Free Republic

Having completed my first full day in Singapore, I continue to be impressed, as I believe all visitors are, by what a shiny, clean, well-organized place it is. One could say that this is because it’s a wealthy country. I would go in the other direction: It’s wealthy because it’s chosen to be a clean, bright, shiny place. Yesterday, we went to the Marina Bay complex, a major tourist attraction that has two massive indoor gardens and one of the biggest malls I’ve ever seen. To get there and back, we took the underground trains that are part of the...

Trauma creeps up on you when you are distracted. Someone bends down to pick up a piece of paper that fell on the floor of the MTR train carriage, and even if your eyes are on your phone, you catch that movement with your peripheral vision, and your heart skips a beat. The images come back unsolicited, and play in the inscrutable theatre of one’s brain: people begging to be spared, kneeling in that same metallic, silvery doorway, crying for help and mercy. Police officers don’t care: they storm the train, they beat people they suspect of being protesters with...

House Democratic leaders are scrambling for a way to unite their splintered caucus following a series of embarrassing votes that have empowered the minority Republicans and escalated tensions among the top party brass. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday urged her troops to oppose the Republicans’ procedural motions as a blanket policy, regardless of their substance, but faced resistance from some moderates who want the leeway to vote with local concerns in mind.“Vote 'no.' Just vote 'no,' because the fact is a vote 'yes' is to give leverage to the other side, to surrender the leverage on the floor of...