Free Republic

Terri Schiavo got her day in court--or rather her years in court--but that time was mostly spent on tugs of war over states' rights, separation of powers, and legal precedents, issues utterly irrelevant to her medical condition. And so she departs this world not in peace but in bitter turmoil among those she loved and with lingering uncertainty as to her state of mind. Her last in-depth neurological evaluation was back in 2002. At that time her parents, and the two doctors the court allowed them to choose, believed she had some minimal level of consciousness that enabled her to...

Large numbers of teachers believe themselves incapable of meeting the learning expectations placed on their institutions by the No Child Left Behind Act. Like the characters in Atlas Shrugged, they find themselves having to deal with problems they did not create within the constraints of a system designed to fail. In order to remain in their chosen profession, those caught in the middle must place blame elsewhere in order to find an “out.” Those who refuse to “work within the system” disappear. Mediocrity rises to the top and excellence disappears. Public education has cried “wolf” one too many times, claiming...

A look at the six people in President Bush's 15-member Cabinet who will remain in the administration in the second term: -TREASURY SECRETARY JOHN SNOW: A strong advocate of the administration's economic policies, notably big tax cuts, Snow accepted Bush's offer Wednesday to remain. A former chief at railroad giant CSX with a Ph.D. in economics, Snow, 65, took over the Treasury Department in February. -DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD H. RUMSFELD: In an announcement last week, Bush decided Rumsfeld, 72, would not go, ignoring criticism of the secretary's handling of Iraq and giving him a strong vote of confidence. It had...