Free Republic

Boy, ol' headmaster Charlie Gibson and cute, cunningly earnest Katie Couric really got poor helpless Sarah Palin, didn't they? I can just imagine the "brain trusts" of ABC and CBS and the Obama handlers coming up with innocent-seeming questions, setting traps that would surely trip up the newcomer to big media style politics. "Hey Charlie, warm her up with a little big time news anchor charm – and then ask her to explain the 'Bush Doctrine'! I'll bet she can't. Who can? Can you, Charlie? No? Well, that's my point. She could probably give three or four answers, and they'd...

As I set fingers to word processor, I'm being transported through the night sky back to L.A. from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Many thoughts are roiling around in my head, and I'd like to share some of them with you. First, it's been unique, absolutely (a word crossword puzzlers like me see frequently) a "oner." I had the feeling right from the start this one would be like no other, and I was proven right on the first day. Hurricane Gustav blew into New Orleans right on time, and the GOP decided they shouldn't compete for...

OK, the battle has truly joined, and some fur is beginning to fly. The nominating conventions still lie ahead, but here in the first days of August, things are heating up in what seems like almost unprecedented early flurries of daily TV and radio spots. Millions have been spent already. Internet postings are appearing like flies on flypaper – and being avidly read and quoted on broadcast talk shows. Candidate Obama, the junior (by any definition) senator from Illinois, has already made what seemed a post-election victory tour of Europe, following a quick and obligatory visit to trouble spots in...

Rush Limbaugh is a patriot. Pure and simple, a patriot.I see him in the select company of other patriots like Paul Revere, Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin. Thankfully, he hasn't been asked to make a dying proclamation like Nathan Hale – "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" – but I suspect he would, if it came to that.Oh, I know he's the big dog in radio, all radio, and not just conservative. And I know he's paid big bucks because of the millions that listen to him every week. And I'm aware...

He was a spokesman for the Chief. He traveled with him, conversed with him, shared meals and confidences with him, was certainly one of his closest friends. He learned from him, believed in him, benefited greatly from the association – and, when asked, would try to explain him and his mission to others. He was trusted. He was identified with the Chief, and he basked in that. Oh, he didn't go along with everything the Chief did, and he didn't fully understand all he said, but he tried faithfully to represent the man and what he was doing, and he...

Over the last five years, more than 4,000 brave young Americans have given their lives in the service of this country. Thousands more have been wounded, some maimed for life. More and more of their countrymen seem persuaded that they shouldn’t have been ordered into Iraq, but surely no one can deny that our troops have marched into the jaws of death believing they’re truly defending all of us, our mutual home, and its well-being. It’s tragic, of course, and we lament the deaths, the suffering, the disproportionate sacrifices our military families have made. And along with the physical costs,...

Don't mess with a Marine. Definitely not with my favorite Marine, Jim Martin. Jim is president of the 60 Plus Association, a dynamic and politically influential seniors organization based in our nation's capital. Like AARP in many ways, but more conservative in political and economic outlook, 60 Plus stumps for seniors 24/7, across the board. It lobbies Congress for the absolute abolishment of the "Death Tax," the name Jim gave appropriately to the "estate tax," which unconscionably robs seniors of their life savings, homes, and businesses when they die – though they've paid their taxes and still managed to save...

So, the pope came to town. Yes, and the town (little Washington, D.C.) practically came unglued. The media fell all over themselves, situating cameras all over the city and scrambling for position to broadcast every move His Eminence made. He even made Entertainment Tonight, and virtually every news show on TV. There was the president himself, waiting at the foot of the stairs as his guest descended from Shepherd I, to welcome the pope, who stepped nimbly down to the tarmac, beaming with delight. There were cherry-blossomed streets for the motorcade through the city, a grandly arrayed White House lawn...

I remembered it only vaguely, so I pulled out my Encyclopedia Americana and read the following about the pied piper of Hamelin: According to a German legend he was a magician who promised to rid the town of Hamelin from rats for a stipulated sum of money. He performed his task by playing on his pipe as he walked to the Weser River and the rats, following the music, were charmed into the river and drowned. On the citizens then refusing to pay the money, the piper took up his pipe once more and led the way out of the...

OK, so race is an issue in the current presidential campaign. It was, from the beginning, along with gender. When both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton proclaimed that neither should be considerations, I scoffed in a recent column. Continues...================================================================ Obama: I didn't inhale the 'Hate Whitey' sermons By "JohnHuang2" Monday, March 17, 2008 There isn't a smidgen of evidence that he had denounced the nut preacher's words before the firestorm broke out last week. And it is a fact that the pastor's unpastoral bent for spewing madrassa-like hateful inventive and his penchant for toxic racist rants from the pulpit were...

Did you know that Dr. Martin Luther King was a Republican? I sure didn't – till I read Ronald Kessler's arresting column on the Internet just recently. He was liberally quoting Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, in which she was describing the Democrat Party as the "architect of modern day racism." This was just the first of many fascinating and surprising accusations from someone who is certainly in a position to know what she's talking about. She's a retired Army lieutenant colonel and lawyer, and she avers that it was Republicans who pushed through much of...

How long, how much farther, will we let an angry, disaffected, alienated, faithless few push us from our God-given liberty to express our joy and faith – whenever and wherever we choose? Has it not become insufferable, inexcusable, for any of us to feel cowed and almost forbidden by some notion of "political correctness" to even exclaim "Merry Christmas!" to shop clerks, airline stewardesses, delivery men, even passersby on the streets and in the stores? How long will we let this go on? The latest brouhaha, claiming "lead-item" status on the news and talk shows, is a simple, warm and...

OK, stay with me. I know it's a startling title, but I intend to validate it and its assertion here. So do stay with me, please. I've been home a week since partial knee replacement surgery in Chicago barely a week ago. Both the surgery and the therapy are making me very optimistic about my return to the tennis and basketball courts. But meanwhile, I've had unusual time to read my voluminous mail, watch the news and do some reflective thinking. And a couple of things have become very clear to me. One, our society is in deep, deep trouble...

In this time, when bad news and ominous portent is so rampant, I can't resist passing along especially great news when it comes my way. Sometimes the din of despair – about hurricanes, earthquakes, economic downturns, accelerating terrorist threats, vast numbers of illegal aliens, health care and looming Social Security insolvency, melting ice caps, droughts, floods, unprecedented low approval ratings for Congress and the president – is almost deafening. And certainly disheartening! Furthermore, in my new memoir, "Pat Boone's America: 50 Years," I express my deep and growing concern about our moral drift and the obvious decline in our culture's...

Teachers are my heroes. As I searched my heart and my options back during my high school days, I decided I wanted to be a teacher. No particular academic subject fired this ambition… I simply felt a desire to affect positively the minds and direction of a lot of young people while I lived on this planet. So I figured I'd teach English, a happy middle of the road subject, and try to be a good role model like the many teachers who were influencing me. Singing, acting, TV, and other pursuits interrupted those plans, but never dulled my admiration...

The above question, either in word or implication, is being voiced by way too many these days, as people and governments cast about desperately for lasting solutions in the Middle East. Many Western and European political leaders – having heard the deprecations and the determination to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, from the likes of Palestinian Yasser Arafat, Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and so many other power brokers in the region – have come dangerously close to deciding that little Israel is the "thorn in the side" of world order....

One set of judicial decisions created the foundation and framework for humane society. Another set, much more recent, has negated much of the first and laid out a program that has the appearance of George Orwell's "1984." One set was composed of ten directives, formulated by the Creator and Judge of the universe, and intended to promote healthy, considerate and moral relationships between people, and between human beings and their God. The other set of 10 judicial decisions is designed to stifle free expression, erase any standards of moral behavior and absolutely forbid any public acknowledgement of the very...

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." – Romans 13:1, 2 "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of...

Who tells the boss whom he can hire and fire? Other employees? Is it that way where you work? Maybe, if you're a member of Congress, or are part of a staff that answers to one of them. See, it's an accepted principle in the rarified air of American politics that if you want to maximize your political power, you stack the bureaucracies with your own people, just as fast and deep as you can. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt infamously sought to stack the Supreme Court – which he failed at, praise be to the Almighty – this was already...

One of my favorite early Steve Martin routines went something like this: "Would you like to make a million dollars and pay no taxes? OK. First, make a million dollars. Now, just don't pay any taxes; and if somebody from the IRS asks you about it, just say … 'I forgot!'" Nonsense? Sure. But funny, especially as Steve delivered it? You bet. But there's some absurd nonsense, not especially funny, being taught our school kids every day, in almost every school in America. Darwin's theory of evolution. (Column continues below) "But it's science," you say. No, not really. Certainly, not...

Escondido, Calif. -- Harald Bredesen, a Lutheran minister who helped shape the ministry of evangelist Pat Robertson and spread a form of evangelical praise known as "speaking in tongues," died Friday. He was 88. Bredesen died at Palomar Hospital from complications following a fall at his home on Tuesday, said Tom Gilbreath, Bredesen's longtime assistant. Bredesen befriended evangelist Pat Robertson while they both lived in New York in the late 1950s. Robertson credits Bredesen with leading him into a charismatic Christian experience known as "Baptism in the Holy Spirit," after which Robertson began to speak in the exuberant prayer language...

I loved my friend, Sam Walton. I still do. I first met him when he was just getting started. At that time, he operated a scant 4,000 stores or so – still just a homespun, hometown storekeeper who had turned a little five and dime store into a giant national retailer. A perpetual twinkle in his eyes, he exuded the enthusiasm of a much younger man who was seeing his impossible dream materialize, his vision of making excellent products available to millions of folks just like him, at prices lower than any other retailers thought possible. His vigor, his energy,...

I played tennis with Sam Walton Yes, the man who conceived, founded and built the mighty Wal-Mart. What a man he was! Everything he did, he gave his all to. That, I found out, included tennis. I'm remembering a match on his home court in Bentonville, Ark., when my pro partner, John Newcomb, and I faced Mr. Sam and his partner, Rod Laver. Mr. Sam had to be in his late 60s by then, but he ran for everything, and if he got his racket on the ball, he was likely to put it away. The other three of us...

Think about it a minute. Compare the concept of democracy – where individuals may speak and act and express their faith according to their own understandings – with theocracy, where an elite few dictate what all individuals can and cannot say, do or express concerning their beliefs. Think Iran. Think Ahmadinejad and his coterie of Islamist extremists, exercising total control over the oil giant nation, funding and arming Hezbollah, orchestrating much of the inhuman violence in Iraq, promoting and supporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and terrorist murder around the world, actively and defiantly preparing nuclear capability while at the...

"Sit down, Mr. Citizen. I hate to tell you this, but I guess the best thing is just to spit it out. You've got cancer. "And not just a localized cancer, but a malignant, fast-spreading strain of cancer. It's already attacked all your vital organs and is infiltrating through your circulatory system to even your outer extremities. Unless we take every action available to us and attack this disease on all fronts with the strongest possible treatments, you will surely die a painful, lingering, wasting death. And, I am bound to tell you this: It may already be too...

I'm not being sacrilegious; I mean this admonition literally and reverentially. I know both individuals personally, Mel and Christ – and my friend Mel is no anti-Semite. He worships and magnifies the most famous Jew who ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth, whom millions and millions call ''Christ,'' or Messiah. So do I. We've both committed our lives and eternal destiny to this rebbe (rabbi), this central figure of human history, the One from whose earthly life our calendar has been constructed. This year is 2006, A.D. – anno domini, ''the Year of Our Lord.'' The Year of the Jew who...

A couple of months ago, I was in downtown Los Angeles, at the courthouse, doing my jury duty for several days. There are always breaks and lulls, during which time hundreds of participants can and do talk and get to know each other. I actually enjoyed it. During one of those breaks, I was electrified by a conversation with an L.A. scientist/engineer/businessman named John Wong. Somehow the subject of embryonic stem-cell research came up, and I expressed my deep concerns about the eventual creation of nascent embryos and then the use of them in laboratory experiments. The state of California...

Some thoughts as we approach Independence Day. You do remember, don't you, that's why we declare July 4 a holiday and take the day off? To celebrate, and to thank God for, our precious independence – our liberty? Oh, most of us do a lot of fun things like backyard barbecues, races and games and parties and family get-togethers. Others just ''kick back,'' rest, putter around in the yard or garage or patio, watch sports or something on TV. You know, just relax. And that's fine. That's what liberty provides. In some ways, that's the very definition of liberty. The...

Are we going nuts? Is the whole nation suffering from mad cow disease or becoming senile at the ripe young age of 230? Was Chicken Little right? Is the sky falling? Were Copernicus and all former mathematicians wrong? Is 2 and 2 actually relative, anything we want it to be? Have we arrived at some stage in our "evolution" that empowers us to change the very DNA of society, of culture, the structural makeup of the human race? Or are we just too numb – or dumb – to protest the incessant, dogged determination of some lobbying groups to...

When I was just a kid growing up outside Nashville, we had chickens. Quite a lot of chickens, most of the time. We kids only partly understood why Mama and Daddy wanted all those chickens, usually in coops and behind fencing, but occasionally finding ways to wiggle out into the yard and driveway and in general make messes and hassles. As each of us got a little older, we understood that Daddy's income as a building contractor whose business was in a growth mode (like our chickens) wasn't quite sufficient to feed all six of us, so we had chickens...

Well, it's here. Right in the middle of us, and spreading. It's a fowl contagion and can be very dangerous. It's hard to prevent and even harder to cure. It's no respecter of persons; it can affect people of any age, economic background or culture. There's no vaccine, though there is something you can take to combat it – but I'll come to that later. I'm not referring to the dreaded avian flu, the one we've been reading about that's transmitted from bird to bird, and possibly to some humans or other creatures. No, I'm talking about another affliction....

Time magazine? The cover? Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke? A girls group that, yes, was very big a couple of years ago, but who self-destructed faster than a "Mission Impossible" tape recorder with one inexcusable utterance? A trio of talented girls who have been extremely fortunate, incredibly blessed, but who kissed off the great majority of their fans in an audacious display of hubris, poor taste and grievously un-American disdain for the twice-elected leader of the free world? Yep, there they are – with clothes on this time – unlike the infamous magazine cover they...

Music legend Pat Boone is ripping into the Dixie Chicks for withdrawing their apology for a previous attack on President Bush. "I have four daughters, and I taught them to respect their elders, even if they weren't president of the United States," Boone told Fox News host Neil Cavuto today. "I think it's outrageous for any of these performers to be bashing our president the way they are." At a London concert in 2003, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines sparked controversy by stating, "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas."...

I'm a singer. I hope you've noticed. For 50 years now, I've made a nice living and enjoyed a wondrous life, singing. Making music. When I got my first break, made my first record, there was something new happening in music – they were calling it "rock and roll." Actually, it was mostly rhythm and blues, or as many called it then, "race music." The fans of pop music, who made up the huge majority of listeners and buyers, liked well-crafted, melodic, catchy and memorable songs. A little section of New York City, called "Tin Pan Alley," housed hundreds...

I don't know if I have any readers devoted enough to remember what I wrote in my column here on Jan. 7, so I'm not above telling you myself: I predicted we'd be learning that Saddam Hussein's WMDs were "slipped across the border into Syria." Now, it's just a few weeks later, and we have in fact learned that was the case. I'm neither prophet nor genius on this stuff, and if I was catching on long before the first days of January, so were other people. Now we have enough increased evidence and detail to declare mystery solved....

Editor's Note: What's it like to raise a family in Hollywood? To be a Christian in Hollywood? Wes Vernon put those questions to longtime pop recording and box office star Pat Boone. In the interview that follows, we learn that yes, there is a Hollywood blacklist, but not the one of Hollywood demonology--as well as the reasons Hollywood is so fanatically leftist; the movie roles Pat Boone did not get and why; the roles he turned down and why; thoughts on why Hollywood propaganda should be counted as an in-kind campaign contribution to the Democratic Party; Boone's review of the...

I love Dave Letterman. He's my idea of the funniest man in America. I appreciate his intellect, his quirky, irritated ideas about what's funny, and certainly respect his right to whatever opinions he has about anything. I confess he irks me with his nightly ridicule and denigration of our president. He's really got it in for George Bush, and he and the staff select little snippets of speeches, or a stumble, or a door that doesn't open, or even just a little aside and shoulder-shaking chuckle – anything that makes the president appear foolish – and revel in derisive laughter....

"Well, coach, the big day is almost here; you and your team are in the Super Bowl a week from now, and your opponent is mighty rugged. In fact, most experts and the odds-makers are making them the favorite, figuring you got here on a series of flukes and last-second miracles. They say you really shouldn't be in the Big Game at all. "What is your response and how in the world do you plan to win this one?" "Son, I know a lot of folks think we don't have a chance, but I have a strategy. I think we...

Can you believe it? The big day is upon us, the day we look forward to all year long, that special time that sparks joyful anticipation in the eyes and minds and hearts of little kids everywhere, that calls families together and loved ones in from far and near to love and laugh and give and receive. And of course all to commemorate and celebrate the birth of … well, you know. In the stores, shops and malls there are happy displays of – well, ribbons and balls and lots of colors and shapes, all signifying … uh, a special...

Ever have your credit card denied? A check bounce? A computer tell you your credit is no good? Ever find a lot of charges on your card or phone charges on your bill you don't recognize? I have, and I'll bet you have, too. Twice I've been separated from my billfold, along with every card, my driver's license, even my Social Security card, everything that can identify me – except my face and my white buck shoes – and it's a terrible sinking feeling. Remember the Bob Dole commercial in which the elderly lady behind the cash register is demanding...

Thanksgiving reflections about blessings the Almighty has bestowed on us sometimes awaken our pity for those who seem to have been cursed more than blessed in the year gone by. If we avoided direct hurt from tsunami or hurricane this year, we must already feel lucky compared to vast numbers of people still needing re-supply of brotherly love in strong doses. If we delighted in the survival or rehabilitation of a loved one – as the good Lord allowed in the case of my grandson Ryan, who'd once been deemed likely to remain "a vegetable" after suffering brain injury in...

In the publicity build-up to Arianna Huffington's launch of her ambitious new Huffingtonpost celebrity bloggers website, I thought it revealing to see that the default assumption in the mainstream reporting on it was that Hollywood bloggers would be liberals. The New York Times report said, "The site is likely to start as a watering hole for liberals." Variety reported, "Huffington is wisely confining her site mostly to politics. It's safer, after all, for liberals to bash the government than Hollywood." It has become just a given. People speak of our town as being exclusively populated by liberals. It isn't (and...

Senate Judiciary Committee Meeting, July 1809 Considering the nomination of former President Thomas Jefferson to the Supreme Court: Chairman: We're honored to have you to appear before us, Mr. Jeff … I mean, Mr. President. We thank you again for your outstanding service to our country, especially as president of the United States for the last eight years. We particularly honor you for originating the phrase "wall of separation between Church and State." We on this committee are concerned about giving any place to public displays of religiosity. Jefferson: Thank you, gentlemen. Yes, I did coin the phrase you mention...

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - What do Pat Boone and Bono have in common? It turns out they are both fans of the Rev. Billy Graham. They are joined by such acts as Michael McDonald, LeAnn Rimes, Marty Stuart, DC Talk and others on "Thank You Billy Graham," a track organized by Boone that celebrates the evangelist's 87th birthday. Net proceeds from the song and video, out November 7, benefit Mercy Corps and Samaritan's Purse for Hurricane Katrina and Global Poverty Relief. The song, written by Boone, David Pack and Billy Dean, appears on Boone's new album, "Glory Train," which was...

The two monster hurricanes smacking our shores recently should reminds us that, sooner or later, conflicts or disasters make survival too much the issue for certain pointy-headed philosophical debates to matter, and we simply need disciplined leaders of grace and grit. So we'd best be preserving the Boy Scouts. Why trouble ourselves about the Scouts now, you ask? Because discipline, grace, grit, skills and morality are the special stuff of the training ground that is Scouting. And this hallowed institution is currently suffering ungodly persecution from an organization that professes to "protect civil liberties." I was a Boy Scout. Even...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAMPED OUT IN CRAWFORD Pat Boone shreds Cindy 'peaceniks' Music legend says U.S. 'sitting duck' for next 9-11 with message of peace -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 25, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Pat Boone Music legend Pat Boone is blasting the peace message of Cindy Sheehan and other anti-war activists, claiming their rhetoric is making the U.S. more vulnerable to future terrorist attacks. "This lady and the groups that have been demonstrating in front of the president's ranch in Crawford and following him around are the very same people that were the dropout, turn-on, anti-war peace activists back...

The original American Idol, Pat Boone, is celebrating his 50th year with a career few singers come close to, I am shocked and astounded to learn Pat Boone is absent from his rightful place in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. How couId this terrible oversight have occurred? No one alive today is more deserving of this honor than Pat Boone.

At this writing, the mainstream media have mentioned little of Senator Dick Durbin's rant about treatment of Taliban detainees at the Gitmo detention center at Guantanimo Bay, Cuba. An easy prediction: The mainstream media will cave. If you have only begun hearing about it, get ready to get mo' of Gitmo. Right now it's all over talk radio and the blogosphere – the charge that Senator Durbin lied and harmed our cause against Islamicist terrorism by saying our treatment of Taliban-affiliated Gitmo detainees was like treatment by "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime – Pol Pot or...

Recently, entertainer Pat Boone wrote NewsMax editor Christopher Ruddy a letter regarding his feelings on Abu Ghraib and Iraq, the contents of which are published here with permission: Mr. Christopher Ruddy Editor, NewsMax Dear Chris, Hasn't anybody got the guts to accuse the worst perpetrator in this whole Abu Ghraib prison debacle - CBS and 60 Minutes II? What do you call it when, in time of war, someone takes military intelligence and turns it over to the enemy, who in turn uses it to kill Americans? Isn't that the definition of treason? Did Benedict Arnold do worse? Did Julias...

WHO: Legendary entertainer, Pat Boone WHAT: Pat Boone is featured performer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial event, "The Memorial Day Observance at The Wall" Boone will sing a medley from his hit CD, "American Glory," including the chart topping "Under God." WHEN: MONDAY., MAY 30, 12:30PM. WHERE: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Wash., DC. OTHER: Top administration and veterans group officials are expected. Entertainment legend, honored humanitarian, multi-faceted entrepreneur, Israeli's Ambassador for Tourism, and perennially youthful PAT BOONE is celebrating his 50th anniversary in show business. Boone's first hit, "Two Hearts, Two Kisses," a cover of an R&B song by The Charms,...