Free Republic

‘Asking why academic freedom is important is like asking why love is important, or why it’s important to eat when you’re hungry.’ Wendy Kaminer is momentarily stumped. For her, the need for free thinking and free speech in universities, both on campus and inside the classroom, is so obvious, such a no-brainer, that: ‘You know what? I’m having trouble articulating a defence of it!’ A social critic and former member of the National Board of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), whose latest book is Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today, Kaminer says it should be apparent to...

Sir John Mills, who died on Saturday aged 97, was one of Britain's leading screen actors, especially in the years following the Second World War; versatile and accomplished, he specialised in playing "decent blokes", the epitome of the most admirable kind of Englishman - restrained, determined, honourable, good-humoured and capable of suffering on a heroic scale under fire. Yet Mills had begun as a song and dance man, with no ambition to enter the cinema. A talented rather than a mesmerising performer, with pleasant rather than overwhelming looks, he succeeded through a combination of hard work, brass nerve and good...

Sir John Mills, the actor who epitomised the glory years of British cinema, died last night at the age of 97. Sir John, who starred in more than 100 films and worked into his 90s, died at his home in Denham, Buckinghamshire. He was knighted in 1976 and had been married to Lady Mills for 64 years. He had been in failing health for some time. Sir John's career, which began as a chorus boy at the London Hippodrome in 1929, spanned more than 70 years and included leading roles in five films by the director David Lean: In Which...

On this day, above all others, this quote seems most appropriate..