Free Republic

Who is a hero? In today’s America, it is someone who chooses a military career, puts on a uniform, and prepares for war. Placing soldiers and veterans on this kind of pedestal is a relatively new phenomenon. Past generations of Americans saw soldiers as ordinary human beings. They were like the rest of us: big and small, smart and dumb, capable of good and bad choices. Now we pretend they are demi-gods. One reason Americans have come to view soldiers as our only protectors is that we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics...

A left-wing party with communist roots now controls the levers of government in the German state of Thuringia, marking the first time a political party closely linked to East Germany’s communist leadership has gained power since German reunification in 1990. The party is, appropriately enough, the Left Party, reports The Telegraph. This week, the state parliament in Thuringia narrowly voted to authorize a new coalition with the Left Party at the helm. The three-way coalition also includes the Green Party. The Left Party is viewed as the successor to the Socialist Unity Party which controlled East Germany when it was...

During her recent speech before a half empty auditorium at Georgetown University, former Secretary of State and Democrat Party frontrunner for the White House in 2016, Hillary Clinton suggested that we try to see things from our enemy’s perspective. And I quote, “Showing respect even for one's enemies. Trying to understand, in so far as psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view.” Suggesting that we must “empathize” with the likes of ISIS, Boko Harum, al Qaeda, Iran and North Korea to name just a few seems a bit of a stretch. But I guess we must take...

Everybody knows that Bernie Sanders, the grandfatherly Independent Senator from Vermont is a socialist. He’s made no secret of it over the years, proudly proclaiming to anyone who will listen. To most people it’s no big deal: “at least he’s honest,” they’ll chuckle. Most people seem to imagine that Grandpa Bernie’s socialism is benign, owing much more to Sweden than Cuba, much more to modern West Germany, than to the old German Democratic Republic. But is Bernie Sanders really being honest? What if he is actually more of a communist? A believer in class struggle? Of crushing the free enterprise...

Let’s stipulate a few things up front. I don’t think that the fatal police takedown of Eric Garner was justified, based on the offense that was in play. That offense was selling illegal cigarettes out of their manufacturer’s packaging — so-called “#8220;loosies.” Eric Garner did that, repeatedly, and had been arrested for it previously to the day that he died.However, my information in this case is incomplete, as is the video we have all seen, as is your information. The grand jury may have gotten it wrong when they declined to indict, but they do know more about this...

Viorel Florescu/staff photographer Retired Washington Township math teacher Miriam Moskowitz, 98, leaving federal court in New York City on Thursday with Caren Ponty, left, and her nephew Ira Moskowitz, after U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled against her petition to reverse her 1950 felony conviction related to atomic espionage. Miriam Moskowitz has been called a lot of things in her 98 years of life — feisty, aggressive and possessing a violent temper, among them. But the one label that bothers her most is spy for the former Soviet Union — a moniker given to her by the government.  That...

Former Rep. Barney Frank, and CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow, debate raising the gasoline tax.

PORTLAND, Ore. .....The protest had many elements of the Occupy Portland movement, which galvanized protesters in the city and formed a network of people who still communicate via mass text message. As with Occupy, the vast majority of protesters preached peace, but a fringe group of people — some covering their faces with black bandannas — advocated violence and confrontations with police. And like Occupy, the original protest drew a disparate group of people together, not all of whom agreed with one another. Military veterans called for peace, a communist group called for the overthrow of capitalism, and a group...

resident Obama has committed a mind-boggling $3 billion to a new United Nations Green Climate Fund run by officials from Communist nations, a country that appears on the State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsors and an Arab oil-industry chief. As if it weren’t bad enough that our commander-in-chief is giving away money while the nation suffers through a colossal budget deficit, there are countless reasons why this is a lousy idea. First of all, the United Nations is a famously corrupt organization that is already largely funded by Uncle Sam to the tune of billions annually. The exact figure is tough...

The Governor of the state, Jay Nixon, has declared a state of emergency and plans to mobilize the National Guard in anticipation of an imminent grand jury announcement on the Michael Brown case. Tensions are high in the area, as residents, businesses and police brace themselves for another round of rioting in the mainly black suburb of St. Louis. Their fears are well founded, as seasoned protest organizers are currently training activists to close in on and “shut down” the business district of nearby Clayton on the first business day after the grand jury goes public. Michael McPhearson The key...

Test and fine-tune your modernist-church-detection abilities against your communist-architecture-detection skills! It's harder than you think...

Almost since the start of Barack Obama’s presidency, people who have actual, real duties in the West Wing of the White House—the working, executive part of the government, that is—have been urging him to do something about Valerie Jarrett. Push her into the East Wing, where she can hang out with Michelle Obama and the White House social secretary, or give her an ambassadorship—or something—but for Pete’s sake get her out of the way of the hard work of governing that needs to be done. Now it’s really time to do it. Let’s stipulate right away that it would be...

On CNN Tuesday night, activist and former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones and television and radio host and author of "Hands Off My Gun" Dana Loesch discussed the latest Palin-bashing extravaganza the media is currently wallowing in. During the festivities, Van Jones let it slip that maybe Sarah Palin wasn't as dumb and worthless as Democrats have tried to paint her for every second of every day since the moment she took the national stage. He opined:  Sarah Palin .. people forget. She had the Democratic party shaking in our boots in 2008. She came out, she gave that speech...

I was aware of FDR as a left-leaning, communist sympathizer and worse but still this story really illustrates the extent in which it really brought home how far he would go to demonstrate his political sympathies towards his left-leaning communist affiliation. Unfortunately most FREEPERS will not get to see this post and won't get to know the extent in which FDR demonstrated his political proclivity as American dictator during his 'reign' as president. I reminded myself of this terrible page in American history after coming across this article in the Washington Beacon today, details of which are reminiscent of events...

Employees of San Francisco Print Media Company, the parent company of the Examiner, SF Weekly, and San Francisco Bay Guardian were this morning informed that the latter paper will be shuttered after 48 years. The paper was founded by husband and wife Jean Dibble and Bruce Brugmann — whose visage, urging locals to "Read my paper, dammit" — grew ubiquitous over the years. Its founding mission was to "print the news and raise hell," and, as an independent paper, it ostensibly did just that for 46 years. In 2012 Brugmann and Dibble sold the Guardian to the San Francisco Media...

Attention, parents: Have your little ones been subjected to "TS Gold" in school yet? If you care about student privacy, data mining and classroom intrusions, you might want to start asking questions and protecting your children now before it's too late. What's happening here in Colorado with this onerous testing regime is happening everywhere. Informed families and teachers from all parts of the political spectrum agree: It's a Big Government/Big Business "gold" rush you don't want to join.... Last spring, parent Lauren Coker discovered that TS Gold assessors in her son's Aurora, Colo., public preschool had recorded information about his...

David Greco, cofounder and executive director of ARTE Inc., said Wednesday he’s confident police will be able to identify the individual who vandalized one of the organization’s “Heroes & Icons” posters at City Hall earlier this week. The unidentified vandal scrawled the word “asesino,” the Spanish word for “murderer,” in black ink atop the shoulder of the Argentine Marxist-Leninist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Greco said a police report has been filed and City Hall security personnel are reviewing surveillance camera footage. The exhibit, which went up Sept. 22 to honor Hispanic History Month, includes approximately 40 posters depicting Latino historical...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, I asked at the beginning of the program, is it fair to ask, we're gonna beat George W. Bush up for Katrina. Where does Obama come in for similar treatment when it comes to Ebola? I mean, there's no comparison. Katrina was one of the smoothest, most efficient operations you can imagine, compared to the way this Ebola circumstance is being dealt with. So this morning on CNN's New Day, they had a fill in co-host there, John Berman. He spoke with Van Jones, the former communist -- well, current communist but former member of the...

Several schools are giving radical anti-war organizations access to their classrooms. One such organization is The World Can’t Wait, an anti-war organization started by Charles Clark Kissinger, a former Students for a Democratic Society member and longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party.The World Can’t Wait’s counter-recruiting program, We Are Not Your Soldiers (WANYS), visits high school classes to, as they claim, “tell the truth about the wars and why the military is really recruiting.”The program brings veterans, often members of Iraqi Veterans Against the War (IVAW), to talk to students about “their on-the-ground experiences in occupying countries, where civilians...