Free Republic

A federal court has let the world of American academia know that it is not OK to deny a promotion to a professor just because he or she is a conservative. A door has been opened to a nightmare for progressive academics who believe that conservatives are beyond the pale and deserve to be shunned, much as racists a generation or two ago believed that blacks could not possibly merit inclusion in the upper ranks of society. Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times reports:A federal court Wednesday ordered the University of North Carolina-Wilmington to promote and give $50,000 in back pay...

The Brody File was watching Sarah Palin’s comedy bit on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and it made me wonder the following: Is Sarah Palin relevant? The answer is a bit complicated. Is she taking seriously as a politician by the liberal mainstream media? No. But do they still pay attention to her every move? Yes they do. Why is that? Yes, part of it has to do with the fact that there is a certain carnival atmosphere surrounding how she goes about her business. I mean, she knows how to command an audience and entertain. But let's not...

For years, Republicans benefited from economic growth. So did pretty much everyone else, of course. But I have something specific in mind. Politically, when the economy is booming -- or merely improving at a satisfactory clip -- the distinction between being pro-business and pro-market is blurry. The distinction is also fuzzy when the economy is shrinking or imploding. But when the economy is simply limping along -- not good, not disastrous -- like it is now, the line is easier to see. And GOP politicians typically don't want to admit they see it. Just to clarify, the difference between being...

Imagine a situation in which an earthquake destroys a suspension bridge over a deep canyon. A passenger train is speeding toward the location, and those in charge realize there is a potential problem ahead but choose instead to argue about the ambient temperature in the passenger cars, the food service, and whether they will reach their final destination on time. A few people are quite disturbed when they learn of the tragedy about to unfold if the train isn’t halted, but they are labeled as “alarmists” who really are not sophisticated enough to understand the situation. Obviously, I am referring...

I'm getting old and my memory is failing so please correct me where my memory is wrong or if I'm making up memories. Also, please expand where I fall miserably short. It's my recollection that Reagan was so successful because he was a leader with a vision who promoted strength, freedom, optimism, patriotism and righteousness. And he could communicate his vision with commonsense, humility and good humor. He did not succeed by pandering, evolving and adapting. He brought various factions together by promoting the ideas that freedom was much better than socialism, strength better than weakness, fiscal restraint better than...

OSCOW, March 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Representatives of French public and the Catholic Christian Church who call for protection of traditional family will hold consultations with spiritual leaders of different religions in the Russian capital of Moscow and will deliver speeches in the Russian Parliament. The French delegation will arrive in Russia on Monday to stay in the country until April 4, a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Council of Europe told ITAR-TASS. “The leadership of organization Manif pour Tous are among our guests. The organization has gathered hundreds of thousands of demonstrators against same-sex marriages and adoption of...

Conservative colleges provide an important counterbalance to the progressivism and liberalism that pervade so much of American higher education. For students raised with traditional moral values, who favor limited government, who adhere to free-market economic principles, entering the world of higher education is too often an alienating experience. For conservative students, it can be a challenge to find a college or university that embraces—or even tolerates—conservative values in its curriculum and student life. This ranking of the best conservative colleges in America helps conservative students and parents to find a school in keeping with their conservative values and commitments.Ranking Guidelines...

Ideology is as much about understanding the past as shaping the future. And conservatives tell themselves a story, a fairy tale really, about the past, about the way the world was and can be again under Republican policies. This story is about the way people were able to insure themselves against the risks inherent in modern life. Back before the Great Society, before the New Deal, and even before the Progressive Era, things were better. Before government took on the role of providing social insurance, individuals and private charity did everything needed to insure people against the hardships of life;...

This video is a must see and share with everyone you know. It is powerful and extremely well done. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=626431014085686

FreedomWorks issued an unusual round of endorsements this week. The conservative group, which won publicity for backing intraparty challenges to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Mike Simpson, decided to play it safe this time. It endorsed three senators and nine congressmen, none of whom face any serious competition—Republican or Democratic. It stayed out of the contested Oklahoma primary for Sen. Tom Coburn's seat, but endorsed Republican James Inhofe, who doesn't face any GOP opposition. In South Carolina, FreedomWorks is backing Sen. Tim Scott, who's a lock for reelection, but it isn't doing anything against vulnerable Sen. Lindsey Graham,...

In this insightful reflection on Robert Nisbet’s classic 1953 book The Quest for Community, New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat examines the human impulse toward community and its connection to the rise of statism. This essay is adapted from Douthat’s introduction to ISI Books’ critical edition of The Quest for Community. The intellectual conservatism that flowered unexpectedly, like a burst of tulips from a desert, in the aftermath of the Second World War was preoccupied above all else with revising the story that modernity told about itself. Twenty years of totalitarianism, genocide, and total war had delivered hammer blows...

Putin seizes Crimea, so we blockade the Bosporus. Iran defies the UN, so we sink its Persian Gulf fleet. China expands its air defense zone, so we start downing Chinese fighters. North Korea fires some missiles, so we send a CIA assassin with Dennis Rodman's entourage on the next basketball trip. Why has any of this become unthinkable? We're the world's lone superpower--since when did we become such complete wimps? We're afraid of escalation. We worry, for example, that any military response to Russia could lead to "nuclear war," as Secretary of State John Kerry warned last week. If so,...

(Reuters) - To thunderous applause, cheers and even tears, Vladimir Putin delivered a fiercely patriotic speech on Tuesday that laid claim to Crimea and set out a vision of a Greater Russia that could define his third term as President. In a 47-minute address to his loyal political and business elite that was interrupted by clapping at least 30 times, Putin described a deeply conservative world view in which Russia hankered after land lost when the Soviet Union collapsed. Presenting himself as the guardian of the nation and of Russians everywhere, the former KGB spy spat defiance at the West...

Within a few days, a federal district judge in my home-state of Virginia will likely rule on the constitutionality of the commonwealth’s Marshall-Newman Amendment, which only permits marriage between one man and one woman. Frankly, as a conservative Republican and as a Christian, I hope that the amendment is struck down. Republicans value marriage so highly because it encourages people to live according to conservative values. For instance, by enabling two people to share resources, marriage makes couples more financially secure, thereby reducing their dependence on government. In addition, marriage binds people into permanent, monogamous relationships, enabling couples to more...

.........“You want to lose elections? Stand for nothing,” Cruz said last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference(CPAC)..Look at the last four congressional elections – '06,'08,'10,'12. In three of the four, we followed that strategy:'06,'08, and '12. We put our head down, we stood for nothing, and we got walloped. The one election that was a tremendous election was 2010, when Republicans drew a line in the sand. We said, unequivocally, we stand against ObamaCare, against bankrupting the country, and we won in an historic tidal wave of an election.But what Cruz said next angered Brownback, himself a former U.S....

A liberal blog surmising why the media always covers CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) to the point of obsession described the conference (and conservatives) as "These f***ing people are delivering crazy to the crazy."...LOL...oooooookay!There are thousands upon thousands of graphics out there, but I rounded up 24 that make arguments against liberals or for conservatism that no reasonable person would deem "crazy."In fact, only crazy people (liberals) would disagree with them...

Count me as one who was not suprised at the size of Rand Paul’s victory [1] in the CPAC straw poll. I’m only surprised it wasn’t bigger — even though he nearly tripled the votes of his nearest rival Ted Cruz.You could almost say that Paul is the ONLY interesting candidate on the immediate horizon — Republican or Democrat. I’m not going to badmouth the Republicans (I may have to vote for them), but Hillary is as dull, predictable and reactionary as Obama, if that’s possible. Neither of them has evidenced an ounce of creativity, or even an original...

Sarah Palin is being wooed by two news media veterans to join a streaming network, The Post has learned. Jonathan Klein, who ran CNN’s US operations, and Jeff Gaspin, who was most recently chairman of NBC-Universal Entertainment, have already raised enough money from deep-pocketed backers to start the over-the-top network, and have reached out to a few bold-faced names to host a show to make selling subscriptions easier, sources said. And is the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential candidate among those the two have approached? You betcha, sources said. Palin seemed interested but has not committed, sources added....

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) may have won the straw poll, but runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won the biggest endorsement on the final night of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the closing speaker at the three-day gathering of activists, touted Cruz and urged conservatives to challenge the GOP’s inside-the-beltway establishment. “Thank you Texas because liberty needs a Congress on Cruz control,” Palin told an audience that erupted into raucous cheers. Cruz, who was elected to the Senate after beating Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — the candidate favored in 2012 by the GOP establishment —...

Ann Coulter at Saturday at CPAC on Saturday: "I mean my whole life I've heard Republicans hate black people, I've never seen any evidence of it until I read Marco Rubio's amnesty bill. We are the party that has always stood up for African-Americans. Who gets hurt the most by amnesty, by continuing these immigration policies it is low-wage workers, it is hispanics, it is blacks."