Free Republic

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)The following excerpt from American Betrayal appears today in slightly edited form at Breitbart News:In his contribution to the famous 1949 collection of essays by ex-Communists titled The God That Failed, Arthur Koestler carefully illustrates how set language binds thought to ideology at the expense of evidence. Koestler, author of the unparalleled novel of Stalin's show trials, Darkness at Noon, describes a conversation he had early in his Communist career with "Edgar," his Party contact, in which they discuss the front page of a Communist newspaper."But every word on the front page is contradicted by the facts," I...

Between a President who lies about global warming, climate change, a Congress composed mostly of lawyers who are clueless about the actual science, the best we can hope for is a Republican Party determined to rein in the EPA I made a promise to myself that I would not write about President Obama’s State of the Union speech because that would require me to watch him deliver it. Like many others I can barely watch him under any circumstance because, to my mind, that means having to watch a psychopathic liar. The problem with that is that he is the...

Syriza, the neo-communist party led by Alexis Tsipras, has won the elections in Greece. The party is a collection of Marxists, Socialists, Maoists, Trotskyites and Greenies. In other words, Syriza is the party of the moochers. They oppose the austerity measures that the troika of the EU, European Central Bank and the IMF imposed on them in exchange for loans. The Greeks, who cheated their way into the EU, are fed up with the austerity measures. They remind me of someone who maxed out his credit card and had to depend on his relatives to save him from bankruptcy. As...

Computers have as much consciousness as cars or concrete. This will not change. They’re machines. They can be programmed to follow directions and calculate certain kinds of solutions within those directed parameters. That’s it. That’s the beginning and end of the story. Why do some technocrats believe computers will gain actual consciousness? They think a) the brain is a machine that expresses consciousness via information processing, and b) information processing is all the consciousness there is. To sum up, technocrats are high-IQ idiots. You can assemble all the information in the world and cross-reference it 100 billion different ways; you...

To what extent can political correctness or a misguided sense of obligatory deference contribute to the destruction of this country? Low information voters and others who pride themselves on a lifetime of acquiring something for nothing have no interest in and no appreciation of the rights provided them by the Founders of this Nation or the dangers posed by our enemies. For inseparable from those individual rights is individual responsibility which is anathema to those who cherish entitlement over opportunity. And where do the leaders of our government, from the top on down, stand on the American public mistrusting those...

CROATIA COMMEMORATES THE CREATOR OF THE AUSCHWITZ OF THE BALKANSCroatia's WWII leader Ante Pavelic received by Hitler in Berchtesgaden for a two-hour conference on June 6, 1941. Brussels must confront revival of fascism in Eastern Europe Croatia's Ante Pavelic, founder of Ustasha movement, was personally responsible for group's genocidal policies Try and imagine the following scenario. This coming spring, on the seventieth anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler, a memorial mass is held in the center of Berlin in the one of the city's most important churches, which by chance happens to be located several hundred meters from the...

Common Core-aligned report cards are now grading students based on their “sensitivity to others,” as well as “grit” and “gratitude” across California. Instead of having standard grades based on students’ proficiency in classes alone, these “detailed reports” now report whether students are sensitive and assigns them a grade. At Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School, for grit, gratitude, and sensitivity toward others, students will now receive one of four possible grades: “A for almost always, O for often, S for sometimes, and R for rarely.” Other districts, such as Sacramento City Unified, have a similar grading scheme, but is a scale...

After an exhaustive eight month investigation, Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s Democrat “Girl Wonder” Attorney General may finally be facing the criminal charges she so richly deserves. A Grand Jury has recommended Kane be indicted for perjury, false swearing, official oppression and obstruction of justice. While these crimes are serious when lodged against an ordinary public servant, they are bombshell quality when brought against a sitting State Attorney General. The charges stem from allegations that Kane leaked Grand Jury confidential memos in an effort to embarrass her Republican political enemies. Among those enemies was Tom Corbett who was the then State AG...

Thursday, July 25, 2013 Muslims are Not a Minority Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog The most persistent myth of the Western Dhimmi narrative is that Muslims are a minority and must receive special protection and accommodation. But Muslims are not a minority. There are 1.5 billion Sunni Muslims worldwide, outweighing Catholics as the next largest religious faction at 1.1 billion and Hindus at 1 billion. They are still a minority of the overall population in Western countries, but a demographically trending majority. In the UK more people attend mosques than the Church of England, that makes...

In the painful moments that followed, Polish Army Lt. Karol Cierpica watched as his American brother in arms took his last breath. Indeed, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis, who sacrificed everything to keep a solemn promise made during the heat of battle, had his back. Nearly one year after Michael’s final act of courage, his parents walked the streets of Poland, where their son is now a national icon. “A complete stranger walked up to us and said, in broken English, ‘are you the parents of the hero?’” Michael’s mother, Linda Ollis, told me. “So many people knew who...

Mrs. STC is having a "revision" or possible total replacement to a 15-yr-old hip replacement today. The hip had started popping out recently resulting in 2 trips to the ER to get it back in, so the time had come. Mrs. STC has 3 rare bleeding disorders and almost expired during the original hip replacement, so she and her surgeon have put this operation off as long as possible. Mrs. STC is a retired RN and does a shift 2 hours a day, 5 days a week feeding Alzheimer's patients at the local nursing home, so when I left her...

Well here’s the verdict from the Newspaper of record, it’s another case of much ado about nothing: Michelle Obama Praised for Bold Stand She Didn’t Take in Saudi Arabia. So we’re officially bored with the story now that archival evidence has emerged of not just former Secretaries of State, Madeline Albright and Condoleezza Rice meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia sans headscarf, butt - quelle surprise! – former SOS and president-in-waiting herself:Did you have a question Abdul?My favorite headshot from the archives though has to be Nancy Pelosi from 2007, because you can tell that she’s been recently plastered....

A U.S. Marine veteran who grew up in Sierra Vista was one of nine people killed in Libya by a gunman in an apparent attack by the Islamic State. David Berry, a 34 year-old combat veteran who was working for a Virginia-based security contractor, was the sole American who died in Tuesday’s attack. Berry grew up and spent most of his early life in Sierra Vista, attending Buena High School and graduating from Tombstone High School in 2000. He enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately after high school and earned promotions to become a gunnery sergeant. He was deployed to...

Millions of Americans are about to get their first taste of the Obamacare tax. Last year the tax penalty for failing to buy private health insurance is $95 or 1% of income, whichever is greater. Because the media hyped the $95 end of the tax, millions of people are unaware that their taxes are more likely to increase far more. The tax increases to $325 or 2% this year, it increases further in 2016. For many taxpayers, it’s going to be a rude awakening when they discover that Obamacare is going to cost them in tax much more than they...

Thomas Greer gained fame in July of this year by making some imprudent statements to reporters.   He had shot one of a pair of burglars that had assaulted him in his home.   He said that the woman that he killed, Andrea Miller, had told him that she was pregnant as a ruse to gain advantage and prevent him from shooting her.   Greer is 80 years old, and had his collar bone broken in the assault.  From the dailymail.co.uk: ‘Thomas Greer is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily injury,’ according to...

A Jihad Watch reader in the Sacramento area has sent me this flier (click to enlarge), showing that today is NP3 Hijab Day at NP3 High School. NP3 stands for Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep; the school is in the Natomas Unified School District in Sacramento. This all started with a student at NP3 High who is an intern for the Hamas-linked terror organization the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). This student gave a presentation about Islamophobia and Islam at what was a mandatory staff meeting that also included an official CAIR representative. The school then now decided to sponsor an...

After initially allowing Michigan Capitol Confidential to sit in and listen to its Michigan Wind Energy Forum in Lansing on Tuesday, the American Wind Energy Association changed its mind. Within five minutes, an association official grabbed Michigan Capitol Confidential’s camera and asked its reporter, Anne Schieber, to leave. Schieber was stationed in the back of the room, observing and recording for a potential news story. The association said Michigan Capitol Confidential was not credentialed. Peter Kelly, the association's vice president for public affairs, was asked where the credentialing process had been disclosed or what Michigan Capitol Confidential would have to...

She says she’s interested in running for president, but Sarah Palin is not backing that interest up with action… “I see no activity, no hires, no grassroots, and there is no structure to the volunteer organization for Palin that existed four years ago,” said Craig Bergman, a Republican consultant who worked with the Organize4Palin group in Iowa in 2011. Myrna Beeber, who oversaw 11 counties as a regional coordinator for the group in 2011, attended Palin’s speech in Des Moines on Saturday and said she still counts herself among Palin’s supporters. But she hasn’t been in touch with anyone about...

King Minus ruled a prosperous and powerful nation, its economy was the envy of the world. Minus was proud of this, and he was proud to be the leader of such a fine kingdom. Then one night a red lizard appeared to him in a dream and it talked to him. “Oh sure, the kingdom is strong and rich. That is a fine thing indeed, but there are still a lot of poor people and can't you do something for them?” The king responded that red lizards appearing in dreams seemed a bit demonic and why should he listen to...

Just days after Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad kicked off a campaign to promote the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as a “candidate” in the 2016 presidential race, it was basically a no-show at the conservative Freedom Summit featuring many presidential hopefuls. Asked about the RFS in an interview with the Des Moines Register on Friday, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said he would continue his opposition to the law as “a matter of principle.” One of the potential candidates who received some positive reviews at the summit was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who was recently criticized by biofuels producers in his...