Free Republic

There are two sorts of stock human dramas that play out in every age of history. The first concerns people who were once rich but are now discovering they are poor. The second is their opposite; people who were once poor who suddenly realize they are rich. Years ago there were riveting accounts in a Manila newspaper about a man, whose surname was a byword for inherited wealth, pathetically resisting eviction from his ancestral home. The man — who gave his occupation as artist — sat disconsolate in the driveway of his former home, surrounded by his books, records and...

For understandable reasons, the IRS scandal has largely focused on the political question of whether the White House deliberately targeted opponents. To date there's no evidence that it did. That's good for the president, but it may not be good for the country, because if the administration didn't target opponents, that would mean the IRS has become corrupt all on its own. In 1939, Bruno Rizzi, a largely forgotten communist intellectual, wrote a hugely controversial book, "The Bureaucratization of the World." Rizzi argued that the Soviet Union wasn't communist. Rather, it represented a new kind of system, what Rizzi...

Perhaps no issue better illustrates the current divide between everyday citizens and our political and business elites than the issue of immigration. The latter group draws the financial gains from a generous labor supply without considering the perspective of those on the other side of the ledger: the working people who have to worry about being laid off and replaced with lower-wage workers, about the strain placed on their local hospitals and neighborhood resources, or about cartel violence spilling across the border into their own communities. For instance, Sheldon Adelson recently wrote that: “The immigrants here illegally need jobs, want...

A French “thinker” writes a book about global poverty and, predictably, The New York Times goes limp in the knees. All out was the putsch last week by the Gray Lady’s opinion staff to promote the book aimed at toppling the evil rich around the world. Leading this charge was the paper’s famous, bearded Marxist Emeritus columnist Paul Krugman. Mr. Krugman is, he tells us, an expert on income inequality. “I’ve been involved in debates over inequality for more than two decades, and have yet to see conservative ‘experts’ manage to dispute the numbers without tripping over their own intellectual...

Until We Learn to Be Sovereign, the Illegitimate State Will Continue.A recent editorial column here at the PanAm Post spoke of the failures of the opposition parties in Venezuela and their culpability in the collapse of their country. The article raises some very important questions about democracy itself. Democracy, after all, is a very good system, and can produce some very positive results. However, it is also a system fraught with incredible danger. Democracy represents the will of the people, but it also represents their whims, their fears, and their prejudices. The Historical Legacy: False Promises, Division, Failure It was...

<p>Hey isn’t that… First lady Michelle Obama spending a quiet weekend in Middleburg with daughters Malia and Sasha in tow at the tony Salamander Resort. While the president was being trailed by flashing cameras and notebook-wielding reporters on a four-country tour through Asia, Michelle Obama’s itinerary was a tad bit more low-key. On Friday she was spotted in the lobby of the luxury resort owned by multimillionaire Sheila Johnson.</p>

In recent weeks, we examined the Obama administration’s willingness to reverse positions that it had once proudly proclaimed — on whether an individual mandate is necessary, whether the individual mandate is a tax, whether it is important that you can keep your plan or doctor, whether lobbyists should work in a president’s administration, whether a donor should be appointed U.S. ambassador, and so on. Then we noted environmentalists who said they would not criticize or attack lawmakers who supported the Keystone Pipeline, as long as they were Democrats. Last week, we expanded the discussion to progressives’ wide-ranging willingness to contradict...

We don’t know who’s right in the case of the Nevada rancher vs. the federal government. But we do know that the government is losing the public relations battle, and for good reason. When the government moved to seize Cliven Bundy’s cattle for his failure to pay grazing fees on public land, a growing group of supporters came to his defense – literally. On April 12, after a tense and heated standoff with them, heavily armed federal agents released the cattle back and retreated. The situation was eerily reminiscent of past ill-fated federal standoffs, such as Ruby Ridge and Waco,...

They say Washington, D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people. And the biggest story splashed across the political tabloids is the now very ugly divorce of Tony and Heather Podesta, lobbyists extraordinaire. It’s not ugly in the way we’re used to. This is a decoupling carried out with a conscious air of respect and admiration, tarnished only by the soulless machinations of lawyers that we have come to expect wherever nontrivial sums are involved. No, it’s ugly because of the lifestyle being revealed around these rich and famous power-brokers. And no, it’s not just a matter of the “museum-quality art” they...

Via MofoPolitics, which is responsible for the clip, and Free Republic, where the Romney 3.0 movement is, shall we say, off to a bad start in the comments. I’m 90 percent sure she’s joking but there’s no way to be sure: Any conservative willing to offer three cheers for RomneyCare qualifies, indisputably, as a true blue Mitt fan. I didn’t think they existed, but they do. Even among people who knew all along that, if nominated, he would lose. Why Romney instead of someone else, though? One big reason, she says, is immigration. He was the guy who hammered Rick...

Conservative talk radio host and scholar Mark Levin appeared on a taping of Breitbart News Sunday and said that the permanent political class should fear the Tea Party movement, which will only gain in strength in the years ahead. Speaking with Breitbart News Executive Chairman and host Stephen K. Bannon after he keynoted an event honoring the five-year anniversary of the movement, Levin said that the Tea Party has already rocked the political system in just five years because those in it want to clear out the crony capitalists on both sides of the aisle. "We're coming for the ruling...

Watching Season 2 of “House of Cards.” Not to be a scold or humorless, but do Washington politicians understand how they make themselves look when they embrace the show and become part of its promotion by spouting its famous lines? Congressmen only work three days a week. Each shot must have taken two hours or so—the setup, the crew, the rehearsal, the learning the line. How do they have time for that? Why do they think it’s good for them? “House of Cards” very famously does nothing to enhance Washington’s reputation. It reinforces the idea that the capital has no...

Politicians say, "We're all equal," and pretend that they represent everyone. But, in fact, they constantly pick winners and losers. America is now like the place described in George Orwell's book "Animal Farm": "All animals are equal," but some are "more equal than others." "Animal Farm" was about Communism, but today the allegory applies to our bloated democracy, too. During the "fiscal cliff" negotiations that Congress and the media made sound so tough -- as if every last penny were pinched -- Congress still managed to slip in plenty of special deals for cronies. --NASCAR got $70 million for new...

The former First Lady admits she hasn't driven a car for 18 years. But she's far from being the only privileged person to have forgotten how to do things the rest of us take for granted. "One of the regrets I have about my public life is that I can't drive any more," Hillary Clinton told a car dealers' conference on Monday. Among her most painful memories, you suspect this doesn't rank all that high. Yet the remark is a reminder of how wealth and power tend to separate people from normal life, and how they don't always like it....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) “A gun is just a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel or an axe or a saddle or a stove or anything. Think of it always that way. A gun is as good — and as bad — as the man who carries it.” Shane, by Jack Schaefer, 1949. No one could call me a gun nut. I go shooting with friends at most once or twice a year and, while I enjoy it, it doesn’t inspire the sort of obsession that grips me whenever I manage to get my hands on a...

As 2013 heads for the exits, it is clear the Obamacare debacle has shattered the rose-colored lenses through which many Americans have viewed President Obama ever since his dramatic address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The vaunted Obama charm can no longer obscure the fact that the president mislead the nation by promising people that Obamacare would let them keep the insurance plans and doctors they like and save thousands of dollars on health care costs. As a result, a growing number of opinion surveys point to the emergence of a new public consensus that Washington spends too much,...

"Who’s on first?" "I don't know!" "Third base." It was a great Abbot and Costello skit, maybe their signature moment that younger generations may never have heard of. It was a skit about the players on a baseball team, and their unusual names. It was really funny. (America needs an Abbot and Costello now, a duo who can bring some humor from day to day life to a nation filled with disappointment.) Well I ran into the same kind of skit when I tried to find out if there was a Tea Party organization in my local area. When I...

Trying to align lawmakers with the people they represent, Congress three years ago decided that when the new healthcare plan took effect, members would give up their platinum health benefits and enroll in the online marketplaces created for millions of other Americans. In typical congressional fashion, however, things have not worked out exactly as advertised. While many members of Congress are indeed signing up for health coverage through the District of Columbia exchange — which was designated as the provider for all members — their experiences have been significantly better than those of average consumers in several respects, including more...

One of the oldest notions in the history of mankind is that some people are to give orders and others are to obey. The powerful elite believe that they have wisdom superior to the masses and that they've been ordained to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. Their agenda calls for an attack on the free market and what it implies — voluntary exchange. Tyrants do not trust that people acting voluntarily will do what the tyrant thinks they should do. Therefore, free markets are replaced with economic planning and regulation that is nothing less than the...

Argument: Hillary Clinton’s security staff get into a row with a traffic warden whilst waiting for her in London. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended an event in London on Saturday. Parking her car in a bay on St. James’ Square, Clinton was required to pay the same £3.30 per hour fee that everyone else is required to pay for the privilege to park there. She did not. When the traffic warden tried to issue a parking ticket the Secret Service agents went nuts. But, waving their arms and flashing their badges didn’t impress the traffic marshal. He...