Free Republic

William F. Buckley, Jr. Born November 24, 1925 Tribute To William F. Buckley With Rich Lowry, Richard Brookhiser, Jeff Greenfield, Garry Wills and Mona Charen

ARLINGTON, Nov. 18, 2009 – Character was the focus as Scouting saluted the military yesterday. U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri told about 500 people from Boy Scouts’ National Capital Area Council that the values of Boy Scouts and the military are constant and that both organizations seek to serve something greater than themselves. This was the first Scout dinner saluting the military. Retired Navy Capt. Scott Gray, who now works with event sponsor General Dynamics, said he hopes to make the event an annual affair. The Crystal Gateway Marriott – a stone’s throw from the Pentagon – hosted the...

I posted this yesterday, but I wanted to post it again on Veteran's Day. I just had to share this tribute to our Veteran's. This video is an encouragement for citizens to stand for freedom and to stand for those who stood for us throughout history- those who paved the way for freedom, and those who continue to give their lives to serve our Country. God Bless You. And please post your tributes and memorials to honor our Veteran's and all who are serving in our military. Click here to watch Cry Freedom: A Veteran Tribute

<p>The Sarasota National Cemetery honored Air Force and Korean War Veteran, Lieutenant Van Eitel, with a full casson military burial.</p>

FORT WORTH, Texas — Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves to talk about his sponsorship ties to the military. He had a hard time finding the words Friday to discuss the massacre that left 13 people dead at Fort Hood. Texas Motor Speedway is just 170 miles north of the site of a shooting spree that also injured 30, including the suspected gunman. A U.S. Army logo with the message "God Bless Our Fort Hood Troops" was painted on the infield grass Friday. Moments of silence were planned before each event, including Sunday's Sprint Cup race. The first question of Ryan Newman's...

WASHINGTON -- White House press secretaries often have a higher public profile than the president himself. They take the blows often meant for the president but they rarely get the bows. The passing of Jody Powell of a heart attack at the age of 65 brought back memories of his years as press secretary to President Jimmy Carter. Powell was like a son to Carter. So it was left to Carter to go to a nursing home to inform Jody’s ailing mother that he had died Sept. 14 while gathering firewood at his Eastern Maryland home. Powell had been Carter’s...

Southfield (WWJ) -- The FBI will hold a memorial for the K-9 killed during a shootout in Dearborn and the dog's name will be added to a memorial wall. Freddy was a nearly 3-year-old Belgian Malinois who was killed Wednesday during a gun battle between agents and Luqman Ameen Abdullah, described as the radical leader of a Sunni Islam group.

A longtime champion of homeschooling rights around the globe, Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel and Director of State and International Relations Christopher J. Klicka was called home by his Lord on October 12, 2009, at age 48, following a 15-year battle with multiple sclerosis. An attorney, spokesman, lobbyist, and homeschooling husband and father, Chris is survived by his wife, Tracy, their seven children (ages 11–21), and his parents, Ardath and George Klicka. “Chris was both a people person and a goal person. He cared deeply about people, but was also driven to always do more!” says HSLDA President...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2009 – Veterans of the Korean War, both American and Korean, gathered here yesterday with current U.S. Army and South Korean leaders to pay tribute at the National Korean War Memorial. Army Gen. Walter L. Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, left, and Jung-ki "Rocky" Park, Korean Corporate Members of the Association of the United States Army, render honors during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Oct. 5, 2009. DoD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Members of the Korean War Veterans...

William Safire, who died today, was a breakthrough figure—the first professional Republican ideologue of his time to become a mainstream fixture in journalism. Indeed, when he was hired by the New York Times to write a column after his tenure as a speechwriter and intimate of the president in the Nixon White House, the shock and horror with which his new position was viewed in the Times newsroom and in the journalistic corridors of Washington were unprecedented in their ferocity. Safire himself said that people would barely look him in the eye in his place of employ for years. He...

The intellectual leader of a movement of thinkers remained humble through his many influential works, and his spirit of creative skepticism will be his legacy. After the plain pine box is lowered into the grave, the mourners are asked to come forward -- immediate family first -- and shovel dirt onto the casket. Only when it is fully covered, only when all that can be seen is dust, is the ceremony complete Such is the Jewish way of burial. Its simplicity, austerity and unsentimentality would have appealed to Irving Kristol, who was buried by friends and family Tuesday. Equally fitting...

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being one of the presenters at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, where we honored Phyllis Schlafly for her lifetime of achievement. She is the person whom even liberal academics look to when they want to explain grassroots conservatism. Phyllis was hailed—rightly so—for having stopped the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Many of the battles that are being fought out now–from the defense of marriage and the fight against abortion in healthcare to the effort to protect women from being ordered into combat—would have been lost if Phyllis had not sounded her trumpet...

According to his obituary in the NY Times, Irving Kristol once felt intimidated among NY intellectuals when he found himself seated with Mary McCarthy on one side, Hannah Arendt on the other, and Diana Trilling across from him. This standard—of intellect, to say nothing of other allures—was very much relaxed by the time he found himself placed next to me at a dinner at the Lehrman Institute in Manhattan in the mid-1980s. Determined to upset his likely expectation of me—I having hung onto a version of Trotskyism many years after he had discarded it—I inquired politely about his time in...

... "Irving Kristol was an intellectual giant who played a major role in developing the anti-communist arguments that led to the defeat of the Soviet Union," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told The Washington Times. ... ... Known as the godfather of neoconservatism, Mr. Kristol was a youthful radical who went from embracing communism in his 20s to attacking it publicly in his 30s. In subsequent years, he became an equally forceful advocate of free-market economics, including the supply-side tax cuts enacted during the Reagan administration and dismantling much of the so-called welfare state. Neoconservatism was a label originally bestowed...

There should be U.S. flags as far as the eye can see at Minnesota's Camp Ripley on Sunday. The Minnesota Patriot Guard says it's aiming for the longest known flag line in honor of military veterans during the base's open house. Flag lines are formed by people holding flags on poles a set distance apart. They are sometimes seen at soldier funerals to provide a buffer between those grieving and protesters. Patriot Guard members, many of whom ride motorcycles, are hoping for at least 2,000 participants.

State Highway 9 is a two lane strip of asphalt that cuts across the northernmost tier of counties in Iowa, from Larchwood to Lansing. If you drive its 320 miles, as I have done many times, you will not be dissuaded from the stereotype of Iowa as a flat boring expanse of cornfields. The few points of interest include Lake Okoboji and the headquarters of Winnebago in Forest City. It takes you near Mason City, the model for "River City" in Meredith Willson's The Music Man, and the site of the plane crash that claimed Buddy Holly after a February...

It never stops, does it? Last night brought the news that Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary had become, at age 72, yet another beloved entertainer gone too soon. Not a complete surprise — Travers was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 — but very sad nonetheless. Peter, Paul and Mary played a crucial role in helping the folk-music scene become a mass popular movement in the early 1960s. They couldn’t have done it without Mary Travers’ clear, expressive vocals. A gifted interpreter of others’ songs, she was the principal reason why the trio’s covers of Pete Seeger’s “If I...

Science: Norman Borlaug has died at age 95. Most will respond to the news by saying "Who?" And that's a shame. Borlaug did more for humanity than all of the government programs ever devised put together.Borlaug was known as the father of the Green Revolution, but he was no environmentalist. Unlike the greens, he was actually concerned about the condition of man. While misanthropes and neo-Malthusians were predicting mass starvation, Borlaug developed technologies that dramatically increased the yields of food crops and made them more resistant to disease. Between 1960 and 1990, the agronomist's work was responsible for more than...

I discovered a patriotic song and video on YouTube last night that just touched my heart and soul. It was called 21 GUNS (Fallen Soldier Song) by Bobby Billings. I just want to share it with everyone because it will make you realize just how much soldiers and their families sacrifice for us. Just search the title on Youtube and you will see it. Thanks.

I received a telephone call telling me a friend died of a heart attack. His name was Bob Schindler. His death certificate may say he died of cardiac arrest but those of us who knew Bob know he really died of a broken heart. I first met Bob, his wife Mary and their son Bobby in 2001 while I was in Charlotte, North Carolina to deliver the keynote address at the U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfast. Bob and MaryÂ’s daughter was Terri Schiavo. They approached me to ask for help to save Terri from being starved and...

BKOBarbara K. Olson1955 - 2001Member since 11/5/1999 Tributes                                Homepage   BCMJohn Moran1959 - 2001Member since 9/28/1998 Tributes                                Homepage  

Bob Dole, a venerable 86 years old now, was back in the Washington limelight over the weekend, appearing on ABC TV to dispense counsel on a bipartisan approach to health care, popping up in newspapers explaining how to cut a deal, even suggesting Gen. David Petraeus as a presidential possibility. But his most heartfelt weekend activity took place elsewhere, out of sight of Washington politicos and devoid of any potential for gain or notoriety. It came under a brilliant Saturday-morning sun, when the former Republican presidential candidate, now a bit more frail than most Americans recall him, stepped out of...

I would like to pay tribute to Pfc. Brian Wolverton, a 21 year old Oak Park, CA resident who was killed in action in Afgahanistan on August 20, 2009. The 2006 Oak Park High School graduate died from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit in Kumar province. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement expressing sadness over Wolverton's death. Flags were flown at half-staff in Sacremento. A funeral service will be held at Pierce Brothers in Westlake Village, CA on Sat., Aug 29th. We all owe a debt of graditude to our nation's men and women who pay the ultimate...

The Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Mass. will be converted into an educational center and museum as a tribute to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, FOX News learned Thursday. The compound is also known as the Hyannis Port Historic District, which covers six acres of waterfront property along Nantucket Sound. The property includes the homes of family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy and two of his sons, Robert and John.

"This is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, west, young, old - will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."

Here is video from 60 Minutes last night where 90 year-old Andy Rooney paid tribute to Don Hewitt, creator of 60 Minutes, and known as the "Father of Modern TV News." Hewitt died last week at age 86. . . . . (Watch Video)

Rose Friedman, who was partner and collaborator with her late husband Milton on many of his most important works of political thought and advocacy, has died of heart failure. Though her birth records in her native Russia are lost, she was believed to have been 99. The Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation has a notice of her death, which also sums up the achievements of her life: She will be remembered both as a talented economist and an influential advocate of freedom. Her economic work helped to discredit the idea of government management of the economy, rolling back policies that...

Reporter, patriot, skeptic of the powerful. One irony of Robert Novak's long and admirable career as a journalist is that he wasn't a curmudgeon, though he played one on TV. In person, he was warm, loyal to friends and especially generous to young writers, even if he was fearless and unsparing toward the public officials he devoted his life to covering—or, to put it more accurately, uncovering. Novak, who died yesterday at age 78, was among America's greatest political reporters.

Bob Novak hired me away from HUMAN EVENTS in late 2001. “Poaching,” HE Editor-in-Chief Tom Winter called it. I was not the first early-20s reporter Novak would pluck from HE’s newsroom. Nor would I be the last.

PARIS, TX -- The body of a North Texas Marine killed in Afghanistan was returned home Thursday. Thousands of people lined the streets of Paris to honor Marine Sgt. Jay Hoskins. Josh Stevenson has more. The flag-draped coffin of Marine Sgt. Jay Hoskins was met by thousands of people Thursday. Some were waiting outside the airport. Others stood and waited along the side of the road, waving American flags, wanting to pay tribute to one of their own who died fighting for their freedom. "Nobody wants to see our troops in harm’s way, but if that's where they are, then...

The combat equipment that once belonged to two fallen Iraqi Special Operations Forces Soldiers is displayed during the memorial service held in Baghdad, July 28. The fallen Soldiers were fatally wounded by an assailant when they entered a house while serving a warrant issued by the Criminal Investigative Court of Karkh. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jimmy Pan, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Arabian Peninsula. BAGHDAD — The atmosphere was somber and emotions ran high among U.S. and Iraqi Special Operations Force Soldiers as they mourned the loss of two fallen comrades during a recent memorial service...

Friends remember last survivor of the trenches, who died last month at the age of 111, in service at Wells cathedral... They said it many different ways, but the message was essentially the same. In most respects, Henry John "Harry" Patch was an ordinary man...But just about everyone who attended Patch's funeral service in the cathedral city of Wells today also seemed to agree that, somehow, he had become something quite extraordinary. It was not just that he became the last man to remember, first hand, the horrors of the first world war trenches, but also that he became both...

I flew up to Mountain Airpark, Cleveland, GA to attend a "send off party" for Bill Allison, yesterday. Bill died doing something he loved when his Cessna 182 flew into Brass Town Ball Mountain last Friday. He left Mountain Airpark for a flight over to Andrews, NC in IFR weather for a flight over to Andrews, NC. They started looking for him on Friday and found him on Sunday. He lacked only 100 feet of clearing the mountain. He had not taken his GPS with him. He was basically a friend of a friend of mine. I had met him...

Legionnaire Frank is the second Vet and dear friend of the Olney Patriots to pass away this summer. Clyde passed away in early May and now Frank. Frank passed away this past Tuesday after a blood disorder finally got the best of him. Thankfully he passed away quickly and in comfort, with his family around him. The last time Frank was out supporting the troops was June 6th, D-Day. He is shown BELOW with his sign special made for Olney. That’s Lurker Bill next to him and Glenn, our WWII Iwo Jima Marine in the back ground.. This is his...

July 14, 2009Exclusive: TelePrompter, Trusted Aide to the President, Dies in Freak Accident; Nation Mourns Pam Meister Americans are in a state of shock after the sudden death of TelePrompter, the close friend and confidante of President Barack Hussein Obama.   During a speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Building on Monday afternoon, the small glass screen came crashing down unexpectedly, shattering into tiny pieces at the president’s feet.   Keeping his usual aplomb, Obama said, “Oh, goodness. Sorry about that, guys,� and finished the speech by relying on the remaining screen and some notes...

If you want a dose of inspiration as well as confidence in America, watch this 12 minute film clip. It is moving and beautiful. It shows a 30 mile car procession from the small airport at Peachtree City, Georgia to a funeral home in McDonough, Georgia. Killed in action the week before, the body of Staff Sergeant First Class John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, on June 11, 2009. The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough, Georgia. A simple notice in local papers...

It has been one year since Tony Snow died. How I miss this man! Just wanted to put up a thread to remember a very good man who kept the press people on their toes in the White House. How I wish we could see another Tony Snow there!

The music is not mine. It came from Master and Commander soundtrack. The pics were taken from the web. First attempt at creating a slide show and posting to YouTube. Maybe I'll get better -- maybe not.

Sunday will mark one year since the death of Tony Snow from cancer. He battled the disease, which originated in his colon before spreading, for more than three years. Snow, a longtime commentator and journalist, anchored at Fox News Channel and later worked for a short time at CNN. In between his TV jobs, he served as White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush. This Sunday, TVNewser has learned, Fox News Channel will mark the anniversary of Snow's death with numerous mentions of him throughout the day, along with thoughts from Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W....

My column below memorializes some true American heroes whose funerals won’t get wall-to-wall cable coverage. But first I wanted to share an e-mail from reader Noelle, who wrote me yesterday: We spent a nailbiting Sunday wondering if one of the men killed at [Combat Outpost] Zerok in Afghanistan on July 4th was our son. God bless the Casillas and Fairbairn families in this hour of grief over futures that now will never come to pass. The privates who died were mortarmen, the guys who go outside and return fire. I’m sorry about Michael Jackson’s totally wasted life, but he’s not...

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2009 – Bright blue skies above the National Mall today belied the solemnity of the ceremony commemorating the first two American combat casualties of the Vietnam War. U.S. Army Master Sgt. Chester Ovnand and Maj. Dale Buis were the first two U.S. servicemembers killed in the Vietnam War. Their sacrifice was honored in Washington, D.C., Jyly 8, 2009, in a ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of their deaths. DoD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “On this date 50 years ago, two men lost their lives...

Editors Note - This is reposted from RangerUp (with permission) and was written by Lex McMahon, son of Ed McMahon, pictured below receiving his father's flagHow does a son say goodbye to his father? While this is a profoundly painful question to ponder, in this instance, the answer is really very simple – by honoring my father’s request to be buried and celebrated as a great Marine. To Ed’s millions of fans around the world, he was an entertainment icon who’s brilliant and colorful career spanned some 70 years and included work as a bingo caller in a traveling carnival...

So that you will know "the Rest of the Story": He wanted to be a Marine fighter pilot. The US was building up their military force, but they were not at war yet and the Navy required all its potential Navy and Marine pilots to have two years of college. So Ed started classes at Boston College. When Pearl Harbor was attacked the Army and the Navy both dropped the college requirement and Ed applied to the Marines. His primary flight training was in Dallas and then he went to Pensacola, Florida. He was carrier qualified, which means he knew...

Hi, A MUST SEE And Listen To VIDEO For This 4th of July 2009: GREAT VIDEO TO WATCH FOR THIS 4th OF July 2009 Peace! Dan Iraqs Inconvenient Truth :: Iraq War News Updates9

6/30/2009 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- A former commanding general of the Washington, D.C., National Guard who was killed June 22 in a subway accident along with his wife was remembered in a June 29 ceremony celebrating his life and accomplishments. Retired Maj. Gen. David Wherley and his wife, Ann, a mortgage banker, both 62, were returning from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where they were learning how to counsel servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their Metro train car collided with another train, killing nine people. It was a sudden event that shocked Guard members and civilians alike, and drawing...

(NEW YORK - June 30, 2009) - This week's July 6, 2009, issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, on newsstands tomorrow, features Ed Thomas, head football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg (Iowa) High School, with the billing A GOOD MAN DOWN - TRAGEDY IN THE HEARTLAND: THE MURDER OF A BELOVED HIGH SCHOOL COACH. It was Thomas who had led the townspeople of Parkersburg out of the rubble of a tornado last year, showed them how to live a Christian life and brought honor to a football field he mowed himself. What they can't understand is why Thomas was gunned down by a former...

Mary Lou Forbes was a traditional Virginia gentlewoman. Her hint of a Southern accent and her friendly, hospitable and gracious manner were suggestive of the Northern Virginia in which she was born and came of age. That was a smaller, less bustling, but more neighborly place than the sprawling suburbia of today.

BET Awards to highlight Jackson's legacyBy Sandy Cohen ASSOCIATED PRESS updated 12:33 p.m., June 28, 2009 LOS ANGELES -- After three days to process the shock and grief, attendees at the BET Awards -- a show thrown into "total overhaul" by the death of Michael Jackson -- were preparing for what was sure to be a spectacular celebration of the "King of Pop," put on by an dazzling collection of the artists he influenced most. Already an affair of major star wattage, Sunday night's show was thrown under a white-hot spotlight in the wake of Mr. Jackson's death, adding attendees...

VIDEO: Iran Protest Tribute (Michael Jackson)"They don't really care about us"