Free Republic

Readers of The Corner will have noticed some to-ing and fro-ing about whether we are currently in the middle of World War 4 with Norman Podhoretz’s August 2004 essay on this subject much in play. Well, you know how I hate to be a party pooper, but I think this is all nuts. I do understand that our civilizational confidence is going through a rough patch — that the West is currently indulging itself, in the way that people and civilizations will indulge themselves when they believe they can afford to, in guilty agonizings about our past imperialism, colonialism, slavery,...

AT WHAT point does naiveté become something to be ashamed of? The revelation last week that Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward abetted the Bush administration's program of lies and character assassination left you feeling as if you, too, have been a coconspirator in the sleaze.

Petty Penny Persecution Smut peddlers go after the FCC’s newest adviser. By Anne Morse "Penny Nance frightens me," D.C. shock jock Elliot of Elliot in the Morning declared. Penny Nance has been frightening a lot of people lately, which is strange when you consider that she's a beautiful young wife and mother with a charming Tennessee accent and no history of violent crime. But mention her name to certain people and they'll suddenly begin to resemble Linda Blair in some of her more outlandish scenes in The Exorcist. This reaction has to do with the fact that Nance has just...

Thumbs Up President Bush is right about evolution and design. By Peter Wood Opposable thumbs: mighty useful. In fact, we anthropologists put the lowly opposable thumb near the top of physical characteristics that make humans human. Without fully opposable thumbs, we would wrench-less in a world without plumbers, soccer would be the only sport, and the Moonlight Sonata would have to be whistled. The manual dexterity that, when you think about it, makes civilization possible, owes quite a bit to our thumbs. Well, of course, not just our thumbs. As handy as thumbs are, they are part of an engineered...

The death of Jean Charles de Menezes last Friday is a tragedy. One day after the second spate of terror attacks hit London and with four terrorists still at large, Menezes was mistaken by the metropolitan police as a terrorist and, upon failing to obey orders to halt he was shot five times at close range as he entered a crowded train at a metro station. Bad policing maybe, but what if he had been the right guy? What if he was a terrorist and was about to detonate an explosive belt to kill scores of innocent bystanders? No tears...

Immigration, people tell me, is the hot-button political issue of tomorrow. Public anger is swelling. The 9/11 attacks got everyone thinking. Citizens’ groups are springing up all over. Congressional and presidential candidates in 2004 are going to face a lot of questions about immigration, had better have well-thought-out positions on the topic. Etc., etc., etc. The tide is turning, my immigration-restrictionist friends tell me. The sleeping giant has woken. Etc., etc., etc. Well, possibly. Getting Americans to think seriously about immigration, though, is uphill work. There is resistance to be overcome at the deepest level of the national psyche. To...

The news that the London terrorist attacks were carried out by second-generation Muslim immigrants should not surprise us. For years now we in the West have indulged a whole set of destructive ideas whose bitter fruit we will all continue to harvest, as more and more unassimilated and disaffected immigrant children turn against the countries that welcomed their parents and provided them with a prosperity and freedom unknown in their countries of origin. This baneful idea goes by the name of multiculturalism. Don't be fooled by marketing: multiculturalism is not simply a call to respect cultures different from one's own....

On Friday, the man the Boston Globe called America's "greatest living diplomat" died at age 101. George Kennan was the last survivor of the group of so-called Wise Men who guided American foreign policy at the onset of the Cold War, along with Averell Harriman, Dean Acheson, Robert Lovett, Charles Bohlen, and Jack McCloy. Kennan also became the most celebrated, including winning a Pulitzer Prize and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. These accolades came despite, or perhaps because of, the seemingly huge reversal Kennan's views underwent in the past three decades on virtually everything, from the Cold War and the...

I will be driving across the country, towing a trailer, the second week of December with my wife and 12 year old daughter. We're moving from CA to FL. I would appreciate any input on interesting local attractions (natural, historical, scenic, etc.) along the way, especially little-known or unusual ones. Due to the time of year, we'll be taking a southerly route: NV, AZ, NM, TX and then across the South, but we can deviate north in these states a little bit for the right attraction. Also interested in suggestions on roads to travel. We prefer to drive off the...

I would like to download some tracks and produce a custom CD for my daughter. There is so much info on the web that I can't really find a beginner's guide. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks much.

Our military is one of the last bastions of slavery in the United States. At the moment, our slaves are stuck in a combat zone, getting killed and maimed, and there's nothing they can do about it except hunker down and pray. Yes, our slaves signed up of their own free will, but most of them were as misled about their job as the rest of us were about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And I don't think "slave" is too strong a word to describe someone who is not permitted to quit his job no matter how dangerous...

Give the Hobbit a Break The Lifetime-ization of Tolkien. By Gina R. Dalfonzo EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains spoilers about The Return of the King. Proceed at your own risk. Poor Frodo Baggins. He just can’t catch a break. It’s not bad enough that many literary critics and readers of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are always elevating one supporting character or another to the position of hero, completely overlooking the gentle, unassuming hobbit at the heart of the story, the one who has to carry an evil, burdensome, corrupting ring to be destroyed. To add...

Please excuse the vanity. My daughter has been homeschooled since 2nd grade. She is now 11 and rapidly getting bored with the curriculum we are presently using. It is just too easy. I would greatly appreciate pointers from other Freepers to resouces that will help her accelerate her learning curve. Thanks

A recent National Review Online piece by the Cato Institute's Timothy Lynch addressed a number of questions to the Attorney General about the Patriot Act. As Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice, I am responding to Mr. Lynch's questions. We welcome discussion about the Patriot Act and would encourage readers to learn more about it on our new website. CATO RHETORIC: "Mr. Ashcroft, you say that Congress passed the Patriot Act by an 'overwhelming margin,' but do you think the vote would have been different if legislators had known about your plans to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely...

Reader, I have been vouchsafed a revelation, a sudden flash of understanding, a satori, a glimpse of the inner workings of the universe, of the waters that are under the earth, of the hidden tissues that connect aspects of reality not normally thought of as being related to each other in any way at all. Illuminated by that flash was quite a large part of the entire political landscape of the present-day USA, as if seen from a plane through a sudden gap in the clouds. I am going to lay out my revelation in three parts: a preamble, then...

Whether you are for or against the war on terror, whether you think Bush is a statesman or a fraud, Saddam a devil or a scapegoat, it is impossible to write that it's been an eventful year without being guilty of understatement. The script whose opening act began with the closing of more than 3,000 American lives and whose prologue stretches into antiquity is still being written, but today is supposed to be a day for catching up with what has transpired. I've been trying to figure out how to write this column for three days — an eternity for...

THE WASHINGTON POST reports a surge in bible sales. The fantasy adventure "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" is the most popular film of the holiday season. Is there a connection? Can mythology, or fairytales, lead us to faith? In the wake of Sept. 11, people hunger for verities -- a universal order that makes sense. Once again, we grope for answers to age-old questions: Why do the innocent suffer? Does pain have an ultimate meaning? Zondervan Corp., the nation's largest publisher of religious books, says sales of bibles and other inspirational works are way up ...

It is quite obvious that the Olympics are no longer held in the spirit of amateur athletics (“Olympics don’t belong in Beijing,” Christine Brennan column, April 19, 3C.) That myth was shattered long ago. With the aforementioned thought in mind, there is no reason that China shouldn’t host the 2008 Olympics. While we’re on the subject of human rights records, no country has a more deplorable human rights record than the United States. The terror and lawlessness of Southerners during the former part of the 20th century is no worse than anything that happened in China. Let’s drop the human ...

We have recently pulled my 2nd grade daughter out of school to homeschool her. She is doing very well, but we're not really happy with the curricula we're presently using, Common Sense Press and Saxon Math. I would appreciate any suggestions about more effective published curricula. I believe (in common with most parents) that my daughter is unusually intelligent.I have heard of one called Abeca (sp?). Is anyone familiar with this program?Please reply on thread or to mailbox. I think this topic might be of considerable interest to others.

DAVID IRVING, who is not only anti-Jewish but a sore loser, appeared on British TV the other day to invite us to look into the mirror and contemplate why it is that "you Jews" have been so hated through the centuries. This, of course, is anti-Semitism in its classical form. First a trap is set --- you are part of a group that can be judged as a whole-your own actions are less important than the blood-guilt or blood-innocence you are supposed to have inherited. And having accepted the invitation, you are -- surprise! -- judged guilty.