Free Republic

The financial newsletter writer Jude Wanniski apparently believes that he has mystical powers. In a recent article on Supply Side Investor ("Defending Abraham Lincoln,’ June 25 he criticized my book, The Real Lincoln, while admitting that "I figured I did not need to read the DiLorenzo book." At least he’s more intellectually honest than some of my other critics. His weird article was a response to an article on LewRockwell.com by Clyde Wilson ("DiLorenzo and His Critics"), who addressed the anti-intellectual penchant of some of my critics to argue that all historical understanding is settled, at least when it comes...

There was a time when the excitement of sailing into Alexandria began 30 miles out to sea, when sailors first glimpsed the burning lamps of the Pharos — the three-tiered lighthouse clad in white limestone, soaring as high as the Statue of Liberty and regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world. In Roman times, it was as dominant a landmark as the Eiffel Tower in fin-de-siècle Paris; souvenir glass vials engraved with its likeness have been found as far away as Afghanistan. Alexandria’s Eastern Harbour was then the Mediterranean’s busiest: a continuous wall of columns lined the...

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Workmen breaking ground for a new town hall stumbled across what are believed to be the 800-year-old remains of a medieval Lusignan palace in Cyprus whose exact whereabouts were a mystery for centuries. The discovery, in the heart of the capital Nicosia, is a boon for archaeologists who enjoy a rich amount of literature from the checkered history of medieval Cyprus, but very little in the way of tangible evidence on the ground. The Lusignans were a French noble family which ruled Cyprus from 1192 to 1489. They built three palaces in Nicosia. Only small parts of...

IT'S NOT TO LATE TO RSVP.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is making headlines again. Ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional is but one example of a larger problem--and a pattern of well-documented judicial inanity from that court. Here's an article from our March 25, 2002 issue that examines some other outrageous decisions as well as the causes of judicial activism in the 9th Circuit. Rulings From the Rogue CourtPosted March 4, 2002By Hans S. NicholsLaurence Tribe may be the most liberal lawyer in America. Yet, at a Senate committee hearing in December, he warned of the "international embarrassment" that could befall the country...

A team of physicists in Australia have successfully teleported a laser beam of light from one spot to another in a split second, it emerged today. The physicists, from the Australian National University, said they had managed to disembody a laser beam in one location and rebuild it in a different spot about one metre away in the blink of an eye. Project leader Dr Ping Koy Lam said there was a close resemblance between what his team had achieved and the movement of people in the science fiction series Star Trek, but the reality of beaming human beings between...

Ben Shapiro June 27, 2002 Bush's peace plan: three years later JUNE 2005, JERUSALEM -- I'm writing to you from Jerusalem, where I recently interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Effie Eitam. Eitam entered the Israeli government as minister-without-portfolio in the government of Ariel Sharon in 2002 and as a member of the National Religious Party. After the Palestinian intifada intensified during the fall of 2002, Sharon called new elections. Likud won a plurality and formed a coalition with the other right-wing parties in Knesset. Sharon made Eitam minister of defense. In the winter of 2003, the largest terrorist attack in Israeli...

<p>Three people were injured Wednesday afternoon when a man ignited an M-80 in the back yard of a home in Wright City, authorities said.</p> <p>Wright City Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said that at about 2 p.m. the man lit a M-80 and attempted to throw it.</p>

There are, the historian Paul Johnson says in his new potted biography, more books about Napoleon than about any other historical figure with the exception of Jesus Christ. Every generation has sought to reinterpret his astonishing career for its own purposes, and the public appetite for reading about him shows no signs of falling off. On the contrary, Napoleonic Web sites now abound, offering souvenirs and walking tours -- of Waterloo and St. Helena -- as well as guides to further reading, research and collectibles. His memory remains fresh on the ground, too, and not only in France. A parish...

PARIS (AP) — A U.S. Air Force A10 on a training mission crashed Thursday in a forest in eastern France. Regional officials said there were two dead, but U.S. Air Force officials said there was only one person on board and had no information on casualties. The plane, a single-seat anti-tank ``Warthog,'' crashed just before 3 p.m. in a forest near the towns of Domptail and Saint-Pierremont, said Staff Sgt. Cindy York, a spokeswoman for the Air Force public affairs office in Spangdahlem, Germany. ``It carried one person on board,'' said an Air Force statement. ``The condition of the pilot...

Dear liberty activist, A wayward federal appeals court ruled today that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in unconstitutional. For decades, federal judges have warped, shredded and outright ignored the Constitution of the United States. Liberty Caucus member Roscoe Bartlett put it well: "Today's decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is a ludicrous and factually inaccurate misinterpretation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Every one of our founders is turning over in their grave." We can correct this horrific court decision. On June 12, 2002, Congressman Ron Paul introduced The First Amendment Restoration Act...

With little fanfare, a Senate committee is swiftly moving ahead on a bill that would bring back the treaty that won't die - the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, an agreement signed in 1997 by Vice President Al Gore that would require hugely expensive reductions in greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), the stuff we exhale, the stuff that makes plants grow. Gore signed the treaty over the opposition of 95 senators, who warned unanimously five months earlier that they would not sign any agreement that excluded developing nations and that would cause "serious harm" to the economy. Kyoto did...

I would much prefer to do today’s show without any reference at all to the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday.  That decision involves religion.  In fact, that decision is seen by many (if not most) Americans as an attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. I’ve been doing this talk radio stuff for one-third of a century.  During that time I have learned one thing for an absolute certainty:  Most Americans are psychologically and emotionally incapable of engaging in conversations about religion in a logical, calm and open matter.  In fact … let me expand...

(CNSNews.com) - A public school in Byron, Calif. is being sued after forcing Christian students to pretend they were Muslims for three weeks. As part of an Islam simulation" project, students prayed in the name of Allah, chose a Muslim name, and played a "jihad" dice game, according to the group that filed the lawsuit. The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center is representing parents and children in the lawsuit against the Byron Unified School District. "What's at issue is the true meaning of the Establishment Clause," said Richard Thompson, the law center's chief counsel. While it's perfectly legal for...

Aukai Collins was into jihad before it was cool. He left San Diego in 1993 and traveled to Pakistan to join the mujahedin, trained while in Kashmir, then headed to the Khalid Bin Whalid training camp in Afghanistan (in the same area the United States attacked in August of 1998). He fought Russians in Chechnya and Serbs in Kosovo, worked for the FBI and CIA, and almost got to meet Osama bin Laden. But unlike John Walker Lindh or Jose Padilla, Collins got out of the holy war business, and just in time. Collins's odyssey is recorded in his memoir...

Bob Chase, the President of the National Education Association (NEA), was just on Fox remarking on today's US Supreme Court decision that tax-paid vouchers to send kids to private schools are constitutional. Want a chill? Watch the rebroadcast of this interview. Then get a copy of the 1954 movie, "1984," and watch Edmond O'Brien's performance as Winston Smith toward the end of the movie, where he -- brainwashed, utterly broken, and robot-like -- breaks into tears over his love of Big Brother. Mr. Chase just did a scary such recreation. He looked drugged and broken and gave a long monologue...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court today struck down limits on what some judicial candidates may tell voters, a landmark free speech ruling that could heat up court campaigns around the country.</p> <p>Nearly 40 states elect some judges, and also restrict what they say or do while campaigning to promote an image of fairness and independence for courts.</p>

Gays Still Threatened in Catholic Church Despite Victory at Bishops Conference MUBARAK DAHIR In mid-June, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops convened in Dallas under a cloud of suspicion, hostility, anger and, for some, remorse. The tension was, of course, about how the bishops could and should address the recent child sex abuse scandals. In the past few months, the Catholic church has been rocked to its core by revelation after revelation that priests were having unscrupulous sexual encounters with minors. While this fact was itself disturbing to Catholics, what was most upsetting to the public, Catholics and non-Catholics...

A few kind readers sent notes to me about their experiences in teaching high school and college courses in US Government; and it may be useful to offer the following collective response. I was not suggesting that my students could not recognize "American democracy" in the way their textbooks depicted it. To whatever extent they do think about political structures, they believe that what the textbooks describe epitomizes constitutional self-government. What the framers put into the Constitution seems to them purely antiquarian. Indeed they resent any attempt to have them read the original articles of that document or the subsequently...

Green Gray By George Neumayr Gray Davis entered office as a loud environmentalist, promising a green agenda for the Golden State. But has he fulfilled this promise? Not according to many California environmentalists. The Sierra Club -- disappointed in his record after endorsing him in 1998 -- still hasn't decided whether or not to endorse his re-election. Environmentalist Cynthia Elkins of the Environmental Protection Information Center told the Los Angeles Times that Davis's pursuit of contributions from companies like Pacific Lumber Co. has stunted his environmentalism. "Because these industries have contributed so heavily to his war chest, he feels indebted...