Free Republic

"You walk into this room at your own risk because it leads to the future. Not a future that will be, but one that might be. This is not a new world, it is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted a ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advances, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super-states that preceded it, it has one...

"Braveheart or Weakheart?" David C. Stolinsky, M.D. Monday, Jan. 13, 2003 In the climactic scene of the film "Braveheart," Scottish leader William Wallace as played by Mel Gibson is being tortured to death by the English. The executioner asks if he has any last words, hoping he will beg for mercy and acknowledge the English king. Instead, with his last breath Wallace shouts "Freedom!" The film won awards. But it is easy to cheer for a hero from a faraway place and a long-ago time. In cheering for him, we need not form any personal connection to his heroism. We...