Free Republic

I have long posited that the most important political/social theorist and tactician of the past century was the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, who singlehandedly formulated the path to the malevolent political culture that has defeated liberty and under whose heel we suffer. The lineage is clear: Marx inspired Gramsci, Gramsci inspired Alinsky, and Alinsky inspired Hillary and Soetero. It is by Gramsci's design that collectivist central planners have captured every single social institution. If you do not understand Gamsci you cannot fully understand Alinsky and the appeal of fascism to the American Ruling Class. Broadcaster Steve Deace recently presented an...

As time goes by I find reading less pleasurable, mostly due to time constraints and my continuing fading vision. I find myself listening to more stuff on my MP3 player. I also am finding those voices I want to pay attention to. For almost thirty years one of those people I listen to VERY CAREFULLY is Angelo Codevilla, whose insights into the nature of the political world are unerringly well thought through. His previous book, "America's Ruling Class," a bipartisan evisceration of the political establishment, ranks in my opinion with Thomas Sowell's "Conflict of Vision," perhaps the most insightful secular...

In contemplating the outfall of the Ukraine situation, notwithstanding the merits of the contestants -- quite frankly I have not taken the time to sort it out -- given the postures of the two "leaders" of the US and Russia, especially given Soetero's preemptive capitulation, one thing has become crystal clear. Their President is a Putin. Our President is a putz.

Last night after watching CSI, itself an interesting episode spun off from the recent car-crash death of the investigative reporter, I left the t.v. on and tuned to WUSA 9, the CBS flagship station in Washington, District of Corruption. I wanted to catch the weather news and see the coverage of the March for Life. Well, there was plenty of the former and none of the latter. Zero. In the city where the event took place, and tens of thousands of folks marched downtown, it was ignored as though it never happened. They did, however, had enough time to dedicate...

So I was watching the late news last night on Channel 7 WUSA (District of Corruption) and there is this campaign ad for the upcoming Special Election (the incumbent state legislator was just elected at stat Attorney General thanks to GOP ineptitude and stoopidity). Anyhow, the young blond woman Communist Party candidate has this television commercial to this effect: (She is standing next to a witness box in a courtroom) As a prosecutor I know the hell rape victims go through, suffering the assault them having to face their attackers in court. Just I have always fought for women to...

After a quick nap this morning following our uneventful red-eye flight back home last night, I looked through the pile of mail that had accumulated during our absence. Like perhaps millions of others, awaiting me was a heartwarming New Year's Day present, namely the notification that thanks to ACA my Blue Cross/Blue Shield health care premium went up 65%, to the point where now the total premium (my share plus employer's share) for two fifty-somethings is over $21k per year for modest coverage with a fairly high deductible. Keep in mind that not a single member of the Stoopid Party...

A friend sent this to me. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21591624-republicans-should-worry-unmarried-women-shun-them-marriage-gap?fsrc=nlw|hig|12-12-2013|7186683|35023729|NA It is exceedingly well written and I think the analysis is pretty much on the mark as far as it goes (who knew that the home for non-moonbat crazy lefties [admittedly a pretty much extinct creature] would be The Economist?). I especially appreciated their commentary on the Virginia election. But I think there is a much more visceral reality at play here. The McAuliffe Campaign made a calculated strategy that proved to be inspired and profound, which if followed skillfully without an equally skillful response from Republicans will, I think, result in the...

The recent uber-goofy initiative by our Choomer-in-Chief to encourage Thanksgiving-dinner discussions promoting Obamacare was a revealing moment, and what it mostly revealed is that fascists want tyranny much more that we want liberty. Think about it: the life purpose for a fascist, in fact it is the air they breath and the nutrients they consume, is to expand their control over others. They politicize everything because that is their reason for existence. Some for putatively beneficent reasons, even. But as CS Lewis remarked; “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most...

Pete Ferron at The Shrugging Out Podcast performed a brilliant satire on The Ruling Class of Washington, District of Criminals. The premise of the one-man-show is a conference call between the Federal Director of Communications and all Federal employees. Great satire depends on a kernel of truth, and Pete gives the whole cob. https://app.box.com/shared/static/v6m8xo51u8i9mx73vu8o.mp3 Pete has reached the same conclusion I have, namely that my point of view will not carry the day. We are optimists and true-believers, probably radicals, but that does not preclude us from seeing reality for what it is. You can listen to it at the...

Dr. Neal Mogk thinks he has found a better way to manage his medical practice that improves the service he provides to his patients. Dr. Mogk, a board certified family practice physician, has decided to change his Beaver Street Family Practice to what he calls a “concierge-style” that, by reducing his patient roster, will give him more time to spend with each one. “I will be able to get to know my patients better,” he said. He said not everybody wants “aggressive” or interventional care. For example, some people with an aching shoulder might want to be treated with therapy...

Yesterday in a mindless, myrmidon-focused speech Obamao threw down a gauntlet, knowing 1) the Senate Rebuttlikins would never pick it up, and 2) if there was a miraculous spinal transplant and they did, the LIV would still gravitate to the coolest bad-boys in town who promised better bread-and-circuses. Obamao’s “Brier Rabbit” challenge was for the Rebuttlikins to get on board with the funding and enacting of Obamaocare since if it was so bad they (the GOP) could exploit its failure and reap the electoral harvest. I suppose some of the folks on "our side" are stoopid enough to fall for...

In a recent excellent podcast, social and political observer Ed Dentzel raises an uncomfortable question based on a verifiable observation: Has the country become more collectivist/Leftist since the advent of the dominance of conservative talk radio? By any metric, he argues, the answer is “Yes.” If that is true, and I think it is undeniable, then what use is it? I cannot disagree with him from either the “Economic conservatives” perspective or the “Social conservatives” perspective. In the former, the explosive growth of the size of government and its interference in the marketplace provides the evidence, while for the latter...

In recent conversations about girding for the uncertain future I have often suggested that folks accrue the means of productivity, beginning with water, dirt, and seeds to grow food, followed by skills, tools, and raw materials to fix and create useful things. I am not certain if I have mentioned a helpful reference in this matter but it does reflect the course I am following. Thirty years ago I discovered the book "The Alpha Strategy" (available in its entirety at several web sites including http://zombieprepdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/book2-preface.pdf) and have found it to be instrumental in forming my thoughts. Pete Ferron featured it...

The Law of Unintended Libertarian Consequences Over the past forty-five years since becoming politically aware, I have vacillated between conservatism and libertarian thinking in contemplating the world around me. I never feel completely at home with either camp when living out my own minarchist tendencies. It is of course oversimplification, but the former seem to think that everyone wants to be like us, and that the impulse for liberty is the yearning of the human spirit. Evidently they are not paying attention to what is happening in the nation and around the world where dependency is in full march. On...

Today is my "Going Galt" day as I retired in preparation of moving to the retreat in the mountains. To wash the taste of work and DC out of my mouth and to bask in the atmosphere of good vibes I decided to go to the 1000-table gun show at the Dulles Expo center about 15 miles from DC. As I approached the neighborhood, traffic was so heavy I could hardly even get off the highway, "No biggie," sez I as it was Friday afternoon. As I approached the Expo Center I saw a different truth, that it was traffic...

Two searingly insightful commentaries about the evil actions in Connecticut. Isn't it interesting that *regardless* of the issue, the political "solution" is always more unconstrained government power and less citizen liberty. ALWAYS! In this instance the only thing I am 100% sure of is that the "solution" will cause more criminality and evil. Ed Dentzel presents the topic in the larger chilling context of society's apathy towards liberty, arguing that in the end a majority of American prefer almost anything else to liberty. I think he is right. http://thedentzeldomain.com/2012/12/18/bought-off.aspx and Pete Ferron provides disturbingly sensible observations about the evil manifestation...

Pete Ferron, a skillful thinker and communicator par excellence, lends his Shrugging Out Podcast voice to the analysis and not-so-wild speculation about the continuing devolution of the American society with the ever encroaching growth of the American State. Give it a listen and see if you find his level-headed, insightful, non-histrionic mega-plausible glimpse into the future as unnerving as I did. I fear that the only path to Free America is for us to endure a Soviet-style collapse and pray for the good fortune to make America 2.0 more robust than was America 1.0. How that occurs with this low-information...

In the days since the Paroxysm of National Suicide, a/k/a THE ELECTION!, I have had the opportunity to engage several Obama voters in fairly pleasant and light hearted conversations (don’t laugh, I can be cheerily banal when I want) regarding the future. I did not know any of the conversants, but spoke to them as they waited with me in restaurants, hotel lobbies, gas stations, etc. I made sure to ask only folks with similar demographics to my own so as not to invoke hostility, and I was really polite and cheery when engaging them. I began by asking the...

It is a glorious day The Lord has given us. This morning I extend an honest “Thank you” to the American electorate, for they provided a snapshot of themselves with unusual clarity. Six weeks ago I declared that the election was not a choice between two candidates as much as it was a verdict on us as a nation, and with near ubiquity and persuasive forcefulness that verdict has been rendered. From coast to coast the electorate chose debauchery and an expanding welfare state. (they may not have thought that was what they were voting for, but make no mistake...)...

“You cannot dissuade a person from a position with reason and facts if reason and facts did not determine the position in the first place.” The eternal hurdle of conservatism in the minds of a large component of the electorate – perhaps even a majority, we will learn in November -- is that “it sounds mean.” I am constantly told that Leftists in general and Obama in particular have the upper hand “because they sound nice, like they care.” I am now persuaded, after decades of ardent resistance to the idea, that this analysis is both perceptive and correct. I...