Free Republic

A recent post noted that the top-rated television programs in 1965 included “The Beverly Hillbillies” at No. 2. Since I am likely the only one among your readers who remembers viewing the first episode of that series when it was telecast one evening in September 1962, I would like to say a few things about its virtues. The intellectuals hated “The Beverly Hillbillies.” They hated it for the same reasons ordinary Americans loved it: It offered thirty minutes of simple, clean comedy, crisp writing, and characters who were decent, honest, happy, and had plenty of moral fiber. The critics just...

THE Woolwich jihadist, Michael Adebolajo, 28, became a serious Muslim when he was 15 years old, reports The Daily Mail. He is the son of Nigerian immigrants and, for thirteen years, he evinced all the makings of a future jihadist, reportedly alarming his family and friends. He became a self-appointed soldier for Islam and finally took his beliefs to their logical climax when he killed the British soldier Lee Rigby yesterday.Such an act could have been prevented. But brilliant surveillance work that can distinguish the bad Muslims from the good Muslims will never work. All Muslims support jihadists in the sense...

Before us lies eternity: our souls are love, and a continual farewell. — “Ephemera,” W.B. Yeats LAWRENCE AUSTER, traditionalist writer and culture critic, was buried by friends and family on Tuesday, April 2 in Pennsylvania. His body was carried at 11:30 a.m. into the vestibule of the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Mount Airy in a simple oak coffin made by Trappist monks in Iowa, a fitting enclosure for a man who lived as austerely as a monk, without many of the basics of modern life, such as cell phone, car or cable television. The church was just two miles...

The American Traditionalist Society MANY readers of this site have described their sense of isolation in a society that seems bereft of wisdom, decency and common sense. Whether it be a college student disgusted by her courses, a young man looking for a wife, a new mother who wants to remain home, a white man whose career has been derailed by affirmative action, an elderly bachelor in a once-thriving community now brutalized by black crime and vandalism, or a Marine in the feminized military, these readers share the feeling that they do not belong. They reject the lunacy and decadence...

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE! it didn’t used to be so—I mean sure, as a child I loved to sing about the great, big turkey down on Grandpa’s farm, but mostly it was just a blip on the radar screen between Happy Halloween and Merry Christmas. Growing up we’d make the trek to Grandma and Grandpa’s in Cache Valley, which felt like an eternal pilgrimage. . . . [snip] [T]here was a magnificent feast to behold! Homemade rolls and pies covered every surface, the finest china and polished silver graced white lace tablecloths, and the breezeway pantry was filled with chocolate...

HERE is an editorial by the mendacious, corrupt, child-hating New York Times on the affirmation this week by the Boy Scouts of America of its longstanding policy of excluding homosexuals as pack leaders or scouts. The headline is “The Boy Scouts 19th Century Decision,” as if the nineteenth century is somehow by definition detestable. (This implies that much of what we do is execrable. Do you own property? Do you read newspapers? Repent, those are nineteenth century things to do.) Here it is, with comments inserted: It is impossible to square the Boy Scouts of America’s values of openness, strong...

ALAN writes: "On a recent Sunday afternoon, I had the most incredible experience: I sat in a roomful of 50 men and women who had lunch, talked, reminisced, and enjoyed themselves for four hours. The incredible part was that they did all that without cell phones, without liquor, without vulgar language, without loud “music,” without blaring TV screens, and without wrecking the place. All of them are white. All of them are decent and disciplined. They are, therefore, atypical 21st-century Americans. They grew up in the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. They are Old School. They are not “cool” or trendy;...

TH: Good evening, and welcome to The Thinking Housewife. My guest tonight is the eminently fictitious Ellie Forthnaught, founder and sole proprietor of an interesting new venture in education, the New Wave Academy for Women. Welcome, Mrs. Forthnaught. Mrs. F: Thank you. Thrilled to be here. TH: Mrs. Forthnaught, – may we call you Ellie? Mrs. F: No, no. Please call me Andy. That’s what all my friends call me. TH: Fine then, Andy. Tell us about this idea of yours. I understand you intend to revolutionize women’s higher education in America. Mrs. F: Oh well, I’m no revolutionary really,...

JANET BAIRD writes: President Obama and the Department of Health and Inhuman Services, as you know, recently decreed that free sterilizations be available to all college-age women under Obamacare. But the truth is even more sinister. Note the wording of the HHS regulation. As reported at CNS news, ‘[a]ll Food and Drug Administration [(FDA)] approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity,’ as prescribed by a provider,” said the HHS description of the regulation. [emphasis added] This clause caught my eye, “for all women with reproductive capacity.” Have you thought about the...

JOE AMES is an alumnus of the Pennsylvania State University. He served as editor of The Lionhearted: Penn State’s Only Independent Newspaper from 1991 – 1993. The paper gained national attention when two female undergraduate students, both journalism majors and members of the student club “Womyn’s Concerns,” stole and burned thousands of Lionhearted newspapers on the lawn of its advisor’s State College law office, to the applause of Penn State faculty and administrators. Mr. Ames offers his view here of the recent scandal. “WE are Penn State.” Even those with superficial exposure to Penn State are familiar with its famous,...

I saw the grisly footage of Qaddafi’s murder on television. I had first to turn off the sound. Then, ashamed, I turned off the television. I have nothing more to say than that I am appalled that my country had anything to do with this grotesque caricature of justice. Actually, to call it a grotesque caricature of justice is to trivialize it. I have no words for it. I’m not naive and I realize that the U.S. has taken part in assassinations, killings, etc., but there is something about this that simply takes my breath away. I want nothing to...

I like Sarah Palin. There is something refreshingly genuine and un-smarmy about her. But, after watching Oprah’s interview this afternoon with the former candidate, I have not altered my fundamental opposition as a future president. I oppose her possible candidacy for two reasons. One, she is not smart and steely enough. Two, she is a feminist. Granted, she is not an extreme feminist and she differs with the mainstream movement in her opposition to abortion. But Palin wholeheartedly embraces feminist egalitarianism and the radical transformation of society that it entails. Palin made a number of interesting revelations in this interview....