Free Republic

On Monday, Lindsey Graham announced his presidential candidacy in a speech devoted mostly to foreign policy. He mentioned variations of the word “Islam” six times. He said “the nuclear ambitions of the radical Islamists who control Iran” constitute the “biggest threat” to the United States. He twice emphasized his devotion to Israel. And once, about halfway through his remarks, he mentioned China. In American politics today, especially in the GOP, Graham’s priorities are typical. Two years ago, during Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s contentious seven-and-a-half-hour grilling by the Armed Services Committee, senators mentioned Israel 178 times and Iran 171...

This week, Rachel Dolezal, the former local head of the Spokane NAACP, a lecturer in Africana studies at Eastern Washington University, and a proud black woman, was revealed to be a non-proud white woman. She lied about her personal history: She said her parents whipped her when they lived in South Africa, that she underwent rape and physical abuse, that the KKK targeted her with swastikas and nooses. No evidence exists to support any of this. Her parents point out that Dolezal has no black ancestry, and grew up in a Montana home as the child of two white parents....

This month, the headlines were about a Muslim man in Boston who was accused of threatening police officers with a knife. Last month, two Muslims attacked an anti-Islamic conference in Garland, Tex. The month before, a Muslim man was charged with plotting to drive a truck bomb onto a military installation in Kansas. If you keep up with the news, you know that a small but steady stream of American Muslims, radicalized by overseas extremists, are engaging in violence here in the United States.But headlines can mislead. The main terrorist threat in the United States is not from violent Muslim...

Ratter, a fledgling media company that sought to turn local tabloid-style reporting into viral national news, laid off its entire editorial staff Wednesday. The startup, which hired staffers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles since its launch last November, let go “every single byline that was on that site,” founder A.J. Daulerio said. But “It’s not shutting down,” according to Daulerio. Despite its small size — before the lay-offs Ratter only had four full-time writers — the company had garnered media attention. That’s mainly because of the pedigree of its founder, A.J. Daulerio, a Gawker Media veteran best known...

I once had a boss who gave me some great advice, not just for managing people but for judging politicians: You forgive mistakes; you punish patterns. Everybody screws up. But if someone won't learn from his mistakes and try to correct his behavior, then he either doesn't think it was a mistake, he just doesn't care or he thinks you're a fool. The one indisputable takeaway from Peter Schweizer's new book, "Clinton Cash," is that Bill and Hillary Clinton fit one or all of those descriptions. Let us recall Marc Rich, a shady billionaire indicted for tax evasion and defying...

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...