Free Republic

It is a simple historical fact that the Church has always baptized infants. Even our earliest documents speak of the practice. For example the Apostolic Tradition written about 215 A.D. has this to say:The children shall be baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or someone else from their family. (Apostolic Tradition # 21)Scripture too confirms that infants should be baptized if you do the math. For examplePeople were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him...

The Hill reported: A conservative advocacy group closely aligned with the Tea Party announced a $9 million swing-state push against President Obama and the healthcare law. The announcement by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which is largely funded by the conservative Koch brothers, comes one day after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the vast majority of the law in a major coup for Obama. “While we are deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court ruling,” AFP President Tim Phillips said in a statement, “this is far from over.” The group’s push is worth $9 million, according to a release. It includes...

Two juveniles have been arrested in the shooting death of 5-year-old Nizzel George, the north Minneapolis boy who was fatally struck by a bullet fired from outside into his home, police said Friday. One of the suspects was booked on suspicion of murder and the other for weapons possession. The boy was shot once in the back Tuesday morning at the home in the 4500 block of Bryant Avenue N. ... Nizzel died at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale shortly after he was shot as he slept on a couch in his grandmother's house. Police later that day indicated...

The smaller-government Right is reeling from Wednesday's Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the health care "reform" law derisively known as Obamacare. But conservatives shouldn't be too surprised by the ambush sprung on them by the high court. In fact, the ruling points out a fundamental weakness in the conservative strategy. The problem is, we relied on the Court to do the work of the Legislature. The abomination of Obamacare never should have passed through Congress. The Court never should have had to rule on its constitutionality because it never should have become law in the first place. Chief...

As Tuareg rebels battle radical Islamists with heavy weapons for control of the northern Mali city of Gao, Mali and the other 15 nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are planning a military offensive designed to drive both groups out of northern Mali in an effort to re-impose order in the region and prevent the six-month old conflict from destabilizing the entire region. So far, however, operational planning has not been detailed enough to gain the approval of the UN Security Council for authorization of a Chapter Seven military intervention, leaving ECOWAS and the African Union...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it would not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder for refusing to turn over to Congress documents about a gun-running scandal to Mexico. Holder, who heads the Justice Department, was cited on Thursday for contempt of Congress by the Republican-led House of Representatives. The mostly partisan vote of 255-67 marked the first time a sitting attorney general and presidential cabinet member was cited for contempt by the full House. More than 100 Democrats walked out in protest and refused to vote. In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Holder's deputy said...

Bob Beckel: Governor, that deception, does that go for the death panels that were never real, that you said were in there? Sarah Palin: Oh, it’s in there. There’s a faceless bureaucratic panel, and the acronym is the IPAB, and it will be a board that will tell you Bob, whether your level of productivity in society is worthy of receiving the rationed care that will be a result of Obamacare. Consider this Bob, it defies all common sense to ever consider that health care won’t be rationed, when, obviously with more and more enrollees in the program and fewer...

Yesterday, June 28, 2012, a date which will live in. . . . A date which will live in GLORY, you would think, among the DUmmies, at least. You would think. But you would be wrong. No, not all the DUmmies were celebrating and high-fiving and popping champagne corks yesterday after the weird Obamacare SCOTUS ruling was handed down. Today we'll track some of their first reactions in the hours after the Supreme Court decision was announced. Multiple threads to choose from, hundreds of comments. We'll go with this THREAD, "Every American citizen is now required to help make...

We live or die by the health of the physical environment which we struggle to conserve. Just as crucially, we are nourished by an ethical environment, the moral oxygen of our human world.In the beautiful words of Dr. Margaret Cottle, a colleague of mine, we have been standing among ancient trees, an old-growth forest of noble principle. It has been growing organically for 2,400 years, since Hippocrates, a “delicate social ecology of mutual support and protection” which forbids the killing of a patient.Carter v. Canada , the judge-decreed legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada, tries to take a...

When is a tax not a tax? When President Obama says it isn't, or when the Supreme Court says it is? Obamacare was sold on several fraudulent lines. The president knows the country doesn't want to pay higher taxes, given the deplorable way their government spends the money. And so the administration packaged it as something different. That's called bait and switch, which is defined as "an illegal tactic in which a seller advertises a product with the intention of persuading customers to purchase a more expensive product." And Obamacare, if it is not repealed, is guaranteed to be more...

Here are your choices... Poll: Do you agree with Supreme Court decision? Yes No Need to understand the ruling better This one's a little lop-sided against us - but given the obvious political leanings of most Red Star reading, I'm not surprised. Let's try to even it up a bit!

MSNBC’s Chris Jansing wondered aloud Friday morning why President Barack Obama is being so quiet about his fundraising numbers. Following Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding Obama’s health care law, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign took in a whopping $4.3 million in under 24 hours. Meanwhile, Obama’s campaign has been almost completely silent, with spokesman Ben LaBolt mysteriously gloating to reporters, “We’ve outraised the Romney campaign in that time period but that’s not the point,” according to The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein. LaBolt wouldn’t share any specific numbers Friday morning. “The Obama camp has not released fundraising figures since...

By placing the ACA under the umbrella of the tax power, Roberts may have made the ACA easier to overturn by several orders of magnitude. The ordinary process, of course, requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. But when it concerns budgetary matters, including taxes (like the Bush tax cuts), 51 votes are sufficient to put the law on hold for 10 years. So, theoretically, 51 Republicans will be capable now of overturning the ACA at least for ten years (at which point it could be reviewed again). Fifty-one Republicans could have attempted this in any case,...

Turkey-Syria relations have entered a new stage after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish F-4 fighter jet on June 22 in international waters over the Mediterranean Sea. Syria claimed that the Turkish jet violated Syrian airspace, but Turkey protested that its aircraft was in Syrian airspace for only a brief time and left after just two minutes. Thirteen minutes after the Turkish plane exited Syrian airspace, Syria’s air defense forces shot down the jet. Its two pilots are still missing (TRT, June 24). Turkey considered the Syrian aggression to be an attack against Turkey and claimed that Syria has become...

Synchronized motorcycle riding Italian Police Force....

First, an apology for the millionth vanity here... It has become clear to me that what Justice Roberts has done is so shameful and such an outright trampling on our constitution and theft of our liberty that he should be impeached and be removed from office. In an otherwise sane world where this document still meant something, he would be impeached and if the Republicans have any spine they'd do it. This, "cut off your nose to spite your face" wizardy (that is, trample the constitution in order to save the reputation of the court) is the last straw in...

Good afternoon/evening FReepers. Yep, it is Beer Thirty Time Once Again!Happiness is a bubbling airlock! Airlock Good evening/afternoon. This past week I rested and did not have a brew day. It has been just to darn hot to stand over a boiling brew kettle. My bottled Honey Ale is coming along just fine. I have tasted a couple and it is carbonating nicely and should be good to go by July 4th. I am having one now and it is mighty tasty. The liberty Cream Ale I brewed up last week will be racked into a secondary next week. My Copper...

Since many others have posted vanities on this, I thought that I'd weigh in. My question is why is the mandate such a big deal? Yes, it's the funding mechanism, so if you throw out the mandate, then Obamacare runs that much further in the red. Yes, the mandate is needed for insurance to work - in other words if healthy people don't pay in, you don't have insurance - you have welfare for people that get sick. But from Obama's standpoint, what's the difference? If the mandate, only, were thrown out, then keep marching along with the rest of...

In a non-surprising move, the Department of Justice has just officially announced they will not proceed with prosecuting Attorney General Eric Holder after the House of Representatives voted to hold him in criminal and civil contempt of Congress yesterday. The Justice Department moved Friday to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from prosecution after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress. The contempt vote technically opened the door for the House to call on the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to bring the case before a grand jury. But because U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen works for...

A top advisor to President Barack Obama urged Congressional Democrats on Friday to "go on offense" against Republicans on the issue of taxes and argued that the Supreme Court ruling upholding the incumbent's signature health care law should be the "clear and final" word on the issue. In a memo made public by the White House, David Plouffe accused Republicans of "trying to misrepresent" Obama's record on taxes. "We welcome this debate on middle class taxes, and we urge you to seize this opportunity to go on offense to illustrate how the President and Democrats in Congress are standing up...