Free Republic

...A political magazine, The American Conservative will presumably comport itself with a bit more dignity than the average tabloid -- or maybe not, given the crew behind it. Executive editor Scott McConnell was formerly editorial page editor of the New York Post, and right-wing fulminator Pat Buchanan will serve as an advisor and contributor. Backed by millionaire New York Press columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, the new biweekly is expected to be more conservative than either The Weekly Standard or the National Review. It launches in September.... (snip)

Explaining the origin of altruism and parochialism has posed a challenge for theoretical biologists. Choi and Bowles (p. 636; see the Perspective by Arrow) describe a simulation based on interactions between groups in a game-theory framework in which hostile intergroup interactions lead to war and nonhostile interactions lead to trade. Groups composed of individuals who are both altruistic and parochial--who favor members of their own group and disfavor outsiders--are more successful than groups that are either only altruistic or only parochial.

Rudy Giuliani, a contender for the presidency in 2008, is receiving an inordinate amount of positive attention. That's quite understandable since Rudy is charismatic, did a great job on the campaign trail for President Bush in 2004, and his phenomenal performance after 9/11 was much appreciated. However, likeable or not, having Rudy as the GOP's candidate in 2008 would be a big mistake. Here's a short, but sweet primer on some of Rudy's many flaws. Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion Stance As these comments from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion: "I've said...

Social Conservatism Posted 8/1/06 (By Travis)Social Conservatism8/1/06 Neoperspectives.com In principle, Conservatives and Libertarians see eye to eye in regards to economic freedom. They believe that individual Americans will collectively spend their own money much more efficiently and benefit society more than government spending. They believe burdensome regulations limit prosperity and harms business. They understand the harmfulness of socialized health care and retirement schemes.      However, there seem to be differences in scope between the two ideologies. Conservatives don't seem to have the same degree of, for lack of a better word, anti-governmentism. They don't seem to realize the degree which government...

Presidential press secretary Tony Snow today defended his boss' level of commitment to border security, saying President Bush is "cognizant" of the fact terrorists may be entering the U.S. illegally. "The president has made his views on border security well-known," WND told the spokesman, "and my question: Would the president make border security a higher priority if he were convinced it was being used as an entry point by terrorists like those who are part of Hezbollah and al-Qaida?" Responded Snow: "Think of it this way. The president committed as much money to the borders already as the House of...

Bush's disconnect on illegal immigration -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 10, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com "We cannot kick people out who have been here for awhile." That's what President Bush said last week. And he means it. That is his policy toward those who have broken into our country, defied our immigration laws, cheapened our way of life and driven a stake through the heart of what it means to be an American. This is amnesty, no matter what the president says. If we "can't kick people out who have been here for awhile," then we have no alternative...

"Bush polls have fallen to a new low," shout the newspaper headlines or the news anchors on television. "President Bush and Congress have reached their lowest numbers yet," they continue, trying to speculate whether this is caused by the high gasoline prices, the current economy, or the war in Iraq. This is strange since there is good news, mostly hidden by the media, about all three. 1. Recently, the U.S. Energy Department announced the results of a land survey: "We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates: snip...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. For decades, the American farm lobby has been duped by the Big Business lobby and "free trade" ideologues into supporting trade agreements that have opened the U.S. market to foreign rivals and that have allowed transnational corporations to shift factories and jobs overseas. Farmers have been content to watch their neighbors in manufacturing devastated so long as their own position was protected. Now, it is the farmers' turn to be thrown to the wolves in the Doha Round of negotiations, which hinge on the 'liberalization" of international agricultural trade and the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly rose to an all-time high in October as oil shipments soared and the United States set deficit records with China, Europe, Canada and Mexico. The Commerce Department reported that the gap between what America sells overseas and what it imports rose by 4.4 percent in October to $68.9 billion, surpassing the old record of $66 billion set in September. So far this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $718 billion, far surpassing last year's $617.6 billion imbalance. Critics say...

Yesterday, George W. Bush strode to a podium in Tucson, Arizona (I love Tucson!) and against a backdrop of law enforcement officers, announced his latest plan to crack down on illegal aliens. There was nothing in his speech we haven't heard before, and his new immigration policy is just as contradictory as the old one. Among the initiatives announced: We should build more jail cells to hold illegal aliens. Good idea. The speeding up of deportations, a crackdown on fraudulent identity papers, and a hardening of the border with more surveillance. So far, so good. Then the nonsense started to...

Dakar, Senegal -- The four trade development offices operated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nairobi, Kenya; Gaborone, Botswana; Accra, Ghana; and Dakar are a prime example of the Bush administration’s commitment to expanding trade and economic development across Africa, says Lloyd O. Pierson, USAID’s assistant administrator for Africa. Pierson made that point while briefing reporters on the importance of the USAID trade hubs at the recent African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum in Dakar. It was at that venue that the fourth hub -- located in Dakar -- was announced. “We are not talking just...

In a striking shift in the way the Bush administration has portrayed the science of climate change, a new report to Congress focuses on federal research indicating that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are the only likely explanation for global warming over the last three decades. In delivering the report to Congress yesterday, an administration official, Dr. James R Mahoney, said it reflected "the best possible scientific information" on climate change. Previously, President Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in understanding the causes and consequences of warming as a reason for rejecting binding restrictions on heat-trapping...

Huddled in their 16th-floor office uptown two years ago, Frances Queen and her management team voiced the unthinkable: Was the Charlotte computer-services firm doomed? In one week after the 9-11 attacks, Queen Associates had lost five long-term contracts worth $600,000 in sales. But a bigger threat loomed, one an economic rebound couldn't fix. Customers increasingly sought lower-paid software programmers overseas instead of hiring the company. Queen lay awake nights. "Then I decided, we're not going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. We're going to start an offshore division." She lined up a team of programmers in Russia and...

I telephoned Ether Zone publisher Bob Momenteller out in corn country about a month ago, since I was very concerned regarding the radical direction that Ether Zone has recently taken a sharp turn into rather narrow camps of conservatism. In my estimation, there is growing besmirchment of any stripe of conservatism that is not paleoconservatism or ultra-libertarianism, the two in tandem now being dubbed "hard right". Specifically, there has been: 1) notable highlighting of the John Birch Society philosophy (well, at least the "old guard" vantage point) and other fringe, highly negative, conspiratorial forms of conservatism; and, 2) cogent Bush...