Free Republic

A reader asked me the other day why I was writing about marijuana legalization in Canada instead of President Trump's tangled relationship with Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman.Simple.  Because it's more fun to go to Canada to write about pot than to write about the Mideast. But now that I'm back in the U.S.A., let me address the Saudi issue. I told you so.For as long as I've been writing about Saudi Arabia, I have had nothing but bad things to say about the place. A month after the 9/11 attacks, I wrote, "If Saudi Arabia had only sand, we...

In a desperate move to “thwart” the federal tax overhaul, Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday he wants to make sweeping changes to the state tax code as he unveiled his new $168 billion budget plan. The governor’s proposal would shift the state from collecting an income tax paid by individuals to a payroll tax paid by businesses — which would be fully deductible by businesses on federal returns. ... > snip < ... To close the state’s $4.4 billion budget deficit, Cuomo proposed $1 billion in new taxes and fees.

Tony Auth, 72, of Wynnewood, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and mainstay of The Inquirer's editorial page for four decades before resigning in 2012 to become a digital artist, has died. Mr. Auth had been under treatment for metastatic brain cancer. David Leopold, his friend and curator, said he died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday, Sept. 14, four days after his supporters announced a fundraising effort for an archive devoted to his work at Temple University. Mr. Auth's remarkable career began in 1971 when the fledgling artist from California flew in to Philadelphia to interview for...

MONTREAL (CP) - The federal Liberals are wasting their time trying to persuade the New Democrats to form an alliance of so-called left-wing forces in an attempt to take power back from Stephen Harper's Conservatives, says NDP Leader Jack Layton. In an interview with a Montreal newspaper, Layton said the Liberals are far from a left-wing party and that the sponsorship scandal has tarnished the party's image for a long time to come, especially in Quebec. Layton added that the NDP risks sabotaging the gains the party has made in Quebec and the rest of Canada if it aligns itself...

I just finished reading another amazing novel by Dean Koontz, "Cold Fire". The afterword ... is hilarious: "Then, as is often the case when life is good, someone said, 'Hey, let's make a movie!' and life got strange, dark, and scary. "By this I do not mean to imply - although I can't stop you from inferring - that a lot of movie-industry executives are as brainless, voracious, and destructive as the flesh-eating bacteria ... I've met smart, fair, creative executives over the years...although I've noticed their kind either eventually get fired," (NOTE TO SELF: KELLY GOODE!!!) ... He goes...

...I wanted to address the Lifetime series of "The Dirty Girls Social Club" again. First, I should let you all know I haven't heard a peep from anyone at the network since I last posted. I have talked to my co-executive producer, Nely Galan, who talked to an exec at the network who, I am told, told her that they have no problem with me at the repitch meeting. Rather, they just want to meet with everyone but me in order to "bond". Okay. ... Basically, there's a thing that happens in Hollywood. Moneylust. They all want to make money,...

S. Korea: More on Pyongtaek Riots near Camp HumphreyA Photo Summary Anti-American rioters acting up on July 10th. You see them using steel pipes, wire-cutter, bamboo sticks, hooks, and ropes. Steel pipes(or rods) anti-American rioters used, taken by a right-wing veteran's organization, "Colonel Association" Some rioters celebrating at their "battlefield" and having their picture taken afterwards   Lefties whining afterwards for being "attacked" by riot police, parading one of "the wounded" in a wheelchair.

So it seems that there is no going back for Ukraine. Whatever the outcome of the upcoming election, the country will remain deeply divided if not split in two.

Protester Against Radioactive Waste Shipment Killed After Being Hit by Train, Police Official Says By Marie-France Bezzina Associated Press Writer Published: Nov 7, 2004 NANCY, France (AP) - A French anti-nuclear protester was killed Sunday in eastern France when his leg was severed by a train carrying radioactive waste to Germany, a police official said. The incident took place further down the rails from where two other anti-nuclear protesters had earlier chained themselves to the tracks near the town of Nancy, briefly delaying the train, rail officials said. Paramedics quickly cared for the protester after the incident near the town...

History has shown that the neutral position is the most dangerous position to take. Unfortunately for Bill O'Reilly, the host of Fox News' O'Reilly Factor and the target of sexual harassment lawsuit, his attempts at reasonableness are neither liberal enough for the hard left nor conservative enough for the solid right. Conservatives bite the hand that feeds them when they fail to recognize that O'Reilly, in his position as an independent moderate, provides the perfect doorway through which a maturing, political aficionado can pass as he discovers the dangerous liberal slant of the mainstream media. (Certainly, a budding neo-con does...

Michael Moore, director of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” delivered to Korean viewers a message in which he wished them to carry on a campaign against the dispatch of additional troops to Iraq. Michael Moore issued words of hope and pleading in his first official press conference since the release of the film at the Essex House Hotel in New York with about 200 local and foreign reporters present. According to Cinema People, the company in charge of the PR for the movie in Korea, Michael Moore was asked whether he wished to convey any messages through "Fahrenheit 9/11" to the Korean...

Irvine, CA--(HISPANIC PR WIRE - BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2004--Taco Bell(R) is giving customers a taste of fame by publishing their "words of wisdom" on the nearly 5 billion sauce packets distributed to restaurants each year, in the company's Share Your Sauce Wisdom national contest launching today. Up to 12 customers will be selected to have their Taco Bell-inspired sayings on sauce packets in Taco Bell(R) restaurants nationwide and will receive a one-year supply of free food. "We're putting our customers' words on the hottest place on the menu - our sauce packets," said Greg Creed, chief marketing officer, Taco Bell...

Terrorists strike again. Strong indications are that al-Qaeda ignited the well coordinated bombs planted in the commuter trains on March 11th in Madrid, Spain. We are not safe... it's WAR. The question before America is this: are we going to return to the polices that Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry proposes that enable 9-11 and other unanswered attacks on our military and embassies, or are we going to act in our own self interest as Bush and his administration have done?

<p>Six weeks ago, I ate lunch with men employed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the southern region of Iraq where today Iraqis and coalition soldiers are engaged in heavy firefights.</p> <p>In and around the city of Basra, the notoriously oppressed Shiite Muslims are offering stiff resistance to "Operation Iraqi Freedom" -- a less than convincing euphemism to people there, who were under British rule as recently as 45 years ago.</p>