Free Republic

I was confronted by three strands of cultural connective tissue this week which portend the death of artistic expression. No, it has nothing to do with the First Amendment or government suppression. It has everything to do with the tearing down of greatness and the worship of mediocrity by the dominant cultural elite. First, Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Second, the Zurich Opera's production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal. And third, that gaping hole in the ground where New York's World Trade Center once stood

DETROIT (AP) – Federal authorities arrested four businessmen who allegedly arranged to illegally buy hundreds of handguns, machine guns, air-to-air missiles and aviation radar equipment for export to Indonesia. "We consider this to be a serious and grave threat to our national security," U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy III of Detroit said Tuesday in announcing the arrests. All four men were charged with conspiring to violate the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Court papers did not indicate reasons for the purchase or what the men intended to...