Free Republic

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on September 12, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health professionals are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic banner of “gender-affirming care.” The sudden and pervasive rise of this movement provokes two questions: where did it come from, and how has it proved so successful? The story...

Speaking from the White House Friday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said new Ebola Czar Ron Klain will report to former U.N. ambassador and current National Security Advisor Susan Rice. "Mr. Klain will ultimately however report to Ms. Monoco [Homeland Security] and to National Security Advisor Susan Rice in this effort," Earnest said. As a reminder, Susan Rice is the woman who went on five Sunday talk shows to lie about a YouTube video being responsible for the 9/11 attack in Benghazi. She is also the same person who said alleged Army deserter and Taliban sympathizer Bowe Bergdahl...

Preparedness: Earlier this week, Sen. John McCain called for an Ebola czar, not knowing one already effectively exists. Why should he, since Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H., has been completely M.I.A. You have to wonder sometimes if anyone in a leadership position in the Obama administration bothers to show up to work these days. Case in point is Dr. Nicole Lurie, who arguably should be front and center in planning for and responding to the Ebola outbreak. After all, it's right there in her job title. She's the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, a position created in the wake of...

You may be wondering why Barack Obama, with his propensity to name “czars” for every problem that ails us, has not named an Ebola Czar. The reason is because he has, in fact, named an Ebola Czar. So why are we constantly seeing Dr. Tom Frieden of the CDC embarrass himself in press conferences instead of our Ebola Czar? It turns out Dr. Nicole Lurie, the czar in charge of potential infectious disease catastrophes, has made the most of her time by funneling federal dollars to Democratic donors. That would be the federal dollars the left says we need more...

THE LURIES were a team within a team. Co-owners of the Philadelphia Eagles, partners in various civic and community endeavors, Oscar-winning filmmakers. In the 20 years of their marriage, Christina and Jeffrey Lurie seemed the ideal teammates. For the Eagles, he ran the business of trying to make a winning team; she had a voice in the team logo, the cheerleaders' costumes, the designs of the stadium and practice facility, but primarily the charitable work of the Eagles Youth Partnership.And that original kelly green of the uniforms! Yuck! That had to go. They even co-authored a story in the Inquirer...

What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama-approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-Gate. This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a former union boss who was one of the White House's most frequent visitors. They're the "1 percent" with 100 percent immunity from the selectively outraged Occupier mobs that purport to oppose partisan government bailouts and handouts to privileged corporations. Ronald Perelman is the New York...

The Washington Nationals today announced that they have created a new division, Nationals Ballpark Enterprises, to develop and market non-baseball events at the new stadium and that they have hired Bari Lurie as the Director of Ballpark Enterprises.

*** This comment may contain spoilers *** Full disclosure requires me to reveal my prejudice: I am no fan of Rod Lurie. Back when Lurie was a KABC Radio film critic I crossed swords with him when he was on air attacking the Academy for honoring director and HUAC friendly witness Elia Kazan, and once again spinning the Hollywood left's unending revisionist history about the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, which started out investigating Nazis in Hollywood with full Communist Party support, but apparently went awry when, post WW2, HUAC attempted to root out communists in the creative guilds who...