Free Republic

Ten Neo-Confederate Myths (+one) "Secession was not all about slavery." In fact, a study of the earliest secessionists documents shows, when they bother to give reasons at all, their only major concern was to protect the institution of slavery. For example, four seceding states issued "Declarations of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify Secession from the Federal Union". These documents use words like "slavery" and "institution" over 100 times, words like "tax" and "tariff" only once (re: a tax on slaves), "usurpation" once (re: slavery in territories), "oppression" once (re: potential future restrictions on slavery). So secession wasn't just...

Should Rick Perry conclude that voter discontent has left him an opening to enter the presidential race, the Texas governor would be among the Republican field's most conservative candidates. Rick Perry rejects the idea of global warming and the theory of evolution, arguing for natural climate variations and intelligent design of the universe. He branded Social Security and other New Deal safety net programmes "the second big step in the march of socialism," according to a book published last year. The "first step" was a national income tax, which he has said stands alongside the direct election of US senators...

Congressmen Break Out the Cots to Bunk in the OfficePosted by Stephanie Condon January 7, 2011 10:31 AM After getting elected to the 112th Congress as Washington "outsiders," several new lawmakers are stressing that they're simply visitors here in the nation's capitol, working on behalf of their constituents -- and that means avoiding putting down roots. At least 40 or 50 congressmen, including as many as a dozen freshmen, are opting to sleep in their offices instead of renting or buying apartments, the New York Times reports. While both Democrats and Republicans are choosing to bunk their offices, the Times...

Just because nobody knows the future is no excuse to do nothing in the face of worrisome possibilities, says Dan Gardner, the author of a solidly researched new book that makes it clear just how shaky – if not dead wrong – expert predictions usually are. Good policy, Gardner writes in Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail – and Why We Believe Them Anyway, stands up as worthwhile even if the forecast that prompted it turns out to be wrong. He cites as an example “a stiff carbon tax with the revenues returned to the economy in the form of...

Al Gore is about to feature in a new movie, but he's not going to like it very much. Titled Not Evil Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria, the film presents a devastating account of the shaky foundations and hefty price of Mr. Gore's brand of self-interested and hypocritical alarmism. Created by the Irish film making duo of Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney -- who made another excellent documentary about the "dark side of environmentalism" called Mine Your Own Business-- Not Evil provides the perfect rebuttal to Mr. Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Despite being chock a block...

THE POLL: Pew Research Center, national presidential race among registered voters. THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 52 percent, John McCain 36 percent.

Barack Obama's world tour scored big points back home. The presumptive Democratic nominee jumped to a significant 9-point lead over GOP rival John McCain - his largest lead since the Gallup Poll began tracking the general election horse race in March. Obama tops McCain, 49% to 40%, among registered voters nationwide, Gallup's daily tracking poll conducted from Thursday to Saturday revealed.

The Left has one thing right. The oilcos are screwing America. What they have wrong is the method they allege. The Left trots out its marxist litany of greed, monopoly, speculation, oppression of the poor, etc. and inf nauseamque. That's where they're dead wrong. Here's exactly how we are being screwed, Left, Right, and Oilco: The United States is the world's third largest oil producer, pumping from established wells that were bought and paid for many times over, and operating steadily with what amounts to federal subsidy in the form of tax incentives and depletion allowances, etc. etc. That oil,...

YouTube videoThis is too funny. Penn and Teller send an assistant to get gullible joiners to sign a petition banning dihydrogen monoxide, plain water.Warning: Some bad language (including the name of their show, Bull**it.)

[snip] The civil rights movement forced Southern whites to choose between their New Deal-era populism and the demands of racial integration and cultural assimilation. Today's Northeastern and Midwestern whites confront a similar, albeit more subtle, choice between their preferences for a more private faith, a more responsible accounting for their hard-earned tax dollars and a more prudent use of America's military might - and a national Republican Party that has abandoned those principles to appease its ascendant Southern wing. [snip]

Cyndi Smallwood is looking for a few strong men for her landscaping company. Guys with no fear of a hot sun, who can shovel dirt all day long. She'll pay as much as $34 an hour. She can't find them. Maybe potential employees don't know about her tiny Riverside firm. Maybe the problem is Southern California's solid economy and low unemployment rate. Or maybe manual labor is something that many Americans couldn't dream of doing. "I'm baffled why more people do not apply," Smallwood says. President Bush is not. In his speech to the nation Monday night, he referred to...

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, January 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –A recent study reinforces previous findings that women who have abortions frequently turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the aftereffects of the trauma.Author Pricilla Coleman, professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University, said studies show women who have abortions are up to five times more likely to use drugs and alcohol, and to smoke, than women who have not had an abortion, in a research review published in Current Women’s Health Reviews.Coleman said studies show women are more likely than men to rely on drugs or...

Baghdad. In a one of a kind military operation the US army occupied 7 mosques yesterday in the Western Iraqi town of Ramadi and turned the mosques into barracks, the Iraqi News Agency INA reported. According to information, the American soldiers have taken the praying out of the mosques, closed them and banned access to the mosques within a range of 1 kilometer.

Son of The English Patient: Boring "Constant Gardener" is Dreadful, Far-Left, White Guilt Drivel By Debbie Schlussel If you were thinking of seeing "Constant Gardener," when it arrives in theaters, next week, save your money. That is, unless you are into movies where the murderous, evil White man and the big bad pharmaceutical companies they run are the reason for all poverty, illness, despair, and death in Africa. That's the Cliff's Notes version of this celluloid piece of crap: Western White Man, Evil; Innocent African Black Man, Angelic. The stupid, liberal, noblesse oblige crowd who attended the screening just loved...

Mr. Rove: Your miracle came true. After June 21 the daylight did become shorter. However, the temperature here in Boulder City, Nevada became hotter. I understand The President is in Scotland to fix the Global Warming Problem, while, at the same time, getting rid of AIDS in Africa. Please tell him to fix the temperature in Nevada first. It is 108 degrees here today. Perhaps, The Persident could move the equator further south, or the Tropic of Cancer. Maybe he could move the Arctic Circle further south. I used to live in Alaska and it was real cold. Take care...

SUMMARY: Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior. People intuitively recognize the importance of self-esteem to their psychological health, so it isn't particularly remarkable that most of us try to protect and enhance it in ourselves whenever possible. What is remarkable is that attention to self-esteem has become a communal concern, at least for Americans, who see a favorable opinion of oneself as the central psychological source from which all manner of positive outcomes spring. The corollary, that low...

Even after the presidential election, America’s media solons and disgruntled former government officials—such as Richard Clarke—continue to get fawning coverage for every pronouncement on the basic harmlessness of Saddam’s Iraq. We’re supposed to accept the idea that Saddam was just a small-time monster, too weak and incompetent to harm a far-away America. But wouldn’t it be revealing if our intelligence community actually had to answer some hard questions about Ramzi Yousef and the annihilation of TWA Flight 800—the second-greatest mass-murder in American history. The public would then hear of how Yousef worked for Saddam Hussein, and how Iraq's dictator was...

American internet link to Ken Bigley torture videosby SHARON CHURCHER, Mail on Sunday 11:44am 17th October 2004Terror: Hostage Ken Bigley blindfolded in Iraq The brutal videos of British hostage Ken Bigley begging for his life were distributed on the internet by a radical Islamic website hosted by an American firm with ties to the Bush administration. The Mail on Sunday began investigating the site, hostinganime, after it showed images of Mr Bigley being held in a cage, shortly before he was decapitated by the Al Qaeda cell known as Tahid wal Jihad. The site posted links to footage in...

In the UK Sunday Times of May 16, 2004, appeared an article titled, "Top scientist gives backing to astrology," written by Jonathan Leake, who plays at being their Science Editor. "The planets may control your future after all," he wrote. This statement was inspired by a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dr. Percy Seymour, author of a new book, "The Scientific Proof of Astrology" — are we surprised? — who says he believes that "human brain development may be affected by the Earth's magnetic field, especially during growth in the womb." In his book, Seymour suggests that the Earth's...

,Company says quote from official misstates policy on merchandise. Pottery Barn would like to make one thing perfectly clear: If you break it, you don't have to buy it. The 174-store home furnishings chain unexpectedly found itself in the news over the weekend as author Bob Woodward released his new book about the Iraq war, Plan of Attack, and began talking about it. Mr. Woodward quotes Secretary of State Colin Powell as warning President Bush that invading Iraq would produce a "Pottery Barn rule" – which Mr. Powell defined as "you break it, you own it." The term was news...