Free Republic

A United States naval midshipman, David Farragut, commanded a captured British vessel during the War of 1812 — at age 12. Now major universities provide “healing spaces” with Legos, coloring books, Play-Doh, and puppies for students who “can’t handle” Donald Trump’s election victory.In 1798, Giocante Casabianca, who was 10 to 13, would not abandon his post without his commander’s word, and perished on his ship’s fiery deck during the Battle of the Nile. Today, undergraduates demand protection from “microaggressions,” which can include statements such as “America is the land of opportunity” and “I’m colorblind! I don’t see race.”Calvin Graham became...

I will not buy Kellogg products. In fact, I won’t buy ANYthing from those who are not “aligned with our values.” BREITBART.com “DumpKelloggs: Breakfast Brand Blacklists Breitbart, Declares Hate for 45,000,000 Readers.” #DumpKellogs Hi kids. I’ve been eating Kellogg’s “cereal” for 70 years or more. Little did I know it appears to contain more apparent crap than a 1945 childrens’ chemistry set. Plus, they hate me.

The soon-to-be White House chief strategist laid out a global vision in a rare 2014 talk, one where he said racism in the far right gets “washed out” and called Vladimir Putin a kleptocrat. BuzzFeed News publishes the complete transcript for the first time.

As the reality of President-elect Donald Trump settled in very early Wednesday morning, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes summed up an explanation common to many on the left: The Republican nominee pulled ahead thanks to old-fashioned American racism. But the attempt to make Trump’s victory about racism appears to be at odds with what actually happened on Election Day. Consider the following facts. Twenty-nine percent of Latinos voted for Trump, per exit polls. Remarkably, despite the near-ubiquitous narrative that Trump would have deep problems with this demographic given his comments and position on immigration, this was a higher percentage of those who...

I love traveling abroad, and since 1986, I have traveled outside the United States (primarily overseas) close to 200 times, including almost 50 trips to Asia and more than 70 trips to Europe.During these trips (all for ministry purposes), I’ve spoken thousands of times through translators, sometimes in exotic jungle areas where man-eating tigers have been on the loose, sometimes in massive stadiums, sometimes in majestic, old church buildings, sometimes in huts.Who can describe the experience? The different sounds; the different cultures; the different tastes; the different clothes; the different languages; the different expressions – yet always the same...

It took 200 years for the Roman Empire to fall. It appears to have taken the Constitutional Republic of The United States of America only 60 years, but still counting. What we see now is the fruit of decades of Marxist/Liberal infiltration and influences within the vital social, governmental, media, and cultural institutions of the America we have known. Their purpose: To radically change, or destroy, the Constitution, the government institutions and systems flowing from it. By so separating the Constitution from our national life, they degrade our traditional culture and values of Judaeo-Christianity that underpin the Constitution and stand...

Conservative values are more conducive to lasting happiness; liberal values tend to engender fleeting pleasure. Liberals pursue happiness, but for conservatives it naturally ensues. Ever wonder why so many liberal Democrats are seething in discontent? It’s because they are takers, not givers. Mounting research indicates that generosity, rather than selfishness, is more likely to produce lasting happiness, an elusive emotion for liberals who languish on the wrong side of the generosity gap. Supported by analysis of IRS tax data, there’s plenty of evidence that states who voted for John McCain gave far more of their discretionary income to charity than...

Modesty and Beach Volleyball Msgr. Charles Pope • August 14, 2016 • One of the less edifying aspects of the Summer Olympics in Rio is the attire of the women’s beach volleyball players from Western countries. Most of the women wear a tiny bikini with the bottom being especially tiny. (I do not show a picture here because I deem it immodest to do so. Instead, I show a picture of some of the men, whose attire I mention below.) Embed from Getty Images  Frankly, playing volleyball in a tiny bikini seems quite unnecessary. I would argue that it...

It also encourages the teaching of the Bible in public schools because, the amendment said, a good understanding of its contents is “indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry.” Additional provisions included those that promoted state laws to limit which restrooms transgender people could use, nodded to “conversion therapy” for gays by saying that parents should be free to make medical decisions about their children without interference and stated that “natural marriage” between a man and a woman is most likely to result in offspring who do not become drug-addicted or otherwise damaged.

The internet is full of helpful hints for making everybody else’s life simpler, but where are the lifehacks for conservatives? There are helpful hints for frazzled moms, dopey college students, and every other demographic, but as usual, we normals get overlooked. No more!1.     Reclaim your time by unsubscribing to junk emails. If you’ve ever given money to a conservative cause, or especially to a fake conservative cause, every single conservagrifter, republiscammer, and rip-off with “Tea Party” in its name is now clogging your inbox with junk. This kind of time banditry is super annoying – yes, of course, I want...

Ah, the "good old days," the ones that President Obama took a sarcastic swipe at during his recent commencement speech at Rutgers University when he said that America's "good old days weren't that great." Certainly he misread his teleprompter. Sure, we've experienced enormous advances in things like technology and medicine, but the "good old days" aren't so bad, especially compared to what's happening today. During the speech Obama said, "...by almost every measure, America is better and the world is better than it was 50 years ago, or 30 years ago, or even eight years ago." Apparently, Hillary Clinton missed...

New York is showing little love to GOP candidate Ted Cruz ahead of the Republican primary, and the lack of enthusiasm for the Tea Party candidate may have a lot to do with the “New York values” slam he made in an earlier debate. At the debate held in South Carolina back in January, Cruz made a pointed jab at Donald Trump, who is both Queens-born and Manhattan-based. Cruz attempted to smear Trump for his “New York values.” “Everyone understands that the values of New York City are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay marriage,” Cruz said. Trump quickly turned...

Last week, I listened to Erick Erickson state that he could not vote for Donald Trump, because it would be a betrayal of his values. The radio host asked him that if it came down to a choice between Hillary Clinton and Trump, would he not prefer Trump? No, replied Mr. Erickson, who again stated that supporting Trump would be a betrayal of his values. The host was a bit taken aback, and tried to reason with Erickson. Surely, he didn't mean that he would prefer Hillary to Trump. Yes, Erickson bluntly said, he would prefer Hillary as president. He...

Over at FiveThirtyEight, Farai Chideya takes a crack at analyzing Trump's strong showing with South Carolina's Evangelicals. He accurately notes that Evangelicals aren't necessarily voting on their faith:' Trump's win among evangelicals was a bit of a surprise to the media - the cable networks hammered away at the issue, and on Sunday's "Meet the Press," Chuck Todd peppered Cruz with questions about why he lost the group that had supported him in Iowa. But the South Carolina results show evangelicals are a diverse group with sometimes differing priorities. Trump did well among less-conservative evangelicals but not among those who...

The decade-old dating website OkCupid has been asking their users personal preference questions since the site’s inception. The company recently released the results of a study on the sexual mores of some million or so users, showing how users’ views have shifted since 2005. The company asked a series of questions and sorted out the answers from both men and women, and further broke them down by those who identified as straight, bisexual, and homosexual. The responses to two questions stand out: When asked “Would you consider sleeping with someone on the first date?” compared to ten years ago every...

There are people who seek to preserve and protect the fibers of a functional society, the most important of which are decency and morality. Justice Antonin Scalia fought for these values at a time when many others felt it more opportune to destroy these societal pillars, without which no civilization can last. This makes his passing especially tragic and untimely. For the sake of his soul and for the sake of our continued well being, it should also serve as a call to action. There are certain events that remind people how far and off track society has fallen and...

This past week, I was honored to be asked to speak at Heritage Action's Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, DC. As the only House Member besides Speaker Paul Ryan, I was humbled to help cast a vision for decision-makers and thought-leaders on finding solutions for some of our nation's greatest social problems. The evidence over the past 50 years makes it indisputable: the federal government hijacked the American Dream and the family has been decimated. We see this plainly in our everyday lives. The American Dream is social at its very nature. It begins with life. Common sense tells us...

Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the US commander in charge of the coalition fighting Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, said Monday that carpet bombing the terrorists would be "inconsistent with our values." The remark is seen as being aimed at Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). In December, Cruz pledged to "utterly destroy ISIS," and vowed: "We will carpet-bomb them into oblivion." He even hinted at the use of nuclear weapons, saying: "I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out." After being asked to explain why carpet bombing would...

January 26, 2016 - One of the distinguishing values embraced by us New Yorkers is the pleasure we take in disparaging the fine Americans who do not live within fifty miles of salt water. Click here to enjoy a garden-variety example of an arrogant New Yorker indulging his snobby elitism to dump on flyover country. And yet, consider how New Yorkers squeal when the flownovers push back at them. Note the rage that has been directed at Ted Cruz for taking up the other side of Trump's elitism - how dare that Ted Cruz! Today's Wall Street Journal published a...

First Trumpmania, now this. I don’t know who conservatives are anymore.On a straight-up question about whether people view New York City favorably or unfavorably, Republicans split 54/35. Huh. I wonder what those numbers would look like if you could somehow control for the “solidarity effect” of 9/11. Here’s another surprising result, probably with a similar explanation. When people are asked whether NYC is more, less, or as “American” as other places, not only do a clear majority of Republicans say “more” or “as,” there are actually more Republicans who say so than independents.Again, there’s probably some small small but...