Free Republic

You’ve probably never heard of Gareth Jones. You’ve certainly heard of the writer he inspired, and the classic dystopian novel that writer created. You were forced to read it, or at least the Cliff’s Notes, in high school. But shorn of its context, that novel lacks the full punch it could deliver. Mr. Jones (2019), starring Peter Sarsgaard and James Norton, directed by Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland and written by Andrea Chalupa, provides that context in a must-see film. Mr. Jones is powerfully relevant today, even more than when it premiered in 2019. You have undoubtedly heard of “cancel culture,”...

We’re surrounded today by evidence that too few of us know our history, and too many have been mis-educated to see only its flaws. When we celebrate the Fourth, we’re not only observing our nation’s birthday. We’re also celebrating the things that came into the world along with it.When we obsess over our faults, we lose perspective and forget that aspect of our past. Never before had a country been built upon the idea that it was not the rule of kings but the dignity of each person that formed the basis of political and social order. We did that.Our...

A man was jailed at the Old Bailey today for Britain's first web rage attack on another internet user. Paul Gibbons, 47, traced John Jones, 43, after they exchanged insults in a chatroom. He was armed with a pickaxe handle and was with a man with a machete. Mr Jones, who had gone to the door of his home in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, with a knife, was disarmed and had his neck cut by Gibbons. Gibbons, unemployed, of Southwark, south London, was jailed for two-and-a half years for unlawful wounding. He pleaded guilty last month when the prosecution agreed not to...