Free Republic

Newt Gingrich had plenty of people on the Right scratching their heads after his attack on Paul Ryan’s budget plan as conservative “social engineering,” but Republicans weren’t the only ones mystified. The attack also puzzled Jay Newton-Small at Time. Two weeks ago, Gingrich told her that he would have voted for the plan offered by the “brave” Republican Representative: The former speaker sang Ryan’s praises for being a “brave” “man of ideas,” like Gingrich himself.“But would you have voted for Ryan’s plan?” I pressed.“Sure,” Gingrich replied.“Do you think it would actually save the health care system?”“No, I think it’s the...

MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

Recently a former Ramapo High School teacher ran afoul of the law by giving a sexually explicit book to a high school girl. The ex-teacher was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, among other things. Meanwhile, Clarkstown high school students are reading a book that contains all kinds of sexually explicit episodes, including graphic depictions of heterosexual and homosexual encounters, forced oral sex, masturbation, and bestiality. But there is no outcry from the masses in Clarkstown, because this book (which I will not name, to deny it undeserved publicity) is part of the high school English...

During her first foreign trip in 2011, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) slammed President Obama's green energy policy as a "social engineering" project that hurts the U.S. economy. Palin -- a potential 2012 presidential candidate -- said that she favors an "all of the above" energy plan that includes domestic oil drilling and nuclear power. Without mentioning it by name, she criticized the Obama administration for restricting domestic drilling and said that his green jobs agenda is fatally flawed. This push for green energy at the expense of conventional, reliable sources is not a credible energy policy," Palin said...

With all the bad press the TSA has received recently, we can't be sure if the acronym stands for Transportation Security Administration, Touches Sensitive Areas, or Truly Scandalous Attention. But, for sure, its pat-downs and sci-fi radiation screeners give many of us another good reason to avoid the increasingly unfriendly skies. Yet while the TSA right now has supplanted the IRS as the bureaucracy we most love to hate, its policies are merely part of a longstanding cultural trend: the failure to recognize that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. It's the same reason why...

Is the American Dream getting smaller? Are we defining down the tools of opportunity and the pleasures of prosperity? President Obama's flippant dismissal of American Exceptionalism last year stirred a lot of criticism because it suggested he did not believe the United States held a special place in the world. It also suggested America's unique history is, to the President, no big deal. Now with fellow travelers exercising power at all levels of government, progressives can do more than just belittle the idea of American Exceptionalism. They can enact policies to make America unexceptional -- diminishing our quality of life...

The latest Senate energy bill, quietly unveiled last week, looks like sweet compromise on radical measures like cap and trade, but buried within is a bitter poison pill that will could be swallowed in a vote that may come this week. Unlike the 1,200-page House of Representatives energy bill, which passed last year, this scaled-down proposal does not call for an 83-percent reduction in greenhouse gases (or any reduction in greenhouse gases) and contains no mention of a cap-and-trade scheme. Also contrary to the House bill, this one does not provide a family of four earning up to $55,000 with...

Attempt to end the “old boy network” Equality Minister wants businesses to be ordered to disclose what they are doing to improve gender equality in the ranks of senior management. Her move, which is backed by Gordon Brown, comes on top of provisions in the controversial Equality Bill that allow employers to give jobs to women in favour of men with the same qualifications. However, it is likely to be resisted by business leaders who resent more Government interference in their recruitment practices, and who argue that women are under-represented among executives because they value their families more than their...

Philadelphia tore down 21. Chicago leveled 79. Baltimore took down 21 as well, and when six of them came down in one day in 1995, it threw a parade. Since the 1990s, public housing high-rise buildings have come tumbling down by the dozens across the country as cities replaced them with smaller suburban-style homes that did not carry the stigma of looming urban despair and poverty.

Revolt in Westchester After a coercive housing settlement, angry voters toss out their county executive. 4 November 2009 Other issues, especially taxes, no doubt ranked high in the minds of Westchester County voters, who last night in a stunning upset threw out incumbent county executive Andy Spano in favor of Republican challenger Rob Astorino by an impressive 58–42 margin. But it didn’t help that county residents felt strong-armed by the federal government and private litigants into a controversial lawsuit settlement on low-income housing that cuts deeply into the county’s tradition of suburban home rule on development issues—or that Spano reacted...

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...

Women should be allowed to serve aboard America's fleet of nuclear submarines, the nation's top military officer, Adm. Michael Mullen, quietly has told the Senate Armed Services Committee. If the Navy agrees to it, this would be a huge policy change and potentially a significant expansion of career opportunities for female officers and sailors. Women have been barred by Navy policy from submarines, even as the sea service began 15 years ago to integrate females into other seagoing combat roles including aboard surface warships and in fighter jets. Mullen, former chief of naval operations and a career surface warfare officer,...

The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said. The agency's monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said. Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns...

Psychological State of the Union Many Americans don’t feel the thrill associated with President Obama’s “Change” as it has an adverse effect on their “Psychological State of the Union”. They liked their country the way it was before it lurched to the political Left. For those who mourn and grieve the loss of their Country there needs to be some consideration of their emotional, psychological and mental health. After all, these are the people who bought into the “American Dream”. They fought in wars and went to a job they may not have enjoyed to put sustenance on the table...

RALEIGH, NC -- Venessa Mills is fighting a legal battle for the heart and soul of homeschooling in North Carolina. As reported on World Net Daily, on Friday, March 6, Judge Ned W. Mangum stripped her of the right to homeschool, and ordered her three children to enter public school. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91397 Mills was forced to defend her right to homeschool during divorce proceedings brought on by her husband's unfaithfulness. Mr. Mills admitted, under oath, to repeatedly committing adultery. Even with abundant evidence showing the Mills children are well adjusted and well educated, Judge Mangum ruled overwhelmingly against Mrs. Mills on...

Hello, I am a long time reader and very rare poster, I apologize if I'm putting this in the wrong area. I don't think I've ever created a thread here before... Anyways, I am a college student and have been asked by student.com to become a "News & Politics" blog writer. I've been around that site since I was 15 or so(22 now) and accepted, and I was wondering if free republic would be willing to look over my articles before I post them? I'd appreciate your criticism much more than the criticism of high school students. I know you...

Lincoln, NE (AHN) - Nebraska Sen. Tony Fulton filed the Ultrasound Bill which seeks to require a pregnant woman contemplating abortion to undergo an ultrasound and see her fetus before she undergoes the procedure.Fulton explained that the aim of the legislation is to have an informed consent, especially for young women who are on the verge of making grave choices prior to an abortion. Nebraska is just one of 11 states contemplating on a mandated ultrasound. The other states include Indiana and Texas. Earlier, Wyoming legislators attempted to pass a similar law, but were defeated on the state House committee...

more as it becomes available...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Many U.S. troops in Iraq were overjoyed to see President Barack Obama take his oath, but some were unhappy about one thing the Democrat has promised to do: permit gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly. Obama said during his campaign he opposed a 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible to work in the U.S. military, widely referred to as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule. This month, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, when asked whether the new administration planned to scrap the law, replied on the president's transition website: "You don't hear politicians give a...

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. endorsed a $2.30 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes this morning, giving Utah the highest state cigarette tax in the country with a goal of wiping out the remaining state sales tax on food. "I think that's a perfectly fair tradeoff," the governor said after publicly embracing the tax hike for the first time and going further than previous legislative proposals. Huntsman's target would more than quadruple the existing 70-cent tax on a pack of smokes. Legislative leaders were open to the idea, and said it will be among the topics discussed in the upcoming...