Free Republic

Kevin Moen has four grandchildren. That provides a passage-of-time perspective on The Play, the amazing, five-lateral Big Game kickoff return in 1982 that will mark its 40th anniversary on Sunday, one day after this year’s Cal-Stanford game. Moen was the Cal player who scored the touchdown on The Play, then slammed the ball into Stanford trombonist Gary Tyrrell, putting them both into Big Game history forever and beginning a life-long relationship between the two. “He was one of the guys at Stanford that kept a good perspective with what The Play was,” said Moen. “It wasn’t life or death. It...

Washington -- This past Sunday brought the news to the front pages of our leading newspapers of the passing of shock jock Don Imus. Comparatively speaking, it was happy news. At least, it was happy news compared with the news that otherwise adorns the front pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times and is then repeated and repeated in the newspapers' interior pages. Most of the stories these dolorous journalists cover are stories of squalor, grief, travail and out-and-out evil. Do you doubt me? See how many cheerful stories you can find either on the front pages...

In the many decades I have had the pleasure of covering the Clintons, I have developed several themes about them that have, over the years, been validated by fact. One theme is that there is a Clinton curse. It afflicts many who come into contact with the fabulous couple. In the early days, the curse brought down the McDougals, Webb Hubbell, Vince Foster and former Governor Jim Guy Tucker, all of whom by now are figures known only to history. More recently it was Jeffrey Epstein, sex offender and Bill Clinton's pal and fellow epicure. Now, quite possibly, Josh Earnest,...

WASHINGTON -- The death of Fred Ikle last week inspires me to prophesy. Thus far, only the redoubtable Wall Street Journal has remarked on Fred's passing. That he was a formidable mind during the Cold War and important to the peaceful settlement of that decades-long struggle is remembered thanks to the Journal. Yet, to the rest of the media, he is a minor figure -- perhaps a menacing figure. We shall see what they say, but I am not holding my breath. This is the way liberalism creates the Kultursmog, which is to say, the politicized culture that surrounds us....

WASHINGTON -- "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" So said John Maynard Keynes when a dearly held belief of his was confronted by new facts. He changed his mind and was not ashamed. I am an extreme empiricist. Show me the facts, and I shall make up my mind. Show me the new facts, and I shall change my mind. Last week, goaded by Drudge's hordes, I took my stand against the opponents of the scan and the pat-down. I thought they were hysterics and very funny or provocateurs and obnoxious. Also, they...

Our friend Pat Hickey has caught wind of some potentially interesting news on Chicago's soon to be roiling Mayoral election now that Richard "King" Daley has decided he no longer wants the big seat. Conservative publisher R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr. has reportedly said he might be interested in taking a run at City Hall. Pat reports that through the grapevine he heard of Tyrell's possible campaign: R. Emmett Tyrrell, the founder of The American Spectator is interested in running for Mayor of Chicago. Bob Tyrrell, like Governor Pat Quinn, is a proud Alumnus of Fenwick High School. It sure would...

I think he makes a good point.

WASHINGTON -- What strikes me about politics over the past couple of years is how obvious it all has been. In 2008, as the junior senator from Illinois campaigned across the country, demonstrating his gifts as a motivational speaker and community organizer, all one had to do was review his recent life to know that he was about to bring down on the country -- ever so incompetently -- the most left-wing government in American history. And so he has -- with the utmost incompetence. Think of the paucity of swine flu vaccine, in large part the consequence of his...

WASHINGTON -- It is vacation time, and this summer millions of Americans are going to take breaks from their daily toils. Many will seek out quiet spots to relax with family members. They will head to the beach or to campsites, and some will defy gas prices and head for the open road. The summer vacation is a perfect time to read a book, possibly two books. There are all kinds of books available: personal improvement books, how-to books, bad books, very bad books. For some reason, the books I have been reading this summer have been mostly history books....

WASHINGTON -- The other day while laying down my thoughts on the forty years of conservative journalism that I have undergone so painlessly since perpetrating my first published wisecrack in the autumn of 1967, I rang up El Rushbo for his collaboration. That would be Rush Limbaugh for the benighted; for the millions in his daily radio audience, he is El Rushbo. Rush recalled the liberal media monopoly that existed in the late 1960s and that now is sorely pressed by the emergence of talk radio, of various conservative journals and newspapers, and by the rise Fox News. He noted...

The Barrett Report details the results of an investigation of the IRS and Henry Cisneros by an Independant Counsel under Clinton

HILLARY'S SECRET WAR The Clintons’ enemy list Posted: July 19, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: The following is an eye-opening look into New York Times best-selling author Richard Poe's revealing book, "Hillary's Secret War." Whereas Edward Klein's book on the New York senator reveals previously unknown aspects of her personal life, Poe's expose focuses on how Hillary Clinton and the left's "shadow government" have labored to put her and her far-left agenda in the White House by controlling the still-uncensored flow of real news to Americans – via the Internet.If that sounds too fantastic to be true, read on....

Yesterday's taping of "Fresh Air" focused on the life's work of conservative political strategist and direct mail specialist, Richard Viguerie. In order to balance out the hatchet job she performed on that pioneering architect of a brilliant new device in American politics, Ms. Gross invited David Brock-prevaricator, turncoat and all around tool-onto her program tonight, to defend his own noxious actions and to tear down people whose shoes he's not fit to lick.

<p>The American Spectator took a break Wednesday from whacking Democrats. It let Democrat Zell Miller do the honors.</p> <p>The Georgia senator, whose book "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" is the buzz about town, served up a spirited keynote address at the Washington Club Dinner at the Willard InterContinental. The event was sponsored by the American Alternative Foundation, which is affiliated with the magazine.</p>