Free Republic

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Amid all the hubbub about corporate corruption, Martha Stewart and an impending attack on Iraq, the biggest development of the last decade is being overlooked: Russia is renewing her relations with America's enemies. Fire up the time machine because we're returning to the Cold War. Even amid widespread speculation of an American invasion of Iraq, Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon ink a $40 billion trade deal with Saddam Hussein's regime. For years, the Russians have been strong trade partners with Hussein, ignoring U.N. sanctions and continuing to consume Iraqi oil. As Iraqi Foreign Ministry official Abbas Khalaf...

Baseball is America's national pastime for many reasons. It's the most intelligent major sport. It encourages personal achievement just as much as team play. When a pitcher and hitter square off, it's one on one, a showdown. But there's another reason baseball is America's sport: It's the most capitalist of all the major sports. Football has salary caps and complete parity. Basketball has salary caps for players and high taxes for owners exceeding a maximum payroll. Baseball has none of these. Some might say that this is baseball's problem. It's why baseball is the only major sport that has real...

On July 27, a plane at an air show in Ukraine plowed into a crowd of spectators, killing 78. CNN.com's "Quick Vote" poll question asked: "Is it time for a ban on public air shows?" Two days later, on July 29, a pilot for Delta Air was arrested after he attempted to board and fly a plane while drunk. CNN.com's query: "Should the FAA require alcohol testing for all pilots?" On July 30, President Bush signed a corporate-reform bill into law. CNN.com's poll question: "Will corporate-reform legislation boost investor and consumer confidence?" Notice a pattern here? In each of these...

July 8, more than any day in recent memory, demonstrated the need for the black community to discard the leadership of people like Julian Bond. That day marked the 93rd annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The convention was crudely titled "Freedom Under Fire." The venomous chairman of the NAACP, Julian Bond, was typical of the conference, lambasting the Bush administration, corporations, black conservatives and white males across America. Bond began by comparing Texas' homegrown presidents: "from the mighty oak of civil rights, Lyndon Baines Johnson, to Bushes." A tacky pun but not a...

Ben Shapiro http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | JUNE 2005, JERUSALEM I'm writing to you from Jerusalem, where I recently interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Effie Eitam . Eitam entered the Israeli government as minister-without-portfolio in the government of Ariel Sharon in 2002 and as a member of the National Religious Party. After the Palestinian intifada intensified during the fall of 2002, Sharon called new elections. Likud won a plurality and formed a coalition with the other right-wing parties in Knesset. Sharon made Eitam minister of defense. In the winter of 2003, the largest terrorist attack in Israeli history took place in Haifa, with nearly...

Ben Shapiro June 27, 2002 Bush's peace plan: three years later JUNE 2005, JERUSALEM -- I'm writing to you from Jerusalem, where I recently interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Effie Eitam. Eitam entered the Israeli government as minister-without-portfolio in the government of Ariel Sharon in 2002 and as a member of the National Religious Party. After the Palestinian intifada intensified during the fall of 2002, Sharon called new elections. Likud won a plurality and formed a coalition with the other right-wing parties in Knesset. Sharon made Eitam minister of defense. In the winter of 2003, the largest terrorist attack in Israeli...

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- When the United States builds a missile-defense shield, it should leave a small hole right above Harvard University -- and Yale, Stanford, Columbia and Brown. Each of these institutions bans the U.S. Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) from conducting classes on its campus. Until they let ROTC back on campus, let them defend themselves. Now, when America is under attack, it is vital that America's youth know the military personally, rather than buying professorial slander about the military-industrial complex and the "dark side" of the U.S. armed forces. Still, many top-notch universities ban ROTC. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia...

When the United States builds a missile-defense shield, it should leave a small hole right above Harvard University -- and Yale, Stanford, Columbia and Brown. Each of these institutions bans the U.S. Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) from conducting classes on its campus. Until they let ROTC back on campus, let them defend themselves. Now, when America is under attack, it is vital that America's youth know the military personally, rather than buying professorial slander about the military-industrial complex and the "dark side" of the U.S. armed forces. Still, many top-notch universities ban ROTC. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia and Brown...

Ben Shapiro (back to story) June 6, 2002 Saudi Gall and Clintonian malfeasance On June 25, 1996, a massive blast shook Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The explosion, caused by a truck bomb, tore through a military compound housing American, British, French and Saudi troops, leaving devastation in its wake. Nineteen American airmen were murdered, and 64 more people were wounded. President Bill Clinton vowed, "We will pursue this. America takes care of our own. Those who did it must not go unpunished." He then expressed thanks and praise "for the professionalism shown by the Saudi authorities and their reaction to this...

Kill the Jews. Itbach-al-yahud. Kill the Zhid. Judenrein. The words change but the message is the same. Kill the Jews. "I am a Jew. My father is a Jew." Okay, Mr. Pearl, off with your head. You would think that after thousands of years of killing Jews, the world might get tired of it. But sooner or later, killing Jews becomes the world's favorite sport. To paraphrase Tevye, "You may ask, why does the world relish such an act?" After all, people don't continue doing something ad infinitum unless there is some pleasure in doing so. Why Jews specifically? Why...

ELECTION: France can't claim to be beacon of morality, sophistication Ben Shapiro Shapiro is a second-year political science student. E-mail him at frumfiddle@aol.com. France is supposed to be the world capital of sophistication. Their public sneers at brutish American policy. They hesitate to support any war on Iraq. They refuse to turn over suspected terrorists to American courts for fear of the cruel American death penalty. They scoff at Israel's right to self-defense, which is so un-chic. All of this explains why the most recent political developments in France have been so satisfyingly surprising. In the latest French presidential election,...

Ben Shapiro Shapiro is a second-year political science student. E-mail him at frumfiddle@aol.com. George W. Bush is back in a big way. With his call for a complete ban on human cloning, even for research purposes, Bush sounded the political shot heard around the country. He simultaneously revived his reputation as a moral thinker unburdened by political jousting, slapped the pro-abortion lobby in the face, and forced the Democrats in Congress to open debate on his agenda. Over the last few months, Bush seemed to be experiencing the kind of political drift toward the left that sank his father in...

Blame everyone else. Shirk responsibility. These are the themes of the slavery reparations movement, which seeks to suck money from industry in a wrongful shakedown. By defaming companies for their involvement in the slave trade centuries ago, liberal black leaders attempt to deflect attention from their own failures – failures in stopping single motherhood, in decreasing poverty, and in fostering trust in the American meritocracy. Our overworked legal system is once again being burdened with baseless lawsuits concerning the issue of slavery reparations. On March 26, three federal lawsuits were filed on behalf of the 35 million descendants of African...