Free Republic

After Pope Francis early in his papacy decried capitalism as "trickle-down economics" — a polemical phrase coined by the left during the Reagan years that Francis frequently borrows — radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh commented, "This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the Pope." Talk show host Michael Savage called him "Lenin’s pope." Pope Francis took such comments as a compliment. "I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended," he told the Italian press. Pope Francis grew up in socialist Argentina, an experience that left a...

In a shock result, Karl Marx has been voted the greatest ever philosopher following a poll by Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 show In Our Time. In the public's poll, which assessed 20 philosophers, Marx, author of the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, got 27.93% of the 30,000 votes. In second place came David Hume with 12.67%, followed by Ludwig Wittgenstein with 6.8%. Plato trailed in fifth place and Socrates at eighth. Andrew Chitty, who, at Sussex University, teaches the UK's only MA in Marxist philosophy, said: "This shows that philosophy should take Marxism seriously. It is possible he won because...

First, take today’s Unconventional Logic pop quiz: If you were kidnapped by terrorists, whom would you want to come to rescue you? Captain Sweden Captain Denmark Captain Belgium Captain France Captain America OK, now back to economics. With both Thomas Piketty and Pope Francis in the news calling for government-coerced redistribution to reduce inequality, it is useful to ask, “Why this, and why now?” Piketty’s argument for additional government redistribution programs, which he bases upon numbers that don’t take government redistribution programs into account, is certainly—to put it delicately—creative, but the question still remains why Piketty’s ideas (which have been...

Home » Opinion » Columns September 02. 2013 7:35PM Thomas Sowell: Obama is a truly great phony Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on his application. "No," the chairman said. "I know him too — and he is one of the truly great phonies of our time." The man was indeed a very talented phony. He could convince almost anybody of almost anything — provided that they...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue said in a press release that Barack Obama should use Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" instead of the Bible when he takes his oath of office later this month, the Huffington Post reported Friday. "Given Obama’s ideology, perhaps it would make more sense for him to swear on Das Kapital," Donohue wrote. Donohue issued his release in response to comments made by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, who suggested that Obama should not use the Bible in his swearing-in ceremony. "O’Donnell starts his rant by focusing on Atlanta Pastor Louie Giglio; the evangelical minister bowed to pressure from...

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HAVANA -- At night, when all Havana seems to be out for an evening stroll, the austere office building that serves as an outpost of U.S. diplomats turns into a billboard. Letters scroll slowly across the facade, casting a bright red glow. Clumps of restless teenagers plunk their bottles of Havana Club rum on the sidewalk and stare up, their mouths agape. Couples unlace hands and gawk. Some nights they read the insights of comedian George Burns translated into Spanish: "How sad that all the people who would know how to run this country are driving taxis or cutting hair."...

China's communist leadership is trying to paint a smiley face over its most recent brutal suppression of dissent. Five days ago, protestors were gunned downed by police in a village not far from Hong Kong. The authorities blame a "few instigators" for the violence, but this event is indicative of growing socio-economic shifts in mainland China; namely the disparity between those profiting from communist experimentation with capitalism, and those left on the sidelines. China's government is trying to put lipstick on the pig. From MSNBC.com: The government said three people died in Tuesday’s violence in this coastal village northeast of...

Linux and the GPL a Hard Look at a Leftist Software Development Model. by Coral Snake Also features the complete GNU General Public License by Richard M Stallman (RMS) -- (with commentary by Coral Snake) For the last five years I have been involved with the "Free Software Movement". During my time in this movement I have been an avid user of the Linux OS from kernel 2.0 to kernel 2.4, The GIMP graphics authoring program, Open Office, and the GCC C and C++ compilers with the KDevelop IDE. I have also been a regular visitor to all the "Free...

The Clinton presidential library and museum in Little Rock doesn't even have a roof–and won't open for over a year–but operators are already planning special exhibits for this year. The most interesting idea: Bill Clinton thinks people want to know what presidents and their wives read. Thus, his library plans to hook up with other presidential libraries to create the Clinton book club, a list of books presidents are reading, have read, and plan to read. What's more, he wants to include the reading lists of his celebrity pals like, say, Barbra Streisand. Footnote: Bubba might even host book club...