Free Republic

Judges And Solons Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has said he will not appoint any judges who would overthrow Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that mandated legal abortions in all 50 states. Well, it doesn't really matter. Even if he did, or if President Bush did, such a judge would not be confirmed in the present Senate. The prevailing opinion in Washington is in favor of Roe v. Wade. It was a flawed decision, not because it legalized abortion, but because it usurped the authority of 50 state legislatures. Far too many judges, both federal...

King Features Syndicate, Inc.Charley Reese Reagan Stories >Lots of people have Ronald Reagan stories to tell, and so do I. Like many of the others, my story shows just how aware and connected Reagan was to the real world. A retired school teacher in Orlando, Fla., Sara Trollinger, had become so distressed working as a volunteer for one of those outfits that try to talk people out of suicide that she became determined to create a home for distressed teenagers that would provide a Christian environment. At the time I interviewed her, she had just risked her life savings making...

High Standards A gentleman in Alaska has sent me a copy of an exam the state of Washington required of all 8th-graders in 1910. I suspect that today many college graduates would have difficulty passing it. All of the questions were essay, and students were graded on their ability to write as well as on penmanship. Teachers did not "teach to the test." In fact, after the tests were handed out, the teachers left, and an outsider sat in the room. Students were not allowed to ask questions, and no explanations were given. Minimum passing grade in grammar and arithmetic...

Too Soon It's only May. This is just a cheerful reminder that you need not pay any attention to presidential polls, approval ratings and such stuff. It's way too early. Political junkies and television talkers pore over these polls like tea leaves, but springtime is too early for them to have any meaning for a fall election. Traditionally, the majority of Americans don't start thinking about the presidential election in a serious way until October. What people are thinking in October will be a pretty good indicator of how they will vote on Nov. 4. What they are thinking in...

It's ironic that at a time when the whole world is disgusted by pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused by thugs and sluts in American uniforms, an American doctor in Germany reports that Thomas Hamill was reasonably well-treated by his Iraqi kidnappers. A bullet wound received at the time of Hamill's capture had been treated surgically, the wound was cleaned on a daily basis, and Hamill had been given antibiotics, the doctor said. Hamill said that while he was moved frequently, he was not beaten or mistreated after his capture. The significance of the contrasting treatment of prisoners by Iraqi...

Michael Moore claims that the Walt Disney Co. is blocking the distribution of his new film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," by a Disney subsidiary, Miramax. While I'm no fan of the present-day Disney corporation, it has a right to block the distribution of any film by its own subsidiaries. Moore, a pseudo-blue-collar multimillionaire, apparently does not understand the First Amendment. Many Americans don't. The First Amendment gives us the right to speak and to write. It does not give anyone the right to command that others listen to or publish or distribute what he or she says or writes or produces. The...

Clean Up Airwaves Years ago, a guy who ran a pornography shop came to see me. He had been busted by the cops. He wanted me to write a story defending his free-speech rights. "If they can arrest me, they can arrest somebody for selling Shakespeare," he said, dragging out the old slippery-slope argument. "Well, if you start selling Shakespeare and somebody arrests you for selling Shakespeare, come see me," I said. "In the meantime, get out of my office." The First Amendment was not written, designed or intended to protect obscenity, vulgarity, pornography and indecency — or dancing nude...

> > by Charley Reese > > If you step back a moment and think about it, you will realize that you are > constantly being propagandized to approve of war - not just the wars in > Afghanistan and Iraq, but war generically. > > We should resist. War is killing, maiming and disfiguring human beings. It > is so disgusting and horrible in reality that even the most "realistic" > Hollywood movie sanitizes it. The news media sanitize it. The government > sanitizes war because it doesn't want you to see the coffins. Most of all, > it...

Don't Enlist In Culture War I know that for many self-labeled conservatives, the "culture war" is one of their favorite topics. My advice is, don't enlist. The major problems facing the United States have nothing to do with culture. They have to do with government and economics. The loss of American jobs, the so-called jobless recovery, the deficit, the unfair tax code, the trade deficit, the record levels of debt, a failed public-education system and a screwed-up foreign policy have nothing to do at all with art or culture or morality. Ideally, of course, laws should reflect the consensus on...

What bugs me most about the gun-control crowd, which now masquerades as the gun-safety crowd, is the blatant, rampant dishonesty. What they really want to do is ban the private ownership of firearms. The first step in doing that would be to repeal the Second Amendment. If that's what they want, that's the path they should follow. Instead, like the lying dogs they are, they try different tactics to accomplish the same purpose. They want to hold gun manufacturers liable for the criminal misuse of firearms, for example. Their idea is to make it unprofitable to manufacture firearms. That proposition...

Gibson's FavorMel Gibson, the actor and director, has done Christians a favor with his movie "The Passion of the Christ," which depicts the last 12 hours of the life of Christ.For one, he's proved once again that the know-it-all critics don't know what they're talking about half the time. When he started this project, the jeers were loud and clear: The guy's going to lose his shirt; making a movie in Latin and Aramaic is crazy; nobody will go see it; etc. and so forth.Well, as you probably know, Gibson's movie grossed four times its cost in the first...

Conspiracy Conspiracy fans can have a field day if Sen. John Kerry wins the Democratic nomination for president, as it appears at this time he will. Conspiracy buffs can say that, once more, the Establishment has won. Both the Democrat and the Republican nominees will be Establishment types — both are rich guys, both are Yale graduates, and both are members of the secretive and elitist Skull and Bones club at Yale. And the outsiders (Howard Dean, John Edwards and Wesley Clark) remain outside. By now, I'm used to this state of affairs and don't put a lot of stock...

The Bleeding Of American Jobs The United States must stop the bleeding of American jobs to cheap-labor countries. If we don't stop this job loss, we will eventually impoverish ourselves, since the overwhelming number of Americans must work in order to live. There is only one way to stop this loss of jobs. Scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, withdraw from the World Trade Organization and do what our Founding Fathers intended for us to do — negotiate trade agreements with individual countries. With those countries whose living standards, wages, health and environmental regulations are the equal of or...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Monday, February 16, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archives: Mon.2.16.2004 Fri.2.13.2004 Wed.2.11.2004 Mon.2.9.2004 Fri.2.6.2004 Wed.2.4.2004 Mon.2.2.2004 Fri.1.30.2004 Wed.1.28.2004 Mon.1.26.2004 Fri.1.23.2004 Wed.1.21.2004 Mon.1.19.2004 Bad Courts Years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court in effect legalized pornography, I predicted that the decision would result in the corruption of the whole culture. And so it has. The reasoning is obvious. If pornography is legal, then everything short of pornography is also legal. As I wrote at the time, the problem would not be the porno shop in a sleazy part of town. The problem would be the profanity and vulgarity that would find its...

My Druthers A rather irate reader of my column has sarcastically suggested in a letter to the editor that since I don't like President George W. Bush, I should tell folks who should replace him. Well, in the first place, I don't dislike Bush; I think he's a disaster as a president, but as a human being, he appears to be likable. In the second place, you must understand that I will express my druthers, but that's all they are — druthers, not a prediction. I have no idea who will be the Democrats' nominee, much less how the vote...

The fact that I had to post this article a full day after it was written means we are scared to post anti GOP posts!

The Crucible The long American presidential campaign is a crucible for the candidates — stressful, physically exhausting and demanding. That's one reason the outcome is not so predictable, despite an excess of polling and running commentaries. Howard Dean's candidacy might well have crashed in Iowa, not because of his third-place showing, but because of his reaction to it. His speech to his supporters was about as damaging a performance as I've ever seen. He gave the impression of a boy, hurt and disappointed to the point of tears, trying to hide the hurt with bluster, bravado and bombast. Unless he...

The Army of World War II, you might say, was the last Army of the republic. It performed great deeds, but there was not much luxury, not even for the generals and admirals. Nobody was paid much. Travel was by military plane, troop train or warship, even for generals, admirals and world leaders. Not so in today's imperial Army. According to Chalmers Johnson, an excellent writer, in his new book, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, the Defense Department maintains a fleet of 71 Lear jets, 13 Gulfstream IIIs and 17 Cessna Citation luxury...

No Stinking Empire The Army of World War II, you might say, was the last Army of the republic. It performed great deeds, but there was not much luxury, not even for the generals and admirals. Nobody was paid much. Travel was by military plane, troop train or warship, even for generals, admirals and world leaders. Not so in today's imperial Army. According to Chalmers Johnson, an excellent writer, in his new book, "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic," the Defense Department maintains a fleet of 71 Lear jets, 13 Gulfstream IIIs and 17...

Are You Going To Get Mad? It is now about as clear as it's going to get that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Secretary of State Colin Powell even contradicted himself (in his U.N. speech) by admitting recently that there is no evidence of any link between Saddam and al-Qaida. Prior to the Iraq War, the Bush administration asserted as fact that Saddam had huge quantities of chemical and biological weapons and was actively pursuing nuclear weapons. Administration members ridiculed people who expressed any doubts. Today, after spending millions of dollars looking for the weapons, they haven't...