Free Republic

We are living in a world rapidly evolving away from the mental constructs and language of the last 375 years. These ideas can be traced to the Treaty of Westphalia ending the 30 Years War in 1648 and Grotius proposal of a system of International Law in the same era. The ideas were then extended through the development of state warfare culminating in the Napoleonic Wars.

Award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates came under intense fire from social media users on Sunday after tweeting that she has only heard “puritanical & punitive” things about the Islamic State and wonders whether there is anything “celebratory & joyous” about the terrorist group. "All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous? Or is query naive?"

Newt Gingrich said he would consider taking up the Speaker’s gavel again if called upon to by House Republicans. The former Speaker initially denied any interest in a return to Congress, but when pressed in an interview with radio show host Sean Hannity on Thursday, admitted he would consider it if he had the votes.

Carly Fiorina Says She Feels 'Empathy' for Hillary Clinton – and Vows She'll 'Never Make a Personal Comment' About Her. Carly Fiorina has said that women "are not a special interest group," but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel a certain kinship with her fellow females – even her Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. "I feel empathy with every woman who is working really hard and giving it all they've got – and Hillary is," the GOP presidential hopeful tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "She's smart, she's hardworking, she's giving it all she's got." Clinton, 67, and Fiorina, 61, first...

In Carly Fiorina’s interview with Katie Couric from May, Fiorina went on and on about how if you don’t have a room full of “diversity” when making an important decision, you will not get the decision right. For Fiorina, it’s all about hiring women (and of course anyone else who isn’t a straight white male), and she goes on at length insisting that women in top positions absolutely and necessarily equates to merit; guarantees merit — the same thing Hillary Clinton just said, by the way. I had been inclined very favorably toward Fiorina, especially because of her ability to...

The former public face of Bill Clinton’s White House—and current host of ABC News’ This Week—George Stephanopoulos was floored as two prominent journalists and the Republican Speaker of the House from his Clinton days, Newt Gingrich, laid out for him just how bad the “Clinton Cash” book is for his old bosses. During the show’s roundtable panel after Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer appeared on the show for a lengthy interview, Stephanopoulos teamed with Democratic strategist Donna Brazile in an attempt to discredit Schweizer. But it started with Stephanopoulos making a shocking admission: Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign wouldn’t send out...

Former Speaker of the House Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) delivers remarks at the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines. He focuses on national security issues and foreign relations.

Following President Barack Obama’s speech announcing his executive order on illegal immigration, CNN political commentator and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich unloaded on the President, likening his speech to statements made by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber and that those in the “elite” class “really underestimate” the disdain Americans have for unfortified borders. Responding on CNN in the minutes after it ended, Gingrich opined that it was wrong for the President to go against the incoming Congress as it had “repudiated his policies in the election” a few weeks ago. Gingrich then slammed what viewers just heard as “a...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Newsmax TV that a Supreme Court decision on Friday to hear another legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act is "devastating to the president." "I have no ability to judge what the Supreme Court will do," Gingrich said, noting that Chief Justice John Roberts once cast the deciding vote to uphold President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul. But Gingrich said the new challenge is based on making the Affordable Care Act comply with the actual text of the statute that Congress passed and that Obama signed — and Gingrich said that in this...

Today, the owner of the Washington Redskins, Dan Snyder, announced that the team has agreed unanimously to change their name, after receiving so much national controversy. This, from Mr. Snyder: "Today, we made the decision to agree to change the name of our team. Instead of "Washington Redskins", we will now be legally known as "REDSKINS". (We removed the name 'Washington', as it was too embarassing.)"

. September 26, 2014 Newt Gingrich : Reflections on the Contract with America – 20 Years Later ===================================================== On Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting with S. Ganbaatar, a member of the Mongolian Parliament. When he entered the room, Ganbaatar walked up excitedly to examine a framed document that has hung for years in my offices. The document is a list of commitments to the people, signed by dozens of candidates for public office who promised to vote on a specific policy agenda if they were elected to office. It's framed alongside a picture of the candidates who signed...

. September 18, 2014 Newt Gingrich : NASA Commercial Crew Plan Is Scant Progress ===================================================== It didn't take a rocket scientist to predict that NASA's plan to pay Russia to launch American astronauts into orbit wasn't going to turn out well. Three years after NASA retired the space shuttle program, relations between the United States and Russia are worse than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Americans have reportedly been paying Russia $70 million a seat to send our astronauts to the International Space Station. That's three and a half times what the Russians charge private...

. September 12, 2014 Newt Gingrich : The Five Strategic Failures in President Obama's ISIS Speech ===================================================== President Obama gave a pretty good speech Wednesday night. Pressured by the American people's overwhelming support for defeating ISIS, President Obama gave a speech his predecessor, President George W. Bush could have applauded. Many of President Obama's words were reassuring. He was dedicated to defeating ISIS. He would pursue anyone who threatened America. He was committed to a long, difficult campaign. Unfortunately for the President and the country, there were five major strategic flaws in his speech. These flaws are so profound that...

. September 10, 2014 Newt Gingrich : 10 Questions for Obama on ISIS ===================================================== President Barack Obama has a remarkable opportunity Wednesday night. The American people have been awakened by the videotaped beheading of two U.S. journalists. Many Americans have also been deeply angered by the killing of Christians and other minorities by the Islamist radicals. Americans increasingly realize that the entire movement of radical Islamism, from Boko Haram in Nigeria through Hamas in Gaza to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is dangerous to Americans and to our civilization. Americans know that 13 years of effort under two...

Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that he would like to “turn the Pentagon into a triangle.” “I always tell people I’m a hawk,” Gingrich said. “But I’m a cheap hawk.” Gingrich honored the 20th anniversary of his “Contract with America” by pointing conservatives back to a key point in his Republican blueprint, arguing that federal bureaucracy cannot simply be “fixed” but must be overhauled and replaced. The Pentagon, Gingrich stressed, must be included in this overhaul.

. July 23, 2014 Newt Gingrich : Obama’s Attack on Israel ===================================================== "The success of Hamas in closing Israeli airspace is a great victory for the resistance, and is the crown of Israel’s failure,” a Hamas spokesman said today. When Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, the United States became the first country in the world to recognize the Jewish state, just 11 minutes later. That recognition, however, came after one of the greatest foreign policy disputes in American history—a fight in which Secretary of State George C. Marshall told President Truman that “if the President were to [recognize...

Halper believes that the Clintons’ effort to in effect keep their friends close while turning enemies into friends has been a masterful and hugely overlooked part of the rebuilding of their machine: "What has been little understood in the past decade, from 2001 to the present, is how successfully the Clintons undertook a systematic, comprehensive, and sustained effort to win over leaders in the GOP, especially figures who were once the biggest critics. In return, both Clintons were able to develop a bipartisan, statesmanlike image that had eluded them through eight years in the White House."

. July 7, 2014 Newt Gingrich : President Obama's Border Absurdity ===================================================== President Barack Obama is in Texas today. Texas is the center of the current crisis at the border. From Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, thousands upon thousands of children are pouring into the United States. This flood of foreign children is not a problem of border security. They are not sneaking across the border illegally. Under the Feinstein Amendment of 2008, unaccompanied minors from these countries can present themselves at a legal border crossing, claim to be political refugees and seek asylum. The argument on the left is...

. June 27, 2014 Newt Gingrich Obama's Insane Illegal Immigration Policy The flood of children coming to the United States is a much worse and more alarming story than you might imagine. This disaster is a direct result of deliberate Obama administration policy that encourages illegal immigration. In August 2012 the administration announced, basically, that it would not deport most children who come to the United States illegally. By any reasonable standard, the Obama policy is insane and the results were predictable. This is a humanitarian crisis that the President himself created. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and the...

. June 22, 2014 Newt Gingrich Bureaucrats Should Keep Their Hands Off Our Smartphones Does a week go by without news of federal bureaucrats outrageously extending their tentacles of authority over more of society? Earlier this month it was the EPA, announcing its plan to introduce on its own the carbon dioxide limits that Congress specifically rejected. Then it was the FDA, insinuating itself into the centuries-old process of aging cheese. Last week it was the IRS trying to shed at last the inconvenience of congressional oversight. Now the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is claiming sweeping authority over our...