Free Republic

Last week I received an unexpected Christmas lesson from the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. They appeared on The Tonight Show, thrashing out a steel-reinforced rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” You may remember these guys for their Eighties hits “We’re Not Going To Take It” and “I Wanna Rock,” or you might recall lead singer Dee Snider embarrassing Tipper Gore’s anti-rock crusaders in the Senate with his polite but unyielding testimony. My favorite part was when the committee counsel referred to him politely as "Mr. Sister." Dee and the boys blew the roof off the place: “O come...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court is taking a pass on a Washington state case about the rights of a gay parent. The high court has refused to stop a lesbian from seeking parental rights to a child she helped raise with her partner. Justices might have used the case to clarify child custody disputes in nontraditional families. But they declined without comment. The Washington state Supreme Court said Sue Ellen Carvin is a "de facto parent" and could pursue parental rights with a girl who is now 11 years old. The girl's biological mother, Page Britain, said that could...

That Ukranian protest song got me thinking. We all make fun of the painfully-earnest and stridently-liberal balladeers who fill us with so much excess stomache acid, but, hey, I'll be the one to admit it: I'm jealous. Where's my protest anthem? Where's my catchy sing-a-long rock rebellion? Sure, such songs don't really advance a philosophical position. They're the near-religious chants of the already-converted. But damnit, it gets kinda tedious just quoting Larry Kudlow and Deborah Orin all day. Why can't we occasionally just be able to sing our politics and maybe even groove to it? ... The only real conservative...

While former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill may now be critical of his former boss's policy of liberating Iraq, President George W. Bush can take heart. Someone arguably much hipper than O'Neill has expressed support of Bush's war against Saddam Hussein. Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider, a brawny guy who gained fame donning makeup and trashy women's clothing, has joined fellow heavy-metal rockers Ted Nugent and Gene Simmons [see "Antiwar Singers Out of Tune With Public," May 13-26, 2003] in saying the war against the former Iraqi dictator was justified. And since O'Neill set a precedent of seeking out rock...

NEW YORK - Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, whose "We're Not Gonna Take It" has become the anthem for Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign, says the actor-turned-politician actually inspired that hit 1984 record. The heavy-metal star only met the would-be California governor for the first time on Sunday, when they appeared together at a rally. But Snider's been a fan for decades. Twisted Sister's 1984 best-selling album, "Stay Hungry," was inspired by a Schwarzenegger book Snider read in the early 1980s. Schwarzenegger also starred in a 1976 movie with the same title. "It motivated me," Snider said Monday. "I dedicated the song...

1980's pop metal act Twisted Sister will reunite next month for a brief USO tour and select U.S. and European dates over the summer. On behalf of the USO, the band will perform at one Air Force base and two Army bases in South Korea (May 3, Kunsan Air Base; May 4, Camp Walker; and May 5, Camp Casey). "It's funny that back in 1985 we had to go before Congress and defend our music against censorship and now we're ambassadors for the Defense Department," guitarist Jay Jay French quipped in a statement.