Free Republic

How the hell did we get into this mess?'"          The War on Drugs is nothing more than alcohol Prohibition dressed up for the 1990s. It certainly can't stop people from making, selling, or using drugs, any more than the Volstead Act ever stopped them from making, selling, or using alcohol, but it has succeeded in boosting the price of drugs from mere pennies a pound to hundreds of dollars an ounce -- which anyone who knows anything about economics will immediately recognize enormously increases the incentive to enter the illegal drug market.          It's driven the weakest competition out of...

In a heartening advance with national reverberations, the Republican-led New York State Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that will permit local pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception to women who do not have a prescription. The surprising 34-to-27 vote, which followed easy approval by the Democratic-led Assembly, catapults the issue to a noncommittal Gov. George Pataki. Mr. Pataki has no principled course but to sign it. Skip to next paragraph Readers Forum: Today's Editorials The measure is a necessary response to the ideological gridlock at the Food and Drug Administration. The F.D.A. is still stalling over granting all American women...

The national news media is abuzz with a story about the possible link between the tragic death of an infant Jewish boy from herpes and his circumcision. At the same time, the media has not fully reported on the fact that circumcision could save millions of lives from the scourge of AIDS. The problem is that circumcision is in the Bible, which makes it a serious violation of the religion practiced by the majority in academia and the mainstream media - secular fundamentalism. They have stood by while millions died and continue to die. How differently they value human life...

The Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court on Tuesday ordered the former rabbi of the Gan Yavneh local council to pay a child and his parents NIS 1.18 million in damages after the child was left severely disfigured when he was circumcised by the rabbi. The rabbi, Mehumar Tzubari, performed the religious ceremony on the child in April 1995. A few hours after the ceremony, the mother realized that the tip of the child's penis was blacked and called the rabbi. He checked the area, applied iodine ointment and told the mother not to worry and that "everything will be fine." After...