Free Republic

Last week every Republican presidential candidate with hopes of emerging as "The True Conservative" in the race--Mitt Romney, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, and Ron Paul--traveled to Kansas City to speak to the National Right to Life Convention (NRLC). And then there was Fred Thompson. Although he's not yet an official candidate, Thompson clearly plans to run--and he plans to run as the Truest of True Conservatives. So it seemed that a sojourn to Kansas City to stoke an important segment of the conservative base would be in order. But Thompson skipped the trip, choosing instead to address the NRLC by...

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP ADDRESS TO THE QUADRANT MAGAZINE 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER, FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, SYDNEY Thank you very much Paddy McGuinness, Chief Justice, Justices, Your Eminence, Your Grace, my Parliamentary colleagues and ladies and gentlemen. I’m finally succumbing to Peter Garrett’s advice and its great to embrace an evening of culture and poetry and all of that after overdosing on my Philistine sporting pursuits over the weekend in almost the four corners of the Earth, from one side of the country to the other. But it really is an enormous pleasure for Janette...

The catastrophe, termed the Russian Revolution, through all the degradations, tribulations and disappointments, has to lead to a new and better awareness. Such an experience in the life of a people cannot but enrich and sharpen our perceptiveness. But a crisis of soul will have to precede this perceptiveness with a readiness for repentance and humility. The light will be begotten after an inward cleansing and ascesis. This -- is a law of spiritual life. And it is needful to be aware, that all the whole thinking portion of Russian society, that which has esteemed itself as the bearer knowingly...

As societies dumb down and reality shows take over, facile pundits now overrule true intellectualsPARIS - Among the striking cultural differences between France and Britain is the way their intellectuals operate in the public arena. While the French expect their thinkers to speak out on matters of conscience and state, Britons view the very idea of an 'intellectual' with suspicion, preferring their 'scholars' to work quietly in elitist circles. But both have added weight to the political debate. And now both, it seems, are becoming endangered species. The waning of the power and status of the intelligentsia is hardly exclusive...

Back to Political · Back to home · EmailThe New StupidityBy Alec Mouhibian(Note: This is a long essay, so it is highly recommended you print and read.) If one wishes to ascertain the force of turpitude that is the most primary and inherent arch-villain of the liberty establishing, capitalist, reason-embracing principles that characterize the foundation and prosperity of the United States of America, one need travel no further than back to kindergarten, where the tell-all question that lies at the philosophical base of the entire boondoggle which is the modern political spectrum, was posed regularly: One plus one equals…?“Two,” would...

CAPITOL IDEASBy Tom BethellCelebrating My 40th Anniversary        I write on August 28, which is the 40th anniversary of my arrival in these United States. It is a date I am always conscious of. The changes since 1962 have been immense, of course, and I won’t hazard any conclusions here. I am inclined to say that the changes have mostly been for the worse, but I am not confident of that. Our lives are so besieged by change that any contemporary judgment is likely to be ill advised. Old-timers in any event are notoriously inclined to look back on a...