Free Republic

It used to be said that self-preservation is the first law of nature. But much of what has been happening in recent times in the United States, and in Western civilization in general, suggests that survival is taking a back seat to the shibboleths of political correctness. We have already turned loose dozens of captured terrorists, who have resumed their terrorism. Why? Because they have been given "rights" that exist neither in our laws nor under international law. These are not criminals in our society, entitled to the protection of the Constitution of the United States. They are not prisoners...

To my Conservative Friends: I have been receiving emails and phone calls over the past week from my Conservative and liberal friends alike saying to me - "Mike - You gotta see Gran Torino!!" So, in the middle of the snow storm on Saturday night, I trekked out to see the film I had heard so much about... The film is about a man named Walt Kowalski, a 70-something, cranky Korean War Vet who lives in a mid-west neighborhood that has been steadily changing to a Black/Asian community. Walt, living alone now after his wife's death, is one of the...

In his celebrated book, Bowling Alone (2000), the political scientist Robert D. Putnam argued that America, and perhaps the Western world as a whole, has become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, and neighbors. We once bowled in leagues; now we bowl alone. We once flocked to local chapters of the PTA, the NAACP, or the Veterans of Foreign Wars; now we stay home and watch television. As a result, we have lost our “social capital�—by which Putnam meant both the associations themselves and the trustworthiness and reciprocity they encourage. For if tools (physical capital) and training (human capital) make the...

Enlarge ImageColorblind? Researchers found white subjects shrink from using relevant racial descriptors when looking at cards like these.Credit: Flickr.com After Barack Obama's landmark speech on race on 18 March, it was hard to tell what got more media attention: What the Democratic presidential candidate said or that he had said it at all. Regardless, many pundits agreed that as an African-American, Obama could discuss race in ways few white people would dare. That's because most white Americans today have learned not to talk about race for fear of seeming racist, says Samuel Sommers, a social psychologist at Tufts University...

July 11, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Black-Hole SpeechThe will-to-power masquerades as tolerance. By Jonah Goldberg At a recent meeting of city officials in Dallas County, Texas, a small racial brouhaha broke out. County commissioners were hashing out difficulties with the way the central collections office handles traffic tickets. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield found himself guilty of talking while white. He observed that the bureaucracy “has become a black hole� for lost paperwork. Fellow Commissioner John Wiley Price took great offense, shouting, “Excuse me!� That office, the black commissioner explained, has become a “white hole.� Seizing on the outrage, Judge Thomas Jones...

Carl Von Clausewitz is often quoted as saying, "War is the continuation of politics by other means". I am not nearly so frequently quoted as saying, "The war on Christmas is the continuation of political correctness by a bunch of meanies". Of course, I probably haven't been cited much for that since I just came up with it. Perhaps it will take off and help me procure a spot in Bartlett's.  That will have to wait as I focus on the very real attacks on Christmas and Santa. I offer the following stories pulled from recent events. I call them,...

The good thing about living in the modern era is that we have freedom of speech and dissent is celebrated as the highest form of patriotism. So when a Nobel laureate like James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA, opines that maybe the reason that Africa is such a mess is because of intelligence you can imagine the reaction.  Said Watson, as reported by the London Times: The 79-year-old geneticist said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the...

In a racial profiling lawsuit against the Maryland State Police (MSP), a plaintiff's attorney named Eliza Leighton said that some training documents contain "startling examples of racial stereotypes about Hispanics."  According to the Associated Press: For example, one document cautions that Hispanics generally do not hold their alcohol well. They tend to drink too much and this leads to fights. And it notes, Hispanic males are raised to be MACHO and brave, while females are raised to be subservient. Other sterotypes [sic] include the assertion that the weapon of choice for Hispanics is a knife and that Hispanics are reluctant...

Never judge a book by its cover, so goes the old expression. But what’s true about books is even more true about legislation. For example, a bill pending before the Senate is titled the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.” Since few people want to promote “hate crimes,” preventing hate crimes sounds like a laudable goal. Right? Not if you read what’s between the covers: The title of this bill ought to be the “Thought Control Act of 2007.” I told “BreakPoint” listeners and readers about the bill when it was pending before the House. Unfortunately, that...

Think those advancing anthropogenic global warming theories are serious about their views? Well, an article from Sunday’s Telegraph should scare every person around the world about the zealotry and danger surrounding this issue (emphasis mine throughout): Scientists who questioned mankind's impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community. They say the debate on global warming has been "hijacked" by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions. Shocked? Astounded? That’s only the beginning: Timothy Ball, a...

My son in Kuwait and I were talking on IM when this erupted: LOKI BOB says: Im not really politically correct.... LOKI BOB says: I can put up with most groups of people except I'm really.... LOKI BOB says: lactose Intolerant. Zaxtud says: ... LOKI BOB says: I hate those lactoses LOKI BOB says: we need to build a fence around lactocia. Zaxtud says: yes we do Zaxtud says: they come here, take all the jobs LOKI BOB says: Im gong to milk this one, however... Zaxtud says: I got nothin LOKI BOB says: cheese, lactoses take the jobs Americans...

CRACK DIVISION OF FRENCH MIMES DISPATCHED TO MAINTAIN PEACE IN SOUTHERN LEBANON PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac of France has announced that his country will send an elite squad of 700 mimes to aid with peacekeeping in southern Lebanon, in the coming weeks. France's legendary Marceau (Mime) Division -- who do not carry weapons -- will join UN forces along the Israeli-Lebanese border by the end of September. The Marceau Division became famous during the Second World War, when 20 of its mimes drove 300 Gestapo officers to mass suicide by performing a routine called, "A Man Goosestepping Against the...

“There is a tradition that in the planting of New England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and hardships, as is generally the case when a civiliz’d people attempt to establish themselves in a wilderness country. Being so piously dispos’d, they sought relief from heaven by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord in frequent set days of fasting and prayer. Constant meditation and discourse on these subjects kept their minds gloomy and discontented, and like the children of Israel there were many dispos’d to return to the Egypt which persecution had induc’d them to abandon. “At length,...

I am European and came to America in 2002, where I teach at an elite Liberal Arts College. My native country is among the most socialized in the world, with strong leftist parties, from democratic socialists to outright communist. All across Europe the left – the far left, somewhere between Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean – has a very strong political position, as well as a clearly visible presence on university campuses. Despite my European background I found myself deeply surprised by the political bias on college campuses here in America. Left-wing bias is almost undetectable among European college faculty...

The TV show "Politically Incorrect" often called on Nugent to sit in as a guest when gun and hunting rights or conservationism were under fire. He just got re-elected to a fourth term on the NRA board of directors. VH1 gave Nugent his own reality show "Surviving Nugent" in which seven unsuspecting people endure a Ted-makes-up-the-rules-as-he-goes survival test. He, his four kids (Starr, Sasha, Toby and Rocco) and his wife Shemane produce his "Spirit of the Wild" hunting show on the Outdoor Channel. His writing has appeared in more than 40 publications, including the Detroit News, Stuff magazine and his...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version May 19, 2004, 10:35 a.m. Carroll and CriticsThe L.A. Times editor's unreflective bias. Los Angeles Times editor-in-chief John Carroll has again slammed critics of the paper's California recall coverage — coverage that even many liberals considered remarkably biased against Arnold Schwarzenegger — this time in a May 16 op-ed adapted from a University of Oregon speech on newspaper ethics he gave recently. This isn't the first time Carroll has attacked his attackers. A few days after Schwarzenegger's election in October, he wrote a much-discussed op-ed...