - calling him by his old name, John Allen Williams, when his identity was first revealed. Malvo was cast as a clueless dupe with no true convictions. * Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) argued: "There...

we learned in the great debate over the Ronald Reagan TV miniseries is that many conservatives, including the chairman of the Republican National Committee, think you're stupid. Yes, you. And you. And everybody out there in TV Land. They think you can't tell the difference between James Brolin, who played Republican presidential candidate Robert Ritchie on "The West Wing," and Ronald Reagan, who was president of the United States for eight years. They believe you can't figure out that a mini- series starring the Australian actress Judy Davis as Nancy is not a documentary, but a "docudrama." Before CBS announced...

"It's easy for people to say that if they shoot up on heroin the only people they're hurting are themselves. But that's not true. ... Drug abusers destroy their families ... If we legalize these vices, we erode the societal support for prohibitions against crimes such as murder. The erosion of the moral fabric of society is a gradual, insidious process." -- Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be, pp 53-54. As I sifted through hundreds of comments from Rush Limbaugh fans over the last week, some interesting trends emerged. About 50 percent just wanted to call me names....

Football expert and social commentator Rush Limbaugh claimed last Sunday morning that the media are partial to Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, and you know what? He's absolutely right, at least when it comes to one media guy. Me. Yep, Rush has my number. Well, if he had my number I'd change it and get a restraining order--but it is true that I've long been a McNabb fan because he and I have so much in common. For one thing, McNabb and I are both from south suburban Dolton. Also, McNabb attended Mt. Carmel High School on the South Side--same...

Four columns for the price of one: Many readers have been asking if I'm going to tackle Ann Coulter's new book Treason, in which the far-right screecher recasts Joe McCarthy as an American hero and spews her venom at all liberals. I'd say she's worth about a third of a column this time around. Sure, Treason is filled with howlers--Coulter has an uncanny ability to contradict herself, and she makes cartoonishly unfair generalizations, in the process trivializing the very definition of treason--but she would be a whole lot more interesting if she weren't so predictable and one-dimensional. Try some flexible...

April 8, 2003 BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST TO: Jennifer Aniston, George Clooney, Sheryl Crow, David Duchovny, Janeane Garofalo, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Woody Harrelson, Jessica Lange, Michael Moore, Edward Norton, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, Eddie Vedder, et al. RE: Operation Iraqi Freedom Dear Celebrity Anti-War Activist: Over the last several weeks and months, you have used your status as a person of fame to tell the world you're against the war with Iraq, which you believe to be unwarranted, unethical, unconstitutional and un-American. Some of you have said you "hate" President George W. Bush (hello, Jessica Lange!),...

Unmistakable smell grabs your attention August 7, 2002BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST So I'm walking in the Loop early Tuesday morning when the breeze carries a strong scent to me and nearly stops me in its tracks because it's so . . . unexpected. I know that aroma. I can't figure out where it's coming from--but I know that scent. When you smell this particular smell you immediately recognize the smell for the smell that it is, even if you're not someone who participates in the activity that creates the smell in the first place. I'm talking about marijuana. Cannabis,...

LOS ANGELES--Sting is facing a chattery crowd of several hundred actors and producers and agents and studio executives at the Mondrian Hotel, and he is having trouble getting everyone's attention. "This is a very tough room," he says. "Maybe if the person next to you is still talking, you can tap them on the shoulder and say, 'Sting is going to do a song now.' Thanks." With that, Sting begins playing his Academy Award-nominated "Until"--but he never quite captures the room. Only at a Hollywood party would you see so many people who can't shut up long enough to hear...