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Tired of the Bragging, Some Try Reality Holiday Letters; 'I Probably Over-Disclosed' Here's a risk you take when you send out your annual family holiday letter: Recipients might gather in small groups to read it aloud and laugh at you. That's what happens in a neighborhood in Hillsborough, N.J. Each December, a family that used to live there sends back its annual update, all about the husband's amazing career, the kids' achievements, the wife's terrific life. "The basic theme is 'we're so wonderful,"' says Lou Vaccaro, who in recent years has brought his wife to a neighbor's house for a...

Out with Homeland Security for 2004, in with Social Security, declared the liberal and silly Washington Post on the front page of its Style section on New Year's day. That kind of elitist foolishness — the ennui the chattering class holds for the War on Terror and the cat-and-mouse games that never seem to produce Osama Bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, or terrorists on Air France flights — is exactly what typifies the Democratic Presidential field. Enough diddling around in Tikriti spider holes, they complain. Eighty-seven billion dollars for what, they ask? Bush is embarrassing Americans abroad with all...

Two years ago, in The Telegraph, I suggested that the massed ranks of naysayers predicting doom and gloom for America should make a New Year's resolution to stop doubting George W Bush's resolution. Alas, they failed to heed me, and as a result the traditional New Year predictions column is a mite trickier than it used to be. Never mind events that have not yet occurred: we now live in a world where there is no agreement on events that have already happened.For example, last year I thought the Americans won an amazing military victory in Iraq; the European media,...

Iraq: What's in store for 2004? Posted: January 3, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Iraq will likely be a central theme in the 2004 election, especially now that the economy has fallen off the radar screen in the campaign headquarters of most of the presidential hopefuls. Iraq presents real problems, and they are not going away. How the problems are confronted will be the subject of endless political chatter for the next several months. The options are limited: Bring the troops home (Howard Dean's solution). Turn the mess over to the U.N. (preferred by the other Democratic candidates). Help Iraq build...

January 2, 2004 -- WELCOME to 2004, the year before. It is the year before the year in which Democrats probably will have one of their agonizing reappraisals. And it is the year before the year in which Republicans, having come to terms with the fact that the welfare state is here to stay, will prove that they are, or are not, serious about governing it. When you turned the page on the calendar Wednesday night, the first page of 2004 should have had printed - in large letters, in red ink - this insomnia-producing warning: "DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY AND...

What a year 2004 turned out be, eh? Let's look back at the highlights together. January: Iran's government repeats its refusal to accept any earthquake aid from Israel. The U.N. General Assembly promptly censures Israel for putting Iran in such a difficult position. Howard Dean's activists issue a statement about mad cow disease, insisting that what the media call "mad" is simply a righteous indignation over four years of George W. Bush's misrule. February: Saddam Hussein is put on trial by a jury of his peers — namely, 12 of his former body doubles. A mistrial is declared and a...

Happy New Year's Eve to all at Free Republic!!! Make your predictions for 2004. Good Luck!!!

Entering 2004, it appears that America is poised to have a defining election that will create a permanent Republican majority. Democrats appear likely to nominate Howard Dean, rather than someone like Dick Gephardt or Joe Lieberman or Wesley Clark who could present a stronger challenge to President Bush in the general election. In doing so, Democrats are also setting the direction that they want their party to follow -- the extreme left. Dean has stated again and again that his first objective is to take over the Democratic Party and return it to its roots. In doing so, he will...

<p>As we look back on the year 2003 in America, it is clear that many things remained the same. Broadway fell back on revivals, "Gypsy," "Wonderful Town," etc. (again) and Hollywood on blood and guts "Master and Commander," "Cold Mountain," etc. (again). The same names, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, etc. were on the fiction bestseller lists.</p>

<p>Washington -- The Democrats' straightforward attack on Republicans as more conservative than compassionate suddenly got a lot more complicated.</p> <p>Developments on a range of complex policy matters -- from Medicare to marriage -- have confused rather than clarified distinctions between the two parties, and by most accounts made the Democrats' uphill fight to unseat President Bush and reclaim a majority in Congress an even steeper challenge.</p>