Free Republic

A year into the pandemic, a lot has changed. And we're reminded of that every time we go outside (if we go outside). Masks have joined the traditional don't-leave-home-without-them trifecta of keys, wallets and phones - and they are here to stay. There are folks who hate them, who can't breathe through them, or who think they're a sign of political oppression. But for others, the widespread use of masks has made the past year one of liberation. With a mask, you can sing in the grocery store, talk to yourself on a walk, grimace in the gym, leave the...

These young Black girls should have been celebrating the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Instead, as the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett was well on its way, these girls — all 100 of them — got dressed up in judicial robes to launch a protest. “Honor Her Wish,” their little masks read. “Her wish,” of course, was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying request that her seat wouldn’t be filled until after the election. Joe Biden has pledged to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court if he wins in November. But President Trump and Senate Majority Leader...

In corporate media, conservative women are simply presumed to be bigoted, or stupid, or who cares, as long as it’s an opportunity to trivialize them. Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak is confused. In October 2019 she visited a “Women for Trump” rally in our nation’s capital, trying to figure out why these women support President Trump. Attendants were hesitant to answer Dvorak, particularly when she identified herself as a WaPo employee.“The women on the Capitol lawn approving of him, for the most part, didn’t want to talk to me,” she acknowledged. Those who did answered with vagaries, like one woman...

Not that long ago, cigarettes were completely woven into American culture. The Marlboro Man, posters telling us that “more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” even the armrests on planes and all our cars were designed for smokers. And now? Not so much. Can it work like that with guns? (snip) I grew up surrounded by cigarette smoke. My dad smoked. So did practically everyone else I knew. But my kids? Totally different. They saw someone smoking in a restaurant while we were traveling abroad recently and they freaked out, like they’d witnessed a beheading. Inconceivable in their world.

Looks like fear — not turkey — is the main course being served in our country this week. Political opportunists running for president have been cooking up a heaping platter of anti-Muslim sentiment since the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks on Paris. They’ve geared us up for an epic Hategiving with their ugly proposals to shut down mosques, register American Muslims and reject Syrian refugees who aren’t Christians.

Since when does serving up junk food give someone a license to preach? Politics and all things fried, fatty and fast are becoming intertwined to the point of absurdity. We’ve got the Papa John’s pizza guys weighing in on the health-care debate, while the burger slingers out west at In-N-Out can’t serve up a cheeseburger without a Bible verse. The craziness of fast-food commentary on social issues became obvious to me when I stumbled into a totally earnest discussion at a party last week by a bunch of Washingtonians who personally support the right to same-sex marriage, but are also...