Free Republic

Charles Silverstein, a psychologist who helped achieve one of the most significant victories of the gay rights movement by persuading the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness, died Jan. 30 at his home in New York City. He was 87. He had lung cancer, said his executor, Aron Berlinger. Dr. Silverstein spent decades of his life — as an activist, a psychologist and an author — advancing the cause of gay rights. He had felt the sting of discrimination and the burden of shame as a gay man who came of age at a...

[snip] How far is too far? A new movie project being presented during the Cannes Film Festival's Market has added itself the conversation. It's called When Women Rule the World and the poster image — circulating at the Cannes Market and in trade publications including The Hollywood Reporter — features a bikini-clad woman (a Melania Trump-type character called Maria Putin, played by actress Anna Hera) holding two decapitated heads. One is bloodied up to look like Trump in a Make America Great Again hat and a shaggy blond wig. The other, a gray-skinned, bug-eyed zombie. "Meet the First Lady of...

Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm whose Democrat-financed Russia dossier fueled an FBI investigation into Donald Trump, pitched other stories about the Republican presidential candidate to Washington reporters, including an attempt to tie him to a convicted pedophile who was once buddies with former President Bill Clinton. Journalist sources told The Washington Times that Fusion founder Glenn Simpson pushed the idea of a close relationship between Mr. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from an underage girl. The Trump-Epstein link appears purely social, far short of Mr. Clinton’s 20-plus plane rides on Epstein’s “Lolita...

The Fusion GPS news-for-hire scandal has not only led to the public identification of the source of the “Trump Dossier”—a for-profit company that provides opposition research to whoever could write big checks, which is staffed by four former Wall Street Journal reporters led by Glenn Simpson. The scandal has also lifted the lid off a sewer of corporate information warfare and opposition research that the flailing institutions of the mainstream press now regularly re-package as news, without ever saying where it came from—or who paid for it. While the idea that the products of paid opposition research are being main-lined...

What will an Israeli strike on Iran look like? American blogger Richard Silverstein on Wednesday published what he claimed is an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel’s war plans against Iran. Silverstein, who authors the blog “Tikun Olam”, said the document was passed to him by a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer. According to the document presented in the blog, the Israeli attack on Iran “will begin with a coordinated strike, including an unprecedented cyber-attack which will totally paralyze the Iranian regime and its ability to know what is happening within its borders. The internet, telephones,...

On this 9/11 anniversary, the developer of the World Trade Center site has plenty to crow about. From the 38th floor at 7 World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein peers down on a flurry of activity below at Ground Zero. The sound of jackhammers and "beep, beep" of cement trucks filters into his corner office.

Silverstein could default on midtown tower By Theresa Agovino Published: March 10, 2010 - 5:37 pm Developer Larry Silverstein, who has been feuding with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey over building towers at Ground Zero, faces imminent default on one of his existing office buildings: 575 Lexington Ave. The $325 million balance of the loan on the building, which Mr. Silverstein holds along with the California State Teachers Retirement System, was transferred to a special servicer on Wednesday, according to Fitch Rating. Special servicers try to salvage troubled loans for lenders. The partners bought the building...

CHICAGO, March 16 (UPI) -- U.S. federal officials have confirmed they are investigating an incident where three men were seen studying and taking pictures of Chicago's Sears Tower. The men were spotted outside the 110-story building by security guards about three weeks ago. The men were questioned and allowed to leave, but the guards notified the Chicago Police Department. They in turn notified the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Chicago Tribune reported The guards recorded the car's license plate and it was traced to a rental agency, which said the car was returned about an hour after the incident.It was...

Michael Bloomberg blasted World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein in comments to the New York Daily News editorial board, saying "it would be in the city's interest to get Silverstein out," and suggested that schools and residential buildings would make better use of the space at ground zero than office towers. Bloomberg said it would be a good idea to remove Silverstein, who holds a 99-year lease on the twin towers site, but "nobody can figure out how to do it," the Daily News reported Sunday. "And can you imagine the stink if you gave him half a billion dollars...

Examining a tower model are the architect David Childs, Governor George Pataki, the developer Larry A. Silverstein, the architect David (sic) Libeskind and Speaker Sheldon Silver. "It has some really ingenious safety features. For example, the state offices will be in the silvery fortified base."

Osama... did not attack only the World Trade Center on 9/11. And refusing to build new Twin Towers and reclaim our skyline from terrorists does not make New Yorkers safe. It makes us cowards. Which is why the plan Donald Trump unveiled... is so refreshing. Bin Laden and al Qaeda attacked the United States of America — and what it stands for around the world: Global trade and economic power in New York, military might at the Pentagon and democracy in Washington. But a free civilization does not give up its ideals to the enemy so easily — nor does...

Donald Trump has built much of modern New York. But on the most important building project ever — the quest to repair New York's smashed heart and broken skyline — Trump's hands are tied. Nevertheless, Trump is New York's only hope. Gov. Pataki and his minions have refused to listen to New Yorkers and Americans, and do the right thing at Ground Zero. Gotham's last best chance to repair Downtown's legacy is if Pataki will listen to Trump. Trump said it straight in last week's Post: "I think the World Trade Center should be rebuilt on the site, only stronger...

NEW YORK -- A federal jury ruled Monday that the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center was two occurrences for insurance purposes, meaning leaseholder Larry Silverstein stands to collect up to $2.2 billion from nine insurers. The verdict in U.S. District Court in Manhattan was the latest twist in Mr. Silverstein's efforts to turn his $3.5 billion insurance policy on the trade center complex into a $7 billion payout. The verdict Monday in the second trial to address the issue applied to nine insurers who covered the trade center for a total of $1.1 billion. Mr. Silverstein lost...