Free Republic

I haven't posted in a while because I started doing projects that are more time intensive. I decided to stop doing graphics/memes for the most part, in favor of going back to my first love, illustration.I still plan to do the occasional graphic like this one I created recently... But I missed drawing and illustrating, and I essentially gave it up to create all of the graphics I've created over the years because I don't have time to do both. Anyway, here are a couple of pieces I was fairly happy with, and I wanted to share them here. :-)...

For high-profile politicians who are indicted by federal prosecutors, there’s something akin to stages of grief. First comes shock, then anger, defiance and, sometimes, after juries convict and judges are ready to impose a sentence, a bit of contrition.Having been on notice for months that his mutually beneficial friendship with a wealthy Florida doctor was the subject of a corruption probe, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey blew right past the state of shock on Wednesday, after authorities unveiled a 68-page indictment.“For nearly three years I’ve lived under a Justice Department cloud and today I am outraged that this cloud...

Link only, per agreement with Gannett

March 1, 2013 The Architect of Destruction By Maureen Scott "Obama comes from a community organizer background where it's us against them. But that's not who we are. And that's not the position the leader of our Nation should take." – Dr. Benjamin Carson Obama appears to be a tormented man who is filled with resentment, anger, and disdain for anyone of an opinion or view other than his. He acts in the most hateful, spiteful, malevolent, vindictive ways in order to manipulate and maintain power and control over others. Perhaps because, as a child, he grew up around family...

"The next time you call for assistance because the Internet service in your home is not working, the 'technician' who comes to your door may actually be an undercover government agent. He will have secretly disconnected the service, knowing that you will naturally call for help and -- ­when he shows up at your door, impersonating a technician­ -- let him in. He will walk through each room of your house, claiming to diagnose the problem. Actually, he will be videotaping everything (and everyone) inside. He will have no reason to suspect you have broken the law, much less probable...

Asked why President Obama was so unpopular in Louisiana, Landrieu had responded: “The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans. It’s been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader. It’s not always been a good place for women to present ourselves. It’s more of a conservative place.” So because the South is conservative, it’s hostile to women and black candidates? Try telling that to South Carolina Republicans Nikki Haley and Tim Scott.

LONDON — The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who was born in New York and holds both American and British passports, recently said that he would not pay a tax bill from the United States on capital gains from the sale of his home in the London borough of Islington. Mr. Johnson pointed out that he hasn’t lived in America since he was 5. He’d like to renounce his citizenship, but said the process was “very difficult.”It is, but I am doing it. My “in-person final loss of citizenship appointment” is scheduled for Jan. 14 at the United States Consulate...

I am writing in response to Kurt Miller's Nov. 22 guest column, in which he states that "white privilege is a racist term." The definition of white privilege I use is from Dr. Beverly Tatum, who writes, "White people ... sometimes struggle with the concept of white privilege. What are the benefits or the advantages to being white in a society that has historically given benefits and advantages to members of the dominant group? If you are a person who has that privilege, you don't necessarily notice it." I'd like to think I have earned everything I have through my...

Exhibit 12 in the government’s case against Anthony Elonis is a screenshot of a Facebook post he wrote in October 2010, five months after his wife, Tara, left him. His name appears in the site’s familiar blue, followed by words that made Tara fear for her life: ‘'If I only knew then what I know now . . . I would have smothered your ass with a pillow. Dumped your body in the back seat. Dropped you off in Toad Creek and made it look like a rape and murder.'’Exhibit 13, also pulled from Facebook, is a thread that started...

I read a shocking headline today: "Ex-Con: Most Black Youths See Obama As 'Deadbeat' Leader." Is this an obvious outlier, or could there be something to this? The ex-con referred to in the headline is Paul McKinley, a member of Voices of the Ex-Offender, which is described as a grass-roots group of former inmates. On the "Steve Malzberg Show" on NewsmaxTV, McKinley said: "Every time they question the president about the black community, he's apologetic or he's embarrassed. ... I would say, 97 percent of the time he (doesn't) even want to say that there even exists a black community....

It’s not unusual to hear people talk about aborting their baby with Down syndrome because it is the “merciful” thing to do. One woman wrote about her decision to abort her baby with Down syndrome because of the “suffering” the baby and her family would be forced to endure, and somehow still has the audacity to claim that she “loves” her son. To her, she was making some kind of noble choice because he otherwise would have had a miserable, empty, meaningless life. Richard Dawkins caused a huge controversy when he argued that it was immoral to knowingly give birth...

***Snip**** But what have politically correct North American governments done? They’ve hemmed and hawed, and blathered out excuses about why a ban would only make things worse. I am not particularly worried about the spread of Ebola in North America – a little, not a lot. But choosing political correctness over public health – even choosing PC over health workers’ health – is asinine, ridiculous and even arrogant. The worst fumbling, mealy mouthed arguments against a travel ban to the U.S. and Canada have come from Thomas Frieden, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)....

Abortion is a fundamental right. Especially if you're a lesbian. If you don't believe me then just ask Amy Schlag and Katie Peel. They are the "married" couple that controls forty percent of UNCW's five-office diversity industrial complex. Amy (the husband) runs the LGBTQIA Office. Katie (the wife) runs the Women's Resource Center. I began to get the idea that these two women were really worried about getting pregnant when Amy started to use her LGBTQIA Office to advocate for abortion. Last year, she sponsored a film that defended late term abortionists as well as the gruesome practice of partial...

Many people are understandably dismayed by the the Supreme Court's refusal to hear several gay marriage cases effectively codifying gay marriage in several states. While it is certainly disappointing, it isn't really unexpected. I hate to break this news to you, especially if you are one of these people who think that this country, a country founded with limited government, separation of powers, and federalism, is still recoverable by normal means, it isn't. The U.S. as we knew it and understood it is gone and it isn't coming back, at least not by regular constitutional means. Nope. Federalism, limited government,...

My interest in homeschooling was first sparked nearly 20 years ago, when I was a socially awkward adolescent with a chaotic family life. I became close to a conservative Christian homeschooling family that seemed perfect in every way. Through my connection to this family, I was introduced to a whole world of conservative Christian homeschoolers, some of whom we would now consider “Quiverfull” families: homeschooling conservatives who eschew any form of family planning and choose instead to “trust God” with matters related to procreation. Though I fell out of touch with my homeschooled friends as we grew older, a few...

That Jesus commanded His disciples—of which I am one—to love “the poor” is beyond dispute. Equally beyond dispute, however, is that, regardless of what growing legions of left-leaning clerics would have us believe, Jesus never—never ever—addressed the issue of “inequality.” The head of my church and the most visible religious leader on the world stage today, Pope Francis, is as guilty a culprit as is anyone on this score. The Pope made headlines on more than a few occasions since his tenure began when His Holiness condemned “inequality” generally, and the traditional American economic system in particular, with a bluntness...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The flood of Central American women and children crossing the border into the U.S. is not a refugee crisis, or a border crisis, it's an humanitarian crisis, created by the actions of U.S. citizens and inaction of their elected leaders. While children have walked hundreds of miles, risking violence along the way as they try to escape it, Congress has hardly moved a foot on U.S. immigration reform and not at all on gun control. How many of the politicians ranting about the children crossing the border have ever lifted a finger to restrict the free-low of...

Imagine if I were to tell you there is a large group of government employees, with generous salaries and ridiculously cushy retirement pensions covered by the taxpayer, who enjoy incredible job security and are rarely held accountable even for activities that would almost certainly earn the rest of us prison time. When there is proven misconduct, these government employees are merely reassigned and are rarely dismissed. The bill for any legal settlements concerning their errors? It, too, is covered by the taxpayers. Their unions are among the strongest in the country. No, I’m not talking about public-school teachers. I’m talking...

Gazette opinion: Obama earned the low ratings Sometimes, you have to admit you're wrong. And, we were wrong. We said that things couldn't get much worse after the sub par presidency of George W. Bush. But, President Barack Obama's administration has us yearning for the good ol' days when we were at least winning battles in Iraq. The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal polls show that Americans are giving Obama lower marks than in 2006 when Iraq was going poorly for Bush and a tepid response to Hurricane Katrina sunk Bush's ratings. It's not that popularity polling should be the final...

To the loathsome, liberal Democrat it is never important what he/she says; it is only THAT he/she says. They are the experts at dog whistle messages to their anti-American donors and the theme is always the same: “You hate America and/or the Catholic Church. I hate them as well so send me money so I can keep on attacking them.” Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is one of the best at crafting messages to the hating crowd that makes up the Democrat Party. She knows how to tap into their wallets. She has carved out a special niche for herself as the...