Free Republic

Although independent scholars generally agree that the death toll from communism in the Twentieth Century runs a staggering 100 million, that sad historical milestone has yet to gain widespread acknowledgement in America’s public schools let alone in her universities. The McDougal Littell Classzone claims that “an estimated 8-20 million people were killed in Stalinist Russia.” Most scholars put the number closer to 40 million. Classzone goes on to assert that from 1924 to 1939, “historians estimate that during this time he was responsible for 8 million to 13 million deaths.” Classzone does not include Mao Tse Tung in its rogue’s...

"The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years" is the appropriate title of a 1999 article authored by Stephen Moore and the late Julian L. Simon and published by the Washington-based Cato Institute. Let's highlight some of the phenomenal progress Americans made during the 20th century. During that century, life expectancy rose from 47 to 77 years of age. Deaths from infectious diseases fell from 700 to 50 per 100,000 of the population. Major killer diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, typhoid fever and whooping cough were virtually eliminated. Infant mortality plummeted. The 20th century...

<p>Twentieth Century Fox on Friday will release the first of what it hopes will be a series of movies about a courageous British naval captain named Jack Aubrey. But "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is just about the opposite of the Hollywood norm for would-be movie franchises.</p>