Free Republic

Excerpt (source - email) OBITUARY? In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy...

We’ve all seen photos of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. Particularly last year when he was being mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick on the Romney ticket. He would be beaming, with a large, toothy smile, looking well groomed and squeaky clean. And no wonder, this wholesome image was the product of a group effort, since the governor relies on Virginia taxpayers to keep him smelling fresh. According to Laura Vozzella in the Washington Post, the McDonnell family has used its government–supplied credit card much like the GSA uses its card. Billing the taxpayers for “body wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins...

An Ellington mother is upset after her son, who suffers from autism, was denied access to the swimming pool at a country club because he requires a flotation vest. Cristin Millen told Eyewitness News her 8-year-old son, Aiden Robert, was denied access to the Ellington Ridge Country Club. According to Millen, she signed up for a membership at Ellington Ridge Country Club and told them that Aiden Robert had autism and was required to wear a life jacket. Millen said she asked officials at the country club to check to make sure that was OK. When her husband Kevin called...

DNC: Nearly $500,000 of equipment was lost or stolen in Charlotte To stage last year’s Democratic National Convention, the local host committee raised millions of dollars, much of it for computers, phones and other communication devices. Now it appears a sizable amount of that equipment was lost, stolen – or perhaps kept by the staffers it had been assigned to. The Democratic National Convention Committee said it recently sent the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department a spreadsheet detailing $496,000 worth of missing equipment. CMPD created an incident report in May. Among the missing items: MacBook Pro laptops, iPads, iPod Nanos, computer printers,...

Howard University student to Sen. Rand Paul: ".... You say you want to provide a government that leaves us alone. Quite frankly, I don’t want that. I want a government that is going to help me. I want a government that is going to help me fund my college education. I want a government that won’t define me by my FAFSA or by my family’s income. I’m a dollar sign with a heartbeat in this nation. This society is a mirror image of Capitol Hill. Do you, Senator Rand Paul, have a solution to come up with new American values...

I received a comment the other day from "Beechgirl1953." It was a very powerful comment, a testament to what CAN be accomplished without the government. (Note: I edited the comment.) "Back in the 60s, when I was divorced, had two young children to support, house and car payments, and all the other usual expenses, I put myself through college working three part-time jobs. I got NO assistance of any kind. I also managed to stay on the Dean's list throughout with a 3.8 average. You can imagine how I feel about all the government entitlements the 'do nothings' get today.......

No wonder it's taking so long for Barack Obama to send his budget proposal to Congress. The budget is almost two months overdue, but Republicans may find it worth the wait. The Washington Post reports that Obama will offer cuts to Social Security in exchange for tax hikes to close the deficit --- in effect, the grand bargain he and John Boehner nearly made two years ago: President Obama will release a budget next week that proposes significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security and fewer tax hikes than in the past, a conciliatory approach that he hopes will convince...

I've seen this photo on my Facebook news feed with no text, which is fine because thinking people know how idiotic this sign is.The problem is there's more of them than there are of us, so it's good to see it modified to educate. From Super Conservative.

President Obama's openness to Social Security cuts as part of a sweeping budget package has put Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a tough spot. The minority leader is straddling the gulf between a Democratic president who's been willing to shrink pay hikes under the popular retirement program for the sake of a bipartisan deficit deal, and numerous liberals in her caucus who are fighting tooth-and-nail to prevent that change. The issue has left Pelosi with at least three balls in the air. First, she wants to keep a united front in the high-stakes budget battle with Obama, who has backed...

So I go in for an interview, everything is going good. It was for an IT help desk in an office. The interviewer asks me a lot of questions, and asks do you smoke? I said yes. She immediately says, I can't give you the job then. This is in Oregon. I looked up laws and there is a statute where companies cannot use smoking as a consideration when hiring, they can only ban smoking at work. Any advice would be great. Thanks! Ooops, almost forgot. Long time Lurker, looking to meet some new FRiends.

Democrats in Washington declare that they will absolutely, positively allow no changes whatever in the nation’s unsustainable entitlement programs — Social Security and Medicare. But out in the states, politicians of both parties aren’t averting their gaze from impending fiscal crises. They are working to change policies that have put state governments on an unsustainable trajectory. The most obvious example was the passage of a right-to-work law last week in Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers union. Passage of the law was retaliation for an attempted power grab by both the UAW and public-sector unions — Proposition 2,...

While we meddle on the margins and stay safely ballparks away from anything that might actually tackle our deficit and debt problems: The Government Accountability Office warned in a report Monday that if cuts are not made to mandatory spending — including Social Security and Medicare — there will be a fundamental gap between spending and revenue as more baby boomers retire.“Significant actions to change the long-term fiscal path must be taken,” the GAO warned. Strangely, the Government Accountability Office does not headline this report with the $800 billion we can raise over 10 years from tax hikes on those...

When Monti Price arrived for work at the Hope Center in Woodstock Wednesday morning, she was struck by what she did not see. “I noticed a big empty space in our parking lot where our trailer used to be,” she said. Inside that trailer, five brand new cribs intended for needy mothers like Angela, who earned them by attending parenting classes. Angela arrived at the ministry for pregnant women and new mothers on Thursday afternoon, hoping to pick up the crib for her three-month old son, David. “Just to find out this,” she said, shaking her head in sad surprise,...

Dr Wayne Dyer describes people as eagles and ducks. With a majority of Americans voting to give the undeserving Obama a second term, I felt like the odd-man-out voting against him. It occurred to me that I have a history of being odd-man-out, not in sync with the thinking of my family and friends. When I was in junior high school, my dad acknowledged my artistic talent and encouraged me to pursue a career in that field. Dad said, “You could be a great black artist someday.” While I appreciated Dad's support, I thought, “ Why can't I simply be...

<p>Hurricane Sandy brought out the worst yesterday in some sleazy New Yorkers, who looted stores and homes across the city.</p> <p>Some posed as Con Ed workers to dupe their victims.</p> <p>Police arrested more than a dozen looters in the Rockaways and Coney Island, which had been evacuated, and stood guard outside ravaged stores at the South Street Seaport. “This morning when they told us the water receded, I walked back to the house to feed [my pets],” said Eric Martine, 33, a cabby who lives in Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach. “Guys were looting, pretending they were Con Ed and holding people up. It was sick.” Residents said police warned them to beware of crooks pretending to be utility workers...</p>

It's all anecdotal at this point, but if crime reports following hurricanes Katrina and Irene are any indication, the East Coast is in for a crime wave, post-Sandy. No reports of looting or Hurricane Sandy-related crimes have been reported yet but that doesn't mean we won't see some soon. Following Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating hurricane in modern memory, New Orleans was besieged with reports of looting, rape, and murder, causing delayed troop deployments, delayed medical evacuations, and police department mutiny, The New York Times reported in 2005....(excerpt)

Putting Paul Ryan on the GOP ticket ensured that the presidential campaign would focus some attention on Medicare's fiscal challenges. But that debate barely touches the scope or depth of the entitlement challenges facing the U.S. economy. The fiscal cliff coming at the end of the year pales vs. the entitlement cliff forced on us by a multitude of entitlement programs that we can't afford. Most people think of entitlement programs as Social Security and Medicare for seniors, Medicaid and perhaps some other means-tested welfare programs. But there are many more: veteran benefits, unemployment, the children's health insurance program, disability...

Amanda Clayton made the news last fall for winning $1 million in Michigan’s ‘Make Me Rich’ lottery game. The reason she made the news was that even after winning the lottery she continued to receive public assistance. Now Clayton is back in the news after she was found dead this past weekend in a Detroit suburb. Clayton, 25, was at home with her daughter in Ecorse when she died of an apparent drug overdose. “Her daughter was right next to her sleeping. They were watching a movie together. She started crying, and that’s when Rachel walked in and she tried...

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got into trouble this week for a leaked video of his remarks at a private fundraiser, where he indicted (and wrote off electorally) roughly half the country as government dependents subsisting on entitlements. The video prompted a hue and cry from media observers that Romney has (once again) blown the election. Their judgments are mitigated slightly by their multiple previous claims that Romney had already said something to blow the election. But the politics of Romney’s remarks may not be as bad as many in the media suggest. Here’s the portion of Romney’s statement that...

Mitt Sees the Emperor Without His Clothes. Will the Rest of America Listen? There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what ... there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing ... Mitt Romney In our relatively short 200+ year history, America has experienced a handful of watershed events. The Civil War was probably chief among them,...