Free Republic

In 1995, 60 Minutes made a decision that nearly destroyed the program. Producers killed an interview with Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco industry whistleblower who had evidence that cigarette companies knew their products were addictive and carcinogenic. CBS’s lawyers were worried about a potential lawsuit, so the interview got shelved. The story eventually came out anyway, the lawyers’ fears proved overblown, and 60 Minutes spent years trying to rebuild its credibility. The whole debacle became the basis for The Insider, a 1999 film starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino that portrayed CBS executives as cowards who caved to corporate pressure at...

In an article I posted here in July, I lamented the fact that the National Endowment for the Humanities had funded the research for Professor Nancy MacLean’s hatchet job of a book entitled Democracy in Chains. I was sure that the government’s largesse was not limited to just this nasty book and therefore was not surprised when I came across this article by Christine Roe, “From Cactus Theater to the Met, US Government Pours Hundreds of Millions Into Well-Heeled Arts.” Based on a new report from that invaluable organization, Open the Books, Roe highlighted numerous cases where federal money had...

A glance at several official fatwas, or religious rulings, by the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the body of government-appointed clerics that is the voice of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. The fatwas, viewable in Arabic and English at http://www.alifta.net/, are in most cases in response to questions sent in by Saudis seeking advice. TAKING FLOWERS TO THE SICK: - "This practice is impermissible as it entails wasting money on non-useful purposes and imitating Allah's adversaries in this custom." [Snip] RELATIONS WITH NON-MUSLIMS: "A Muslim should not begin greeting the non-Muslims.