Free Republic

Perhaps everyone in the eighteenth century could have agreed that in theory no State was more beautiful than a republic, whose whole object by definition was the good of the people. Yet everyone knew it was a fragile beauty indeed. It was axiomatic that no society could hold together without the obedience of its members to the legally constituted authority. In a monarchy the complicated texture of the society, “the magnificence, costly equipage and dazzling splendors” lavished on the prince, the “multitude of criminal laws, with severe penalties, the very rigor of the unitary authority often with the aid of...

Elected leaders in America do not rule, the law rules. Politicians are mere custodians of the law, and when they promote notions such as a “living constitution” what they are really wanting is the rule of law to be replaced by the rule of man. Our Republic rests on the universal truths espoused by The Declaration of Independence. The Constitution was an effort to promote the ideals of liberty and justice. Liberty and justice brings prosperity. Every nation that maintains a rule of law that promotes liberty and justice will have prosperity. Any nation that substitutes rule of law for...

A guilty pleasure, that I surrender to occasionally, involves quizzing my fellow conservative compatriots about the core historical knowledge that is often taken for granted. Long before the Tea Party came along there was a burgeoning conservative movement in America that sought to rediscover and recover ancient principles and ideals of man’s relationship with government. From Goldwater to Reagan, Limbaugh to Levin, and talk radio to the limitless font of internet information, historical truth is making a comeback. Let’s start at the beginning. Before Caesar came the Republic. Res Publica, correctly translated, means “the public thing.” In a Republic the...

A guilty pleasure, that I surrender to occasionally, involves quizzing my fellow conservative compatriots about the core historical knowledge that is often taken for granted. Long before the Tea Party came along there was a burgeoning conservative movement in America that sought to rediscover and recover ancient principles and ideals of man’s relationship with government. From Goldwater to Reagan, Limbaugh to Levin, and talk radio to the limitless font of internet information, historical truth is making a comeback. Let’s start at the beginning. Before Caesar came the Republic. Res Publica, correctly translated, means “the public thing.” In a Republic the...

I used to spend hours in a library going from book to fascinating book ...

............The Founders did not live in some ivory tower where the stench of politics never befouled the sacred air. They knew that their plan for a representative republic was not in itself a guarantee against governmental tyranny. Here's James Madison in Federalist 58: "An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others." What this means is that the framers never intended...

From the journals of the video game: "The Old Republic". Your sith lord is a jerk, but how bad can it be? Sex, gratuitous violence, snappy quips, megalomania, greed and disco-grunge dancing galore!!!! Subtle jokes and a reference to the "Never Ending Story" will make you LOL. Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63vWEzqjn2U Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWrLwD2hMdk Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX4dWvLsUFQ Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d2JZj7G_60 Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIULbosH_f4

The South by Southwest Festival (known as SXSW), held every March in Austin, Texas, bills itself as a "unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies." This year, things got a bit more political, adding a few sparks to its normal techie, artsy-fartsy flair. During a public discourse between former Vice President Al Gore Jr. and Sean Parker (who co-founded Napster), Gore said, “Our democracy has been hacked,” and urged the audience to commence an “Occupy Democracy” movement. This is eerily reminiscent of statements he made to Keith Olbermann last August, including the idea that we should work...

The United States may be a republic, but it’s democracy that Americans cherish. After all, that’s why we got into Iraq, right? To take out a dictator and spread democracy. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” “One person, one vote.” We are an egalitarian society that treasures the mandate of its citizenry. But more than a decade’s worth research suggests that the citizenry is too dumb to pick the best leaders. They know what's best for the country. Work by Cornell University psychologist David Dunning and then-colleague Justin Kruger found that “incompetent people are inherently unable...

At the Occupy Strategy Session at New York University, all the usual suspects are once again targeting capitalism. This isn't surprising, anybody who digs into the roots of all this 'Occupy' stuff will quickly see that it's all based on progressivism and central planning - with a hint of socialism, a hint of communism, and they have even teamed up with Islamists. But this business about the incompatibility of capitalism and democracy. What makes that true? In 1887, Woodrow Wilson wrote an essay titled "Socialism and Democracy", and in my original entry I wrote an observation about mobs. We've all...

Anyone else experience this? It's just on Free Republic only.

For about a week now, in multiple browsers and from iPad and iMac, Free Republic has been deadly slow. Frequently it times out waiting to load. This is on FIOS at top speed, both wireless and wired. No other site is even slightly slow for me. I don't see any other threads mentioning this, and I've posted to the yahoo group with no responses, so I am assuming it's me. What could I be doing wrong? Or has this been your experience too? What's up?

Persists everywhere. The idea that voting or individual activism will fix the trouble we’re in is a big part of what got us into this mess to begin with. Our republic is strong, and is filled with hardworking people who will carry it anywhere it wants to go. Pitiably, the leadership of that Republic has been usurped by a shadow empire, a ruling class which has it’s own set of rules and it’s own hierarchy. Nobody “Elected” Rahm Immanuel, nobody ran against him. Wingnuthead got “voted” in despite being as worthless as tits on a boar. The Ruling Class, despite...

The Republic of The United States of America was founded in 1776. It was founded as a Republic and not a Pure Democracy, because the Founders knew that a Pure Democracy and independence cannot coexist in the long term. One of the key differences between a republic and a democracy is the requirement for an informed electorate. A Republic requires that suffrage be as wide as possible, while not including those who are likely to be detrimental to the continuing independence of the Republic. As an analogy, Democracy is like theoretical mathematics, while Republic is like engineering. Theoretical mathematics is...

Youtube link, also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DioQooFIcgE&feature=player_embedded

The national spokesperson for group that seeking to take the selection of the president out of the hands of the Electoral College says the movement is gaining steam. Tom Golisano of the “National Popular Vote Initiative” was in Des Moines Thursday talking about the effort. The group needs states that have 270 — or half of the electoral college votes — to approve the change to make it happen. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm around our position now, it’s more a feeling of when and no if it’s going to happen,” Golisano. He says 10 or 11 states have signed...

It sounds quaint. But giving Washington less control over our affairs, and the states more control, is a bad idea. Here's why: People move. Anybody who has relocated from one state to another knows there's a huge hassle factor associated with simply adapting to a different set of rules. There's also the dubious proposition that states manage their business better than the federal government. It's true that nearly all states are required to balance their budgets, which creates a degree of spending discipline. But that's hardly the same thing as responsible government. It's worth keeping in mind that the national...

"Your people, sir, is ... a great beast." So Alexander Hamilton reputedly said in an argument with Thomas Jefferson. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Hamilton explained: "Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship." In his column, "Democracy Versus Liberty," Walter Williams cites Hamilton, James Madison and John Randolph, who wrote of "the follies and turbulence" of democracy, and John Adams: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There...

Democracy is exactly what we have in America today and it’s even worse than Thomas Jefferson warned when he said - “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” It’s really much worse than Jefferson indicated… it’s what Karl Marx said it was, “the road to socialism.” Thomas Jefferson was a well-traveled and studied individual, commissioned to write our Declaration of Independence at the founding of our country and a significant player in the formation of our Constitutional Representative Republic. He was also one of...

This occurred in a Farmingdale, NY courtroom. Video is proof.