Free Republic

Below is my column in the Wall Street Journal on the growing counter-constitutional movement in the United States. This assault on the Constitution is being led by law professors who have lost their faith in the defining principles and institutions of our Republic. Here is the column: Kamala Harris declared in Tuesday’s debate that a vote for her is a vote “to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy ’cause you don’t like the outcome.” She was alluding to the 2021 Capitol riot, but she and her party are also attacking the foundations of our...

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” ~ (Benjamin Franklin) “Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.” ~ (Benjamin Franklin) “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” ~ (Benjamin Franklin) “Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense.” ~ (Benjamin Franklin) “Moderation in all things – including moderation.” ~ (Benjamin Franklin) “Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.” ~ (Benjamin Franklin) “Remember...

Today I am happy to highlight that William Cabell Bruce's work Benjamin Franklin: Self-Revealed (v1) has been completed. https://librivox.org/benjamin-franklin-self-revealed-vol1-wc-bruce/This is an example of good things that just drop into your lap. Many moons ago I asked people "Which Founding Father is the most popular who isn't George Washington, isn't Benamin Franklin, isn't Thomas Jefferson, and isn't George Washington?", because in part this small handful of Founders is going to naturally have coverage. These are the Founders that the school systems cannot cover up. So from that standpoint these books are just going to get done anyways. There's no reason to...

While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, it is a little-known fact that a few hundred Canadians beat the German Empire by eight years. On July 1, 1908, the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario—today's Thunder Bay—turned their clocks forward by one hour to start the world's first DST period......Germany introduced DST in 1916. Clocks in the German Empire, and its ally Austria, were turned ahead by one hour on April 30, 1916—two years into World War I. The rationale was to minimize the use of artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort.Within...

On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating founded The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. Within three years of its founding, that promotion took place through public lectures, a high school, a library, public exhibitions, and a research journal, and many of these endeavors remain core activities to this day... For the organization's first century, the Institute offered classes in mechanics, drafting, and engineering, and promoted science and invention. In 1930, despite the Great Depression, The Franklin Institute and the Poor Richard Club began to seek funds to...

Attendees at the Oct. 4 ‘Free Palestine’ march were more focused on repeating anti-Israel slogans than helping liberate Gazans from Hamas.It usually takes 10 minutes, 15 at most, to get downtown from southeast D.C. On Saturday, it took over an hour. Traffic was at a standstill, and the metro was overflowing as protesters descended upon the nation’s capital to attend the People’s Forum “Free Palestine” march.The largest “pro-Palestine” protest in American history was centralized at Freedom Plaza — just a block away from the White House — but spilled into the surrounding areas as thousands of protesters splintered off into...

I happened to notice that a biography of Benjamin Franklin was produced and published at Librivox. Thought you all might enjoy this. Benjamin Franklin, Robin McKown (1907 - 1975)This biography of Franklin was written for young people, but can be enjoyed by anyone. The author Robin McKown, is known for her young adult historical fiction and historical biographies. - Summary by Ciufi GaleazziThis audiobook is a solo, which means it is of a much higher quality than group books and yes, this reader did a fantastic job. However, it's free and open source so I would encourage you to give...

During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies...However, one major problem stood in the way of efforts to print paper money: counterfeiting. When Franklin opened his printing house in 1728, paper money was a relatively new concept. Unlike gold and silver, paper money's lack of intrinsic value meant it was constantly at risk of depreciating. There were no standardized bills in the Colonial period, leaving an opportunity for counterfeiters to pass off fake bills as real ones. In response, Franklin worked to embed a suite of security features that made his bills distinctive...One of the...

on the occasion of 100th anniversary At the founding of The Walt Disney Company, Walter Elias Disney’s image would be Allegedly Will be printed on US currency until June 2024. The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of The Walt Disney Company, however in 1923, the company did not look like it does today (in more ways than one-Read more about that here, One hundred years ago, in October 1923, the Disney brothers—Walt and Roy—opened the Disney Brothers Studio in California. From that little hole-in-the-wall studio, Walt’s beloved company grew and grew, and grew some more, and...

by Joshua Ford | 24NewsThe unveiling of a new Florida license plate by Governor DeSantis has liberals and leftist organizations up in arms.Liberals are constantly willfully misinterpreting traditional American and patriotic flags and symbols to try to associate them with “right wing extremism.” One such victim of this misinterpretation is the iconic Gadsden Flag.This iconic flag dates back to the time of the revolution and has been seen as a symbol of freedom, defiance in the face of oppression, and American patriotism ever since.Now, Governor Ron DeSantis has released a new Florida license plate which prominently features the Gadsden flag...

e year was 1748, the place was Philadelphia, and the book was The Instructor, a popular British manual for everything from arithmetic to letter-writing to caring for horses’ hooves. Benjamin Franklin had set himself to adapting it for the American colonies. Though Franklin already had a long and successful career by this point, he needed to find a way to convince colonial book-buyers—who for the most part didn’t even formally study arithmetic—that his version of George Fisher’s textbook was worth the investment. Franklin made all sorts of changes throughout the book, from place names to inserting colonial histories, but he...

In the American imagination, the founding era shimmers as the golden age of political discourse, a time when philosopher-kings strode the public stage, dispensing wisdom with gentle civility. We prefer to believe that these courtly figures, with their powdered hair and buckled shoes, showed impeccable manners in their political dealings. The appeal of this image seems obvious at a time when many Americans lament the partisan venom and character assassination that have permeated the political process. Unfortunately, this anodyne image of the early republic can be quite misleading. However hard it may be to picture the founders resorting to rough-and-tumble...

Three years after California voters approved a ballot initiative to take the first steps toward staying on daylight saving time the entire year, the state is preparing to “fall back” to standard time this weekend like nearly all of the U.S. And as the debate over the seasonal time change continues, a state lawmaker says all options are still on the table in the California Legislature — even a possible move to year-round standard time. Inaction by Congress, however, means California and other states looking to end the time change currently aren’t allowed to stay on daylight saving time throughout...

In a 2015 study published in Sleep Medicine, researchers compared the rate of strokes during the week after daylight saving to the rate 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after. They found the rate was 8% higher the first 2 days after the shift, and people with cancer were 25% more likely to have a stroke than during other times of year. People over 65 were 20% more likely. A 2019 report found a higher risk of heart attack after both time changes, but particularly during daylight saving. Interruptions to circadian rhythm can also impair focus and judgment. A 2020...

The Sommersett Case and the Slave Trade (1) It is said that some generous humane persons subscribed to the expence of obtaining liberty by law for Somerset the Negro.(2) It is to be wished that the same humanity may extend itself among numbers; if not to the procuring liberty for those that remain in our Colonies, at least to obtain a law for abolishing the African commerce in Slaves, and declaring the children of present Slaves free after they become of age. By a late computation made in America, it appears that there are now eight hundred and fifty thousand...

315 years ago, on January 17th, 1706, Benjamin Franklin came into our world. He would go on to do amazing things, things which it is not my intent to spend another 50000 words re-telling. What I wanted to do instead was invite you and invite everybody to celebrate his life and legacy, and take the time to get to know him a little better on a more personal level. This can be done. There is a fantastic free open source public domain audiobook of Franklin's autobiography which you can download here, it is well put together and is a great...

On this date in 1786, Elizabeth Wilson was hanged in Chester, Pennsylvania for the murder of her infant twins. “One of the melodramas of the early American republic,” our Elizabeth (sometimes called “Harriot Wilson” in the accounts) was a farmer’s daughter of Chester County who got knocked up by a passing sailor. When this gentleman declined to make an honest woman of her after she had borne the bastards, the kids disappeared — later to be discovered dead in the woods by a hunter. The fallen woman denied having killed them directly, but “acknowledged having placed the children by the...

This week is probably one of the most important weeks since the founding of our nation. It is a week that can only be described like the week leading up to that summer day in 1787 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where delegates from 13 colonies came together. They had all decided it was important now to work out all the specifics, all the details that were going to take this Republic into the future. They were tired, aggravated, many of them coming with their own agendas for their own colonies. The convention was in danger of ending with nothing...

For decades, many Americans have fiddled with their clocks each March and November as they “spring forward” or “fall back” to keep pace with daylight saving time (DST). Experts have historically claimed that the practice, which has roots in late 19th century and was widely instituted in 1966, benefits society by extending our sunlit hours and saving energy costs, although many others have called those benefits into question, as Amanda Kooser reports for CNET. Last week, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) entered the debate, calling for the end of DST-related time-changes altogether. Instead, AASM leaders wrote in a...

Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, quietly removed statues of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin from campus in July over concerns that they would be vandalized by protesters. The university also feared that having a statue of Thomas Jefferson would become a “target or an embarrassment” for alumni. Statues of Jefferson have recently been targeted by vandals on campuses and in parks around the country. According to a report by the College Fix, Washburn University removed statues of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin in July to prevent vandalism. The statues, which were donated by a Washburn alumnus, were replaced with blue...