Free Republic

In his book The 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene notes that in order to defeat an enemy, that enemy first needs to be clearly identified and defined. The more clearly we recognize who we do not want to be, then the clearer our sense of identity and purpose will be. Without that sense of polarity, without a clearly defined enemy, we stumble, hesitate and become infected with vagueness and consequently, severely undermine the chances of victory from the start. The great statesman Winston Churchill understood this concept quite well. In World War II, he recognized the inherent evil of...

We've visited with Brian Williams a few times here already. We've had to show him what an honest newsman looks like since he totally ignored Grubergate. What have they (NBC News) found more newsworthy since the first Gruber video came to light Nov. 7? Topics include cold weather, Ferguson unrest, Tom Brokaw getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a barber, Black Friday, the Ford F-150, Penicillin allergies, more cold weather, aspirin, Giancarlo Stanton, and how cold it is outside. For Williams, shielding Obama from criticism is part of the job. He has a long history of being an Obama kiss-ass....

One of the reasons that Romney lost is that he failed to take on the media. The ultimate lost opportunity came when CNN’s debate moderator Candy Crowley directly inserted herself into the argument between Obama and Romney to declare her favorite right and Romney wrong. Romney had won the Republican primaries, but had failed to absorb the lesson of his most tenacious opponent. Newt Gingrich did not treat the media as a neutral moderator, but as a debate opponent, challenging its premises and agendas. And so Romney was left unprepared for Crowley’s attack. On the road to 2016, the latest...

So President Obama is evidently taking a ration of right-wing blow back for comments at today's National Prayer Breakfast comparing the heinous actions of ISIS to the heinous actions of the Crusades. "Critics Pounce" read one headline. "Outrage" read another Here's what's outrageous: Christians who don't know their own history. Like the story of the Cathars -- a Christian sect deemed heretical in the 13th century and savagely butchered by Christian Crusaders in France.

Obama’s Surrender to Iranian Nukes 10 Senate Democrats who had persistently expressed concern over President Barack Obama’s concessionary policy to Iran over its nuclear weapons program, announced via a letter to the President that they would desist from seeking to pass new legislation to reimpose sanctions in the event of a failure in nuclear talks. Under reportedly enormous pressure from the White House, the senators said that they would await the March 24 deadline for a negotiated framework for an agreement with Tehran, despite their doubts that any such agreement would be forthcoming. This delay is a serious mistake, because...

A herdsman in China’s remote far west has struck gold after stumbling upon a huge nugget of the precious metal estimated to be worth at least $250,000, state media reported Thursday. The 7.85 kilo chunk was discovered “practically lying on bare ground”, the official Xinhua news agency said, quoting the herder, an ethnic Kazakh named Berek Sawut. He found the golden lump, described in the report as “random-shaped” and about 23 centimetres long, 18 centimetres at its widest and up to eight centimetres thick. It was estimated to be worth 1.6m yuan ($255,000), Xinhua said, assuming it was 80 percent...

In recent years, China and Russia have been dancing with increasing vigor to the rhythms of Latin American trade and diplomacy. The two eastern giants want business allies, resources and friends who share their desire to close the curtain on the era of United States dominance. As they foxtrot across Latin America, they are finding all three in abundance. China's Cha Cha China has been the main player to cha cha its way into the void America is leaving in the region. From 2000 to 2009, trade between China and Latin America increased by a staggering 1,200 percent. If current...

Jazmine Hughes is tired of people making jokes about white people. Ms. Hughes is African American. And, no, she is not saying that minority people should not make fun of white people. Instead, she argues that white people need to stop making fun of white people. African Americans and other minorities simply need to make fun of white people. That is a simple truth, according to Hughes. The fact of the matter is that minorities need racist humor "to placate themselves in the face of the overwhelming reality: It’s just better to be Caucasian." Racist humor against whites, she continues,...

Although it would be hypocritical for NBC to fire Mr. Williams for mis- speaking  lying, it would enhance his chances of becoming our next Secretary of State. Like Hillary Clinton, Williams sorta told some truth when he admitted to lying for a dozen years. Hillary became Obama's Secretary of State in 2009. Williams, also a very good liar, deserves no less this year. After that? Perhaps "our" next President.Here is a timeline of the progression of Williams' tall tales, based on a Stars and Stripes article: In late March 2003, the New York Daily News reported that “the one (helicopter) carrying Williams and (Retired General and current NBC consultant Wayne) Downing landed”...

Reflections on the days when a labor leader led our nation, on the great man's birthday... As the author writes this column, dozens of ships, each one laden with tens of thousands of truckloads of cargo, are sitting in the Pacific, parked for weeks at a time in a line, waiting for the longshoremen to stop their slowdown and get back to work. Modern containerships are measured in TEUs, a unit of measure specific to the transportation industry. The standard intermodal container (so-called because it can be transported by truck, rail, or ship, easily transferred from one to the next...

Former University of Michigan quarterback Tom Brady recently won his fourth Super Bowl, named MVP, and was rewarded with a lot of gifts. Brady even gave one of them to a teammate. But nothing is free, even when it’s free. Americans for Tax Reform estimated that Brady’s Super Bowl success will cost him $42,000 just in federal taxes. Here’s their breakdown: Brady was awarded a 2015 Chevy Colorado truck valued at $34,000. He pays 39.6 percent of that in income tax or $13,500. Brady reportedly gave the truck to teammate Malcolm Butler, who made a game-saving interception. That’s another $5,000...

LINDSEY GRAHAM DEAD LAST IN PRESIDENTIAL SURVEY. We’ve never had much use for conservative commentator Glenn Beck, but lots of people swear by his opinion … and he frequently opines on presidential politics. Like his recently released presidential preference poll – in which his readers graded twenty-eight prospective “Republican” candidates on a scale from “100” (a.k.a. “the best score possible”) all the way down to “55,” which is the equivalent of “all F votes.” The winner? Well it sure as hell wasn’t U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham – whose warmongering flirtation with the White House earned a dismal response from Beck’s...

The White House on Friday defended President Obama's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast after he was widely lambasted by conservatives for bringing up acts done in Christianity's name amid a discussion of modern-day terrorist threats. Americans should hold themselves "up to our own values and our own standards," deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said aboard the president's flight to Indianapolis, where Obama is speaking at a community college, according to the pool report. Obama believes that "when we fall short of that, we need to be honest with ourselves," Schultz said, noting Obama's "belief in American exceptionalism." “The president...

The focus of the Obama administration and media in the measles outbreak in the U.S. has been on American parents not vaccinating their children. This overlooks a key issue other physicians and I warned about in May and June 2014: Illegal immigrants coming across the U.S. southern borders in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California were bringing with them many invisible travelers. These unwanted guests include viruses, bacteria and fungal diseases the U.S. had eradicated or controlled decades ago. Measles was one of the diseases mentioned then, since it is widespread in parts of the world from which the illegal...

Last week, 10 Senate Democrats who had persistently expressed concern over President Barack Obama’s concessionary policy to Iran over its nuclear weapons program, announced via a letter to the President that they would desist from seeking to pass new legislation to reimpose sanctions in the event of a failure in nuclear talks. Under reportedly enormous pressure from the White House, the senators said that they would await the March 24 deadline for a negotiated framework for an agreement with Tehran, despite their doubts that any such agreement would be forthcoming. This delay is a serious mistake, because one of the...

Will American leadership finally declare radical Islam the enemy and act decisively to win? King Abdullah is leading the way and the time to act is now. “He (King Abdullah) said there is going to be retribution like ISIS hasn’t seen. He mentioned ‘Unforgiven’ and he mentioned Clint Eastwood, and he actually quoted a part of the movie—‘Any man I see out there, I’m gonna kill him. Any son of a # takes a shot at me, I’m not only going to kill him I’m going to…’”—Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr. (R-CA) referring to King Abdullah of Jordan after learning of...

Shooting through a door is usually a bad idea.  Your ability to see the target is often obscured or nonexistent, and it may be difficult to show that you believed that you were confronting a deadly threat.   Shooting through an inside door may be less problematic than one that is an entrance to a building that you are defending. Interior doors  are usually of flimsy construction.  A person who has retreated to a bedroom or bathroom and who has locked the door may have less options than someone who is defending an entrance door.   If someone has already...

While you wait 24 business hours for Karl Rove to be indicted and frogwalked across the White House lawn, WILLIAM RIVERS PITT has another HOT HOT HOT scoop. This time it is that TurboTax was hacked. Of course we know this must be true because of Pitt's fantastic track record for veracity. Unfortunately, after Pitt delivered his big SCOOP came the big "OOPS" which you can discern in the thread title which not only has a regular UPDATE but also a NEWER UPDATE, "Scary stuff" UPDATE: the hack was TurboTax (NEWER UPDATE). After Pitt's FALSE "scoop" caused panicr among...

During a recent lecture on the nature of and threat posed by Iran, with whom President Barack Obama’s Chamberlainian negotiations continue apace, an existential question arose: Why does the West remain asleep regarding Islamic Supremacism and the doctrine on which it is based? I posit that there are three main reasons, which also go a long way towards explaining why we are currently losing to the global jihad: (i) Progressive multiculturalism, moral relativism and materialism; (ii) Profound willful ignorance; and (iii) An inability to cope with the staggering implications of the threat we face.