Free Republic

Accuracy in Academia has lost a dear friend and peerless contributor with the passing of modern-day man of letters Joe Sobran. That old-fashioned sobriquet suits him as his interest in, and knowledge of, the literary masters was one of his trademarks. Less well known are the breadth of interests he had that even his admirers were unaware of. The last time that I saw him was at a book party for John Berlau, author of EcoFreaks, and quite the scholar and scribe himself. Sobran was a bit frail even then and sat with a cane and his back to the...

The uncertain times after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have given rise to all sorts of rumors. E-mails have circulated about malls that will be attacked on Halloween, about Osama bin Laden being spotted in Utah and Oliver North having warned about bin Laden at the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987. None of these turned out to be true and quickly were debunked on Internet sites devoted to "urban legends." The most prominent of these is Snopes.com, a Website started in 1995 as a hobby by David and Barbara Mikkelson, respectively a Web programmer and housewife in the Los Angeles area....

Today, the SEC charged giant investment bank Goldman Sachs with more than $1 billion worth of securities fraud for its dealings in the subprime mortgage market. Ironically at the same time the SEC is seeking justice for Goldman's alleged vitims, President Obama and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) are pushing a bill that would reward the firm with potentially billions of dollars by instituting a so-called "resolution authority" that would in practice be a permanent bailout fund. Supporters of Dodd's bill maintain that it does not create bailouts because the failing firm's shareholders would be wiped out and...