Free Republic

The recent pardon of the late world heavy weight champion Jack Johnson by our president was a gracious act long overdue. A previous motion had passed the House but died in the Senate in 2008. Johnson’s racially motivated conviction for violating the Mann Act after he had married a white woman resulted in his beginning a year term in Leavenworth prison in 1920. It was not a salutary place; I buried one of its inmates who had done much more than a year there. Johnson skipped bail and spent several years in Europe via Canada. In Barcelona, much in need...

Fistfights broke out in Venezuela’s parliament on Tuesday, injuring a number of legislators during an angry session linked to the South American nation’s bitter election dispute. The opposition said seven of its parliamentarians were attacked and hurt when protesting a measure to block them from speaking in the National Assembly over their refusal to recognize President Nicolás Maduro’s April 14 vote victory. Government legislators blamed their “fascist” rivals for starting the violence, which illustrated the volatile state of politics in the OPEC nation after the death of late socialist leader Hugo Chávez last month. …

Open-Air Nuthouse I've said before that our poor country sometimes resembles an open-air insane asylum. Alas, here are two more pieces of evidence to support that assertion: 1. New York City has decided to fund a high school strictly for homosexuals. 2. The Pentagon planned to set up a "futures market" in which investors could speculate on such things as terrorist acts, assassinations and the overthrow of governments. As Jack Paar used to say, "I kid you not." Fortunately, enough people in Congress were outraged by this latest wacky idea from the Pentagon that the fearless bureaucrats have backed off....