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Louise Fletcher, the Oscar winning actress known for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, has died aged 88. Fletcher's agent said she died at her home in France. The actress set a new standard for screen villains when she played opposite Jack Nicholson in the 1975 movie, for which she would win the Academy Award for best actress, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. The daughter of deaf parents, the Alabama native was taught to speak by her aunt and from an early age showed an interest in acting. She made her professional debut...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,both as book (1962) and movie (1975), was a huge commercial and cultural success. The central dramatic conflict pitted Randall McMurphy, heroic rebel played in the movie by Jack Nicholson, against his nemesis, the cold-hearted bureaucrat Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher. Not even the most marijuana-marinated hippie could miss the simple-minded duality presented in Ken Kesey's work. Randall McMurphy is a charming, near-perfect free spirit who deserves our love and support. On the other hand, Nurse Ratched is a mean, vicious, horrible person who should be hated by the entire human race. Clearly, Nurse...

A nurse at CHI Memorial Hospital in Tennessee passed out on live television after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday. Their PR stunt for the vaccine could not have possibly gone any worse.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: If you establishment types really, really want to understand how Trump supporters look at this -- if you really do -- let me remind you of something. By the way, I'm proud of how often I'm seeing this pop up in columns and opinion pieces. It is something I have been reminding people over the past month. You guys in the Drive-Bys in analyzing Hillary's debate, you're judging rhetoric. You're judging the spoken word. That's how you define intelligence (muttering), "It's intellectualspeak. You communicate (muttering) so you're really, really smart, really... Obama does intellectualspeak. It's a specific...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Hillary debate debacle, the presidential forum debacle and the panic and fear that's overtaking the Democrats over her lack of... Well, she just... She bombed out, frankly, didn't look good, and she needs to let people see her heart and she needs to try to be humble and she needs to try to be real. I just find this incredible. A woman who we are told is the Smartest Woman in the World for her entire 30-year political career -- and doesn't that say something? Thirty years, and she still hasn't shown us her heart? It's...

Of all the metaphors he might have picked to praise Hillary Clinton, Joe Scarborough chose the most unfortunate one: that of “brain surgeon.” Because to many people, Hillary brings to mind none other than Nurse Ratched, that cold and domineering figure who subjected one of her charges who wouldn’t fall in line to . . . a lobotomy. On today’s Morning Joe, Scarborough actually said “why don’t we try actually hiring a brain surgeon who’s been operating on brains instead of chopping down trees for the past 30 years?” Scarborough put the words in the mouths of Hillary supporters he...

I don’t know a ton about Boris Johnson. He’s the former Mayor of London, is very pro-Israel and hates the BDS movement, led the Brexit campaign only to withdraw from contention to be Prime Minister, and was just appointed Foreign Minister (okay, “Foreign Secretary”) in Theresa May’s new cabinet. And he has a mop of blonde hair. He obviously has some wit, as in a 2007 column in The Telegraph newspaper in Britain, wherein he described Hillary Clinton in terms we all can appreciate (emphasis added): “She’s got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like...

In the climactic scene of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Billy Bibbit, a likeable but painfully withdrawn young male patient in a mental institution, finally seems to be emerging from a lifetime of crippling anxiety, depression and suicide attempts, speaking boldly and without stuttering for the first time. As the other patients good-naturedly cheer Billy on, the cold and malevolent head administrator, Nurse Ratched – perversely threatened by Billy’s new-found freedom and independence – manipulates him right back down into the depths of his mental dungeon. He pitifully sinks to the floor, stammering and screaming, as the guards drag...

BOSTON — There’s a reason why most would-be politicians start by running for lesser offices, as Massachusetts Democrats are finding to their chagrin this spring, as their anointed US Senate candidate springs one unpleasant surprise after another. Elizabeth Warren, a 62-year-old Harvard Law School professor, seemed to have all the right stuff to regain the lost Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy from Republican usurper Scott Brown. In this bluest of states, she remains competitive, out-fund-raising the incumbent 2 to 1 in the last quarter. In recent statewide polls, she’s been running even or slightly ahead. Yet her campaign...

New York Senator Hillary Clinton acknowledges a 3-minute ovation during the Democratic National Convention 2008 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, August 26. Democratic women Senators appears on stage at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 26, 2008. U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is expected to accept the Democratic presidential nomination at the convention on August 28. US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama watches New York Senator Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention on a TV screen in Billings, Montana on August 26. Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (R) (D-DE) stand at the podium...

One of the sources of Barack Obama's strength against Ms. Hillary is his greater likability. She lacks the ability to criticize him effectively in part because doing so tends to highlight one of his strengths along with one of her weaknesses. Even so, we haven't yet seen a public display of anger at Obama or her situation that reveals her inner Nurse Ratched. Her inner Ratched is one voice she "found" long before her weepy tribute to herself in New Hampshire. (Thanks to reader Daniel Aronstein for the link to the photoshop of Nurse Hillary.) Lucianne highlights a CNN...

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, one of the most conservative members of Congress, endorsed Fred Thompson this morning -- providing the former Tennessee senator with a much-needed boost in the rapidly approaching Iowa caucuses. Thompson issued the following statement about the endorsement: "Congressman King's leadership in support of the sanctity of life and his efforts in the fight against illegal immigration have made him one of Iowa's great Republican leaders. He's a tireless fighter for the 5th district of Iowa and I'm honored by his support. I look forward to working with Congressman King over the next three weeks and...

Those who watched the Republican presidential "debate" in Iowa Wednesday now understand why The Des Moines Register is such a lousy newspaper. "That was not just the worst debate of 2007, that was the worst debate in Western history, and that includes the ancient Greeks," said columnist Charles Krauthammer. "There is no record in any major European record of a debate this transcendingly and crushingly dull." Mr. Krauthammer arguably wasn't engaging in hyperbole. Imagine a boxing match in which the boxers aren't allowed to lay a glove on each other, and you have an idea of what this "debate" was...

"Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., pauses during a press conference to announce that Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., left, will support her in her run for the presidency on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007, in Washington."

Clintons take her campaign to the fair SYRACUSE, N.Y. Former President Bill Clinton says he's not pressuring his wife to run for president. The former president made comments at the State Fair yesterday, where Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was capping a three-day swing through New York farm country. The trip has served to boost Clinton's visibility in the state's Finger Lakes wine region and other rural parts of central New York, a predominantly Republican region where she would need to do well if she runs for president in 2008. Former President Bill Clinton said he quote -- "didn't have a...