Free Republic

President Obama's Notre Dame speech on abortion was applauded by the mainstream media, quoting his call for more "open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words." But except for the pro-life, and some conservative forums, there was no mention of Obama's omission of his own documented, chilling record on abortion that proves what he also said on that Sunday: "No matter how much we want to fudge it … the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable." I watched the full-scale coverage of the speech on Fox News; and the reporting, before and after, did...

'WOMEN ARE equals now. They can fend for themselves. To offer a perfectly healthy woman a seat simply because she is a woman, however well-intentioned, is creepy. At best, she'll think you're from another country; at worst she'll feel old, or overweight enough to be perceived as pregnant." And that is a lesson in modern manners, according to the new issue of GQ (with Clive Owen on the cover). Glenn O'Brien and other GQ scribes weigh in on e-mails, cellphones, gym etiquette, dressing for travel, how to handle chatty seatmates, sleeping with your friend's ex, online dating, wedding gifts and...

There was a time when men's hairstyles only came in one form: short. Close-cropped, clean cut and, frankly, a bit dull, short was pretty much it when it came to cutting men's hair. -snip- Braso attributes the new hairstyles to men's fashion trends that favor romantic fabrics like velvet. "Everything in fashion is sort of romantic and soft, almost dandyish," he said. "In a way, hair is sort of following that." -snip- But Braso said not to discount fashion as a factor in the move toward longer locks. As a whole, he said, men are edging closer to a hair-consciousness...

The Sunday talk show of president Chavez is back in the air after an interruption of a couple of months "for redesign". The show used to be an itinerant affair that lasted from 3 to 6 hours where Chavez occupied the front scene, only relieved on occasion by some video or some "guest" making some form of expose. Alo Presidente was of course a must see of the political class as most of the maneuvers of the regime were announced previously from its set. The new format? Well, the step to a formal TV show with Chavez as the host...

Link (and image) post: I made an error with the link on the chat section page, so I'm providing the picture that should be there below (it's also found in a reply to myself). As per usual, please direct all discussion to the link below. This WhereIsIt? challenge is first to determine where this is, and second to determine why it's geologically significant. Link: Geology Picture of the Week, November 9-15, 2003: A tough WhereIsIt? challenge Image:

I had to hunt around a bit to find this small picture of this particular place, and hunt some more to make sure it was the place I wanted. If this isn't a stumper, I don't know what is. Question 1: Where is it? Question 2: Why is it geologically significant? Good luck!

LOS ANGELES - Velvet-voiced R&B crooner Barry White (news), whose lush baritone and throbbing musical compositions oozed sex appeal on songs like "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," died Friday. He was 58. White, who had kidney failure from years of high blood pressure, had been undergoing dialysis and had been hospitalized since a September stroke. He died about 9:30 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his manager, Ned Shankman. His canyon-deep, butter-smooth vocals emphasized his songs' sexually charged verbal foreplay, like on 1975's "Love Serenade," which began with White purring: "I want you the way you came into...

How to grow the economy WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The president's economic proposals unveiled in Chicago Monday have ignited a debate between Official Washington and the administration. The administration has some ideas about what makes an economy tick. As the president put it in Chicago, "The role of government is not to manage or control the economy." Rather, government's economic role, he declared, is "to remove obstacles standing in the way" -- for instance, taxes. Official Washington seems to have no ideas for economic growth other than to raise taxes. Admittedly that always helps Washington's economy grow, but what about the...