Free Republic

Sometime in the 1960s there arose a new homegrown distrust of the United States, followed by an erosion of faith in the values of the West. Perhaps the culprit was the fiasco in Vietnam or the rise of a trendy multiculturalism that followed from it. Our schools often insisted that all cultures were to be roughly the same. History devolved more into melodrama than tragedy. America was no longer exceptional -- and thus in no position to criticize a Cuba as undemocratic or condemn the Iranian mullahs as murderously theocratic. The enormous wealth and leisure that followed from global capitalism...

My un-American Democratic Party Originally published on May 24, 2004. Republished Oct. 21, 2004 Imagine you've got a Muslim neighbor who is actually a radical, but hasn't yet revealed to you his inner radical thoughts. He may seem like a nice family-oriented, hard-working, reliable guy, but then at a barbecue he tells his private view that the "worldwide Jewish movement" is the embodiment of evil, and that Israel must be destroyed. One moment you think he's a reasonably normal guy, and a moment later you realize he lives in a very dark world. Still, there he is, smiling at you...

<p>As an A-list celebrity, actor Vince Vaughn employs an array of weapons to cope with hecklers, from a Saharan wit to a waiting limo.</p> <p>But during a movie shoot recently in England, Vaughn found himself repeatedly reaching for the same comeback. Three totemic words from the attic of history: the Marshall Plan.</p>