Free Republic

Since Election Day, I have been engaging in conversations about the political state of the country. In the face of the failed prediction of a red tsunami, many (both on the right and the left) are blaming the Republicans themselves for the disappointing results. Specifically, the two main culprits receiving most of the blame are Donald Trump and the right's pro-life stance (i.e., the Roe reversal). They say that in light of the failure of MAGA policies to win voters, it is now time to leave Trump and the MAGA Republicans behind and move on with more successful strategies. But...

I remember despising the 2015 movie The Big Short for its cavalier representation of what was truly terrible carnage. Like many, the 2008 shorting of mortgage stock, and the pooling of solid mortgages with garbage ones, was devastating on the economy, and upended people’s lives. This is probably why what they have sought to do to us during the pandemic hasn’t completely taken me by surprise; I have already been chewed up by someone’s idea of gaming system.Between 2008-2010, my husband and I had lost two residences, our jobs, and our lives were reduced to our two dogs and what...

There has been a lot of optimism returning to the energy markets of late as oil prices have climbed to the $50 a barrel region. Ironically, while a few years ago $50 a barrel would have been seen as an unthinkably low oil price, today it is regarded as much needed relief from prices that ran in the $25 a barrel region earlier this year. Yet with the climb in prices, analysts are now starting to forecast prices per barrel of as much as $80 in the next year. That view is not the mainstream though. Instead most analysts are...

Heresy: Fundamentals Combat Riflecraft, Part Three (Or, “Two Will Do….Except When It Won’t!) June 11, 2013 There is a false truth present in the “tactical” shooting community that has been around for decades. This lie goes back to the old mythology of “one-shot stops” and the mantra of “I’ll only carry a pistol if it starts with point-four.” That lie is the misguided faith in a two-shot default response to a bad guy problem that requires a ballistic solution. This used to be taught as the “double tap.” Based on conversations I’ve had with supposedly “trained” tactical shooters, including numerous “instructors,”...

Heresy: Fundamentals of Combat Riflecraft, Part Two June 6, 2013 Natural Point-of-Aim The rifleman has to learn how to relax, as much as possible, regardless of his firing position. Unnecessary muscle strain or tension will, amongst other things, result in trembling, which is transmitted to the rifle. This increase in the apparent “wobble” of the sight picture will result in either misses, or slower shot times, either of which will result in you getting dead.HIn any position of course, some muscular contraction is necessary to suspend the gun, but intentional, deliberate practice achieving a natural point-of-aim (NPOA) will allow the shooter to...

This may not come as a sur­prise, but we're still not see­ing it. We're not see­ing a US recovery. Here we are, well into 2012, and the fact remains that the US hous­ing sit­u­a­tion is still a bust. There is sim­ply no hous­ing recov­ery hap­pen­ing in the United States. US New Home Sales fell for the fourth time in a row month-overmonth in March, rep­re­sent­ing a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 328,000, down from 353,000 in Feb­ru­ary.1 Do you know what the annual rate of New Home Sales was back in 2006? About 1.21 mil­lion.2 No recov­ery there. Same goes for...

Sell first, ask questions later. That appears to be what gold traders did earlier this week, when their actions caused bullion to suffer a huge decline — falling more than $30 alone on Tuesday. Consider whether or not there are good fundamental reasons for gold to have fallen so much. The default explanation, of course, is that bullion’s decline somehow traces back to the Japanese earthquake and the ensuing crisis. But I’m not so sure why. Consider what is perhaps the most-invoked rationale for investing in gold: It’s ability to hedge against worsening inflation. Isn’t that rationale even more compelling...

Oct. 31, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EDT Not for the faint of heart As volatility returns, investors face Fed, employment, and earnings By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Already reeling from huge market swings, stock investors may get that whipsawed feeling again next week, when the Federal Reserve and the monthly jobs report headline a busy schedule. The broad market, coming off weekly and monthly losses, also faces monthly auto sales; quarterly results from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) , Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) ; and Congressional votes on healthcare, financial regulation and homebuyers' tax credits....

Merkel's inflationary fretting may wake the bears from hibernation It is lonely in the diminishing camp of bears, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Published: 10:11PM BST 06 Jun 2009 Comments 36 | Comment on this article Those of us who still question whether the world has purged its toxins are reduced to the same tiny band of moaning Druids from early 2007, when we shook our heads in disbelief as the carry trade swept Iceland to fresh madness and bankers laughed off sub-prime rot at Bear Stearns. We learned then to thicken our skins with walnut juice, lie down in dark rooms,...

It's not just what you know, it's who you know. And it's not just who you know, it's who you pay off. As the Center for Public Integrity reports (as cited in last week's Financial Times), the largest US originators of subprime mortgages spent roughly $370 million on lobbying and campaign donations in Washington during the past decade in attempts to stave off tighter regulation of their industry. The study “shows that most of the top 25 originators, most of which are now bankrupt, were either owned or heavily financed by the nation's largest banks, including Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs...

QUESTION: How do I handle professors that don't like to hear "King James only" arguments? They are evaluating using a certain Bible version. They say that they'll listen to evidence about other Bible versions, but do not want the King James mentioned specifically. What do I do?

"It is necessary to salvation that every man submit to the Pope." (Boniface VII Unum Sanctum, 1303)

It would be extremely beneficial at this point if we could simply produce the original autographs for examination. This would greatly simplify the operation of establishing correctly the New Testament Text. But this simply cannot happen. It has long been acknowledged by scholars that we no longer have the "originals." They have long since passed from the scene. This is due to the fact that scribes were known to destroy worn out MSS after they had copied them. Apparently the church valued the WORDS of the original more than the original itself. Therefore, the readings of the originals must be...

To my knowledge, the evangelical Protestant Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) and the evangelical Roman Catholic Karol Wojtyla (1920-) never met. Francis Schaeffer, founder of L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland, was a Christian intellectual and cultural critic, practical theologian, author, noted speaker, and evangelist, whose ministry in the last half of the twentieth century incited worldwide study and discipleship centers. Karol Wojtyla (1920-) is a philosopher, university professor, theologian, priest, bishop, cardinal, author, noted speaker, evangelist, and, last but not least, the man who became Pope John Paul II twenty-five years ago. These two great Christian pastors probably would have liked each other...

QUESTION: I can still find the fundamentals in the other bibles. So how can they be bad? ANSWER: Any fundamental found in any version is found purer or more frequently in the King James Bible thus making the King James Bible the best of the field.