Free Republic

Yale President Ezra Stiles stated in 1783: "Most states of all ages ... have been founded in rapacity, usurpation and injustice ... The Nimrods ... (were) the first invading tyrants of the ancient ages ... The spirit of conquest had changed the first governments ... All succeeding ones have in general proved one continued series of injustice, which has reigned in all countries for almost 4,000 years." The first invention ever was the plow. The Bible tells that Cain was a "tiller of the soil." Then people started hitting each other with them and they turned into weapons. British philosopher...

In his last days in office, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin pardoned some of Kentucky’s worst murderers. Among those he released from prison was a convicted killer whose brother was a big campaign donor. Such pardons will incite more crimes, because studies show that harsh penalties deter and prevent crime, especially murder.

Ancient Egyptians have long been depicted wearing so-called head cones, but until now, archaeologists had no physical evidence of their existence. Now, two such head cones, made of wax, have been discovered on the skulls of two individuals buried about 3,300 years ago at the site of Amarna in Egypt. Between 1550 B.C. and 30 B.C., Egyptian art depicted people wearing what look like cones on their heads. Because no examples of these cones had ever been found, archaeologists wondered whether they actually existed or were an artistic motif that had no basis in reality The two cone-wearing individuals were...

A new report from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office spotlights a dangerous incongruity in how California approaches two issues involving global warming: the push to reduce emissions of Earth-warming greenhouse gases and what to do about the already-rising seas. While the state has been an international leader on the former, it is woefully behind on the latter. California has not done what it should to prepare for coastal erosion, sea incursions into low-lying areas (including sensitive wetlands), storm-surge flooding of shore communities or the possible need for a forced retreat from imperiled developments at the ocean’s edge. As the report...

After Columbus discovered the New World, Spain grew in power to surpass Portugal as the largest global empire, giving rise the saying, the sun never set on the Spanish Empire. From Madrid, the Spanish Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ruled territories in Europe, North America, Central America, South America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and all the way to the Philippines. Catholic Spain was instrumental in beating back the attacks of the Muslim Ottoman Turks from taking over Europe, most notably at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Rather than following up on this astounding victory and freeing the...

MADRID (AP) - United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned Thursday that failure to tackle climate change could result in economic disaster that would allow only the “survival of the richest.” Guterres urged officials from almost 200 countries at the annual U.N. climate meeting in Madrid to embrace the economic opportunities that come with cutting greenhouse gases rather than focus on the risks to existing industries dependent on fossil fuels. “For too long, vested interests have peddled the false story that economic growth and tackling climate change are incompatible,” the U.N. chief said. “This is nonsense.” “In fact, failing to tackle...

Back when Donald Trump was running for president — and Republicans were still capable of feeling politically ashamed — a conservative friend made what was, to my mind, the decisive case against voting for him. No, a ballot for Trump did not automatically mean that his voters shared his bigotries. Nor did it necessarily mean that they weren’t embarrassed by them. It just meant that those bigotries weren’t deal-breakers. If their candidate was a birther, they could live with it. If he thought celebrity was a license for sexual predation, they could live with it. If he wanted to impose...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder claimed his successor William Barr was “unfit” to continue in his post as head of the Department of Justice. Holder, who served as attorney general under President Barack Obama, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post where he said he was “reluctant to publicly criticize” President Trump’s attorney general but felt the need to speak out after Barr issued public statements about disagreements he had with Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on alleged FISA abuse. He also criticized Barr’s remarks from a Federalist Society event where he said the founders intended for one man to...

People who dismiss climate change often claim that the earth's warm-up is simply part of “natural climate variability.” A paper published in July in Nature puts that argument to rest. The authors show that warm and cold years were regularly interspersed during the past 2,000 years and that even the warmest and coldest periods were experienced only by isolated regions at a given time - never across the entire globe simultaneously. For example, the so-called Little Ice Age occurred in the 1400s across the central Pacific Ocean, in the 1600s across northwestern Europe and in the mid-1800s in other places....

The Daily Mail reported October 13, 2018, that: "Muhammad is now the most popular name for baby boys in England." Breitbart News, April 2, 2017, published in an article "423 New Mosques, 500 Closed Churches in London," quoting The Gatestone Institute report: "London is more Islamic than many Muslim countries put together ... British multi-culturalists are feeding Islamic fundamentalism ... Londonistan, with its new 423 mosques, is built on the sad ruins of English Christianity ... Given the current trends, Christianity in England is becoming a relic, while Islam will be the religion of the future." The London Daily Express,...

Columbus was looking for a SEA route to India and China because 40 years earlier Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453 cutting off the LAND routes. A biography of Columbus was written by Washington Irving in 1828, titled A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. In it, Irving created an imaginative dialogue of Europeans arguing over whether the Earth was round or flat. His book was so popular, that people actually thought such a debate took place when it had not. Washington Irving was known for mixing entertainment with history and legend. He wrote Rip Van Winkle,...

Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived in the city-state of Athens. In 380 BC, Plato wrote The Republic, where he described in Books 8 and 9: "States are as the men are; they grow out of human characters." "Like State, like man." The Republic is written as a collection of conversations of Plato's teacher Socrates. It gives insights into human behavior which is amazingly similar to today. Plato described government going through FIVE STAGES: "The constitutions of States are five." The FIVE STAGES are: "We count as one Royal and Aristocratical ..." followed by Timocratical, Oligarchical, Democratical, Tyrannical. Plato's...

A debate took place last month at the SoHo Forum. The proposition before the debaters was "Socialism is preferable to capitalism as an economic system that promotes freedom, equality, and prosperity." Arguing in the affirmative was Richard D. Wolff, the preeminent American Marxian economist. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Opposing was Gene Epstein, the former economics editor of Barron's Magazine. The debate itself wasn't that interesting. Wolff is a skilled communicator and drove...

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News Tuesday that “the FISA court has to either be shut down in its entirety or they have to take action and soon following the release Monday of Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz’s report on the origins of the Russia investigation and the issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants for a Trump campaign official. Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on “America’s Newsroom” that there was something “really important that we wanted the American people to know, but it wasn’t until yesterday and now that people...

A case of misplaced blame. All those blaming Columbus for sailing west must turn one chapter back in the history books to find that it was actually Islamic jihad disrupting the land routes from Europe to India and China that resulted in Columbus looking for a sea route. Nearly two centuries before Columbus, the 17-years-old Marco Polo left Venice for India and China with his father, Niccolo Polo, and uncle, Matteo Polo, in 1271. Together they traveled 5,600 miles to the east to meet Kublai Khan, the grandson of Ghengis Khan. Kublai Khan was Emperor of China, Korea, North India,...

GOP rising star Matt Gaetz of Florida gave today’s clown show hearing on impeachment the respect it fully deserved – by spending most of his five minutes of time mercilessly torching the Bidens, most notably Quid Pro Joe’s ne’er-do-well son, Hunter. The clip of Gaetz’s five minutes of greatness is followed by a full transcript of the festivities: Rep. Matt Gaetz ✔ @RepMattGaetz The Bidens are dirty.#impeachmentDebate Embedded video 7,701 11:23 AM - Dec 12, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 4,427 people are talking about this Transcript: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This amendment strikes “Joe Biden” as the center...

The Democrat candidate for President in 1848 was Lewis Cass, born OCTOBER 9, 1782. In 1807, Lewis Cass became the US Marshal for Ohio. He was a Brigadier-General in the War of 1812, fighting in the decisive Battle of Moravian Town, or Battle of the Thames, where the British and their ally, Indian Chief Tecumseh, were defeated. This secured the Territory for the United States. President James Madison appointed Lewis Cass as Governor-General of the Michigan Territory, 1813-1831. Cass made Indian treaties, organized townships and built roads. In 1820, just 14 years after Lewis and Clark returned from discovering the...

He began his career as an auto racer, gaining international fame by competing in the Indianapolis 500 four times, earning the nickname "Fast Eddie." When World War I started, he was sent to France in 1917, becoming the personal chauffeur driver of General John J. Pershing. His name was Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker, born OCTOBER 8, 1890. During World War I, Germany's Red Baron was dominating the skies. Eddie Rickenbacker requested that he be transferred to the air service where he eventually became commanding officer of the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron, with its famous "Hat-in-the-Ring" insignia. His squadron was responsible...

Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill say local police who do not enforce gun control measures likely to pass in Virginia should face prosecution and even threats of the National Guard. After November's Virginia Legislature elections that led to Democrats taking control of both chambers, the gun control legislation proposed by some Democrats moved forward, including universal background checks, an assault weapons” ban, and a red flag law. Legal firearm owners in the state, however, joined with their sheriffs to form Second Amendment sanctuary counties, which declare the authorities in these municipalities uphold the Second Amendment in the face of any...

...And they’re also challenging the notion that the paper ran a story with questionable sourcing. Do you have a response to the criticism?” I think the Atlanta Journal probably would be the one group that would be sort of complexed about that whole situation because they are the ones who printed the first thing of there being a crime caused by Richard Jewell,” said Eastwood. “And so they’re probably looking for ways to rationalize their activity. I don’t know for sure. I haven’t — never discussed it with anyone from there …”