Free Republic

As the national media and the establishment of both parties begin their obligatory mocking of Rick Santorum — arguably the new GOP frontrunner — for his passionate yet well-reasoned defense of innocent human life, traditional marriage, fidelity, monogamy and conservative family values, it is worth noting that he is absolutely right about the havoc the sexual revolution and the welfare state have wrought upon America. In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a Labor Department official, released an alarming report about the number of black children born to unwed mothers. The percentage at that time was 25 percent. In the years...

I remember someone asking me at a Christmas party after the 2008 election what I thought an Obama presidency was going to be like. My response: "I think it will be a socialist nightmare - but Republicans have only themselves to blame." What I meant by that statement was simply that on too many occasions, the GOP nominates its oldest, lamest, most liberal candidate available, one who attempts to sell himself to the party as the next Ronald Reagan. It happened in 1988, when Republican primary voters selected then Vice President George H.W. Bush, who claimed for himself the mantle...

Many thanks to film critic Michael Medved for his review of Hollywood's latest piece of social propaganda, "Brokeback Mountain." Medved has spared 98 percent of American males what he calls "the eww! factor" by warning us of its graphic scenes of homosexuality. This "love story" is set in 1963 between two young, married sheepherders who seek regular fulfillment of their lust for each other by engaging in homosexual adultery while their unsuspecting wives sit home believing they are off together on "hunting trips." Medved compares the film, which is skillfully directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") to "Triumph...

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they? And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it...

RINO: An acronym for "Republican In Name Only." A confused creature most commonly found in the United States Senate. For more information, see "Olympia Snowe," "Lincoln Chafee" and especially "Arlen Specter." At some point, George W. Bush and his chief political advisor, Karl Rove, apparently decided that supporting so-called "mainstream" Republicans, without regard to their political ideology, was a wise political strategy. I cannot imagine why, since their previous endorsements of liberal Republicans have been embarrassing disasters. They did it in the 2002 California governor's primary by endorsing former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a pro-abortion, big-government liberal, over a...

On first reading, the opening paragraph of an Associated Press article this past weekend was too bizarre to comprehend: “KASSEL, Germany (AP) – A computer expert who killed, dismembered and ate another man was convicted Friday of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 ½ years in prison after a court rejected a murder charge because the victim had asked to be eaten.” As I read this story, I wondered how civilized people were supposed to process such information. Is this really the future of justice? Will common sense ever again prevail in a world where anything goes? Granted, the case in...

On first reading, the opening paragraph of an Associated Press article this past weekend was too bizarre to comprehend: “KASSEL, Germany (AP) – A computer expert who killed, dismembered and ate another man was convicted Friday of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 ½ years in prison after a court rejected a murder charge because the victim had asked to be eaten.” As I read this story, I wondered how civilized people were supposed to process such information. Is this really the future of justice? Will common sense ever again prevail in a world where anything goes? Granted, the case in...

FRN Columnists' Corner "When Evil Becomes Good " By Doug PattonAs a Christian writer, I find myself torn between scripture’s admonition to remain focused on the good and noble aspects of life and its warnings about society revering evil as good while reviling good as evil. Last week, yet another outrage came out of the field we once proudly called “education.” The headline read: “University Hosts Bondage Rope Class,” with a subtitle, “British Columbia school features 3-hour course on ‘safety skills.’” As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up! And while all of us have known for...

FRN Columnists' Corner "Syria, the Next Front in the War on Terror" By Doug Patton“The world is watching, and on this, more than any other day, God is watching, too.” With those words, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations concluded his impassioned remarks to Sunday’s hastily called emergency meeting of the 15-member Security Council, which had convened to consider its response to Israel’s attack on suspected terrorist camps inside Syria. The ambassador recounted the bloody details of the latest suicide bombing against Israel, this one perpetrated by a 27-year-old Palestinian woman who detonated her payload in a popular restaurant jointly...

FRN Columnists' Corner "Where is GOP Response to Teddy and the Wannabes? " By Doug Patton September 29, 2003 Are you sick and tired of hearing Ted Kennedy fill the airwaves with his vile lies about our country’s foreign policy? Are you frustrated by the unchallenged accusations of the ten small-minded Democrat presidential wannabes, crisscrossing Iowa and New Hampshire, running off at the mouth about what a “miserable failure” the war in Iraq has been? Do you feel bewildered as you watch your president’s approval rating plummet as these people accuse him of having destroyed more American jobs than any...