Free Republic

When Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, I was 32 years old. I was frustrated with my initial experiences in the world of business, not in small measure because of the previous four years of The Carter Malaise and the sense that my first hand experience of the political perfidy that pervaded the end of The VietNam War had somehow become part and parcel of American foreign policy and military strategy. To be a cog in the machine of the late 70’s economy was to be constantly in motion, always under pressure and sorely lacking...

Some Kind of Republican Was John Hughes really in favor of teen rebellion? By Michael Weiss Posted Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, at 4:36 PM ET As far as adult teen whisperers go, John Hughes has enjoyed a remarkable staying power. Anyone who grew up in the '80s—or just caught the decade on reruns on rainy Saturday-afternoon television—can probably remember high school as much for its unique misery as for the Breakfast Club references it evokes. Hughes was in his 30s when he became successful, and he managed to make teen cinema intentionally funny and less condescending toward its core audience,...

Love it or hate it, you have to admit: A mullet hairstyle is distinctive There are two kinds of people in this country, and forget that blue-state, red-state thing. You're either for a mullet or against a mullet. What's a mullet? Do not mock us. Yes, a mullet is a spiny-finned, feeble-toothed fish, but we all know it's so much more. A mullet is a hairstyle characterized by the hair cut short in front and on the sides but kept long down the back. It's not a cutting-edge style. But recently, the mullet has re-emerged as a pop culture object...

To hear Steven Van Zandt tell it, he had no choice. He had simply wanted to do a two-hour radio show, no big deal, on which he could play some of the garage rock he loves and have some fun. But when he pitched the idea to syndicators, what they told him forced him to turn his hobby into a crusade. "They said, 'Stevie, baby, we love you,' " he said, his eyes wide in mock disbelief, "but we cannot get rock 'n' roll on the radio anymore.' " Big pause. "And it was like, aaarrrggghh," he said, his voice...