Free Republic

As even many casual observers of America's fractious politics are aware, the overwhelming majority of lawmaking at the federal level no longer takes place in Congress as the Constitution's framers intended. Instead, the vast majority of the "rulemaking" governing Americans' day-to-day lives now takes place behind closed doors, deep in the bowels of the administrative state's sprawling bureaucracy. The brainchild of progressive President Woodrow Wilson, arguments on behalf of the modern administrative state are ultimately rooted in, among other factors, a disdain for the messy give-and-take of republican politics and an epistemological preference for rule by enlightened clerisy. Put more...

Russell Moore’s departure from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and his role at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has many conservatives in the denomination celebrating the end of a seven-year tumultuous period of declivity in both practical doctrine and orthopraxy. On the other hand, this author believes that despite Moore’s exodus, the damage he left behind by turning much of the denomination into a progressive political action group will likely be far too much for the denomination to clean up. ... Over the last seven years, Moore brought those Democrat politics into the Church, using his platform to...

Long before the pandemic, the local news business had been in a tailspin. Newspapers across the country lost classified advertising revenue thanks to internet sites like Craigslist. Terrestrial radio stations lost their audience to iTunes -- and then Spotify. Most commercial radio stations don't offer news anymore. Most Americans under 35 think of newspapers and radio news as odd products their parents consume, like Spam and Velveeta. As a college kid in Viroqua, Wisconsin, I covered local news in the summers for our local radio station and called in freelance articles on the city council or school board decisions to...

When I saw the title of an opinion piece by the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, "Were My Criticisms of Israel Fair?" I did not hold my breath in expectation that his answer would be, "they were not, and I apologize." He doubled down, yet again smearing Israel with the accusations of war crimes for forcefully responding to an attack from Gaza, in the best traditions of the New York Times. Which is of course his right -- as we well know, everyone is entitled to his opinion. The problem of course is that, as the second part of that...

PORTLAND, Ore. - An Indiana man, charged with 26 felonies, is now facing federal charges for allegedly throwing an explosive toward police and smashing windows during protests in Portland, Oregon. Malik Muhammad, 24, of Indianapolis, first made headlines last year when he de-escalated a tense standoff by hugging a police lieutenant in Indianapolis. On Tuesday, Muhammad appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland, where he was charged with civil disorder and obstructing law enforcement, possession of an unregistered firearm and using explosives to commit a federal felony. The three federal charges Muhammad now faces are in addition to the 26...

“For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness. But just because history is silent, it doesn't mean that it did not take place... And while darkness can hide much, it can never erase what happened. That’s why we’re here: to shine a light, to make sure America knows the story in full.”The Tulsa riots noted by President Biden are a painful episode among many acts of racist violence in the United States. One of the largely hidden parts of the history of this event is the Afro-idealist response of an...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WSPA) – Asheville Police will no longer be sending officers to respond to certain calls because of a shortage of officers, the department said in a release Wednesday. The department reports it’s lost 84 officers since the start of last year. “We have an agency that has provided services at a high level for a long time, but the circumstances have come to pass that we don’t have the staffing to maintain that level of service,” said Deputy Chief of Police Mike Yelton. The department said it’s no longer responding to crimes including thefts under $1,000 where there...

Contagious disease outbreaks are named after their place of origin. There are myriad examples – Lyme Disease, Ebola, Zika, or Marburg virus, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and so on. Tradition changed with “COVID-19”, an acronym indicating that this was a coronavirus disease beginning in 2019. Naming this virus after it’s source location, such as the Chinese Coronavirus or Wuhan Flu is now considered racist, xenophobic, white supremacist, or any other novel woke-ism adjective. Perhaps a new name for COVID virus is in order. The past weeks have rubbed some of the glitter off Fabulous Fauci, the god of all things...

True disrupter candidates are rare, but Pennsylvania has at least two. Brothers Joe and Sean Gale are running a true grassroots campaign that has taken aim not just at the Democrats, but the GOP establishment as well. Joe Gale — a Montgomery County Commissioner — has routinely taken the establishment GOP to task on high profile issues. Over the last year and a half, he has been a vocal critic of the state GOP for their role in passing ACT 77, which allowed for mass mail-in voting. Every Republican member of the Pennsylvania Senate voted for ACT 77, which was...

This may shock and amaze you if your blinders are on, but President Joe Biden is not only not a uniter; he is actively trying to divide Americans on race -- and other issues -- purely for raw political power. There is no other plausible explanation. During former President Donald Trump's entire presidency and ever since, we've been bombarded daily with the narrative that Trump is divisive and a racist. His political opponents and the media distorted his words, such as those he said in the aftermath of the Charlottesville attacks, to paint him as sympathetic to white supremacists. That...

Former Vice President Mike Pence during a speech Thursday in New Hampshire blasted the policies of President Joe Biden, observing the president had gone from campaigning “as a moderate” to becoming “the most liberal president since FDR.” Pence delivered his remarks during the Hillsborough County GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner, and as he railed against Biden and spoke optimistically about the Republican Party’s future, the former vice president only further added to speculation that he himself could be considering a run for president in 2024. Although Pence did not give any indications of his plans during his comments, he conveyed...

Rutgers illustrates the lack of understanding that anti-Semitism is a metaphor for racial hatred. Whatever the situation in the Middle East, there is no excuse for the importing of prejudice against Jews to the streets in Britain and the U.S. In both countries, there is anxiety about the increase in antisemitic incidents and expressions in recent months. Inevitably this increase is related to the misinformed commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has led to anti-Semitic incidents and the expression of anti-Semitic views. This has caused a reaction. A full-page paid advertisement issued on June 1, 2021 by a variety of...

Today's Democratic Party, aligned with certain associated power elites, is actively fighting a second American Revolution. Today's Democratic Party, aligned with certain associated power elites, is actively fighting a second American Revolution dedicated to overturning our original one, with the objective of imposing a Marxism-style political order upon our country. Actively employing a totalitarian political model and methods similar to those utilized by the Chinese Communist Party, a cadre of elites in this country, including many in the business, media, academic, and celebrity worlds as well as many politicians across party lines, are working together in a highly orchestrated movement...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said Thursday that he is still “undecided” on whether he'll run for reelection next year. "I'm undecided," Johnson, who said he was only going to be a two-term senator, said at the Milwaukee Press Club, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. "When I made that pledge, I meant that pledge," he added. "I ran in 2010 because I was panicked for this nation. I'm more panicked today." Former President Trump has encouraged Johnson to run for a third term. “He is brave, he is bold, he loves our Country, our Military, and our Vets. He will protect...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has arrested four more members of the Oath Keepers in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, adding them to a growing group of far-right militia members facing felony charges over the riot. In a newly unsealed court filing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia added the four to conspiracy charges facing members of the group, bringing the total to 16 defendants in the case. Federal prosecutors say the four attempted “to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, that is, the Certification of the Electoral College vote” —...

'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson warned today the Indian 'Delta' variant could be 100 per cent more infectious than the Kent one as official data showed it's also twice as likely to put unvaccinated patients in hospital. The senior SAGE modeller — dubbed Professor Lockdown for his terrifying death predictions that prompted the first shutdown last March — warned the emerging evidence about the variant was not positive 'in any respect'. He said the mutant Covid strain was between 30 and 100 per cent more virulent than the previously dominant Kent variant and that 'a good central estimate' would be 60...

An espionage trial involving a former Polish secret services agent and an ex-employee of Huawei begins in a Warsaw court on Tuesday as some European states consider whether to exclude the Chinese group's equipment from their 5G telecom networks. Poland arrested the two men in January 2019 on suspicion of spying for China, in a move that has ramped up international debate over the potential security risks of using Huawei equipment in communications networks. Huawei has repeatedly denied its equipment can be used for espionage by authorities in Beijing, but the United States has been pressuring countries to ban it....

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Republican Sen. Rand Paul continued to go after Dr. Anthony Fauci in a radio interview Wednesday, claiming he's invested in a Wuhan lab leak theory being discredited because the U.S. financed some of the lab's research. Paul claimed the nation's top infectious disease expert had an 'incestuous' relationship' with Dr. Peter Daszak, a British zoologist whose EcoHealth Alliance non-profit steered U.S. funding toward the Wuhan lab, and the scientists working there. 'It's all so incestuous,' Paul told Tom Roten with WVHU, a local radio station in Kentucky. 'It's a small group of people. Fauci is at the head of this...

June 4 , 2021Friday of Week 9 St. Boniface, Lidgerwood, North Dakota Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green First readingTobit 11:5-17 ©Tobit's sight is restored to himAnna was sitting, watching the road by which her son would come. She was sure at once it must be he and said to the father, ‘Here comes your son, with his companion.’ Raphael said to Tobias before he reached his father, ‘I give you my word that your father’s eyes will open. You must put the fish’s gall to his eyes; the medicine will smart and will draw a filmy white skin off his...