Free Republic

In the last month, two more major companies headquartered in the Bay Area announced that they would be leaving for presumably greener pastures out of state. One was the energy giant Chevron, and the other was X, the social media company that has been owned by Elon Musk since 2022. The Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group, seized on the moment to repeat a critique it has made on numerous occasions: “It’s an embarrassment for California that we’ve lost so many global companies because of misguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here,” president and CEO...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., trashed supporters of former President Donald Trump in an interview with Bloomberg Television, claiming they’re people who either don’t value the dignity of "every person" or are "afraid" of change. She added that the "malignancy of Trump" is a "cancerous situation" in America and urged the Republican Party to "remember its heritage." Pelosi made her dig on Trump and his supporters while speaking to Bloomberg reporter Francine Lacqua in Venice, Italy, on Thursday. Lacqua mentioned that Pelosi "stood up against President Trump many times" while he was in office. "I didn't stand up to...

A bipartisan House duo has introduced a new immigration measure that would offer a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants in the U.S. while investing in border security. The bill comes on the heels of a GOP-passed House bill all but guaranteed to fail in the Senate, which places severe limits on asylum. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) see their legislation as having a better chance for success that the hardline GOP bill, charging undocumented workers a “1.5 percent dignity levy” in taxes and other fees that will pay for both border security and job training...

BEDFORD, Pennsylvania — From across the curved chestnut bar in the sprawling lobby of the Bedford Springs Hotel in this central Pennsylvania town, it was hard not to be drawn into the conversation between Christopher Ege, JoAnn Harrison, and her husband, Dan. Given their animation and laughter, one might have assumed all three had known each other for years and clearly shared a lot in common. As they discussed trips they had made to Kentucky to visit the iconic Bourbon Trail while contemplating the bourbons on hand, the discussion went from the history of the Buffalo Trace distillery to politics....

The United States Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide recognizes that even the most helpless and dependent human beings have a right to life and possess inherent dignity and worth. The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred, from conception to natural death. We must oppose the many threats to human life and dignity evident in contemporary society, including abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and capital punishment. Abortion represents a failure to recognize the sanctity of human life and promotes a culture in which human life...

Barbra Streisand is “exhilarated” about the prospect of Joe Biden becoming president, saying that Biden will “bring back dignity, honesty, intelligence and compassion to the Oval Office.” The Oscar-winning Hollywood leftist also bashed President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times, calling him a liar and blaming him for the loss of “thousands of lives.” The accusation is one that Streisand has repeatedly made on social media, having previously claimed that President Trump’s “incompetence and lies” are responsible for thousands of coronavirus fatalities.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has a message for President Donald Trump: If you lose the election, you should accept defeat with "grace and composure." Following Joe Biden's speech Friday night, Ingraham appeared to prepare her viewers for Mr. Trump's loss and give counsel directly to the president himself. In a shift in messaging, the longtime supporter and early endorser of the president advised him to focus on the future of the country, not the potential defeat.

When the Bible says that mankind was created “in the image of God” we gain from that an understanding of our capabilities. We also learn about the inherent worth of human life. What is a person worth? Ninety-nine percent of a human body consists of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. The remaining one percent consists of minor elements and trace elements. If you purchased these chemicals on the market, you would have to spend a bit more than $100. Most of us believe people are worth more than $100. Yet not everyone. The Nazis considered Jews,...

Trump’s 'lack of decorum, dignity, and statesmanship' By Evan Sayet in his article "He Fights" My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” Here’s my answer: We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on...

As an heiress to the Disney fortune, anything Abigail Disney says about the brand beloved by millions worldwide garners attention. And she’s calling out Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger for his nearly $66 million yearly salary, saying he isn’t doing enough to rectify the huge gap between his own earnings and that of other Disney workers. “Bob needs to understand he's an employee, just the same as the people scrubbing gum off the sidewalk are employees,” Disney said during an interview with the Yahoo News show Through Her Eyes. “And they're entitled to all the same dignity and human...

She was born yesterday. Her parents are near in our family tree. These are not primitives. Both husband and wife have hard-earned Ph.D.'s, a handsome, talented, busy couple. She lived forty minutes.

Let me ask you a personal question: Why do you believe what you believe? Why? From where did you derive your values as a human being? In my case, there was an amazing, very strict Latin teacher at school who I think helped me internalize some of my values. Everybody has mentors, of course, or one hopes everyone may be so blessed. But for the majority of human beings who have ever lived on God’s green Earth, their values come from their parents. It’s incontrovertible. Parents are our primary role models. And for men, you always—always—try to live up to...

Monday night at the White House Gold Star families gathered at the request of President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for an event to honor them and the loved ones they have lost. The first lady defined Gold Star families, those whose immediate family member died while serving in the military during wartime, “they are a unique and distinct category of individuals who should be cherished.” “These families have endured the ultimate in pain and sacrifice on behalf of our country, and I am honored to have spent the evening with them. My husband and I commit to...

GSM31 will be out of town on Thursday, so we recorded this early.

 Slate's Mark Joseph Stern writes that "If You Are Not Comfortable Being Naked Around Other People, You Are Not an Adult" As a Little Child, My Pants Were Pulled Down. I'm age three. It's about 4:30 in the afternoon, in late July or early August. The little rectangular swimming pool is rectangular, it's dark green, heavy canvas-plastic mounted on white metal tubing with white plastic caps on the ends on the ground. There are little, elongated red rectangular seats in the corners. The pool is in the shadow of bushes from a neighboring yard to the west. I'm in the west end of the pool, facing...

Regarding the Instruction Dignitas PersonaeAim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987).  A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society.  In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both...

Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday wrote a fiery dissent in response to the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.

How does one acquire self-respect? Through personal virtuosity. In other words, dignity is derived from within. And from self-respect flows the respect of others — as a natural consequence. Put another way, whereas civility has to do with how you treat others, dignity has to do with how you treat yourself. Sorry, activist sociopaths, but you don’t have a right to be treated with dignity. You do, however, have a right to possess dignity. Demanding dignity from others is the ultimate self-delusion. If being treated with dignity is genuinely important to you, the most efficient way to bring that about...

Concerns about Cremation: Some Very Strange Practices Are Emerging By: Msgr. Charles PopeSome years ago, the Church gave wider permission for cremation and also lifted traditional restrictions on having cremated remains present in the church for funeral Masses. All of this is pastorally understandable. Very few if any people these days choose cremation for the reasons it had traditionally been forbidden, namely as a denial of the resurrection of the body. Generally the reasons chosen are economic, due to the increasingly high cost of traditional burial and the difficulty, especially in urban areas, of finding room for large cemeteries. The basic norms from the church...

Does Rand Paul classify himself as a "free-thinker?" I was looking around to see how he might be associated with that atheist/agnostic group and the word "dignity" came up in the first piece below [that uses the term free-thinker]. So I search "Rand Paul" and "dignity" and found that he uses that word in his speeches. So just wondering what anyone knows about his religious leanings other than his traditional association with the Episcopal church. And does he use "dignity" as a euphemism for "social justice" - "getting along" - as a liberal-libertarian stand in [REPLACEMENT] for religion [Islam, Judaism,...