Free Republic

PERUGIA, Italy — It was silent in the courtroom for a long time after Amanda Knox, the now-exonerated American woman, was led into an Italian courtroom for the last time. A presiding judge spoke. We heard not a word from the jury. And then she was declared “innocenta.” And then anger erupted in the streets outside. News crews — mostly Italians — alternated between filming and shouting “Vergogna! Vergogna!” (“Shame! Shame!”) for the first five minutes. A mass of people took up the calls of “Shame!” outside the courthouse, and in a second gathering area nearby. Italy's Corriere Della Sera...

More than a few observers last month remarked that raising taxes, and giving Congress even more money to spend, is akin to handing a bottle of whiskey to a habitual drunk. They’re probably right — and the comparison just might point in a helpful direction. Tens of millions of addicts, helpless to reform themselves flying solo, have found sanity through twelve-step programs. It may be time for the federal government to make the same discovery. Sound silly? No sillier than letting the feds spend one-quarter of the nation’s gross domestic product with little to show for it. Aided by an...