Free Republic

For more than 40 years Beatles member John Lennon towered above all others as the Left’s most powerful artistic icon. His anthem “Imagine” dreamed of a unified world that transcended the divides of nation-states and religious strife. It was an inspiration to generations of utopians. Now a new documentary reveals a startling fact: in his final years before his murder, the songwriter abandoned his famous progressive faith, enjoyed arguing with radicals, and supported Ronald Reagan. The Toronto Sun reported Tuesday night on one of the interviews from a new documentary called “Beatles Stories.” Director Seth Swirsky spent five years collecting...

The phenomenon of leftist billionaires funding anti-capitalist activism seems on the surface to be a contradiction. How could those who should understand the way individual freedom and initiative creates wealth with the power to do good seek the destruction of the system that produces this wealth? The answer is a complex one, although for those who inherited wealth, rather than making their own fortune, guilt clearly plays a role. This seems to be the case with billionaire former sports mogul George Gund III. He used to own the San Jose Sharks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Today he’s the co-founder of two...

When the Hamas-linked Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) sponsored a “humanitarian” flotilla last summer to try and break the Israeli “siege” of Gaza, the purpose was not merely to engineer a showdown between Israeli commandos and armed IHH “peace activists.” Far more vital to the IHH’s cause was the ensuing campaign to demonize Israel in the international media, a campaign in which propagandists such as documentary filmmaker Iara Lee played a key role. Lee later appropriated the language of the American Civil Rights Movement to describe herself and the IHH: Israeli spokespeople insist that the...

The Totalitarians Within Posted By David Horowitz On May 31, 2011 @ 12:12 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 18 Comments On May 11, 2011, I spoke to a student audience at UCLA for about an hour. My speech was video-taped and recorded on audio. Frontpage Magazine posted the video and an edited transcript of the speech. We are now posting an unedited transcript (accessible here) for reasons I will make clear in a moment. On May 24, the Undergraduate Students Association at UCLA, by a 10-0 vote passed a resolution proposed by the Muslim Students Association declaring that “UCLA is...

Never before have I walked into a church to be greeted by a barrier of armed police with metal detector wands. Nor have I had to let officers open my purse to search for weapons before I could enter a sanctuary—that is, until now. That was when Geert Wilders came to speak at Cornerstone Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to warn America, to warn Christians. He came to wake up the Bible Belt to the threat of Islam. But before a single word was spoken, these ominous signs foreshadowed the truth of what was yet to come. Geert...

I've been arguing with my leftist friends again. Bad habits die hard. I still manage to let the dirty laundry pile up for weeks too. Some day I'll learn my lessons -- and have more leftist drinking buddies and fewer days wearing faded t-shirts from college. This time it's Chris, an admitted Socialist and proud Union Man. (I suppose I'm being redundant aren't I?) An argument that started over the futility of the attempt to create a "digital picket line" to boycott the Huffington Post (Chris's link was responsible for me suggesting to our star blogger Walter Hudson that he write...

Certainly there is no lack of words about the departure from this world of the closest thing we had to a real-life Lord Voldemort. How we react to these pivotal news events says a lot about who we really are, our values and our priorities. Quite a few honorable, patriotic Americans struggled a bit with how to respond to the demise of Osama bin Laden. There was definitely joy over the (vastly delayed) justice, and pride in our awesome military. But there was also sober contemplation of a life wasted in hatred and violence, and very little hope of a...

The Tea Party stands as a moral challenge to the status quo. It’s not a third-party movement. It’s an extra-party movement. It’s not political. It’s philosophical. It is a manifestation of the market, an example of how free minds and free will seep through the cracks of the established paradigm to fulfill unmet needs. Although it did not manifest in rallies and town halls until 2009, the seeds of the Tea Party were planted 15 years earlier. Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, propelled by the Contract with America. The sweeping reforms Republicans pledged to attempt were largely unsuccessful,...

President Obama and the first family attended Easter services at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.  As the mainstream press made sure to point out, this church was founded in 1863 by freed slaves. MSNBC proclaimed: Obama attends Easter service at historic church: The first family enters Shiloh Baptist Church to a round of applause It would be such a heart-warming picture of religious devotion except that the mainstream press neglected to mention a couple of things about the church which Obama chose for his Easter worship. The Shiloh Baptist Church hosted an anti-Israel hate fest in 2009 at the...

Before Terror Jones.....there was peace. Our media and our government is desperately trying to make us believe that an American pastor is somehow responsible for turning otherwise peaceful Muslims into bloodthirsty killers. We are to believe that he is somehow forcing Muslims to riot and to kill when he burns a Koran or when he plans to protest a mosque. This man, Terry Jones, has been called every name in the book by those who never make a peep about the very threat that Jones is trying to warn us about. The latest and absolute greatest outrage in this story...

You have to hand it to Andrew Breitbart; he doesn't avoid "enemy" territory. The political activist/web entrepreneur/ showman is on tour hawking his new book, Righteous Indignation. Yesterday, the book tour took him to Martin Bashir’s program on MSNBC. But instead of having an opportunity to discuss his book, Breitbart walked into an ambush where the TV host tried to pin false charges of racism on the author. For those of you who are not familiar with Bashir, he made his name in 2003 with a "news" special called Living with Michael Jackson. After spending eight months as part of Jackson's...

Breaking news out of Cuba on Tuesday as former Cuban President Fidel Castro resigned from his post as first secretary in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The move was made after a series of reforms had been passed by the Communist Party Congress that introduced minor free market reforms to the island nation's economy. Among the reforms passed were term limits for "elected" officials and state job cuts. From Google News:Fidel Castro confirmed his exit from the Communist Party leadership on Tuesday, ceding power to his brother Raul as delegates prepare to vote on changes that could...

Before I sat down to write this article, I pinched myself just to make sure I was awake and today’s subject wasn’t some weird dream. But alas, talking heads on both sides of the political spectrum really are seriously entertaining the possibility of President Donald Trump. At the Daily Beast, Jim DeFede reports on why several Florida Tea Partiers have said they’re backing the Donald: "We need a real businessman," said Linda Kogelman, 63, a retired postal worker. "The lawyers don't know how to run the country. They bow down to too many people." Kogelman said no one else in...

Every speaker knows there will be critics.  Perhaps you've heard of the guy who gave his first speech in a public speaking class.  His teacher said, "The speech has three major problems.  1. You read your speech.  2. You didn't read it well.  And number 3: It wasn't worth reading." That teacher's critique is probably similar to what most conservatives would say about President Obama's deficit speech he gave on Wednesday afternoon.  But what about the Left?  Last week the Left came unglued when Obama made the 2011 budget deal with congressional Republicans that cut spending $38 billion.  They feared...

By now, everyone knows what is really happening on campus and in academia.  David Horowitz has exposed and publicized the radicalization of American universities.  He speaks about “how radical professors indoctrinate students” and has written a book about the same.  A giant sign hanging on the University of Southern California school for teachers tells me that his efforts are successful – for no longer are some universities hiding their radical tendencies.  Indeed, they now openly recruit “radical” students!  Higher education could have saved Mr. Horowitz a lot of work had they opened up like this decades ago. This sign hangs...

Last night's last-minute agreement on significant spending reductions for the balance of the 2011 fiscal year, which averted a government shut-down, was an historic accomplishment for the American people concerned about our nation's current path towards bankruptcy. President Obama's cheerleaders at MSNBC have tried to give him credit for making the deal possible. 'Tingle-down-my-leg' Chris Matthews,  for example, said last night that Obama was the adult in the room Nice try, but after a couple of failed meetings at the White House, Obama took a time out, while the real work was going on elsewhere. Obama was relegated to a bystander status during...

Editor's Note: Diane Schrader attended the David Horowitz Freedom Center's West Coast retreat this past weekend and will be filing several reports on the various speakers and panels. This is the first.I’ve got a few weighty things on my mind that I'm about to unpack on you. But let's ease into it gently, courtesy of Rush Limbaugh: Q: What do God and Barack Obama have in common? A: Neither has a birth certificate! Q: What is one difference between Obama and God? A: Leftists love Obama! Q: What’s another difference between Obama and God? A: God doesn’t think he’s Obama!...

YAF President Samuel Settle described the event held yesterday: Today, members of the Penn State Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) set up a Palestinian Wall of Lies outside of the HUB Student Center at the University Park campus. The demonstration began shortly before 1:00, and received an almost immediate hostile reaction from two nearby Arab students. The students described the Wall as “bullshit” and “a f***ing lie,” but were initially nonviolent. Shortly afterwards, the Wall began attracting significant attention, including from a reporter and photographer with the Daily Collegian student newspaper. Most of the reception was positive; in particular, a...

According to a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters released Wednesday, President Barack Obama's approval ratings have reached a new low at 42%. His disapproval rating was 48%. Half of those surveyed for the poll do not think that the president deserves a second term in office. On the "O'Reilly Factor" last night, Bill O'Reilly posited that Obama's declining poll numbers reveal Americans' doubts about his leadership skills and where he is leading our country. Here are just a few examples of Obama's leadership failures: Obama spent the first two years of his presidency on his signature issue - Obamacare...

That whole up-is-down, black-is-white thing that the Left’s got going does leave a sane person wondering if they’re all off their meds. How else to explain professional blowhard Michael Moore’s appearance on Colbert this week, where he offered up several big heapin’ helpings of crazy. Bet you didn't realize Professor Moore was a scholar and expert on all things Founding Father-related? Or that he and Thomas Jefferson had so much in common? Check it out: Quite a compendium of misleading statements, outright lies, and utter nonsense, no? The coup de grace has got to be that mangling of the legacy...