Free Republic

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) lived in exceedingly tumultuous times. Leviathan was written after the protracted Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) and during the brutal English Civil War (1642-1651) a war, like the Civil War was to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a traumatic event that completely changed his worldview from theism to atheism, and perverted his political thinking and writings making Hobbles value peace and constancy above God, truth and liberty. Leviathan argues for a “social contract” and rule by an absolute sovereign (as pictured on the original frontispiece above). Hobbes, being the de facto secretary to Sir Francis Bacon followed Bacon’s utopian...

Iran is the scorpion and Secretary Kerry is the frog.Here is the fable of the scorpion and the frog: The Scorpion and the Frog A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too."The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both...

I have an OCD -- Whenever I read a story about a particularly gruesome or senseless crime I have a compulsion to search the names and check their race. I've been doing this for years. Now all a sudden, I'm having difficulties getting hits on the names to get the pictures up. Bing and Google have been problematic in that they aren't returning valid results, just usually hodgepodge of unrelated pictures. Anybody else experiencing similar? And if anybody else has a similar compunction, what search techniques do you think are best?

238th Marine Corps birthday message:Enduring Fortitude, Unfailing Valor. [video] The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen James F. Amos, and the SgtMaj of the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Micheal P. Barrett, speak to Marines and Sailors about the timeless Marine qualities of courage and perseverance by looking back on the landing on Tarawa in WWII, the Battle of Hue City during Vietnam, and crossing the berm into Iraq during the War on Terror. Marine determination, grit and valor make the Corps the ready force America relies on in times of crisis.

Best news in the poll: 60% disapprove of the lawless Obama regime's immigration policies, meaning that the Democrat-controlled Senate's amnesty plan is likely dead in the House. Even 42% of Democrats dislike the way Obama wants to reward criminal foreigners with citizenship, jobs, welfare, and the vote.

Iranian officials said Sunday the country made progress with world powers during "serious" talks over Tehran's nuclear program, but insisted the nation cannot be pushed to give up uranium enrichment as negotiations move into tougher ground over ways to ease Western concerns that Iran could one day develop atomic weapons. The remarks on enrichment repeat past declarations on the country's "right" to produce nuclear fuel, which is a key element of the talks over its scope. But President Hassan Rouhani and his top envoys seek to assure hard-line critics that Iran will not make sweeping concessions in the negotiations, which...

It's the battle of the tablets. Just as Apple unveiled the ultrathin iPad Air with Retina Display, Microsoft officially released the Surface Pro 2. Although both are excellent tablets for small businesses, each device has its own set of capabilities. Whereas the iPad Air is strictly an iOS tablet in form and function, the Surface Pro 2 is a versatile, Windows-powered hybrid machine that can be used as a tablet, laptop or desktop computer. To help you choose which tablet is right for your business, we've compared the iPad Air and the Surface Pro 2.

Tucked inside nearly 11,000 pages of the Affordable Care Act is a little-known provision that doles out three months of free health care to individuals who choose to default on their premiums .People who receive the federal subsidy to be part of Obamacare will be allowed to incur a three-month “grace period” if they can’t pay their premiums and then simply cancel their policies, stiffing the doctors and hospitals. Their only repercussion is that they have to wait until the following year’s open enrollment if they want coverage on the exchange. “It will help break the system,” said Rep. Louie...

Poor Barack Obama. Ending his fifth year as the world’s most powerful man, he is running out of scapegoats and fairy tales. Blaming George W. Bush has lost its punch, and the ObamaCare debacle is shredding the myths he is competent and honest. Still, before he rides off into that sunset of self-pity and low poll ratings, he ought to invite his remaining friends over for a heart-to-heart. That way he can tell The New York Times that its fanatical support does him no favors. Instead, it feeds his arrogance and reinforces his belief that he can solve any problem...

Kerry on Iran talks: 'No deal is better than a bad deal' Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News 34 minutes ago Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States is in no rush to reach a deal to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program without being "absolutely certain" it's the right deal. "President Obama has been crystal clear," Kerry said on NBC's "Meet The Press" Sunday. "Don't rush. We're not in a rush. We need to get the right deal. No deal is better than a bad deal. And we are certainly adhering to that concept." Kerry's...

Washington D.C., Nov 9, 2013 / 04:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As L.A. Archbishop José Gomez laments the lack of urgency to reform the immigration system, the U.S. bishops are urging Catholics to call and write Congress to support “just and compassionate immigration reform.” “Immigration reform can’t wait. We can’t let another year slip away, doing nothing,” Archbishop Gomez said in his Nov. 8 column for Los Angeles' archdiocesan newspaper, The Tidings. “Millions of our brothers and sisters are suffering – and they have been for years now.” The U.S. bishops are asking that Catholics call their congressmen in support of...

WASHINGTON — The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa said if the White House doesn’t address the growing scourge of al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists flourishing in North Africa, America will soon see its interests coming under attack from the likes of Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), also past chairwoman of the full committee, said the shortsighted policy stems from President Obama’s “false narrative that al-Qaeda is decimated and on the run.”

“Access to power,” Plato said in The Republic, “must be confined to men who are not in love with it.” I think that’s pretty good advice, and I wish our masters in Washington were a bit better at following it than they are. It is a curious irony that the burning desire for high office is a disqualifying character trait for the beneficent exercise of high office. But we see corroborative evidence of that irony all around us. More from Plato: “All goes wrong when, starved for lack of anything good in their own lives, men turn to public affairs...

Last week, I went to see a movie called Una Noche — a movie about Cuba. I never would have seen it, but Charles Lane wrote about it, in an article titled “Cuba’s hard truths exposed.” Then Ron Radosh told me about it. (He would write about it here.) So I went. I regard it as a bit of a miracle — a movie that portrays Communist Cuba realistically. All of my life, I have seen movies whitewash Cuba. Indeed, whitewashing Cuba is one of Hollywood’s minor specialties. I blinked in amazement at seeing Una Noche. (We had a similar...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- A satellite about the size of a Volkswagen van is on its way back down to Earth. The over one ton satellite is expected to crash land sometime Sunday night or Monday morning. But at this point, it's not clear where.

On runway 24 of U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, a part of Boeing Harpoon missile history was recently witnessed when four of the proven Harpoon Block IC cruise missiles were uploaded onto a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet to undergo a rigorous flight test over the Atlantic Ocean. The test verified flight characteristics with the quad load-out; a Harpoon first. The test was performed jointly by members of the U.S. Navy’s VX-23 Strike Test squadron, PMA-201 Precision Strike Weapons team, Boeing Test & Evaluation and Weapons & Missile Systems businesses. “There’s probably nothing that has to be more perfect...

To all my Brothers and Sisters, past, present, and future. Happy Birthday. Semper Fi.

Franciscans have decided to invest in training six young Palestinians to work on the projectIt took 18 months work and €600,000 to restore the Basilica of Gethsemane back to its original splendour. Restoration work on the precious mosaics has finished and the 5000 pilgrims that visit the Basilica of Agony in Jerusalem every year will once more be able to linger amid the Church’s ancient aisles, their heads tilted backwards, immersed in a nocturnal atmosphere, intensified by the dark blue starry sky depicted on the mosaics which is framed by olive branches. A number of countries contributed to the building...

Throw-away track phones bought at a nearby dollar store. Private investigator hired to trail working mom. Massive document shredding days. Bashing of hard drives. Office Chaos. Wow. Is this the latest fiction novel on a crime themed best seller list? No. These are actual references in US House of Representatives hearings on the massive Social Security Disability Fraud Scandal. Honest and dedicated federal employees, sickened and disgusted over the theft of money and services of US taxpayer dollars filed a whistleblower lawsuit to blow the lid off of a scandal that looks to bankrupt a federal agency founded for the...

Did you know that the number of people on food stamps has grown over the past 13 years by nearly 30 million, which accounts for almost 20% of households receiving taxpayer-funded food subsidies? At the same time, the federal government is spending more per household than ever before – in fact, a 152 percent increase since 1965. Our middle class is shrinking – the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, due in large part to insanely complex government rules and regulations that only those with resources can bypass. In fact, the top 7% of households own...