Free Republic

Michelle Obama said Thursday that the U.S. has undergone a “culture change” in the five years since she started raising awareness about childhood obesity. But as she celebrated achievements on multiple fronts, the first lady also warned that the progress that’s been made is “incredibly fragile.” That’s because special interests “whose first priority is not our kids’ health” are “waiting for us to get complacent or bored and move on to the next trendy issue,” Mrs. Obama said at an annual health summit. She cited the fight over a recent child nutrition law as an example. “Even today, some folks...

Modernizing Islam With an American war with Iraq presumably days away, the idea that the United States is actually launching a war against Islamic civilization is being promoted in the Arab Middle East and elsewhere in Islamic society - and is part of the doctrine on offer from some American neoconservatives and some elements on the Israeli right. .The latter groups say that Saddam Hussein has to be defeated as the first step in a campaign to overthrow other anti-Western governments and inspire a great modernizing reform of Islamic society and political culture. This implies a demand upon Muslims to...

It is said that the U.S. president, George W. Bush, believes in God and prays frequently. I suspect the reason why this is said is because it is true. I suspect that attempts to understand the man, without bringing this personal eccentricity into account, must fail. I even suspect, that in addition to the advisers he has squabbling around him, he is in the unmodern though not necessarily unAmerican habit of seeking some kind of divine guidance, to supplement what the CIA can tell him (which, even on a clear day, isn't all that much). Anyone in his position who...