Free Republic

God must really want those kids dead. -- South Park (S10E06) I'm like, totally cereal, guys. If nothing else, last night's episode proved that South Park is still an equal opportunity offender. In this episode, Al Gore comes to South Park to warn everyone about Manbearpig (read: global warming), a creature who is half man, half bear, and half pig. Or possibly half man and half bearpig. No one really knows for sure because Gore is apparently the only one who believes he exists. Al Gore is depicted as a crazed, friendless drifter who believes he's doing the right thing...

The first question one might ask about the valuable new book by author and activist David Horowitz is how he limited the number to study in the title of The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. It is a difficulty which Horowitz himself acknowledges early on. “How many radical professors are there on American faculties?,” Horowitz asks. “According to the federal government, the total number of college and university professors in the United States is 617,000.” “If we were to take the Harvard case reviewed at the end of this volume as a yardstick and assume a figure...

Yep, the "newspaper" which gave us so many drama queen stories about Katrina that turned out to be woefully inaccurate wins the top prize in US journalism. Kind of tells you something, doesn't it?From Saudi-owned Reuters [excerpted]: Jim Amoss (L), Editor of the Times-Picayune newspaper, congratulates publisher Ashton Phelps, Jr. after learning the paper won two Pulitzer Prizes in New Orleans April 17, 2006. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi, shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina. The Times-Picayune also won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting...

Just when I think my admiration for the nation's number one retailer couldn't grow any more, Wal-Mart recently announced that it plans to build more than 50 stores in plighted urban neighborhoods over the next two years. All told, the expansion will create 15,000 to 25,000 jobs in these areas. Not surprisingly, the anti-Wal-Mart sites - wakeupwalmart.com, walmart-blows.com, walmartmovie.com, etc. - aren't mentioning the story. Am I surprised? Not at all. The fact is that in the mind of socialists, there is nothing good about Wal-Mart… or with what it represents. Theoretically, these militant haters should go to the office...

Imagine being fined by your state government for not buying something you choose to avoid purchasing. It may sound crazy, but in Massachusetts it may soon be the law. A bill awaiting Republican Gov. Mitt Romney’s signature could slap heavy fines on people who choose to not buy health insurance. But rather than focus on the privacy invasion and government expansion the new law would engender, the nation’s leading newspapers portrayed the legislation as a bipartisan stroke of genius and even a bow to conservative values. “Massachusetts is the first state in America to reach full adulthood … The rest...

OME -- The sudden recovery of a young French nun suffering from Parkinson's disease is at the heart of the sainthood case for Pope John Paul II, the Polish priest who heads the inquiry said Monday. The Vatican needs to confirm a miracle after John Paul's death for the pontiff to be beatified, the first step toward his possible canonization. Monsignor Slawomir Oder told The Associated Press in an interview that an official inquiry into the nun's inexplicable recovery was beginning this week.

This is the text of an email I received today. Wouldn't it be fun to string this guy out for a while,then hang him out to dry ? Ideas welcome ! Dear Friend, I am Dr.Daniel Nando presently i am practising with a private hospital here in Ivory Coast W/Africa,And you don?t worry because I got your contact through a chamber of commerce and will like to explain to you about a transaction which I hope you can assist which will benefit both of us. I have a patient, a Sierra Leonia woman who was on admission for some weeks...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Truck driver John Withers admits he cried like a little girl when his dog ran away. So the Georgia man didn't hesitate to make the 1,000 drive to Oconto County, Wis., when he heard his beloved pet had been found eight months later. He said he didn't cry but he was very happy when he was reunited with Sir Charles Nugget, a 4-year-old chow mix. Nugget ran away last summer when Withers was making a delivery in Lena, Wis. Since then, plenty of people spotted the dog and left food for it but no one could...

One of the biggest problems confronting higher education is the fact that most students entering colleges and universities lack basic social science skills and knowledge. In a recent survey of college students in Buffalo, for example, almost half did not know who George Pataki is. Eighty percent had no idea, correct or incorrect, as to what communism is. Nearly the same number of students couldn’t define capitalism. For whatever reason, social science education in America has collapsed at the high school level. For a democracy that relies on an informed electorate, such ignorance is toxic.

Now for something completey different. OK, who was the greatest chess player ever...?? My personal vote goes to the nineteenth century's Paul Morphy. No other champion dominated his contemporaries the way Morphy dominated his peers.

Dear IRS, Enclosed is my 2005 tax return showing that I owe $3,407.00 in taxes. Please note the attached article from USA Today, wherein you will see the Pentagon is paying $171.50 for hammers and NASA has paid $600.00 for a toilet seat. I am enclosing four toilet seats (value $2400) and six hammers (value $1029), bringing my total remitted to $3429.00. Please apply the overpayment of $22.00 to the "Presidential Election Fund," as noted on my return. You can do this inexpensively by sending them one 1.5" Phillips Head screw (article from USA Today detailing how HUD pays $22.00...

Barbecue sauces have a uniquely Southern and Western U.S. history. Most experts agree that the practice of adding sauce and spices to meat and fish began early in our history, with Native Americans teaching the art to early European settlers. The natives probably developed the process as part of an attempt to keep meats and fish from spoiling quickly. Salt played a major role in those early barbecue sauces, and salt is a well-known preservative in the meat curing process. Because the nations first European arrivals lived on the East Coast of America, that part of the country is credited...

Just wondered what people were giving up for Lent.

Brian Kilmeade on Fox & Friends this morning is saying that DPWorld ports is taking over security at US ports when they are not. And now Kilmeade is saying that a perfectly legitimate business deal in the takeover of P&O ports was manipulated by some sheik. Hey Brian, your employer Fox News has big share of ownership by a saudi sheik. Saudi prince buys large share of Fox News Also Michelle Malkin and Frank Gaffney are always running to get their mugs on the part saudi owned Fox News. How come she is never criticized for appearing on a network...

DETROIT -- Three weeks ago, after the Steelers held on to upset Indianapolis, Joey Porter was unhappy about the overturning of Troy Polamalu's fourth-quarter interception that could have sealed the win much earlier. Believing that deep down the league preferred Peyton Manning and the Colts to win, Porter publicly criticized the game officials, asking them not to "take the game from us." Well, the Steelers can call it even now, as the officials who performed well enough throughout the season to earn the privilege of working Super Bowl XL performed Sunday as though they were trying to make it up...

Q: About a year ago, I made the heart-wrenching decision to leave a great job, house, friends and family to move to Hawaii with my fiancé. As part of this transition, I also chose to have my two beloved chow chow dogs put to sleep. I adored those dogs, but I justified their sacrifice to the greater good of a successful relationship. After six months, I am still tormented by memories of my dogs. The depths of anguish and loss make me think I got rid of them for purely selfish reasons, which is the kind of behavior I thought...

Somedays, it seems like everyone around you has had one stupid pill too many. Feel free to borrow from this list when required. >THINGS YOU'D LOVE TO SAY OUT LOUD AT WORK 1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of crap. 2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce. 3. How about never? Is never good for you? 4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public. 5. I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my...

I apologize for a vanity posting. Had a flashback this afternoon and it just made me go back through the years and I was left wondering if anyone else remembered their scouting days so long ago. For some unknown reason I remembered the very first time I ever had a Cub Scout uniform. We were so poor that just to buy it meant others in the family went without. I can remember like it was yesterday how great it felt and how proud I was to have the complete uniform. My mom sewed my badges and troop number on, and...

There is absolutely no chance that the Democrats can win back the congress in 2006. That’s what this essay is about. If you think otherwise, you’re fooling yourself. It is time to stop even talking about a Democrat take over as a real possibilty because the energy and time involved would be much better used thinking about how to take more seats from the minority party. Last Labor Day I posted an essay describing the insurmountable problems the Democrats will face next year and in 2008, as they set about trying to re-take power. This second essay will outline these...

Growing up in a small Midwestern town with a population of a whopping 2500, most of the guys I ran with regularly kept guns in their cars. This made the after school hunting excursion very convenient. In our little school there was no lack of fighting, bullying, or other conflicts common to high schools across the nation. It was not unusual for a couple of kids to get in a scuffle in the hallway between classes, and sometimes even have such a serious disagreement that would call for a special “appointment” in the park after school. Sometimes the guy everybody...