Free Republic

Several years ago, a feminist professor told me that she had decided to abort her child because it was the “compassionate thing to do.” Those were her exact words and she was serious. At the time, I thought she must have suffered a severe intellectual hernia from the strain required to declare an act of dismemberment to be an act of kindness. Since then I have realized that this was more than just an isolated instance of intellectual constipation. Disguising acts of cruelty as acts of kindness is a feature of virtually every policy position of the secular “progressive” left....

“Jesus of the Scars” by Edward Shillito If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow,We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars. The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;In all the universe we have no place.Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars, we claim Thy grace. If, when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;We know to-day what wounds are, have no fear,Show us Thy Scars, we know...

Last week on CNN I debated a liberal commentator who complained that the problem with President Donald Trump's budget blueprint is that it lacks "compassion" for the poor, for children and for the disabled. This woman went on to ask me how I could defend a budget that would cut Meals on Wheels, after-school programs and special-education funding, because without the federal dollars, these vital services would go away. This ideology -- that the government action is a sign of compassion -- is upside-down and contrary to the Christian notion of charity. We all, as individuals, can and should act...

My wife called to tell me she was stuck in traffic not far from our home. When she eventually discovered the cause of the highly unusual Saturday midafternoon backup, her heart was filled with sadness. For it was a fatal accident involving a motorcycle and an SUV. The biker was traveling west at “a high rate of speed.,” according to a police report. The Nissan SUV was traveling east. When the SUV turned left, the bike collided with the larger vehicle sending its rider flying through the SUV’s windshield like a projectile. The 28-year-old biker was killed. The 51-year-old husband...

Prayer, love, compassion and brotherhood . . . from the finest of a very fine profession. Maybe it’s gratuitous and needlessly provocative to tease this story in the way I did. I thought about it. But I don’t think so, and here’s why: Dishonest politicians, malevolent activists and irresponsible journalists are peddling the narrative, pretty much on a daily basis, that police officers throughout America are systematically engaging in the racist brutalization of black people. This narrative is despicable. It takes a tiny handful of incidents - the majority of which are completely misrepresented - and spins it into a...

This Monday, the first-ever UN summit on refugees and migrants is set to agree on an international response to the largest displacement crisis since World War II. Some 65 million people are on the move worldwide, fleeing wars such as the carnage in Syria, as well as repression and poverty. In total, 21 million refugees are competing for too few resettlement opportunities. At the summit, the UN's 193 member countries are expected to adopt a political declaration that human rights groups have already said falls far short of breaking new ground to ease the refugee crisis. The following day, Obama...

Vice-President Joe Biden explained the difference between a Clinton and a Trump administration in a raucous speech to the Democratic National Convention, contending that Trump’s catchphrase from his Apprentice reality show “’you’re fired,’ reveals a gaping existential chasm between Democrats and Republicans.” “Just because a person can’t handle a job doesn’t mean he doesn’t need that job,” Biden pointed out. “Yet, Trump would callously cast employees aside based merely upon performance. Is this the kind of man we want to place at the head of our government?” “In contrast, our nominee has the compassion to understand that competence is not...

Conservatives care about logic. Liberals care about emotion. Conservatives care about whether a program works or not. Liberals care about how supporting a program makes them feel. Conservatives take the positions they do because they believe they’re best for society. Liberals take the positions they do because they make them feel and look compassionate or superior to hold those positions. Once you understand those basics, it’s very easy to see why both sides hold the positions they do on most issues and to comprehend why there’s so little middle ground. Once you get the mentalities, you can predict where each...

Hillary Clinton “When are they going to get those f—ing ree-tards out of here?!” Those are said to be the infamous words of Hillary Clinton – also known as Arkansas’ “Mother of the Year” in 1984 – when Hillary reportedly grew frustrated that handicapped children weren’t collecting their Easter eggs quickly enough on the lawn of the Arkansas governor’s mansion. “[T]he children were having a wonderful time. But they were having a v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y s-l-o-w time of finding and picking up the Easter eggs,” wrote Dolly Kyle – a childhood sweetheart of Bill Clinton who had a 33-year relationship...

Suppose you are a liberal-minded person and sincerely want to help people — specifically, poor people and minorities. What kind of educational strategies do you use? The two main options are: A: Young children quickly learn how to read and write; they master basic skills and knowledge. The emphasis is on becoming an educated person. B: Children are directed toward social and psychological goals. The emphasis is on behavior and indoctrination. Is any decision more basic, more profound? But stop and think: have you ever heard this issue debated? Or even mentioned? In fact, this issue has been played out...

There was a time in my life twenty years ago when I was driving a cab for a living. It was a cowboy's life, a gambler's life, a life for someone who wanted no boss, constant movement and the thrill of a dice roll every time a new passenger got into the cab. What I didn't count on when I took the job was that it was also a ministry. Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a rolling confessional. Passengers would climb in, sit behind me in total anonymity and tell me of their lives. We were...

G.K. Chesterton wrote that “the modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.” His observation seems applicable to the current debate about taking in Syrian refugees. The “modern world” in this case is made up of the European elites, the Obama administration and Christian clerics who follow their lead. The virtue gone mad is compassion. What Chesterton probably had in mind when he wrote about “mad” virtues was Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean (which was later adopted by Aquinas). According...

So, how do you win an argument against someone who thinks you're evil? Who thinks you're greedy, selfish, wrong, racist, and, like I said, evil? Don't ask me, I'm evil (but sexy). But last week, I was walking with a friend of mine, a real-estate guy named Joe -- and he asked me what I thought of Andrew Cuomo. I said that I thought he was weak, and waffling way too much on fracking (which is partly responsible for a welcome move toward energy independence). I believe we should be fracking, and helping out the rest of New York State,...

Over the weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated the Obama administration’s commitment to taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next fiscal year and announced that the federal government would be increasing its annual total refugee cap from 70,000 to 100,000 by 2017, to accommodate more refugees from war-torn Syria. “This step that I am announcing today, I believe, is in keeping with the best tradition of America as a land of second chances and a beacon of hope,” said Kerry on Sunday during a trip to Germany. Also on Sunday, Hillary Clinton called on the administration to...

San Francisco — The homeless are a challenge for almost every American city, but nothing like they are for San Francisco. The city’s mild, year-round climate, famously liberal “live and let live” attitude, and a dense network of social services have made the problem worse than ever there. The city has some 3,200 people living on its streets, and the number is growing. Two recent news items brought the issue into sharp focus. First, a light pole collapsed downtown, crushing a car and barely missing the driver. The cause? It had been corroded by urine aimed at it by street...

DERRY, N.H. – It was the last question at Gov. John R. Kasich’s town-hall-style meeting here on Wednesday, and it also was perhaps the bluntest. “Governor Kasich, how do you feel about amnesty for the illegals?” asked a voter near the back of a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall here. Mr. Kasich, an Ohio Republican, started off sounding like a border hawk, saying he wanted to “finish the wall” along the border with Mexico. But when he answered the question at hand, he sounded a far more pragmatic note. “If they’ve been law-abiding, then I think they should stay,” he...

Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Political Action Committee posted two requests on its Facebook page for supporters to sign “thank you” notes for doctors and other staff employed at its abortion clinics. The nation’s largest abortion provider posted a request for visitors to express thanks for the organization’s staff at its clinics, which performed 327,653 abortions in one year, according to its most recent annual report. “If you appreciate the dedication, courage, and compassion of Planned Parenthood health center staff, sign and share this card to let them know! “We are so grateful for the Planned Parenthood nurses and doctors...

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s standing is falling among Democrats, and voters view her as less decisive and inspiring than when she launched her presidential campaign just three months ago, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. The survey offers a series of warning signs for the leading Democratic candidate. Most troubling, perhaps, for her prospects are questions about her compassion for average Americans, a quality that fueled President Barack Obama’s two White House victories. Just 39 percent of all Americans have a favorable view of Clinton, compared to nearly half who say they have a negative opinion of her. That’s an...

Byron York quotes various rival GOP strategists sniffing that this plays more like a general-election ad than one for the primaries.Okay, tell me: What should a Jeb Bush primary ad look like? If he did four minutes of red-meat conservatism here, righties would laugh and shout, “Amnesty! Common Core!” Those votes are unwinnable. His path to the nomination runs through the center-right. He’s going to pitch himself to them the way centrist campaigns always do, as a non-ideological problem-solving pragmatist. This seems made to order. The video is aimed particularly at women voters, underscoring the image Bush wants to...

Perhaps the decisive factors in combating poverty and enabling upward mobility were not economic but cultural — the habits, mores and dispositions that equip individuals to take advantage of opportunities. This was dismaying because governments know how to alter incentives and remove barriers but not how to manipulate culture. The assumption that the condition of the poor must improve as macroeconomic conditions improve was to be refuted by a deepened understanding of the crucial role of the family as the primary transmitter of the social capital essential for self-reliance and betterment. Family structure is the primary predictor of social outcomes,...