Free Republic

I’m not gay. I get called gay all the time by Leftists who seek to disparage me when they’ve run out of their specious, illogical arguments and the full weight of common sense lands on their fetid heads and they have no other recourse but to go ad hominem on me and say, “he must be gay.” Which, like I said, I take they equate with a cut down; which is weird because, supposedly, they’re the homosexual’s champion. For what it’s worth, the only gay thing about me is, and I must confess, I did tear up a bit during...

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE www.nationalreview.com PRINT September 3, 2014 1:22 PM How Should Christians Expect Our Nation to Respond to ISIS? With Wrath and Vengeance By David French Even in the face of jihadist horror, it’s surprising how many Christians are deeply confused about issues of war and peace, with the root of the confusion embedded in the distinction between personal and governmental responsibilities. Admonitions to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies, and to repay good for evil are at core individual responsibilities — responsibilities that not only call on us to imitate Christ’s own example as he forgave...

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer’s super PAC, Next Gen Climate, wants to implement a “haircut strategy” against Republican campaigns in order to depress conservative turnout. “Our Republican Haircut Strategy — a precision focus on a specific harm in target Republican markets — we will seek to degrade Republican performance,” a memo from Steyer’s super PAC explains in a memo obtained by Politico that the RNC flagged as a “voter suppression” tactic. “The election results in many states may be as narrow as a few thousand votes, so we sought to determine whether we could have an impact at the margins of...

Anderson659 wrote: Obama is not an idiot, far from it, he has a vision for America that is defined by radical left progressive social marxism, trickle down economics from the government. The Democrat party us now a party of secular humanist radicals. -Idiots Offer Hope, Change, Blame, Revenge- and Self GovernmentDear Brother Anderson,The Democrat Party has been a bunch of secular humanists for quite some time. This isn’t Harry Truman’s Democrat Party, although I’ll admit that Truman’s economic policies were really bad.I disagree with your evaluation of Obama however. First of all, he’s dedicated his whole life to running for...

The Ebola outbreak has been a disaster in politics, but a boom for capitalism. Weird how that works, but it is how many things work. President Obama’s handling of the Ebola outbreak has been an unmitigated disaster. At first, he dismissed it. Then, he panicked and started canceling campaign and fundraising events to engage in the “optics” of being in charge. It was too late. With his indifference toward beheadings and terrorists attacks that killed ambassadors in the past, the president altering his heretofore unalterable schedule signaled a panic message to the American people. If there’s nothing to worry about,...

It is clear that this is no longer an outbreak of Ebola, it's a breakout of Ebola. We are now living in a post-containment world. Fortunately, this virus has vulnerabilities, and we can quickly improve our immune defense. When the protective suits and procedures fail to keep Ebola at arm's length, it becomes a fight between the organism and the defense. As there is no vaccine and there are no Ebola-specific drugs, it's time to help Americans understand what can be done. We have two types of immune defense: adaptive defense, which allows us to utilize preformed antibodies and anti-viral...

How much is too much of a burden when it comes to being an American? As Americans, we’re required to engage with our government at all levels, in all sorts of ways. Many of those ways create burdens, but are part of the deal when we live under the rule of law and decide who represents us in government. Our relationship with our government is a two-way street. Consider some of the pillars of civic duty – voting, jury duty, registering for Selective Service, participating in the Census, challenging a property tax assessment. All of these carry burdens on us...

... allowing the gay issue to loom large in the Synod was a massive blunder because it pits the developing world against the West. In liberal London, gayness means the gaudy print of Judy Garland that a priest friend of mine has on his wall. In Kampala it means anal sex. The worldwide Catholic Church has until now managed to bridge this cultural gulf by selective turning of a blind eye while emphasising the non-negotiability of its teachings on sex ...

Years ago, I shared a very funny poster that suggests that more government is hardly ever the right answer to any question.Yet in Washington, the standard response to any screwup by government is to make government even bigger. Sort ofMitchellÂ’s Law on steroids.And thatÂ’s exactly whatÂ’s happening with the Ebola crisis. The bureaucracies that have received tens of billions of dollars over the years to preclude a crisis are now expecting to get rewarded with more cash.Governor Jindal of Louisiana debunks the notion that more money for the bureaucracy is some sort of elixir. HereÂ’s some of what he wrote...

For the past several years the financial sector, notably the banks, would enhance their earnings by making the determination that reserves needed to be less. After all, the Great American Recovery was underway and there would no longer be home foreclosures, car repos or credit card delinquencies. Therefore, on a quarterly basis, a reduction in reserves was in order. That shift from reserves to the balance sheet allowed earnings to accelerate, earnings per share to explode and share prices and bonuses to elevate. However, all good things come to an end eventually. Therefore, a new game had to be found...

In response to Obama's Lame Response to Ebola; No Protocols but Lots of Fearmongering one person responded that I was "over-cooking the Ebola crisis". Amusingly, another reader accused me of "underplaying the crisis". A third reader asked "what is the free market response?" A similar question arose in a comment to Acting Man's post The Ebola Outbreak – A Black Swan. Before tackling the free market issue, let's first review the government's response to date. Airport restrictions but only at 5 airport, not all of themTemperature taking procedures initiatedIn spite temperature worries, a nurse self-reported to the center for disease...

What's the greatest threat to the market and the economy? Change in Fed policyDeflation/slowing global economyOverleveraged (see chart)ISIS/TerrorismEbolaCrisis of ConfidenceSlowing US economy For all the scuttlebutt about the Fed initiating another round of extraordinary accommodation, the only change is that the first interest rate-hike will move to December of next year from September 2015. In fact, some members would like to see action sooner rather than later. Moreover, it was leaked earlier this week that Janet Yellen sees the economy improving nicely. Yesterday, Charles Plosser, head of the Philadelphia Fed, echoed that same notion with several comments about the economy...

Two chemical weapons-related stories this week should be considered separate, not necessarily interchangeable, parts of a whole. The first was that ISIS had used chemical weapons against Kurdish forces in Kobani, raising the question of where ISIS would have acquired such weapons.  The second, in the New York Times, detailed how U.S. forces in Iraq uncovered thousands of shells filled with chemical munitions from various areas of the country following the invasion, and how they were stored and guarded until 2011. Those disinclined to support the Iraq War, including the Times, International Business Times, and Huffington Post, posit that the...

A competitive Senate contest in the Hawkeye State is creating a ripple effect down ballot, causing headaches for national Democrats as Election Day nears. Recent polls show state Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican, with a small lead over Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat. But the Republican’s advantage has percolated to three of Iowa’s four House contests, keeping one competitive district in contention for Republicans, plus putting two Democratic seats in play. In particular, Ernst’s performance is buoying former Capitol Hill aide David Young, the Republican nominee in the competitive 3rd District, which is currently rated a Tossup by the Rothenberg...

“We are in a dangerous place in the world, perhaps more dangerous than in the past 10 years.” That’s what former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff had to say when he visited The Heritage Foundation recently. And with reports of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, often referred to as ISIS, all over the news, it’s not hard to see why. As Chertoff noted, terrorist groups have proliferated “from Africa east to Afghanistan.” Frightening images of beheadings and other forms of graphic violence are all too common. And news that some Americans have gone to the Middle East...

Something I learned during the first two years of the Obama administration, when the staff infighting was at its worst: if you wanted to get somebody to say something nice, ask them about Ron Klain. Klain entered the administration as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff. This was, itself, notable: Klain has been chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, too, making him the only person to serve in that position for two different vice presidents. But the esteem for Klain wasn't based on his resume. Rather, he had a mix of policy, political and bureaucratic chops that...

There is no case for an American Ebola czar, least of all another political "fixer" who has no expertise in public health. This is just another case of the Obama administration putting politics before substance, and cowering at the idiocy and vileness of the Republicans in Congress. We already have an enormously competent national Ebola leader: Tom Frieden at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We already have an enormously competent coordinator for U.S. Ebola aid overseas: Raj Shah, the Administrator of USAID. What we need now is a president who backs up his front-line team.

"The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships." The words of Paul VI are like the background music for the Extraordinary Synod on the Family that is wrapping up in Rome. The opening words of the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" continue: "The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant...

It’s long past time to end the Fed as it is currently constructed. And it was only a matter of time before an Obama appointee put an exclamation on the point. It’s what Obama appointees are best at. Yellen stepped out of her role as Master of the Stock Market to expound on taxation and public education.Yellen points out that poor school districts sometimes aren’t funded as well as rich one are because the United States relies on local control of education. It’s what she calls “subnational taxation.” Her implied proposal is that it would be much better if the...

Have you noticed that in most science fiction movies the aliens are almost always biological entities – often obsessed with eating us or sucking our blood or possessing us or at least conquering us.That’ extremely unlikely. If we are ever visited by aliens they are almost certain to be mechanical. They will be intelligent robots.Biological entities evolve on planets. They depend on the atmosphere and the food sources those planets supply. When humans go into space, for example, we need to take oxygen, food and water with us. That’s one reason human space travel is so much more expensive than...