Free Republic

"This is the real reason Washington can’t create a long-term deficit reduction plan. The boomers love their safety nets." Wow, so it looks like we have a budget deal in Washington. A debt ceiling and spending crisis has been averted. It’s good news. But let’s all calm down. It’s only temporary. The agreement does not address the long-term fiscal problems we have. Problems that were mostly created by none other than the “baby boomer” generation. Yeah, you know who you are. You’re tanned and healthy and living way past average life expectancy. You’ve got a defined benefit pension plan from...

Valentine's Day is the first that will pass without notice at Bruce Vento Elementary. Celebrations of Valentine’s Day and the other “dominant holidays” are ending at one St. Paul elementary school, according to a letter from the principal addressed to families. Principal Scott Masini of Bruce Vento Elementary School, whose student body is overwhelmingly nonwhite, explained in the letter that “my personal feeling is we need to find a way to honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.” With Valentine’s Day a little more than two weeks away, Masini noted, “I have come to the...

For more than a decade boys and girls at Glenview Elementary School would start the day by gathering on the playground to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The children of Haddon Heights, New Jersey would conclude their patriotic service by saying "God bless America." It was a tradition birthed by two kindergarten teachers in the aftermath of the Muslim terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 - a way to honor those who lost their lives on that terrible day. But that tradition ended Monday - thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. The school's principal sent a...

The White house announced on Friday that it would hold a screening of the upcoming transgender drama The Danish Girl and Amazon's transgender series Transparent next week as part of its new "White House LGBT Artists Champions of Change" program. In addition to the screenings on Monday, November 23, the White House will honor nine individuals "for their artistry in advocating for the LGBT community," according to a White House press release. The event will also mark Transgender Remembrance Day, currently observed on November 20.

IN 1953, taking cues from their Soviet advisers, Chinese leaders launched their first five-year plan. They charted a course for rapid industrialisation of the then-agrarian country. Now they are drafting their 13th such document. It will show how much has changed. Its main message will be that industrialisation has run its course and that China will have to find a new engine of growth. But the very existence of the plan (to run from 2016 to 2020) is indicative of how, in economic policymaking, much has stayed the same. China will publish the first outline after an annual meeting of...

According to Noah Michelson, the Executive Editor of Gay Voices at The Huffington Post, there are many types of sexualities and relationships other than "hetero," "homo" and "bi." Michelson outlined these different types of sexualities in an article published yesterday titled, "What's A Skoliosexual?" He then defines "12 terms related to sexual and romantic identities that are beginning to receive more attention in the media but that are still regularly absent or erased from conversations currently taking place in popular culture." Among these terms is "Graysexual," which means "a magical place between asexual and someone who is sexual." There is...

This past weekend has been heady one for our friends on the soft-core left. Without ever attending a meeting, let alone a march, or even making a donation, they got to celebrate Obergefell v. Hodges as if it were V-J day. These are the same people, of course, who protested not a peep in 1996 when Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, the same people who voted giddily for Barack Obama in 2008 despite his avowed support for traditional marriage, the same people who cannot wait until their next water cooler encounter to dress down some...

White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett was one of the mobilizing forces behind the decision to light up the White House with the colors of the gay pride movement to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. According to the Washington Post, Jarrett worked with gay rights organizations to pay for the display to avoid using taxpayer money. The idea came from one of Jarrett’s aides who was also the LGBT liaison in the White House.

Come on. How many will truly be surprised to see the American Civil Liberties Union backpedal away from an enumerated civil right in the Constitution, now that the cognoscenti considers it a form of bigotry? I feel so old. I remember when the ACLU was a civil liberties organization. http://t.co/oe1EiYAXja— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) June 27, 2015 @Popehat @Lorienen @ACLU well now that Christians use it the ACLU can't support it— Clarence Whorley (@ClarenceWhorley) June 27, 2015 The organization that once went to court to ensure that the American Nazi Party could parade through Skokie, Illinois in an exercise of free...

Iknoor Singh, a student at Hofstra University, thought he had found his calling when he attended a campus meeting of the U.S. Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. But when he tried to sign up, he was told that he would have to shave his beard, cut his hair and remove his turban. When he asked for a religious accommodation as a Sikh, the Army refused, saying that these articles of faith would undermine unit cohesion and morale, readiness, health and safety, and discipline. ..................................................... Yes, religious freedom needs protection. But religious liberty doesn’t mean the right to discriminate or to...

Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963 Current Communist Goals EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 10, 1963 Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America. At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked...

In an appearance on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Tuesday night, former Vice President Dick Cheney said that President Obama’s actions on the world stage exemplify a president who wants “to take America down.” Cheney also touched on Obama’s comments on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, telling Hewitt that Obama is the only post-World War II president to believe that America doesn’t need “to play a leading role in the world.” The former vice president made the appearance following the announcement of a new book on American foreign policy, co-authored by himself and daughter Liz Cheney, will be released in September.

Renowned economist Laurence Kotlikoff recently testified at the U.S. Senate about the runaway U.S. budget. How bad is it? Kotlikoff says, “I told them the real (2014) deficit was $5 trillion, not the $500 billion or $300 billion or whatever it was announced to be this year. Almost all the liabilities of the government are being kept off the books by bogus accounting. The government is 58% underfinanced. Social Security is 33% underfinanced. So, the entire government enterprise is in worse fiscal shape than Social Security is, but they are both in terrible shape.” So, how much is America on...

That photo is me about ten years ago, standing in the ruins of a land where people rejected the rule of law in favor of the rule of force. I think a lot about my year-long deployment to Kosovo these days. I think a lot about people today who, for short term political points, cavalierly disregard the rules, laws and norms that made America what it is. I think a lot about how liberals, especially those who boo God, should pray to Him that those rules, laws and norms are restored. I am most certainly not smiling – I am...

The hullabaloo over false information being propagated about Indiana’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) reveals a much more serious underlying problem in America. Morality according to the 3 Percent (the gay community in America) is defined by imposing conformity, control, coercion, and oppression over those who disagree with their definition of equality, fairness, tolerance, or even love. The 3 Percent’s “outrage” cannot be about equal rights, as same-sex couples already benefit from civil unions, domestic partnerships, marriage, adoption and fostering children, in addition to receiving health benefits and other legal rights. Nor can it be about fairness. I recently...

Hi everybody, I’m Bill Whittle and this is the Firewall. Let’s just assume for a moment that you’re a radical, left-wing zealot, who was raised by actual communists, and who, naturally enough views the United States military as the tool of capitalist exploitation and colonial racism. Now, further assume that through a perfect storm of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, fate, money, power and media bias somehow conspired to make you Commander in Chief of those same armed forces. What would you do? You couldn’t very well scuttle 11 carrier strike groups. You can’t just destroy entire...

The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and one of the most powerful women in Christianity, said that climate change was a moral imperative akin to that of the civil rights movement. She said it was already a threat to the livelihoods and survival of people in the developing world.

Lexington, Mass. The place where the “shot heard round the world” was fired, the birthplace of the American Revolution, and now, the home of a high school whose administration has vetoed an “American Pride” dance theme because it is “too American.” Students on the dance committee at Lexington High School voted on the theme for their junior/senior dance and chose “American Pride,” a seemingly appropriate theme for a school whose mascot is the Minuteman. Their decision was quickly vetoed, however, when the powers that be decided the theme was not inclusive enough. “Given the diverse demography of our community,” Assistant...

“How can you call yourself a Christian, let alone a minister?!” I get asked that question frequently and the questioner is hostile more often than not. Still, I like to answer it if I believe the questioner is sincere. Though I self-identify as a Christian and I am an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I raised eyebrows a few years ago when I posted an article on my website about how my personal beliefs don’t align with those of most Presbyterians. For example, I believe that: - Religion is a human construct - The symbols of faith are...

Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted to make the 1.8-million-member, 10,000-congregation denomination the largest Protestant group to formally recognize gay marriage allow same-sex weddings. The Presbytery of the Palisades in New Jersey cast the necessary 86th vote Tuesday night to establish that a majority of the church’s 171 regional presbyteries now support an amendment to the church constitution that redefines marriage, the Associated Press reported. “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives,” the church’s Book of Order will read,...