Free Republic

In a recent column of mine, I commented, "Joe McCarthy wasn't wrong, just early." I was being flippant. I was trying to make light of the Democratic Party's turn toward radical, extreme, Marxist, anti-American rhetoric. I had no idea how right I really was. I'm not being flippant anymore. Joe McCarthy would've had a field day with today's Democratic politicians. He'd be a hero for defending America from evil, radical Marxist politicians posing as "Democrats." We'd be giving him ticker-tape parades. The House Un-American Activities Committee served as a model for McCarthy in the Senate. Let me ask you bluntly:...

After the horrific mass murder of 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, there was widespread coverage and a torrent of mainstream news networks contemplating the threat of white supremacy. These conversations, completely reasonable and necessary in the face of violent attacks from a racist gunman, soon began deteriorating into politically motivated and specious claims contending that "white supremacy" had become the predominate terror threat in the world. Well, the coordinated bomb blasts aimed at Christian worshippers on Easter Sunday, which killed at least 290 people and injured hundreds more, demonstrates the kind of meticulous planning, funding, resources and support...

President Donald Trump has decided to cease cooperating with what he sees, not incorrectly, as a Beltway conspiracy that is out to destroy him."We're fighting all the subpoenas," Trump said Wednesday. "These aren't, like, impartial people. The Democrats are out to win in 2020."Thus the Treasury Department just breezed by a deadline from the House Ways and Means Committee to deliver Trump's tax returns.Thus the White House will invoke executive privilege to deny the House Judiciary Committee access to ex-White House counsel Don McGahn, who spent 30 hours being interrogated by Robert Mueller's team.Thus the Justice Department is withholding from...

Imagine taking your family to Easter Sunday services to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus when -- bam! -- a psychopathic suicide bomber blows the church to pieces. This happened in Sri Lanka at two Catholic churches -- St. Anthony's Shrine in the capital city of Colombo and St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo -- as well as an evangelical church in Batticaloa. Hundreds died. The size of the death toll and the holy-day church bombings were dramatic enough for the news media in America. Politicians began tweeting their thoughts and prayers, which normally draws abuse from some of the more radical...

If you think the left hasn't taken over university life in America, you are probably not paying close enough attention or in denial. I'm not just talking about the liberalism of the professors and the core curriculum but about all of college life. There are glaring examples of leftist extremism everywhere you turn, and they're so loony that even sane liberal parents should be concerned. In September, a Michigan State University student awoke from his nap to an apparently unbearable sight, according to The College Fix. His roommate was watching a video of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. I can guess...

Last week it was reported that an “armed militia group” had detained a group of illegal migrants crossing the United States southern border. The story said the militia group held the illegal migrants and turned them over to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. Many supporters of illegal migration screamed foul that this group engaged in this behavior. First of all, no one should be surprised that this occurred. I do not necessarily support this type of citizen involvement in detaining bands of migrants illegally crossing into the sovereign territory of the United States—not yet anyway. However, I am getting...

I did not expect to be surprised by the Joe Biden entry to the presidential race.  If anything, it was supposed be like putting on a pair of comfortable old shoes.   Here’s Joe again, America would say, a guy we’ve known forever, bringing his smile and relatability to a crowded, bitter Democrat field brimming with candidates itching to impeach Trump and dance on the grave of his ruined administration.Surely Joe would be different.  Surely his entry would be refreshing in its loftier tone.  Joe would re-introduce himself as the guy to return some stability and decency to a fractious,...

This election cycle seems to have begun earlier than past cycles, perhaps because the Democrats are too anxious to get on with the show. Their eagerness, possibly creating a burn-out factor, could work against them, but there are other issues at play which will prevent them from gaining the White House. At this stage there are at least four elements to consider: OVERPLAYING THEIR HAND As ‘The Gambler’ says: “Know when to hold ‘em, Know when to fold ‘em.” For over two years the Democrats were convinced theirs was the winning hand, but their hole card didn’t play out. Instead of...

“‘You know there’s an old Irish saying, there’s all kinds of old Irish sayings. My grandfather Finnegan, I think he made them up. But uh, it says, may the hinges of our friendship never go rusty. Well, with these two folks that you’re about to meet if you haven’t already, there’s no doubt about them staying oiled and lubricated here. Now for you who are not full Irish in this room, lubricated has a different meaning for us all.’” “‘If I hear one more Republican tell me about balancing the budget, I am going to strangle them. To the press,...

Last winter, my husband and I joined with other mourners at the funeral of a man who died in his mid-20s. His family talked about how he was so full of life and love; his friends recalled how he had been there for them in their times of need. There were tears. There were smiles. But underneath it all was the knowledge that this tragedy did not have to happen. His death was the result of an overdose due to an addiction that he had been battling for years. After suffering an athletic injury in high school, he became addicted...

The Easter bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka remind us that it is dangerous to be a practicing Christian today in many parts of the world.The Wall Street Journal reports, “There were at least eight explosions, most blamed on suicide bombers. Six of the attacks were coordinated and were carried out by seven suicide bombers, according to a preliminary examination of scattered body parts by the country’s official experts.”The bombs, of course, went off on the high Christian holiday of Easter, killing more than 300 people.And the Journal adds, “Authorities took 24 people into custody in connection with the...

I recently had the pleasure of being invited by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to speak at a breakfast gathering honoring D.C. Emancipation Day. We would be celebrating the 157th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's formal emancipation of over 3,000 enslaved individuals in the district (on April 16, 1862). Several months later, on Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln would go on to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally emancipated the nation's estimated 4 million slaves. In this year's commemoration, the district's political leadership and distinguished citizens pushed for what they consider the last frontier in the quest for emancipation -- the establishment...

As activists around the world recently celebrated Earth Day with warnings about the awful state of our planet, now seems like the right time to share the good news that actually -- contrary to countless dire predictions -- we're not running out of resources. In fact, the late economist and scholar Julian Simon was right: People again and again have innovated "their way out of resource shortages." As Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute reminds us in an article about "18 spectacularly wrong predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970," back in 1969, Stanford...

The brilliance of our country's founders is revealed in many things but especially the checks on power built into our system of government. The Constitution is grounded in the natural-law principle that human beings derive their rights from God, not from government. On a more temporal level, governmental powers are deemed vested in the states, which delegated certain limited and enumerated powers to the federal government. (The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution states this explicitly.) At the federal level, legislative power is vested solely in Congress, and this acts as a check on the power of the president to issue...

Mueller’s team went down every blind alley relating to its investigation -- except where Obama-era officials were likely culpable for relevant unethical or illegal behavior. pecial counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year, $30 million, 448-page report did not find collusion between Donald Trump and Russia. Despite compiling private allegations of loud and obnoxious Trump behavior, Mueller also concluded that there was not any actionable case of obstruction of justice by the president. It would have been hard in any case to find that Trump obstructed Mueller’s investigation of an alleged crime. One, there was never a crime of collusion. Mueller early on...

(WASHINGTON DC) The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a U.S. surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone calls and text messages, saying the logistical and legal burdens of keeping it outweigh its intelligence benefits, according to people familiar with the matter. The recommendation against seeking the renewal of the once-secret spying program amounts to an about-face by the agency, which had long argued in public and to congressional overseers that the program was vital to the task of finding and disrupting terrorism plots against the U.S. The latest view is rooted in a growing...

... Ms. Warren proposed this week to erase a substantial portion of more than $1.5 trillion in student debt held by Americans. Her plan would cancel up to $50,000 of student debt for every person with household income under $100,000. The loan forgiveness amount phases out as income rises. No one who earns more than $250,000 would qualify, though the forgiveness would extend to plenty of upper middle-class earners who have the means to repay. She claims this will eliminate student debt for 75% of the 45 million Americans. “For most Americans,” she wrote in a post on Medium, “cancellation...

Fifty-three percent of voters believe political corruption is a crisis in the United States, while another 36% believe it is a significant problem but not a crisis. That's consistent with other ScottRasmussen.com polling data showing that 87% of voters nationwide believe corruption is widespread in the federal government. Solid majorities believe there is also corruption in state (70%) and local (57%) government. The belief that our nation has a political corruption crisis is shared by 53% of women, 52% of men, 51% of white voters, 55% of black and Hispanic voters, 54% of rural voters, 53% of suburban voters and...

In journalism, a "lede" is the introductory section of a news story, intended to entice the reader into reading the full story. Traditionally, the lede is the first (or "lead") paragraph. But in today's fast-paced news media, enticements include the story's headline, subheading and a short summary that precedes the actual story, usually distinguished by a different typeface. The term "burying the lede" refers to a newspaper story that is downplaying the significance of the actual story by "burying" important information deep in the article. Now, "burying the lede" ought not be confused with "fake news," an expression popularized by...

It’s the greatest crisis facing the country today and threatens not only the present, but the future as well. It’s not the national debt, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, health care, or any of the other issues Democratic candidates for president routinely ramble about, no. This is something far more serious – people making informed, really bad choices. And the Democratic Party is rallying to their defense. Out of pure self-loathing, I watched most of the 5-hour lovefest on CNN Monday with Democratic candidates for president. One hour each for Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Pete...