Free Republic

Here, death ruled, but we've learned something as well. Because of what happened, we found that death cannot rule forever, and that's why we're here today. We're here because humanity refuses to accept that freedom of the spirit of man can ever be extinguished. We're here to commemorate that life triumphed over the tragedy and the death of the Holocaust -- overcame the suffering, the sickness, the testing and, yes, the gassings. We're here today to confirm that the horror cannot outlast hope, and that even from the worst of all things, the best may come forth. Therefore, even out...

Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution By Michael D. Tanner Cato Institute, $22.95 In "Leviathan on the Right," Michael D. Tanner tells how Republicans have helped increase the federal government's power. One is tempted to compare the Republicans to preachers who denounce sin in the pulpit and then practice it at the no-tell motel. But Tanner, director of health and welfare studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, shows that such an analogy would be off point. Instead of hiding their support for big government, he writes, many conservatives openly embrace it. It would be...

Click here. Somebody did a good job with this video. You'll laugh and can't help missing him.

Next Tuesday would have been Ronald Reagan's 96th birthday, which is amazing when you consider he is, in a way, more with us than ever: his memory and meaning summoned in political conversation, his name evoked by candidates. I remember 10 years ago when there was controversy over the movement to name things for him--buildings and airports. I was away from home at the time, and I realized that to talk to people in Washington about it, I'd have to land at JFK, take the FDR Drive and go through the Lincoln tunnel. [Snip] The other day a friend asked:...

It’s funny how the conclusion of an election can completely alter media reportage. The day after the Democrat Public Relations Arm (DPRA) – euphemistically known as the “mainstream media” – got its party elected, they actually started broaching a couple of real issues. Such as amnesty for illegal aliens. In my election piece I warned that Democrat ascendancy would mean a full court press to grant amnesty-by-another-name to illegals. And I retired election night as one of the voices in the darkness, emitting admonitions that a 420-foot-diameter SETI dish would have had trouble detecting amidst the talking-head static. I awakened...

“I hope that someday your children and grandchildren will tell of the time that a certain president came to town at the end of a long journey and asked their parents and grandparents to join him in setting America on the course to the new millennium—and that a century of peace, prosperity, opportunity, and hope followed. So, if I could ask you just one last time: Tomorrow, when mountains greet the dawn, would you go out there and win one for the Gipper?” —Ronald Reagan, November 7, 1988

In January 2005, GOP state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-La Mesa), while in Washington, D.C., for the Inauguration of President Bush, toured Statuary Hall in the national Capitol with Congressman Duncan Hunter. Each of the 50 states provides Statuary Hall a pair of statues honoring notable persons from the state. California’s statues are of Father Junipero Serra and Thomas Starr King. Father Serra, of course, is well known. King, who lived from 1824 to 1864, was a Unitarian minister, lecturer, and orator credited with playing a prominent role in keeping California in the Union during the Civil War. Taking nothing away...

LOS ANGELES--Actor/Director David Arquette, best known perhaps as husband of "Friends" star Courtney Cox, has directed a horror film where the killer is a doppleganger of Ronald Reagan: "The Tripper" is a political satire dressed up like a slasher movie by way of middle school logic. I'm guessing that David Arquette is a either a liberal or an enemy of conservatism. **** [A] boy grows up with a deep fascination with Ronald Reagan....a music festival brings out all the modern hippies to [his hometown]. **** the boy is now a crazed, f---n' Ronald Reagan and goes hunting for hippies. ****...

Well there was a time when I would have had to put The Natural in my top 3. However in the last 3 years, unlike with most genres, I would say sports movies have improved with time. So without further ado, here are mine. I'm sure you will notice one similarity runs through all.

One of two speeches commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, this speech was delivered at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy Invasion, and others, had assembled for the ceremony. Later during the day, President Reagan spoke at Omaha Beach, France. 1,988 words. We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions...

'Shining city on a hill' Let us resolve tonight that young Americans will always ... find there a city of hope in a country that is free.... And let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation, we did keep the faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves, that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill." — Election Eve speech, Nov. 3, 1980

CMT (Country Music Television) has a new series out called True Grit, and the first episode is about Ronald Reagan! I just saw the first showing, and it is really well done. Here are the rebroadcast times for this same episode: Sunday, February 19, 2006 1:00 AM ET/PT Sunday, February 19, 2006 2:00 PM ET/PT Sunday, February 19, 2006 9:00 PM ET/PT Monday, February 20, 2006 5:00 PM ET/PT Tuesday, February 21, 2006 8:00 PM ET/PT Saturday, February 25, 2006 7:00 PM ET/PT Sunday, February 26, 2006 7:00 PM ET/PT

I attended a panel session at the Heritage Foundation yesterday featuring Paul Lettow, author of Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, published in hardcover last year and now out in paperback. Paul is a recent graduate of Princeton who earned a Ph.D. at Oxford and a J.D. at Harvard. Several years ago, he worked for me as a research assistant — a classic case of hiring someone who's smarter than you. His book is an expanded version of his Ph.D. thesis, but it doesn't read like one. Paul interviewed almost all the living veterans of the Reagan...

10. "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." —Remarks at a business conference, Los Angeles, March 2, 1977 9. "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans." —The Observer, March 29, 1981 8. “Thomas Jefferson once said, "We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying." —Circa 1988 7. "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of...

During the Reagan campaign of 1980 one felt part of movement or “revolution” that was going to change not only the nation but perhaps the world. Then “Governor” Reagan’s vision was clear and concise and left little room for doubt... America must shrink the size of the federal government, reduce regulations on business, and cut taxes “across the board” for all Americans. In other words, Reagan instinctively knew that -- given the tools -- the American entrepreneur would lead the country back to prosperity and out of double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates. Reagan also understood that communism’s worldwide influence...

The Gipper’s Ghost by JEFFREY VALLANCE Since the death of Ronald Reagan, various ghostly phenomena have been reported up at the Reagan Ranch in the hills above Santa Barbara. Rancho del Cielo (cielo means “heaven” in Spanish) was Reagan’s favorite place in the world. The hacienda-style estate, neighboring Michael Jackson’s blighted Neverland, is preserved in the exact condition it was in when the Reagans lived there, as if they just stepped out and will return at any moment. Even Reagan’s favorite jellybean jar is still there, complete with a few uneaten beans. Reagan kept several horses at the ranch stable....

Can you imagine the Dow Jones Industrial Average at, say, 3000? Can you visualize inflation and interests in double digits? And per capita income maybe two-thirds of what it is now? It's not so difficult to see those things in your mind's eye -- provided you can also visualize the American people re-electing the 39th president, Jimmy Carter. Instead, 25 years ago today, on November 4, 1980, the voters in 44 states chose Ronald Reagan. So this day, like any happy anniversary, is worth celebrating. But in addition, we should remember that while Reagan demonstrated the importance of optimism, another...

Biography > A Rendezvous with Destiny 1964 Became host of Death Valley Days, replacing "The Old Ranger," Stanley Andrews. He appeared in or hosted twenty-one episodes, which were broadcast from 1965-1966. Portrayed the villain in The Killers, his last motion picture. Originally made for television, it was too violent and was released in movie theaters. October 27 Delivered televised speech, A Time for Choosing, for Barry Goldwater, which launched his political career. November "Friends of Ronald Reagan," a political support group, formed. 1965 Autobiography, Where's the Rest of Me, was published. Resigned as host of Death Valley Days. 1966 November...

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reported that spending overall has grown faster under Bush than under Lyndon Johnson, who simultaneously waged the Vietnam War and launched the Great Society welfare programs. Conservatives are nursing plenty of other grievances right now. Bush's recent nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court deeply disappointed social conservatives who expected a choice who would move the court unambiguously to the right. Illegal immigration has stirred a storm of criticism among grass-roots conservatives who blame the federal government for what they consider to be an out-of-control border. The botched response to Katrina sapped...