Free Republic

“It is 1938; Iran is Germany; and it is racing to acquire nuclear weapons.” Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly punctuated his speech in Los Angeles earlier this month with that sentence. It was an effective rhetorical device, conveying both a sense of threat and a sense of urgency. But 1938 may be relevant in more ways than as a rhetorical device. Revisiting that year, through Winston Churchill’s compelling account in “The Gathering Storm,” is an instructive exercise, and one the Iraq Study Group might consider as it completes its deliberations. February 20, 1938: Churchill spent the entire night without sleep, “consumed by...

California's method of taxing property owners is the most iniquitous system possible, clobbering some taxpayers and letting others skate. Because homeowners got fed up with being gouged on property taxes 25 years ago, voters defied the power brokers, pundits and politicians and approved Proposition 13, rolling back tax rates and tightly limiting increases. That sent a shock wave through the political system. But instead of heeding the public's message and getting down to work on the people's problems, the politicians on both sides of the aisles went on strike. The result is that California's infrastructure has rotted. Public schools have...