Free Republic

Let them rent limos One of the messages I've been receiving is that those people in New Orleans have only themselves to blame. They should have left when the evacuation was ordered. For some that is probably true. New Orleans is a laid-back city. But for many, being told to evacuate was like being told to flap their wings and fly. Nearly one in four residents is below the poverty line. Many don't have cars. Yet the evacuation plan was based on private autos. There was no mechanism to evacuate those without cars, much less those in nursing homes and...

SLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A television and radio campaign offering a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden hit the airwaves in Pakistan this week in a U.S.-government funded drive to get fresh leads about the al-Qaida leader. The 30-second television spot flashes photographs of bin Laden and 13 other top terror suspects, including his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, with an emotional appeal for help in bringing them to justice. "Who are the people who are suffering from terrorism? Our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters! Who are those terrorists?...

Social Security: The Real Risks By Peter Ferrara on 10/20/2004 This op/ed was originally published in the New York Post. John Kerry's bitter denunciations of President Bush over Social Security are craven, opportunistic and false. Worse yet, Kerry's approach to the program's crisis risks disaster. Kerry charges that Bush secretly plans to cut benefits or hike Social Security taxes to fund his "scheme" to privatize the program. In fact, Bush has spelled out seven principles of reform, including no tax hikes or benefit cuts. Kerry's claim that Bush's plan will cost trillions is another canard. Consider just one plan —...

CALGARY - The long-toed salamander (ambystoma macrodactylum), unlike your humble correspondent, enjoys full unfettered access to the woods of Kananaskis. If he is not yet the official mascot of the G8 summit, he ought to be. He is hard to find because he's approximately four to seven inches long, which by strange coincidence matches exactly the latest expert estimates of the amount of real news generated by this summit, though to date real news at this summit has proved a lot harder to find than the long-toed salamander. He is fond of nocturnal burrowing, and thus would make an excellent...