Free Republic

Just try to envision the scene: A newly elected Republican mayor of a large American city takes steps to close down some of the best schools serving an almost exclusively minority population. You know how it would go. We'd be hearing that Republicans "hate" the poor. The words "cruel," "vicious" and "racist" would circle the new mayor like sharks. News organizations would examine where the mayor sent his own children, and his hypocrisy would be fiercely denounced. It is, of course, the new Democratic mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who is shutting down a number of highly successful...

Whose children will succeed in life, Amy Chua’s or mine? What’s all this bother about Chinese Tiger Moms? Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, has America’s female parents in a swivet. You’d have to take Sarah Palin to a NOW convention to see so many ladies mad at a fellow woman. Practically a third of the Atlantic’s April issue is taken up with Caitlin Flanagan and Sandra Tsing Loh giving Amy Chua the dickens in terms strong enough for Hillary Clinton’s private thoughts on Monica Lewinsky. My wife put it more succinctly: “This person is factory...

WHATEVER ELSE might be said about it, US District Judge Mark Wolf's decision in Parker v. Hurley is a model of clear English prose. "The constitutional right of parents to raise their children does not include the right to restrict what a public school may teach their children," Wolf unambiguously wrote in dismissing a suit by two Lexington couples who objected to lessons the local elementary school was teaching their children. "Under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy."...

~~~snip~~~ In Baghdad, Iraqi children led Task Force Baghdad soldiers to a weapons cache. The children led the troopers to three rocket-propelled grenades and 10 fuses. An explosives ordnance disposal team was called to the site and safely detonated the munitions. "The majority of Iraqis do not support the insurgency," said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a Task Force Baghdad spokesman. "Most Iraqis want to give the new Iraqi government a chance to work, and that's why they're turning in these terrorists and their weapons." In combat operations conducted May 14, Iraqi soldiers captured seven terror suspects in eastern Baghdad. The...