Free Republic

As I wrote my most recent article for WND.com (the subject of my previous posting) I found myself thinking about Christianity's unique effect on our understanding of the justice (and injustice) of human action. The last point made in the article is about the connection between arrogant elitism and the self-inflation the Pharisee derives from comparing himself with other people. In light of this connection we can better understand why the elitist forces that strenuously promote the specious doctrine of the separation of church and state are so often guilty of favoritism. They invoke the doctrine to repress Christian...

I don't know Tiger Woods. And as a rule I avoid public comment on the private travails of others, even when their fame or notoriety inevitably makes them the subject of public attention and comment. For a long time, though, I have pondered the significance of the publican's prayer, the simple prayer Jesus recommends by contrast with the self-righteous conceit of the scrupulous Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). As we come to know the dark passage of such an admired and popular public figure, the thoughts it inspires seem particularly timely and appropriate. The Pharisee thanks God "that I am not as...

  I was not at all surprised to hear that Rudy Giuliani has lately expressed views that welcome the rising prominence of Sarah Palin in the GOP. Giuliani is the archetype of the politicians who wear the Republican label but staunchly support the pro-abortion agenda. Of course, he imitates the pro-abortion Democrats by using the "pro-choice" label to dress his position in deceptively American garb. The use of that term is one of the most clever rhetorical ploys in the history of American politics. If the slaveholders had thought of it, people like me might still be doing stoop labor...

Former ambassador and presidential candidate Alan Keyes blasted President Obama and his policies in a speech to a Wichita audience Saturday night. "It looks like nothing any rational person would do if he was hoping for a positive outcome," Keyes said. Keyes spoke to about 200 people at the Beech Activity Center, 9710 E. Central, in support of Republican congressional candidate Jim Anderson. Keyes criticized Obama for both his foreign and domestic policy decisions. He said Obama was fiscally irresponsible for the federal bailout of financial institutions and the auto industry, saying it has saddled future generations with huge debt....

Obama apparently doesn't realize that the occupant of the office he lays claim to is supposed to represent the sovereign people of the United States.  At newsmax.com the following picture accompanied a story reporting his clearly deliberate bow to the Japanese Emperor Akihito. Given the decidedly outraged reaction to his bow to the King of Saudi Arabia, there's no way this new affront is anything but a deliberate repudiation of respect for the republican form of government (of, by and for the people) established by the Constitution of the United States.  Given the cult of personality Obama worshippers have tried...

  The headline reads "Newt Gingrich warns of 'destructive' GOP primaries". Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted disaster for his party if the conservative wing of the GOP continues to field independent candidates to the right of the party's nominee. "If we get into a cycle where there are tea parties and there are conservative third-party candidates, we will make [Nancy] Pelosi speaker for life," Gingrich told POLITICO in an interview Thursday, calling the practice "totally destructive." There is a telling confusion in this POLITICO.com piece that should be carefully pondered. Gingrich's quoted words discourage conservative third party candidates. But...

Behind all the supposed debate over issues like health care, cap-and-trade and the spending frenzy involved in fueling the freight train to national socialism looms the simple question that pervades them all: Do Americans still care to be free? Of course, I don't use the word in the narrow sense of doing whatever pleases you at the moment. Whether they were confronting the harsh realities of frontier life, accepting the discipline of working to care for a family, or striving to develop the skills and talents that have been the cutting edge of America's economic success, that silly libertarian idea...

Word in from NY 23 that Conservative Doug Hoffman now trails by just 3000 votes as the official  tabulation process continues. "The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed."  Among the absentee ballots that remain uncounted are "military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2)..." But Bill Owens "was quickly sworn into office on Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of Representatives.  His support sealed his party's narrow victory on the health care legislation." By what right does...

  This morning, in an article by Lt. Colonel Allen B. West (US Army, ret.) about the Ft. Hood terrorist attack, a phrase arrested my attention: "The Saudis are not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is delusional." It took my mind back to the days when I was hosting a commentary show on MSNBC. I remember on several occasions presenting thoughts based on the theme, 'the Saudis are not our friends.' (Not long after came the events that led to the demise of the show.) And that was before the current corrupt Party system produced...

There are times when even Obama's critics seem to have difficulty putting into words their reaction to his strange behavior. I think that's because they refuse to consider the simple premise that makes sense of it all: He feels no love for the USA. He seems in fact to feel himself to be no part of this country. The occupant of the office he lays claim to is supposed to represent the body politic. People expect that his reactions will reflect its joys and pains i.e., the joys and pains of the American people as a whole. They expected him...

With the withdrawal of Dede Scozzafava from contention in the special election in NY's 23rd Congressional District, we see a clear result of implementing Michael Steele's infamous 80/20 approach to candidate selection. Grassroots conservatives still hampered by their allegiance to the Republican Party need to consider the lessons to be drawn from the Republican party's disappearance from that race. Scozzafava was a candidate typical of the predilections of GOP Party bosses and the majority of its big money fundraisers. They believe that the Party's formula for political victory requires people who oppose or just give lip service to conservative...

We’re not sure it’s exactly newsworthy anymore when a lawsuit challenging President Obama’s election on the grounds that he wasn’t born in the U.S. gets dismissed. (Though rest assured, we’ll be all over it if and when one gains significant traction.) But an opinion issued on Thursday dismissing one of these suits (this one, like others, brought by Orange County lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz) caught our attention. The opinion issued on Thursday, by Santa Ana, Calif., federal judge David O. Carter (a Clinton appointee), delved deeply into standing problems he felt many plaintiffs in the suit suffered. But in the suit...

Watch video HERE. There was a time when what the people in this video experienced would have had liberty loving Americans manning the ramparts. Have the Congressional leaders of the Obama faction decided to deny "the right of the people...to petition the government for a redress of grievances"? Obama promised "change", and as I predicted what we are getting is a regime change- from a free society to a totalitarian government dictatorship. The Constitution is being systematically shredded. At first it took a bit of thinking and discernment to notice it. Now they are openly behaving like the apparatchiks of...

http://giveusliberty1776.blogspot.com/2009/10/orlys-case-still-alivedid-judge-screw.html SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2009 ORLY'S CASE STILL ALIVE?...DID JUDGE SCREW UP OR DID HE LEAVE DOOR OPEN ON PURPOSE?... Carter’s not yet given a final Judgement October 30, 2009 by John Charlton HAS FAILED TO IMPLEMENT RULES 54 AND 58 Legal analysis by John Charlton (Oct. 30, 2009) — Despite all his rancor and loony constitutional theories, Judge David O. Carter has failed to give final judgment in the case Barnett vs. Obama, leaving the door open to further filings and proceedings. His ruling has not dismissed the case, but rather merely dismissed arguments presented so far. This is...

"Congress has never before required citizens to purchase any good or service, but that is what both House and Senate health bills would mandate." With these words, Donald Lambro of the Washington Times reports the unprecedented destruction of liberty that is the real aim of the Obama faction's so-called health-care plan. Because most Americans have never thought much about the doctrine of unalienable rights that has until now been the presumed basis for America's form of government, the politicians and the controlled media may get away with treating the central goal of the health sector takeover as a secondary issue....

A California judge has dismissed a complaint challenging President Obama's eligibility to be president citing the "birth certificate from the state of Hawaii" that apparently refers to an Internet image of a "Certification of Live Birth" released during Obama's campaign. The ruling came this morning from Judge David Carter who as WND reported last night apparently recently hired a law clerk out of the law firm that has been paid nearly $1.7 million to defend Obama from such eligibility challenges. A Wikipedia page has been cited by dozens of bloggers after it listed Siddarth Velamoor as one of the newest...

When you see Orly Taitz deliver her impassioned, Eastern European-accented arguments on Fox News or CNN or YouTube, you're getting just the first hint of the outsized features of her life. She was born in the USSR, then lived in Israel and Romania before getting married and immigrating to the U.S. The mother and former swimsuit model established a successful dentistry business with two Orange County offices – then, in her spare time, studied law and passed the state bar. Her growing national notoriety is the result of her long-shot legal efforts to have Barack Obama removed as president, claiming...

In a column on Catholic Online, Deacon Keith Fournier reacts to Obama's speech to the Human Rights Campaign, an anti-natural family advocacy group, saying that "[Alleged] President Obama sent the signal. He will not defend authentic marriage." In the article that follows he provides an excellent summary of the natural right arguments that justify the Catholic Church's stand against so-called "homosexual marriage." I highly recommend it. On one point, though, I must take issue with the impression Deacon Fournier's article creates. It is written as if a doubtful world was waiting for some indication of Obama's determined refusal to defend...

Last night I posted as the 'featured link' on this site a link to what purports to be a 2004 article, from the online archives of a Kenyan newspaper, about the withdrawal of Obama's original Republican opponent in the 2004 race for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. What is of interest for present purposes is that both the headline and body of the article refer to Obama as Kenyan born. Given the sophisticated possibilities for fabrication in both the virtual and real world these days, it would be foolish to assume that by itself this 'proves' anything about Obama's birthplace....

As I was working on what became the two most recent postings on this site I came across a Charles Krauthammer offering, Decline is a choice: The new liberalism and the end of American ascendancy. In it he offers a cogent critique of the Obama faction's calculated surrender of America's position of leadership in the world. He also suggests an opposing alternative which begins with the notion that we should "accept our role as hegemon" for the simple reason that "we are as benign a hegemon as the world has ever seen." "…resistance to decline," he declares "begins with...

[This is the follow-on to my previous post and must be read in context with it.] We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without color, Paralyzed force, gesture without motion; T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men The failure to articulate the connection between moral concerns and limited government has allowed the emergence of a sham approach to moral issues. On...

I recently read a newsmax.com article (California Becomes Fiscal Basket Case) summarizing California's fiscal woes that included an observation from USC professor Kevin Starr that "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America." Recounting the history of California's current woes, the article notes that "Had California lived within the limitation imposed under the 1979 Gann Amendment, which limited the growth of spending to the rate of economic growth, some analysts say the state would be in a far better fiscal situation today. But former Gov. George Deukmejian allowed exemptions to budget items, such as education,...

In these portentous times, there are days when I feel as if I've strayed into the gloomy bits in a colorized version of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." In that Christmastime TV favorite, "an angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed." I definitely had that feeling this week as I read an article about a Vatican meeting of Roman Catholic bishops with the headline "Africa Bishops Speak of Obama in Religious Terms." According to that report: The archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, told...

By Alan Keyes October 7, 2009Loyal to Liberty  I just received a call from Orly Taitz, my attorney in the case seeking proof of Obama's eligibility for the Office of President of the United States. Judge Carter has released a statement declaring that the dates he set for the hearing and trial on the eligibility issue are confirmed, and it will move forward as scheduled. Apparently he was not swayed by the Obama lawyer's arguments.Loyal to Liberty ...

Alan Keyes "Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint." (Proverbs 29:18)"…abandonment of strategic vision leads to policy decisions that damage the national security of the country." (The USA- a special nation with special responsibilities) The headline at newsmax.com says "Obama Moves to Muzzle Top Military Commanders." The words call to mind the passage in the Plato's Republic where Socrates compares the warriors who keep watch over the city to guard dogs. The image of America's armed forces as guard dogs wearing muzzles can only give comfort to our enemies. "The Administration's primary target: top Afghanistan commander Gen....

On the eve of the hearing in Judge David Carter's federal courtroom in Santa Ana, California, over whether Barack Obama will be forced to produce documentation of his birth, several things are clear: 1) Barack Obama still refuses to produce any documentation concerning the circumstances of his birth. The question remains: Why? 2) His lawyers (paid for by you, the taxpayer) made NO assertions in their pleadings concerning whether or not Obama is a natural born citizen. None. They simply told the court that it doesn't have jurisdiction in this matter. If you want to boil the message of Obama...

Orly Taitz, Rep. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) and Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) filed a new set of documents in federal court yesterday, responding to requests that their lawsuit be dismissed. In it, they reassert their allegations that Obama has usurped the Presidency by concealing his "origins," raise more questions about Obama's alleged Social Security number problems and ask for time to amend their complaint to outline Obama's alleged "racketeering" scheme to win the presidency.

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes has given perhaps his most dire warning yet, saying that the Obama administration is preparing to stage terror attacks, declare martial law and cancel the 2012 elections, which is why they are demonizing their political enemies as criminals and terrorists. Keyes is best known for his performance during the 2000 Republican presidential debates, when he was accredited by many media outlets as being the clear winner during a series of debates with George W. Bush and John McCain. “It’s obvious that they will stop at nothing,” Keyes told attendees of a reception in Fort Wayne,...

Loyal to Liberty Wednesday, September 30, 2009Alan Keyes   I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the RINGBOLT to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. (Frederick Douglass, "Fourth of July" Speech) As I suspect they might, some of my recent posts have roused opposition from the folks I now think of as the "Ron Paul nationalists." When it comes to opposing the destruction...

Loyal to Liberty Tuesday, September 29, 2009Alan Keyes This past weekend I traveled to Kentucky to stand with Bill Johnson, a candidate for the Republican nomination for US Senate. Bill has all the characteristics that ought to make him the candidate of choice for grassroots "tea party" conservatives who understand that American liberty stands presently on the verge of its demise. A U.S. Navy veteran who served with distinction in the first gulf war, Bill believes that the oath he swore to uphold, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution represents a lifelong commitment. Bill isn't one of the politicians who...

And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.'" – (Mark 7:6) But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self … holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. – (Timothy 3:1, 5) Day by day the American people are learning from their experience of him that we cannot judge Obama by his words. Much of what he says is semi-fictional, like the book that...

WND reports that "A school district in Arizona has come under fire after a newspaper columnist highlighted the district's newly adopted racial policy and called it a "two-tiered form of student discipline: one for black and Hispanic students; one for everyone else." According to the columnist [Doug MacEachern] "TUSD [Tucson Unified School District] principals and disciplinarians…are being asked to set two standards of behavior for their students…Some behavior will be met with strict penalties; some will not. It all depends on the color of the student's skin." School district officials claim they are just trying to correct racial discrimination in...

"It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force….a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind." (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #1) Over the years I've noticed that many black Americans seem to regard their...

Some readers have probably noticed that pondering the political scene in the US has lately brought to my mind Machiavelli's unscrupulous advice to princes, those pesky paragons of perilous ambition whose 'Caesarism" the American founders often warned against. (As a torch is to the flame, so is Machiavelli to Lucifer. Though we hear a lot about Saul Alinsky these days, he could barely hold a candle to Machiavelli. So, when Alinsky dedicated the now infamous book, Rules for Radicals to Lucifer, he looked back at him over the shoulder. When Machiavelli finished writing The Prince, he could have done so...

...Consider the fanatical support Obama receives from the fringe left and minorities, the “thug politics” environment from which he hails and his association with various radical leftists (including former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers). I doubt Obama would willingly resign even if it was proven he's not a natural born citizen. He and his political machine would instead conjure up yet another racist conspiracy and incite those who have been brainwashed to believe the Ku Klux Klan and the Border Patrol are hiding behind every tree on Martin Luther King Blvd...

One of my Facebook friends thought the title of my last post better suited to a discussion of the H1N1 vaccine. That called for a bittersweet chuckle, as it reminded me of the analogy I frequently draw between the effect of leftist Republicans and what I learned during a WHO briefing years ago about the way the AIDS virus affects the body's immune system. As I recall, the virus takes control of cells that perform critical immune system functions. It recodes the infected cells so that the body reacts to them as if they were still healthy. Its as if...

Loyal to Liberty Friday, September 18, 2009Alan Keyes As conservative voters approach the 2010 elections, they might consider heeding the wisdom of this simple slogan: Don't trust the Party label. In particular, the Republican Party label is being abused as part of a conscious effort to deceive them. Consider as evidence yesterday's report by Josh Kraushaar at politico.com. Under the direction of Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), the GOP's National Senatorial Committee is backing a slew of left-leaning candidates for the 2010 primaries. The plan is to give them special advantages in the primaries, while bad mouthing the prospects of conservative...

As it has in so many other ways, Barack Obama's political victory in 2008 has proven false to the hope that the election of someone of African heritage would help carry the American people beyond the tragic legacy of guilt, mutual ignorance and resentful fear left by past sins of slavery and racial discrimination. Instead, the racial divide seems every day exacerbated by another instance in which someone salts the ancient racial wound with some new attempt to portray as racist all reactions against Obama's push to establish his alien neo-totalitarian ideas in place of the constitutional liberty Americans have...

My last posting has sparked numerous and thoughtful responses, as well as lively discussions, in many quarters. Reading them I think the following analysis may be worth sharing. Some people adamantly make arguments based on the notion that we presently have a two party electoral system. This phrase purports to refer to a system in which people freely select from amongst a wide range of different possibilities, two alternatives, and then choose freely between them. My knowledge of the facts, as well as extensive firsthand experience, have forced me to conclude that this is simply not so. There is no...

I hear that Rush Limbaugh is telling people that they have no choice but to drink the Republican Kool-Aid in the 2010 elections. Given the track record of the forces still in control of the Republican Party, this is tantamount to saying that we let the American republic go gently into the dark night of National Socialism.

Loyal to Liberty On September 12, 2009 a very large crowd gathered from all parts of the country to manifest grassroots anger against the Washington politicians who are betraying the liberty of the American people. In my lifetime I have never known such a large manifestation of public feeling to pass with so little notice or discussion in the so-called "mainstream" media outlets. This absence of coverage obviously tells us very little about the event that took place. However, it tells us all we need to know about the people who control the so-called "mainstream" media. They believe the people...

George Tiller spent his days systematically slaughtering helpless children in the womb. His murderous practice focused especially on those near birth, and included techniques that required literally tearing them limb from limb. Like Shakespeare's homicidal tyrant, Macbeth, he was unafraid of what he himself did make, "strange images of death." On Sunday, May 31, 2009 an assailant killed Tiller as he took time off from his professional endeavors to attend church services. Jim Pouillon spent his days sitting in a lawn chair holding up signs that contrasted images of living babies with the gut-wrenching images of dead babies, like the...

Loyal to Liberty For a moment last night something unprecedented, unheard of, indeed almost unbelievable happened while Barack Obama was giving one of his televised, teleprompter specials: his audience actually heard the truth. Of course they didn't hear it from Obama. "A republican House member shouted, "You lie" during [Alleged] President Obama's health care speech to Congress on Wednesday." As we sadly would expect from the gutless gaggle of eObama lickspittles that dominates Congress at the moment, "members of both parties condemned the heckling." Thanks I'm sure to this pressure "After the speech, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson issued a...

"If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify." (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #33) Today another court hearing is being held with respect to the effort to get at the truth concerning Barack Obama's Constitutional eligibility for the Office of President of the United States. Obama faction representatives at the U.S. Justice Department are moving to...

Judging by some of the responses I've received to the previous posts in this health care series, I think it's important to make it clear that the illustrative features I talked about in my last post are not suggested components of some government run health care scheme. I oppose the government takeover of the health sector. It should also be clear from the ideas I've outlined that I oppose perpetuating the third party payer system in any form, whether as a single payer government run approach, or in continuation of the existing private corporate structure. One of the keys to...

As I said in my last posting, for me to offer a health insurance proposal is rather like a weatherman offering to design a jet fighter: though he's familiar with its operating conditions, odds are that his ideas won't fly. That said, I suppose I have at least as much expertise on the subject as, say, leftist politicos like Barack Obama, an observation that emboldens me to share the thought experiment that follows. I strongly believe that it's often a good idea to start a discussion by clarifying in simple terms exactly what it is we're talking about. Health care...

For years I have made the point that the key problem with discussing our so-called health care system is that we don't have one. The system focuses mainly on taking care of people when they get sick. It's a sickness care system. This system ends up producing two things: more sickness and ever-increasing costs. This makes sense, since the people who own and work the system mainly derive their income from sick people. Think of the old Maytag commercials, featuring a Maytag repairman with too much time on his hands, because Maytag washers rarely break down. The manufacturers could afford...

A Meditation Especially for Fellow Christians (and those willing to think so.) Much of my thought and writing in recent days has, not surprisingly, focused on the events and issues involved in the current battle over the national, socialist takeover of the health care sector being engineered by the Obama faction. Though a discussion of health should focus on how best to strengthen and preserve life, I am struck by the deep preoccupation with killing and death the Obama faction's proposals have forced upon us. For all his hollow rhetoric of hope and compassion, the inescapable essence of Obama's actions...

The Obama faction's drive to consolidate totalitarian, national, socialist control of key sectors of American life is stirring up some strong negative feelings in many Americans. The self-righteous, 'How-dare-you-question-me' tone in which many Obama faction pols have lashed out at critics has aggravated their resentment. So have the bully-boy tactics intended to discourage people from attending public meetings to voice their concerns. If the Obama faction’s strategists thought these tactics would make Americans whimper and scurry back to their hidey-holes, they were sadly mistaken. Americans can be ferrets when it comes to truth, but some are more like mountain lions...

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them." "My Christian faith compels me to acknowledge that marriage was instituted by God as an exclusively heterosexual covenant," Sen. Obama said. "In fact, the California constitution's preamble actually affirms God's sovereignty saying, "We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for...