Free Republic

Subject: "Cowboy Bush" It used to tick me off when the Muslim detractors in the Middle East, or the socialist detractors in Europe, Hollywood and others called our President a cowboy, but the more I think about it, the more glad I am that he is. When I was a kid, cowboys were my heroes. Well, I mean the ones in the white hats, not the black hats, who were the bad guys. There was Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, then later Marshall Matt Dillon, and others. Personally, I think...

The historian and journalist Richard Brookhiser weighs in on George W. Bush—his management style, his mean streak, his religiosity, and his recovery from alcoholism When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, amidst controversy over the election that had put him there, it was generally assumed that his presidency would not be an especially memorable one. After all, the picture of Bush that had emerged from the preceding campaign was not impressive. Many saw him as a privileged, none-too-bright underachiever with a shaky command of both national and international affairs. It quickly became clear, however, that Bush would...

Let it be said before we know the outcome of the war in Iraq that America and the world are inordinately lucky to have George W. Bush as America's president. In fact, I would go further. To the extent that one is ever able to see the hand of God in history -- and since biblical times, one has never been given certitude in this regard -- I believe that either divine intervention or good luck on the magnitude of a lottery win explains George W. Bush's rise to the position of president.It is not meant to disparage the character...

Those who oppose war with Iraq—from foreign heads of state to homegrown antiwar protesters—employ a common expression of contempt for the American war effort. America, they sneer, is acting like a "cowboy." A mock interview with Saddam Hussein conducted by a European intellectual is written to show, in one news report's summary, "what out-of-control cowboys the Americans are." A recent New York Times article explains that to some Europeans the "major problem is Bush the cowboy." U.S. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut agrees, stating that America must not "act like a unilateral cowboy." These smears imply that the heyday of...

Not All Southerners Are Racist Hicks? Shazzam! What enters your mind when hear the word ‘Southerner’? Do you think of the Confederate flag, flying its rebel colors? Do you think of James Byrd, drug to death in a little town not so far from my own Texas town? Or maybe you see a vision of a woman, barefoot and pregnant, in the hills of Tennessee with her live-off-the-land husband. There is even another vision of Southerners (and especially Texans), which is particularly amusing. Some people actually think that we all own oil wells and drive Cadillacs, and that we’re all...

<p>Those who oppose war with Iraq -- from foreign heads of state to homegrown anti-war protesters -- employ a common expression of contempt for the American war effort. America, they sneer, is acting like a "cowboy."</p> <p>A mock interview with Saddam Hussein conducted by a European intellectual is written to show, in one news report's summary, "what out-of-control cowboys the Americans are."</p>

Texas is Bibles and guns, patriots and born-again Christians, righteous folk who believe in just retribution for murderers, whether in Dallas or Baghdad. Paul Sheehan looks at how Lone Star values shape George W. Bush's view of the world. Richard Williams knew he was about to die last week. So he didn't watch his weight. His last meal was two chilli cheese dogs, two cheeseburgers, a double order of onion rings, french fries, turkey salad and jalapeno peppers. Then chocolate cake, apple pie, butter pecan ice-cream, egg rolls, a peach and three Dr Pepper sodas. He died the next day,...