Free Republic

NFL player protests during the national anthem continued this week, defying pleas by Commissioner Roger Goodell and some team owners to have everyone stand for the song. While fewer teams had mass protests this week than in the early games, some players still kneeled, while others stayed in the locker room for the pre-game national anthem. The prior protests have sparked fan outrage and might have hurt television ratings, with some angry observers and at least one sponsor vowing to boycott the league in a counter-protest. A meeting is set this coming week between NFL management, ownership, and the NFL...

I must confess a temptation to complacent laughter at the frustration of all ''The Sopranos'' fans at the conclusion of the series. It was the most important television project ever, comparable to Don Quixote, Shakespeare, maybe even St. John's Gospel. Why did it end not with a bang but a whimper? It was also a powerful critique of corrupt capitalist American culture. Academics and intellectuals -- and pseudo-academics and intellectuals -- had searched the weekly bloodshed and vulgarity for wisdom hidden from the ages. How could the series stop without ending? Ordinary viewers, satisfied with the violent whacking of "Uncle...

Men who take drugs for impotency such as Viagra or Cialis and who have previously had a heart attack may have a 10-fold increased risk of damaging their eyesight, an American study claims today. It warns that increasing use of the drugs could produce an increase in a rare condition that can cause irreversible loss of vision.

Caribbean Santa Faints Near the Equator Mon Dec 8, 8:21 PM ET GEORGETOWN, Guyana - A Caribbean Santa fainted under a blazing sun while distributing candy to a swarm of children on a stage in a remote mining town near the equator. Santa Claus panicked when more than 100 children stormed the stage Saturday to scoop up the sweets in the bauxite mining town of Linden, 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Georgetown, police said. Wearing a traditional winter Santa suit in this South American country, Santa buckled under the more than 80-degree Fahrenheit (27-degree Celsius) heat and slumped to...