Free Republic

He’s a century old and still fabulous. A heroic World War II veteran who bravely spoke up for gay rights in the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” era celebrated his 100th birthday with a snazzy rainbow-colored hat and matching birthday cake last month. Rupert “Twink” Starr — an LGBTQ activist who earned a Bronze Star for his bravery during the Battle of the Bulge — threw a birthday bash with pals at his home in Columbus, Ohio, on July 16, according to reports. At the party, the spunky centenarian wore flamboyantly decorated pink costume glasses and a hat topped with rainbows...

Alyssa Milano came under fire on Twitter after asking her followers to refrain from criticizing any of the Democratic hopefuls in the 2020 presidential election. Milano retweeted a post from actor George Takei on Saturday that read, "Will you join me in pledging not to speak negatively about any of our candidates? We don’t know who the nominee will be, but they need to be as strong as they can be going into the election against Trump." Milano added, "#IPledge to not speak negatively about anyone running for President. Do you?"

former President Barack Obama is calling President Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal a "serious mistake" and said walking away from it "turns our back on America's closest allies." "The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working -- that is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current U.S. Secretary of Defense," Obama said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the agreement's title, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "The JCPOA is in America's interest -- it has significantly rolled back Iran's nuclear program. And the JCPOA is a...

Poor Barack Hussein Obama. Fred Hiatt of The Washington Post thinks he has a "happiness deficit" because he hates his job. But we have another theory: Barack Obama isn't sad... he's afflicted by SAD. Seasonal Affective Disorder. Hiatt—overlord of the worst opinion section in America—paints our president in such melancholy hues that you can imagine Hamlet slapping his back with a heartening "Buck up, kiddo." The problem, Hiatt writes, is that Obama "doesn't seem all that happy being president." Hiatt wonders with concern: "What part of it does he enjoy?" Obama bristles at "schmoozing with foreign leaders;" he only reluctantly...

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It's been said that every society has two aristocracies. The members of the aristocracy of mind produce ideas, and pass along knowledge. The members of the aristocracy of money produce products and manage organizations. In our society these two groups happen to be engaged in a bitter conflict about everything from S.U.V.'s to presidents. You can't understand the current bitter political polarization without appreciating how it is inflamed or even driven by the civil war within the educated class. The percentage of voters with college degrees has doubled in the past 30 years. As the educated class has grown, it...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article appears in the June 14, 2004, issue of National Review. Susie Tompkins Buell was very, very impressed with David Brock. A California businesswoman who co-founded the fashion giant Esprit and went on to become a major donor to Democratic causes, Buell was in Washington last fall attending a meeting of friends and supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton when she met Brock, the self-described former "right-wing hit man." Buell listened as Brock, now a defector to "progressive" causes, presented plans for Media Matters for America, his new Internet-based project to monitor and criticize conservative media. In...

<p>Let us imagine the discussion: "Boys, the nation's in massive reeling record-breaking debt and morale's at an all-time low and disposable American soldiers are dying brutal horrific deaths every day over nothing at all except our greed and flagrant cronyism and corporate petrochemical profiteering.</p>

<p>Buff Our SF Bubble, Mayor Attn: Mr. New Mayor Guy -- can you please do something about all the garbage and ennui?</p> <p>Congratulations, Mr. Candidate X! You won! You pulled it off even though many thought you were unlikable and smarmy and lopsided! You are the new mayor of San Francisco!</p>

<p>And then you hear the one about the "top Vatican official," one of those ultra-dour black-robed cardinals who never see daylight or the modern world or love, espousing the official Vatican line in a recent interview, claiming that condoms do not, in fact, prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus.</p>

<p>Did you hug a priest today? Run from a scary homosexual person? Coo over a copy of Bride's magazine? Fall on your knees and thank God Almighty that your child isn't yet gay or pagan or libertarian and if she is that's OK because it's nothing that regular lithium and electroshock therapy can't "cure"?</p>

<p>These are the things to corrupt young gullible minds and short-circuit self-expression and demean the desperately needed impulse toward spontaneous self-awareness and individuality and happy guiltless vaginal investigations.</p> <p>These are the things to make Mary-Kate and Ashley's alarming and utterly demonic stranglehold on the world of vacuous saccharine multimillion-dollar teendom seem like a boring day at the mall, with lots of makeup and tube tops and Hot Dog on a Stick.</p>