Free Republic

I have rarely been this royally ticked off. However, nothing prepared me for the statements of Fox News analyst and law professor Susan Estrich calling for a feminist campaign against the Los Angeles Times. Ms. Estrich's grievance is that the newspaper has failed to publish enough articles by women (like her own syndicated column) on its editorial page. Described in the press as "belligerent" and "semiliterate," Ms. Estrich's tirades became increasing unhinged after it became clear that Mr. Kinsley would not yield to her ultimatums. Indeed, Ms. Estrich went to all caps in offering Mr. Kinsley "ONE MORE CHANCE BEFORE...

Michael Crichton's latest novel may not be a great literary event, but it is a significant cultural event. In the past, his bestselling books have sparked public interest in genetic engineering, sexual harassment law, biotechnology, New Age religious thought, the search for extraterrestrial life, changing medical technology and bioethics, corporate ethics scandals, and other important trends. Now Crichton—a popular mainstream author—has chosen to ridicule left-wing political activism and challenge the intelligentsia's central ideas about civilization itself. State of Fear's protagonist, Peter Evans, is personal attorney to multibillionaire George Morton, a political liberal who bankrolls a dizzying array of left-wing causes...

The New Republic's Noam Scheiber argues that the Republican Party is less likely to benefit from the wave of "democratization" going on in the Middle East than the Democratic Party: "[I]n the long-term, I think Bush's democratization initiatives clearly benefit Democrats, assuming they don't find a way to screw it up. Here's why: The Republican base consists primarily of Southern and lower-midwestern isolationist/realist types, Western libertarians, conservative evangelicals, and K-Street taxcutters. (As far as I can tell, no one ever lost a Republican primary by failing to win the neocon vote.) None of these groups gets particularly excited about democratizing...

It seems like only yesterday that many Americans were introduced to Hillary Rodham Clinton. That was before we learned she’s the world’s smartest woman. It was 1992. Another of those malicious bimbo eruptions was plaguing her husband’s presidential campaign. Damage control was required, so the Clintons showed up on 60 Minutes to exchange adoring glances and chat about how much they loved, honored and respected one another—at least during elections years. Mz Clinton said: “You know, I’m not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette . . . And, you know, if that’s not...

WHY WE'RE HERE With November's presidential victory still fresh in our minds, Republicans must look to the future and quickly realize one thing: Hillary Rodham Clinton will be running for President in 2008. The sole purpose of this web-site is to spread the word early and often, and to help ensure that this liberal Senator's presidential campaign never gets off the ground. Let us remember her and her husband's eight years of mediocrity and appeasement. Let us remember her thirst for bigger government and socialist policies. Let us not forget what she truly is, a far left liberal. In the...

So, in the clear light of dawn, it made me think of America under the Bush administration, deep into the deadly traffic jam of a war that we got into under false pretenses (let’s please not forget the WMDs that were never there). The stated goal of this president is peace. Yet he began a war. And he has dug us in deeper and deeper. His stated goal is freedom—for everyone, everywhere—but where is the freedom for other people when foreign troops are patrolling their country, turning their cities into rubble, frightening citizens who don’t even speak the same language...

If Americans of all ages ever recognize the degree to which they’ve been conned by the proponents of failed government programs such as Social Security, they will likely respond in a manner reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party. And it is not hard to imagine a few career politicians floating in the harbor alongside of King George’s cargo.,br> Consider the caterwauling from Democrats in response to President Bush’s efforts to reform Social Security. Originally promoted as merely a retirement supplement, Franklin Roosevelt’s scheme initially involved a minuscule payroll tax. Once implemented however, the road was clear to incrementally grow the...

One single tune that lingers in my mind from the musical, My Fair Lady, is "Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait." And on occasion I love to make all those horrible, inarticulate sounds that dear Eliza Doolittle made while trying to recite "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." Bless her heart . . . with excruciating effort, she tried her hardest to enunciate words as she was directed. Her H's were silent, her language was mangled, and she could never please the arrogant professor, Henry Higgins, who made a bet he could change this street...

The following was published in The New York Times. Please note what the fourth paragraph says about her soon-to-be-published autobiography. Her autobiography will either completely ignor her July 1972 trip to North Vietnam, or it will not. Either way, her autobiography's publication is a golden opportunity, perhaps the last, for those of us who know the truth of what happened in Hanoi, and its consequences, to hammer home that Jane Fonda committed the constitutional and statutory crime of treason. As many recipients of this email know, three years ago the Holzers' book -- "Aid and Comfort": Jane Fonda in North...

Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are still embracing the veracity of content of their 60 Minutes fraudulent memos aired on September 8, 2004. They need to re-read the Report of the Independent Review Panel “Concerning President Bush’s Air National Guard Service” by Dick Thornburgh and Louis D. Boccardi. For a fair perspective of President Bush’s Air National Guard (ANG) Service, I suggest reading “Bush and I were lieutenants““ by Col. William Campenni (retired), and my article: Bush and Uncommon Valor,as well as “Bush’s Air National Guard Years“ by Byron York. For a better understanding of the Dan Rather scandal, I...

The newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss, believes that terrorists may bring urban warfare techniques learned in Iraq to our homeland. If he is right, we could have a whole new war on our hands. The prospect is indeed scary. The idea of terrorist cells operating clandestinely in the United States, quietly amassing handguns and assault rifles, and planning suicide shooting rampages in our malls, is right out of Tom Clancy’s most recent novel. If not for the fact that the 9/11 attacks were also foreshadowed in a Clancy novel, I would have given the idea no further thought. However,...

I've always considered myself something of a First Amendment absolutist. By that I mean I am every bit as fervently supportive of freedom of speech and freedom of religion as our Founding Fathers were. But there are many people in America today who are misrepresenting what freedom of speech and freedom of religion really mean. They are distorting the original intent of the First Amendment. They are selectively applying this American concept to some while denying it to others. Once again, the Ward Churchill affair is illustrative of this problem. You've heard his defenders. They say the tenured University of...

A few weeks ago I was watching a program on C-Span pertaining to the impact of foreign court opinions upon the U.S. justice system. The primary participants in the discussion were Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer, and the event took place at the American University Law School in Washington D.C. rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/sc/sc011305_scalia.rm The debate revolved around questions asked by a moderator named Professor Norman Dorsen, and the first multi-part question asked was, "When we talk about the use of foreign court decisions in U.S. Constitutional cases, what body of foreign law are we talking about? Are we limiting...

Although the controversy over University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill’s pro-terrorist ravings has captured national headlines recently, the flirtation between America’s institutions of higher learning and radical, left-wing activism is hardly a new phenomenon. U.S. colleges and universities are rife with Marxist holdouts like Churchill and other relics from the Sixties. And while many, like Churchill, have openly supported America’s terrorist enemies, a dubious few have actually held prominent positions in terrorist groups. One of the most notable examples of this disturbing phenomenon is Bernardine Dohrn, an Associate Professor and the Director of the Children and Family Justice Clinic at...

Nations, like men, have destinies. They choose to fulfill them or fail. Free Will, not fate, makes choices at every crossroads in life for men and nations alike. President George W. Bush stated the vision for the United States as “our generational commitment to the advance of freedom”. That vision may be part of a greater destiny for our Nation. America has a Munificent Destiny, if we, The People, choose it. America’s Munificent Destiny serves us for a century, perhaps longer. America’s Munificent Destiny is to use our phenomenal aggregation of wealth, power, technology and culture with pragmatic generosity. The...

Try crossing our southern border; try going the other way, To enter Mexico illegally for an extended, unlawful stay. Ignore immigration quotas, all their visas and their fees, And quietly slip their border, anytime you damn well please. Just sneak in past the policía, ignoring Mexican laws; You’ve a desperate need to improve your lot; you have a righteous cause. With Evil Bush in power now, destroying your liberal order, You’ve a right to seek asylum, to trespass their northern border. Once there, speak English only and demand it in their schools; Forget assimilation, make Mexicanos change their rules. What...

With the election of former Vermont Governor Dr. Howard Dean to head the Democratic National Committee, (web site) the split within that party has become almost inevitable. The man who campaigned for the job on the platform, (web site) "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for," now holds the future of the Democrats as a political entity in his hands. Although the ideology of hate might appeal to leftover "Deaniacs" and the left-wing Liberals who have controlled that party for years, it won't do much for your average Democratic voter. Dean was elected on the basis of his...

Yielding to my contrarian impulses, I decided to see if I could figure out a good reason for Republicans and other Conservatives to oppose the privatization of Social Security. And I did! Going to the Social Security Administration website and using the Quick Calculator there to estimate what I’m likely to receive when I retire, not too many years from now, I see that I will receive the maximum benefit, about $2,000 a month in 2005 dollars. Now, my other investments, including my PRAs (Private Retirement Accounts, but I call them my “401k” and my “Roth IRA”) will yield a...

“While organized crime is not a new phenomenon today, some governments find their authority besieged at home and their foreign policy interests imperiled abroad. Drug trafficking, links between drug traffickers and terrorists, smuggling of illegal aliens, massive financial and bank fraud, arms smuggling, potential involvement in the theft and sale of nuclear material, political intimidation, and corruption all constitute a poisonous brew—a mixture potentially as deadly as what we faced during the cold war.”--R. James Woolsey, Former Director of Central Intelligence and Transnational Threats Initiative Steering Committee Member. From what I’ve recently discovered, that “poisonous brew” is being served to...

In a Feb. 4 News story, "Panel: No phones for newest drivers," 16-year old Annie Lewis testified in favor of a bill to ban cell phone use by teen drivers as a safety measure. Asked, perhaps with a considerable amount of sarcasm, whether she would also support a ban on eating while driving, she responded: "As far as food goes, it's not talking back to you." With that astute observation, she exhibited far greater wisdom than the many who oppose any ban on cell phone use while driving. As Lewis so wisely stated, the problem with cell phone use while...