Free Republic

June 11, 2006 Dear Dad- Dear Dad, If I ever hear airmen griping and complaining, I jump into them pretty quickly, now. Most people over here have nothing to gripe about compared to Marines. Marines are different. They have a different outlook on life. One Marine Private was here for several days because he was a lower priority evacuation patient. He insisted on coming to attention and displaying proper military courtesy every morning when I came through on rounds. He was in a great deal of pain, and it was a stressful to watch him work his way off the...

Coonts: Secretary of Terror Stephen Coonts | June 07, 2006 (The following short story by Stephen Coonts is a Military.com exclusive.)The nominee to lead the new Department of Terror was a soft-spoken, balding professor in his fifties with no military experience, yet the pundits and congressional leaders quietly agreed that he was precisely the man for the job. The bill creating the new department had faced fierce opposition from an embittered minority in both houses, but their voices had been ignored by the large majority, who knew only too well the mood of their constituents. Today the Senate was...

Three Dollar Gasoline: an Opportunity, Not a Crisis, April 24th, 2006 Some observers think that President Bush's dismal job approval rating is not about the mess in Iraq. It is not about the shocking corruption of the Republican Congress. It is not even about President Bush's failure to prevent Hurricane Katrina. It reflects Americans' rage at $3.00 per gallon gasoline. How can you pursue happiness in that mammoth Ford Expedition with heated leather seats if your gas bill starts competing with your mortgage payment? Democrats have suddenly discovered that they are shocked (shocked!) by high gas prices. The New York...

Falun Gong Accuses China of Running Death Camp Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 11:17 am Press Release Express deepest grievance and concern regarding the suffering of Falun Gong practitioners held in Sujiatun death camp, China. On 6th April New Zealand Falun Gong practitioners will gather at Parliament to express our deepest grievance and concern regarding the suffering of Falun Gong practitioners held in Sujiatun death camp, China. On March 8, 2006, a Chinese journalist on the run from the Chinese communist regime disclosed to Falun Gong practitioners in the United States an appalling news: a secret death camp in Sujiatun,...

By Orson Scott Card February 5, 2006 What to Make of George W. BushI just finished reading Fred Barnes's book Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush. It's engaging and readable, despite a few editorial lapses -- though one must keep in mind that the author is far from impartial. Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard, a frankly conservative magazine -- though one of the best of the breed -- and he is the conservative cohost of The Beltway Boys on Fox News. In other words, he takes it for granted that Ronald Reagan...

Guests or gatecrashersBogus arguments are a tip-off that you wouldn't buy the real reasons for what someone is doing. Phony arguments and phony words are the norm in discussions of immigration policy. It starts with a refusal to call illegal aliens "illegal aliens" and ends with asking for "guest worker" status for people who are not guests but gate crashers. As for the substantive arguments, they are as phony as the verbal evasions. What about all those illegal workers that we "need"? Many of the illegals are working in agriculture, producing crops that have been in chronic surplus for decades....

Common Name, Uncommon Valor BY RALPH KINNEY BENNETT March 29,2006 Since his days growing up in Tampa, Fla., the lanky kid had wanted to be a soldier. By this bright morning, April 4, 2003, Sgt. First Class Paul Ray Smith had more than fulfilled his dream. He had served 15 of his 33 years in the U.S. Army, including three tours of duty in harm's way--in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo. Now all his training, all his experience, all the instincts that had made him a model soldier, were about to be put to the test. With 16 men...

Citizenship: The Precious LegacyMarch 28th, 2006 The problem posed by the presence of millions of illegal aliens in our midst has no easy and immediately practical solution. Sweeping rhetoric from advocates of one clean-cut position or another may sound satisfying, but would cause chaos in practice. De facto open borders or mass expulsion, if ever were attempted, would be disasters. When being practical, we tend to focus on immediate practical issues like border security, drivers licenses and insurance, and the payment of income and Social Security taxes. Lost in most of the arguments is the deep meaning that the...

It's legal In early September 2002, just before the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a group of lawyers gathered in a heavily protected, windowless room in the Department of Justice building in Washington. There were three federal appeals-court judges, Laurence Silberman, Edward Leavy, and Ralph Guy. There was Theodore Olson, the U.S. solicitor general. There was Larry Thompson, the deputy attorney general. And there was John Yoo, the Justice official who had closely studied questions of war powers and presidential authority. The purpose of the meeting was to argue a case whose details remain so classified that...

Calling All Hombres A Harvard sage makes the case for manliness. BY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY Saturday, March 4, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--"Defend yourself." That's the lesson Harvey Mansfield drew for Larry Summers the week before Harvard's president was forced to resign. Mr. Mansfield, a 73-year-old government professor and conservative elder statesman of the university, went on to suggest that Mr. Summers's capitulation to those he offended (when he said women might be biologically less inclined to succeed in the hard sciences) is not simply a craven kowtow to political correctness, but proof, also, of a character flaw. Indeed,...

Embarrassing the Angels Or, that's no way to treat a lady. Thursday, March 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST I want to revise and extend my remarks, as they say, from last week's column on airport security. The reaction was great, but I have two reasons to amend. The first is that I didn't really get to the heart of what is for me most offensive about airport security, and the second is that that thing, the most offensive part, connects to a larger, and I think more painful, fact of our culture. I start with a dictionary definition, not that...

A secret of the ages For some time now, I have been privy to a fact of enormous importance. It is a secret I have shared with nobody, although the burden of carrying it around has nearly crushed me. Personally, I gained nothing from keeping this astonishing piece of information under wraps. My chief motive was -- dare I say it?--patriotic. Frankly, on the heels of the tech stocks crashing, I feared I might be delivering the coup de grace to our economy if I let this gigantic cat out of the bag. Why, then, have I decided at this...

Tick-TockFebruary 17th, 2006 The sounds you’re hearing are the last gasps of life of the Middle East’s autocracies and the bankrupt ideology of the American left. A left that was once idealist when it should have been realist and now has discovered “realism” at a moment in history ripe for idealism. Cynics would conclude the shift occurred to counter the paradigm shift in American foreign policy itself. The catalyst that has set the sands dripping through the hourglass is the strategic invasion and subsequent principled reconstruction of Iraq. The failed policy of past administrations that merely demanded stability in the...

John B. Dwyer As I’m sure you know, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment has been serving in Iraq (its second deployment there) for the past year. As the regiment prepares to come home, it has received the letter pasted below. I believe many of you will find it an interestingcounterpoise to much of what we read in the press __________________________________________________________ From: Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town,...

The Sore of Gore Their gluteus maximus bears a sore, A festering furuncle named Al Gore. A six year old deep down infection, Contagion caused by close election. Party doctors can’t decide just what, Will cure this boil upon their butt, Knowing only that it pains their tush, A fearsome bug, georgicoccus bush. In political pain they lose their touch, To reason well or think too much; Their pain is throbbing every nerve, Leaving unto them no will to serve, To support their nation and its needs, They care not that their nation bleeds. Political pus in a suppurant sore,...

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress I note one proposal to make this Congress a two-house body. Excellent -- the more impediments to legislation the better. But, instead of following tradition, I suggest one house of legislators, another whose single duty is to repeal laws. Let the legislators pass laws only with a two-thirds majority... while the repealers are able to cancel any law through a mere one-third minority. Preposterous? Think about it. If a bill is so poor that it cannot command two-thirds of your consents, is it not likely that it would make a poor law?...

Thank You, Mr. President January 31st, 2006 As you deliver your State of the Union speech tonight, Mr. President, and enter the sixth year of your presidency there is something I want to say. It is “Thank you, Mr. President.” You have achieved three important things in the last five years, Mr. President, and that’s as good as it gets. First of all, you have responded to the challenge of Islamic rich kid Usama bin Laden and his twisted observance of the Turkish defeat at the gates of Vienna on 9/11 back in 1683. Secondly, you have put our American...

Biden His Time Judge Alito's low-affect tour de force. Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Isn't that like saying, "I know it's all spin, but he spun me like a top!"? Let's cause some senators distress. The great thing about Joe Biden during the Alito hearings, the reason he is, to me, actually endearing, is that as he speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations--as he demonstrates yet again, as he did in the Roberts hearings and even the Thomas hearings, that he is incapable of staying on the river...

A New Year's dream: nightmare or prophecy?Jan 3, 2006 by Chuck Colson Something very strange happened to me this past week. I was seated in my library chair, mulling over current events, trying to make a few New Year’s predictions, which is the custom for commentators. I was concentrating hard, when suddenly, I saw before my eyes a headline from the New York Times. It read, “Congress Votes to End War; Troops Ordered to Abandon Iraq.” The view changed. Just as in Vietnam three decades ago, I saw Americans clinging to helicopters, trying to get themselves out of Baghdad along...

I received this link in an e-mail today. I opened the link and now I am afraid that the FBI is spying on me. Do you think I should call Harry Reid and let him know that I have proof of what is happening? http://users.chartertn.net/tonytemplin/FBI_eyes/