Free Republic

ObamaCare is so clearly unconstitutional that it's embarrassing, disgusting, shameful, and dangerous that 215 Congressmen would even consider proposing it. It's almost even more atrocious that the American people can so nonchalantly allow their Constitutional rights to be stolen from them.

This is the final installment my three part report on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s one day conference on The Roots of American Order. So here is part two of mine titled Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant? (Click for parts one and two) After a break for lunch, Mark C. Henrie took up America's Britishness. Henrie wrote the ISI's A Student's Guide to the Core Curriculum that explains the value of a traditional core of studies in Western civilization and his session reflected that study. Capitalizing on Birzer's citation of Edmund Burke...

This is part two of my three part report on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s one day conference on The Roots of American Order. So here is part two of mine titled Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant? (Part one can be seen here) The second speaker of the day was Brad Birzer who regaled us on America's Judeo-Christian History. Bizer began his session by noting that historian Donald Lutz discovered that the founders used Christian references in their pre-war writing far more than any other source. St. Paul was the most referenced...

Is the United States a grand experiment, a new covenant invented out of whole cloth by the fertile minds of the founders from never before seen ideas or is it a nation spawned from deeply rooted traditions of western thought? This was the question posited in a one-day-long conference on classicism in America's founding sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and held in Skokie, Illinois, a near northern suburb of Chicago. The short answer is that the liberal mindset that holds that we should invent the USA anew with each succeeding generation is an erroneous conception of what the...

During the Constitutional Convention, from May to September 1787, delegates from the colonies were to gather together for the express purpose of amending the Articles of Confederation to form a “more perfect union” (NOT a completely different union!). The men that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were under direct and limited orders from their states to attend the Federal Convention explicitly to preserve the federation and State rights and to correct the errors of the existing federal government for the limited purposes of handling foreign affairs, commerce among the states and common defense. Yet, during that private and secret convention, there...

One of the most conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday his more liberal colleagues are trying to manufacture new constitutional rights that were never intended by the drafters. “The fight is about the Supreme Court inventing new rights nobody ever thought existed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in an appearance at the University of Arizona College of Law. “Right to abortion?” he asked. “Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.” The same, said Scalia, is true of homosexual sodomy. Yet the nation’s high court has struck down state laws...

In speech after speech, and issue after issue, President Obama's refrain has been that the nation needs a "new foundation." Whether addressing health care in a recent radio address, the new unemployment figures, or what he sees as the nation's collapsed international reputation, the president's pledge is that he will erect "a new foundation." Even the administration's plan for reforming the financial regulatory system is subtitled, "A New Foundation." Mr. Obama's advocacy for health care reform is typical of his "new foundation" talk: "We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a...

"We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience."

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as...

Every citizen should read and understand The US Constitution.  On-Line resources make it easy   This brilliant document was an example of pure, crystal clarity until, alas, the lawyers and activist jurists got ahold of it. It is now accreted with so much case law and wild twists and turns that many plainly-written articles have been shorn of their original intent. What US Law Says about the US ConstitutionTwo web sites provide excellent, authoritative guidance, with searchable text and links to the different articles and amendments. The most valuable feature is the rich commentary on case law that includes...

That the political body, like the animal, is liable to violent diseases, which, for a time, baffle the healing art, is a truth which we all acknowledge, and which most of us lament. But as most of the disorders incident to the human frame are the consequence of an intemperate indulgence of its appetites, or of neglecting the most obvious means of safety; so most of the popular tumults which disturb government arise from an abuse of its blessings or an inattention to its principles. A man of a robust constitution, relying on its strength, riots in gratifications which weaken...

Video clip from the end of Glenn Beck’s show, Friday August 28th.

Here is video of a CNN guest on with CNN Anchor Don Lemon today who said that what America's "Founders envisioned was a formal system of 'White Supremacy.' Lemon said nothing in reaction to the statement, other than to say "tough talk." It totally ignores the fact that many of our founders were opposed to slavery, and wrote of their hope that one day slavery would be abolished. Previously, the guest also had said that concern about Welfare Reform that began in the early 1970's has had a "racial component" to it: "There is a perception that when we talk...

Who Are the Best Keepers of the People's Liberties? National Gazette, December 22, 1792 Republican. — The people themselves. The sacred trust can be no where so safe as in the hands most interested in preserving it. Anti-republican. — The people are stupid, suspicious, licentious. They cannot safely trust themselves. When they have established government they should think of nothing but obedience, leaving the care of their liberties to their wiser rulers. Republican. — Although all men are born free, and all nations might be so, yet too true it is, that slavery has been the general lot of the...

This country’s Founding Fathers were racist, sexist white men whose opinions don’t matter in today’s world -- unless they can be used to bolster liberal talking points. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers by Brion McClanahan smashes those misguided notions by re-examining the men who helped forge this country’s government without falling back on postmodern spin. Founding Fathers is a painstaking look at how the country began, where the Founders stood on key issues like freedom of religion, as well as how they came to their political philosophies. It also details the spirited debates behind some of the...

Here is video in two parts of David Barton's appearance on Mike Huckabee's Show last night, where he reveals the Christian background to many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the founders of our nation. Barton takes the famous painting of the signing of the Declaration and points to the lesser known characters in the painting as he describes who they were and their involvement in Christian history. He also shows several original documents from the period of our founding that reveal the rich Christian heritage of the founding of America. David Barton is the Founder and...

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,...

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,...

A Rasmussen Report released today, July 3, concludes that Americans in general still hold the ideals reflected in the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence was the birth certificate of the United States of America. The words are still memorized by schoolchildren and can bring a tear to the oldest American eye with little effort. The principles they communicate have informed our history as a free people and inspired our neighbors in other parts of the world to stand up against all forms of tyranny. As we reflect upon the text this weekend we need to remember that our forebears were not declaring their independence from Divine Providence. Rather, they were trusting in the primacy of the Governance of God over...

Ah, the fourth day of July, 2009. Bring on the barbecues. Uncork the champagne. Rev up the RV. Party like it is 1776! Stop! Before we party hardy, I would like us to take a few minutes to examine the state of our nation. I truly hate to break into the revelry with sobering thoughts about the dismantling of the country created by the first “revelers” of 1776, but as a loving citizen, I must. Call it tough love. Back then, those first soon-to-citizens had real and lethal fireworks with which to contend, with all of those mortar shells flying...

Today, we’re led by an imperious president, closer to King George III than George Washington. Among the cadre of his friends and patrons are slum landlords from Chicago. We have a leader who appointed as chief tax collector, a tax cheat. Who chose, as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, one who faithfully executed orders from an earlier president to pardon convicted felons, and who calls us “cowards” for not discussing race. We have a President whose wife admitted feeling no adult pride in her country until one of its political parties chose her husband to be a presidential candidate....

Plowing through the 85 essays of the Federalist Papers, one can read how the Founding Fathers foresaw the problems of impeachment, corruption of government, regulatory excess, gun control, and all the other headline grabbing issues we read about today!

Last evening, CSPAN aired a great interview of Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn with Brian Lamb on their program Q&A. To view it online, click here http://www.q-and-a.org and then click on "Watch" under "Last Sunday."

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” – The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution My fiancé (a reforming liberal Democrat through self-education) related to me a conversation she had with her brother with respect to the United States Constitution and states’ rights. Doubtful of her conviction that the federal government is infringing on states’ rights, he asked her to explain her position. While she was able to cite several cases she, like many Americans, was unable to...

It is our position that the entirety of The Constitution as originally passed by the 13 Colonies, and its amendments over time, forms a binding contract with the several states and the people of this nation, and that violations thereof are thus not just a matter of individual liberty but of contract law with the several states, who have both a right and obligation to enforce their rights and those of their citizens utilizing all available state and local government resources, without exception.

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect." --James Madison, to an unidentified correspondent, 1833

On Christ within Today's Conservative Movement: There is a troubling trend in Conservatism today… what I see coming about is a tendency toward conservative Godlessness. To the point that Christianity is ridiculed by the same peoples who purport to revere the founding and the Founders! These people do not represent the Founders any more than the Pope represents the Hells' Angels. John Adams was one of our nations' founders a signer of the Declaration of Independence. What he said in these few words dispels the myth that the signers of that document believed an America based on the Constitution could...

America's Founding Fathers are seen by some people today as unjust and hypocrites, for while they talked of liberty and equality, they at the same time were enslaving hundreds of thousands of Africans. Some allege that the Founders bear most of the blame for the evils of slavery. Consequently, many today have little respect for the Founders and turn their ear from listening to anything they may have to say. And, in their view, to speak of America as founded as a Christian nation is unthinkable (for how could a Christian nation tolerate slavery?). It is certainly true that during...

Although Gov. Brad Henry vetoed similar legislation 10 days earlier, House members Monday again approved a resolution claiming Oklahoma’s sovereignty. Unlike House Joint Resolution 1003, House Concurrent Resolution 1028 does not need the governor’s approval. The House passed the measure 73-22. It now goes to the Senate. "We’re going to get it done one way or the other,” said the resolutions’ author, Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City. "I think our governor is out of step.” House Democrats objected, saying the issue already had been taken up and had been vetoed, but House Speaker Pro Tempore Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, ruled the...

The States still have the power and the means to bring the Federal Government into compliance with the intent of the Founders, but to do so they must be willing to kill the Sacred Cow of American politics - democracy. Mostly unheralded and unknown, the Founding Fathers feared and rejected it. Examination of Farrand's Records, (The minutes and journal of the 1787 convention) clearly reveals the Founders' intent. For instance: Gerry, "The evils we experience (in the confederation) flow from an excess of democracy." Madison describing Randolph: "the General Object (of the Convention) was to find a cure for the...

If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. George Orwell "In a prison they may torture your body; but they do not torture your brains; and they protect you against outrage and violence from your fellow prisoners. In a school you have none of these advantages." George Bernard Shaw “It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones. Alexander Solzhenitsyn “Violence can only be concealed by a...

He is still “first” in the hearts of millions upon millions of the citizens of the country he successfully helped to create! If a child growing up in the Caribbean – including the US Virgin Islands (yours truly) – learned to appreciate the value of George Washington, a man of great mental, spiritual and physical fortitude, then imagine the gratitude of those fortunate enough to be born on the same soil that he liberated! But this is not always the case. When people are accustomed to their environment, they tend to take it for granted. Its grandeur is looked upon...

God & George Washington by: Alanna Hultz, April 21, 2009 In Tara Ross and Joseph C. Smith Junior’s book Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State they discuss George Washington’s view of religion and how it played a role in church and state. They also examine Thomas Jefferson’s views on religion and how they differed from George Washington’s. Ross and Smith believe “George Washington knew that the miraculous care of Providence had enabled him to survive the French and Indian War.” During the war Washington escaped unharmed even though he had 4 bullets in his coat...

Democracy and majority rule give an aura of legitimacy to acts that otherwise would be deemed tyranny. Think about it. How many decisions in our day-to-day lives would we like to have made through majority rule or the democratic process? How about the decision whether you should watch a football game on television or "Law & Order"? What about whether you drive a Chevrolet or a Ford, or whether your Easter dinner was turkey or ham? Were such decisions made in the political arena, most of us would deem it tyranny. Why isn't it also tyranny for the democratic process...

While campaigning for the U.S. Senate and then the presidency, Barack Obama said he believed in the individual right to bear arms. Those aware of his record and rhetoric reckoned he was referring to his wife's penchant for sleeveless attire, not the Second Amendment. During his 2004 run for the Senate, Obama said "I think that the Second Amendment means something. I think that if the government were to confiscate everybody's guns unilaterally that I think that would be subject to constitutional challenge." No kidding. He didn't say it would be unconstitutional, just "subject to constitutional challenge." Nor did he...

From Glenn Beck's website (www.glennbeck.com): "Here is a great video put together and posted on YouTube called 'We the People stimulus package' and it is a commentary on the issues of today. However, it's written and delivered as if it were founding father Thomas Paine’s reaction to the events of today."

Governor Mark Sanford (R) of South Carolina has been a vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan and in the process has become one of the most prominent fiscal conservatives in the country. Recently, he made national news when he announced his plan to accept the stimulus funds but sought a waiver from the President to use 25 percent of it to pay down state debt rather than spend it on suggested programs (the other 75 percent is determined by formulas). If Obama doesn’t grant the waiver, Sanford has said he will reject it. Before Sanford was governor, Sanford...

There is a reason that the Senate is called the "deliberative" body. The the framers of the constitution created it that way. They understood politics very well, that at times the public would make decisions based on a temporary passion, the Senate's job is to slow things things down, before irreparable damage was made. Federalist 63 written by James Madison (or Alexander Hamilton) says: “There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will...

Will NBC be surprised??* Here's your chance to let the media know where the people stand on our faith in God, as a nation. NBC is presently taking a poll on "In God We Trust" to stay on our American currency. Please send this to every Christian you know so they can vote on this important subject. Please do it right away, before NBC takes this off their web page. Poll is still open so you can vote: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/ This is not sent for discussion. If you agree forward it, if you don't, delete it. By my forwarding it, you...

Flyers:  Available below Range:  Hartford Gun Club Address:  157 South Main St, East Granby, CT 06026 Website:  http://www.hartfordgunclub.com When: April 18-19, 2009 Range Fee:  $10 per shooter per day Camping available: We can pitch tents on the rifle range.  Ten RV/Electric hookups are also available at $10 per night.  There is a clubhouse with restroom and sink. Hotels: Many hotels to choose from near Bradley Intl Airport (Windsor Locks, CT) (~2 miles away)  Holiday Inn, Best Western, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, LaQuinta Inn, Days Inn, Sheraton, Ramada. (avoid Motel 6!) Directions:    *  Take I-91 to Exit 40...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Largest Marksmanship Event on the Planet World Record Attempt to be Made Locally Contact: [local name and phone number] On April 18 and 19th, the Revolutionary War Veterans Association's "Project Appleseed" rifle marksmanship clinic will be in town at XYZ [location] for a history-making attempt at establishing a world record for the longest cumulative firing line spread over the largest land area in history - a total of 2.5 miles of firing line spread over the North American continent - from California to Florida, Texas to Minnesota, Arizona to Maine. It will be the biggest marksmanship event...

We have only one guarantee in our Constitution, found in Article IV Section 4, which reads: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. How did this come about? Here are the notes from the Constitutional Convention concerning this matter: Resol. 16. [57] “That a Republican Constitution & its existing laws ought to be guarantied to each State by the U. States.” [58] Mr. Govr...

Thank you Mr. President for this interview. We’re both lawyers and students of history. I look forward to your comments on the “ideals of our Founding Fathers” you referenced in your Inaugural Address. Which Founders are you particularly thinking of? Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin? That’s a superlative group. Yes, of course, we must exclude that slavery matter. Both Washington and Jefferson, until they died, held slaves. Did you know that one of your four men founded a secret society that anonymously published a pamphlet by Thomas Paine favoring abolition? Yes, it was Franklin. If he’d come out in public...

Founders Quote Daily "There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained." --George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

In his Saturday remarks during his campaign train ride, President-elect Barack Obama issued some soaring rhetoric about the state of the country today. At least the Old Media thought it was soaring rhetoric, anyway. Typically, the media was overawed by his mellifluous tones, of course. But during these remarks in Baltimore Obama made a startling suggestion. He said we need a "new Declaration of Independence." Apparently the original one isn't good enough for the new president, but it also seems a silly rhetorical flourish. After all, what is it that we are declaring independence from this time? Recall that the...

(At the link, click again for video or MP3.) -- For centuries, the idea that human beings have an inherent sense of right and wrong has intrigued political and religious thinkers. The notion of a “natural� moral law has been a key driver of much Christian political thought in the west. It has helped shape the development of religious freedom and the concept of rights, and its influence on America’s Founding Fathers was fundamental. In today’s post-modern society, however, the concept often prompts confusion and controversy. Even critics who might accept the reality of a moral law in theory wonder...

PHILADELPHIA – President-elect Barack Obama is calling on Americans to live up to the courage and sacrifice of the country's founders as they strive to redeem the promise of freedom.

In case you missed it; some wonderful stories and pictures about a very special Christmas; Christmas 1776 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2153400/posts

You may heave heard of the saying "nature abhors a vacuum"? In essence, it means that once something disappears nature quickly fills the hole left behind. Well, in history there is another axiom about "vacuums." It is that nothing occurs in one. In this short piece, we'll take a moment to find out why the Boston Massacre was one of the final straws that severed the bonds of affection between the American Colonists and the British Crown and we'll see that it didn't occur in a proverbial vacuum. Far from being a sudden action or one that happened without precedent,...