Free Republic

A Ukrainian pianist has been filmed playing a final rendition of Chopin in the ruins of her house after it was badly damaged by Russian shelling. In a video recorded by her daughter, Iryna Manyukina is seen playing the piano in their home in Bila Tserkva, some 80 kilometers from Kyiv.

Last night, the Academy Awards had an opportunity to have a Defining Moment. Hollywood had a chance to say something powerful, but the moment was lost. You might think I'm speaking about the current military action, where we're stumblingly thumping Iraq into submission, but I'm not. Michael Moore grabbed the moment to spout something about the war, but -- whether I agree with him or not -- I found his approach to dissent tacky and ill-timed. I sincerely hope none of the parents of dead or captured American soldiers saw his petulant 'attempted rant.' (Thank god Peter O'Toole, former inveterate...

WASHINGTON -- Let's say you have a colleague, a gifted man with a troubled past, whose work you admire. Imagine that your talented co-worker gave a girl of 13 alcohol and drugs, instructed her to strip and join him in a hot tub and then -- despite her saying, "No, stop" -- had sex with her. What if he left the country to avoid prison? What if he not only admitted his crime but whined to a reporter that although America has a "wonderful" Constitution, it needs to get its "puritanism" under control? Would you bestow upon him your profession's...