Free Republic

One of my favorite Oscar-winning actors might have just destroyed his career in Hollywood. Gary Oldman did what is verboten amidst the Hollywood lovelies; namely, crap on liberal politicians, condemn political correctness and laud libertarian and conservative thought. In an interview with Playboy, Oldman wields a sledgehammer on the fetid idols that have kept most of the actors that work in Tinseltown at bay. Check it out. Regarding political correctness, Oldman said… “I just think political correctness is crap. That’s what I think about it. I think it’s like, take a f***ing joke. Get over it. … I don’t know...

On Wednesday, Charles Krauthammer came out in favor of the Bergdahl prisoner swap. Savage reax… "Charles “Sauerkraut” of Fox News– a man I’ve not been impressed with– I think he’s way overrated. Because of his sad demeanor, people think he’s intelligent. They confuse his dour looks for intelligence. They think somehow if you’re depressed-looking, you’re smart. "

The most terrifying aspect of the collapse of US power worldwide is the US’s indifferent response to it. In Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East and beyond, America’s most dangerous foes are engaging in aggression and brinkmanship unseen in decades. As Gordon Chang noted at a symposium in Los Angeles last month hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, since President Barack Obama entered office in 2009, the Chinese have responded to his overtures of goodwill and appeasement with intensified aggression against the US’s Asian allies and against US warships. In 2012, China seized the Scarborough Shoal from the...

The discovery, over a year after the September 11, 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, of an e-mail from a White House political operative that shows him suggesting that former United Nations ambassador Susan Rice underscore that the attack was a reaction to an Internet video is, according to Charles Krauthammer, like the discovery of the Nixon tapes that blew open the Watergate scandal in 1973.

Charles Krauthammer is calling a newly released email “a smoking document” that the conservative columnist says shows the White House was involved in a coverup of the Benghazi attacks. GOP lawmakers on Tuesday seized on the documents, which contained an email from deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes discussing “goals” for then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s appearances on the Sunday shows following the attack. Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday evening, Krauthammer said the email shows that the Obama administration fabricated its contention that the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, were a reaction to a YouTube video because the revelation of...

Video linkGeorge Will, Ron Fournier, and Charles Krauthammer.

Video at link.

March 17, 2014 7:14 PM Krauthammer's Take: Obama Is Being 'Ridiculed by Russians' By NRO Staff President Obama has thus far responded tepidly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting only several individuals in Russia for sanctions and providing Ukraine with rations as opposed to the arms it requested. Because of Obama’s rhetoric and policy, Charles Krauthammer said the president is being “ridiculed by Russians.” “If he thinks that sanctioning seven Russians out of a population of, what, 150 million is a sanction, he’s living in a different world,” Krauthammer said. Instead we should be sending Ukraine weapons, something the administration...

As reports are coming in that Russia has placed 2,000 troops in Crimea, within the borders of Ukraine, President Obama said that “the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.” Charles Krauthammer responded on Special Report tonight saying, “The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement. I find it rather staggering.” Krauthammer thinks Obama’s statement is about “three levels removed” from actual action. He explained: Obama said “we will stand with the international community — meaning we are going to...

KRAUTHAMMER: Remember how Democrats were complaining that when Republicans were trying to overturn Obamacare, it was somehow unpatriotic because it was an attack on the law of the land. This law of the land doesn't even exist; it exists in Obama's head. It's whatever he thinks, he wakes up in the morning and decides what the law is going to be. That is an understatement, that's not the way it's supposed to work. And we had an editorial in The Washington Post of all places, not exactly a right-wing rag, saying that Obama has really overstepped the lines arbitrarily, changing...

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, listening to that excerpt from Ed Henry, you would think that's the campaign speech of someone running against Barack Obama. Obama is indicting the four years, the five years he's been president. He said the rich have done well, everybody else has stalled, inequality has increased. Well, the four years, the five years are his years. Essentially, he's saying my job now is to undo what I have done in the five years of my presidency. It's hardly sort of a ringing call to arms. I'm sure they now tested all of these words, inequality, opportunity, all...

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Tuesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that a Supreme Court ruling on a labor unions case could potentially be “a blow to organized labor from which they would not recover,” depending on how the justices rule.

One Sunday night in early November I watched Bret Baier's Special Report in which he interviewed Charles Krauthammer. In responding to a question about his inclusion in his book, Things That Matter, a 2007 column about baseball player Rick Ankeil's fall and return to the major leagues, Krauthammer responded with a reference to a line from that article: "...the catastrophe that awaits everyone from a single false move, wrong turn, fatal encounter. Every life has such a moment. What distinguishes us is whether -- and how -- we ever come back." Several hours later, I had a terrible accident. As...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Speaking on Fox News recently, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer proposed what, to many, might have sounded like a rather novel compromise on the minimum wage. His idea? We should have two of them, a higher minimum for "breadwinners," and a lower minimum for everybody else. Here was Krauthammer's thinking, paraphrased. It might be hard to feed a whole household on $7.25 an hour. But raising the minimum is most likely to hurt teenagers and minorities who rely on low-paid, entry-level jobs to get a foothold in the working world. So how do you lend a hand to hard-pressed families without...

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Look, at every level, every number that you get on this is either inflated or deceptive. As we just heard from Steve [Hayes], the number of enrollees are not enrollees. It's people who put stuff in their shopping cart. Amazon would never call it a sale until you get a sale. And they don't know how many have made the sale. And that's because what they call euphemistically, the back-end, which is the cash register of the whole system, is not working. The idea that you have to hand-match people who paid a premium with the insurers isn't...

For all the gnashing of teeth over the lack of comity and civility in Washington, the real problem is not etiquette but the breakdown of political norms, legislative and constitutional. Such as the one just spectacularly blown up in the Senate... The violence to political norms here consisted in how that change was executed. By brute force — a near party-line vote of 52 to 48 . This was a disgraceful violation of more than two centuries of precedent. If a bare majority can change the fundamental rules that govern an institution, then there are no rules. Senate rules today...

Charles Krauthammer says he believes President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran is “the worst deal since Munich.” “This is a sham from beginning to end. It’s the worst deal since Munich,” Krauthammer said on Fox News “Special Report” on Monday. “It’s really hard to watch the president and the secretary of state and not think how they cannot be embarrassed by this deal.” The Munich Agreement of 1938 between Hitler and major European powers expanded Germany’s borders. Today, the failed negotiation is widely considered an act of appeasement.

He will discuss his new book, Things That Matter, which is a collection of his writings. (click link above for webcast)

Every disaster has its moment of clarity. Physicist Richard Feynman dunks an O-ring into ice water and everyone understands instantly why the shuttle Challenger exploded. This week, the Obamacare O-ring froze for all the world to see: Hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters went out to people who had been assured a dozen times by the president that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.” The cancellations lay bare three pillars of Obamacare: (a) mendacity, (b) paternalism and (c) subterfuge.

Now that the “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan” lie has been thoroughly exposed, ObamaCare defenders have taken to arguing that what replaces the millions of cancelled plans will be much better for people than what they chose before. Essentially, this argument presumes that a centrally-planned, one-size-fits-all insurance profile works better for Americans than their own choices for coverage in the marketplace. Charles Krauthammer deconstructs the arrogance of this argument and explains why it fails every time it’s tried (via RCP): Krauthammer: Jay Carney Is Saying "You're Too Stupid To Understand What You Want" It’s precisely...