Free Republic

Last week, on Rush's show he spent quite a lot of time talking about how journalists view their industry as being above advertising; that they do not need to make a profit. They should be able to lose money in perpetuity and never face cutbacks. There is an answer to why this mindset exists. In short, journalists view advertising as a hallmark of "yellow journalism". Delos F. Wilcox, Ph. D. gives us the answer we need on page 91 of a book he wrote titled "The American Newspaper: A Study in Social Psychology". Published in 1900, originally in the Annals...

In "Sociology for the South: or, The failure of free society", George Fitzhugh writes the following: (pages 244-246) Domestic slavery in the Southern States has produced the same results in elevating the character of the master that it did in Greece and Rome. He is lofty and independent in his sentiments, generous, affectionate, brave and eloquent; he is superior to the Northerner in every thing but the arts of thrift. History proves this. A Yankee sometimes gets hold of the reins of State, attempts Apollo, but acts Phaeton. Scipio and Aristides, Calhoun and Washington, are the noble results of domestic...

The left has been waging a decades-long smear campaign against conservatives, painting them as bigots who have been on the wrong side of history on every issue, including America’s greatest sin – slavery. Vice President Joe Biden even went as far as to suggest during the 2012 election that a Republican victory would re-enslave African-Americans. Leftist academics and historians have gone to great lengths to bury and distort the names and legacies of the men who defended the ugliest of American institutions; men whose philosophy on government, rights, and liberty, as it turns out, is uncomfortably close to their own....

Old "distributive justice" vs the new "distributive justice", and the abuse of the English language by progressivesThe interesting thing about history is that there is very little that's new under the sun. This is also true for the term "distributive justice". I asked the question "Is "distributive justice" yet another idea that progressives imported from Germany?" to which the answer is yes. American Progressives did import it from Germany, all you have to do is check the progressives' footnotes. But that is not where this ends, because the German Socialists originally got the term from somewhere else. In short, there's...

W. Randolph HearstThis is the highest and most profitable knowledge, truly to know and to despise ourselves. To have no opinion of ourselves and to think always well and highly of others, is great wisdom and perfection. If thou shouldest see another sin openly or commit some grievous crime, yet thou oughtest not to esteem thyself better; because thou knowest not how long thou mayest be able to remain in a good state. We are all frail; but as to thee, do not think they are more frail than thyself. - Thomas a Kempis, Book I. Ch. I. I.- AN...

I've made it through the entirety of Walter Lippmann's book "Public Opinion", and I initially missed it. Walter Lippmann gives up the entire journalistic game right in the very first paragraph. Though, it is easy to miss given how the book is structured. I'm almost done with the full audiobook, but in doing some reviewing, I re-read this portion and it hit me. Right here at the outset Walter Lippmann sets the tone for his book very, very well. This is the very first paragraph of the book, on page 1: There is an island in the ocean where in...

KIN BEYOND SEASeptember-October, 1878 It is now nearly half a century since the works of De Tocqueville and De Beaumont, founded upon personal observation, brought the institutions of the United States effectually within the circle of European thought and interest. They were cooperators, but not upon an equal scale. De Beaumont belongs to the class of ordinary though able writers: De Tocqueville was the Burke of his age, and his treatise upon America may well be regarded as among the best books hitherto produced for the political student of all times and countries. But higher and deeper than the concern...

In "The New Democracy", by Walter Weyl, he writes the following: (page 166) Nor do all these revolutionists comprehend that they are allies. One group in the community strives to end the exploitation of child labor. Other groups seek to extend and improve education, to combat tuberculosis, to reform housing conditions, to secure direct primaries, to obtain the referendum, to punish force and fraud at the polls, to secure governmental inspection of foods, to regulate railroad rates, to limit the issue of stocks and bonds of corporations doing an interstate business, to change the character and incidence of taxation, to...

THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISMTHE future of journalism is a large subject. It is but a thing of yesterday, but already it overshadows the world. The rustle of its myriad sheets, unfolded afresh every morning and folded for ever at night, supplies a realistic fulfilment of one part of the old Norse saga of the Ash-tree Ygdrasil, whose roots were watered by the Norns, and on whose leaves were written the scenes of the life of man. It has part of the necessary garniture of the civilized man. The Northcountry pitman said "He felt quite naked-like without his dog." A man...

Little known is it that FDR is not the first president to have relocation camps, and Japanese Americans were not the original target. Nearly 30 years prior to World War two, German Americans were the targets and the most interesting thing is that very little is written about this. History has been virtually expunged of this topic. Historians do not write about it, so history books don't contain it, and even from various news journals at the time it was largely unreported. When it was reported, some of the blurbs on it were small and not noteworthy. The first American...

How the United States Takes Care of German Prisoners (June, 1918)A VISITOR TO THE PRISON CAMP AT FORT McPHERSON, GEORGIA, DESCRIBES THE COMFORTABLE LIFE LED BY THE INMATES By Reuben A. Lewis WHAT sort of treatment will American soldiers receive when the fortunes of war leave them prisoners in German hands? The question is one that may come to have a very poignant interest as the great struggle goes on; and we shall have the right to ask it in a most emphatic manner. For, in championing the cause of humanity, we are fighting with clean hands. We already have...

Considering that "distributive justice" is an ideal that progressives wholly ripped off from German intellectuals, I thought we all ought to know how to at least spell it in it's native tongue. It's a Germanic idea so why should we all act like it's American? Just a few notes: This is the Wikipedia page for "Verteilungsgerechtigkeit", and this is the Google translation of that page. There are various books out there that discuss Gustav Schmoller's ideas of Verteilungsgerechtigkeit, such as 1, 2. There are of course other intellectuals to be named besides Schmoller(Such as Adolph Wagner), but this long German...

I recently wrote about how John A Ryan, the "Right Reverend New Dealer", used the writing of Gustav von Schmoller as a source for his idea of "distributive justice." As I noted then, another person influenced by Schmoller was Emily Greene Balch. There are plenty of others: Thorstein Veblen was influenced by him, having written a piece on Gustav von Schmoller's Economics. William J. Ashley, gave his inaugural address to the University of Toronto with a dedication to Gustav Schmoller on page 2. W.E.B. DuBois, like Emily Balch, studied under Schmoller. Richard T. Ely, Florence Kelley, John Graham Brooks, and...

Levin has said for a long time that we live in a "post constitutional republic" and in a general sense this is correct, but specifically we live in a "Progressive Democracy". This is also the title for a book written by Herbert Croly. The book is not in copyright, I hope people will download it online and read it. I would like to teach you how/where to find and verify everything that I stated: Theodore Roosevelt specifically recommended Croly's book "Progressive Democracy" in an article of his titled "Two noteworthy books on Democracy". I stated that the progressives hate the...

I have seen and heard plenty of people vent frustration about things such as preaching to the choir or being willing to do more but not knowing what more they can do, or perhaps where to do it. Well, I want to offer you to help me with what I am trying to accomplish, or rather, ask all of you to help me, offer your time. I wish to see to it that the Debates between our Founding Fathers, in which our great Constitution was forged, are made into an audiobook that people can download freely, listen to, and learn...

In his book "Distributive Justice" John A. Ryan writes the following: (page 252) The Canon of Human WelfareWe say "human" welfare rather than "social" welfare, in order to make clear the fact that this canon considers the well being of men not only as a social group, but also as individuals. It includes and summarises all that is ethically and socially feasible in the five canons already reviewed. It takes account of equality, inasmuch as it regards all men as persons, as subjects of rights; and of needs, inasmuch as it awards to all the necessary participants in the industrial...

THE IDEA OF JUSTICE IN POLITICAL ECONOMYIs there a just distribution of economic goods? Or should there be? This is a question which is raised again to-day, a question which has been asked as long as human society and social institutions have existed. The greatest thinker of ancient history asked the question and thousands after him have repeated it, sages and scholars, great statesmen and hungry proletarians, thoughtful philanthropists and enthusiastic idealists. To-day the question seems less opportune than ever. Even those who pride themselves on their idealism declare it to be one of the useless questions which nobody can...

In the first hour of his show on monday, Glenn discussed the revolutionary nature of large wars and how they change everything. He specifically mentioned WW1 during the show, which is something I've long thought of myself but I also thought perhaps I was being too aggressive in my beliefs. Coinciding with this blog post, I also posted an article from The Nation which was published in 1917, in which the progressives' eagerness cannot be contained: Our cause, then, can give us a calm conscience. But that is not enough. The question is whether we can remain true to the...

The American Tradition and the War, April 26th, 1917THE past months have witnessed a rebirth of American patriotism. Many of us had been taking the United States almost for granted. It had been to us something like a club in which we were members by right of birth - a club in which we paid our dues as a matter of course, on behalf of which we accepted our casual slight responsibilities more or less grudgingly, and to which we paid comparatively little attention: the purpose of the club was something so vague to us that in the pressure of...

Per the Wikipedia page: A Test of the News is a 1920 study done by Walter Lippmann, a US journalist, and Charles Merz, later editorial page editor of the New York Times. They examined press coverage of the Bolshevik revolution for a three-year period beginning with the overthrow of the Tsar in February 1917. They used the New York Times as their source because of its reputation for accurate reporting.