Free Republic

I went to my last professional football game this month. My son and I braved frigid, remote FedEx Field to see our beloved Chicago Bears humiliated 24-16 by the struggling Washington Redskins. It wasn't the depth of our despair that will keep us away from football stadiums but the depravity of the fans...depravity is a strong word. But what better describes drunken adult men, egged on by other grown beer-swillers, belly-shouting the most spectacular obscenities imaginable as they stand next to a 13-year-old boy? Every play was a competition to produce a more vile insult or a different suggestion about...

Democrats act like they’re smarter than Republicans. But deep down they’re very insecure. Deep down they think Republicans are not only smarter, but they have better secret plans and dirty tricks. So in some smoke-filled room, or at least a laptop filled room, nervous Democratic opposition researchers are trying to connect the Foley-Vitter-Craig dots. Because only a nit-wit could believe that three very sordid scandals could scourge the GOP in one session of Congress by sheer coincidence. Democrats do not believe in a God that generous. I am told Democratic counter-operatives are pursuing three conspiracy theories at this point. The...

Behind every liberal rich-person basher lurks a rich-person gawker. Or at least most of the time. The New York Times has been running an impressive, book-length series of articles about class in America. Some of them have been riveting as well as "important." But I'd bet a Rolex that the most popular of the nine pieces published thus far was the front page story that ran Sunday, June 5, headlined, "Old Nantucket Warily Meets the New." It's all about how the new "hyper-rich" have taken the island over from the old rich. It's a great and grotesque piece. Accompanying it...

We Are Not 'A Nation In Danger' "We are a nation in danger." - President George W. Bush, August 2, 2004 I don’t buy it. I think America in 2004 is about as far removed from fundamental danger as any nation in history has ever been. We may be scared, but we are, in fact, safe. Safe, at least, by any reasonable historic measure. No other country on earth has military might even close to ours. Has such a global monopoly on armed power ever existed? Has any nation had less to fear from its neighbors and foreign armies? Modern...

He Who Lives By The Loudmouth ...WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2003 Rush Limbaugh says he’s a victim of the thought police. In his latest Against the Grain commentary, CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer says, in a nutshell, 'spare me.'  (Photo: CBS) Am I delighted to see Rush Limbaugh attacked, ridiculed and forced out of his ESPN gig? Absolutely. Justice is being served. (Photo: CBS) Live by the loudmouth, die by the loudmouth. Poor Rush. Not. Do I think Rush Limbaugh’s cracks about Donovan McNabb are seriously racist? Not really. Do I think they were offensive? Mildly, not profoundly. Do I like it when...

Gunning Down The 2nd Amendment “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Most Americans think that the Second Amendment of the Constitution provides individual citizens the right to have guns. (Which is not to say that most Americans believe that there should be a right to keep arms.) Very, very few judges, prosecutors or government lawyers over the past 60 years (at least)have officially taken the position that an individual right to own guns exists. The normal, reigning judicial view,...