Free Republic

I have yet to find the words to describe the overwhelming sense of satisfaction I felt on Nov. 4, 2008 when Obama won the popular vote by 53 percent. With tears in my eyes, and joy in my heart, I stood alongside people of color across the nation as we celebrated America's first inauguration of a black president. As a young black man, I felt a true sense of patriotism as I witnessed our country rally together to show, finally, that we are more concerned about who is the most qualified man for the job, regardless of race or age....

A doctor threw a baby and left an elderly patient to die in a hallway of an Australian hospital. A nurse, also, reported falsifying records to hide lengthy waiting times in the emergency department. Triage cases were also downgraded because of staffing. These aren't the only problems reported with Australia's universal health care system. Hospitals have long waiting lists. Babies needing heart surgery sometimes wait for more than six months. These things are common in countries with universal socialized medicine. Do we really want that here?

Almost two centuries ago, a small band of national patriots joined Texans to launch a battle for freedom and sent a unifying rallying cry through out our nation "Remember The Alamo!" Our nation is being threatened by a new Alamo, and the army is between 12 million and 20 million strong. The army is one that is creeping, walking, swimming and being driven in shadowy caravans across our nation's state borders. Instead of being armed with weapons of violence, this army is simply overwhelming American health care, education, and justice systems by refusing to enter our country legally. But the...

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has failed in her first major foreign initiative - a high profile bid to bring the 2012 Olympic games to New York City. Hours before this morning's announcement that London would host the 2012 games, Clinton was pulling out all the stops to bring the sports extravaganza to her constituents back home. Mrs. Clinton told reporters in Singapore, where the Olympic committee was meeting, that the Big Apple "exemplifies Olympic values every single day. Living in New York is like living in an Olympic Village - you have every language from every corner of the...

It’s the best part of two decades since Denys Arcand gave us The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire, a very Quebecois gloss on The Big Chill about a group of boozy, bed-hopping, bantering boomers connected one way or another to a university history department. They were in their prime, though they did not fully realize it. Eighteen years on, one of their number is now facing the biggest chill: death. In his mid-50s, Remy (Remy Girard), a self-described “sensual socialist”, is perforce heavy on the latter and lighter than he’d wish on the former. He’s no longer banging...