Free Republic

This is the story of a dinner party. It occurred in a suburban middle-class community — maybe slightly upscale middle class, but not much — just outside one of our big cities. Pretty typical place. The guests all knew each other. They were neighbors or friends or acquaintances who’d been to these parties many times. They were white, every one, mostly businessmen and their wives, and some engineers who work or once worked in the nearby defense industries. The postdinner conversation was the usual stuff — who’s moving in, who’s moving out. Anybody heard from Ralph since he moved to...

American capitalism was rescued last week by -- who'd have believe it? -- socialism. Free-market fundamentalists will spin what happened as something else. "Temporary government intervention in the market" or "just another federal loan program." And there's the ever-popular "bailout," a neutral term implying we do it all the time and it absolves everyone of any blame. None dare call it socialism. But that's surely what it is. Washington has nationalized AIG, the insurance giant, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as much as Moscow under Vladimir Putin has nationalized big-winner industries like oil. But with this defense: The Russians...

Cultural Crisis In American Catholicism Confronts Pope By JOHN FARMER JR.This week's visit of Pope Benedict XVI comes at a critical time in the history of Roman Catholicism in America. Rocked by the widespread abuse of children by Catholic priests, and unsettled by the death of the beloved Pope John Paul II, the Catholic Church in America has been troubled, to say the least. But the church's problems run deeper even than the recent sex scandals. The church was hemorrhaging members before priest-gate, in large measure because the church and American culture are directly at odds. But just as Pope...

Of the hundreds of thousands of words employed in this year's election campaign, none is more likely to have an impact on post-election politics than Dick Armey's characterization of Christian evangelicals in the Bush Republican Party as "thugs." Armey is no outsider taking shots at a GOP in trouble. He was an architect of the 1994 GOP campaign that brought Republicans to power in Congress, was House GOP majority leader, and is an evangelical himself. But Republicans now in control in Washington are guilty of pandering to Christian conservatives, especially to evangelical leaders like James C. Dobson, founder of Focus...