Free Republic

Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit. Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction." The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Bush said in an interview with an ABC's...

A novel about paedophilia has been pulled out of French bookshops after complaints from child protection groups that its slip cover, which read Underage Love, was unduly offensive. The decision has upset many of the country's intellectuals, who feel that taboos such as discussing paedophilia are there to be broken.There is nothing to discuss. Paedophiles should be executed. - Ivan The book, Rose Bonbon (Pink Sweetie) by Nicolas Jones-Gorlin, is about a paedophile and murderer, who speaks in the first person about fondling children and killing them. It went on sale last week, but has now been withdrawn from bookshops...