Free Republic

In this blog article, we will explore the profound quote by Voltaire, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." At its core, this quote serves as a sober reminder of the power of manipulation and the dire consequences it can have on individuals and society as a whole. Voltaire's words encapsulate the notion that when people are persuaded to accept and adopt absurd beliefs or ideas, they become vulnerable to committing acts of great cruelty or injustice. This statement holds immense importance in our modern world, where manipulation is rampant, giving rise to extremism and...

November 21, 1694, Paris, France—died May 30, 1778, Paris), one of the greatest of all French writers. Although only a few of his works are still read, he continues to be held in worldwide repute as a courageous crusader against tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty. Through its critical capacity, wit, and satire, Voltaire’s work vigorously propagates an ideal of progress to which people of all nations have remained responsive. His long life spanned the last years of classicism and the eve of the revolutionary era, and during this age of transition his works and activities influenced the direction taken

Oct 13 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc(FB.O) will now count activists and journalists as "involuntary" public figures and so increase protections against harassment and bullying targeted at these groups, its global safety chief said in an interview this week. The social media company, which allows more critical commentary of public figures than of private individuals, is changing its approach on the harassment of journalists and "human rights defenders," who it says are in the public eye due to their work rather than their public personas. Facebook is under wide-ranging scrutiny from global lawmakers and regulators over its content moderation practices and...

Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (French: Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du Jacobinisme) is a book by Abbé Augustin Barruel, a French Jesuit priest. It was written and published in French in 1797-98, and translated into English in 1799. In the book, Barruel claims that the French Revolution was the result of a deliberate conspiracy or plot to overthrow the throne, altar and aristocratic society in Europe. The plot was allegedly hatched by a coalition of philosophes, Freemasons. The conspirators created a system that was inherited by the Jacobins who operated it to its greatest potential. The Memoirs purports...

In 1781, 27-year-old King Louis XVI of France sent his navy and troops to help America gain independence from Britain. In return, France gained very little, except an enormous amount of debt. On the verge of financial collapse, France then experienced a terrible famine in 1788. The people blamed the King. Anti-monarchists referred to Queen Marie Antoinette as Madame Déficit. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, when she was told the people did not have bread, her reply was: "Let them eat cake." On July 14, 1789, an anarchist mob went through the streets of Paris and stormed the the Bastille Fortress...

Vatican Reveals Secret Archives A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time. By Nick Squires in Rome 01 Jan 2010 In a letter dated 1246 from Grand Khan Guyuk, pictured, to Pope Innocent IV, Genghis Khan's grandson demands that the Pontiff travel to central Asia in person The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years. High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU__9f0kEb0&feature=gp-n-y&google_comment_id=z13ltx55tpb0jd4s322jgxtrzletuvjlg Hillary Clinton plans to raise taxes for the workers the affluent and middle class. Pay roll taxes and national sales taxes for workers, Higher income taxes for the rest with the middle class bearing the brunt of these taxes. With commentary by Mike Savage Also get a load of some of the people who are gonna benefit the most from these new taxes, yokels, alcoholics, potheads, anarchists, thugs and crazies!

<p>Gunmen have attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 11 people and injuring 10, French officials say. Witnesses spoke of sustained gunfire at the office as the attackers opened fire with assault rifles before escaping.</p> <p>Police have launched a major operation in the Paris area in their hunt for the attackers.</p>

Richard Kiel, who became famous for portraying the James Bond villain, Jaws ... died Wednesday afternoon at the age of 74 ... TMZ has learned. Kiel starred in dozens of movies over the span of 50 years ... though his Jaws character became his most iconic role after debuting in 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me" alongside Roger Moore. He returned in "Moonraker" two years later.

The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years. High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen before in public, have now been published in a book. The Vatican Secret Archives features a papal letter to Hitler, an entreaty to Rome written on birch bark by a tribe of North American Indians, and a plea from Mary Queen of Scots. The book documents the Roman Catholic Church’s often hostile dealings with the world of science and the arts, including documents from the heresy trial against Galileo and...

It’s often claimed that Voltaire once said: “I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Today in Canada, the modern version appears to be: “I may disagree with what you say and I will force you never to say it again.” By now you have likely heard about the abuse of the human rights council system whereby people like Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn were taken through the system for publishing cartoons and opinion columns. Now a critic of Sun News Network is looking to make sure that only...

How Voltaire praised the 'enlightened despot' Catherine the Great Satirist's heartfelt letters to the woman he admired are bought for Russia Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Friday June 2, 2006 The Guardian They are the heartfelt correspondence from the great acerbic wit of the European Enlightenment to the last Russian empress, in which he praises her authoritarian style and mocks the extravagances of her French counterparts. For years, the letters from Voltaire to Catherine the Great have been hidden away in a private collection - the contents a mystery. But now, courtesy of a Moscow art dealer, they will be...

The play, “Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet,” uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance. ~snip~ When Voltaire wrote the play in 1741, Roman Catholic clergymen denounced it as a thinly veiled anti-Christian tract. Their protests forced the cancellation of a staging in Paris after three performances and hardened Voltaire's distaste for religion. ~snip~ Goldzink said Voltaire mocked all religions but had some sympathy for Islam, which Voltaire described as “less impure and more reasonable” than Christianity and Judaism. ~snip~ He later campaigned in vain to reverse a blasphemy conviction against a French noble,...

The recent Cartoon hysteria portends a danerous future to the health of free-speech in Europe. In this controversy, the Islamists and other Western religious groups have joined forces to resist freedom of expression and this alliance is likely to get stronger with time. Suprisingly, the lefts, liberals and progressives of the West have added the strongest supports to the Islamist movement's violent front to trample right of freedom of expression. The latter group, who are the legal deputies of the centuries-old Enlightenment movement, are spelling the death of the civilizational progresss that was achieved in the West since the beginning...

The recent Cartoon hysteria portends a danerous future to the health of free-speech in Europe. In this controversy, the Islamists and other Western religious groups have joined forces to resist freedom of expression and this alliance is likely to get stronger with time. Suprisingly, the lefts, liberals and progressives of the West have added the strongest supports to the Islamist movement's violent front to trample right of freedom of expression. The latter group, who are the legal deputies of the centuries-old Enlightenment movement, are spelling the death of the civilizational progresss that was achieved in the West since the beginning...

Viva VoltaireIn the cartoon controversy, it’s the French who’ve been courageous, the Americans and British spineless. 10 February 2006 This time, the French have put the British and Americans to shame. From the outset of the crisis over the Danish caricatures, they have vigorously defended the right of free expression, unlike the British and Americans, whose pretence that they “understand” Muslim outrage has fooled no one and given the fanatics the (correct) impression of weakness and lack of conviction—and thus encouraged them. Two French satirical weeklies with Voltairean aplomb, Le Canard Enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo, have published a series of...

Dear Justice Kennedy, I agree with what you wrote, this week. No, I don’t mean your part in the decision that any government can take anybody’s house, any time. We’ll get back to that reprehensible case. No, I agree with your speech to the Florida Bar Association last Friday. Most folks don’t pay much attention to Justices’ speeches on the rubber chicken circuit. I do. As usual, the Associated Press title was misleading. It said, “Lawyers Must Defend Judiciary from Attacks.” What you actually said was, “When judges are attacked unfairly, it’s proper for the bar over the course of...

The French seem to take intermittent pride in being the homeland of the satirist Voltaire. Although he spent much of his life exiled from Paris for criticizing the government, he died a hero in the city, celebrated by tens of thousands in the streets on the eve of his return, which was also, coincidentally, the day before he died. After his death, the nation went so far as to remove the philosopher's heart and brain as symbolic keepsakes. Before eventually being moved to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, his heart was kept in a room he once occupied with the...

1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. ............Mark Twain 2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. ........Winston Churchill 3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. .............George Bernard Shaw 4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. ............G. Gordon Liddy...

...Her book is thus animated by dismay and perplexity over the way the French Enlightenment is seen as the main intellectual event of the 18th century, whereas a parallel and in many respects more successful movement in Britain is routinely relegated to an inferior status. Her heroes, therefore, are not Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau as much as Adam Smith, David Hume and Edmund Burke. In a similar spirit, she invokes and concurs with Hannah Arendt's notion that the American revolution, rather than the revolution in France, was the great political watershed of modern times. For Himmelfarb, the contrast between the...