Free Republic

“Saturday Night Live” joked about abortion last weekend during its “Weekend Update” segment, focusing the ‘joke’ specifically on Arizona’s recent state Supreme Court decision to allow a longstanding pro-life law, put in place in 1864 to go into effect. “Reinstating laws from 1864 isn’t the worst thing for me, because I’m a white landowner,” co-host Colin Jost said. “And a proud Freemason.” Jost, who is white, and co-host Michael Che, who is Black, have a running racism joke between them with Che often joking that Jost is racist. “But it’s probably not great to adopt healthcare rules from a time...

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that women in his state could die from a 123-year-old law that bans nearly all abortions except to save the life of the mother. Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what’s happening in your home state of Arizona, as you know the State Court ruled an 1864 Civil War era law can take effect that would criminalize abortion, it’s on hold at the moment, but this is a live issue. Do you have confidence that your state legislators will take action before it...

Arizona’s Democrat Attorney General says she will not enforce an 1864 law that was upheld by the state Supreme Court on Tuesday banning nearly all abortions. “The decision made by the Arizona Supreme Court today is unconscionable and an affront to freedom. Make no mistake, by effectively striking down a law passed this century and replacing it with one from 160 years ago, the Court has risked the health and lives of Arizonans,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (pictured above) said in a statement. “The Arizona Court of Appeals decision, which the Supreme Court has struck down [on Tuesday], was...

The Arizona Supreme Court has decided to uphold a Civil War-era law that bans abortion. A law on the books from 1864 is enforceable, according to Arizona judges. The year in which that law was passed, 1864, was before human chattel slavery was outlawed, and almost 50 years before Arizona was officially part of the United States. The law makes abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison. But the ban may be overturned at the polls in November. The 1864 law goes back into effect in 14 days.

As most readers of this newsletter know, we believe in calling things what they are, in plain English, and in such a way that there is no doubt in what we mean. So we haven't been using words like duplicitous, deceitful and devious when describing the Democrats in Congress. Instead, when they act like socialists (as do some Republicans), socialists is what we call them. There is a very good reason for this socialist tag, too. We are far from being alone in this assessment. Specifically, we find the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in total agreement. First, though, a...

Together, the men had shipped crates of fraudulent votes back to New York. But their scheme was over. Wood reported the operation to authorities. Ferry’s office was searched, and on the morning of Oct. 27, 1864 — less than two weeks before the election — he and Donahue stood trial before a military commission.

The removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored, says Tom Gross It is not surprising, given the sheer scale of the Holocaust and its sadism, that it has dominated contemporary discourse among Jews and others. But, while the extermination of European Jews has rightfully (though belatedly) generated a great deal of study and research, the removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored. This ignorance extends to policy-makers at the highest level. Some journalists and politicians I have spoken to have expressed surprise when I even mentioned that Jews...

December 22, 2005, 8:57 a.m. Can You Hear the Bells? Christmas 1864. In the winter of 1864, an unexpected sense of optimism and good cheer settled on the northern states. The Civil War continued, but the news from the fronts was promising, and hope flourished that with spring the end would come and peace would return. New Yorkers in particular were in a festive frame of mind, of a like unseen since the before the war began. People skated in Central Park, and rode sleighs through the snowy fields. They stopped at shops for warm cider, confections, nuts and dried...

During the 1864 presidential election, an image of an elephant was published in the pro-Lincoln campaign newspaper, Father Abraham. The same boot-wearing, banner-carrying pachyderm used in the 1860 Willet advertisements is shown in the September 27, 1864 issue of Father Abraham celebrating Union military victories, instead of selling shoes. Since “seeing the elephant” was slang among Civil War soldiers for engaging in combat, the symbol was a natural choice for honoring successful military campaigns. In the featured illustration from the October 18, 1864 issue of Father Abraham, the same emblem (minus the boots) bears a banner proclaiming, “The Elephant is...

An electoral loss by Lincoln in 1864 would have greatly altered U.S. history. The situation is similar today. On Jan. 5, 1762, the Czarina Elizabeth died. Russia was in the midst of the Seven Years' War, fighting alongside Austria and France and against the Prussia of Frederick the Great. Prussia was on the verge of defeat: Before he learned of the czarina's death, Frederick wrote to an aide, "We ought now to think of preserving for my nephew, by way of negotiation, whatever fragments of my territory we can save from the avidity of my enemies." But Elizabeth's death changed...

The Election of 1864 Advantage: Commander-in-chief. The standing ovation for the chairman of the interim Iraqi Governing Council, the systematic refutation of all the tired canards — "unilateralism," "preemption," and "hubris" — praise and admiration for Afghans, the peroration about the historic times we are in and the promise to press on, all this was Trumanesque, delivered in Tuesday night's State of the Union Address with spirit and without apology. Even Mr. Bush's sterner maxims — "They declared war on the United States — and war is what they got" — were more majestic than haughty. No apologies, no going...