Free Republic

Two years ago, after some medical treatment following my third heart attack following the Mark Steyn Adriatic Cruise, I took a cab to Milan's central station to board one of the most agreeable trains I've ever ridden. The dining car had an excellent wine list, better than most restaurants.I don't recall the station being quite as impressive as the train, but it had a handsome atrium. I remember standing awhile and looking up at the ceiling. I wouldn't do that today, because I might fail to spot the incoming projectile and duck in time. This was the scene yesterday:(video at...

Because they made the mistake of sabotaging his escalator and then his prompter, the President of the United States opened up a supersized can of geopolitical whup-ass on the UN General Assembly this week, pithily summarised by many headline-writers thus:Trump's middle finger to the UN: 'Your countries are going to hell'In fairness, this insight was mainly directed at America's "allies" in Europe. The particular hell they are going to will not be news to those who've swung by this shingle over the last twenty-three years, but I thought it might be worth doing a brisk tour d'horizon of where we're...

I regret that the President of the United States is quite so susceptible to the blandishments of a dying monarchy. While he was swanking about Windsor Castle, just a few miles away this was happening to one of his fellow Americans:The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion 🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: An American cancer patient and Trump supporter was confronted by British police and told to apologise for her online posts or face an investigation. Deborah Anderson, a mother of two, was visited at her home in June by an officer from Thames Valley Police. He told her someone had lodged a complaint about her...

There must be something wrong with me. The fireworks closing off the Republican National Convention were sensational. The music was inspiring. The speakers throughout the entire convention did well—no major screw-ups that I saw. The stories worked. And through it all, Trump and his proxies articulated a clear case for re-election. As conventions go, it felt like a success. And yet as the last firework fizzled out, some melancholy seized me, and I wondered if the real story of the week wasn't the convention at all, or the upcoming debates, or even the winner of the 2020 election. I wondered...

... or "The Jews are our dogs": The enthusiastic chant on the streets of Montreal, along with cries of "Hezbollah! Nasrallah!" It's easy to think all this stuff is just about the Jew troublemakers, and who cares about them, right? But the thuggery on display in western cities is meant to intimidate not the despised Jew dogs but a more general audience — and it seems to be doing the job. Powerline notes the bizarre response from the French government to a Molotov cocktail attack on a synagogue in St-Denis: "Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France has faced a "very...