Free Republic

Once again we reach that time of the week where we single out an odious person for our Jerk of the Week honors. Some weeks are harder than others, but this week was surprisingly easy. With the holiday week between Christmas and New Years, you would have thought that most people would be on their best behavior or lay low. However, MSNBC is the gift that keeps on giving. This time, it's in the form of Melissa Harris-Perry. Earlier this week, Melissa Harris-Perry had a segment on her MSNBC show where a picture was shown of Mitt Romney and his...

... In some sense, the outrage about according a degree of official status to Shariah in a Western country should come as no surprise. No legal system has ever had worse press. To many, the word “Shariah” conjures horrors of hands cut off, adulterers stoned and women oppressed. By contrast, who today remembers that the much-loved English common law called for execution as punishment for hundreds of crimes, including theft of any object worth five shillings or more? How many know that until the 18th century, the laws of most European countries authorized torture as an official component of the...

In another sad example of self flagellation by western elitists, the Guardian Newspaper in England published a column on how we Americans (and our English cousins) should not celebrate the founding of Jamestown, the first Virginia colony, 400 years ago because of... you guessed it... slavery. Here we have another elitist congratulating himself that he is "informed" enough to know that slavery makes the founding of the USA a blight on humanity instead of the great event it truly is. Another leftist who cannot bring himself to be proud of anything the west has been responsible for because there were...

It's hard to be a man; hard to live up to the demands that come with the dominant conception of masculinity, of the tough guy.

In an effort to change the course of history, the U.S. government sent Mike Wallace back in time to interview Adolf Hitler before the 1938 Munich Conference. The theory was that if the legendary, hard-hitting, pit bull journalist Wallace were to expose the true Hitler in a newsreel to be shown in movie theaters throughout the world, it could tilt the balance of world opinion against appeasement, and save millions of lives. The following are excerpts from the newsreel. WALLACE: When German Chancellor Adolf Hitler speaks out candidly -- as is his habit -- he scares a lot of people....

I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but it's time to say something. Israel is wrong. There aren't two sides to this anymore. I've heard all I want to hear from Israel. It's time to stop the attack on Hezbollah, withdraw back into Israel, stop firing bombs into Lebanon, and shut up for a while and let everyone else sort this out. It's not just Israel's problem. There are hundreds of millions of lives at stake in the Middle East, and this time not only has an Arab country, and that's what Hezbollah is, withstood Israel's attack, but...

The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake.

(12/30/2005) Paying The Price For Idealism Sari Bashi’s legal work on behalf of Palestinians is putting a strain on the ex-New Jerseyan. Michele Chabin - Israel Correspondent Jerusalem Sari Bashi often takes the road less traveled, even though the ride can be bumpy and the path puts her on a collision course with her own family. When she was graduated from the Yale Law School in 2003, Bashi could have landed a job at a major American law firm at a starting salary of $125,000. Instead, the New Jersey native accepted an $800-a-month clerkship/internship with Israel’s Supreme Court, where she...

In this week’s edition of the New York Observer (hat tip to the Huffington Post), famed actor, writer, and movie director, Woody Allen, cast aspersions on President Bush, while gushing over former President Clinton. At the end of a piece by Suzy Hansen covering a range of topics from his past movies, his current one, and his life at the age of 70, the article concluded with Hansen asking Allen’s opinion of a number of people. When asked about George W. Bush, Allen responded: “Arguably the worst administration in the history of the United States...

On a recent visit to Israel I was asked if I was proud to be a Jew. I found the question absurd, not to say grotesque. "I only feel pride in my achievements, not in the accidents of heredity," I said. Predictably, my answer obviated further discourse; but it also revived half-digested ruminations about my connection to Judaism ("who" is a Jew) and my penchant for it ("what" is a Jew) – if any. As a journalist, and lacking the capacity or urge to embrace – let alone champion – any political cause, I am content to agitate against the...

Refusing to relinquish her extended fifteen minutes of fame, Anita Hill is back in the news. After doing all she could to prevent a black man, Clarence Thomas, from becoming a Supreme Court Justice, Hill is now attacking President Bush's nomination of John Roberts, saying she fears his selection could lead to "an all-white-male Supreme Court." God forbid. Sadly, hardly anyone noticed her racist and sexist comments. The liberal press simply yawned, since white males remain the primary targets of abuse by journalists, academics and feminists. They have been victims of affirmative action, quotas and reverse discrimination. Hill knows this,...

Eyal Sivan is one of the most openly anti-Semitic far-leftist extremists in Europe. He grew up in Israel but then migrated to Europe, where he divides his time between making Jew-bashing anti-Israel films and filing frivolous SLAPP suits against people who criticize him. In recent years a growing anti-democratic harassment tactic used by the very worst left-wing fascists has been the filing of such SLAPP suits for "libel" as a way to silence critics of the Left. SLAPP (which stands for 'Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation') suits are anti-democratic harassment suits in which someone attempts to suppress the free speech...

In the summer of 2001, less than four years ago, the Israeli government issued an order to shut down the Palestine Liberation Organization offices in Orient House in East Jerusalem. The offices had been operating with Israel's consent since the beginning of the peace process and in keeping with the Oslo agreement. They were run by Faisal al-Husseini, who held the PLO's Jerusalem portfolio and died a few weeks before they were closed down. Perhaps the most important department in the Orient House was the one in charge of preserving and developing the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian...

I appeal to you today to be part of a historical movement and moment that may bring an end to more than a century of colonization, occupation and dispossession of Palestinians. I appeal to you as an Israeli Jew, who for years wished, and looked, for other ways to bring an end to the evil perpetrated against the Palestinians in the occupied territories, inside Israel and in the refugee camps. I devoted all my adult life, with others, to creating a substantial peace movement inside Israel, in which, so we hoped, academia will play a leading role. But after 37...

Police and Shin Bet officers on Monday arrested Tali Fahima, the left-wing activist and reported lover of Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades Jenin leader Zakariya Zubeidi, the man she lived with for two weeks in the West Bank city. Her remand was extended by nine days at the Petah Tikva Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. Fahima is suspected of assisting Palestinian terrorists in planning a terrorist attack and committing serious security breaches. Security officials believe Fahima to be in constant contact with Zubeidi, who is the most wanted terrorist in the Jenin area. Fahima, a resident of Tel Aviv's Jaffa neighborhood, was driving...