Free Republic

Will work for national honor. We don’t know if the Chinese stonemasons who built the new Martin Luther King memorial got the job by shoving a sign bearing that message into the faces of its overseers. We know only that unpaid, nonunion, foreign nationals built the massive shrine on the Mall. They toiled for “national honor” and “to bring glory to the Chinese people,” one of them explained to an investigator hired by the DC-area stonemasons promised the job. Happy Labor Day! Martin Luther King died in Memphis supporting a strike by the city’s garbagemen. So it’s not a stretch...

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

Remember the PBS series special on the Roman Emperor, Claudius? The title, which captured the style of his governance, “I, Claudius.” It was a 13-part series on Masterpiece Theater. How many of you saw it? Let’s not always see the same hands. Well, almost all of you remember some of the history of the Roman Emperors. They ranged from mad and murderous, like Nero, to rational and effective, like Augustine. Hold that thought, and we’ll get to today’s subject. A good friend, Duncan Parham, is a man of eclectic interests. One of those is rare coins. Last weekend he showed...

Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- Workers and office employees of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are enjoying summer holidays at rest homes together with their families. Nearly twenty reconstructed rest homes in Sokam, Lake Sohung, Onpho, Kuam and other scenic spots have received holiday-makers. The holiday-makers at the Onpho Rest Home in Kyongsong County, North Hamgyong Province, and the Majon Rest Home in Hamhung City, South Hamgyong Province, are playing various kinds of sports games and amusements and swimming and boating in the sea. The Kuam Rest Home in Hwayang-ri, Chongdan County, South Hwanghae Province, has also opened the...