Free Republic

In addition to all the annoying sound and fury, the Trent Lott affair produced three important but painful political lessons for Republicans who hope for future victories for their party. 1. When it comes to political damage, the cover-up almost always proves more costly than the original crime. This rule applied to the Watergate disaster, the Lewinsky catastrophe, and every other major act of public self-destruction – including the recent immolation of Sen. Lott. If Nixon and Clinton had quickly and completely admitted their wrongdoing, they would have suffered intense but fleeting embarrassment, while avoiding constitutional crises that paralyzed their...

In the midst of this joyous holiday season we will all enjoy a series of family and social gatherings sure to provide festive food, abundant libations and freewheeling political rants. It could be your Uncle Murray or perhaps your sister-in-law Fawn, but this year one or more members of your clan will inevitably offer some indignant objection to the upcoming war against Iraq. Here, as a public service, we present a handy guide to the top-10 arguments against that war, and the most direct and effective ways to counter them. War never solved anything. Not true – war has successfully...

America's Libertarian Party services only one purpose: Distracting and confusing the determined combatants in all our critical national struggles. Consider the preposterous Libertarian role in the just concluded midterm elections. South Dakota represented ground zero in the struggle for control of the Senate, and Republican John Thune and incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson fought to a virtual tie--with only 527 votes (less than 0.2 percent of the vote) dividing them. Meanwhile, 3,071 votes went to Libertarian Kurt Evans, a 32-year-old teacher who listed as one of his prime preparations for the Senate that his father is a known Country & Western...

Many people, inside and especially outside this country, believe that the American president is nuts, and is taking the world on a suicidal path. As a board-certified psychiatrist, I feel it's my duty to share my understanding of his psychopathology. He's a complicated man, under tremendous pressure from both his family/junta, and from the world at large. So the following is offered with humility and questioning, in the form of a differential diagnosis. From the Freudian point of view: Dubya may be acting out a classical Oedipal drama--overcome Daddy to get Mommy. By deposing Saddam, when his father did not,...

<p>For show-business stars, the adoration of the public provides far more than ego boosts; it is the very basis of their success and survival, the ultimate source of privilege and power. Why, then, do so many Hollywood celebrities recklessly place this popularity at risk with edgy, outspoken, confrontational political posturing that's sure to insult some substantial segment of their fans?</p>

In the midst of budget shortfalls, soaring deficits, service cuts, park closings, library shutdowns and desperate calls for emergency tax increases, bureaucrats in one of America's most allegedly enlightened cities plan to spend $8.7 million on comfortable new apartments for homeless drunks. In what they acknowledge represents an "unconventional approach" to the problem of inebriated street people, Seattle officials plan to combine federal, state, county and city funds to build 75 units in a trendy neighborhood. The alcoholic tenants will enjoy three months of free residence, and heavily subsidized rent thereafter. They will also receive two free meals a day,...