Free Republic

The morally ugly nature of actual altruism was on display when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently declared that one in ten doses of the Swine Flu vaccine that were purchased with American taxpayer dollars will be given to other countries before there is enough vaccine to cover the health needs of Americans. She explained that “There’s an agreement (on a) ten percent donation that eleven nations have made.” Once 40 million doses have been produced and distributed in the United States, then ten percent of what’s produced will be donated even as the U.S. government waits for...

Larry David New York City, N.Y., Oct 28, 2009 / 10:55 pm (CNA).-   Catholic critics have reacted to an HBO show that had a scene showing a painting of Jesus being urinated on and which also mocked Catholic devotion to Jesus. They have questioned an apparent double standard in the treatment of religions and have called for an apology from the show’s producers.Larry David, creator of the successful sitcom “Seinfeld,” now stars in the Sunday night show “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a fictional comedy about his life.In the most recent episode, the elderly David goes to the bathroom in...

God pardon all oaths that are broke to me! God keep all vows unbroken are made to thee!” - Wm. Shakespeare, King Richard II, Act III. Scene iv. Oaths and American Politics: What kind of oaths are you prepared to take? What is the oath of a freeman? What is the oath of a slave? The oath of a freeman binds man to serve and defend freedom for all. The oath of a slave binds man to serve a master and his desire. Americans, when swearing an oath, promise to: speak the truth; bear true faith and allegiance to that...

A New GOP Patrick J. Buchanan 10/27/2009 "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much," said JFK. For Sarah Palin, party loyalty in New York's 23rd congressional district asks too much. Going rogue, Palin endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over Republican Dede Scozzafava. On Oct. 1, Scozzafava was leading. Today, she trails Democrat Bill Owens and is only a few points ahead of Hoffman, as Empire State conservatives defect to vote their principles, not their party. Newt Gingrich stayed on the reservation, endorsing Scozzafava, who is pro-choice and pro-gay rights, and hauls water for the unions. Scourged by the right, Newt...

"Once a liar, always a liar" is a proverbial parental admonishment. A new study claims there is truth to the adage: People who cheated on exams in high school are considerably more likely to be dishonest later in life, according to a report to be released today by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. The study, which surveyed nearly 7,000 people in various age groups nationwide, offers a sobering assessment of today's youth as cynics who are aware that their behavior crosses boundaries but believe it is necessary to succeed. And the findings suggest that habits formed in childhood persist: Those...

Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks. I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines. Now, one side in this campaign has been telling us that the issues of this election are the maintenance...

Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed? Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths: The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith. They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright. They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of...

Obama we adore you. Your being is supreme. We know you stand for change, but what precisely does that mean? You have a massive fan base flaunting T-shirts of your face, And schools of intellectuals are focused on your race. “What progress” loudly preach your proud promoters with delight. “His policy is lacking, but at least he isn’t white.” And really this is perfect, for now we clearly see: Opponents of your politics are racist SOBs. But this can’t be the change we need, for it is no new news, The liberals have always pulled the race card when they...

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent? ...[SNIP]...Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments? Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a...

Based on this detailed, comprehensive Mayo Clinic definition, one that I believe perfectly describes Obama, it's obvious he needs prescription medicine and extended psychotherapy. Our country is in tremendous danger with a person suffering from this complex mental illness in our White House.

WASHINGTON — Looking to build pressure on moderate Democrats, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it will begin airing new TV ads in seven states and on national cable television attacking the emerging legislation, including a government-run insurance option. The chamber, the country's largest business organization, says such a public plan would force tax increases, raise peoples' health care costs and threaten employer-provided coverage that most Americans already have. The ad is slated to start Wednesday. Chamber spokeswoman Blair Latoff said the ads would run in states including Maine, Louisiana and Arkansas — home to some pivotal moderate senators of...

Luigi ZingalesAn Economic Agenda for the GOP Republicans need to be pro-market, not pro-business. Autumn 2009 For 30 years, the Republican Party dominated American political life, winning five of the seven presidential elections before 2008. But the GOP has taken its lumps of late, culminating in its loss of Congress in 2006 and the White House last November. As the party suffers not just from a leadership vacuum but from considerable internal division, its future direction is unclear. This much, however, is certain: as America struggles to emerge from a financial crisis, any renewal of the Right will require...

My Extremely Cute Chinese Communist SpyPosted By Robert J. Avrech On October 28, 2009 @ 6:51 am In Obama, Politics | 6 Comments T- snip-American Journalism Goes Dark—VoluntarilyJournalism died in America when Barack Hussein Obama was running for President.The dinosaur media gleefully surrendered to the cult of personality—standard for leftist politics—and since then normally skeptical journalists have turned into nothing less than a collective Pravda for the Obama White House.- snip- Elite journalists and editors recognize in Obama a kindred spirit, a hard left, big government ideologue who is adept at mouthing—endlessly, tediously and vacuously—all the politically correct rhetoric. Questions...

ChristiaNet.com, the world's largest Christian portal with nine million monthly page loads, recently asked, "Is President Obama helping the economy?" "A majority of Christians seem to doubt the President's economic policies," said Bill Cooper, president of ChristiaNet. With nearly 1,500 Christians participating, 69% said that they do not believe that President Obama is helping the economy. Most in this group felt the President is actually destroying the economy by spending too much money, raising taxes and increasing the size of government. "He is killing the economy. You cannot spend your way out of debt!" said one respondent. "Raising taxes and...

In America we are a century and a half away from the "Know-Nothing Party", a secret political society that fulminated against the Catholic Church and Irish immigrants. (Asked about its composition, members would say, "I know nothing;" hence, the moniker.) Formed in public as The American Party, the party's hateful, nativist politics took a long time to expunge from our shores. But we now have an Englishman, Richard Dawkins--one of society's "Brites" according to his fellow-Darwinist, Daniel Dennett--in a screed against the Catholic Church that proclaims the same frothing bigotry exemplified by the Know-Nothings. This and Dawkins' various other attacks...

[This speech was given on October 24, 2009, at the Birthplace of Economic Theory conference in Salamanca, Spain.]"The web and digital media are to the establishment what the printers were to the scribes." Standup comedian Louis C.K. has a routine called "everything's amazing, nobody's happy." The gag has people on an airplane, sitting on comfy chairs and flying through clouds. They are complaining that the wireless connection is too slow.There is truth here. Capitalism has made everything amazing, and yet everyone these days seems to hate capitalism.Let's leave aside the problem that it takes economic understanding to see cause and...

Larry David’s ‘Piss Christ’Posted By Big Hollywood On October 27, 2009 @ 2:22 pm In Religion, Television | 78 Comments An email received today:“First let me state that I’ve been a fan of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for many years and, even though Larry David is a liberal, I generally enjoy the writing and Larry’s antics. However, this time what I saw made me feel a little sick, extremely disappointed and a bit angry as well. I will never watch the show again as I have lost all respect and feelings of good will for Mr. David.“Did you happen to see...

The huge particle accelerator successfully powered some protons and lead ions around short sections of its 17-mile ring on Friday, and everything seemed to be working correctly. Engineers and scientists have been warily putting it through its paces for the first time since its catastrophic breakdown, or “quench”, which happened when two of the LHC’s huge superconducting magnets suffered a short circuit within hours of it powering up. cross-section of the ion beam flowing through the LHC, just before the ALICE detector The problem ripped the two magnets from their moorings and caused the loss of over a ton of...

MUMBAI: Students in a CBSE school need no longer worry about failing in classes IX or X. Besides altering several evaluation methods, the CBSE board will now allow students who do not clear classes IX and X three more attempts to make the grade. And if they fail to do so, the board is considering taking into account their performance in extracurricular activities and sports. So if you're an ace footballer with a poor math score, there's a chance you'll still pass the year. Assessment, too will be revamped. A child who fares poorly in written exams can be tested...

AMERICAN.COM A Magazine of Ideas Greed Is Not Good, and It’s Not Capitalism By Jay W. RichardsThursday, October 15, 2009 Filed under: Big Ideas, Culture, Economic Policy, Public Square Capitalism doesn’t need greed. What capitalism does need is human creativity and initiative. After months of hearing the media and pundits pronounce the untimely death of capitalism, it did my heart good to see a recent Newsweek cover story challenge the familiar trope. The author, Fareed Zakaria, noted that this pessimistic pronouncement gets air time in the wake of every financial downturn. But in reality, capitalism, over the long haul, has...

In a SPIEGEL interview, Charles Krauthammer, the leading voice of America's conservative intellectuals, discusses Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, the president's failures and the state of the United Nations and the international community. SPIEGEL: Mr. Krauthammer, did the Nobel Commitee in Oslo honor or doom the Obama presidency by awarding him the Peace Prize? Charles Krauthammer: It is so comical. Absurd. Any prize that goes to Kellogg and Briand, Le Duc Tho and Arafat, and Rigoberta Menchú, and ends up with Obama, tells you all you need to know. For Obama it's not very good because it reaffirms the stereotypes...

ROME, OCT. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- As the theory of evolution turns 150 years old, one group of scholars is calling it a scientific impossibility.After a year of conferences celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin's 1859 book, "On the Origin of Species," a Nov. 9 conference is planned to provide empirical proof to debunk evolution. Rome's Pope Pius V University will host the daylong conference that will present a scientific refutation of evolution theory. Peter Wilders and H. M. Owen, organizers of the event, told ZENIT that the conference is aimed to "stimulate debate among scientists" and that it is particularly...

Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct 27, 2009 / 06:32 am (CNA).- A 63-year-old tradition of having a privately maintained nativity scene on a public median in Warren, Michigan has been ended after the local road commission received a threatening letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The move has resulted in a lawsuit charging that the ban on the display is discriminatory.In 1945 St. Anne’s Parish received a donation of Christmas nativity statues which were too large to set up inside the church. Some parishioners thought the statues and a manger could be displayed in the center of the village...

....Why was Scozzafava chosen to run for this office? According to those in the know, she was handpicked by another leftist Republican officeholder who chose not to run for office but who wanted to play "kingmaker," and who had the willing acquiescence of the district GOP chairman. Conservatives had no input, and were left entirely out of the loop, which is why a real conservative — Doug Hoffman, running on the Conservative Party ticket — has had to step forward and be the voice and candidate for conservatives in this election. Hence, you have a candidate who is radically out...

Hot Air's AllahPundit recycles a tired argument about conservatives sitting down and shutting up when the RNC sticks the goobers in the sticks with a liberal weenie candidate. It's all about being on the winning team, donchaknow? A variation of "My tired Republican hack can beat up your tired Democrat hack!" There's no debating these types: a philosophical difference of opinion spells doom for the Republican Party. But make no mistake: this debate must be held and now's as good a time as any. We agree with AllahP. more than we disagree. But that doesn't mean that it's not...

Good news, but a tad underwhelming when you look at the numbers. Right now it breaks out at 40/37/20 among conservatives, moderates, and liberals, respectively. Between 2006 and 2008, when the left was routing us at the polls, it was roughly … 37/37/22, a testament to how toxic progressives’ brand is even at the best of times. In fact, between the second and third quarters of this year, conservatives actually lost a point while moderates gained two. Not sure what explains that, although as The One moves further left, crazy wingnut ideas like “we shouldn’t create a new federal health-care...

Scientology Spokesman Tommy Davis Leaves Interview in Anger The Church of Scientology is taking a beating today. First, former member Paul Haggis wrote a scathing letter renouncing the religion, and now a video of spokesman Tommy Davis walking out of an interview with Martin Bashir on 'Nightline,' is making the rounds on the Internet. Davis was offended when Bashir asked questions about the popular celebrity religion's beliefs. "Do you believe that the Galactic Emperor called Xenu brought his people to earth 75 million years ago and buried them in volcanoes?" Bashir asked. "Martin, I'm not going to discuss the disgusting...

October 26, 2009 Off-year elections: weathervane for 2010? Maybe not By Wes Vernon In 1993, in the first year of Bill Clinton's presidency, the Republicans scored big, with victories in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, and Los Angeles. That was the triumph that provided the momentum that would enable the GOP to sweep to a big victory in 1994, winning control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker of the House as a result of that 52-seat blowout, says if Republicans are to repeat or come reasonably close to...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin's chief political strategist warned in an article published on Monday that Russia risked collapsing into chaos if officials tried to tinker with the political system by flirting with liberal reforms. Kremlin Deputy Chief of Staff Vladislav Surkov said it was clear Russia was falling behind in many areas of economic development and that the country could not simply continue being a "resource power." But in answer to calls from opponents for democratic reforms to liberalize the political system built under former President Vladimir Putin, Surkov warned that the resulting instability could rip Russia apart.

A Facebook poll on another important clause in the Pledge of Allegiance. If you are on Facebook, please take a moment to vote and to toss in your two cents' worth in the comments.

The term “social engineering” never fit an entity better than it does the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This intrusive, tenacious organization has spent years attempting to recast and transform American society to fit its own peculiar ideals. Its directors are missionaries in the full sense of the word, in that they relentlessly work to stamp onto the hearts and minds of the public a distinctive belief system, which teaches what is evil and what is not. This month, the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) has published an excellent analysis of the SPLC’s attack on FAIR and other immigration reform...

Regardless of how President Barack Obama's health-care agenda plays out in Congress, it has not been a success in public opinion. Opposition to ObamaCare has risen all year.--snip--The health-care debate is part of a moral struggle currently being played out over the free enterprise system. It will be replayed in every major policy debate in the coming months, from financial regulatory reform to a cap-and-trade system for limiting carbon emissions. The choices will ultimately always come down to competing visions of America's future. Will we strengthen freedom, individual opportunity and enterprise? Or will we expand the role of the state...

A complaint has been filed by a transgendered substitute teacher against a Catholic school board in Canada. Jan Buterman was a substitute teacher for St. Albert Catholic Schools in Edmonton, Alberta, before announcing that she was going through the process to become a "he." Dave Quist, executive director of the Institute of Marriage and Family - Canada, offers insight on the incident.

Obama at odds with his own vision for the world By: Michael Barone Senior Political AnalystOctober 25, 2009 Barack Obama, who found time to go on a 24-hour jaunt to Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to seek the 2016 Olympics games for Chicago, apparently cannot find the time for a 24-hour trip to Berlin on Nov. 9 for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Well, we all have our priorities, and the president can't be everywhere at once, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will surely represent the United States ably in Berlin.Still,...

Return to the Article October 25, 2009The Slander NetworkBy J.R. Dunn It's a rare pleasure to see that Going Rogue doing so well ahead of publication. (Even though rescheduling the publishing date delayed my book -- but I forgive you, lass). When it appears, there's little doubt it will go through the roof.  Along with fits from the Olbermanns and Courics of the world, we can look forward to seeing a few myths definitively punctured -- the "I can see Russia" story, the shooting wolves from a helicopter narrative, or alternately, the "she can't shoot a gun" claim. (Really,...

Sebelius Says U.S. Will Donate Part of H1N1 Vaccine Supply to Foreign Nations Before Meeting This Nation’s DemandThursday, October 22, 2009 By Chris Neefus      ....... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) asked Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebilius why the United States should get vaccinations ahead of people in other countries, including those in countries that are producing the vaccine for the United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)When Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) had his turn to question Sebelus, he raised the issue of whether the United States was "entitled" to the vaccine more than other nations. "Why should we be more entitled, the U.S. be more   entitled to...

Great video from PJTV

Debate continues to rage over abortion coverage in all of the health care reform bills. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have made it clear that they cannot and will not support any proposal that includes abortion coverage. Responding to the Bishops, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) recently slammed the Church, saying that it was fanning “the flames of dissent and discord,� by opposing the health care reform bills under consideration unless they are amended to explicity prohibit abortion funding. “I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of...

Alex Kurtagic’s dystopian novel, Mister attempts to illustrate the everyday consequences of living in a world in which current social, cultural, political, economic, and demographic trends have been allowed to continue. It treats the result of the liberal utopians’ efforts with sarcasm and derision, but its main target is the so-called “respectable conservative,” that has the right instincts and is fully aware of the destructive forces at work in Western societies, but is too preoccuped with maintaining social status and professional prestige to risk voicing politically incorrect opinions. He silently opts for a reactive strategy of avoidance and adaptation, rather...

"The woman's movement wasn't about happiness." That judgment, attributed to feminist Susan Faludi, seems to be the blunt assessment shared by many other women. As numerous recent studies now indicate, a remarkably large percentage of women describe themselves as increasingly unhappy. This issue came to light last month in a fascinating essay by Maureen Dowd of The New York Times. Dowd, whose columns often reveal the nation's Zeitgeist, cited the fact that a number of major studies indicate that "women are getting gloomier and men are getting happier." She asked: "Did the feminist revolution end up benefiting men more than...

Benjamin Disraeli’s most famous advice to aspiring politicians was: “Never complain and never explain.” For the greatest orator of our time, a man who makes Churchill, Lincoln, and Henry V at Agincourt look like first-round rejects on Orating with the Stars, Barack Obama seems to have pretty much given up on the explaining side. He tried it with health care with speech after speech after exclusive interview for months on end and the more he explained the more unpopular the whole racket got. So he declared that the time for explaining is over, and it’s time to sign on or...

In the first chapter of Russell Kirk's The Roots of American Order we read the following statement: "Our own society, like that of any other people, is held together by what is called an 'order.'" Without order, society doesn't cohere. Instead, it flies apart, breaks up, and disintegrates. And, I would argue, a process of disintegration has been underway in the United States for many years. The breakup of the American order has been masked by American prosperity, which has continued throughout the process of social disintegration. To a very great extent, the financial crisis we are experiencing today is...

What Do Americans Believe About Creationism and Evolution? After spending time on some of the recent discussions here at FR about Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and other points of view (which I will call Old Earth Creationism (OEC) and Naturalistic Evolution), I found myself wondering: how many FReepers (and how many Americans) hold each particular view? Obviously, there aren't any statistics on FReepers. But there are on Americans as a whole, and on certain groups of Americans. The best general resource I've found so far on people's viewpoints is located here. I will summarize some of those here. (Note: This...

I am afraid to report that when I compared Thomas Frank's book, which I believe was a cheap hatchet job on the majority of the people of Kansas, and the 2009 Cohen/Winston documentary of the same name, I found that the apple does not fall very far from the tree. A few fundamental themes ran through the film. The first theme is that when Christians and their values are mixed with politics it is the recipe for political doom. The liberal crowd on viewing night seemed quite joyful as the pro-lifer, Phill Kline, is defeated by Paul Morrison for Kansas...

Bishops Castigate African Leaders The bishops' statement came at the end of a three-week synod More than 200 Roman Catholic bishops from across Africa have called on corrupt political leaders in the continent to repent or step down. The bishops accused Catholic leaders in Africa of having fallen "woefully short" and also condemned non-Catholic leaders and outside foreign interests. These included multinationals that had damaged the environment and exploited natural resources, they said. The BBC's David Willey said the 12-page message was unusually strong. Reporting from Rome, he said that the message was issued from the Vatican at the end...

Ayn Rand has drifted in and out of favor, but she may be more relevant today than ever before.In my experience, people who've read Ayn Rand's books either love them or hate them. I'm one of the few who fall somewhere in between. When I first read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in the 1980s, I was blown away. Those books portray the power of the free individual in ways I had never thought about before. Since then, I've grown more critical of Rand's outlook because it doesn't include the human needs we have for grace, love, faith, or any...

After giving a talk to a group of family values minded Freeport, Illinois area residents addressing three major threats facing the United States – which I term “The Perfect Storm,” and a solution to a problem that safeguards the US Constitution, I found myself personally and ideologically assailed by a letter-writer to a local newspaper, a Ms. Patricia Wemstrom. I take issue with her critique not only because she mischaracterized each and every point that I made at the event, but also because she wasn’t even in attendance. The critique was caustic and hateful in nature: “I am surprised by...

October 23, 2009, 4:00 a.m. America’s Obama ObsessionAnatomy of a passing hysteria. By Victor Davis Hanson For 30 months the nation has been in the grip of a certain Obama obsession, immune to countervailing facts, unwilling to face reality, and loath to break the spell. But like all trances, the fit is passing, and we the patient are beginning to appreciate how the stupor came upon us, why it lifted, and what its consequences have been. HOW OBAMA WONBarack Obama was elected rather easily because, in perfect-storm fashion, five separate trends coalesced last autumn. 1) Obama was eloquent, young, charismatic...

For all of history, the fundamental issue in the creation-evolution conflict has been philosophical presuppositions, not empirical evidence or ‘brute facts’. Creationists have been pointing this out for many years, with varying degrees of effectiveness. To their credit, the modern Intelligent Design movement has recognized this same point, and for almost twenty years now, has explicitly made philosophical argumentation central in the debate over Darwinism. Phillip Johnson played an important role in bringing the philosophy of naturalism out into the open and onto the dissecting table with his best-selling Darwin on Trial, the book usually credited with launching the modern...

Shallow water light ranges from the ultraviolet to red (wavelengths 360 nm - 650 nm). Going deeper, the extremes disappear and the spectrum narrows to a blue (approx 480 nm). Of the fish species whose colour vision has been tested to date, all except one can see in the ultraviolet (UV). The exception is the scabbardfish, which is the subject of a new research paper. The authors find that the fish that are sensitive to UV have a pigment that absorbs UV light, but the scabbardfish lacks this pigment and has, instead, a pigment that is violet-sensitive. The scabbardfish (Lepidopus...