Free Republic

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.(Psalm 2:!0-12)The Word of God to the Kings of the earth and the rulers, that is those who lead our civilisation, politically, culturally, academically, through media, entertainment, law, in short to all mover, shakers, and opinion molders, is simple and direct. Worship the LORD with fear, Rejoice...

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. doctors surveyed fear healthcare reform could worsen care for patients, by flooding their offices and hurting income, according to a Thomson Reuters survey released Tuesday. The survey of more than 2,900 doctors found many predict the legislation will force them to work harder for less money. "When asked about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. over the next five years, 65 percent of the doctors believed it would deteriorate with only 18 percent predicting it would improve," Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, said in a statement.

Judging by the past three decades, there's no worse fate than getting touted as the next global superpower. The Japan of the 1980s did not end up owning the United States; it wallows in a never-ending "lost decade." The European Union of the 1990s didn't end up becoming a significant, unified force on the world stage; it will be lucky to hold together its currency. As Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington, his country has stepped into the well-worn role of the emerging power that provokes exaggerated fear and misplaced envy. Seemingly every few weeks a New York Times writer...

The data are in. The science has spoken. The proof is conclusive: Conservatives are cowards. No, really. We learned this fact from Prof. Geraint Rees of the University College London, who says that after studying the brain scans of two politicians and 90 students, he stands confident in declaring that in conservative minds the brain’s amygdala, which is associated with anxiety and emotion, tends to be larger, whereas the anterior cingulate, which is associated with courage and optimism, tends to be smaller. So conservatives are — bwock-bwock-bwock! — chicken. Wussies. Namby pambies and nervous Nellies, every one of us. Well...

A woman who cannot feel afraid because of a missing structure in her brain could help scientists discover treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research published in Current Biology showed the woman felt no fear in a variety of scary situations. These included exposure to snakes and spiders, horror films and a "haunted house". The woman feels other emotions but said as an adult, she had never felt afraid. She is the first known case of someone who is unable to process fear. Researchers at the University of Iowa said her inability to feel frightened was because she is missing...

“Profiteers of Hate,” the cover of the Spring 2010 issue of The Social Contract accuses. “The smear-mongering agenda of the Southern Poverty Law Center…” In this special issue The Social Contract presents an unsparing indictment, and a timely debunking, of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Acclaimed expert on America’s political fringes Laird Wilcox skewers the bogus scholarship and smear tactics by which SPLC has successfully sold itself to government and media as an impartial arbiter of “hate,” in an exclusive, keynote interview with Peter Gemma. TSC’s team of accomplished contributors from the left, right, and center exposes SPLC’s unsavory...

MSNBC, of all places, has the pictures: I don't know about you, but nothing says "restoring sanity" to me like depicting a Jewish person as a Nazi.

Part One Calming Troubled Hearts Don’t you wish you could turn anxiety on and off like a faucet? Wouldn’t it be great if you could worry from 9:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and then shut it down so that you could get a good night’s rest? Unfortunately, we cannot control anxiety; anxiety arises from within and is not subject to reason or the dictates of the human will. Rather than playing the role of a humble servant, it comes to take charge over the whole person. Like most dictators, it refuses compromise. We need a power greater than ourselves to...

America Prepares to Get Angry at Jon StewartBy Elspeth Reeve | October 26, 2010 11:38am Jon Stewart has begun his tour of the nation's capital with a taping of The Daily Show before a "very, very policy-oriented" audience in Washington, The Washington Post's Dan Zak reports. ("We're not used to people nodding, like, 'Oh, I worked on that bill,' " Stewart said.) Stewart and Stephen Colbert's many young fans are packing their bags and arranging for sofas to crash on as they ready to head into D.C. for the comedians' pro-satire Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. But not everyone's...

There has been one record high after another for gold. They say the markets are ruled by fear and greed. In this case, it is simply fear that is driving the yellow metal higher day after day. There is a perfect storm of doom in the economy right now. The biggest problem is debt. It just went parabolic with the revelation that the banks are stuck with trillions of dollars in worthless mortgage backed securities. I wrote all about this Monday in a post called “Could Foreclosure Fraud Cause a Banking Calamity?” The U.S. government is going to come to...

Almost all societies in the world have gone beyond the stage where they expect stability and linear progressions of the past to long endure. Some societies — almost en bloc — anticipate the end of their security; others anticipate the end of their suffering. Few expect insulation from change. That change, however, need not be entirely inscrutable if we look at global patterns and at historical human behaviour. Economic Patterns: What we now call “economics” determines power and conflict patterns because wealth, or the deprivation of it, determines survival, and, for those who survive, “economics” determines the relative control they...

With Tea Party protesters gathered outside, President Barack Obama said Thursday he understood the anger and frustration in the country but insisted his policies would move the nation forward. (snip) Out on the street, conservative protesters withstood stormy weather to express their concerns with signs criticizing Obama and Blumenthal. Some held Revolutionary War-era flags depicting a coiled snake and the "Don't Tread on Me" slogan, while other placards in the crowd of mostly white, middle-aged demonstrators said "B.O. Stinks," "I am not your ATM," and "Stop Socialism, vote Nov. 2."

Leftists reduce their anxiety by denying that external, hard-to-locate enemies have vowed to destroy us because of our religion and our democratic values. Leftists have little regard for either religion or democratic values, so they canÂ’t understand why anyone would be willing to fight or die to destroy them. WhatÂ’s more, leftists canÂ’t understand why anyone would be willing to fight or die to defend our religion or our democratic values. Instead, leftists displace their fear and anger from AmericaÂ’s mortal enemies onto their political opponents. Instead of fearing nuclear weapons in the hands of Iranian fanatics, they announce that...

Obama and his team speak the language of redistribution and entitlements — not the language of opportunity and prosperity. And Main Street is listening. I asked a businessman two weeks ago why he said that he was neither hiring nor buying new equipment. He started in on “rising taxes.” “But wait,” I interrupted. I pointed out that income-tax hikes haven’t taken effect. The old FICA income caps are also still applicable. Health-care surcharges haven’t hit us yet. He countered with “regulations” and “bailouts.” I said, “Come on, get specific.” He offered up “cap and trade” and “the Chrysler creditors.” I...

Ever been so afraid that you could not speak or move, or worse, experience symptoms of not being able to breath or faint? Have you ever been so scared that you thought you might die? Well, the worst situation you ever encountered that caused you to be scared out of your mind may have given you heart palpitations, severe sweating, or weakness in all your muscles and more. According to Answers.com, Fright, a state of sudden, extreme fear, is provoked either by a situation experienced as an external danger or by the feeling of a high probability of danger. Situations...

Europhobes know not what they fearRobyn Blumner Tribune Media Friday, 02 July 2010 08:22 President Barack Obama has been maligned as a European socialist so often by his Tea Party critics that one would think he put French-style cafe tables on the White House lawn and took to wearing a beret. Obama’s mildly progressive agenda isn’t close to that of a European social democracy. But one has to wonder whether all the people who so reflexively oppose European-style socialism have any idea what it is and how their lives would be different if they lived in a place that has...

Luke 12:4 "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.” Death is certain, life is not. As a species we are the most infatuated with death than any other that walks the planet. We have bucket lists, we pile our money into accounts, and as Christ points out, we live in fear of those who might do us harm. So many of us come into this world kicking and screaming, and go out the same way. We hold on so tightly to this world that we...

A British woman who went to a Thai nature resort to conquer her fear of monkeys has been savaged by a pack of macaques. Dee Darwell, 56, lost consciousness after the monkeys surrounded her and sank their teeth into her arms and body. Many of the primates remained hanging from her limbs as she lay collapsed with blood spurting from a "deep, deep hole" in her arm. She was eventually rescued by Thai boatmen and was taken to Bangkok Phuket Hospital. The horrific attack happened on Monkey Island near to the popular holiday island of Phuket in southern Thailand. "I...

When slavery is implemented by force, it is certainly a despicable institution. But is it any less despicable when the slaves are there by choice? The interesting point about slavery is that whether it's forced or voluntary, the master is responsible for the slaves. The master feeds, clothes, and cares for his slaves, some masters better than others. But masters also manipulate their slaves. Eventually, all slaves start to notice the dichotomy between their lives and the lives of their masters. There is an urban legend of a slave owner named Willie Lynch who recognized that slaves needed to be...