Free Republic

I am setting my front porch flag upside down tomorrow. I will leave it up and set that way, through November. Setting the flag right will depend on whether or not we move to setting the ship of state right.

The Supreme Court has spoken. It is now a 5-4 Liberal Court because the Chief Justice cares more about his cocktail parties and articles in Vanity Fair than he does about his oath to uphold the Constitution. Fine. At least we know now. This is a clarifying, purifying event. No longer can we rely upon the Court to knock-down flagrantly unconstitutional acts of a rogue Congress that passed ObataTax through no less than 12 slights of hand, lies, and misapplication of Senate rules. No. We are the ones we've been waiting for, to borrow a famous political statement from 2008....

There is yet another ”silver lining” of the recent Supreme Court decision to let Obamacare stand; Democrats are now able to and should pass a law stating that all Americans should contribute to Obama’s re-election campaign. If Americans choose not to contribute, they will simply be taxed — or is the proper term “penalized”? (Chief Justice Roberts to decide when he returns from vacation in Malta.) The boon to Obama’s campaign coffers will be immeasurable, benefiting all Americans, of course. Additional benefits of the Act would be an increase in employment since the US government will need to hire more...

Two men who allegedly hijacked a Tianjin Air plane in China have died from injuries sustained during a fight. TWO men who allegedly tried to hijack a plane in China were beaten to death by passengers and crew. The men were part of a six-strong gang involved in the foiled hijack of a Tianjin Airlines flight bound for the regional capital of Urumqi last Friday. Just minutes after the flight took off from Hetian, southwest Xinjiang, the men, all aged between 20 and 36, stood up and announced their plans to terrified passengers. The gang reportedly broke a pair of...

The political world is astir. Economies are faltering. Public trust is waning. Individuals feel vulnerable. And social cohesion wears thin. Meanwhile, stories of rage and agitation fill our airwaves, streets and town halls. Where are the voices of balance and moderation in these extreme times? During a recent address given in an interfaith setting, Church President Thomas S. Monson declared: "When a spirit of goodwill prompts our thinking and when united effort goes to work on a common problem, the results can be most gratifying." Further, former Church President Gordon B. Hinckley once said that living “together in communities with...

House chairman says ‘amnesty’ violates president’s own rulesFederal immigration authorities have begun granting tentative legal status to illegal immigrants under President Obama’s deportation halt — and in some cases are even ignoring the administration’s eligibility rules to stop deportations for those who shouldn’t qualify, according to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, said he’s learned some illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. less than five years have had their deportations canceled, even though Mr. Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano had listed the five-year mark as one of their criteria....

Gay couples in France will be allowed to get married and to adopt children from next year, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced Tuesday. "In the first half of 2013, the right to marriage and adoption will be open to all couples, without discrimination," he told parliament, confirming an election promise by Socialist President Francois Hollande. "Our society is evolving, lifestyles and mentalities are changing," he said in a speech outlining the new Socialist government's agenda. "The government will respond to that." The confirmation came just days after Paris held its annual Gay Pride parade, which this year was buoyed by...

Like all practicing physicians (and medical correspondents), I was glued to the news last Thursday morning at 10 am ET when the US Supreme Court via some questionable fancy legal footwork allowed ObamaCare to survive. Like many of my medical brethren, I was deeply disappointed by the outcome. You, the patient, will have to get used to less access to real health care solutions, fewer approvals for the very latest, personalized, genetic-based cancer treatment or surgical technology that could save your life. ObamaCare will cause your premiums to soar. ObamaCare promises to increase your access to health care but it...

While President Obama and First Lady Michelle have famously said they prefer to keep their girls out of the public eye as much as possible–in an effort to give them as much normalcy as they can–the girls are now appearing in some campaign ads, and that has eyebrows raising all across the country. But the ads aren’t the first instance of Obama talking about his own family when it comes to political issues. He spoke about the impact his children had on him when it came time to make a decision about gay marriage, and publicly supporting it. “Malia and...

The Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie said that Griffith died at about 7 a.m. "Mr. Griffith passed away this morning at his home peacefully and has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island," Doughtie read from a family statement. With his slow drawl and penchant for playing characters who wore their decency like a badge in shows like "The Andy Griffith Show," the actor came to personify small-town values, with the emphasis on family and community. He was, in many ways, America's sheriff. He first came to prominence on Broadway in the 1950s in the Army comedy "No...

What Americans Know About Religious Freedom Most Americans know that religious freedom is one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Frequently called the “first freedom,” freedom of religion is prominent in the American founding documents and gives rise to many other freedoms. It is a fundamental human right — one that is now protected in the laws of many nations around the world and in global compacts like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Americans generally recognize and revere religious freedom as one of the unalienable freedoms they can claim. Yet despite Americans’ awareness of...

Saw a graphic that said this on Facebook, it was kind of hard to read and not well designed. I tried to improve on it a bit...

The number of people receiving food stamps hit a record high during the recent recession and remains high. But that has not been the case for welfare. In some states, welfare participation rates have actually decreased over the past few years. Equally surprising is the fact that less than one-third of the federal and state money currently spent on welfare is actually given to people as cash assistance. The rest is spent on specialized services such as child care, child welfare and teen pregnancy counseling, but the government really doesn’t know how these funds are used and who benefits. “We’ve...

Full Title:God Particle is 'Found': Scientists at Cern Expected to Announce on Wednesday Higgs Boson Particle Has Been Discovered Scientists at Cern will announce that the elusive Higgs boson 'God Particle' has been found at a press conference next week, it is believed. Five leading theoretical physicists have been invited to the event on Wednesday - sparking speculation that the particle has been discovered. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are expected to say they are 99.99 per cent certain it has been found - which is known as 'four sigma' level. Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh University emeritus professor of...

Rush is driving me crazing.

Now that the Supreme Court has said that the 20 new or higher taxes in Obamacare can take effect as scheduled, it’s important to remind taxpayers that those aren’t the only tax hikes they will see in the near future. Just six months from now, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2013: First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax ReliefIn 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for small business owners, families, and investors (later re-upped...

Thank you, SCOTUS. This Obamacare ruling fires up the troops as America’s eyes are opened! Thank God. This proves to be such an unsettling time in America as we undergo the fundamental transformation that Barack Obama promised he would do to us if elected. Obamacare was dealt in deception and confusion by flooding the public with an overwhelming amount of conflicting “rationale” via thousands of pages of unread legislative detail, which is the radical left’s M.O. Obama promised the American people this wasn’t a tax and that he’d never raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000. We now see...

<p>An Oregon town has reportedly canceled its annual fireworks show out of concern the Fourth of July pyrotechnics will scare sea birds roosting nearby.</p> <p>Town officials in Depoe Bay have announced the cancellation of the annual pre-Independence Day fireworks show on July 3 following pressure from federal wildlife managers who said the noise disrupts sea birds in the area, the Oregonian reports.</p>

(snip) Some liberals contend that Roberts’s surprise crossover on the health care law has given him a free hand to craft and sign onto a slew of conservative opinions next year without suffering much of a public drubbing from Democrats and the press. With one major case, Roberts may have inoculated himself and the court against charges of partisanship. The chief will have plenty of chances to make his mark in the next term. Already, the justices are planning to delve into the politically charged issue of affirmative action. They may well add hot-button disputes over same-sex marriage rights and...

Is anyone else having a very hard time with the 4th of July this year? Celebrating our independence seems almost a farce to me right now. The Supreme Court has ruled that there's something constitutional in taxing us for not making a purchase. The attorney general and president aid and abet organized drug gangs. People who criminally cross our border are not only welcomed but treated as victims, and assisted by our – OUR – government in flauting the “law.” Americans by birthright or legal means are relegated to cogs in the wheel, forced to hand over more and more...