Free Republic

Mark Twain would have understood the protest of Yogi Berra: “Most of the things I said I didn’t say.” To Twain, with no evidence, is attributed: “Denial is not just a river in Egypt.” The source of the quotation is debated as is the source of the Nile, but the meaning is as valid as the river is wet. Denial is the typical first stage of learning that one is dying, and that applies to our culture. It certainly is so of Christian culture in many places, sometimes the result of lassitude as in Europe and harshly so in...

An awesome documentary on the Vendee uprising and the massacre of catholics in France in the French Revolution The Vendee is a taboo in France. It is nearly forgotten but thankfully isn't. In 1793, after the execution of Louis XVI, Catholic Farmers in the Vendee region of France revolted against the newly formed godless republic headed by Robbspierre. The response by the newly created republic was monstrous. Over Half a milllion people, men women children and elderly were put to death by the government for opposing it and for promoting Catholic faith. Very few acknowledged its existence, John Paul II...

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.—George Santayana (1863-1952) Question: What do all the following statements have in common? Charles “The Hammer” Martel defeated the Moors as they advanced toward Paris in 732 AD.

I just wanted to stop and take a breath here before the media hand feeds us a meme that will live forever in people's minds. The initial attack in Orlando brought several meme's out of the woodwork but what stuck initially was the shooters name was Arab so bing, bang, boom, there's the answer. I agree Islam is from the devil and deserves much scrutiny for any philosophy that condones killing women, homosexuals, Christians, all infidels, and of course other Muslims that don't think just like you do. And of course, the automatic gun control effort rears it's ugly head...

In the Gospel of Luke, one of the major signs Jesus mentions as preceding His return (aside from earthquakes, wars, and signs in the heavens) is that "nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea" (Luke 21:25).  I think that all of these record breaking hurricanes and cyclones over the past few years may play a part in the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Just in the last decade or so we've seen the most powerful, costliest, and unique cyclones on record.  In addition there was the massive December 2004 tsunami in the Indian...

Just 712 Democratic officials will decide whether Clinton or Sanders wins the nomination. Documents show that's what the party planned all along. This post originally appeared at In These Times. Since its launch, a specter has haunted Bernie Sanders’ run for the Democratic nomination. It’s not his age, though at 74 he would be the oldest president in American history. And it’s not that he’s an avowed socialist, the label that a mere eight years ago was used to smear Barack Obama as a sinister, alien threat to the American way of life. Rather, it has been the so-called superdelegates...

Travelers, let us now raise a glass--or perhaps a curvy old Coca-Cola bottle, freshly pried from a vintage service station fridge--to John Margolies, author, photographer, lecturer, road-trip royalty. Before Margolies came along, there was a little less love in this country for drive-through doughnuts and neon sombreros. But Margolies, 76, who died of pneumonia on May 26 in New York, spent most of his adult life seeking, snapping and celebrating the commercial imagery of America’s Main Streets and blue highways. His books, including ”Roadside America,” “Home Away From Home” and “Pump and Circumstance,” delve lovingly into an America of neon...

Someone help me out, I may be wrong, but why isn't the media APPLAUDING the history-making night?! Seems to me that Donald Trump is the VERY FIRST MAJOR PARTY NOMINEE who was born in Queens New York!!

Despite her comments opposing “settlements”, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice promised Israel that the new military aid agreement between the two countries that is currently being negotiated will constitute “the single largest military assistance package — with any country — in American history,” Haaretz reported Tuesday. The comments came during Rice’s address on Monday to the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Washington. She said the new decade-long aid package, which is expected to provide Israel somewhere between $37.5 billion and $40 billion over the life of the pact, will “constitute a significant increase in support,” providing funding to...

Stop your average American on the street and ask them “what happened on June 6?” Surprisingly—a few might recall that on a dreary morning while the low-tide lapped lazily on the rocky coast of Normandy, France, brave men in battle armor no thicker than a khaki shirt grimly headed toward Hitler’s Atlantic wall. There is nothing special to mark the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II. Nothing special—other than the men themselves. That 18-year-old struggling up the steep bluffs of Omaha Beach while tracer rounds flashed overhead would be 90 years old now, eyes flickering still...

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 12, 1944 – Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got here the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air. That plus a gigantic and pitiful litter of wreckage along miles of shoreline. Submerged tanks and overturned...

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 16, 1944 – I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France. It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know they were in the water, for they were dead. The water was full of squishy little jellyfish about the size of your hand. Millions of them. In the center each of them had a green design exactly like a four-leaf clover. The good-luck emblem. Sure. Hell yes. I...

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 17, 1944 – In the preceding column we told about the D-day wreckage among our machines of war that were expended in taking one of the Normandy beaches. But there is another and more human litter. It extends in a thin little line, just like a high-water mark, for miles along the beach. This is the strewn personal gear, gear that will never be needed again, of those who fought and died to give us our entrance into Europe. Here in a jumbled row for mile on mile are soldiers’ packs. Here are socks and shoe polish,...

The mantra of progressivism over the past century has been the unstoppable 'progression' of human society, government, and technology towards a supposed utopian future free from war, disease, and poverty - a future where humans are masters of their own universe, unshackled from anything and everything holding us back and united as citizens of the world. Yet no "progressive" (be they communist, socialist, technocrat, or humanist) stops to ask if this is a possible or even worthwhile goal.  No one of that political persuasion questions whether their philosophical outlook is the right one to have nor why it is justifiable...

Jean-Baptiste Chevance senses that we’re closing in on our target. Paused in a jungle clearing in northwestern Cambodia, the French archaeologist studies his GPS and mops the sweat from his forehead with a bandanna. The temperature is pushing 95, and the equatorial sun beats down through the forest canopy. For two hours, Chevance, known to everyone as JB, has been leading me, along with a two-man Cambodian research team, on a grueling trek. We’ve ripped our arms and faces on six-foot shrubs studded with thorns, been savaged by red biting ants, and stumbled over vines that stretch at ankle height...

If you ever get discouraged about your ability to effect change in a world where one person may not appear to count for much, consider the story of James Oglethorpe. The Georgia Colony of Britain was established by King George to settle the land between the southern border of South Carolina and Spanish Florida "for the settling of the poor persons of London." There were three goals in establishing the colony: to give the deserving poor a chance, to bring trade and wealth to the Crown and to defend the Carolinas from the Spanish. King George named Oglethorpe, the third...

As construction of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture progresses toward its September opening, Museum Director Lonnie Bunch joined CBS “60 Minutes”’ Scott Pelley on a visit to Mozambique in search of a ship that carried hundreds of African slaves to the bottom of the Indian Ocean when it foundered 220 years ago. “The story of slavery is everybody's story,” Bunch explained to Pelley. “It is the story about how we're all shaped by, regardless of race, regardless of how long we've been in this country. We hope that we can be a factor to both...

The weeks between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are also the time for high-school and college graduations, which often involve visits from grandparents. That makes this a time for generations to get together so they don’t make the mistake I made. Here’s my error: From the time I turned an arrogant 13, my father and I didn’t talk much. Looking back now, it seems unbelievable that when I flew from Texas to Massachusetts in 1984 to visit my parents for a week as he was dying of cancer, we didn’t talk for more than minutes about anything important, and I...

Everyone talks about the four consecutive "blood moons," but they were part of a larger story: 11 eclipses falling on Jewish holy days.  Jesus said there would "be signs in the sun, moon, and stars" (Luke 21:25). 1. April 15th, 2014: the first "blood moon," a total lunar eclipse, on the Feast of Passover 2. October 8th, 2014: the second "blood moon," a total lunar eclipse, on the Feast of Tabernacles 3. March 20th, 2015: a total solar eclipse on Nisan 1, the biblical New Year 4. April 4th, 2015: the third "blood moon," a total lunar eclipse, on the...

As debates about guns and gun rights in America rage, truly to understand the gun, one needs to look at its history. The story of the gun is a fascinating and riveting look not only at history, but science, business, politics, justice, and morality as well. Throw in a great deal of ingenuity, a good deal of heroism, and a small dose of romance, and the story of the gun is the world’s greatest tale of human invention.