Free Republic

May I start with something hilarious? I didn't think you'd mind. I heard from a reader who'd been in Germany, and he passed a sign that said "Free Mumia!" Only it was in German, of course, and the German word for "free" is "frei" — pronounced "fry." So . . . my reader took immense satisfaction from that! • A brief word about Rush. I'm glad he's in rehab, and, as I said before, I feel certain he'll lick this — this rotten addiction. Of course, many people are taking a great deal of pleasure in Rush's predicament. Evan Thomas...

Hating Chalabi, being charmed by “Fidel,” embracing a glorious couple — and more One of the vexations and heartaches of the last year or so has been the media's hatred — that's the word for it: hatred — of Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader — former exile leader, I should say — who is working to give his country a future. This is obviously the man most prepared to provide leadership, yet the media pour disdain on him, in imitation of the State Department and the CIA. You see, Chalabi is known as the Defense Department's man — Rummy's...

Against “modernity,” against Molly Ivins, a lesbian in every pot! &c. A couple of comments on the Moroccan bombing. First, as you know, Jewish sites were targeted: a community center, a restaurant. Morocco is just about the only Arab country left with even a tiny Jewish community. These communities have been "cleansed" from all others. (The great Jewish scholar Elie Kedouri, for example, came from Baghdad.) This is one reason I get a little nervous when commentators go off about the "settlers" — those little Jewish enclaves in the disputed territories (excuse me, on sacred, inviolate "Arab land"). Of course,...

Mimi ’n’ Monica, Moseley Braun and Sharpton, Vijay ’n’ Annika, and more By now, you've probably read about the 19-year-old intern who had an affair with President Kennedy. She was — is, rather — Marion "Mimi" Fahnestock, and she works at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. (That "Marion" is probably Marian, I would think.) Her story was told yesterday in the New York Daily News. Democrats must take some comfort in this: See, all their favorite presidents do it! I had a memory — maybe you did, too. It's September 1998, and Clinton is conducting a cabinet meeting....

A night at the opera, Clinton speaks (and speaks), Gephardt ridicules (stupidly) — and more riends, we've talked before about Two Americas — and Two America moments. These are the instances that reveal the deep split in our society, a split that seems barely reparable. The split is between: oh, Left, Right; blue states, red states; the Boston Globe, National Review — however you want to characterize it. Have I got a moment for you. I'm sitting at the New York City Opera last week, covering The Rape of Lucretia (Britten) for the New York Sun. Toward the beginning of...

Have you ever had the following experience? You see something about yourself in print. You find that it's all wrong. And you wonder how you can believe anything else you read. In other words, your name is Bob Black, and you live in Topeka, Kan. A publication says that your name is Mike White and that you live in Mobile, Ala. How can you trust anything else you may read — as you normally would? The New York Observer — a weekly newspaper here in town — had a ridiculous article on "neocons" in New York. National Review was scorned,...

(Original Title: "A Protest in the Dark: Arrested Cuban dissidents feel betrayed by CNN ") What happens when CNN films an opposition protest, staged at great risk to the protesters, and then declines to air it? Bad things, apparently. On November 23 of last year, about 150 Cuban oppositionists gathered at the Havana home of Jose Orlando Gonzalez Bridon, leader of an illegal trade union. This was an unusually large gathering of the Cuban opposition, which is severely repressed by the regime. The oppositionists staged a bold protest against that regime, greatly encouraged by the apparent willingness of CNN to...

February 5, 2003, 9:00 a.m. To Be in Davos, Part III All right, folks, we’re at the halfway point. This is the third part of what is sort of a Davos Journal. Parts I and II were “published” on Monday and Tuesday. (To read them, please go here and here.) Davos, for those who need a reminder, is the Swiss village in which the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum is held. And, as Jackie Gleason was wont to say, away we go. I moderate a panel — actually a “working dinner” — titled “Toward a Global Ethic.” I’ve...