Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - A month shy of his election in 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama outlined a doctrine for American military force that included crises in which the United States has a "moral obligation" to intervene. As commander in chief, he soon will have to decide whether Libya fits the bill. Obama is facing the sternest test yet of his philosophy of humanitarian intervention, which he has described as an imperative to prevent atrocities against civilians.

The sun hasn't exactly set on Solar Planet, but anxiety over the fate of the Arlington tanning salon has been running high ever since a "tan tax" took effect Thursday. One of the less publicized measures in the new health-care law, the tax imposes a 10 percent surcharge on the use of ultraviolet indoor tanning beds. Supporters -- including the Obama administration, congressional Democrats and dermatologists -- have argued that the tax will raise an estimated $2.7 billion toward the cost of expanding health coverage to the uninsured, while discouraging a practice that increases the risk of skin cancer by...

I think it was an omen. See the video of Obama's Memorial Day Speech getting rained out.

Mr. Obama is a product of a leftist intellectual current, in which American global power and influence has generally if not exclusively been viewed as a negative force. This brand of revisionism arose from 1960s radicalism and opposition to the Vietnam War. The United States is portrayed as a neocolonialist bully, imposing its will on helpless people in the developing world for the benefit of American corporations. U.S. military power is viewed through the distorted lenses of the My Lai Massacre and Abu Ghraib. The CIA is a tool for assassination, coups and disinformation. Nuclear weapons are an unqualified evil....

This world of ours seems to be divided into two types of people: not "male" and "female," but "nice" and "not nice." As we go through life, we all too often seem to evaluate everyone we meet according to this standard. In the hilarious Mel Brooks Western satire Blazing Saddles, after only one long night of romancing, Lili Von Shtupp falls head over heels for Sheriff Bart. Later, she refers to him by saying, "What a nice guy." In Man of La Mancha, Sancho Panza follows Don Quixote from one misfortune to another. Why would he do such a thing?...