Free Republic

Charles Grodin, the comic, scene-stealing actor of such films as The Heartbreak Kid, Midnight Run and Beethoven who later established himself as a curmudgeonly talk show guest without rival, died today at his home in Wilton, Conn. He was 86. His son, Nicholas, told The New York Times that the cause of death was bone marrow cancer. A spokesperson said Grodin died peacefully at his home. Born Charles Sidney Grodin in Pittsburgh, Grodin, who studied under Lee Strasberg, made his big-screen debut in the small role as the duped obstetrician who turns Mia Farrow’s Rosemary over to a coven of...

Keith Olbermann wants to torture Sean Hannity. Or is it enhanced-interrogate him? Last week, Charles Grodin was on Hannity, and the conversation turned, as so many do, to simulated drowning. Grodin says waterboarding is torture; Hannity says it's not, and then Grodin asked, "We can waterboard you?" Hannity replied, "Sure...I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it." And then Keith Olbermann became obsessed with the statement, offering to give $1,000 to military families for every second of waterboarding Hannity could withstand. "And I'll double it, when you admit you feared for your life," he said on the air....

I know there are many Republicans, Independents and, of course, Democrats who are baffled by Senator McCain's choice of Governor Palin as his running mate. In the past, the Senator (whom I know personally and like) has admitted to making decisions without thinking them through sufficiently. He just lives with the consequences, he said. Now, of course, if he's elected, we live with the consequences. I hope for everyone's sake he spends more time thinking. In other words, to paraphrase Sarah Palin, I'm not worried about how much our leaders blink, I'm worried about how much they think. Unless people...