Free Republic

The Population Council, the eugenics organization credited with bringing the abortion pill (RU-486) to the United States, turns 65 this month — but it is nothing to celebrate. In 1952, John D. Rockefeller III founded the Population Council and served as the organization’s first president. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Population Council, Inc., was incorporated following Rockefeller’s Conference on Population Problems, “…to stimulate, encourage, promote, conduct and support significant activities in the broad field of population.” Like its founder, the Population Council’s other members were concerned about population issues — and, like other population organizations such as Planned Parenthood,...

“Hillary and Clinton,” a Broadway play that explores the relationship of a political power couple, will close on Sunday, four weeks earlier than scheduled. The play, by Lucas Hnath, stars Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow and is directed by Joe Mantello. It opened in April; at the time of its closing it will have played 37 previews and 77 regular performances at the John Golden Theater. Set a hotel room in New Hampshire in 2008, the play imagines an interaction between Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton — not the real ones, but characters with the same names in an alternate...

More incriminating personal information was leaked Wednesday following the unprecedented Sony Pictures hack, this time in the form of emails between top producers and executives belittling a number of major stars and projects, and even making racist jokes about President Barack Obama. In one email exchange, Sony co-chairperson Amy Pascal -- a prominent Democratic party donor and Obama supporter -- asked movie producer Scott Rudin ahead of a fundraiser what she should ask the President "at this stupid Jeffrey (Katzenberg) breakfast," to which Rudin quipped "would he like to finance some movies." "I doubt it. Should I ask him if...

Walter Rudin, a preeminent mathematician who taught at UW-Madison for 32 years, died Thursday at the age of 89 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Rudin’s advanced work on mathematical analysis may have been of interest to only a small worldwide audience, but his three textbooks were translated into multiple languages and used by generations of college students. “Especially because of his textbooks, he was known universally among undergraduates and graduates studying mathematics,” said Alexander Nagel, a colleague in the UW-Madison math department. Rudin was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 2, 1921, to a prosperous Jewish family. His family fled...

A radio service which belongs to the government fights to stay off of the Obama's enemies list. The graphic on the front page is from Hot Air. Designed by one of their readers they’re using it to help identify those news outlets that have earned the official White House News seal of approval … and its my guess NPR has just retained that designation. Courtesy of Hot Air picks … Apparently NPR reporter Ken Rudin described Obama’s war on Fox News as Nixonian. Hardly news making, considering Lemar Alexander, Karl Rove and Mike Huckabee already beat him to the punch....

It's pretty unremarkable to describe the Obama White House's growing enemies list -- the insurance companies, Chamber of Commerce, Fox News -- as "Nixonian." But there's one place where, if you venture such an opinion, you'd better be prepared to apologize -- quickly and profusely. On National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" Wednesday, NPR political editor Ken Rudin said the White House campaign against Fox News is a bad idea. "It's not only aggressive, it's almost Nixonesque," Rudin said. "I mean, you think of what Nixon and Agnew did with their enemies list and their attacks on the media;...