Free Republic

As a new year begins, it is sobering to find that one has outlived national stereotypes that endured for generations. A hundred and thirty-seven years ago, when I was just venturing out into the world, the universally acknowledged joke was some variant of:In Heaven the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, the engineers are German, the police are British, and it's all run by the Swiss.In Hell the chefs are British, the lovers are Swiss, the engineers French, the police German and it's all run by the Italians.How we all laughed!Of course, times change. I was trying to work...

Ukraine is reportedly on the precipice of a major victory, with its counter-offensive around the eastern city of Kharkiv (Kharkov) unexpectedly putting the Russian army on the back foot. According to British intelligence, Russian forces appear to have been “taken by surprise” by the Ukrainians, who have reportedly advanced “up to 50 kilometres (31 miles) into previously Russian-held territory on a narrow front.”

Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday that the U.S. is on the “precipice of losing our democracy.” “We are standing on the precipice of losing our democracy, and everything that everybody else cares about then goes out the window,” said Clinton to interviewer Edward Luce.

When Professor Obama finally stepped away from the lectern after Wednesday night’s State of the Union, I felt a sudden hankering to amble across campus to the dining hall for some late chow. No doubt, if I were still in college, the cafeteria fare would have been more flavorful than the lecture, which was like trying to ingest wallpaper paste. We’ve all seen the picture of Professor Obama at the blackboard, chalk in hand, but nothing in that still, silent shot of the man, could have allowed us to understand how absolutely dull his class would be. We have an...

Now that Scott Brown has beaten Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Obama Administration over? If you listen to the political pundits, it is. The underlying basis for the theory is that, like President Bill Clinton after Democrat Congressional losses in 1994, President Obama will have no choice but to do as Clinton did and shift toward the center. Simple enough analysis, but it’s dead wrong. There are two enormous differences between Clinton and Obama that will make that rudimentary analysis go awry. Bill Clinton had an unquenchable need to be liked by everyone....

The Democrats have proven time and again this past year that nothing is more important to them than the legacy of this healthcare bill; not rules, not their personal careers, not even what the people of the country think or want. They’ve been marching en masse toward this cliff and with their disregard for everything but their agenda now nakedly exposed, they have little choice but to continue. The thought that now, at the five yard line and heading into the end zone, this little election in Massachusetts might push them out-of-bounds, will only cause them to dig in deeper;...

So often, evil is simple to identify. You know the historically bad people. But, then again, once in a while Pat Robertson opens his pie hole and reminds us that a different kind of evil sometimes creeps along like that dirty little wolf in minister’s clothing. If you missed it, this “pillar of Christianity” decided that, while the people of Haiti were suffering from a devastating earthquake, many of whom, at that very moment were buried beneath the rubble clinging to life, he should let everyone know that the disaster was actually their fault, no pun intended. The convoluted logic...

WASHINGTON – Standing before a nation on an economic precipice, President Barack Obama told worried Americans Tuesday night the U.S. has reached a dire "day of reckoning" that will require boldness and long-term vision to create lasting revival and prosperity. "The time to take charge of our future is here," Obama said, delivering his first address to a joint session of Congress just five weeks into his presidency. Along with his warnings, he had reassuring words. "Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than...