Free Republic

Keith Olbermann once put me on his nightly list of the worst people in the world. To add insult to injury, I was merely a runner-up. So I suppose I should smile now that Mr. Olbermann's career as the host of "Countdown" has at last tick-tocked to 00:00. Boom! Here was an anchor whose personality is every bit as unhinged as his politics; whose on-air epithets of choice include "prostitute," "monkey," "fascistic," "fat ass" and (about conservative pundit Michelle Malkin) "bag of meat"; who has been let go from nearly every job he ever held; and whose "childish attacks" were,...

-excerpt- Finally, the Taliban will never honor any agreement it makes. Like most modern insurgencies, its grievances are all pretexts: What it seeks is absolute power, exercised without restraint. We know how that movie ends. There's one way—and only one way—the U.S. could get the Taliban to come to terms: a series of decisive military blows that give them no other option.

-Excerpt- The U.S. and its European allies were quick to walk out on the Iranian president after he mounted the podium at the U.N. last week to air his three "theories" on the attacks, each a conspiratorial shade of the other. But somebody should give him his due: He is a provocateur with a purpose. Like any expert manipulator, he knew exactly what he was doing when he pushed those most sensitive of buttons. He knew, for instance, that the Obama administration and its allies are desperate to resume negotiations over Iran's nuclear programs. What better way to set the...

-excerpt- ...my own impression of Ahmadinejad was that he was easily the smartest guy in the room. He mocked us in a way we scarcely had the wit to recognize. We belittle him at our peril.

'We have been trying to negotiate [with the Iranians] for five, six years. We've tried everything. We have met every Iranian. We have tried to open every possible channel. We've had new ideas and the result is this: nothing." Thus did a senior Western diplomat recently describe to me his country's efforts to reach a negotiated settlement with Tehran over its nuclear programs. In doing so, he also finally disposed of the myth, nearly a decade in the making, that Iran was ready to abandon those programs in exchange for a "grand bargain" with the West. Let's dispose of a...

... But a civilization becomes incompetent not only when it fails to learn the lessons of its past, but also when it becomes crippled by them. ... Our deeper incompetence stems from an inability to recognize the proper limits to our own virtues ...  Thus we reject profiling on the commendable grounds that human beings ought not to be treated as statistical probabilities. But at some point, the failure to profile puts innocent lives recklessly at risk. We also abhor waterboarding for the eminently decent reason that it borders on torture. But there are worse things than waterboarding—like allowing another...

Jan. 20, 2010 When American diplomats sat down for the first in a series of face-to-face talks with their Iranian counterparts last October in Geneva, few would have predicted that what began as a negotiation over Tehran's nuclear programs would wind up in a stunning demand by the Security Council that Israel give up its atomic weapons. Yet that's just what the U.N. body did this morning, in a resolution that was as striking for the way member states voted as it was for its substance. All 10 nonpermanent members voted for the resolution, along with permanent members Russia, China...

Blackout - Bret Stephens Admits Paper is not Real By Sara Leibovich-Dar "Conrad Black, the owner of the Jerusalem Post who had fired and laid off hundreds of reporters while embezzling millions of dollars, was more concerned with his grand lifestyle rather than seeing the Post expand and prosper," wrote a biographer. "I give priority to commentary and analysis," - Jerusalem Post Editor Bret Stephens. At a Hollinger International shareholders meeting in New York in May, Conrad Black was very upbeat. Black, the CEO, chairman and major shareholder, arrived with his wife, journalist Barbara Amiel, blew kisses to Donald Trump...

JERUSALEM POST OWNERS RESIGN; FACE CORRUPTION CHARGES Post To Be Sold, Management Reshuffled Jerusalem Post Publisher Tom Rose, Editor Bret Stephens To Be Replaced By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer New York-----November 17........ Under heavy pressure from investors, Conrad Black will step down as chief executive of Hollinger International Inc., publisher of the Jerusalem Post and Chicago Sun-Times, and the company may be sold after an internal investigation found that fees had been improperly paid to Black and other senior executives. Several other executives are also leaving Hollinger as part of a management shakeup the company announced early Monday. David...

Oct. 31, 2003 Eye on the Media: The controversy of Israel By BRET STEPHENS Since when are the Shaba farms "disputed"? According to the United Nations, this uninhabited strip of land – 14 kilometers long and two kilometers deep – falls squarely on the Israeli side of Blue Line dividing Israel from Lebanon. But because the farms are also on the Golan Heights, the UN insists they properly belong to Syria. In the language of news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press, that would mean the farms are in "Israeli-occupied" territory. But there's a catch. Syria – which...

October 02, 2003 UPDATED October 19, 2003 Memo to Bret Stephens: You Live in ISRAEL. You Run an ISRAELI NEWSPAPER The thing is, he tends to forget. Otherwise, what can explain the Jerusalem Post Editor-In-Chief's decision to make Paul Wolfowitz the newspaper's Man of the Year ????? Inside sources tell me that members of his own staff (actual Israeli ones) think this was a totally wacky choice. Listen, it's totally cool if Bret likes to spend his time writing about being a neocon, defending neocon ideas, paying homage to neocons icons like Wolfowitz,explaining why he is a Clinton-hater; noting that...

Other than thinking the first Terminator movie is much better than the second one, I have no strong views about Arnold Schwarzenegger. As for the recall that brought him to power, I can't make up my mind whether it's vigorous democracy in action or populism run amok. I have nothing to say on the subject of Gray Davis, about whom, I suspect, nothing interesting can be said anyway. And what this election means for California, I haven't a clue. But I like what it says about America. "Some men see things as they are and ask, Why?" said Bobby Kennedy...

Our (Israel) Newspapers Fail Us - (UPDATED) September 28, 2003 Editorial - Israel News Agency "Over at the Jerusalem Post, Israel's venerable English language daily newspaper, rumblings of publisher/staff dissatisfaction are being heard loud and clear. Long-time managing editor, Avi Hoffman was fired last week after he recommended pulling an ad that included language he felt would expose Israel to charges of war crimes. New Post editor Bret Stephens apparently agreed. Publisher Tom Rose was furious and ordered Hoffman fired. The full page ad appeared last Friday. According to Aviv Lavie writing in the rival Haaretz English edition, senior staff...

Our Newspapers Fail Us Editorial - Israel News Agency There is no public relations or public affairs without a carrier. The most established carrier is called a newspaper. And in Israel the only newspapers which enjoy abundant readership and wealth are the Hebrew dailies – Yediot, Maariv and Haaertz. As for the English newspapers here in Israel – one is a mere translation of the Hebrew edition and the other is fifty percent wire service copy. Yes – there are some brilliant writers on these papers but their voices become deluded when you have a lack of proper leadership integrated...