https://freerepublic.com/tag/by:vinny/ en-us Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:48:21 GMT Focus Forum 15 https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1864167/posts More answers to commonly asked questions. 1. Why is it okay to mock, insult and/or denigrate Christians and the Christian faith, but not Muslims and their faith?Because unlike the “Religion of Peace,” Christians don’t kill you because you eat pork, let women drive and vote, or draw an irreverent cartoon about their religion. 2. Why can’t we all just embrace our inner child, live together in peace, and be at one with nature?These three related questions deserve three related answers. First, unless you’re Peter Pan, Paris Hilton with a billion dollar trust fund, or a liberal politician who is not... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1864167/posts#comment Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:48:21 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863047/posts Environmentalists are quick to lecture the rest of us about the ways of nature. Don't clean the dead trees off the forest floor, it's natural. Cattle and horses on the range aren't native, so let the grizzlies and wolves devour them, it's natural. Man isn't part of the ecology, lock him out of vast areas of land, it's natural. It's interesting to note how the "natural" argument only applies when it is used to impose the radical environmental agenda. Case in point, the Northern Spotted Owl. Spotted owls, we were told a decade ago, were disappearing because big bad timber... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863047/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jul 2007 15:47:15 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862816/posts 1. Why are Liberals Liberal? Conservatives have rules. There are rules for proper moral behavior, for the correct social and economic policies, even rules for being a “Good Conservative.” Not every conservative agrees with every conservative rule, however, and these “rules” are often the subject of vigorous debate. Paleocons debate neocons, neocons debate religious-based conservatives, religious-based conservatives debate secular conservatives, and so on, and so on. At the core of all this is the fact that to be a Conservative means that one adheres to a world view or philosophy that permits/encourages certain actions, while discouraging or inhibiting others. By... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862816/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jul 2007 03:14:38 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1849183/posts 1. Evaluating New Ideas One of my favorite books when I was in college was Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Before reading it I’d always assumed that the acquisition of human knowledge was a linear process. Person A discovers X. Everyone around him marvels at the discovery, and uses it as a foundation to take us to the next level of discovery. It’s how gunpowder is turned into a Chinese rocket, a Chinese rocket into an ICBM, and an ICBM into a Saturn V rocket to put a man on the moon. It’s a great way to visualize... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1849183/posts#comment Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:38:45 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824945/posts Last week was one of both celebration and sadness for those who hold innocent life dear. Many tears have been shed for the 32 lives cruelly ended by evil incarnate in Virginia, yet the souls of the millions of unborn children — who have been sacrificed at the altar of inconvenience — cry out across three decades for sympathy, yet up to now have received little. Some of that changed with the U.S. Supreme Court’s upholding of the Congressional Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (PBA), also known as HR 760. A victory, to be sure, toward ending some of the carnage... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824945/posts#comment Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:18:42 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1812865/posts Setting a “timetable” to abandon Iraq is an invitation to disaster. Illogical, beyond obtuse, it’s plainly stupid. Barbarians at Baghdad’s gates are asked by Congressional Democrats to play a waiting game. Run out the clock and win. Simple. Embolden terrorists? Sure. New hope for anarchists to succeed, then to set up a tyrannical Islamic state to export terrorism? Why not? Would a pullout dishearten our allies? Certainly. Whom do YOU trust? Not a wobbly America. Wartime logic is lost on most liberal Democrats much of the time, with the exception of that unlikely realist, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and a... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1812865/posts#comment Fri, 6 Apr 2007 01:46:28 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808246/posts If you are familiar with this website, you know this author deals with the “transatlantic relationship” and the related "defense of advanced civilizations." It tells a lot about our time’s challenge that these are not the themes for which his diplomas predestine the writer. For the shift in emphasis, there are good reasons. It is the Atlantic Alliance and our Judeo-Christian civilization’s PC-defying confidence to rise to its own defense that will determine the future. Several past presentations had Europe’s political collapse as their topic. Naturally, not all of Europe is anti-American, anti-Israel and thereby valiantly committed to surrendering to... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808246/posts#comment Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:01:28 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1804100/posts I’ve been thinking a lot about the latest Republican outrage to hit the national scene, that is, Ann Coulter’s “gay” comments regarding presidential candidate John Edwards. The reaction from the liberal press speaking on behalf of offended people everywhere was immediate and near-universal in its vociferous condemnation of her words and the apparent meaning behind them. The reason for this is obvious. Such hate-speech cannot be tolerated in a country that values the First Amendment rights granted to all our citizens, particularly when a self-defined minority is singled out for abuse. It doesn’t matter who used the gay-word, or gay-analogy,... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1804100/posts#comment Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:05:33 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1755477/posts IMPORTANT UPDATE II: Write c/o Col. Wade F. Dennis If you send your card to: Col. Wade F. Dennis JTF GTMO, APO AE 09360 This should ensure that your cards make it to the troops. We'll try to contact Col. Dennis to let him know of your cards coming. IMPORTANT UPDATE: The USPS has cancelled the address that originally appeared in the post below. Follow this link for the new instructions, which require you to send mail to a specific person. Here's the link: http://www.usps.com/supportingourtroops/addressingtips.htm Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a sometime blogger here at Democracy Project... democracy-project.com https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1755477/posts#comment Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:42:07 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1755270/posts Support the Gitmo troops this Christmas By Michelle Malkin · December 18, 2006 01:05 PM Bruce Kesler e-mails: Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a sometime blogger here at Democracy Project and a personal friend. Gordon writes frequently and passionately about American forces serving around the world, and the email below, sent from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tells of a neglected band of brothers who receive fewer Christmas cards from the American people than those stationed at other locales: the guards at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Worse, they receive more abuse from the press, in spite of the documented fact... Michelle Malkin https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1755270/posts#comment Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:29:48 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1754310/posts History, like sausage, is best sampled after it’s made, rather than while it is being created. Messy, confusing and self-contradictory, it is often difficult to understand what is really happening while it is happening. When viewed from a distance the picture becomes clearer, particularly after the revisionists get a hold of it and re-write the past. The dirty little secret of the academic world is that you don’t make your bones by repeating what The New York Times said about current events, even if you agree with it. To set yourself apart from the crowd you need a different take,... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1754310/posts#comment Sat, 16 Dec 2006 05:42:48 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1752508/posts By Kristin Roberts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A watchdog group that promotes religious freedom in the U.S. military accused senior officers on Monday using their rank and influence to coerce soldiers and airmen into adopting evangelical Christianity. Such proselytizing, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has created a core of "radical" Christians within the U.S. armed forces and Pentagon who punish those who do not accept evangelical beliefs by stalling their careers. "It's egregious beyond the pale," said Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. "We apparently have a radicalized, evangelical Christian Pentagon within the rest... Reuters https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1752508/posts#comment Tue, 12 Dec 2006 23:58:09 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742951/posts Many police officers fear being sued more than being murdered Officer Dillon Stewart of the New York Police Department was fatally shot Nov. 28, 2005 in Brooklyn, N.Y., while attempting to pull over a car with stolen license plates that had sped through a red light. Officer Stewart ignored the wound and helped try to catch the gunman before dying later at a hospital. (AP/New York Police Department) U.S. law enforcement agencies are struggling with the threat of lawsuits regarding the conduct of officers. Officials said the threat has become so acute that many officers would rather die than be... InsightMagazine https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742951/posts#comment Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:33:41 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742861/posts Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether. Witnesses said the imams stood to do their evening prayers in the terminal before boarding, chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah" -- coincidentally, the last words heard by hundreds of airline passengers on 9/11 before they died. Witnesses also said that the imams were talking about Saddam Hussein, and denouncing America and the war in Iraq. About the only scary preflight ritual the imams didn't... Human Events Online (Contributors) https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742861/posts#comment Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:59:00 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742386/posts LONG BEACH, Calif. - Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back. Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings. He has replaced it with a... Associated Press https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742386/posts#comment Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:51:54 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742244/posts Veteran's Day It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, Whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows protestor to burn the flag. By Father Denis Edward Prager, USMC Editorial Page of Democrat & Chronlcle sometime ago. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742244/posts#comment Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:09:45 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1741938/posts The New York Post reminds us today that Columbia University has done nothing--zip, nada, zilch--to punish the hoodlums who sabotaged a speech by Minutemen Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist: Forty-seven days: That's how long it's been since Columbia University hosted a breathtakingly brazen attack on free speech and academic freedom. Since then, not a word of apology has been offered to those whose rights were trampled - nor an ounce of punishment meted out to the offenders. The only thing, in fact, that Columbia's administrators have done is to announce an "investigation" - which, of course, they would do. Beyond that,... Michelle Malkin https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1741938/posts#comment Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:23:02 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740386/posts I don't like to mud wrestle, but sometimes the slime-flingers need to be held accountable. All week, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and his left-wing vassals have tried to blame female conservative commentators for one nutball's fake anthrax letter attacks. Reportedly, the suspect was a Free Republic.com member whose pseudonymous profile noted that he "worshipped" Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and me. Olbermann lies about my work and props up a clueless Radar Online stooge who accuses me of "introduc[ing a kind of thuggish, sort of intimidating tone into the political debate, this kind of, 'Let's not let them boss us around... Michelle Malkin https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740386/posts#comment Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:23:30 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1739975/posts In late October I attended a luncheon briefing in New York sponsored by the Middle East Forum. The speaker was R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and currently a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. The room was filled with men who represent a class of citizenry known as “influential.” Woolsey’s topic was “Energy Alternatives and the War on Terror.” Normally, I give men like Woolsey a lot of respect because they’ve earned it. However, it didn’t take long before I began to hear views that made me begin to question, not just the wisdom of... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1739975/posts#comment Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:36:44 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739086/posts The conflict between Christianity and humanism all too often masquerades as a choice between what we believe, without evidence, and what we “know” from observation and experience. This is a false impression promoted by humanists and their allies in the schools and media. The Humanist Manifesto II (see http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto2.html for full text and source of all quotations) is a key document for secular humanists. It has been signed by thousands of persons who are supposedly the brains of the human race, including Nobel Prize-winning scientists. But is humanism really based on evidence? If we examine the “Preface” of the manifesto,... Chalcedon Foundation https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739086/posts#comment Wed, 15 Nov 2006 18:13:42 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738779/posts George W. Bush, who led the Republicans and conservatives to three straight electoral victories, who won the White House against an incumbent Democratic administration, who rallied this nation after 9/11, and removed two oppressive regimes in Aghanistan and Iraq, is suddenly responsible for all that ails the nation. This is no surprise to those of you who have been listening to the Democrats for six years, but now we have the Republicans and conservatives joining the chorus, the same folks who once celebrated the President as the next Churchill. I have something to say to Joe Scarborough, Rush Limbaugh, Newt... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738779/posts#comment Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:28:17 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738774/posts Since the 1930s, most Americans have come to believe in a fairy tale that has no happy ending. Democrats' victories in the recent elections have revived the fairy tale. Washington Post staff writer Dan Balz, in a November 13, 2006, article explores the unresolved questions and internal debates remaining after the recent congressional elections. One of those questions, as he sees it, is: "Equally important is the question of which party can adequately address the twin problems of keeping the United States competitive in a global economy and restoring the social contract that has helped provide economic security to workers... Intellectual Conservative https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738774/posts#comment Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:21:50 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738183/posts If there was ever any doubt about whom America’s enemies like to see in charge of Congress, this week’s elections surely beheaded it. Immediately after the scope of Democrats’ victory became clear, al Qaeda released an audiotape congratulating the American people on their wisdom. Iran’s supreme ruler issued a statement declaring that having Democrats in charge “is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation." Hugo Chavez issued a four-hour speech waxing on about his comrades, the Democrats. And Maureen Dowd of the New York Times smiled for the first time in 12 years. Will Democrats now help win the... Human Events Online (Contributors) https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738183/posts#comment Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:15:07 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1737592/posts Rick Monday, former centerfielder for the Chicago Cubs and who many feel made the greatest play ever in baseball, was honored in Charlotte, NC this weekend during Veterans Day festivities: CHARLOTTE ? On this Veterans Day, a former baseball player is receiving a special achievement award for a play he made in centerfield of Dodger Stadium 30 years ago. Some say Rick Monday made the best grab in baseball history on April 25, 1976, when he pulled an American flag away from two protestors who were going to burn it on the field. Monday was the centerfielder for the Chicago... SisterToldjah https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1737592/posts#comment Mon, 13 Nov 2006 04:58:27 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1737168/posts "The Difference between them and us is that we want to check government spending, and they want to spend government checks"(refering to the Democrats) "Too many people, especially in government, feel that the nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program." "You might be weary of me sounding the same alarms. you might think, we have heard all this before, but somehow we muddled through. Well, this is like the window-washer who fell from the Empire State building. When he passed the twentieth floor, he said, "so far, so good."" "When those... https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1737168/posts#comment Sun, 12 Nov 2006 06:23:52 GMT