Free Republic

Porn reduces the mind and flattens the soul. I don't like it. That's not hypocrisy talking; that's just experience. I sometimes think of myself, ironically, as a progressive: I started off as a liberal but I progressed to conservatism. Part of that transformation is due to my time in the industry. How does a conservative trace his roots to such distasteful beginnings? I didn't like porn's liberalism. In porn, everything taboo is trivialized and everything trivial is magnified. Being in the adult entertainment industry was sort of like being in a cult, and like all followers of a cult, I...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006 -- Two years ago, much of the Iraqi city of Fallujah had suffered severe damage after some of the hardest fighting seen since the country was liberated by U.S. and coalition forces in the spring of 2003. Today, construction across Fallujah is booming, and the city’s 400,000-resident population is growing, Marine Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, told Pentagon reporters today from Fallujah during a satellite-televised news conference. Nicholson has commanded RCT-5’s nearly 5,000 U.S. Marines, soldiers and sailors since February. The unit’s primary mission, he said, is to train and...

Earlier this year, Erik Duane was living in California with his wife and daughter and working in Cerritos College’s information technology department. Now, he is Gunnery Sgt. Erik Duane, a Civil Affairs Group Marine in Al Asad, Iraq. Duane’s list of his team’s projects is a microcosm of what the U.S. is doing throughout Iraq: “We have water and sewage treatment projects planned, as well as numerous repairs to the local schools and residences. We are also working closely with the local leaders to establish a strong governance in this aea.” His troops call him “Gunny,” and Shu’aib Barzan Hamreen...

Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler and photographer Todd Heisler spent the past year with the Marines stationed at Aurora's Buckley Air Force Base (Colorado) who have found themselves called upon to notify families of the deaths of their sons in Iraq. In each case in this story, the families agreed to let Sheeler and Heisler chronicle their loss and grief. They wanted people to know their sons, the men and women who brought them home, and the bond of traditions more than 200 years old that unite them. Though readers are led through the story by the white-gloved hand...

Letter to All Hands, We are going back in to the brawl. We will be relieving the magnificent soldiers fighting under the 82nd Airborne Division, whose hard wonsuccesses in the Sunni Triangle have opened opportunities for us to exploit. For the last year, the 82nd Airborne has been operating against the heart of the enemy's resistance. It's appropriate that we relieve them: When it's time to move a piano, Marines don't pick up the piano bench - we move the piano. So this is the right place for Marines in this fight, where we can carry on the legacy of...