Free Republic

The 800 men of Otranto – whose names are lost, except for that of Antonio Primaldo, an old tailor – were rounded up and killed because they refused to convert to Islam. In 2007, Pope Benedict recognised them as martyrs “killed out of hatred for the faith”. That is no exaggeration. Earlier, the Archbishop of Otranto had been cut to pieces with a scimitar. Some accounts of the martyrdoms will raise a sceptical eyebrow: Primaldo reportedly remained standing after he was decapitated, a Pythonesque miracle that stretches credulity. But the murders really happened, and their significance is immense. The Turks...

My article last week about the radical Left’s defence of paedophilia in the 1970s provoked all manner of paroxysms from today’s Lefties. How dare I blacken the name of Hattie Harman by pointing out that she became legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) soon after it campaigned for a more relaxed approach to sex with children? But I had private communications, too, from people who encountered the “libertarian” Left during those years. “In the late Sixties and early Seventies, I worked at a school operated by the Inner London Education Authority,” wrote a retired schoolteacher. “The...

As my colleague Janet Daley notes, ConservativeHome USA has declared war on Sarah Palin, rounding up US conservatives who think she’d be a disaster as the next Republican presidential candidate. What I find strange, however, is the way it’s gone about it. In a piece signed by “The Editors”, ConHomeUSA has awarded anti-Palin Republicans the melodramatic title of “Truth Tellers”. And, rather bizarrely, it is recruiting for more: If you are a Truth Teller, or want to recommend a commentator who is, email us here. Don’t get me wrong. I think Sarah Palin is basically nuts, as I suggested when...

On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 9, I watched Saddam's statue lurch sideways, and my fingers itched to pick up the phone. But I didn't give in to the temptation. For the past few weeks, my Left-wing friends and I have operated a non-aggression pact, organised around a simple rule: don't mention the war. This is not out of respect for each other's views. It's because we don't want the police to be called. It was at a dinner party, inevitably, that the friendship-wrecking potential of the Iraq conflict really sank in. I have known Gregory since the 1980s; he...