Free Republic

It's not long now until the 2024 total solar eclipse and, weather permitting, it should be a spectacular celestial event. As exciting as it is, there are a number of safety concerns, particularly in the parts of the US that will be in the path of totality, with some now announcing the deployment of the National Guard. The 2017 total solar eclipse, gorgeous as it was, took place during the solar minimum, the part of the Sun's 11-year cycle where activity is at its minimum. This year's eclipse coincides with the solar maximum, meaning not only should we get a...

The United Nations is under increasing attack by critics in the United States and other countries. At the heart of the organization's mounting problems is an almost total lack of accountability, which gives rise to suspicions of wholesale corruption. Existing evidence indicates that corruption and mismanagement go beyond the routine fraud, waste, and abuse of resources that mark all public-sector enterprises Available evidence coupled with the United Nations' unwillingness to undergo a thorough audit raise serious questions about its mission and the means used to carry it out.

At times, we lose perspective. Let us regain some of it by realizing that however bad Hurricane Katrina seemed, it was not the worst natural disaster during the past 12 months, nor even during the summer. In fact, it may not even be the deadliest hurricane: in Central America a mudslide caused by Hurricane Stan may have cost 1,400 lives in Guatemala just last week (figures vary), as opposed to Katrina's awful but smaller toll of 1,200. We are in a steep curve of chastisement.And then there is the Pakistani-Indian quake: more than 40,000 dead from the weekend tremors. These...

Can we win a war without acknowledging that we are at war. No, we cannot. The quandary in which coalition forces find themselves in Iraq today, is a proof that unless the enemy is totally subjugated, we cannot even pretend that the war is over. And the premature proclamation, "Mission Accomplished," on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, on May 1, 2003, only helped our adversaries. We must know that our enemy, has no scruples. It respects nothing and is totally ruthless. We can not overwhelm it by being scrupulous. We will have to rearrange our priorities by accepting that...