Free Republic

SEA Jails Amish Criminals A Sign of Very Bad Things to Come You may never have heard of the SEA, and may not believe it when I tell you what it is. I am not making this up. The SEA is the "Sewage Enforcement Agency." The, "Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency," protecting society from two dangerous Amish outhouse operators, apprehended them for violating Pennsylvania state sewage laws. They "were sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail." Their crime? "Andy Swartzentruber and Sam Yoder do not have permits for outhouses at a school and have been disposing of waste "improperly." The...

Red diaper baby Barack Obama's collectivist beliefs go way back. We dug up an enlightening old article, "What Makes Obama Run?" (by Hank De Zutter, Chicago Reader, Dec. 8, 1995) that offers more insight into what Obama, the Democrats' presumptive presidential candidate, thinks about America and traditional American values. The short answer: not much. In it Obama, at that time a candidate for the Illinois Senate, criticizes individualism as what intellectual John Ralston Saul has called the cult of the Hero: "In America," Obama says, "we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne...

Viewing The 1960s From My 60s By Burt Prelutsky Even though I'm embarrassed to have been a Democrat for so many years, I'm proud that even in my 20's, I thought the 60's was the worst decade in America's history. Because I was born in 1940, I was at UCLA for some of those years and had a bird's eye view of my fellow college students. It was not a pretty sight. What makes that time the source of so much nostalgia for so many people of my age -- the incessant folk songs, the tie-dyed shirts and blouses, the...

There is an old addage that goes: "'Society' is everyone but yourself." As simplistic as this may sound, a moment's reflection reveals it to be true. When people think of or use the term "society," their frame of reference generally encompasses everyone but themselves. And this is true for every member of society, rendering the paradox that "society" must be everyone and yet no one at the same time. One exception to this rule is when the person using the term has brought certain other individuals outside of that frame of reference for purposes specific to a particular topic; e.g.,...

Two important events occurred in October 1957. First, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, named Sputnik, into orbit, causing many to speculate the West was losing to the superior technology and, possibly, inevitable ideology of communism. Second, the novel "Atlas Shrugged" was published. Its author, Ayn Rand, had fled the tyranny of Soviet communism in 1926 for freedom in the West. Today communism in Russia and its satellite countries is dead. "Atlas" and Miss Rand's other works continue to sell millions of copies. A 1992 Library of Congress survey found it to be the most influential book in...

Alan Ehrenhalt explains it in his 1995 book, The Lost City. It's about growing up in Chicago in the 1950s and the world of strong, safe neighborhoods that we've lost in the last four or five decades. Mr. Ehrenhalt, certainly no nostalgist, points out that all the good things people miss about the era — most of all, a sense of community — cannot be separated from the cultural conformity, lack of mobility and dearth of individual choice that contemporary Americans would find unacceptable. Mr. Ehrenhalt's inconvenient truth: "There is no easy way to have an orderly world without somebody...

During last month's debate among Democratic presidential candidates, NBC's Brian Williams asked Hillary Clinton, "How is America a better place because of all these burgeoning hedge funds?" He was referring to the loosely regulated investment vehicles that frequently generate massive returns for their wealthy investors by using debt to leverage huge bets on movements in the commodity futures market and other financial arenas. Considering her extraordinary success during 1978 and 1979, when, as a novice trader, she turned a $1,000 investment into a $100,000 profit in the highly risky cattle-futures market, Clinton was the right person to ask. Today, hedge...

Protestantism and Islam: Points of Contact Protestantism may well have begun as a genuine movement of reform. Accepting the teachings of the Church, its adherents wanted to bring the practice of the Church into line with its teachings. This is the object of all Christian movements. However, it very soon developed into something far more radical, jettisoning basic Christian teachings, bringing in doctrines entirely new to Christianity, and having to meld the results into a coherent whole. This involved developing doctrinal and practical solutions to new problems in the field of Christian faith and morals. Most of Protestant teaching was...

Racism and Anti-Semitism—Part VII by Reginald Firehammer Anti-Semitism is just one manifestation of the vicious and hateful form of racism that is also manifest today as hatred of Christians, of businessmen, of the West in general, particularly of the United States. The emphasis has been on anti-Semitism for a reason. Defending Jews? I am defending the Jews. I'm defending their right as people to believe whatever they choose, to live however they choose, wherever they choose, and to defend themselves in whatever way they deem necessary. I find the history of the Jews fascinating. In spite of the persecution and...

The 18th-century Enlightenment was the single most important intellectual development in human history; it made possible the comfortable, prosperous, stable, and relatively free Western civilization that we enjoy today. Enlightenment thinkers believed in a single, knowable, absolute reality guided by rational natural laws. Individuals—said Enlightenment thinkers—had the faculty of reason, which enabled them to accurately understand the absolute reality. Using reason, individuals could understand not only the factual data of reality but a rational moral system which would instruct them on how they ought to behave. The Enlightenment cultivated the rights of every human being to his life, liberty, property,...

"Money has been said to change people's motivation (mainly for the better) and their behavior toward others (mainly for the worse). The results of nine experiments suggest that money brings about a self-sufficient orientation in which people prefer to be free of dependency and dependents...."

Connections by Reginald Firehammer Everything is connected. We tend to see things separately and often fail to see the relationships between ideas and events that affect us until it is too late. For example, three articles I recently read seem to be about different and only loosely related subjects, but in fact have profound connections—connections that must be recognized if Western Civilization is to be saved. The recent elections in this country are proof that most people do not see the connections, else they would understand the politicians they have elected are doing all in their power to hasten the...

OINO's Paranoid Fear of Christians As though to prove the thesis of my recent article, "An Atheist's Defence of Christianity" [also on Free Republic], the usually brilliant and highly respected (at least by me) Leonard Peikoff shocked me with a piece of unobjective illogic that I can hardly believe. From the question and answer piece on his website: "In my judgment, anyone who votes Republican or abstains from voting in this election has no understanding of the practical role of philosophy in man's actual life ..." Why did he say that? Because he believes the US is on the verge...

Korea: Now And ThenAs I read the news about North Korea's problems in the world, my memories take me back to 1958, when, two months after graduating from high school, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I was stationed at Osan Air Base, South Korea, where I quickly learned the power of military discipline and the art of self-defense. I ate, drank, walked, talked and slept military life. And, after watching a display of Korean karate (called tang soo do) in a small village, a fire consumed me for the martial arts. I learned a lesson back then...

Murakami Yoshiaki (that's my son's name, too...but no doubt the characters are different) faces a possible three years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000 - small change when you consider the billions he has made. Murakami is a corporate raider in a land where business is done by consensus. In the end, he admitted to inadvertently "breaking the law" by buying shares after he had "heard" that a company might be the target of a hostile takeover. Normally, this is called insider trading. But the Japanese also have a way of not saying things directly. It causes...

1. What Is the Basic Issue in the World Today? The basic issue in the world today is between two principles: Individualism and Collectivism. Individualism holds that man has inalienable rights which cannot be taken away from him by any other man, nor by any number, group or collective of other men. Therefore, each man exists by his own right and for his own sake, not for the sake of the group. Collectivism holds that man has no rights; that his work, his body and his personality belong to the group; that the group can do with him as it...

It sounds like the University of Washington student Senate is struggling to make some progress. After turning down a memorial to a notorious World War II Congressional Medal of Honor awardee, alum "Pappy" Boyington, they are now considering a more general memorial. At least this time they are getting it all wrong in a different way. The real problem seems to be the students' "carefully taught" inclination to "massification" -- the tendency of liberal institutions, in the nocturnal twilight of Marxist collectivism, to insist on memorials to classes of people, not individuals. The kiddie Senate is now trying to figure...

"In Aug., 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the results of their $1.2 million tax-payer funded study.  It stated, essentially, that traditionalists are mentally disturbed.  Scholars from the Universities of Maryland, California at Berkeley, and Stanford had determined that social conservatives, in particular, suffer from 'mental rigidity,' 'dogmatism,' and 'uncertainty avoidance,' together with associated indicators for mental illness."  (B.K. Eakman, Chronicles, Oct. 2004, pp. 28-29)   As usual with leftists, the true meaning of their words is couched in deceptive code.  When the deceptions are peeled away we discover that ''dogmatism''...

BEIJING -- In a speech evoking bodybuilding, civil rights icon Rosa Parks and the power of individual accomplishment, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gently urged a university audience to emerge from the constraints of the Chinese system and attain success in the global world. "America is a nation that believes in the power of the individual and what the individual can accomplish -- no matter the color, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background of the individual," Schwarzenegger told about 500 students at Beijing's elite Qinghua University. "Imagine what could be accomplished if the dreams of China's 1.3 billion individuals...

MTV or Bust MTV debuted in New York City in 1981, and as it quickly spread across the country along with the spread of cable television, it soon became known as the network that went against the grain and represented youthful defiance in America. Because of this defiant nature, MTV was not afraid to back down from political controversy. In 1985, Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, and John Denver testified before the US Senate in response to the Parents Music Resource Center’s goal of censoring records containing improper lyrics. MTV had no qualms about taking the side of these three musical...