Free Republic

An Education in the Unthinkable Driving up in the afternoon I watch the horses graze carefree in the pasture. Once a naive horse owner I am now all too aware of the horrors of the slaughter industry in the US. There are two horse slaughter plants operating in the US currently, both in Texas and named Bel-Tex and Dallas Crown. With both plants so far from South Carolina, it seems unlikely to most horse owners and lovers that we would have a problem with our beloved horses ending up at a plant, but it is not far fetched. How many...

I was raised to believe that law is the glory of decent society; that the rule of law is the sine qua non of civilization; that international law is the greatest protector of human rights; that lawyers should be coupled with doctors as an elite profession to which a young person can aspire; that making laws is the great work of legislatures; that law schools are among the noble places of learning in society; that the title "judge" was perhaps the highest appellation in society; and that the jury system is an essential component of a just society. Most of...

Now that the fire is out, the riot has been quelled, the paramedics are gone, the jails are locked down and the National Guard is in control, I have to say that the 2003 Masters was an absolute Hootie. Wouldn’t you? And it all started so innocently. Martha Burk wrote a little letter asking Augusta National to get a female member. Club president Hootie Johnson answered by saying, basically, “When Hell gets a bobsled team.” Feminist groups promised to picket the Masters. The New York Times demanded that Tiger Woods boycott the event. And Jesse Jackson said he’d be there...

State legislators who refused to automatically approve the second term of a Virginia circuit court judge accused of sexual harassment are racist, sexist lynch-mobbers for it, reports the Washington Post. Newport News Judge Verbena M. Askew, the first black female circuit court judge in the state, had her re-nomination blocked by Republican committees in the state house. The GOP’ers latched onto the fact that a city was forced to pay $64,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim by a woman who said the judge hit on her then blocked her career advancement when she was rebuffed. GOP leaders said her...

The number of young children hooked on powerful narcotics has skyrocketed over the past 15 years, but the Drug Enforcement Agency won’t be doing anything about it—because the drugs in question are being peddled by pediatricians. In the most comprehensive study of its kind, a new report details how legal drug use among youths has more than tripled since 1987, which means that kids are now doped by doctors at the same rate as adults are.

The Portland Trailblazers’ Bonzi Wells will not be disciplined by the National Basketball Association for allegedly taunting white players with racial epithets during numerous games, reports WOIA radio. Wells was suspended for a day for spitting in the face of San Antonio's Danny Ferry during a game, but will not be punished for calling Ferry a "[blanking] honkie" during another game. Other opposing players have made similar charges. Golden State's Troy Murphy said Wells called him a "cracker" once, and the Mavericks' Nick Van Exel says Wells called his team "a bunch of soft-(bleep) white boys." NBA Vice President Stu...

A analysis of New York's public school textbooks and library holdings by the Daily News finds that the material available to young students is, in addition to being riddled with errors, full of politically correct claptrap passing as conventional wisdom. In one book, jihad is defined as "to do one's best to resist temptation and overcome evil." In another, Al Sharpton is said to hail from a "long tradition of activist ministers like Martin Luther King Jr." and Louis Farrakhan is described as a "black American of achievement" who bears a "message no American can ignore." Gail Stein, a teacher...