Free Republic

LOS ANGELES — Like many of Jason Jones’ best ideas, this one came in the middle of the night.A member of the production team that put out the pro-life hit movie of 2006, Bella, Jones’ previous nocturnal brainstorm had instigated Bella Hero, a campaign devoted to putting a copy of the film in the hands of every visitor to a crisis-pregnancy center in the United States. Next came Bella on Campus, which raises funds to pay for college screenings.Now, because of a chance meeting with a New York City beggar, drug addict and ex-con to whom he had given...

Arson investigators were looking Tuesday into two fires in three days that destroyed the Orlando Bahá'í Center in Orlando. The first fire in the one-story wood building on Hillcrest Street was reported at 4:48 a.m. Sunday. When the Orlando Fire Department responded to the second blaze at 12:55 a.m. Tuesday, flames were shooting through the roof. "It is unusual for something like that to happen, especially this much down time between the two," said Orlando Fire Department Commander Vicki Robles. A spokesperson for the Bahá'í Center said the fires are baffling to the members, who number about 300 in the...

Here's a transcript of what's said: Unknown voice: "We need to change congress" Friedman: No, we don't need to change congress, excuse me. You know, people have a great misunderstanding about this. People in congress are in the business, they're trying to buy votes. They're in the business of competing with one another to get elected. The same congressman will vote for a different thing if he thinks that's politically profitable. You don't have to change congress. People have a great misconception in this way they think the way you solve things is by electing the right people. It's nice...

OCTOBER 30, 2009 We're Governed by Callous Children Americans feel increasingly disheartened, and our leaders don't even notice. By PEGGY NOONAN The new economic statistics put growth at a healthy 3.5% for the third quarter. We should be dancing in the streets. No one is, because no one has any faith in these numbers. Waves of money are sloshing through the system, creating a false rising tide that lifts all boats for the moment. The tide will recede. The boats aren't rising, they're bobbing, and will settle. No one believes the bad time is over. No one thinks we're entering...

What is unique in our system, in the American system, is that its leaders are not kings. The government is not a king. Presidents, senators, judges, from the top right on down to the county sheriff on patrol, they are all bound by constitutional limits. They have the power to do what they have the power to do, as spelled out in the constitution, and not one thing more. Anything beyond that belongs to the citizen. If something needs doing, and it isn’t covered in the constitution, does that mean it won’t get done? Of course not. It means that...

Why is thought, being a secretion of the brain, more wonderful than gravity, a property of matter? It is our arrogance, it is our admiration of ourselves… — Charles Darwin, age 29, in his notebook This is an incredible comment. It is difficult to understand how anyone with a brain could not observe that thought produces such things as symphonies, literature and mathematics, while gravity just makes things fall down and holds planets in their orbits. Furthermore, thought does not secrete like insulin from a pancreas, it is willed (at least that’s what I do, and I assume others do...

  In the 1970s, when about 40 percent of Democratic congressmen were pro-life, the party had a seemingly insurmountable hold on the House of Representatives. Now, less than 15 percent are pro-life, and they're in an ever-shrinking House minority. Meanwhile, the big Democratic success stories from 2004 were the new representatives in Iowa, Missouri, and Michigan, as well as new Democratic governors in West Virginia and Louisiana. All of these victories were won by pro-life Democrats.   Some in the Democratic Party read the signs correctly; otherwise, they never could have elected a relative social moderate like Harry Reid...

American sovereignty is at the core of our collective idea of country and Constitution. European countries have mostly ceded theirs to the European Union (EU). Could Americans be just one treaty, one Supreme Court ruling away from becoming like many other countries: nothing more than an abstract grouping of humanity? Sovereignty is defined as supreme power, especially over a body politic, or freedom from external control. Jeremy Rabkin, noted Constitutional expert and professor of law at George Mason University, says sovereignty is not about power. It is a political or legal concept. Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father, asserted strongly that “a...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made an outspoken attack on those seeking to rehabilitate former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Millions of Soviet citizens died under Stalin's rule and Mr Medvedev said it was not possible to justify those who exterminated their own people. He also warned against efforts to falsify history and defend repression.

Halloween has its origins in superstition and sadly, it invokes old and new superstitions still. Halloween, from "All Hallows Eve," was the evening before the Catholic All Saints Day and was supposed to be haunted by demons jealous of the holy day to follow. It also had roots in prehistoric Celtic mythology. But in modern times it's developed into a fun day where children dress in ghoulish or cute costumes and canvass the neighborhood for candy while adults at masquerade parties imbibe more mature fare. Granted some juveniles get more into the tricks than the treats. And the occasional morbid-Goth...

For centuries, Ancient Greece has enjoyed the kudos of being regarded as the birthplace of science. Now India is hoping to trump the homeland of Archimedes — Generations of Indians have believed that Westerners such as Aristotle drove scientific advances, largely because the Indian education system was framed by Britain, according to N.R. Iyer, the director of Delhi’s National Science Centre. “Students around the world learn only the history of Western science,” he said. “There is the widespread perception that science began in Greece. We want to correct this, and publicise advances made in India as long as 5,000 years...

MADISON, Wis. — Conservative Green Bay radio talk show host Jerry Bader was suspended Thursday for two weeks over salacious comments he made speculating on why Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton suddenly dropped out of the governor's race. WTAQ-AM announced the suspension and said a decision about Bader's future would be made in two weeks. In a two-minute podcast posted Monday afternoon on WTAQ's Web site, Bader made suggestive claims about Lawton's personal life that he said explained her departure from the race. He said he had confirmed the claims with multiple sources. On Tuesday, Bader retracted the story with a...

There is a Colossus present that may find itself great enough to challenge even the Leviathan whose inertia seems unstoppable. This is the Colossus made up of what was once referred to as the "silent majority," a massive group of people who believe it is incorrect to assume it is the government's job to do anything other than protect its citizens, and that a government's citizens are not protected by being given free rides, having their will and self-reliance eroded as an unintended, yet inevitable consequence.

Despite an economy languishing in high unemployment and low consumer confidence, more American companies are jumping on the bandwagon to provide support for homosexual and transgender employees. More than 300 firms have now received perfect 100 percent scores in this fall's Corporate Equality Index, produced annually by the Human Rights Campaign which ranks businesses on their "treatment" of employees who have chosen homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles. The list, which saw a 20 percent increase this year in the number of perfect scores, includes newcomers such as theater giant AMC Entertainment, Costco, Delta Air Lines, Food Lion and General...

Harry Stein What Mad Men Gets Wrong The fifties, a decade of forgotten loyalty, honor, and patriotism The ongoing frenzy over Mad Men, which recently landed the Emmy for best drama series for the second straight year, has me thinking about my father-in-law and his group of cronies in Monterey, California. I wrote a book about these guys some years back, called The Girl Watchers Club. For over 30 years, they got together every week to shoot the breeze about their jobs, their families, and the world at large and, invariably, to reminisce about the war in which they’d all...

The recent election of Danielle Smith as leader of the Wildrose Alliance reminded me that among the many things I love about the libertarian/right wing are the women. Could be our slogan: Come for the culture war ... stay for the chicks. Right-wing women rock. Not for us the sturdy, honest calves of the New Democrat/Green Party female, honed on eco-tourist rainforest hikes. Those legs are often on unfortunate display, extending from a knee-length tweed skirt as hairy as the legs themselves, and end in a pair of Birkenstocks. I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women's shoes...

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,...