Free Republic

ST. PAUL, MINN. - We are such hypocrites. When it was announced that Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant, the media pounced. Did this damage Palin's preference for abstinence-only policies? Shouldn't she be staying home at this difficult time in her daughter's life? What about Palin's new baby, who has Down syndrome? Shouldn't he be getting much more of her time and attention? How can she be vice president and a good mother? Haven't critics forgotten that Palin has a husband to help? Speaker Nancy Pelosi has five children. No...

I have never met a weak woman or a male victim in Alaska. You've got to be tough to survive in a state that is further away from Washington than any other, except Hawaii. In terms of the contrasts between how most Alaskans think and what passes for reasoning by career politicians in Washington, Alaska might as well be a colony on the moon. Initial criticism from the Obama campaign (and his media acolytes) is that Gov. Sarah Palin lacks experience to be vice president and, if necessary, president. That Obama lacks experience to be president has led some pundits...

DENVER - Democrats have made it a priority to lure more evangelical and Catholic voters from the Republican camp into their own, but the likelihood of success is becoming more problematic given pronouncements by two Catholic archbishops and a decision by the editor of an evangelical Christian magazine. Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, the archbishop of Denver, said Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden should avoid taking Communion because of his support for abortion rights. In 2004, the Archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley stood by a statement he had made the previous year that pro-choice Catholics are in a state...

The "civil forum" featuring presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain may not have been as exciting as Michael Phelps winning his eighth Olympic gold medal, but it was civil and it was a forum from which emerged useful information. McCain had the most to gain. Judging by the applause, he won the night among evangelical voters. He told them what they wanted to hear: He would be a pro-life president with "pro-life policies." He believes the unborn have human rights "from the moment of conception," that marriage is between a man and a woman and that the California Supreme...

Russia's invasion of Georgia on the pretext of "protecting" Russian peacekeepers stationed in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and ending the "ethnic cleansing" of native Russians living there, is a sobering reminder that the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 was not a sign that old-line communists were ready to walk the sawdust trail of repentance and convert to capitalism, democracy, human rights and religious freedom. Quite the contrary. Vladimir Putin, who continues to effectively run Russia through his hand-picked "successor," President Dmitry Medvedev, still resembles what he once was: the head of the notorious KGB security agency....

Russia's invasion of Georgia on the pretext of "protecting" Russian peacekeepers stationed in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and ending the "ethnic cleansing" of native Russians living there, is a sobering reminder that the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 was not a sign that old-line communists were ready to walk the sawdust trail of repentance and convert to capitalism, democracy, human rights and religious freedom. Quite the contrary. Vladimir Putin, who continues to effectively run Russia through his hand-picked "successor," President Dmitry Medvedev, still resembles what he once was: the head of the notorious KGB security agency....

W ho is a Christian? It seems like a simple question, but when I typed my inquiry into Google earlier this week, the answer came back in 20 million hits, each of them a little different from the other. I've always understood a Christian to be someone who believes Jesus was who he said he was and tries to live the way Jesus said to live. Period. But there are many people who find that answer lacking, apparently. What got me thinking about this question was a recent commentary by the syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, based in part on an...

LifeNews.com Note: With a twice-weekly column appearing in over 600 newspapers nationwide, Cal Thomas is the most widely read and one of the most highly regarded voices on the American political scene. A graduate of American University, Thomas is a 35-year veteran of broadcast and print journalism. A writer of force and clarity, Thomas has authored ten books.Most inhumanities start small, like the beginning of a tsunami, but then build, as they head toward inevitable and unstoppable destruction.It is difficult to pinpoint the precise beginning of the cultural tsunami that has devalued human life. Did it begin with the...

Why Bother with Iran Negotiations? July 24, 2008 crosswalk.com Cal Thomas The so-called international community and the American left had pressured the Bush administration to talk to Iran about its nuclear program. Barack Obama says he would negotiate with leaders of regimes like Iran and North Korea. The futility, even stupidity, of such a move was revealed following a meeting with the head of Iran’s nuclear program by the State Department’s William Burns. The Iranians rejected any and all offers to change their nuclear objectives. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran would not yield in pursuit of its nuclear ambitions...

Two Men of Character Cal Thomas Two longtime friends of mine died last week. One was the renowned cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Michael DeBakey. I first met him as a young reporter in Houston in the late '60s and we kept up over the years. He lobbied me to write about health issues and the importance of research. I occasionally asked him for medical advice, which he was always happy to give. A brilliant man with fingers so long he might have been a concert pianist, Dr. DeBakey invented many of the instruments now used in operating rooms and pioneered procedures...

Nobody dislikes Tony Snow. By acclamation, people who know him say the White House press secretary is the most decent, kind and encouraging human being they have ever met. Speaking from personal experience, I can testify not only to his inner warmth and outer kindness, but also to the goodness of his wife, Jill, and their three children. The return of Snow’s colon cancer comes only days after Elizabeth Ed­wards announced the return of her breast cancer. Snow was quick in his warm comments about the wife of the presidential candidate, which came just days before the discovery that cancer...

All of the many tributes to Tony Snow are true: good man, great husband and father, kind, self-effacing, always concerned more about others before himself, without guile (of how many in the news business could that be said?). I had the privilege of knowing Tony on another and far deeper level. When he was at FOX in Washington, I would often visit with him in his office. You can tell a lot about a man who brags on his wife and children without prompting. Tony loved Jill, completely and unconditionally. I have rarely seen such love in a man for...

So this is how it ends: not with a bang, but a whimper. The most senior judge in England has declared that Islamic legal principles in Sharia law may be used within Muslim communities in Britain to settle marital arguments and regulate finance. Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law." In his speech at an East London mosque, Lord Phillips said Muslims in Britain could use Islamic legal principles as long as punishments - and divorce rulings - comply with...

In keeping with his "messiah" image, Barack Obama might have been more at home in Bethlehem, Pa., than in Unity, N.H., when he and his "former" nemesis, Hillary Clinton, opened their new act on the road to mixed reviews. We are supposed to forget everything they said about each other during the primaries. They didn't really mean it; or did they? This is why so many people are cynical about politicians. You never know if they are telling you what you want to hear, or what they hope you'll swallow in spite of evidence to the contrary. As recently as...

Okie blogger Dr. Bruce Prescott takes issue with an essay by Cal Thomas posted by Baptist Press, in which Thomas writes: Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn’t meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called “false prophets.” Dr. Prescott counters: Somebody needs to tell Cal Thomas...

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to take up the appeal lodged by environmental groups that focused on a two-mile stretch of border fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. The fence, which has been built since the petition was filed, is a vital part of the Bush administration’s drive to secure the border between the United States and Mexico. The Supreme Court’s decision is a welcome and needed victory in the war against illegal immigration and efforts to preserve the unique character that is America. The environmentalists based part of their challenge on claims...

The Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Bush Administration to proceed with a 670-mile fence along our Southwestern border is a welcome step that should have been taken years ago. The environmentalists and other left-wingers who opposed the fence were more concerned about interrupting the mating habits of two types of wildcats rather than protecting the nature and character (not to mention laws) of their own country. This debate has never been about...the environment. It has been about importing votes. Liberal Democrats have not been able to win consistently with native-born Americans and legal immigrants and so are importing votes...

There is a reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention. It isn't that Americans are "bored" or "tired" or have "moved on" or "don't care" or "have already made up their minds that the war was a colossal mistake." All of these are variations on themes articulated by certain liberals, Bush-haters, Barack Obama supporters (but I repeat myself) inside and outside the big media. The main reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention is that the progress is considerable and the big media are not paying attention because they don't like the new story line. They...

"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death," said Auntie Mame. In today's political climate, a liberal Auntie Mame might say that life is a banquet, which the government must pay for and that those who can't afford a place at the table should behave like it was an all-you-can eat buffet. This is the view of Sen. Barack Obama. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Obama expounded on the economic policies he would pursue as president. Among other things, he is concerned about the "winner-take-all" economy where, he says, "the gains from economic...

Life is like a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death. -- 'Auntie Mame' In today's political climate, a liberal Auntie Mame might say that life is a banquet, which the government must pay for, and that those who can't afford a place at the table should behave like it was an all-you-can eat buffet. This is the view of Barack Obama. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama expounded on the economic policies he would pursue as president. Among other things, he is concerned about the "winner-take-all" economy where, he says, "the gains from...

When the terrorists attack again - as Homeland Security has repeatedly warned us they will - how many survivors will be consoled because the Supreme Court and the State Department looked out for the "rights" of terrorists before the rights of their dead loved ones? Will the dead be wrapped in a copy of the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling granting foreign detainees, whose mission is to destroy our Constitution, our country and way of life, the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention, a right that should be reserved only for American citizens? Perhaps inside the...

When the terrorists attack again — as Homeland Security has repeatedly warned us they will — how many survivors will be consoled because the Supreme Court and the State Department looked out for the "rights" of terrorists before the rights of their dead loved ones? Will the dead be wrapped in a copy of the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling granting foreign detainees, whose mission is to destroy our Constitution, our country and way of life, the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention, a right that should be reserved only for American citizens? Perhaps inside the...

Barack Obama's presidential campaign plans to strike at the heart of the Republican base by attempting to woo Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics to his side. The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody first broke the story on his blog "The Brody File." Obama's campaign for the conservative Christian vote, which has largely gone to the Republican presidential candidate in recent elections, has been dubbed the "Joshua Generation Project." Joshua, Moses' successor, led the Israelites into the Promised Land. It wasn't the group that fled Egypt in the Exodus, though. They died in the wilderness, lacking faith in God's promise. It...

A self-identified African-American caller to a Washington, D.C., radio station characterized the recent anti-Hillary Clinton outburst by the white liberal Chicago priest, Michael Pfleger, as a “minstrel show.” Pfleger, who was preaching “another gospel,” which the authentic gospel warns against, denounced Sen. Clinton for her effrontery and sense of “entitlement” in trying to take the Democratic presidential nomination from a black man, one Barack Obama. Pfleger, who donated $1,500 to the Obama campaign between 1995 and 2001, is indebted to Obama because when Obama was in the Illinois legislature, he, according to the Chicago Tribune, “announced $225,000 in grants to...

... “I’m rooted in the Christian tradition,� said Obama, who has declared himself a Christian. But then he adds something that most Christians will see as universalism: “I believe there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.� ...

Fraud: "deceit, trickery or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage." The HBO movie "Recount" tells the story from the Democratic Party point of view that the 2000 presidential election was improperly won by George W. Bush because of the trickery of his fellow Republicans and the Supreme Court. That has been shown to be untrue by no less a source than the reliably liberal and pro-Democratic New York Times, but facts rarely influence propaganda. Here's a better example of fraud straight from the donkey's mouth that you can bet will never be...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is the polar opposite of John F. Kennedy. Judging from recent comments, Obama apparently would pay no price, bear no burden, forsake any hardship, support any foe and oppose any friend that wished to pursue liberty. Kennedy understood that evil exists in the world. He saw it in World War II as his generation defeated the evil that gripped Europe and Japan. And he witnessed it as president when Nikita Khrushchev approved the building of the Berlin Wall and the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba, acts that flowed from Khrushchev's perception that the young...

With gas prices topping four dollars a gallon in some regions of the country, now may not be the best time to say something positive about "big oil," but here goes anyway. Where is it written that the cost for a product or service should be frozen in place and in time, never to rise again, or to rise at a pace commensurate with our incomes? People who think this way know little to nothing about supply and demand and less than nothing about the profit motive. That's because at least three generations have been raised on the notion of...

Time magazine has published another one of those silly and meaningless lists some in the media occasionally and irritatingly compile to validate their self-importance. It is the 100 “most influential people in the world.” I didn’t make it, but then I don’t make other lists like People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” which must be an oversight. Time never tells us what qualifies these people as influential. Dictionary.com defines influence as, “the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.” Who on Time’s list fits...

John McCain has been on the Republican equivalent of a Bed-Stuy tour. Bedford-Stuyvesant was once a frequent campaign stop for Democratic candidates who stood in front of destroyed or rundown buildings amid some of the worst poverty in New York City, promising to fix the place with more government spending. McCain has been touring poor neighborhoods where the likelihood of his winning votes is nil. In New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina, he stood with the new Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, and pledged to the residents of the 9th Ward, "the people of New Orleans, and the people of this...

BOSTON - Following Sept. 11, 2001, a day of infamy on which nearly 3,000 died at the hands of terrorists, The New York Times began publishing the names and pictures of the dead. I made a deliberate effort to look at those pictures and to read the names and hometowns of each victim. I wanted to identify with them as much as possible. Now the Times has published more pictures, names and ages, this time of American war dead. They are part of the 4,000 casualties to have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan since those wars began. They - and...

<p>In his several explanations and denunciations of his longtime pastor, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama asks us to believe that he never heard any of the sermons in which Rev. Jeremiah Wright denounced and asked God to damn America. Neither was he present, he says, for Rev. Wright's message in which he said America got what it deserved on 9/11 because we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II and have bombed other countries. He apparently also missed the one about how America created AIDS. The implication appears to have been that it was a plot to wipe out blacks, since the disease disproportionately affects African Americans.</p>

LOS ANGELES. -- As one group attempts to use California public schools as laboratories to assist children in "coming out" with their nontraditional sexual orientation, another urges parents to come out from these schools and educate their children with their values at home or in private schools. Last Sunday, a group called "Exodus Mandate" (www.exodusmandate.org) began placing literature in scores of Southern California church lobbies, urging parents to take charge of their children's education and oppose attempts by activists and politicians to shape young people's worldview in a way that runs counter to what many taxpaying parents believe and teach...

The argument one hears most often for not enforcing illegal immigration laws is that we can't deport the estimated 12 million people already in this country. It just isn't physically, tactically or politically possible, say people who think this way. Maybe not, but authorities can start with people who not only broke laws to get here, but are breaking more laws now that they are here. Virginia's Republican Attorney General, Robert McDonnell, is beginning the deportation process with a class of people not even the most vehemently pro-immigrant activist should defend. They are sex offenders and McDonnell, working in...

Redefining Conservatism By Cal Thomas Tuesday, February 12, 2008 This just in: Ronald Reagan is dead and he's not coming back. Now, can conservatives please move on? Reagan always spoke about the future and its possibilities. Today's conservatives, however, can't seem to break with the past and the nostalgia for the Reagan years. Even in his letter to the American people in 1994 in which he revealed he suffered from Alzheimer's disease, Reagan wrote of his "eternal optimism" for the country's future. Too many modern conservatives seem embedded in a concrete slab of pessimism, preferring to go over a bridge...

The man of hope has beaten the man from Hope (and possibly his wife). The endorsement of Barack Obama's presidential campaign by three Kennedys from different generations was a political trifecta for the young upstart from Illinois. He is not to be confused with Sen. Hillary Clinton who is from Illinois, Arkansas, New York, or wherever you want her to be. The contrast of sincerity (Obama) with insincerity (Hillary and Bill Clinton) could not be starker. Critics can say that "Camelot" was a myth created after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but it is a powerful myth and to...

The aptly named Republican "retreat" last weekend at the ritzy Greenbrier resort in West Virginia should have included Democrats because Republicans are behaving just like them. There was President Bush arguing for his "bipartisan stimulus package" and supporting government handouts with borrowed money. Republicans can always cut a bipartisan deal if they behave like Democrats. House Republican Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Republicans to "sacrifice" by agreeing to a one-year moratorium on earmarks to "prove" Republicans are the party that can fix Washington. Someone should have pointed out to Mr. Boehner that the word "fix" is also used to...

During his recent trip to Israel, President Bush visited several places that re-affirmed his faith, including Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee. Then exhibiting far greater faith than believing Jesus could walk on water, he asserted that "peace" could be had between Israel, the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors. One exhibition of faith has some historic roots and witnesses; the other is rooted in fantasy. As the president's visit neared, one might have expected the Palestinians, were they interested in peace, to at least tone down anti-Israel_rants. According to Palestinian Media Watch, the government-controlled_television station instead "intensified its rhetoric calling...

The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto might have been prevented had she and her husband heeded advice from friends. Former U.S. Ambassador Curt Winsor told me he had recommended that Bhutto accept a team of retired U.S. Navy SEALs as her bodyguards. A similar team has effectively (so far) contributed to the protection of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. According to Winsor, Bhutto deferred to her husband, who declined the offer, believing her adoring crowds and local security would be sufficient. It was a tragic misjudgment. Benazir Bhutto was a strong woman. Women who are strong in the...

You don't have to be religious to qualify as a fundamentalist. You can be Al Gore, the messiah figure for the global warming cult, whose followers truly believe their gospel of imminent extermination in a Noah-like flood, if we don't immediately change our carbon polluting ways. One of the traits of a cult is its refusal to consider any evidence that might disprove the faith. And so it is doubtful the global warming cultists will be moved by 400 scientists, many of whom, according to the Washington Times, "are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

You don't have to be religious to qualify as a fundamentalist. You can be Al Gore, the messiah figure for the global warming cult, whose followers truly believe their gospel of imminent extermination in a Noah-like flood, if we don't immediately change our carbon-polluting ways. -- snip -- Mr. Gore and his disciples will still be living in their big houses, driving gas-guzzling cars and flying in private jets that leave carbon footprints as large as Bigfoot's, while most of us will be forced to drive tiny automobiles and live in huts resembling the Third World. But hypocrisy is just...

I have been waiting for this to happen. For years we have witnessed the carnage when innocents were mowed down at schools, colleges, shopping malls and post offices. The unarmed (disarmed?) were easy targets for crazed gunmen armed with grievances, weapons and ammunition. Now someone has shot back, probably saving many lives. All of the gun-control laws that have been passed and are still being contemplated could not have had the affect of one armed, trained and law-abiding citizen on the scene like 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The gunman,...

No one ever accused Patrick J. Buchanan of lacking conviction or of consulting a focus group before saying what he thinks. In his new book, "Day of Reckoning," the former presidential candidate, columnist and TV pundit confronts readers with many irrefutable facts that if left unaddressed, he believes, will lead to America's destruction. That may sound extreme, even apocalyptic, until one considers his assertions: "The Army is breaking and is too small to meet America's global commitments; the dollar has sunk to historic lows and is being abandoned by foreign governments"; and perhaps most controversial of all - "the greatest...

When used as a noun, the word debate means, "A discussion involving opposing points of view." Using such a definition, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are engaging in something other than debate. The Democrats agree that President Bush is a lousy president, the war is lost, higher taxes are good and whoever is talking would make the better president. The Republicans, who rarely mention the president, agree Hillary Clinton would be a bad president and each could fight terrorists better than any Democrat, except for Ron Paul, who doesn't want to fight anyone. These things resemble the game show...

There are events in most of our lives that offer opportunities for us to change our ways. The strike by television writers affords one such opportunity. By its very nature, television is mostly illusion. During the golden age of television (that would be the '50s and '60s), real audiences laughed (or didn't laugh) at comedy shows, which were mostly live. If you weren't funny, you didn't get laughs. But most shows were genuinely funny and devoid of bad language. The FCC had more influence then and there were only three television networks. Today, a laugh track laughs for you, whether...

This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut. In a speech last week before Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Lieberman said, "Since retaking Congress in November 2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East or to prevail in Afghanistan. It has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the democratically elected government there, and to...

The country is frustrated. Democrats say Americans want change from Bush administration policies. That much of the country was also frustrated when Democrats were in charge apparently has escaped them. A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll finds that nearly three-quarters of those surveyed believe the country is on the wrong track. They are deeply pessimistic about the future and dissatisfied with Washington’s corrosive political environment. The public believes most politicians are out for themselves and not the people. They also think most politicians say and do the bidding of their respective polarizing groups and rarely say what they mean, or...

'No news' is bad news? October 24, 2007 Cal Thomas - Last week, ABC's Charles Gibson introduced a segment about Iraq on "World News Tonight" with this curious remark: "The news is [pause for effect] that there is no news. The police told us today that, to their knowledge, there were no major acts of violence. Attacks are down in Baghdad and today no bombings or roadside explosions were reported." In a war that has consumed more than 4,100 coalition partner lives (more than 3,800 of them Americans) and additional thousands of Iraqi lives and that has as its stated...

Name one concession Israel has made in recent years that has been reciprocated by its sworn enemies. This is not a trick question. There are none. That's why next month's announced "Middle East Summit" in Annapolis should be viewed as one more installment payment in selling out Israel and U.S. interests in the Middle East. While the United States continues to struggle to shore up democracy in Iraq, the Bush administration — like others before it — proceeds to undermine the likelihood that the region's first democracy will endure. At every negotiating session, Israel is pressured into making concessions for...

Whatever else his critics say of him, no one can fault President Bush for failing to go the extra mile in his efforts to show that neither he, nor the United States, is opposed to the Islamic faith, or to Muslim nations. Last week, the president and Mrs. Bush hosted their seventh Iftaar Dinner, the celebration that breaks the Muslim fast during Ramadan. Immediately after 9/11, the president visited a Washington, D.C., mosque and proclaimed Islam a “religion of peace.” He has frequently said that terrorists are not real Muslims, anymore than people who proclaim to be Christian and engage...