Free Republic

“What is required of us now,” said President Barack Obama in his inaugural speech, “is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world….” Shortly thereafter, he used the same phrase as the title of his 2010 budget, which Congress has passed with minor alterations. In these and other ways, the President has made it clear that responsibility is to be the theme of his administration, playing the same role in recruiting popular support that the theme of “change” did during his election campaign. This theme...

WEST COVINA – Fame never seemed to be the destiny of Sergio Martinez, the man suspected of igniting the biggest wildfire this state has ever seen. At age 33, Martinez lives with his parents in a working-class section of this Los Angeles suburb, where he was a high school wrestler of moderate talent and had decent but unspectacular grades. People who know him say he's a nice enough guy. He works for a large housing developer and drives a pickup. Despite a college degree in accounting, he once ran up so much credit-card debt that he was forced to declare...

<p>Playing for the Pittsfield High School baseball team in Illinois, Danny Hannant threw a pitch that a Calhoun High School player hit in a line drive right at the pitcher's mound. The ball bounced off Hannant's head.</p> <p>Rather than blame the mishap on a lousy pitch or a missed catch, or on the intrinsic risks of the game, Hannant sued the maker of the bat, Hillerich & Bradsby. Seeking in excess of $1 million, Hannant's lawyer argued that the company should have put labels on its Louisville Slugger bats warning that the product "could cause a baseball to be propelled with such velocity that when hit directly towards a pitcher it does not allow the pitcher sufficient reaction time to avoid being struck."</p>