Free Republic

When I pointed out that Lippmann is widely considered the Father of Modern Journalism, I did of course overlook one thing. A rather large thing. As I pointed out then, Harvard has a monument to Walter Lippmann on it's campus, (Lippmann House, 1 Francis Ave, Cambridge, Middlesex, MA 02138) but what about what goes on inside this and other locations? One of the items that I have had an extremely hard time locating is a book titled "A Test of the News", which Lippmann co-wrote with Charles Merz. The thought never really occurred to me until recently to go digging...

Hey, Dad. If you’re going to send your kid to a public school or a state run university, then you’ve got to teach your child not to just sit there in class, like a nice boy, and take whatever propaganda the “progressives” shove down their pie hole. The Conservative/traditionalist is the rebel of our day. “The Man” and “The Machine” on campus to rage against is not stodgy traditionalism, but rank socialism and its moral and political vacuity. Meet the new boss — it’s not the same as the old boss. For Dads who want their kids to make a...

A LETTER FROM PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ON RACE SUICIDE (1907) [After reading Dr. Cronin's article on "The Doctor in the Public School," in the April number of the Review Of Reviews, President Roosevelt dictated the following letter to the editor of this magazine. Owing to the widespread interest in the subject, the President has acceded to the editor's request that the letter be given to the public. It is perhaps only fair to Dr. Cronin to call attention to the fact that he was dealing in his article with the question of large families in some of the crowded sections of...

Children who don’t get a pre-kindergarten education, ideally from birth to age 5, might fall behind and “may as well drop out” by third grade, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said on Wednesday at an event to garner support for President Barack Obama's $75-billion proposal to increase pre-school enrollment across the country.

. . . In the meantime, there are a number of actions President Barack Obama can take that do not require approval by Congress. We urge the administration to take additional actions using its existing authority both to improve the federal government’s ability to prevent dangerous individuals from acquiring or possessing guns and to enhance law-enforcement investigations of gun-related crime. . . . .

With an Eight-Year Plan as ambitious as the Obama regime's, scandal eruptions are going to be a given. Thankfully, the mainstream media is happy to help with damage control. Hand in hand with the Party's PR Directorate, they run a successful campaign of convincing the unwashed masses that they CAN indeed trust their government and that anyone who thinks otherwise is an enemy of the state. I prove my loyalty by submitting this piece of visual propaganda for the Party's PR campaign.

Culture is the culmination of everything happening in a society, the collective stew of the nation. A good stew, a healthy stew, has all the flavors melting together to create something better than the sum of its parts – garlic is great, but it’s much better on something than simply eating a bulb of it. Our stew, our nation, is reversing course and coagulating to the point that some parts are actively working against the whole and making the stew inedible. No, I’m not talking about the president as a man, or any elected Democrats. Their tactics sometimes cross the...

In a brazen push to make his state even more decisively the abortion capital of the United States, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is trying to ram through the legislature, before its June 20 adjournment, a radical expansion of the abortion license in the provisions of his “Women’s Equality Act.” As my Witherspoon Institute colleague Gabrielle Speach, and co-author and practicing physician Elissa Sanchez-Speach, write today at Public Discourse, Gov. Cuomo’s bill is an open invitation to the Kermit Gosnells of the abortion trade to move to New York and ratchet up their performance of late-term abortions on viable...

Antonin Scalia may be the Supreme Court justice whom progressives most love to hate. Daily Kos blogger Sylvia Moore says he is "clearly an authoritarian." A California Lawyer reader complains online that Scalia "actively promotes an authoritarian agenda in which the rights of the individual have little meaning." Even legal writer Joan Biskupic, in her relatively respectful and sympathetic biography of Scalia, refers to his "authoritarian bent" and "authoritarian instinct." The latest refutation of this caricature is Maryland v. King, a decision issued Monday in which the Supreme Court upheld DNA testing of arrestees. Scalia's dissent illustrates how his respect...

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) not only blamed the victims of the IRS's targeting on Tuesday--he also implied the IRS would have been justified targeting conservative and Tea Party groups if the agency did so based on what the groups stood for instead of on the words in their names. At a House Ways and Means hearing in which six leaders of organizations the IRS had targeted were testifying, McDermott said the "mistake here was the staff used the names of the organizatiions instead of the work they do." [video] McDermott lashed out at the witnesses, saying "each of your groups...

Connecticut lawmakers who passed strict new gun control measures in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre approved a package of revisions Monday to reduce confusion about the new rules and expand the list of officials who can legally possess restricted firearms. Both chambers of the state legislature voted to adopt changes and exemptions to the bipartisan deal that strengthened the state’s assault weapons ban and banned the sale of high-capacity magazines. The legislation emerged from a bipartisan working group that sought to refine the original gun control bill, which proponents hailed as one of the most far-reaching in...

<p>Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will eulogize New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg at his funeral Wednesday, according to Lautenberg’s office.</p> <p>The office released details today of the final send off for Lautenberg, who died early Monday morning from viral pneumonia at the age of 89. The events will take place over three days.</p>

On Memorial Day weekend, 2 million people marched in protests against seed giant Monsanto for the purpose of bringing awareness to hazards from genetically modified food, which it and other companies manufacture. Organizer Tami Canal said protests were held in 436 cities in 52 countries. Genetically modified plants are grown from genetically modified, or engineered, seeds, which are created to resist insecticides and herbicides so that crops can be grown to withstand a weed-killing pesticide or integrate a bacterial toxin that can ward off pests. The Chicago Tribune reported that because genetically modified organisms are not listed on food or...

Though he had no idea what it was, the annual “Bush Center Warrior 100K� mountain bike ride, which took place over the Memorial Day weekend, upset Bill Maher. “I guess they walked or ran or something on their prosthetic limbs,� Maher sneered about George W. Bush’s ride around his Texas ranch with 20 servicemen, “and I found this to be nauseating. I mean, first he sends them off to war to get their limbs blown off and then he has them over for a barbecue.� Maher then equated the former President with Ariel Castro, the kidnaper who held captive multiple...

Watching the celebration at the NRA convention over the defeat of background checks was the most nauseating experience of the day. I am not a New York gun control liberal, either. I support a shotgun for home defense, a handgun for limited conceal/carry, and an assortment of hunting rifles to balance West Virginia's exploding deer population (as evidenced by hourly collisions with cars). So, I am hardly out of the mainstream. But, the gun safety debate is B.S. This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all,...

CARSON CITY, Nev. — John W. Griffin is a fast-talking, whiskey-loving, fifth-generation Nevadan who spends his days as a lobbyist courting lawmakers in Stetsons. He advocates for luxury casinos, once brokered a dispute between a brothel and a nightclub, and has helped feuding families resolve tussles over cattle crossings. Now he is representing the ultimate city slicker, Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, who, undaunted by defeat in Congress, is taking his campaign for stricter gun laws to the nation’s state capitals, including here, where a bill to expand the use of criminal background checks is before the...

Progressive shareholders and environmental groups to call for the firing of Chevron CEO John Watson at tomorrow's annual shareholder meeting. Here's why.

When faced with a question of clemency or justice, Hickenlooper gave himself a pardon from responsibility. Colorado governor John Hickenlooper grants Nathan Dunlap a temporary reprieve In Colorado, the fate of convicted murderer Nathan Dunlap has been an issue of great debate. This past week, the governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, made what has to be one of the most cowardly decisions ever seen in politics by putting a man’s life and the expectations of his victims on hold just long enough to take the decision out of his hands. In 1993, Nathan Dunalap waltzed into a Chuck E. Cheese...

The Daily Caller’s 05/17/13 report, “Flashback: Schumer, Franken urged IRS to target tea party in 2012,” exposes the moral bankruptcy of the left, as those leaders demanded an expansion of the current administration’s on-going anti-democratic efforts. Al Franken, Chuck Schumer, and other liberal Democrats penned a letter on March 12, 2012, calling on the IRS to cap the amount of political spending by groups they deemed masquerading as “social welfare organizations.” The group stated that the lack of clarity in the IRS rules allowed some political groups to improperly claim 501(c) 4 status, thereby allowing donors to these groups to...

There comes a point in time when reality must be accepted, a moment where blinders must come off and excuses must be shoved aside in order to face the truth. In the few days since the London daylight terror attack, apologists from anti-war activists all the way up to Prime Minister David Cameron have done back-flips attempting to convince us to ignore the reason behind it. The cliché “it’s not Islam, it’s a (enter term here like ‘murder’, ‘random act of violence’, etc.)” has filled television broadcasts and social media. London mayor Boris Johnson – from what I understand, a...

It seems like only yesterday that IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner was claiming she knew nothing about the dastardly work of those shadowy "low-level employees in the Cincinnati office" - who somehow remain shadowy to this day, despite having been blamed for the worst abuse-of-power scandal in living memory. The Incompetence Defense beloved of this administration, and so effective with a media that would never accept it from a Republican official, was deployed with gusto. Lerner was shocked, shocked, to discover gambling against Tea Party groups going on at Rick's Tax Exempt Organizations Cafe American. But now National...

In chapter 1 of the book "Public Opinion", Walter Lippmann writes the following: (page 40) The wireless constantly used the statistics of the intelligence bureau at Verdun, whose chief, Major Cointet, had invented a method of calculating German losses which obviously produced marvelous results. Every fortnight the figures increased a hundred thousand or so. These 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 casualties put out, divided into daily, weekly, monthly losses, repeated in all sorts of ways, produced a striking effect. Our formulae varied little: 'according to prisoners the German losses in the course of the attack have been considerable' ... 'it is proved...

It’s not a stretch to suggest that Americans are over medicated. In 2011 doctors across the nation wrote an astounding four billion medical prescriptions, amounting to an average of 13 prescriptions for every man, woman and child in the United States. In the next few weeks the American Psychiatric Associations is releasing their updated fifth version their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5); the so-called ‘bible’ of psychiatric diagnoses. The new manual promises to take mental illness and the use of prescription drugs to a whole new level. You may not be considered “crazy” or “mentally ill” today,...

There is a fascinating piece of audio out there from Aldous Huxley titled "The Ultimate Revolution". This lecture is a lot like the book Philip Dru, in the sense that a lot of conspiracy theorist websites have had a bonanza with it, which is sad commentary. I will say that a large 70-90% of what he's saying you have to throw out the window because it's nonsense, but in the first few minutes of the lecture he says something that is incredibly profound: Well now in regard to this problem of the ultimate revolution, this has been very well summed...

Joseph Stalin had been General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party for six years in 1928, when John Dewey, "the father of modern education," toured Russia with a group of educators. Later that year, The New Republic published Dewey's Impressions of Soviet Russia and the revolutionary world. This polemic stands as a remarkable testament to progressivism's disdain for mankind, reason, and truth. It is also Dewey's most honest and concise primer on the principles of his progressive education method. Anyone prepared to defend the idea of government-controlled schooling after reading this work is perhaps beyond reach of rational argument. Dewey's...

The full face of political evil and arrogance showed its ugly features when progressives went up against the folks. And what we saw were the cruel, prideful, insensitive machinations of an Obama administration whose mantra involves the ends justifying any of their means. Showing no interest in their oath to maintain the public trust, these progressives revealed in real time television their demonic minds at work. When the outgoing IRS chief smirked at one Congressman’s question, hid behind the bureaucrat’s trompe l’oeil of “I don’t know,” and then used the intellectual’s latest, snarky transitional word “So,” we saw how he...

The Progressive believes in precisely two things: his own magnificence and the constructive power of brute force. In combination, they lead him naturally from the role of pestiferous busybody to brutal dictator. Where the productive man dreams of the things he might create if only left alone by his fellows, the Progressive dreams of the world he could create if only the lives and property of his fellows were at his disposal. The roots of his pathology lie in that oldest and most destructive of all human vices, the desire for the power to rule over other men. As...

Here's the link.

Looks like yet another left-winger missed the meme on the New Civility. Attorney and "Ring of Fire" radio show co-host Mike Papantonio, guest-hosting on Ed Schultz's radio program yesterday, revealed two things -- he hates old people and wants tea party retirees to hurry up and die. Don't take my word for it, listen to Papantonio's remarks after a caller said he saw "one of these baggers" push a woman during dueling protests over the weekend in Madison, Wisc.

Lizz Winstead heard about the tornado touching down in Oklahoma today and her liberal ideology quickly kicked in. Winstead, who created The Daily Show and uses social media to promote her far-left views, sent out this Twitter joke earlier today: "This tornado is in Oklahoma so clearly it has been ordered to only target conservatives." Social media brushback quickly followed, and Winstead served up a speedy apology for letting her progressive nature supercede a sense of decency toward the victims of the tornado. "Made a political joke, Twas before devastation revealed. In hindsight, had I understood, I would have refrained....

"Progressivism, liberalism, or whatever you want to call it has become an ideology of power. So long as liberals hold it, principles don’t matter." -- Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning “We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” -- Ayn Rand One of the most disturbing things about...

Just how extreme is the pro-abortion group NARAL? The organization is now on record opposing a new bill in Congress that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy because scientific evidence shows unborn babies feel pain by at least 20 weeks. Why does NARAL oppose a modest ban on late-term abortions? Its president Ilyse Hogue wraps the opposition in language about women’s rights and claims banning late-term abortions will drive up illegal abortions that hurt women. (Never mind that Kermit Gosnell went from the back alley to main street and killed and injured women in legal late-term abortions). “We...

After enjoying mass capitulation over unrecognizing Halloween (now ‘Black & Orange day’), St. Patrick’s Day (‘Wear Green’ day, which I find particularly offensive), and the outright denial of Christmas (Happy Holidays my ass), those who wish to change or erase historical dates have set their sights on nailing the leftovers.

Why does the U.S. Constitution make no mention of education? Because the Founding Fathers understood that the education of children must be at the local level. We now stand at the edge of a cliff as the federal Common Core State Standards continues its march across the country. How did we get here? In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education blackmailed the states with stimulus money in the form of Race to the Top (RTTT) grants. If states wanted to get out from under No Child Left Behind, and wanted more funding they had to agree to adopt the Common...

Daniele Perazzi, president of the Italian Perazzi Shotguns firm, was taken into custody yesterday by Adams County Deputies [see update, below] along with several prototype shotguns. The executive was picked up in the parking lot of the Denver Merchandise Mart, hosting the high-end Colorado Gun Collectors show this weekend, after a taxi driver, likely reacting to a suspicious activity reporting outreach program conducted by law enforcement, told authorities he thought he could be transporting an armed “foreign speaking” terror suspect. “He loaded prototype shotguns into the cab on the way to the Merchandise Mart,” gun rights activist and newly-elected National...

hey do not like conservatives very much. In fact, they come to an immediate boil when we enter their admittedly limited range of perception. It all began back in the 1960s when radical thought gained a footing with American liberals. By 2012, the left, led by their leader, the improbable president Barack Obama, completely took over the Democratic Party. These people are not like the liberals, who, while condescending to conservatives, did not hate us. These left-wingers really do hate us. That is why not much in the way of compromise can be achieved in Congress. I know we are...

A vast reservoir of clean-burning natural gas could be available at reasonable cost in the coming years, freeing us from some of our dependence on imported energy. Yet there are those who consider such a development a threat. A small group of billionaires (and mere multimillionaires), formed under the aegis of the Democracy Alliance, has amassed a great deal of political influence in America on behalf of the Democratic Party and Democratic politicians. Among the more important members of this "club" are George Soros and his liberal allies, Herbert and Marion Sandler. The latter two are billionaire beneficiaries of the...

FBI agents aren’t allowed to treat individuals associated with terrorist groups as potential threats to the nation, according to a startling, newly discovered FBI directive. The fact that a terrorism suspect is associated with a terrorist group means nothing, according to the FBI document, “Guiding Principles: Touchstone Document on Training.” The “touchstone” document, dated March of this year, is available online but hasn’t been reported on by major media outlets. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are to be instructed that “mere association with organizations that demonstrate both legitimate (advocacy) and illicit (violent extremism) objectives should not automatically result in a...

'If we're going to get a grip on this, we have to know their narrative and understand it' A noted specialist on Islamic law and ideology from the Center for Security Policy, who has been cited as an expert for the Pentagon, says a coalition of Islamists and Marxists is working to destroy the United States. The comments come from Stephen Coughlin, a lecturer for leading Department of Defense institutions such as the Naval War College, Marine Corps HQ-Quantico and for the FBI. Coughlin is a retired major in the U.S. Army reserves and was assigned to USCENTCOM, with a...

According to voter registration records, Ariel Castro, the Cleveland kidnapper, is a registered Democrat. He was also the alleged leader among the three Castro brothers, who were arrested this week, and the owner of the house at 2207 Seymour Ave., where the three abducted local women had been kept in captivity for over a decade. Why is this important? Whenever a crime or a scandal captures national attention, the pattern in the mainstream media is to either identify the culprit as a Republican or hold silence -- in which case we can rest assured that the culprit is a Democrat....

In Walter Lippmann's book "Public Opinion", a very interesting comment is made: (page 294) It was economic government by anybody's economic philosophy, though it was supposed to be controlled by immutable laws of political economy that must in the end produce harmony. It produced many splendid things, but enough sordid and terrible ones to start counter-currents. One of these was the trust, which established a kind of Roman peace within industry, and a Roman predatory imperialism outside. People turned to the legislature for relief. They invoked representative government, founded on the image of the township farmer, to regulate the semi-sovereign...

An Inside Look at Left-Wing Social Science Gun Research March 20, 2013 by Dan Mitchell In a presumably futile effort to change their minds by learning how they think, I periodically try to figure out the left-wing mind.Why, for instance, do some people believe in Keynesian economics, when it is premised on the fanciful notion that you can increase “spending power� by taking money out of the economy’s left pocket and putting it in the economy’s right pocket?I actually think part of the problem is that folks on the left focus on how income is spent rather than how it’s earned,...

Leo Johnson, a black man, has never received an apology from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Not a word. Which is passing strange for a group that proclaims itself to be “a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.” Johnson, the African-American building manager and security guard for the Family Research Council (FRC) was shot and wounded last August 15 by an angry gay activist, Floyd Corkins. Corkins was angry over the FRC’s support for heterosexual marriage. Researching the group on the Internet, he found that...

As Biden speaks at event named for Old Hickory tonight, more appalling stories show party should dump him as icon Spring means that appeals for money are bursting forth from both major political parties. It also means Democratic officials in states and counties around the country are busy getting people out to their major fundraiser, the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. And theyÂ’re bringing in the big guns: Vice President Joe Biden will keynote the South Carolina DemocratsÂ’ dinner tonight.But after an election in which Democrats rode a wave of minority support to keep the White House and Senate, party activists should...

In many ways, Jonathan Sperber suggests, Marx was “a backward-looking figure,” whose vision of the future was modeled on conditions quite different from any that prevail today: The view of Marx as a contemporary whose ideas are shaping the modern world has run its course and it is time for a new understanding of him as a figure of a past historical epoch, one increasingly distant from our own: the age of the French Revolution, of Hegel’s philosophy, of the early years of English industrialization and the political economy stemming from it. Sperber’s aim is to present Marx as he...

Note that either this new 'Sustainability' merit badge -to be released in July 2013- OR 'Environmental Science' is now required for attainment of the top Eagle Scout rank (makes me feel better about just getting to 'Life') So as with American schools, KGB-initiated leftist infiltration of our country is nearly complete- as is demoralization of the populace.  Continuing to force this junk science down our -and our childrens'- throats does nothing but distract the entire society from reality while NWO statists take the reigns... might as well offer an 'Alchemy' MB while they're at it: MeritBadge.org   h/t Doug Powers-

Film Studios Say New York Gun Law May Ban Props ALBANY — The sweeping gun control measure signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and hailed by Democratic leaders has a surprising critic: Hollywood. Officials in the movie and television industry say the new laws could prevent them from using the lifelike assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that they have employed in shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and films like “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twenty-seven film and television projects, including programs like “Blue Bloods” and “Person of Interest,” are now in production in New York State using assault...

Back in 2011, I wrote about how George Creel's plan with the Committee for Public Information (CPI) was to make journalists associates of the state. Here is in part what he wrote: (page 17) With the nation in arms, the need was not so much to keep the press from doing the hurtful things as to get it to do the helpful things. It was not servants we wanted, but associates. Better far to have the desired compulsions proceed from within than to apply them from without. And from page 18: My proposition, in lieu of the proposed law, was...

With the Autumnal Equinox now behind us, We, the People of Massachusetts, are reminded that in less than a month’s time we’ll be called upon to elect (or re-elect) a Senator to represent our interests in the upper house of the United States Congress. T’was not always thus. Those among my readers who stayed awake during Mrs. McGuffey’s 9th Grade History class will recall that, until the 2nd decade of the 20th Century, U.S. Senators were (per Art. 1, Sec. 3 of the Constitution) chosen by state legislatures, not elected directly by the people as at present. The most contentious issue facing the...

To call the Tsarnaev family a “piece of work” is an insult to work. But they are a piece of something, something the editors won’t let me write here (just think of what last night’s dinner is now). Not only were Tamerlan, the Boston terrorist currently burning in Hell, and Dzhokhar, the Boston terrorist soon to be burning in Hell, on welfare, but their whole family was on the government dole. This isn’t as much a case against welfare as it is a case against immigration reform. In their time in this country this family did nothing but take and...