Free Republic

Maureen Spillane, an executive at a shoe and handbag maker in New York, always thought a $100,000 salary equaled serious success. Like many professional people, however, when she finally broke the barrier, she was a bit deflated to learn that it was hardly salvation. It still took her several years of "hoarding away" and avoiding standard Manhattan indulgences - fancy food, fancy clothing - in order to afford a down payment on a one-bedroom fixer-upper on the Upper West Side. "It's not the big shiny number that you think about when you first get out of college," said Ms. Spillane,...

Science Fiction Authors Hoax Vanity Publisher "Atlanta Nights," by Travis Tea, was offered a publishing contract by PublishAmerica of Frederick, Maryland. Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 28, 2005 -- Over a holiday weekend last year, some thirty-odd science fiction writers banged out a chapter or two apiece of "Atlanta Nights," a novel about hot times in Atlanta high society. Their objective: to write a deeply awful novel to submit to PublishAmerica, a self-described "traditional publisher" located in Frederick, Maryland. The project began after PublishAmerica posted an attack on science fiction authors at one of its websites (http://www.authorsmarket.net/). PublishAmerica claimed "As a...

The people of Massachusetts enjoy a beautiful landscape rich in history, some of our nation’s most prominent universities, and the fourth highest per capita income in the country. Yet they can’t come up with better representatives than John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy. How is this possible? One, the nation’s most prominent coward, the other called traitor by his band of brothers, our country's two most socialist senators, the two biggest national embarrassments of modern times, and both from Massachusetts. I’m afraid this does not look good for the people who keep electing them… I suspect that Senator Kennedy has garnered...

All right, ladies and gentlemen, as you gaze out over the country, and as you watch the news each and every day, do you not get the impression that love is in the air? Do you not? I do. I look out over the country. I watch the news each and every day and I see the party of love. I see the party of warmth, of feelings. I see that party reaching out to all of us. The Democrats, yes, the party of love, they offer understanding. They offer compassion. They are reaching out to those in need with...

In Sunday's Observer, Robert McCrum observed: "Today, by some margin, George W Bush is the most despised figure in America." Really? The paper sent McCrum to America to interview nine novelists about the election. That's the first mistake right there: shipping a guy 3,000 miles to take the pulse of the nation by interviewing a bunch of guys who already agree with him. One of the reasons why the Bush-despisers will be waking up stunned on the morning of November 3 is because they spend way too much time talking to each other and sustaining each other's delusions....

“My daughter will have to marry down,” stated a sociologist at the colloquium, meaning that her daughter would have to "settle" for a husband with less education and a lower income. A black sociologist added that for years, women in her peer group have had to marry down if they wanted to marry at all.

<p>I was trying to recall the exact moment I lost interest in the 2004 presidential race. It was March 7, the day The New York Times published Maureen Dowd's gushing paean to John Kerry.</p> <p>Dowd gloried in the "vast palette of cultural preferences" that paint the Kerry persona. Why, he not only reads Keats and Shelley and T.S. Eliot, he writes his own verse on the "barren desolation of the desert."</p>

On Jan. 19, the day of the Iowa caucuses, a coalition of US expatriates in Europe will begin a campaign to influence Democratic candidates. During the past year, I have noticed political dissidence building among my fellow American expatriates living in Europe and around the world. Now, their growing concern will take concrete shape here in Prague, Czech Republic, in less than two weeks. On Jan. 19 - when the US political season officially begins with the Iowa Democratic caucuses - the American Voices Abroad (AVA) coalition, a collection of American civil-liberties and antiwar organizations from around the globe, will...

SARANDON MOVIE ON CBS FINISHES LAST PLACE IN OVERNIGHTS

Halle Berry solidified her place as one of the world's sexiest women with her role as Bond girl Jinx in "Die Another Day." But the Oscar-winning actress (Monster's Ball) says she still doesn't see herself as a beautiful star. "To be totally honest, most of the time I think I'm ugly," she told the German magazine Journal fur die Frau. "I see myself without makeup every morning and that's why I don't have illusions anymore. I certainly don't feel like a big star." Berry added that being black still hinders her progress in Hollywood. "For many film studios and directors...

The Dixie Chicks aren't the only Texas natives bashing President George W. Bush.Sandy Duncan who is performing in South Carolina, told a local paper that she questioned the decision to go to war, and wishes that rather than President Bush, the United States had a leader who was 'globally aware' and 'really smart.''I just wish men would quit thinking they could just duke it out with each other,' the native of Henderson, Texas, told the Times and Democrat.'I don't have all of the facts, and who knows what's really the truth, but I really don't respect [President Bush's] way of...

From NBC Saturday Night Live : MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY/DIXIE CHICKS11:30pm 2003-04-19Matthew McConaughey hosts Saturday Night Livewith musical guests Dixie Chicks. TV-14    From The Washington Times: The Dixie Chicks, recently boycotted by country music fans after lead singer Natalie Maines said she was "ashamed" of President Bush, will be featured on ABC's "Primetime" on Thursday to tell their side of the story. 

Washington, DC, Apr 17 (OneWorld) - A major environmental group has declared a ceasefire in its three-year campaign against Citigroup, the world's largest private financial institution, after new commitments by the giant lender to adopt more responsible social and environmental policies in deciding what projects to finance. Citigroup's decision to more seriously engage one of its main critics, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), came one week after the San Francisco-based group launched a major ad campaign to persuade Citigroup credit card holders to destroy their cards to protest the company's support for projects and industries that environmentalists consider particularly harmful. The...

<p>LOS ANGELES — She's publishing a series of kiddie storybooks.</p> <p>She's working with scientists who have discovered how to neutralize radiation.</p> <p>She's plotting to make a documentary about Kabbalah, a religious philosophy based on Jewish mysticism.</p> <p>Who's that girl?</p> <p>These days, Madonna strives to be neither material nor immaterial. After straddling the heights of wealth and celebrity for two decades, the pop diva is on a quest for meaning. And in American Life, due Tuesday, that means questioning the impulses behind her own rise to riches.</p>

2002-08-08) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LA Daily News) - ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings is apparently not the only celebrity to take issue with Toby Keith's chart-topping country hit, "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)." Now, the Dixie Chicks's lead singer, Natalie Maines, freely shares her dislike of the song. "Don't get me started," Maines told the Los Angeles Daily News. "I hate it. It's ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture - and not just the bad people who did bad things. You've got to have some tact. Anybody can write,...

Second Thoughts By: William W. Lawrence 04/15/2003 We hear so much about young Americans -- teenagers and early 20s -- who give Americans a bad name. Then we watch our young GIs and our chest swells with pride.They were freeing an oppressed people while naked women, transvestites, dogs, dancers and singers joined Harry Belafonte in an antiwar protest to "praise the patriotism of the demonstrators" and condemn the military action in Iraq."We denounce governments that act with tyranny," Mr. Belafonte told the crowd. He was talking about our government, not Saddam Hussein's. Listen, there were always war protesters.I was a...

ABC's Peter Jennings sees an ominous new threat in the world. Not weapons of mass destruction or terrorism, but another vast right-wing conspiracy at home, specifically, the supposedly "well organized and aggressive efforts to make life very difficult for celebrities who speak out against the war." Jennings ended Tuesday's World News Tonight with this plug for Wednesday's show: "That is our report on World News Tonight. Tomorrow on the broadcast, the well organized and aggressive efforts to make life very difficult for celebrities who speak out against the war. I'm Peter Jennings. Have a good evening, and good night." I...

'Human Shields' Protect Reporters from Pacifist Actor By Jeff Johnson CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief April 16, 2003 Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - "We're here to protect you," members of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Free Republic told reporters gathered to cover an anti-war speech by self-proclaimed pacifist and actor Tim Robbins. "We're here to demonstrate against Tim Robbins and act as human shields for reporters in case they ask a question that Tim Robbins doesn't like and he threatens to harm them like he did Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post ," said Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the group. Grove...

Actor/Director Tim Robbins hates free speech. So does his long-term partner, Susan Sarandon, as well as Janeane Garafolo, Martin Sheen, The Dixie Chicks, Mike Farrell, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Harry Belafonte, Ed Asner, Danny Glover, Chrissie Hynde, and other ''anti-war'' celebrities. They only love free speech when they are using it to bash the military, President Bush, and America, both in our own media and overseas. However, when the American consumer, offended by their blame-America first rhetoric, reacts with petitions and boycotts, the words ''blacklist,'' ''undermining free speech'' and ''suppressing dissent'' are used by these celebrities. Hollywood is scared, because...

04-15-03- I was going to write an Op-ed today to go with our weekly Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame awards. Then Tim Robbins spoke to the National Press Club today.  I've recorded it for your listening disgust.  To say it's beyond the pale is an understatement.  He has declared war on the 77% of the people in this country who support our president, this country and our troops. Here is the audio.  Hollywood-Hero needs to say, one more time for the record, free speech does not mean free of consequences.  Freedom to choose what we watch, rent or...