Free Republic

And then President Obama, and then George W. Bush, and then Bill Clinton . . . Michael Phelps, the aquatic icon who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, has violated the law. When a photograph of him smoking a bongful of marijuana was published, he admitted the crime. The same crime for which the better part of a million people were arrested last year. Shouldn’t Phelps be charged? Along with President Obama and his two predecessors, all of whom, it seems, used illegal drugs? If not, perhaps it is time to have a serious debate about the drug...

... but informs us that today is Paddington Bear's birthday.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead. Peter Rodman is dead. And memory is dying with them. Over the weekend, Solzhenitsyn, the 89-year-old literary titan, and Rodman, the American foreign-policy intellectual, passed away. I knew Rodman and liked him very much. We were partners in a debate at Oxford University last year. He provided the gravitas. A former protege of Henry Kissinger and high-ranking official in two Republican administrations, Rodman was one of the wisest of the wise men of the conservative foreign-policy establishment. Calm, elegant, dryly funny, brilliant, but most of all gentlemanly. He died too young, at 64, of leukemia. Solzhenitsyn...

If the bumper sticker of ’92 and ’96 (Clinton-Gore) divides, and we find Gore running against Hillary Clinton, Al Gore could not only beat the former First Lady for the Democratic nomination, he could win the presidency. Gore can seize this opportunity as the campaigns of Obama and Edwards are fading, out-fundraised, out-managed and outmaneuvered by Hillary’s campaign machine. Al Gore – the newly minted Nobel laureate – could steal the nomination from Hillary’s well-oiled machine. Here’s why. He immediately demolishes Hillary’s two main claims to the nomination: her electability and her White House experience. Gore has a proven record...

In the first four years of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 563 Americans under the age of 21 were killed in the line of duty. These citizen soldiers were old enough to vote, old enough to put on military uniforms, and old enough to die for their country: They were old enough to do just about anything, except drink a red-white-and-blue can of Budweiser. Apparently they weren’t grown-up enough to enjoy that privilege. That’s because when it comes to alcohol, the United States is more like Indonesia, Mongolia, and Palau than the rest of the world: It is one of just four...

If ever a piece of legislation should pass readily through the U.S. House of Representatives, it is a measure sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., that would prevent the Department of Justice from using tax dollars to prosecute medical-marijuana patients in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Because it is a good bill, expect it to fail. Polls show that some three out of four Americans support allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana for patients who need it. Members must know that constituents within their districts use marijuana to control pain and nausea -- their families...

If anyone had any doubts about the real agenda of the so-called "protesters", it was cleared up at about 6:08 EDT. On the Fox coverage of one of the protests (in LA I believe), there was an actual Soviet red hammer and sickle flag being waved amidst the Mexican and (some) American flags.

Pardon the vanity, but I'm looking for any info related to whether the fugitive British national Neil Entwistle is a relative of the late Who bass player John Entwistle. It's obviously not a common name, and since the suspect is English, it seems like there might be a connection. I've Googled various combinations of the name and not come up with anything.

The most important weapons of al-Qaeda and the rest of the Islamist terror network are the suicide bomber and the suicide thinker. The suicide bomber is typically a Muslim fanatic whose mission it is to spread terror; the suicide thinker is typically a Western academic or journalist or politician whose mission it is to destroy the West's will to resist not just terrorism but any ideological challenge at all. But al-Qaeda didn't create the ugly streak of nihilism and self-loathing that afflicts too many Western intellectuals. Nor, I believe, is it a natural development. It was brought to us by...

Things I have noticed while watching media coverage of the recent hurricanes. 1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans. Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats. 2. Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves. Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them. 3. Texas: Local and state officials take responsibility for protecting their citizens and property. Louisiana: Local and state officials blame federal government for not protecting their citizens and property. 4. Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order. Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness. 5. Texas: Law enforcement officers...

I had the dubious pleasure yesterday of receiving a fund-raising letter from the leftist moonbats at the People For the American Way. These kooks are gearing up for the Supreme Court battle to come, and are obviously raising money to fund BS television commercials to smear any conservative that GWB may nominate.What particularly caught my eye about this bilge, in addition to obligatory slamming of the 'far right' Bush admin, was their ratings of the justices on the current USSC. They broke them down into 3 categories - 'Extremist', 'Conservative', and 'Moderate':As one may expect from these nitwits, the 'Extremists'...

As the nation's "drug czar," John Walters is supposed to be saving us from the ravages of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. At least that was the original sales pitch for the "war on drugs" in the 1980s. But the war has evolved into largely a fight against marijuana, which no one has ever claimed is a hard drug. Walters is nonetheless committed, Ahab-like, to arresting every marijuana smoker in the country whom law enforcement can lay its hands on. It used to be that drug warriors denied that marijuana was much of a focus for them, because they...

Dear Senator Santorum, This is not something that I do often, but I'm writing now because I'm very concerned that you and the other Senate Republicans are GOING TO CAVE to the likes of Dingy Harry, Leaky Leahy, Chappaquiddick Ted, and the Hildabeast on the issue of the President's judicial nominations. It will be a sad day for America if these ANTI-AMERICAN COMMUNIST SYMPATHIZERS whose leftist agenda was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters last November are able to prevent good constructionist judges from being seated on the federal bench. The recent judicial HOMICIDE of a disabled woman in Florida (which...

Remember a few weeks ago when Richard Gere went on TV in Gaza/West Bank to urge Palestinians to vote in the 'election' that determined Arafat's terrorist replacement? I wonder if he'll do the same this week on Iraqi TV. Over/under anyone?

Winning the war on drugs, losing the battles. On May 3, the Washington Post's David Von Drehle wrote a Style Section profile of Susan Cheever, biographer of Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson. In the article, we learn that as Wilson was dying of emphysema, he — the man who has inspired millions to kick the bottle — asked his caretakers for three shots of whiskey. Over his last days, he asked three more times for a drink. He was never given one. Cheever says she was "shocked and horrified" that Wilson would want whiskey on his deathbed, and confesses that...

Apologies for the vanity, but a Bush-smear thread posted by a troll with screen name 'Informed Citizen' was pulled without comment. Why wasn't it ZOTted instead? We like to have fun with these trolls and give the Viking Kitties something to play with!

<p>Janet Jackson’s pop-up breast during Super Bowl halftime did not create the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004. But it will propel passage of that Act, the consequences of which may be far worse than a bit of trashy exhibitionism on TV.</p>

As much as any right-wing political junkie, I love conservative talk radio. I can't get enough of Rush, Hannity, Bob Grant, etc. But it seems that talk radio is getting harder and harder to listen to, because of (IMO) 3 major annoyances. In reverse order, they are: 3. Weekend schedules suck! Gardening shows, doctor shows, sports interruptions ... dammit, stick to the issues!2. Pre-emption of regularly-scheduled shows for sports - it is so damned annoying to tune in to listen to, say, Michael Savage and instead hear a broadcast of some stupid college basketball game that I couldn't care less...

On Tuesday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals barred federal prosecution of those using marijuana under a doctor's care. Smoking pot under such circumstances is "different in kind from drug trafficking," stated the court: "this limited use is clearly distinct from the broader illicit drug market." The U.S. Supreme Court recently let stand a lower court ruling barring Uncle Sam from punishing doctors who prescribe medical marijuana. California's new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, admits to past drug use. Radio host Rush Limbaugh has sought drug treatment, forcing even prohibitionist conservatives to acknowledge the pervasiveness of drug abuse. The war on drugs...

A review of Gulag: A History, by Anne Applebaum; Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million, by Martin Amis; and A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation, by Eric D. Weitz. Martin Amis fears that "the Russian dead sleep on"—forgotten—even after the fall of the regime that killed them. In an effort to awaken concern for them, Amis skillfully choreographs an enormous array of facts and voices into a very effective and angry essay. He is most eloquent about Stalin's personal tyranny and the scale and diversity of human suffering he ordered and supervised. The journalist Anne...