Free Republic

As a junior in college in 1968 (A.D.), I succumbed to a popular rage and bought a book by Ortega y Gasset. It was Ortega’s fate to have Bobby Kennedy think that his middle initial was Y, for which Kennedy was mocked by the same people who, though of the opinion that Robert McNamara was the chief engineer of a war of genocide in Southeast Asia, said at Cambridge dinner parties that, because he read Yeats, he was “really a good guy.” [1] Though The Dehumanization of Art was perfectly positioned to be the darling of the intellectuals—it was a...

Dec. 18, 2006 issue - In the first world war, germany suffered 5 million casualties. When the war was over, the country was left with 2 million orphans, a million widows and a million invalids. In the waning days of 1918, it underwent a revolution in which the kaiser abdicated and fled to the Netherlands. Soon thereafter, the victorious Allies imposed a staggering reparations burden on Germany. Unemployment skyrocketed, and inflation reached such insane proportions that paper currency made better firewood than money. German cities became, simultaneously, pits of poverty, starvation and disease, and dens of drug-fueled high life. The...

There were many targets of Ernest Hemingway’s big-game eye, including lions, rhinos, marlin, tarpon and Nazi submarines. Of these "Big Five," only the U-boat eluded his grasp, though one can easily imagine Papa’s iconic figure posed for a photograph on a Cuban dock with the sub hanging from a boom like a gargantuan, armor-plated tuna. Named one of the 20th century’s 100 most influential people by Time, Hemingway, after enjoying 75 years of legend status, has become to many an unsavory character — the pro wrestler of the sport-fishing world. Hemingway’s favorite marlin weapons were Fin-Nor or Vom Hofe reels...

Mideast: Missing from the Baker report's 79 recommendations for stopping the violence in Iraq is perhaps the most obvious one: getting our "ally" Saudi Arabia to stop funding the insurgency there. The 160-page report reveals on page 29 that the Saudis are backing the Sunni terrorists who are killing U.S. soldiers next door. But then it never returns to the subject. Poof! It's as if it were never mentioned.

Eighty years ago today and Monday, an immense hurricane -- stronger than Katrina when it struck New Orleans -- ransacked South Florida. The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 killed hundreds and left bodies floating in Biscayne Bay. The Atlantic swamped much of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Miami Beach. Ten thousand buildings were destroyed or damaged. 'The houses all around us were blown down,'' Grace Wisell of Miami wrote a few days after the storm. ``Trucks with mattresses in them are used for ambulances and they are piling dead bodies on top of each other.'' Can a similarly monstrous storm hit...

Is Barefoot Better? Some Athletes Say Running Shoeless Benefits Body and Sole June 6, 2006; Page D1 Runners and athletes are always searching for the perfect shoe to improve performance and reduce injury. But some say shoes are the problem, and the best solution may be training without them. Some experts now believe that most athletic shoes, with their inflexible soles, structured sides and super-cushioned inserts keep feet so restricted that they may actually be making your feet lazy, weak and more prone to injury. As a result, barefoot training is gaining more attention among coaches, personal trainers and runners....

“Look at that tree!” raved my father, “That’s the prettiest tree I ever did see!” We were visiting Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden on a glorious Friday afternoon in early March, staring at a two-story tall, pink, flowering tower, shimmering at the end of a formal garden path. “Dad, that’s actually a glass sculpture,” I said, which I knew only because I’d already been there two weeks before. This is the typical conversation about art versus nature that probably takes place hundreds and sometimes thousands of times a day at the Chihuly at Fairchild exhibition, which is to continue through May...

SACRAMENTO - New Amtrak president David Hughes came to Sacramento to meet and greet last week, according to a story in the Sacramento Bee, and, the newspaper said, Hughes' arrival was a fitting one: His train from the San Francisco Bay area arrived a half-hour late. According to Union Pacific - which owns and controls the tracks - the train was held up for track maintenance and freight trains. That's nothing new, regular train riders say. UP long has made it clear to Amtrak and other rail lines: Freight first, passengers second. Increasing congestion on the rails is a national...

Miami-Dade County may get its most unusual artificial reef ever with the re-creation of the lost city of Atlantis in the ocean 3 ¼ miles off Key Biscayne this spring. Gary Levine's Atlantis Reef Project received final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Miami-Dade's Department of Environmental Resources Management earlier this month to construct the sprawling network of cement and bronze statues in 50 feet of water. Levine says construction should begin in March, with the first phase ready to receive divers at the end of April. Levine said the reef will take three to five years...

A Chalk's seaplane burst into flames over South Beach on Monday, killing all 20 people on board -- including three infants -- and plummeting into the ocean so close to shore that lifeguards, surfers and Jet Skiers were the first on the scene. The cause of the crash remained unknown, but witnesses said the plane's rear half exploded, shearing off the left wing and sending the flight tumbling to the sea shortly after its 2:30 p.m. takeoff from Watson Island.

CAMARILLO, Calif. – A man jumped onto the top of Amtrak Pacific Surfliner No. 768 from a highway overpass in Camarillo on Thursday, according to an Associated Press story and published in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The man, Juan Lopez, 33, of Camarillo, was arrested farther down the line by Ventura County sheriff's deputies who swooped in by helicopter. Lopez made the 20-foot leap at about 9 a.m., authorities said. Camarillo is 13 miles east of Ventura. Train 768 operates from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. "At this point the train starts pulling out and the witnesses see Mr....

Wilma was a classic October hurricane which struck South Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on October 24th, 2005. Wilma developed from a tropical depression near Jamaica, a typical source region for October tropical cyclones, on the afternoon of October 15, 2005. It became the 21st named storm of the season during the morning hours of October 17, 2005, which tied the record for the most named storms in one season originally set back in 1933. Wilma underwent a rapid intensification cycle which began on October 18th and ended in the early morning hours of October 19th, with a central...

It was literally the morning after the night when Hurricane Katrina had made a totally unpredicted sweep past The Everglades Institute's site in the Everglades. A 25-foot red bay tree was being cleared from where it had fallen across Dill Road in front of the Institute. As we worked, a National Park Service full size SUV pulled up, rolled down the window, then the window went up, and the parkperson drove off, without a word. Not one word to ask if my neighbor was OK, no question about whether anyone was in need of any help, nothing. Dill Road is...

NEW ORLEANS - After being criticized for allowing lawlessness to spiral out of control in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans police began making arrests over the weekend. With the city’s jails flooded, a temporary holding facility was set up at the New Orleans Amtrak station and bus terminal, according to a story in the Long Island-based, N.Y. newspaper Newsday. The station held only 30 prisoners by Monday, but that number was likely to swell if police from neighboring Jefferson Parish deliver inmates they had held the past few days. Nearly 8,000 prisoners were transported out of New...

"...The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us. Gen. Banks was distressed with solicitude as to what he should do with the Negro. Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, "What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core,...

NEW YORK – After years of delay, New York City, the state and two big developers are on board with a design to turn the city’s post office on Eighth Ave. into a grand transit hub recalling the elegant Pennsylvania Station that was razed in 1963, according to a story in the New York Daily News. The $818 million plan will preserve the handsome facade of the James A. Farley Post Office, erected in 1913, while adapting the building as the new Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station, to honor the late U.S. senator, who pushed hard for the idea. The Post...

LONDON, England (AP) -- Brightly colored paintings by Congo the chimpanzee are going on sale at a prestigious London auction house alongside works by Andy Warhol and Renoir. The collection of three tempera on paper paintings -- described as resembling abstract artworks -- are expected to fetch between $1,130 and $1,500 next month at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary sale.

An Inca mummy kept in a Florentine museum might have been a source of inspiration for Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream," an Italian anthropologist claims. Bearing a striking resemblance to Munch's now stolen painting, the mummy was rediscovered as Florence's Museum of Natural History began to carry out scientific investigations such as CT scans on its collection of Peruvian mummies. “ It"s the strong resemblance that struck us. Basically, the images of the 'The Scream' and the mummy can be overlapped. ” "It"s the strong resemblance that struck us. Basically, the images of the 'The Scream' and the mummy can...

Sean Connery may be a great actor, but he's a terrible neighbor, according to a lawsuit filed by New York ophthalmologist Burton Sultan. Dr. Sultan lives in a mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and Mr. Connery's son owns an apartment there. According to his suit, Mr. Connery has lived in his son's apartment since 2001 and has been on a campaign to drive Dr. Sultan from the house so he can buy the whole thing at a discount. According to the suit, Mr. Connery, 74 years old, plays loud music at all hours of the night and...

- Amtrak financing nearly eliminated in proposed Bush budget; Amtrak president reacts in message to employees WASHINGTON – Highway financing would rise slightly while almost all spending for Amtrak would be eliminated under the Bush Administration’s proposed Transportation Dept. budget, according to a story in today’s New York Times. The budget provides no money for Amtrak itself, but does include $360 million to maintain commuter service that uses Amtrak right-of-way in the Northeast Corridor if the passenger carrier goes bankrupt. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said federal subsidies for Amtrak had almost doubled in the last four years, to $1.2...