Free Republic

Nearly every single award that American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines fight, bleed and sometimes die to receive can be bought by everyone else on the Internet — even from the same company that makes them for the U.S. military. With the lone exception of the Congressional Medal of Honor, it’s all perfectly legal. It’s even legal to wear them now, unless the person is using his fraudulent medals to gain something of value.

The question sounds like a joke, made up by one of the talented writers for Comedy Central’s Daily Show itself: Is the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart the journalistic reincarnation of Edward R. Murrow? But this was the serious question posed by New York Times writers Bill Carter and Brian Stelter on December 27, after Stewart rallied the media toward granting federal healthcare funding for September 11 first responders. Carter and Stelter ask: “And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart — despite all his protestations that what he does has nothing to do with journalism — the modern-day equivalent of...

Have the American people outlived their usefulness to the rich minority in the United States? A number of trends suggest that the answer may be yes. In every industrial democracy since the end of World War II, there has been a social contract between the few and the many. In return for receiving a disproportionate amount of the gains from economic growth in a capitalist economy, the rich paid a disproportionate percentage of the taxes needed for public goods and a safety net for the majority. In North America and Europe, the economic elite agreed to this bargain because they...

The Eyjafjallajökull Volcanic Ash Is Back With A Vengeance, Will It Ruin Cannes? Joe Weisenthal May. 9, 2010, 9:17 AM Just when you thought this story was long over, the ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano is iceland is back, and flights are being cancelled left and right across Europe. Of course, this is exactly what Europe doesn't need right now, particularly Portugal, caught in the middle of a debt storm and now caught in the middle of this as well. Times Online UK: Today Ryanair announced the cancellation of 178 European flights while easyJet warned of further disruption on routes...