Free Republic

Welcome to a brand new audio edition of The Mark Steyn Show, recorded live at sea before an audience of Mark Steyn Cruisers from around the world. Today's episode brings together two of the Steyn Show's favourite guests - Conrad Black and Samantha Smith - to take the temperature of the new reign of Charles III a year-and-a-half since the death of his mother, and to consider the merits of monarchy versus republican alternatives. And Conrad's proposal for a somewhat paradoxical constitutional reform prompts a scornful response from Samantha. To listen to the show, simply click above.

Nearly a week since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), igniting a nationwide debate about whether the controversial law invites discrimination based on sexual orientation, most potential Republican presidential candidates have taken the opportunity to bolster their conservative credentials. "Governor Pence has done the right thing," said former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Monday. “I want to commend Governor Mike Pence for his support of religious freedom, especially in the face of fierce opposition,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said in a written statement. “Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the...

Often the most wondrous things come in the smallest of packages. Today, the hope of an Arab Spring is fast becoming the despair of a nuclear winter. We’re turning our backs to the only true ally we have in the Middle East, only to make alliances with tenuously formed governments. The United Nations is more concerned with wealth redistribution and political correctness than it is for its chief priority -- peacekeeping. In the void, it’s important to remember a time when a child stepped in to do the job the UN couldn’t, or wouldn’t. Her target? Yuri Andropov, the general...

AUGUSTA — It is closing time at the Maine State Library, and suited employees and patrons rush to empty the building, without so much as a look at the little girl of bronze. At the foot of the life-size statue is a bear cub holding an American flag and fresh carnations. Cupped in her outstretched hands is a dove. Plastic flowers grace her neck. Who is this girl frozen in time? The base of the statue offers: Samantha Reed Smith, Maine's Young Ambassador of Goodwill. Twenty years ago this week, the 11-year-old girl from Manchester took a highly-publicized VIP tour...