Free Republic

The Washington Post has done a surprising service by inadvertently revealing the damage having an abortion did to a woman who chose it. Grace, profiled in the story, “The long five minutes: Abortion doulas bring comfort during a complicated time” is not just a doula, but also an abortion survivor. As such she has my compassion and understanding. #Metoo. It took me decades to work through the grief and guilt of child loss through abortion. My pain was complicated greatly by being told it was not, in fact, a child by the people who sold that abortion to me. Can...

Declaring that “the final word has been spoken as far as I am concerned,” President Reagan defended his planned visit Sunday to the German military cemetery at Bitburg, telling foreign reporters yesterday that “I think it is morally right to do what I am doing and I am not going to change my mind about that.” Vice President George Bush, meanwhile, who has refrained from public statements on the Bitburg controversy, told a United States Chamber of Commerce meeting in Washington yesterday that “Ronald Reagan has not changed on his abhorrence of the Holocaust — he never will. But the...

Military action against North Korea is not an easy question to answer. If the blow is light, Pyongyang's military power would remain intact, and South Koreans could potentially face a revenge attack of some kind. One can only hope that Washington reaches out to Seoul for a second opinion. If the blow is heavy, the Chinese people will not allow their government to remain passive when the armies of the US and South Korea start a war and try to take down the Pyongyang regime. The Chinese will not let something like that happen, especially on the same land where...

Remember Afghanistan? The longest war in American history? Ever? When it comes to wars, we Americans have a selective memory. The Afghan war, dating from October 2001, has earned the distinction of having been forgotten while still underway. President Trump’s Inaugural Address included no mention of Afghanistan. Nor did his remarks last month at a joint session of Congress. For the new commander in chief, the war there qualifies at best as an afterthought — assuming, that is, he has thought about it all. A similar attitude prevails on Capitol Hill. Congressional oversight has become pro forma. Last week Gen....

Mark R. Levin Verified account ‏@marklevinshow Rubio educates Tillerson Gloves OFF: Rubio takes Putin-squish Tillerson to the WOODSHED "It should not be hard to say V'Ladimir Putin's army has comitted war crimes in Alleppo."conservativereview.com

Like most people, I had hoped for the customary settling down after the tumultuous and nasty election. We have been denied that, not by the candidates, who have been dignified, but by the outgoing administration. I have written here and elsewhere before that this has been the most incompetent administration since James Buchanan brought on the Civil War, but I had not realized how the immunity to severe criticism afforded President Obama, because of his pigmentation, had been allowed to disguise how inept this administration has been, how authoritarian and sleazy, and how the president’s demiurgic vanity has gone almost...

full title:. Those who shy away from explaining and defending the faith may have good reasons to do so It troubles me that members of the Church cannot defend the faith without referring me to a priest,” wrote Cordi. “I love Catholicism,” she said in a comment on my last article, “and I wish I could convert, but there are some real hurdles to the doctrine that I can’t overcome.” She wasn’t happy with Catholics who couldn’t answer her questions and palmed her off on a priest. Protestant and Catholic apologists jump on stories like this, for different reasons. They...

Donald J. Trump won the white working-class vote over Hillary Clinton by a larger margin than any major-party nominee since World War II. Instead of this considerable achievement inspiring introspection, figures from the heights of journalism, entertainment, literature and the Clinton campaign continue to suggest that Mr. Trump won the presidency by appealing to the bigotry of his supporters. As Bill Clinton recently said, the one thing Mr. Trump knows “is how to get angry white men to vote for him.” This stereotyping of Trump voters is not only illiberal, it falsely presumes Mr. Trump won because of his worst...

This year saw a major, unexpected political upheaval in both the United States and Europe. ... . . . there are some issues that this year’s events led me to change my mind about. Here are three of the most important. I. The Perils of Polarization. ... II. Should We Bring Back the Smoke-Filled Rooms? ... III. Rethinking the Unitary Executive.

The Democrat is still favored to win, but much will depend on whether her touted organizational advantages produce results A month after the traditional Labor Day kickoff to the campaign season, Hillary Clinton’s position in the Electoral College has eroded significantly, but The Party Crasher still rates her a solid favorite to become the nation’s 45th president in a month’s time. After examining 19 states, as well as two congressional districts that each possess a single electoral vote, this columnist has issued 16 ratings changes since the September holiday, and every one of these changes reflects a downgrading of Clinton’s...

NEW YORK—If you study Method acting at one of the great New York studios that grew out of the Stanislavsky system, the first thing they teach you is that acting is not about speaking, it’s about reacting. “Always watch the actor who is not speaking,” the great Freddie Kareman used to tell his classes at Carnegie Hall. “If he’s engaged and focused and concentrated, that’s when you’ll see his craft.” Or as Martin Scorsese once told me, “Pay no attention to the words. We’ll change the words. We’re looking for what’s underneath the words.” The great thing about watching a...

MATEEN: "I shot up the Pulse Club because I am a member of ISIS." LYNCH: "No you're not." MATEEN:"Wait, what? Yes I am..." LYNCH: "No, this has nothing to do with Muslim terrorism. I have no idea why you did this, but it wasn't radical Islam." MATEEN: "WHAT!? Did you even read what I told the 911 operator? I gave explicit Quranic justification. This is jihad, a holy crusade against pagans, blasphemers, and homosexuals." LYNCH: "No, this is definitely not a Muslim thing. You are not a true Muslim, and you defame a great religion by saying so." MATEEN: "Huh!?...

BURLINGAME, Calif. — Donald J. Trump got a taste on Friday of what his next month of campaigning in California could be like. He was forced to exit his motorcade and walk through a field, climbing an embankment with Secret Service agents helping him, to avoid angry demonstrators on the street. “We went under a fence and through a fence, and oh, boy, it felt like I was crossing the border, actually,” Mr. Trump said when he finally made it to a ballroom to speak at California’s Republican Party convention. For the next 25 minutes, though, Mr. Trump spoke little...

Most people want to know: Have I turned into a "Jesus nut" after leaving Connecticut for Texas five years ago? Not really - but I have some keener observations about US culture, sharpened by living in Texas. Skip the rest if you don't have an open mind. Most of the comments on this forum about refugees going home out of disgust with the West are amusing, esp from my perspective of being an American with a college education, successful career & loving, stable family. All of these things are granted by God through his means and a lifetime of hard...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Sarah in Billings, Montana, Sarah, I'm glad you waited. Happy to welcome you to the program. Hi. CALLER: I'm a conservative. My family members are conservatives. Several family members said they will not vote if Donald Trump gets the nomination. I'm concerned the same thing will happen like the last election. Just wondering what your thoughts are. RUSH: Well, my thoughts are I need to ask you some questions. Let's see. You won't vote Trump if he gets the nomination, and that a lot of Republicans won't show up if he does. And that we'll just...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slammed The Washington Post on Tuesday after the paper depicted his two young daughters as monkeys in an editorial cartoon. In an article accompanying her drawing, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes wrote that while it is an "unspoken rule in editorial cartooning that a politician’s children are off-limits," she felt that Cruz's daughters, Caroline and Catherine, were "fair game" because the Republican presidential candidate used them in a Christmas parody video Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props https://t.co/gKT8Jhjm17 pic.twitter.com/GNfoP4batF — Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) December 22, 2015 Cruz responded, urging Telnaes to attack him...

G.K. Chesterton wrote that “the modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.” His observation seems applicable to the current debate about taking in Syrian refugees. The “modern world” in this case is made up of the European elites, the Obama administration and Christian clerics who follow their lead. The virtue gone mad is compassion. What Chesterton probably had in mind when he wrote about “mad” virtues was Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean (which was later adopted by Aquinas). According...

People observe a minute of silence at the Trocadero in Paris Nov. 16. (CNS photo/Philippe Wojazer, Reuters) Of all the commentaries on the Paris massacres I’ve read, the one that seems most perceptive is a piece by Judith Bergman for the Gatestone Institute titled “How Can Anyone Be Shocked?” Indeed. The attacks had all the inevitability of a Greek tragedy: they were entirely predictable. Nevertheless many reacted with “shock,” including Angela Merkel, David Cameron, and the Vatican. As Bergman writes: After 9/11 in the United States; the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed nearly 200 and wounded 2,000; and...

If you thought Ted Cruz was going away anytime soon, I’ve got some bad news. The singularly annoying obstructionist has real staying power, and he’s as well-positioned as any of the candidates moving forward. The more Cruz irks his opponents, the more he grandstands, the more entrenched and profitable his campaign becomes. Even Cruz’s Republican colleagues appear resigned to this fact. “Ted Cruz has been branded a ‘wacko bird’ by a Senate colleague,” write Katie Zezima and David Weigel in the Washington Post. “A GOP consultant labeled him a show horse, and a strategist for a rival presidential campaign call...

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...