Free Republic

LOCK HAVEN, PA—Ashley Daniels is as close as you can get to your typical 9-year-old American girl. A third-grader at Lock Haven Elementary School, she loves rollerblading, her pet hamsters Benny and Oreo, Britney Spears, and, of course, Harry Potter. Having breezed through the most recent Potter opus in just four days, Ashley is among the millions of children who have made Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire the fastest-selling book in publishing history. And, like many of her school friends, Ashley was captivated enough by the strange occult doings at the Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry ...

Okay, lemme start with my boy, Gov. William J. Janklow of South Dakota. I didn’t know he was my boy until I read the remarks he made at the recent Republican Governors Association meeting: “We’re in a war, with people who want to kill us. And somehow we’re still talking about ‘arresting’ them and ‘bringing them to justice.’ I don’t get it. We need to kill them until the rest surrender. No lawyers and no courts. Then we need to capture their leaders. We can try them — and then kill them.” It was reported that Janklow’s fellow governors ...

<p>Is there any limit to the gall of Arab tyrants? Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair visits Syria in an effort to build support for the war against Islamic terrorists. Instead he gets a lecture from dictator Bashar Assad, who says: "We cannot accept what we see on the screen every day; hundreds of innocent civilians dying." Last month Robert Bartley pointed out how Assad's father treated Islamic extremists: Hafez Assad, the departed Syrian strongman, had his own way of dealing with Muslim fundamentalists. When they gave him trouble in the bustling commercial center of Hama, he rolled up his artillery and leveled the place, with some 20,000 deaths and hordes of homeless refugees. End of fundamentalist challenge.</p>

To get my daily dose of news and opinion, I look at several web sites. Here are just a few with the URL's. 1. FreeRepublic 2. Andrew Sullivan (www.andrewsullivan.com) 3. Drudge (www.drudgereport.com) 4. National Review (www.nationalreview.com) 5. Weekly Standard (www.weeklystandard.com) 6. Best of the Web on Opinion Journal of the WSJ (www.opinionjournal.com) 7. The Onion (www.theonion.com) just about every Wednesday 8. Kaus File (www.kausfile.com) 9. Instapundit (www.instapundit.com) 10. Washington Times: Wes Pruden, Inside Politics, Inside the Beltway (www.washtimes.com) 11. Michael Kelly every Wednesday at the Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com)

Psy-war is back, but so far we're using it mostly on ourselves. Psychological warfare, or the art of using fear to demoralize and neutralize an enemy, is older than bombs, bullets or even boiling oil, and in a war on terrorism, it's likely to be the most effective weapon available to the civilized side. As awful as the atrocities of September 11 were, the most effective weapon Osama bin Laden unsheathed was fear — fear of the unknown, fear of the unexpected, fear of what next. "The modern terrorists have at their disposal what amounts to a nearly unstoppable ...

Last week, as New York and Washington burned and millions wept and prayed, Rudy came on tv and told us we were strong. This was a man in control of his own authority, in control of his own emotions, in control of the facts. He took to the airwaves every few hours to tell us what he knew and what the system was doing to get us through this wretched time. He was brusque but not rude, swift but not impatient. When reporters asked questions that called for speculation, hypothesis or confirmation of rumor, he politely but firmly refused to ...

Much has been made about Associate Justice Ginsburg's dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore: "I Dissent" as opposed to "I Respectfully Dissent". Well, I'd like to at least clarify a few things and show that maybe there isn't much to this story. I initially read about it in today's National Review Online. That article is entitled, All over but the Whining, and it was written by James Lindgren & Randy E. Barnett. Here is the portion of the article where the little Ginsburg flap is discussed: This reveling in discord has reached ludicrous proportions. Many pundits have ominously noted that ...

Forget about the presidency for a minute. Has anyone looked at what the elections have done to the world's most deliberative body? They've turned it into a chamber of horrors. For fiscal conservatives, the outcome of the Senate elections could hardly have been worse. Within the past year five of the most reliable votes and behind-the-scenes agitators for conservative and pro-growth policies have left. The first sign that the 107th Senate would be a lot worse than the 106th came when Connie Mack of Florida (who should be vice president-elect today) announced his retirement. With the tragic death of ...

I thought things were winding down. Wrong again! First a 4-3 decision by the Florida Supreme Court demanding a statewide manual recount. Then a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court announcing that it will review the Florida decision, stopping the recount, and ordering an argument for Monday morning. I cannot believe that the high court would intervene in so dramatic a fashion--endangering the state's ability to complete a recount in time to get the benefit of the Dec. 12 safe-harbor procedure--unless there is a very substantial likelihood that they will overturn the Florida decision. The Florida court did ...

On Friday, the Florida supreme court ruled — 4 to 3 — that it would require a manual recount of certain counties throughout the state. It also ruled that 383 Gore votes from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties must be added to Gore's vote, cutting George W. Bush's lead to 154. The hand-counted votes from Miami-Dade were selective, only from counties that overwhelmingly voted for Gore. And the votes from Palm Beach were filed in violation of the deadline that the state supreme court had earlier issued. In the meantime, the news reports that the Florida supreme court is working ...

As the Supreme Court punts and Leon County judge rules out a recount, all roads now lead to Florida Supreme Court WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — It was the legal equivalent of a slaughterhouse. Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Saul rejected Al Gore’s contest of the presidential election on every point. He ruled that it was okay for Miami-Dade County to start and then stop its recount, that it was okay for Secretary of State Katherine Harris to reject the Gore gains from Miami-Dade’s partial recount before the Banana Republicans intimidated the vote-counters, that it was okay for ...

The outcome of the nation's only undecided U.S. Senate race should be more clear than ever late today as King County and most of the state's other counties tally the rest of their remaining ballots. Republican Sen. Slade Gorton is so confident about the outcome, he is even making plans for a victory news conference. Yesterday, as of 6 p.m., 12 counties had reported new vote counts that left Gorton with 1,201 votes, or 0.05 percent, in the lead over Democratic challenger Maria Cantwell. With so few votes left to count statewide, Democrats acknowledge that things don't look good ...

I have election duty tomorrow in Nebraska. I am not a volunteer, I received notice in the beginning of the year. In Nebraska, it is like jury duty and they require some to work the polls. I did the primary and it was fun. I was the youngest person working there by 40 years! I consider it an honor and a privilege. Nebraska will go Bush. Lee Terry, Tom Osborne (yes, that Tom Osborne the legendary University of Nebraska Football Coach) and all the other Republican House candidates are expected to win. The tough race is for Bob Kerry's open ...

1960 Election: John Kennedy 34,226,731 votes & 303 Electoral Votes Richard M. Nixon 34,108,157 votes & 219 Electoral Votes 1968 Election: Richard M. Nixon 31,785,480 Votes & 301 Electoral Votes Hubert H. Humphrey 31,275,166 Votes & 191 Electoral Votes George C. Wallace 9,906,473 Votes & 46 Electoral Votes 1976 Election: James E. Carter 40,827,394 Votes & 297 Electoral Votes Gerald R. Ford 39,145,977 Votes & 240 Electoral Votes Ronald Reagan 1 Electoral Vote 1980 Election: Ronald Reagan 43,267,489 Votes & 489 Electoral Votes James E. Carter 34,964,583 Votes & 49 Electoral Votes John Anderson 5,588,014 Votes & 0 Electoral Votes ...

Cabinet material Due to the outcry over our interview with supermodel Christie Brinkley, a staunch supporter of Al Gore, we thought it only fair to approach supermodel Kim Alexis, who says she's "so concerned for our country right now and the outcome of this election" that she's been fasting (water only) every Tuesday until Election Day. "During the fasting days, I pray more frequently that the people in our great nation see the truth of who God wants to govern our country," she says. "A lot of people are turned off by this presidential campaign, and they do not feel ...

The Real Key to the Presidency Yes, voters do want an alpha male. Presidents are an odd lot, sometimes too much so, ranging from the heroic to the reprehensible, and from the ridiculous to the sublime. But most, at least lately, have had one thing in common. In picking a president, voters have chosen the left and the right, the poor and the rich, the pious and the rakish, the handsome and the homely, the young and the old. But in every election since 1932, the voters have gone, without reservation, for the candidate seen as the stronger, the more ...

The Real Key to the Presidency Yes, voters do want an alpha male. Presidents are an odd lot, sometimes too much so, ranging from the heroic to the reprehensible, and from the ridiculous to the sublime. But most, at least lately, have had one thing in common. In picking a president, voters have chosen the left and the right, the poor and the rich, the pious and the rakish, the handsome and the homely, the young and the old. But in every election since 1932, the voters have gone, without reservation, for the candidate seen as the stronger, the more ...

The Patriot (no stars-same old crap) It is only to be expected that Mel Gibson takes on and defeats the entire British army, virtually single-handedly, in The Patriot, but you would have thought that at least the film would have had something to say about what, from the point of view of the historian, the Revolutionary War was actually fought about. In a country in which, as we learned from a report issued in the same week the movie opened, only a third of the senior undergraduates at our most prestigious institutions of higher education know that George Washington led ...

Chaplain's Arm Nearly Severed in Attack by Death Row Inmate The Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A death row inmate attacked a 78-year-old volunteer chaplain Friday, nearly severing the minister's right arm, authorities said. William Paul Westbrook was doing volunteer ministry on death row when he was attacked by Juan Soria, 33, who is facing execution next month for a 1985 robbery-slaying in Fort Worth, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said. "The inmate pulled the chaplain's arm into the cell, tied a sheet around the arm and pulled the arm into the cell up to ...

Substance Abuse Faking, flubbing, and cramming with the media's talking heads It's a drill that veterans of the Washington press corps know all too well. The booker from a highly-regarded talk show calls you four hours before air time. They're doing a story on the turmoil in Zimbabwe. Could you help them out? You're not 100 percent sure where Zimbabwe is but, what the hell, it's a chance to be on TV. You tell her you'll do it, grab the Times, reach for the Atlas, and start to cram. And what if you don't get it all sorted out before ...