Free Republic

In the context of the recent "Brexit" referendum in the UK, the following is a discussion as to why the Left is so fond of unaccountable international organizations -- and why we should therefore be wary. "[Anxiety about the economy, terrorism and mass migration are providing] fertile terrain for reactionary politicians and demagogues peddling xenophobia, nationalism and isolationism." - US Vice-President Joe Biden***Obama Says Brexit Vote Reflects Fears of Globalization *** "People are waking up to realize that, look, this is potentially a misguided protest vote, but it is a protest vote, and politics is not working for a lot...

Friday, June 24, 2016 Games Overgrown Political Children Play Posted by Daniel Greenfield We don't have an adult political system. What we do have is a political system in which childish tactics are used to play childish games with adult consequences. As described by Dr. Berne in Games People Play, "games" are dysfunctional strategies that can be used by adults to elicit childish or parental responses. Childish strategies shift responsibility to the "parent" while still claiming power. An adult who acts like a child gets to control what happens without being responsible for it. (This article uses a very loose...

This week America lost another hero. Retired Staff Sgt. David Jonathan Thatcher passed Wednesday in the Missoula hospital in Montana as a result of a Stroke. He was 94. After finishing High School, Thatcher joined the Army Air Corps in 1940. He was assigned to the Air Corps’ 17th Bomb Group as a B-25 Gunner. After the attack on Pearl Harbor that forced the United States into WWII, he volunteered for a top-secret mission. SSGT Thatcher was assigned and trained with 1st Lt Ted W. Lawson. Their B-25 was known as “The Ruptured Duck" and was made famous in Lawson’s...

Great news from yesterday evening, as the British people (at least the English and Welsh ones) voted to secede from the Second Belgian Empire. “British voters chose to ‘leave’ the European Union on Thursday, defying the polls — and President Barack Obama, who had urged Britain to ‘remain’ in the EU. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also urged Britain to stay in the EU. Only Donald Trump had backed the campaign to leave. “Republican strategists had panned Trump’s decision to travel to the UK in the midst of campaign turmoil, and in the wake of his blistering attack...

The key to victory, the key to the courage that brings victory is not simply fighting the fight, but KNOWING we fight a righteous battle for the One who gave us Liberty. Our founders were in a position to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor because they were firmly rooted in ALL the assurances of Liberty. Our founders knew that Liberty is a gift from God and those that stand for God’s gifts will be victorious through God’s promises. They firmly believed that living in tyranny was worse than dying for Liberty. Did these brave men and...

A well beloved young priest in California was accused by an adult woman of improprieties. Three people know the truth, God, the woman, and the priest. But in a span of time too short for sufficient discovery or due process, the priest was dismissed. Some priests have fallen, some women of uncertain mental stability have been known to suffer a morbid attraction to priests by virtue of their celibacy, some attorneys have targeted the Catholic Church for "deep pockets", some Bishops have "passed the trash". Bishops Accountability is no friend of the Catholic Bishops, but even they note that accused...

On average, Democrats (that’s my team*) use guns for shooting the innocent. We call that crime. On average, Republicans use guns for sporting purposes and self-defense. If you don’t believe me, you can check the statistics on the Internet that don’t exist. At least I couldn’t find any that looked credible. But we do know that race and poverty are correlated. And we know that poverty and crime are correlated. And we know that race and political affiliation are correlated. Therefore, my team (Clinton) is more likely to use guns to shoot innocent people, whereas the other team (Trump) is...

Our contemporary American experience seems often Orwellian. We have a Congress that denies our Rights in the name of security. We have a president who not only writes laws with his pen, but is also in the habit of rewriting history to serve his political purposes. Many patriots have expended a great deal of energy this year in the fight to see our Liberty protected and America’s greatness restored. We are all well aware that there are still many struggles ahead and mountains yet to be conquered. But let us be reminded of a hope that is rooted firmly in...

Former Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla) wrote an op ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he raised the question of why so many federal agents are authorized to carry weapons. In the op ed, Coburn wondered why the IRS needs assault rifles, why the Department of Veterans Affairs is arming 3,700 employees, and why the number of non-Defense Department federal officers authorized to make arrests and carry firearms (200,000) exceeds the number of U.S. Marines (182,000). IRS Commissioner John Koskinen responded that "it should be readily apparent why my agency needs to be armed. Taxes are very unpopular. Taxpayers...

After a war no one wanted and eight years of the devious and racially divisive Democrat Woodrow Wilson, America was ready for a change and “return to normalcy.” Nevertheless, it took until the tenth ballot at their 1920 nominating convention for Republicans to select Calvin Coolidge as their presidential candidate even though few thought could win. But the plain speaking Coolidge did win and went to work immediately to fix the Democrat mess that had put America in a deep recession that caused the unemployment rate to hit 15%. In just six months of saying ‘No” to new spending and...

Let me be clear ... it is essential for the recovery of the free American republic that Donald Trump should be the next president. This realization alone should be the foundation of the campaign this summer and autumn. To some extent, the election turns on the issue of whether or not Hillary Clinton is even minimally qualified to be president. The current office holder was not and has not become qualified, but protected by an elitist class of apologists, he has clung to that bare minimum of public support required to avoid stronger scrutiny that would surely lead to impeachment....

This is a continuation of the list of steps benevolent Republicans took to help the slaves held by Southern Democrats. On January 8, 1867 the Republican Congress had to override Democrat Andrew Johnson’s veto of a bill to give District of Columbia African-Americans the right to vote. The following July it had to override another Johnson veto of another Civil Rights bill designed to help African Americans. When the Republicans began an impeachment trial of Democrat President Johnson in March of 1868, his answer was, “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am...

Maltese prehistory may have just been extended by 30,000 years. The verdict of experts from the London Natural History Museum has revived the theory that a tooth discovered in Għar Dalam in 1917 may prove Neanderthals once roamed the island. The claim is not new. It was made in the 1920s by two British anthropologists, but four decades later the theory no longer had credence. “Anyone who wrote a history book from 1964 till today will say there were never any Neanderthals on Malta. According to them, the first people to come here were Sicilian farmers around 7,000 years ago,”...

Friday, June 17, 2016 Islamophobia Kills Posted by Daniel Greenfield The deadliest mass shooting in American history happened because of Islamophobia. Islamophobia killed 49 people in Orlando. It didn’t kill 49 Muslims. Instead it allowed Omar Mateen,  a Muslim terrorist, to kill 49 people in the name of his Islamic ideology and the Islamic State. Omar, like so many other Muslim killers, could have been stopped. He talked about killing people when he worked at G4S Security, a Federal contractor that provided services to the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. But, according to one of the co-workers...

Despite President Obama's uncertainty concerning the motives of the man who murdered 49 patrons of the Pulse night club in Orlando Florida, both the assailant and ISIS had no doubts. Shooter Omar Mateen pledged his allegiance to ISIS both before and during his killing spree. Similarly, the Al-Battar Media Foundation, reportedly an operation of the elite ISIS Libyan unit Kalibat al-Battar al-Libi, hailed the "slaughter of infidels" and urged "all true Muslims to emulate this lion of the Caliphate." Presidential Press Secretary Josh Earnest emphasized that "the President's focus on America's gun culture has the numbers behind him. There are...

When attempting to determine the statistical lethality of gunshot wounds, an important variable is often overlooked.  That is the intention of the shooter. It is not an easy variable to measure, but it is an overwhelming part of the dynamics of shooting situations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting data on firearms injuries and fatalities for since 2001.  The individual years data have warnings that the numbers may be too small to be reliable, but there are significant advantages to the data set when looking at the aggregate numbers for the fourteen year period.  All...

This is a continuation of the list of steps benevolent Republicans took to help the slaves held by Southern Democrats. On March 3, 1865 a Republican Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide health care, education and technical assistance to emancipated slaves. On April 8, 1865 the 13th Amendment, banning slavery, passed the Senate with 100% Republican support, but 63% Democrat opposition. In February 1866, Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania introduced legislation to give “40 acres and a mule” to male former slaves. Democrat President Andrew Johnson vetoed the measure. Overriding Democrat Andrew Johnson’s veto, Republicans passed the Civil...

Just as their precursors the SA did in the 20s, today's Democratic liberals attack anyone they don't agree with. The left attacks and kills those who oppose them. The song is Stormlied the official anthem of the Sturmabetelung. CAUTION: CONTAINS VIOLENT IMAGES VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

Like many Americans who were adults in the mid-1970s I was curious to see what the re-make of Roots would look like. I found that the problems with the project actually appeared during an hour long discussion among historians. In the whole hour the word Democrat was not heard and the single reference to a political party was that the “Republicans did not do enough” to help the slaves. As a student of the history of that era I bristled at such textbook knee jerk liberal pap. Here is my response. Save for the 1960s, and the last seven years,...

If you are shot in Chicago today, what are the odds that the shot will prove fatal? Chicago offers us a real world count to determine the percentage of people who are shot that die. The limitation is that the numbers are only those that are recorded by the authorities. The numbers probably undercount minor woundings.  There is significant motivation for people who have received minor wounds from a defensive gun use or during a criminal act, to avoid hospital treatment.  Gunshot wounds are reported to the police in every state.  Criminals know this;  they have a strong incentive...