Free Republic

One million Americans have now died from the coronavirus, according to an announcement made Thursday by President Joe Biden, marking a long-dreaded milestone for an incomprehensible tragedy. "Today, we mark a tragic milestone: one million American lives lost to COVID-19. One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic. Jill and I pray for each of them," Biden said in a statement. "As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember."

<p>Some 50 years ago, in 1964, 42 percent of Americans smoked cigarettes. Smoking in bars and offices was normal and cigarettes were given to soldiers as part of military rations. Half of American physicians smoked. Ads for cigarettes bombarded the American public. That year, the surgeon general released a report outlining the health risks of smoking. Two years later, only 40 percent of Americans said that they believed smoking was a major cause of cancer.</p>

It began as whispers in hushed corners: Could it ever happen? And now, just three months from the Iowa caucuses, members of the Republican establishment are starting to give voice to an increasingly common belief that Donald Trump, once dismissed as joke, a carnival barker, and a circus freak, might very well win the nomination. “Trump is a serious player for the nomination at this time,” says Ed Rollins, who served as the national campaign director for Reagan’s 1984 reelection and as campaign chairman for Mike Huckabee in 2008. Rollins is not alone in his views. “Trump has sustained a...

In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness. Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants. “I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises. “They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.” “They told...

We Americans live in a political era when it's reasonable, perhaps even prudent, to consider the unthinkable. Before the election of Barack Obama, most Americans were unable, or unwilling, to consider what his campaign promise to "fundamentally transform" the nation might mean. Before his election, those who used the word "socialism" to refer to his intentions were chided for being too extreme. (A longtime friend of mine said I'd "gone over the edge" in using such language.) Not until Newsweek published a February 2009 article entitled "We Are All Socialists Now" did the word become widely acceptable, if used benignly....

Prize Winning Horse Shot to Death in Family's Backyard Investigators are calling it a senseless crime. A prize winning horse was shot and killed behind a family's home over memorial day weekend. Dan Krauth News Reporter May 28, 2009 KENT COUNTY - Investigators are calling it a senseless crime. A prize winning horse was shot and killed behind a family's home over memorial day weekend. Terri Gordon is known as "the Horse Whisperer." She has raised the animals all of her life. It's her passion. Now, she only has three left. "This is wrong, that she had to suffer that...

SACRAMENTO — Republicans are rethinking the unthinkable: saying yes, though begrudgingly so, to taxes. It would be a hard break from dogma and would require their members to back down from pledges they've steadfastly upheld for years to avoid tax increases at all costs. But as state lawmakers stare into an abyss that is a $42 billion 18-month budget deficit, previous ideological markers appear to be softening. But it won't simply be a matter of yielding to the realities of an economic crisis. Republicans are the minority party in both legislative chambers, but they hold huge sway over budget negotiations...

WHILE AMERICANS focus on the interminable Clinton-Obama celebrity death match, Sen. John McCain is using clear-headed, compellingly crafted speeches to propose surprisingly bold, free-market ideas. With one huge exception, the Arizona Republican advocates more limited, open government as his Democratic rivals promise tax hikes and an even-busier state. Voters should welcome this stark contrast. On spending, John McCain would rule with a tight fist. "There will be no more subsidies for special pleaders -- no more corporate welfare -- no more throwing around billions of dollars of the people's money on pet projects, while the people themselves are struggling to...

A Jacksonville victim rights group and a state legislator urged Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday to launch a criminal probe into events that put Terri Schiavo in the hospital with severe brain damage 15 years ago. Justice Coalition founder Ted Hires also asked the state Department of Children & Families to take Schiavo into protective custody and Florida's attorney general to initiate a civil rights investigation into her treatment and efforts by her husband to have the feeding tube that keeps her alive removed. . . . Her parents said they filed the divorce proceedings because of Michael Schiavo's "total...

Dear Joe: The major issue in the Swiftboat stories is, and always has been, what John Kerry did in 1971 after he returned from Vietnam. Kerry cast a long dark shadow over all Vietnam Veterans with his outright perjury before the Senate concerning atrocities in Vietnam. His stories to the Senate committee were absolute lies..fabrications..perjury..fantasies, with NO substance. That dark shadow has defamed the entire Vietnam War veteran population, and gave "Aid and Comfort" to our enemies..the Vietnamese Communists. Kerry's stories were outright fabrications, and were intended for political gain with the radical left..McGovern, Teddy and Bobby Kennedy followers, Jane...

Japan flexes its muscles, thinking the unthinkable By Colin Joyce in Tokyo (Filed: 09/08/2003) Japan is moving away from decades of pacifism to strengthen its armed forces with an elite commando unit, aircraft carriers and spy satellites. The wide-ranging rethink has been spurred by a series of declarations from its Stalinist neighbour, North Korea, which has made plain its determination to acquire nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The escalating crisis has already caused Japan to promise pre-emptive air raids if it feels threatened, and analysts have begun publicly to discuss the ultimate taboo, the acquisition of atomic...

Spending: Having spent themselves into a hole, politicians are trying to make us feel sorry for them as they devise ways to climb out with anything but real cuts. Watch your wallet and listen up. The terms used as they work through their problems are right out of Alice in Wonderland. Herewith, a short though incomplete list. cuts, n. Reductions not in dollars spent but in the rate at which spending is allowed to increase. The University of California budget, up 68% in eight years, is said to face "extraordinarily significant cuts," though it's scheduled for a 4.9% increase. Draconian,...