Free Republic

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the masterminds behind Obamacare, has now explained that he wishes to die at age 75. In an article in The Atlantic, Emanuel writes, “Seventy-five. That’s how long I want to live: 75 years.” He explains that his daughters disagree; so do his brothers and his friends. But, he says, “I am sure of my position…here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but

[UPDATE: Early this morning, in a discussion thread about whether references to Neil deGrasse Tyson's history of quote fabrication should be added to Tyson's Wikipedia page, an editor stated that "no version of this event will be allowed into the article."] Religious fanatics have an odd habit of overreacting when people have the audacity to question their fanaticism. In Iraq, radical Islamic jihadists are systemically murdering and beheading Christians, Jews, and even Muslims who do not pledge fealty to ISISÂ’s religious tenets. Hundreds of years ago, church authorities and Aristotelian acolytes imprisoned Galileo for having the audacity to reject geocentrism...

On September 23, Dinesh D’Souza will appear before a federal judge in Manhattan to learn whether he will do jail time for violating campaign-finance law. (He pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of funneling $20,000 to a friend’s Senate campaign via straw donors.) It will be the latest turn in a remarkable life that has embodied—perhaps more than any other—the passions and commitments of the modern conservative movement. D’Souza leapt to prominence during his student days as editor of The Dartmouth Review, then emerging as a first-read for pro-Reagan provocation. Those were heady times for the youth corps of...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tied the Republican Party to Ray Rice on Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Ronan Farrow Daily.” When asked about Rice and the Democratic Party’s domestic policy agenda, she stated “the issue is about respect or disrespect for women. Whether it’s respect for their ability to make their own choices in terms of their reproductive health, whether it’s equal pay for equal work honoring the value of work that people bring to the table, whether it’s meeting the needs of women in terms of affordable quality childcare, which are for families and not just women.” ...... Pelosi...

Saying that the defendant had offered no proof that he felt remorse for his crime, a New York prosecutor is asking a judge to send Dinesh D'Souza to jail for violating campaign finance laws.D'Souza pled guilty to making straw donations to the 2012 United States Senate campaign of Wendy E. Long. He asked two friends and their wives to donate  the maximum to Long's campaign - $20,000 in all - and then reimbursed them, thus exceeding the $5,000 limit on donations per election cycle. Considering all the chicanery conducted by the Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012, where millions of...

MSNBC’S Andrea Mitchell claimed President Barack Obama’s new cabal of foreign policy advisers “looks like a review of our guest list” on the liberal cable news network, with the AP’s Julie Pace explaining that the White House is trying to bring the commentators “into the fold.” Mitchell spoke Tuesday with Pace about Obama’s Monday night dinner with the DC foreign policy intelligentsia, presumably designed to help craft a strategy to contain an aggressive Russia and defeat ISIS in the Middle East. But as the MSNBC host ticked off the guests — including former Clinton aide Sandy Berger, longtime Democratic adviser...

School’s back — and so is the liberal agenda! Across the country, parents and lawmakers are up in arms about an honors curriculum that gives new meaning to the phrase “history in the making.” The 95-page outline is so agenda-driven, educators complain, that basic U.S. facts are either distorted — or worse, omitted altogether. The College Board’s proposal is a study in liberal indoctrination — so much so that the Republican National Committee (RNC) formally opposed the idea in August. In a vote, the RNC concluded that the Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum is a “radical revisionist view” of America’s greatest...

Fifty years ago, on Sept. 7, 1964, a political ad called “Daisy” aired on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson. The commercial opened with a little girl in a meadow, then a horrific nuclear blast filled the screen. We’ve been feeling the fallout ever since. It was only a minute long. The paid ad ran on national television only once, and only on one network, NBC. But that’s all it took.

James Vanderbilt's Truth, the high-profile movie chronicling the scandal that derailed Dan Rather's career, has gotten the greenlight to begin shooting this fall. Brett Ratner's RatPac Entertainment and Echo Lake Entertainment will finance the movie, starring Robert Redford as the iconic news anchor and Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, Rather's producer. At the same time, FilmNation has come aboard to represent international rights and will pre-sell the project to foreign buyers at the Toronto Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday night (based on the cast, it's sure to whet appetites). Mythology Entertainment is the driving force behind Truth, which was...

You know what I admire about bigots? I’m referring to the real wackos, the warped, scary, neo-Nazi, open Klansman, proudly sign-their-name haters. You know what’s kinda great about them? At least they’re candid.

California history textbooks will now be asked to cover "the significance of President Barack Obama's election," under a law signed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown. requires California's Instructional Quality Commission "to consider including, and recommending for adoption by the state board, instruction on the election of President Barack Obama and the significance of the United States electing its first African American President, as appropriate." The author, Democratic Assemblyman Chris Holden, said in a statement: "We want to make sure that future generations understand that the election of our nation's first African American president was a historic step in the...

On the home page of the Communist Party USA it says “A better and peaceful world is possible—a world where people and nature come before profits. That’s socialism. That’s our vision. We are the Communist Party USA.” No, it’s not Socialism, which is a watered down version of Communism. Real Communism is the kind that was practiced in the former Soviet Union. It can be found in Cuba and North Korea where the state controls all power and property,and the people have none.

The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. ... “This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda [?], and assist in the preservation of open debate,” the grant said. ... “Truthy” claims to be non-partisan. However, the project’s lead investigator Filippo Menczer proclaims his support for numerous progressive advocacy groups, including President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action, Moveon.org, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, and True Majority. ... The government-funded researchers hope that the public will use...

The EU’s justice commissioner has accused internet giant Google of leading a campaign to shoot down data protection reforms. Speaking in Lyon, France on Monday (18 August), the commissioner, Martine Reicherts, said: “Google and other affected companies who complain loudly” about a recent EU court verdict on personal data are “detractors … attempting to throw a new spanner in the works”. The Luxembourg-based EU court in May ruled that Google must remove links to any content that is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” or face a fine.The ruling was based on the bloc’s 1995 data protection law, which are...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Mr. Snerdley walked in and said, "Boy, this thing with Rick Perry, can you believe what a farce?" It's not a farce, folks. Now, I'm not gonna be getting to Rick Perry right off the bat here, but I wanted to mention something about it to get it on the table. It's not a farce. It isn't a joke. Sadly, it's not even a laughing matter. This is dead serious. Not that he's done anything wrong. What's dead serious about this is the Democrat Party and their ongoing effort to criminalize political differences or opposition. All the...

A Texas judge opted Monday not to issue an arrest warrant against Gov. Rick Perry, but the Republican still faces the unflattering prospect of being booked, fingerprinted and having his mug shot taken — and has assembled a team of high-powered attorneys to fight the two felony counts of abuse of power against him. "This is nothing more than banana republic politics," Tony Buzbee a Houston-based defense attorney who will head a cadre of four lawyers from Texas and Washington defending Perry, said at a news conference. A grand jury in Austin, a liberal bastion in otherwise largely conservative Texas,...

Not only did Democrats try to impeach George W. Bush during his presidency, they did so aggressively. While many have laughingly claimed that efforts to impeach President Obama are racist, or have blatantly lied by saying that there was no effort to impeach George W. Bush; history tells quite a different story. One of the most egregious statements was made by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who said in part, We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush, because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority. Lee, who co-sponsored legislation to impeach George W....

As soon as the House GOP leadership fumbled its border bill, Democrats started blaming Ted Cruz. "Blaming" might be too strong a word -- Democrats were practically vibrating with delight at another chance to portray John Boehner as a simpering loser who keeps getting dunked on by a freshman senator from Texas. .@SenTedCruz Just thought I'd go right to the source, will the House be voting tonight? — U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) July 31, 2014 Democrats do this because Cruz is famous, and -- they believe -- primarily associated with the 2013 government shutdown. The press doesn't do much...

While speaking out on the House floor yesterday against the House GOP lawsuit against President Obama, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said the move is a “veil for impeachment.” Jackson Lee also took the opportunity to point out that “We [Democrats] did not seek an impeachment of President Bush” when he was in office. Really? Not only did some Democrats seek an impeachment of President Bush, but Rep. Jackson Lee co-sponsored the bill? Classic!

Remember how Democrats rushed into passing President Barack Obama 's Affordable Care Act back in 2010 while they still had the votes? Now health care for millions teeters on a typo.