Free Republic

The left has figured out how to successfully push through its agenda by using one simple tactic: demonizing the right. Even if there is no truth to the cruel labels, the left has figured out they work. Repeat the words "bigot,” "hate,” "sexist" and "intolerant" enough and they will start to stick. It’s known as the “framing war,” and Republicans aren’t very good at it, probably because we’re too nice. We’re the party of Judeo-Christian morality, so calling the opposition names isn’t considered polite. Instead, we naively think we can stick to debating the substance of issues and the truth...

Welcome to the state of political correctness run amuck! In training initiated by UC president Janet Napolitano, provides new guidelines for the 200,000-student University of California system faculty. Inspirational phrases such as “America is the land of opportunity,” “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough,” “America is a melting pot,” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” are now being labeled “microaggressions” – any “brief, subtle verbal or non-verbal exchanges that send denigrating messages to the recipient because of his or her group membership (such as race, gender, age or socio-economic status).”...

When one observes President Obama’s unwillingness to accommodate America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct. Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling treatment of religious Jews in general...

It’s astounding to review the requirements to be legally married in America. Even more astounding is the reality that Americans, and especially Christians, comply with them. Worse still— Christians continue to demand that the government regulate a predominantly Christian practice. (Monogamous heterosexual marriage is a unique New Testament Christian concept. Nearly all non-Christian faiths advocate polygamy and pedophilia as part of acceptable social marriage norms.) America’s oligarchic-republican-democratic government currently requires citizens to receive government permission to be legally married—similar to requiring the Chinese to receive government permission to legally have a child. Imagine living in a country where couples are...

Editor's Note: This column had the wrong byline when it was originally published. Of course, the column featured below is all Ms. Kieffer's work. This was a dreadful uploading mistake, and we apologize for the error. (Matt) Black pop star Rihanna wins awards and makes millions for wearing guns in public while everyday black Americans risk losing their jobs if they dare to exercise their 2nd Amendment right. Are you growing tired of seeing wealthy black Americans get by with things that cause middle class black Americans to lose their jobs or go to prison? Things like carrying firearms, flying the Confederate flag...

“Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.”— George Orwell The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s a shell game intended to keep us focused on and distracted by all of the politically expedient things that are being said—about militarized police, surveillance, and government corruption—while the government continues to frogmarch us down the road toward outright tyranny. Unarmed citizens are still getting shot by militarized police trained to view them as the enemy and treated as if we have no rights. Despite President Obama’s warning that...

Cyberwar: The damage done by Chinese hackers grows worse by the day, with news that they stole a treasure trove of blackmail-worthy material on those with high security clearances. What's Obama's reaction?

"....The Democratic front-runner has only herself to blame. After the House Select Benghazi Committee released some new emails this past week, the Obama State Dept. was forced to admit it was not in possession of some Clinton emails that clearly discuss Department business... Now, will some Republicans blow this out of proportion or wander into the realm of conspiracy theory? Perhaps, even probably, but as Democrats accuse them of being partisan or reckless, remember this: This would not be an issue if Clinton hadn't erased her email server..."

".............................Between a rock and a hard place, Roberts argued that Congress surely never meant to cut out subsidies in states without their own exchanges, because “it would destabilize the individual insurance market in any State with a Federal Exchange, and likely create the very ‘death spirals’ that Congress designed the Act to avoid.”I sympathize, but Roberts has to know he’s wrong. Jonathan Gruber,an MIT economist who advised the White House, explained during a 2012 speech that the federal law limited subsidies to enrollees of state exchanges in order to “squeeze” states to act. Quoth Gruber,“If you’re a state and you...

<p>Greece and its principal creditors—the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund—should acknowledge that Athens will never be able to repay the €131 billion it owes, write down its debt and let the Aegean nation exit the euro gracefully.</p>

This is a disturbing, or perhaps better described as heartbreaking story which popped up this weekend and set off all sorts of alarm bells for me. NBC News is featuring the tale of a child named Lia (until recently, Liam) who is being fully encouraged and supported by his parents on a “journey” to become a girl. The child is ten years old and began this “trip” at the age of five. We moved from Indiana to New Hampshire when Lia was 4. She was still wearing boys’ clothes and playing with trucks through preschool, but she really wanted girl...

Investigative journalist Brad Friedman has observed that America is moving in a progressive direction, despite the mainstream media’s “center-right nation” shibboleth. Despite the obstacles that have been placed in the pathway of progressives, Friedman is correct beyond dispute. Think back to a decade ago. Same-sex marriage was considered an abomination in large parts of the country. Christian fundamentalists were flexing their muscles as never before. Rush Limbaugh and Fox dominated the American media landscape. The Bush administration had launched a war on climate science. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was gay-bashing his way to national prominence. Today, marriage equality is the...

If you’re following any of the various media outlets this morning, you’re probably aware that the U.S. Supreme Court has just extended gay marriage to all 50 states. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have a right to marry nationwide, in a historic decision that invalidates gay marriage bans in more than a dozen states. Gay and lesbian couples already can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The court’s ruling on Friday means the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage. The outcome is...

The Supreme Court decision Friday making homosexual marriage not only legal but giving it a status superior to heterosexual marriage* was ominous (never mind that the lead defendant's name sounded like a rank in the Wehrmacht). In his majority opinion, one which cavalierly overthrew well over 6,000 years of human history in the service of Kennedy's vigorously, if vicariously, twitching nether regions, Kennedy laid out a road map for the eradication of the legal ability to oppose homosexual marriage. This is the key section: “Finally, it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue...

For marriage-equality activists, Friday's U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing marriage rights for LGBT couples was an occasion for good cheer. But even as the pink-label Champagne flowed and the sounds of a long-sought victory throbbed inside New York's historic Stonewall Inn, their transgender brothers and sisters marched on, chanting in the sun just blocks away. Marriage equality is all well and good, Elliott Fukui said, but it was no time to party for dozens of trans activists. Not even close, he said. "The battle for trans rights has been neglected by the mainstream LGB movement," said Fukui, program co-ordinator for...

Welcome to the age of vanity politics and campaigns-for-hire. What would our founders make of this nightmare? Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt. From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to...

In 16th-century England, the age of consent was set at 10 years old in an effort to protect young girls from sexual abuse by adult men. In 1875, parliament raised the age of consent to 13; in 1885, it upped it to 16. Now, a leading public health advocate has proposed that the United Kingdom bring the age down again in light of the high proportion of British adolescents who are having sex—with one another—before they’re legally capable of granting consent. Lowering the age of consent to 15 (where it stands in Sweden) or 14 (where it’s set in Germany...

I thought Scott Walker was a pretty cool guy when I saw him pull up on a Harley at Joni Ernst’s Roast & Ride a few weeks ago in Boone, Iowa. But he just did something that wasn’t so cool in reacting to the SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage — that is if you care about the Republicans winning the 2016 general election. Walker called for a Constitutional amendment to let states define marriage. Now I’m sure the Wisconsin governor has strong feelings about traditional marriage and, although I’m on the other side on this one, I completely respect his...

~~Well-intended forgiveness has been seized on by the media and those in power as an excuse to ignore white supremacy~~ Unfortunately, forgiveness, that element of moral sanctity which facilitates assuaging of grief, has morphed into a barrier obstructing the path to justice and accountability in the United States — a place weakened by the ubiquitousness and insidiousness of racism. Although it’s tough to direct a critical lens at the concept of forgiveness when the situation involves grieving family members tearfully addressing an expressionless, depraved killer who isn’t even asking for it, for posterity’s sake this must be done. What happened...

America has a case of Obama Blues. The word’s out that we’re a nation of bigots. Racism is in our DNA. So says our African-American President. I asked Mohammed if he agreed. “Sure,” he said. Mohammed was driving the New York cab. A moment later he shut the bulletproof partition that separates cabbie from passenger – to protect the drivers or the passengers? The President had said that we have been racists since the beginning of time, and that there is no cure in sight. I might suggest that a new President would be a wonderful cure. A few days...