Free Republic

In the 2011 film Moneyball, Brad Pitt portrays Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, who listens as his scouts enthusiastically praise an up-and-coming baseball player. Beane, unimpressed, asks a simple question. “If he’s a good hitter, why doesn’t he hit good?” This question should be asked about America’s elite universities, particularly in light of the ongoing Cornell Seven controversy. If these institutions are, as some describe them, bastions of rape culture, misogyny, and the institutional protection of sexual predators, why do so many young women desperately want to attend them? And why are their parents willing to spend or borrow...

In 1914, Europe stumbled into a war no one wanted and few understood;a war that destroyed empires and redefined civilization.Today, Washington risks repeating that mistake, this time with nuclear weapons on the table. Through arrogance, ignorance, or incompetence, the United States is drifting toward direct confrontation with Russia, the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, with consequences that could be apocalyptic.President Trump last week said he has “sort of” made a decision about supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine or NATO allies.He wants to learn more about “what they are doing with them” before making a final decision. His goal is to...

There is much we don’t understand about the Chinese coronavirus. This includes public health experts, like the basketball player and scarf queen, as well as elected officials and nonelected bureaucrats. One hopes they are recommending and acting based on a desire to do good and an avoidance of harm. Yet looking beyond cable news sound bites, the motives of many are sinister and in service to their political agenda rather than the public good. Looking back at how COVID events unfolded this year, one can reasonably conclude that reactions to the virus are more about politics and an upcoming election...