Free Republic

“With marijuana,” declare William J. Bennett and Robert A. White in Going to Pot, their new prohibitionist screed, “we have inexplicably suspended all the normal rules of reasoning and knowledge.” You can’t say they didn’t warn us. The challenge for Bennett, a former drug czar and secretary of education who makes his living nowadays as a conservative pundit and talk radio host, and White, a New Jersey lawyer, is that most Americans support marijuana legalization, having discovered through direct and indirect experience that cannabis is not the menace portrayed in decades of anti-pot propaganda. To make the familiar seem threatening...

From the precincts of the European Union to the United Nations to the editorial pages in the United States, it is being argued that Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s kidnapping of Israelis and firing of rockets into Israel is “disproportionate,” a threat to the region, and could undo the U.S. democracy project in the Middle East. What is disproportion in the Middle East? How should one state respond to multi-state-sponsored terror? Begin with the fundamentals. Hezbollah, once described as “the A-team of terrorists” by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, is a terrorist group with a record of killing hundreds...

There was a time when the press was the strongest guardian of free expression in this democracy. Stories and celebrations of intrepid and courageous reporters are many within the press corps. Cases such as New York Times v. Sullivan in the 1960s were litigated so that the press could report on and examine public officials with the unfettered reporting a free people deserved. In the 1970s the Pentagon Papers case reaffirmed the proposition that issues of public importance were fully protected by the First Amendment.

The "auxiliary precautions" of Florida government — in this case the Florida supreme court — have failed Terri Schiavo. It is time, therefore, for Governor Bush to execute the law and protect her rights, and, in turn, he should take responsibility for his actions. Using the state police powers, Governor Bush can order the feeding tube reinserted. His defense will be that he and a majority of the Florida legislature believe the Florida Constitution requires nothing less... In taking these extraordinary steps to save an innocent life, Governor Bush should be judged not by the opinion of the Florida supreme...

The Right to Life: Protecting one woman. By William J. Bennett & Brian T. Kennedy Terry Schiavo is near death. If actions are to be taken to save her life, they must be taken now. Let us briefly review the relevant facts: Terri is a human being whose physical condition is in dispute, but perhaps not for long. She is the daughter of loving parents, and she has a brother and sister. She is the wife of a man who once loved her, may still love her, but has taken a new woman and has with her two children. It...

Terry Schiavo is near death. If actions are to be taken to save her life, they must be taken now. Let us briefly review the relevant facts: Terri is a human being whose physical condition is in dispute, but perhaps not for long. She is the daughter of loving parents, and she has a brother and sister. She is the wife of a man who once loved her, may still love her, but has taken a new woman and has with her two children. It is his duty under Florida law, and by common sense, to be her guardian. Florida...

Celebration and ConcernWill the Bush administration remember what the president said Thursday? By William J. BennettPresident George W. Bush's inaugural address pleased and inspired me. Talk about a return to, and affirmation of, first and best principles! This exhilarating testament to freedom reminded me of why I became a member of the Republican party 20 years ago, the Democrats having then abandoned the fields of human rights and national security. And, it warmed my heart to see the long and hard-wrought toilings of old friends payoff in what sounded to me like a new theme in foreign policy: "The...

Bush's Mandate By William J. Bennett Editor's Note:This essay is adapted from a speech sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the Claremont Institute, delivered on November 15 in Washington, DC. * * * What emerged from the 2004 election was a moral consensus, and with it, something we might call a mandate. But it is not the mandate some are talking about. Let's begin with some inescapable facts. George W. Bush is the first president of either party since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 to be reelected while gaining seats in both houses of Congress. President Bush won a majority...

As your party prepares to begin its convention in Boston, you should be mindful of the perspective and feeling of many former Democrats, Independents, and undecideds — about your general state of anger and fury. Former President Bill Clinton has recently argued that the prosecutions against him when he was president resulted from a Republican sentiment that his 1992 election was a violation of the natural order: "They really believed, when I won, it interrupted the natural order of things." Clinton is wrong — I knew many Republicans who voted for Clinton in 1992, thinking his welfare promises and his...

National Enterprise Zones of Choice: Demonstrating the Power of Tax Reform and Ending Economic Dependency March, 2003 Introduction There are three massive, continuing public policy failures underway in the United States. These failures are needlessly preventing millions of people from achieving the American dream. One failure is our misguided approach to lifting people out of poverty; the second failure is the ineffectual way we finance and deliver education; and the third is the self-destructive way we tax ourselves to fund the federal government. It is time to end these failed policies and allow all Americans to achieve prosperity and security...

Last month, given all of the attacks on our soldiers, and the conflicts in Fallujah and Najaf, I was reminded of T.S. Eliot, who wrote, "April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land; mixing memory and desire; stirring dull roots with spring rain." Now, with the reports and images we are seeing from Abu Ghraib, the hearings in the House and Senate, and the slaughter of Nicholas Berg of Philadelphia, I'm not sure what to say about this month—it contends with April, to say the least. Our emotions are stirred, our consciences are challenged. Nonetheless, our...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following remarks were delivered by William J. Bennett to the Claremont Institute President's Club on May 14, 2004, in Palm Springs, California. Last month, given all of the attacks on our soldiers, and the conflicts in Fallujah and Najaf, I was reminded of T.S. Eliot, who wrote, "April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land; mixing memory and desire; stirring dull roots with spring rain." Now, with the reports and images we are seeing from Abu Ghraib, the hearings in the House and Senate, and the slaughter of Nicholas Berg of Philadelphia, I'm...

It is worth addressing what is happening in Iraq and what many of the naysayers are propagating, specifically, Sen. Ted Kennedy's comment that "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam." We need to be reminded that we are in a war. Many of us said right after 9/11 that this will be a long and hard war. And it will be. Because of many early victories, we cannot forget that wars are not easy and that they are not clean and, when truly meaningful, they are not short. Many have been questioning our mission because of the violence in Iraq — but...

<p>IT is worth addressing what is happening in Iraq and what many of the naysayers are propagating, specifically, Sen. Ted Kennedy's comment that "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam." We need to be reminded that we are in a war. Many of us said right after 9/11 that this will be a long and hard war. And it will be. Because of many early victories, we cannot forget that wars are not easy and that they are not clean and, when truly meaningful, they are not short.</p>

In the wake of the single worst attack on our nation in her long history, it is a sad fact that one of our two major political parties has proven itself untrustworthy to govern. The single most important issue of our day is fighting terrorists and defeating the threats and acts of terrorism. And on this question, the Democratic Party cannot speak coherently. The candidates who support, or supported, the war in Iraq pulled out of the race early. The candidates who raged against the war and President Bush's prosecution of it, including those who voted for it in 2002,...

It is a "pretense" to think that "terrorism represents a failure, rather than a core element, of Palestinian governance," as Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby recently put it. The question thus becomes: If terrorism is at the center of Palestinian leadership, what is at the center of Palestinian desires — for Palestinians, for Israel, and for America? The question of what Palestinians want and think is important, because creating a new state is fraught with difficulty and rightful skepticism — especially in the Middle East, where the new Palestinian state would be the Arab world's 22nd. And not one of...

A reminder to those powers that be who have forgotten http://www.jewishworldreview.com | The terrorist attacks against us on September 11, 2001 taught us a great many lessons. One of the lessons we learned—or relearned—was that democracy is not just disliked by Islamists, it is hated. And one way to give in to terrorism, rather than fight it, is to concur with the basis for that hatred and weaken democratic institutions, and democracies. We in the United States did no such thing. Rather, we decided to brook no tolerance for terrorism, and we sought to root it out by going after...

n a recent debate with Lee Bollinger, current president of Columbia University and the named defendant in the University of Michigan race cases just decided by the Supreme Court, Matt Lauer asked Mr. Bollinger: "Can you have diversity at our universities and schools without taking race into account?" Mr. Bollinger responded: "You really can't." So much for the long march of civil rights that began by declaring all men were created equal; Abraham Lincoln's belief that we could treat all humans equally because they are all part of "the whole great family of man;" Justice John Marshall Harlan's dissenting opinion...

'A number of stories in the media have reported that I have engaged in high stakes gambling over the past decade. It is true that I have gambled large sums of money. I have also complied with all laws on reporting wins and losses. Nevertheless, I have done too much gambling, and this is not an example I wish to set. Therefore, my gambling days are over...'

William J. Bennett has made millions lecturing people on morality--and blown it on gambling. "We should know that too much of anything, even a good thing, may prove to be our undoing...[We] need ... to set definite boundaries on our appetites." The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett No person can be more rightly credited with making morality and personal responsibility an integral part of the political debate than William J. Bennett. For more than 20 years, as a writer, speaker, government official, and political operative, Bennett has been a commanding general in the culture wars. As Ronald Reagan's...