Free Republic

... Filming for Lil Wayne’s “God Bless Amerika” music video in New Orleans is under scrutiny after a clip of his performance shows an oversized American flag drop to the street before Wayne tramples Old Glory as he raps ...

I've been advocating leaving the scouts since the vote, but that's the wrong approach. The BSA is worth fighting for. I went last night to the Boxwood Scout Retreat here in Tennessee to pick up my son from a week of scouting. As I looked around at the pristine property on the edge of Old Hickory Lake, and the decades of work it must have taken to build the facilities located there, I realized what a shame it was to give it all up without a fight. The BSA have assets on their books of over $1 billion offset by...

Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa and the House's leading immigration hawk, complained Thursday about young immigrants who had shown up to protest his bill that would defund President Barack Obama's deferred action program. King wrote on Twitter that "20 brazen self professed illegal aliens have invaded my DC office. Obama's lawless order gives them de facto immunity from U.S. law." The congressman sponsored a measure to defund Obama's 2012 executive action that gave young unauthorized immigrants relief from deportation and a work permit if they attend or graduate high school and have no criminal record. One of the...

In the 1980s and 1990s, we heard about America’s “culture war” in which traditionalists fought a long, painful struggle against “progressives” who sought profound changes in virtually every aspect of American life. Ultimately, the traditionalists lost. American culture is now so debauched that the ideals which in the past motivated millions to vote Republican are only held true by a small and shrinking percentage of the populace.

All can agree that the Obama administration is mired in myriads of scandals, but as yet no one can quite figure out what they all mean and where they will lead. Benghazi differs from all the other scandals — and from both Watergate and Iran-Contra — because in this case administration lapses led to the deaths of four Americans. Nine months later, the administration’s problems of damage control remain fourfold: (a) there was ample warning that American personnel were in danger in Libya, and yet requests for increased security were denied; (b) during the actual attack, the American tradition of...

The traditional Marxist theory of power was a very one-sided one based on the role of force and coercion as the basis of ruling class domination. This was reinforced by Lenin whose influence was at its height after the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Gramsci felt that what was missing was an understanding of the subtle but pervasive forms of ideological control and manipulation that served to perpetuate all repressive structures. He identified two quite distinct forms of political control: domination, which referred to direct physical coercion by police and armed forces and hegemony which referred to both...

Only two of al-Qusayr's Christians remain from an original population of 20,000 residing there prior to the outbreak of events, alongside 40,000 Sunnis. This was before the outbreak of events and the take-over of the city by the opposition a year ago, at which point the majority of Christians fled, fearing instability and the beginnings of Islamic fundamentalist movements that were starting to show signs in al-Qusayr and imposing themselves on Leftist, secularist groups in the opposition. Thus, when the Syrian Army and Hezbollah fighters entered the city yesterday, there were no Christians left in al-Qusayr aside from Talal Haddad...

WASHINGTON — Two years into a civil war that shows no signs of ending, the Obama administration is considering resettling refugees who have fled Syria, part of an international effort that could bring thousands of Syrians to American cities and towns. A resettlement plan under discussion in Washington and other capitals is aimed at relieving pressure on Middle Eastern countries straining to support 1.6 million refugees, as well as assisting hard-hit Syrian families.

Do you remember the most Homeric of world trade negotiations, called the Uruguay round, which took place between 1986 and 1994? I was a teenager then and I remember that round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) vividly. I had taken to reading the austere Le Monde every day and remember the uncouth Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association in Hollywood, who particularly despised European film directors for pleading with their governments to exclude cinema, and the arts in general, from the negotiations. Valenti roared back: "Culture is like chewing-gum, a product like any other."...

For centuries, Christians thought culture would change if we just had a majority of Christians in the culture. That has proven to be a false assumption. Culture is defined by a relatively small number of change agents who operate at the top of cultural spheres or societal mountains. It takes less than 3-5 percent of those operating at the top of a cultural mountain to actually shift the values represented on that mountain.For example, this is exactly what advocates in the gay rights movement has done through the "mountains" of media and arts and entertainment. They have strategically used these...

Meeting Thursday in Grapevine, Texas, the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America will decide whether it will retain or revise its historic membership policy on the issue of homosexuality. The 1,400 voting members of the B.S.A. National Council hold the future of one of America’s most iconic organizations in their hands. In reality, they are not only deciding a matter of membership policy. They are actually deciding the future of the entire organization. The culture wars came to the Boy Scouts many years ago. For the last few decades, the Boy Scouts have had to fight battles with...

Several years ago, I was browsing the racks at Abercrombie & Fitch when a store employee approached me. “Hey, do you want to work here?” she asked, over the store’s notoriously loud (and obnoxious) music. In case you didn’t know, no one applies to work at Abercrombie. They offer jobs to good-looking, stylish patrons. For a brief moment, I felt anointed. I shouldn’t have. It turned out the store had dozens of teenaged and twenty-something employees—all of whom could expect to work five hours a week, if that. But there was a catch: in order to secure the job, you...

When I was a child, back in the Parenting Stone Age (a.k.a. the Parentocentric Era), your parents were the most important people in the family. They paid the bills, bought your clothes, prepared the food you ate, took care of you when you were sick, drove you to where you needed to be, tucked you in, and kissed you good night. They were essential. Your parents acted like they were bigger than you were too, like they knew what they were doing and didn't need your help making decisions. In fact, your opinion really didn't matter much. When they spoke...

Delusion and parochialism about marriage. Gay marriage? It came up at dinner Down Under this time last year, and the prominent Aussie politician on my right said matter-of-factly, “It’s not about expanding marriage, it’s about destroying marriage.” That would be the most obvious explanation as to why the same societal groups who assured us in the Seventies that marriage was either (a) a “meaningless piece of paper” or (b) institutionalized rape are now insisting it’s a universal human right. They’ve figured out what, say, terrorist-turned-educator Bill Ayers did — that, when it comes to destroying core civilizational institutions, trying to...

America should tax movies and games that glorify guns as one way to fight gun violence, says the Rev. Franklin Graham. “How much violence as a nation are we willing to accept?” Graham asked Wednesday in York. “We tax cigarettes, we can tax violence.” Graham was at Bethelwoods Camp and Conference Center in York for Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief training. The six-day session is to help relief workers improve their response skills. The training is as realistic as possible, Graham said, with people screaming and hollering. “We bring as much distraction as you can get. You literally have guts in...

Here’s how same sex marriage will lead to a police state: First this article on Slate calls for the legalization of polygamy. The call for polygamy sort of springboards from the argument for same sex marriage. The piece argues from various viewpoints, but the underlying principle is the same: “Let us decide what marriage is.” Here is the defining last paragraph: The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less “correct” than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting...

Today, Shirley Temple will celebrate a very big birthday — her 85th. That's hard to imagine, even for those of us who discovered her movies decades after her fame had peaked. Her name instantly calls to mind a luminously adorable child star with bright blue eyes, ringlet-curled blond hair and charming dimples. Once the biggest celebrity in the world, Temple was the top box office star for the years 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1938 — a beam of sunshine for care-weary Depression-era moviegoers — and a true phenomenon. Today, there's no one quite like her. The closest America has to...

The Boy Scouts of America on Friday moved to partially lift its long-standing ban on gays, with a decision that would allow openly gay youth members but continue to bar gay adults in one of the largest youth serving organizations in America. If the resolution is approved in a nationwide vote in May, "no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," Deron Smith, the organization´s spokesman, told Reuters. The report found religious groups linked to the Scouts were concerned with homosexual adult leaders not with youth

Rush claims the battle was lost when conservatives started modifying the word “marriage” (“traditional marriage,” “straight marriage”) to describe the institution rather than insisting that the word itself necessarily refers to traditional/straight relationships and therefore doesn’t require modification. How would you have enforced that message discipline against the left, though? Their 40 percent of the country would have been calling it “gay marriage” no matter what.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering whether to loosen restrictions for obscenity on broadcast television and radio. This rule change would allow brief “non-sexual-nudity” and isolated expletives in prime time, while children are still awake and watching TV. The FCC claims that it will consider the public’s sentiment as its members make a decision and has given Americans the month of April to file their comments. Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski previously had to order the Enforcement Bureau only to tackle “egregious cases” because of the “backlog” of reported obscenity cases. In the last 6 months, the FCC’s caseload...

There is no question that the media, political, and cultural push for gay marriage has made impressive gains. As recently as 1989, voters in avant-garde San Francisco repealed a law that had established only domestic partnerships. But judging by the questions posed by Supreme Court justices this week in oral arguments for two gay-marriage cases, most observers do not expect sweeping rulings that would settle the issue and avoid protracted political combat. A total of 41 states currently do not allow gay marriage, and most of those laws are likely to remain in place for some time. Even should the...

If you stopped watching network television awhile ago because it had gotten so bad, you made the correct decision. It has continued to get worse. A few years ago, network television became dominated by cheaply made reality TV shows and talent contests, sitcoms with hyperactive manic characters, and socially liberal themes. Television has always pushed the edge when it comes to socially progressive themes. But at what point does it go too far? Perhaps when there are no other options left during prime time network TV. The top ten most popular TV shows last fall contained few choices for traditional...

Male student fights to wear dress to prom

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio show this morning to discuss a variety of topics. After commenting about the need to combat President Barack Obama’s use of executive power, the politician dove into the spiritual realm. Noting that he believes America’s problems run deeper than political schisms, Paul called for a spiritual awakening and revival. The senator made his comments about the need for faith leaders to rise up and called for increased religious fervor after Beck asked him about his own spiritual well-being. Paul said that when he was first running for office he appreciated people...

The men and women charged with enforcing federal immigration law are being prohibited from doing so by the Obama administration, according to Chris Crane, president of the union that represents officers and agents employed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “I think most Americans assume that ICE agents and officers are empowered by the government to enforce the law,” Crane said on Wednesday at Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on immigration reform. “Nothing could be further from the truth. With 11 million illegal aliens in the U.S., ICE agents are now prohibited from arresting illegal aliens...

Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card has called gay marriage 'the end of democracy' – and some comics fans want him fired Superman fans are up in arms at the decision of the publisher to appoint a noted anti-gay writer to pen the Man of Steel's latest adventures. Comic giant DC has commissioned Orson Scott Card, author of the award-winning and best-selling Ender's Game sci-fi series, to write for DC's Adventures of Superman series. The digital comic is set to be published in April. The news has sparked a furious backlash from Card's critics. Card is a long-time critic of...

The bosses of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) surprised everyone this week by postponing their decision on whether to allow gay leaders and gay scouts to join their ranks. If the BSA's long-standing ban on gays is lifted by national officials in May, the choice to admit gays may be left to local Boy Scout chapters — as it should be.

Campaign To Get Orson Scott Card Fired From Superman BeginsPosted on February 9, 2013 by Rich Johnston What if Jack Chick wrote Superman? Courtesy of Kat Rocha. So, yesterday I wrote an article in response to requests I’d had to promote an organised campaign to boycott DC, Superman and to get Orson Scott Card fired off the Superman Adventures book for being an anti-gay marriage activist and holding virulent homphobic views. Instead I wrote a piece taking issue with that concept. That I found the idea of campaigning to get a writer fired because you disagreed with his beliefs, however...

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has said that Paris is set to deport a string of radical religious imams as part of a fight against "global jihadism". "Several radical foreign preachers will be expelled in the coming days," Valls told a Brussels conference called to tackle extremism in Europe on Tuesday, without identifying any of the individuals concerned. "I don't confuse this radical Islam with the Islam of France but there is a religious environment, there are Salafist groupings, who are involved in a political process, whose aim is to monopolise cultural associations, the schooling system," he added. "We will...

Here it comes already: apparently stocking up on billions or rounds of ammo (25 shots for each and every Republican), supplying DHS with a panzer division, and purchasing body armor/bulletproof checkpoint booths wasn't enough to make our 'likeable; president feel secure- So besides attempting to snake your guns, Obama is now taking on the military establishment, demoting officers who dare to ask questions -or are unwilling to fire on US citizens- while this dangerous nut attempts to seize control of (and politicize) the Pentagon as thoroughly as he has just about every other federal agency in existence. As was recently revealed, a new military...

Once upon a time, it was common for an American child to be packed off to school with a rifle on his back and for him to come home smiling and safe in the evening. Shooting clubs, now quietly withering away, were once such a mainstay of American high-school life that in the first half of the 20th century they were regularly installed in the basements of new educational buildings. Now, they are in their death throes, victims of political correctness, a willful misunderstanding of what constitutes “gun safety,� and our deplorable tendency toward litigiousness.In 1975, New York state...

DEMOCRATS (109 VOTES) My party should support it: 97% My party should oppose it: 0% My party should avoid the issue: 2% Other: 1% "Marriage equality is a vote-getter for Democrats and a vote-loser for the party of the last century, the Republicans." "More and more states are adopting marriage equality, and it is time for the U.S.A. to lead on this issue." "No issue has changed more dramatically than support for gay marriage over the last 10 years. In 20 years, it won't even be an issue." "It's a nonissue. Americans support the concept. Let's move on!"... REPUBLICANS (99...

The United States of America was the greatest nation in the history of the world, bar none, and just about every American school kid knew why http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/when-i-was-a-kid-reflections-of-a-50-year-old-american?f=must_reads

An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy. The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House "from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood." The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers. The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland...

Late last year, I criticized the notion that Barack Obama won re-election by buying off voters with "gifts."  In case you've forgotten, many conservatives had sought to explain away Mitt Romney's loss by reasoning that we had finally reached a tipping point where Americans were voting for candidates who supported the welfare state, based solely on their own pecuniary interests. And I argued that voters do want to be given something by Republican politicians: Hope, optimism, and vision.But while I dismissed that premise, there may be an even larger fundamental problem that should alarm conservatives even more: Too many Americans...

It’s often hard to accept the truth, especially when that truth is scary, when reality seems to offer you no solutions, only poison from which to pick. It’s as with a man I once knew who insisted it couldn’t be proven that smoking was bad for you. He knew better in his heart, but his available choices — giving up cigarettes or accepting the danger of their use —were both emotionally unpalatable to him. Enter the rationalization. We’re seeing the same thing with Republicans in the wake of Barack Obama’s re-election. Radio host Sean Hannity, citing changing American demographics, stated...

Any of us who have come to Christ later in life know the factors that led us to Him. The Spirit was tugging at me for a while. C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity started it. Like me, he was once an atheist. Until he could be one no more. “In 1929, I gave in, and admitted that God was God,” wrote Lewis, “perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” A few committed people of faith did the rest for me, as I witnessed in them the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the power of their...

Why aren’t Christians allowed to be offended? We’re reminded of this issue every year at this time as we observe the War on Christmas. And this sensitivity to offense doesn’t stop with Christmas. Why is it that we’re required to be silent while the gay agenda, feminism, multiculturalism, radical environmentalism, and globalism are deified and taught to our children, while the Christian worldview is vilified by the same government officials?

Denver, Colo., Nov 22, 2012 / 06:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The expansion of Thanksgiving weekend shopping to the holiday itself has raised concerns among both workers and clergy who worry that the change puts family time at risk. Father Sinclair Oubre, Spiritual Moderator of the Texas-based Catholic Labor Network, said the store openings are a “disturbing trend� that is “an assault on the family.� “We have almost completed the evolutionary process of having two classes of workers: those who get holidays off, and can stay with their families, and those who are forced to work, so that those who...

Jibes from the thankless shouldn’t spoil the feastAnother holiday, another war. This year, beleaguered Thanksgiving is being attacked on multiple fronts. The drive for a meatless Thanksgiving is in full swing. Rock legend Paul McCartney made his pitch in an advertisement campaign for the animal rights group PETA. The British vegetarian counsels “Eat no turkey” during a holiday founded by people who fled Britain and discovered turkey. PETA also urged President Obama not to observe the tradition of issuing a presidential pardon for a turkey since it “makes light of the mass slaughter of some 46 million gentle, intelligent birds.”...

It began with traditional newspaper circulation about a decade ago, and now the phenomenon has spread to television: Like millions of Americans who shun the daily paper, many are voting with their remotes and are turning off network TV.

The case of Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash is, as sex scandals sometimes are, poised on the cusp of legally actionable and none of our damn business. (See also Petraeus, David, et al.) Clash, 52, acknowledges having had a relationship with a young man, now 24, while he was over the age of consent. His accuser says it began when he was 16. Clash has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street while responding to the allegation. If his lover was under the age of consent, that’s a matter for the law. If he was over—whatever you personally think of...

My brilliant, Hillsdale-educated husband explained to me in our many conversations following the election one conflict between political philosophers Leo Strauss and Russell Kirk: broadly speaking, Strauss would say politics shapes culture, while Kirk would say culture shapes politics. We think there's some transference there (some permeable cell membranes, if you will), as laws certainly shape culture, but agreed over dinner last night that we tend to side with Kirk in thinking that if we had to pick a chicken or egg, we'd go with the culture as the initiator and driver of politics. That thought has led several here...

I-502, a voter initiative designed to legalize the possession and personal use of Marijuana, appears to have passed. With 50% of the statewide votes counted, the initiative leads with a 55% to 45% approval rating. Up to one ounce of marijuana, grown at state-licensed facilities, and sold (and TAXED!) at state retail locations, will now be allowed. There will be standards set for driving while impaired, as well as a zero-tolerance policy for persons under 21. It is estimated it will take about a year for all the machinery to get set up before people can buy retail hooch! Negotiations...

'Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel, who starred in the 1974 erotic French film Emmanuelle, has died aged 60. "She died during the night during her sleep," her agent, Marieke Verharen, told the AFP news agency. The actress, who had cancer, was admitted to hospital in July after suffering a stroke. Emmanuelle, which told the story of a sexually promiscuous housewife, spawned numerous sequels and played in a cinema on the Champs-Elysees for 11 years. Released in 1974, the soft-focus French film was one of the first erotic movies to be shown in mainstream cinemas.'

The State Department said Tuesday it never concluded that the consulate attack in Libya stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam, raising further questions about why the Obama administration used that explanation for more than a week after assailants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

In the six months leading up to the assault on the United States consulate in Benghazi, the State Department reduced the number of trained Americans guarding U.S. facilities in Libya, according to a leading House Republican investigating the Sept. 11 anniversary attacks. The reduction in U.S. security personnel increased America’s reliance on local Libyan guards for the protection of its diplomats. This is the latest charge from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican leading a House investigation on the Benghazi attacks, regarding alleged security defects in Benghazi. Chaffetz said the information comes from whistleblowers who have approached the House Committee...

A House committee says a State Department officer told panel members there were 13 threats made against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya during the six months before the Sept. 11 attack on the facility. The assault left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The panel adds that the officer told it the U.S. mission had made repeated requests for increased security. A spokesman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is holding a hearing on the controversy next week, says its source is Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, who was stationed in Libya from September 2011...

BENGHAZI, Libya — More than three weeks after attacks in this city killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, sensitive documents remained only loosely secured in the remains of the U.S. mission here on Wednesday, offering visitors easy access to delicate details about American operations in Libya. Documents detailing weapons collection efforts, emergency evacuation protocols, the full internal itinerary of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s trip and the personnel records of Libyans who were contracted to secure the mission were among the items scattered across the floors of the looted compound when a Washington Post reporter and a...