Free Republic

Freedom: It's bad enough that the president's health insurance takeover costs more, breaks his pledge of letting you keep your plan and diminishes choice. It actually restricts your travels too. 'We have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in." Those words from President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, standing at the Berlin Wall, neatly illustrated the moral superiority of the free West over the Soviet bloc. But Americans are now about to find themselves grappling with their own bureaucratic Berlin Wall. The American Thinker's Stella Paul has exposed the virtually unnoticed fact that within...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been compared to many strongmen of the past – Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, to name a few. But after nearly 14 years in power, perhaps the best comparison now may be a transgender cross between the former Argentine leader Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Eva (“Evita”). In the early 1940s, Col. Peron, as labor minister and secretary of war, was a “gray cardinal” to Argentina’s rulers. Before communism collapsed in 1989, Col. Putin, also memorably gray, was a devoted KGB operative, entrusted with spreading disinformation and recruiting Soviet and foreign...

Quinn and Rose are off the air, (temporarily, I hope!) Gone, but DEFINITELY not forgotten! Meanwhile, our friendly group of dedicated FReeper Q&R fans will meet in our usual spot - same time, same station - as we always have! So grab your coffee - or whatever you choose to start your day - and drop in for some political chit-chat, or just to shoot the breeze! We are all coming from - or going to - work, but we all stop in to say ‘hi!’ Feel free to join us!

White House advisor foolishly compares leftist cult to evil Republicans. In 1976, The People's Temple's renowned socialist, social justice advocate, and King of Kool-Aid, the Rev. Jim Jones, moved his communist flock from the racist confines of the Fascist States of America (San Francisco apparently being too far right wing for his liking) to the glorious utopia known as Guyana. Within two years, The People's Temple (no connection to The People's Cube) had over 900 people's in Guyana living out the socialist dream of shared sacrifice and equal distribution of misery. But, like what always happens in a "People's" society,...

'Pulp Fiction,' 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Right Stuff' among 25 named to 2013 National Film Registry Plus: 'The Magnificent Seven,' 'Forbidden Planet' and more The Library of Congress announced the 25 films selected for the 2013 National Film Registry and they feature some Academy Award winners, a groundbreaking documentary, genre classics and family favorites. The highlights include Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994), Disney's "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961), "The Quiet Man" (1952), Michael Moore's "Roger & Me" (1989) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" (1966).

Looking for some new mysteries to watch on Netflix or Amazon...preferably Brit, Swede, Danish or otherwise European(better actors)..but could be American if they are decent like Breaking Bad. I posted a request a while ago and many of you great Freeper friends responded with good suggestions. It turned out to be a fun thread.,,,a necessary distraction at this stressful time of year...from all things Obama, libs, Dems, progressives and dysfunctional families?

In Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court, reversing its own then-recent holding in Bowers v. v. Hardwick, ruled that laws against homosexual sodomy are unconstitutional–even though the Constitution says nothing about sex, let alone sodomy–on the ground that the right of privacy (also never mentioned in the Constitution) protects all consensual, private sexual contact between adults. Lawrence immediately was seen as a milestone in the campaign for gay marriage. Some conservatives noted that the Court’s rationale would protect polygamy, too, but they were denounced as killjoys. Lawyers noticed, however. Soon after Lawrence, several lawsuits were commenced in federal...

The Lord’s coming is near. And though we have all been well taught that the word “Advent” means “coming”  there is the danger that we think we are only passively waiting for him to come.  It is not just that the Lord is coming to us, but we are also journeying to him. In fact, as the Advent prayers in the Roman Missal instruct, we ought to run (don’t walk) and hasten, to greet him as he draws near.The image of the Prodigal Son that comes to mind. His Father saw him and ran toward him, but he too was...

HONOLULU —"I'm no hero, I'm just doing my job in a bad situation," said Makani Kai Air pilot Clyde Kawasaki at a news conference Wednesday morning. [....] The salvage operation for the Makani Kai plane that crashed off Kalaupapa last week will end at nightfall today, no matter what is retrieved or not retrieved. The boat should be back in port in Honolulu by Thursday morning.

"The questions as to why we load five rounds in a six-chambered revolver never dies. I attempt to give some graphic insight into why we do this. The S&W Top-Break replica is from Taylor's & Company, made by Uberti."

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey spoke with Fox News’ Stuart Varney Wednesday to discuss the negative impact Obamacare is having on the health food retailer. Mackey told Varney that Whole Foods, which has been in business for 35 years and employees 80,000 workers, is being hit hard by Obamacare. “It’s raising our costs…We’ll have to cover things that are expensive that we may not want to cover, our team members may not want to have covered,” Mackey said. He explained that that costs will be raised, which could either depress wage increases or the corporation will be forced to pass...

Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees. Binney has been interviewed by virtually all of the mainstream media, including CBS, ABC, CNN, New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, PBS and many others. Last year, Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together, and said: We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state. But today, Binney told Washington’s Blog that the...

First lady Michelle Obama encouraged young people to sign up for Obamacare, telling them that enrolling in the health law's new insurance exchanges should be a New Year's resolution.“This act provides a safety net for millions and millions of Americans but we have to take the next step to go check it out, sign up and make sure that we're covered,” said Mrs. Obama in an interview for the “The Joe Madison Show” on Sirius XM Radio. “That should be our New Year's resolutions to ourselves.”The first lady’s interview was one of three radio spots as the administration looks to...

IDF soldiers shot dead a Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist and wounded at least five others during a counterterrorism operation in the Samaria (Shomron) region Wednesday. Clashes broke out after Israeli special forces came under fire after being exposed in the course of an undercover operation to arrest local Hamas commander Jamal Abu al-Haija. "Earlier this evening during a counter terrorism activity in Jenin, Palestinians opened fire and threw improvised grenades and explosive devices at security forces," a statement said. Soldiers "retaliated towards the perpetrators in self defense. Several Palestinians were wounded in the exchange of fire" and taken by the...

A blue-ribbon commission tasked with reviewing the District’s tax structure is recommending that city officials lower income taxes on low- and middle-income residents, broaden the application of sales tax and lower some business taxes — but assess employers a new quarterly fee of $25 per worker. The proposal, a year and a half in the making, will be forwarded to Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and District lawmakers next month for possible inclusion in the city’s next budget, which will take effect next October.But it remains unclear how much of an appetite city leaders will have to upend the tax...

There really is a Santa, and he’s inhabited a little street in Duboistown for over fifty years. From late November to the Epiphany in early January, the evening traffic on Euclid Avenue in Duboistown, Pennsylvania, can slow to a crawl. Drivers traveling east or west on the avenue can get caught in bumper-to-bumper lines of vehicles which stretch for blocks, though no one inching along seems to mind at all. You see, moving at a snail’s pace for a while can be a very small price to pay for the opportunity to cruise up Candy Cane Lane, where visitors young...

NFL officials are ready for all contingencies related to Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium. Even if it means staging the game on a different day. Possibly even a different week. Although every Giants and Jets game has been played as scheduled at MetLife Stadium and Giants Stadium -- going all the way back to 1976 for the Giants, to 1984 for the Jets -- officials have plans in place for a weather event that could change the day of the game from its scheduled Feb. 2 date.

Gunmen opened fire at the office of the Palestinian Authority’s minister of Islamic endowments, Mahmoud Habbash, on Wednesday evening, witnesses told the Ma’an news agency. The witnesses said that masked and armed men fired heavily at the minister’s office in al-Jinan neighborhood in el-Bireh minutes after he arrived. Guards responded by shooting at the assailants, who fled the scene in a private car. ....

Loretta Fuddy, the Hawaiian official responsible for the release of Barack Obama’s birth certificate, died last week in a small-plane crash off the island of Molokai. The plane crashed was enough to raise suspicions among those who follow these things. That she was the only one of the nine onboard to die heightened those suspicions, especially given the conflicting accounts of how she alone failed to survive. More than a few people have asked my opinion on this given that I wrote a book on a case with some parallels – the death of then-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown in an...

The horror stories about life in South Africa under apartheid are endless, of course, and the fall of that morally repugnant political system is universally hailed as a triumph. But two decades after the white-led government relinquished power, and especially in the afterglow of worldwide praise for the nation’s former president Nelson Mandela after his passing at age 95, an objective look at South Africa today is very disturbing. In fact, even among the harshest critics of apartheid and racial oppression, there is an acknowledgement that in many ways the “rainbow nation,” under African National Congress and South African Communist...