Free Republic

Think about it a minute. Compare the concept of democracy – where individuals may speak and act and express their faith according to their own understandings – with theocracy, where an elite few dictate what all individuals can and cannot say, do or express concerning their beliefs. Think Iran. Think Ahmadinejad and his coterie of Islamist extremists, exercising total control over the oil giant nation, funding and arming Hezbollah, orchestrating much of the inhuman violence in Iraq, promoting and supporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and terrorist murder around the world, actively and defiantly preparing nuclear capability while at the...

"Sit down, Mr. Citizen. I hate to tell you this, but I guess the best thing is just to spit it out. You've got cancer. "And not just a localized cancer, but a malignant, fast-spreading strain of cancer. It's already attacked all your vital organs and is infiltrating through your circulatory system to even your outer extremities. Unless we take every action available to us and attack this disease on all fronts with the strongest possible treatments, you will surely die a painful, lingering, wasting death. And, I am bound to tell you this: It may already be too...

I'm not being sacrilegious; I mean this admonition literally and reverentially. I know both individuals personally, Mel and Christ – and my friend Mel is no anti-Semite. He worships and magnifies the most famous Jew who ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth, whom millions and millions call ''Christ,'' or Messiah. So do I. We've both committed our lives and eternal destiny to this rebbe (rabbi), this central figure of human history, the One from whose earthly life our calendar has been constructed. This year is 2006, A.D. – anno domini, ''the Year of Our Lord.'' The Year of the Jew who...

A couple of months ago, I was in downtown Los Angeles, at the courthouse, doing my jury duty for several days. There are always breaks and lulls, during which time hundreds of participants can and do talk and get to know each other. I actually enjoyed it. During one of those breaks, I was electrified by a conversation with an L.A. scientist/engineer/businessman named John Wong. Somehow the subject of embryonic stem-cell research came up, and I expressed my deep concerns about the eventual creation of nascent embryos and then the use of them in laboratory experiments. The state of California...

Some thoughts as we approach Independence Day. You do remember, don't you, that's why we declare July 4 a holiday and take the day off? To celebrate, and to thank God for, our precious independence – our liberty? Oh, most of us do a lot of fun things like backyard barbecues, races and games and parties and family get-togethers. Others just ''kick back,'' rest, putter around in the yard or garage or patio, watch sports or something on TV. You know, just relax. And that's fine. That's what liberty provides. In some ways, that's the very definition of liberty. The...

Are we going nuts? Is the whole nation suffering from mad cow disease or becoming senile at the ripe young age of 230? Was Chicken Little right? Is the sky falling? Were Copernicus and all former mathematicians wrong? Is 2 and 2 actually relative, anything we want it to be? Have we arrived at some stage in our "evolution" that empowers us to change the very DNA of society, of culture, the structural makeup of the human race? Or are we just too numb – or dumb – to protest the incessant, dogged determination of some lobbying groups to...

When I was just a kid growing up outside Nashville, we had chickens. Quite a lot of chickens, most of the time. We kids only partly understood why Mama and Daddy wanted all those chickens, usually in coops and behind fencing, but occasionally finding ways to wiggle out into the yard and driveway and in general make messes and hassles. As each of us got a little older, we understood that Daddy's income as a building contractor whose business was in a growth mode (like our chickens) wasn't quite sufficient to feed all six of us, so we had chickens...

Well, it's here. Right in the middle of us, and spreading. It's a fowl contagion and can be very dangerous. It's hard to prevent and even harder to cure. It's no respecter of persons; it can affect people of any age, economic background or culture. There's no vaccine, though there is something you can take to combat it – but I'll come to that later. I'm not referring to the dreaded avian flu, the one we've been reading about that's transmitted from bird to bird, and possibly to some humans or other creatures. No, I'm talking about another affliction....

Time magazine? The cover? Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke? A girls group that, yes, was very big a couple of years ago, but who self-destructed faster than a "Mission Impossible" tape recorder with one inexcusable utterance? A trio of talented girls who have been extremely fortunate, incredibly blessed, but who kissed off the great majority of their fans in an audacious display of hubris, poor taste and grievously un-American disdain for the twice-elected leader of the free world? Yep, there they are – with clothes on this time – unlike the infamous magazine cover they...

Music legend Pat Boone is ripping into the Dixie Chicks for withdrawing their apology for a previous attack on President Bush. "I have four daughters, and I taught them to respect their elders, even if they weren't president of the United States," Boone told Fox News host Neil Cavuto today. "I think it's outrageous for any of these performers to be bashing our president the way they are." At a London concert in 2003, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines sparked controversy by stating, "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas."...

I'm a singer. I hope you've noticed. For 50 years now, I've made a nice living and enjoyed a wondrous life, singing. Making music. When I got my first break, made my first record, there was something new happening in music – they were calling it "rock and roll." Actually, it was mostly rhythm and blues, or as many called it then, "race music." The fans of pop music, who made up the huge majority of listeners and buyers, liked well-crafted, melodic, catchy and memorable songs. A little section of New York City, called "Tin Pan Alley," housed hundreds...

I don't know if I have any readers devoted enough to remember what I wrote in my column here on Jan. 7, so I'm not above telling you myself: I predicted we'd be learning that Saddam Hussein's WMDs were "slipped across the border into Syria." Now, it's just a few weeks later, and we have in fact learned that was the case. I'm neither prophet nor genius on this stuff, and if I was catching on long before the first days of January, so were other people. Now we have enough increased evidence and detail to declare mystery solved....

Editor's Note: What's it like to raise a family in Hollywood? To be a Christian in Hollywood? Wes Vernon put those questions to longtime pop recording and box office star Pat Boone. In the interview that follows, we learn that yes, there is a Hollywood blacklist, but not the one of Hollywood demonology--as well as the reasons Hollywood is so fanatically leftist; the movie roles Pat Boone did not get and why; the roles he turned down and why; thoughts on why Hollywood propaganda should be counted as an in-kind campaign contribution to the Democratic Party; Boone's review of the...

I love Dave Letterman. He's my idea of the funniest man in America. I appreciate his intellect, his quirky, irritated ideas about what's funny, and certainly respect his right to whatever opinions he has about anything. I confess he irks me with his nightly ridicule and denigration of our president. He's really got it in for George Bush, and he and the staff select little snippets of speeches, or a stumble, or a door that doesn't open, or even just a little aside and shoulder-shaking chuckle – anything that makes the president appear foolish – and revel in derisive laughter....

"Well, coach, the big day is almost here; you and your team are in the Super Bowl a week from now, and your opponent is mighty rugged. In fact, most experts and the odds-makers are making them the favorite, figuring you got here on a series of flukes and last-second miracles. They say you really shouldn't be in the Big Game at all. "What is your response and how in the world do you plan to win this one?" "Son, I know a lot of folks think we don't have a chance, but I have a strategy. I think we...

Can you believe it? The big day is upon us, the day we look forward to all year long, that special time that sparks joyful anticipation in the eyes and minds and hearts of little kids everywhere, that calls families together and loved ones in from far and near to love and laugh and give and receive. And of course all to commemorate and celebrate the birth of … well, you know. In the stores, shops and malls there are happy displays of – well, ribbons and balls and lots of colors and shapes, all signifying … uh, a special...

Ever have your credit card denied? A check bounce? A computer tell you your credit is no good? Ever find a lot of charges on your card or phone charges on your bill you don't recognize? I have, and I'll bet you have, too. Twice I've been separated from my billfold, along with every card, my driver's license, even my Social Security card, everything that can identify me – except my face and my white buck shoes – and it's a terrible sinking feeling. Remember the Bob Dole commercial in which the elderly lady behind the cash register is demanding...

Thanksgiving reflections about blessings the Almighty has bestowed on us sometimes awaken our pity for those who seem to have been cursed more than blessed in the year gone by. If we avoided direct hurt from tsunami or hurricane this year, we must already feel lucky compared to vast numbers of people still needing re-supply of brotherly love in strong doses. If we delighted in the survival or rehabilitation of a loved one – as the good Lord allowed in the case of my grandson Ryan, who'd once been deemed likely to remain "a vegetable" after suffering brain injury in...

In the publicity build-up to Arianna Huffington's launch of her ambitious new Huffingtonpost celebrity bloggers website, I thought it revealing to see that the default assumption in the mainstream reporting on it was that Hollywood bloggers would be liberals. The New York Times report said, "The site is likely to start as a watering hole for liberals." Variety reported, "Huffington is wisely confining her site mostly to politics. It's safer, after all, for liberals to bash the government than Hollywood." It has become just a given. People speak of our town as being exclusively populated by liberals. It isn't (and...

Senate Judiciary Committee Meeting, July 1809 Considering the nomination of former President Thomas Jefferson to the Supreme Court: Chairman: We're honored to have you to appear before us, Mr. Jeff … I mean, Mr. President. We thank you again for your outstanding service to our country, especially as president of the United States for the last eight years. We particularly honor you for originating the phrase "wall of separation between Church and State." We on this committee are concerned about giving any place to public displays of religiosity. Jefferson: Thank you, gentlemen. Yes, I did coin the phrase you mention...