Free Republic

......I've often thought that God has a particularly acerbic wit. After all, FriedrichNietzsche, who famously proclaimed God is Dead, badly wanted to be known as a famous writer. He was granted his wish -after he became too insane to enjoy his fame. Obama seems to have wanted to become an uber-celebritycumpolitician in the worst possible way. How fitting it would be if presides over the bankruptcy of both systems. ..fabulists rising to some of the most esteemed positions in our society have potential impact far beyond what people suspect. They lay bare a rottenness at the heart of academia, the...

Are you getting your money’s worth when you buy dinner? Probably, or you wouldn’t keep paying that price, and go somewhere elsewhere to eat out. The same applies to clothing and shelter. Almost no one continues to pay more for something than they feel it is worth. In fact, that’s the meaning of un-affordable – something that doesn’t give you equal value for what you are able to pay. The Tax Foundation has a report that might open your eyes. It says Americans are paying more in taxes than they pay for food, clothing and shelter combined...

Public education is something best done privately. Then you can pay for what you get and if you don’t get what you pay for, get your money back. But public education doesn’t work that way. You get what you get, and you keep paying and paying. And the process not only turns out what it turns out (sigh), but it engenders attitudes like the Harford Courant recently reported...

An obscure federal agency may have set a new benchmark for lavish conferences on the taxpayers' dime. Lawmakers are voicing outrage following a government report that found the General Services Administration held a blowout $820,000 conference near Las Vegas which grossly exceeded what the planners were allowed to spend. The employees dropped thousands of dollars on luxury items and convention giveaways -- including more than $6,000 on commemorative coins, $8,000 on a "yearbook," and $3,200 for an in-house mind reader. "It's unbelievable that red flags didn't immediately go up well before this junket," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said. In the...

Romney backers in Massachusetts were feeling some frustration yesterday over the long primary slog their candidate still faces after Super Tuesday. Some said his campaign is not getting enough credit for primary wins so far. “They continue to say he has to do this or that. He does it and they say he still hasn’t closed the deal,” said state Rep. George N. Peterson Jr., R-Grafton. “It seems as though he clears one hurdle and they put up a new one. He clears that and they say he didn’t clear it by enough.” The Romney campaign won six of 10...

What new information can be learned from what Andrew Breitbart was talking about? Further insight into President Obama’s radical philosophical awakening is what we are learning. Derrick Bell is one figure getting a closer look at. Here is Bell saying that our society may not be able to exist without racism and that white people feel entitled because they are white. Obama got the academic version of Jeremiah Wright before he was fed the theological version. I found this with just a simple search, so who knows what else is out there. Blaming white people for all of societies ills...

A group of protesters who said they were illegal immigrants created a commotion Wednesday night in Raleigh as the N.C. House Select Committee on Immigration Policy spoke about recent arrests of illegals in Rockingham County. Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page was present during the protest. Earlier, Page had provided information to the committee dealing with recent arrests regarding drug trafficking in his county, and also supplied further information on the National Sheriff’s Association’s stance on immigration issues, immigration reform and border security. This was the group’s third meeting, and much of the focus was on the business side of immigration....

Douglas Kennedy and his wife Molly with their son Boru. The petite, Brooklyn-born nurse who tussled with Robert F. Kennedy’s son in a hospital maternity ward was stunned that she fought with a member of Camelot, her husband said Saturday. Steve Luciano, 57, said his 5-foot-tall wife, Cari, was just doing her job when she tried to stop Douglas Kennedy from leaving the hospital with his 2-day-old baby boy. “Her comment to me that night was, ‘I was assaulted tonight and could you believe it, it was a Kennedy who did it?’” Luciano told the Daily News on Saturday in...

This cartoon best answers the question "What's the difference between the Tea Partiers and the Occupiers?" DO-ERS VS LOSERS

Woman Tasered in Front of Daughter After Cutting McDonalds Drive-Thru LineBy Olivia Katrandjian | ABC News Blogs – 17 hrs ago **SNIP** Employees at the McDonalds in Hope Mills, N.C., refused to serve Evangeline Lucca and told her to go to the back of the line. Lucca, 37, refused to move, and blocked the drive-thru for 20 minutes before police arrived on the scene, authorities said. When deputies arrived, Lucca was "defiant," "would not get off McDonalds property," and was "threatening the deputies," according to Debbie Tanna, a public information officer for the Cumberland County Sherriff's Office. **SNIP** "Two or...

Rep. Dr. Ron Paul is the only Candidate now running who: 1.) Has a comprehensive platform that will cut BASELINE Federal spending. 2.) Insists that all of the planks in his platform are consistent with the US Constitution. 3.) Accepts the fact that the USA can no longer financially afford to be the World’s policeman. 4.) Fully understands how to dismantle the disastrous Federal medical “entitlements” of Medicare, Medicaid, and the illegal Obama”care.” 5.) Has a comprehensive plan to abolish or dramatically shrink 5 Federal Departments, or Bureaus. These positions set Dr. Paul apart from the rest of the Candidates...

Gov. Jerry Brown proposed Thursday slashing nearly $1.4 billion in welfare and child care aid for the poor while holding voters liable for $5 billion in education funding with a November tax measure. The Democratic governor announced his January budget plan this afternoon after his proposal was inadvertently leaked on his Department of Finance website. He estimates the state faces a $9.2 billion general fund deficit through June 2013, which he proposes to bridge with mostly cuts and taxes. Brown will ask voters to pass a $6.9 billion ballot measure in November that raises taxes on sales and income starting...

We Stand for Principle Over Politicsand the Establishment Can't Stand It December 21, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the...

The U.S. Justice Department issued a scathing report Monday that chronicles what it says are numerous violations of the civil rights of Latinos by the police department in East Haven, Conn. The rebuke of East Haven police was released just a week after the Justice Department blasted the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona for unlawfully discriminating against Hispanics. The federal government also said last week that it has concerns about discrimination in the Seattle Police Department in a report that found its officers have engaged in a pattern of unconstitutionally using excessive force during arrests. The Justice Department's report...

The video of the savage beating at Dean College in Franklin, MA has not yet been scrubbed from this site. It's already being scrubbed from YouTube and, of course, the edited versions seen on the news do not convey the full story.

Nearly half of registered voters in California say they personally identify with the Occupy movement and an even larger number said they agreed with the reason behind the protest, according to a Field Poll released today. The poll found that among registered voters in the state, 46 percent said they identify with the movement while 58 percent said they agreed with the reasons that are fueling it. Pollsters did not ask about specific reasons, leaving respondents to decide those themselves. But California voters also have negative feelings toward the movement, with 49 percent answering "not much" when asked how much...

My father once told me a story about when he was a boy. He said there was a certain man who every now and again would visit his family and give him 10 cents for an ice cream soda each time. Well, one day this fellow came ‘a callin’, but for some reason, on this occasion the dime wasn’t offered. Being a little tyke who had become accustomed to the gift, my dad asked, “Where’s my 10 cents?” He never got that dime again. The man taught my father a moral lesson: Don’t develop a spirit of entitlement. It’s one...

...In the 19th century, even though capitalism had only existed for a short time, and had just started putting a dent in pre-capitalism’s legacy of poverty, the vast, vast majority of Americans were already able to support their own lives through their own productive work. Only a tiny fraction of a sliver of a minority depended on assistance and aid–and there was no shortage of aid available to help that minority. ... “Those in need,” historian Walter Trattner writes, “. . . looked first to family, kin, and neighbors for aid, including the landlord, who sometimes deferred the rent; the...

HONG KONG — Chinese political and business leaders are increasingly triumphant after two decades of rapid economic growth that lifted unprecedented millions of people out of poverty and turned the nation into an economic superpower, saying their success proves its political and economic system is superior to the Western model. In extensive talks with a series of Chinese leaders, an oft-cited point of criticism is the gridlock and “dysfunction” they see in Washington. They say fawning by U.S. political leaders seeking re-election has created an “entitlement culture” where the public has grown dependent on government largesse. Now, with the United...