Free Republic

Imagine a situation in which an earthquake destroys a suspension bridge over a deep canyon. A passenger train is speeding toward the location, and those in charge realize there is a potential problem ahead but choose instead to argue about the ambient temperature in the passenger cars, the food service, and whether they will reach their final destination on time. A few people are quite disturbed when they learn of the tragedy about to unfold if the train isn’t halted, but they are labeled as “alarmists” who really are not sophisticated enough to understand the situation. Obviously, I am referring...

Divide and conquer is an age-old strategy, effectively used by many in positions of power to ensure that they retain their wealth and authority. During the dark days of slavery in America, there were many geographic areas where the number of slaves significantly surpassed the number of whites and slave owners. This occasioned appropriate anxiety for the owners, who cleverly sowed seeds of discord among the different groups of slaves in an attempt to effectively destroy unity. For example, field slaves were told that the house slaves thought of themselves as superior. This worked in most cases, although there were...

Changing geopolitics cannot be managed by leading from behindWhile the media have been focused on the missing Malaysian aircraft, massive alterations in the world’s geopolitical terrain are underway simultaneously. The annexation of Crimea by Russia should not have been a surprise for anyone who suspects that President Vladimir Putin is trying to re-establish a powerful Soviet-style empire. When he aggressively attacked Georgia in 2008 after both Georgia and Ukraine failed to obtain NATO admission at the Bucharest Summit, we should have realized that his goals were not limited to one territory. I suspect that he is now calculating an excuse...

"The New York Meeting is a nationally-recognized gathering of elected officials, journalists, business leaders and conservative authors in New York City at The Grand Hyatt, run by Mallory Factor and O’Brien Murray. The New York Meeting identifies leaders and generates ideas for the future of our nation and gets to the core of the most important issues facing the nation. This monthly hour and half meeting consists of five 15 minute segments with America’s leaders—Senators, Governors, Congressman, newsmakers, journalists and celebrated authors, Each speaker addresses the meeting and then, answer questions from a panel of noted journalists and the invited...

Speech taboos are meant to silence patriotic dissentWhen I was in high school in Detroit, there was a great deal of emphasis on clothing. As I became increasingly interested in fitting in with the “in crowd,” fashion supplanted academic achievement in my hierarchy of importance. My grades plummeted and I became a person who was less pleasant and more self-absorbed. My mother was very disappointed, because she thought I had enough insight and intelligence to avoid the flypaper trap of acting like everyone else. Fortunately, after wasting a year pursuing acceptance, I realized that my dreams went far beyond silk...

When I spoke just feet away from President Obama about the dangers of political correctness at last year’s National Prayer Breakfast, many were surprised. After all, my background is medicine, not politics. But it doesn’t take a brain surgeon like me to see that America is facing serious problems. And right now, the number one problem is Obamacare. Dropped coverage, failing websites, skyrocketing premiums - the list goes on and on. I wish I could snap my fingers and make Obamacare disappear tomorrow, but we both know that won’t happen. That’s why we’re launching Save our Healthcare - a national...

Following a standing ovation at his address to the standing-room-only crowd, Dr. Ben Carson said that the current state of our government and institutions are "very much like Nazi Germany." Carson says, “You had the government using its tools to intimidate the population. We now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe.” Carson warns that our country is in a precarious position, and that political correctness coupled with government intimidation prevents open and honest dialogue.

As a teenager, I began a new lifelong routine of starting and ending each day reading from the book of Proverbs, which, of course, was written by Solomon, a very wise man. Interestingly, my parents gave me the middle name of Solomon -- not that I claim even a modicum of his wisdom. After Solomon became the king of Israel, he gained great renown when two women came before him claiming to be the mother of the same infant. Solomon decreed that the baby should be divided and half given to each woman, at which time the real mother immediately...

Thwarting excessive government intervention is keyMost of us can remember feeling that someone had done us a great injustice. On those occasions, we want nothing more than to exact revenge. I remember being unfairly treated as a lowly ROTC cadet by one of the sergeants who resented the fact that my brother had been promoted to captain and company commander over him. I was very ambitious and worked extremely hard, resulting in my promotion in record time to the rank of colonel and city executive officer. This individual was now firmly under my command and I could have wreaked havoc...

KINGSPORT — It was standing room only Tuesday evening for “America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made this Nation Great,” a presentation by world- renowned neurosurgeon and best-selling author Dr. Benjamin S. Carson. “The bottom line is courage,” Carson said at one point. “Courage is what we need in America today.” Based on his recent book, Carson’s presentation — free and open to the public at Eastman’s Toy F. Reid Employee Center — was sponsored by Eastman Chemical Co. in commemoration of Black History Month. “It is our privilege to host Dr. Carson here in the Tri-Cities region,” Etta Clark, ECC...

‘Compassionate action’ could usher in a genuinely fair societyAs a child growing up in Detroit and Boston, I had many opportunities to experience the ugly face of racism and witnessed the devastating toll exacted by its mean-spirited nature. I was a victim of the racism of low expectations for black children, but in retrospect, I can see that many of those attitudes were based on ignorance. Large numbers of white people actually believed that blacks were intellectually inferior, and there were a host of other inaccurate beliefs that whites held about blacks and that blacks held about whites. It is...

Dr. Ben Carson, the brain surgeon turned popular political analyst, told WND Obama administration officials are “acting like the Gestapo” with the Justice Department indictment of Dinesh D’Souza coupled with the Internal Revenue Service’s political targeting of the administration’s critics. “I believe we are dealing with an extremely corrupt administration,” he said. Dr. Carson himself became the subject of an IRS audit after criticizing Barack Obama’s policies at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington last year.

The names on this survey suggest the Republican National Committee is ready for some big tent thinking. Can they attract tea party folks, libertarian leaners and conservative Democrats? This roster offers two Pauls - both Ron and Rand. And Sarah Palin, John Bolton, Allen West and Ben Carson. A sleeping giant awakening? The RNC appears to be on war footing as the competitive gleam in chairman Reince Priebus‘ eye grows ever brighter. All the proper political weaponry is appearing: prowess in social media, a feisty presence online and in broadcast, strategic information gathering, image-crafting, brand-burnishing, merchandising. “Innovate or die,” declares...

President Obama and the First Lady joined thousands from the Washington elite early Thursday for the National Prayer Breakfast, an event that hit a decidedly more spiritual tone in 2014 than the highly politicized spirit at the 2013 occasion.  The first couple was joined by Vice President Joe Biden for the annual affair, with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah slated as the keynote speaker. Conservative pundit Dr. Ben Carson was the keynote speaker at the 2013 affair. He was criticized by some for using his speech to criticize the President's healthcare reform instead of delivering a spiritual message.

Time hasn’t dimmed liberty set afire in Boston HarborThe famous Boston Tea Party involved disgruntled colonists who felt unfairly treated by the British Motherland, which was imposing an ever-increasing burden of taxation with little or no input from those being taxed. The British reasoned that they were offering protection to the colonies and, therefore, the taxes were justified. Because the British Empire was almost continuously expanding and engaging in warfare, a great deal of revenue was required. There appeared to be enormous natural resources and the capacity to develop them in the New World, and the monarch thought these could...

It's not happenstance or coincidence that Obama and his administration are illegally using neutral government agencies to go after their political adversaries. If it were, they wouldn't be taking the 5th, stonewalling Congress and putting political hacks in charge of their internal investigations. The most important remaining questions about the Obama Administration's attacks on its foes are how far up the ladder they go and whether any impeachable offenses were committed in the process. Given that the mainstream media is essentially an arm of the Democrat Party and that the House Republicans have been about as aggressive as a baby...

Opportunity, not entitlements, is the path forwardThere has been much discussion about income inequality recently. President Obama seems to think that we can make significant progress in eliminating poverty by raising the minimum wage, as his State of the Union address highlighted. Many hope that through a simple declaration, the poor can be elevated to a higher social status. Such people fail to realize that pay is associated with value — otherwise, we could just pay everybody $1 million a year and let everybody be rich. In a capitalistic society, those individuals who produce the wherewithal to obtain income tend...

The thought of abortion for convenience is repugnantSeveral years ago, I was consulted by a young woman who was 33 weeks pregnant and was on her way to Kansas get an abortion. I informed her of the multiple options available to her outside of abortion and she decided to go through with the pregnancy even though the child had hydrocephalus and required neurosurgical intervention after birth a few weeks later. She kept the baby and loves the beautiful child that has resulted. A couple of decades ago, I came into the pediatric Intensive Care Unit on morning rounds and was...

When government grows too large, dependency replaces achievementWhen I was in high school in Detroit, I had a job as a biology laboratory assistant. I spent a substantial amount of time in the greenhouse, preparing botany experiments. I had acquired some seeds of an interesting plant and was anxious to use them to produce my own crop of these plants. I planted the seeds in a special container and kept enriching the soil and providing plenty of moisture and sunlight to enhance and accelerate the growth. I was very disappointed with the results and eventually abandoned the project, leaving the...

It’s time to ignore the inflammatory rhetoric of the haters and dividersA few years ago, I was participating in a national radio interview when the questioner asked me, “Dr. Carson, I notice that you don’t speak very often about race. Why is that?” I replied, “It’s because I’m a neurosurgeon.” The puzzled look on her face demanded further clarification. I proceeded to explain that when I take a patient to the operating room and open the cranium, exposing the brain, I am operating on the actual thing that makes that person who they are. The hair, scalp and skull bones...