Free Republic

Do We the People really establish our government or is the government 'self-establishing'? Let me explain the basis for the question. The 10th Amendment is an interesting article because of more than just the fact that it advances the idea of delegated powers. Certainly it reserves any powers not so delegated to the several States — excepting those few expressly forbidden to the States in the federal Constitution. Most of the time when people talk about the 10th Amendment this is as far as it goes where their presented logics are concerned and they essentially fail to address the full...

I've have been assigned by my college English teacher to write a 4 page essay on the Ethics of Buying, following MLA standards. I know this is something really dumb and already rigged, but I would like to know how to approach writing such a thing, keep it conservative, and still not royally tick off my liberal English teacher. Any sources that could be recommended would be appreciated as well.

The Religion of Peace. Muslim organizations keep insisting that Islam is a religion of peace. This has oft been repeated immediatly following some atrocity in which ten, hundreds, and in a few cases, thousands of people whom have literally nothing to do with any of this have been removed from the planet, at least in living form. It is so oft repeated that it bears considering that the “Religion of Peace” is not very peaceful. In fact could be called the “Religion of Death” and still be 100% factual. The term “Religion of Peace” is no longer believable in even...

I came into this world in July of 1926, the 150th birthday of America. It was fitting. My maker, Smith & Wesson in Massachusetts, created me to be a comfort to the law abiding citizen and a tool in the hands of those who would protect America. I weighed - but I see it in your eyes. You really don't want to know my specs, do you. How much I weighed, how long my barrel was, the fact that I was chambered for a .38 special. No, you're like most of the other people who aren't sure about guns. Who...

Steven Daniel Barber, 23, says a culture of fear has displaced rational thought. The Iraq War veteran's comments came Tuesday, shortly after learning his expulsion from the University of Virginia at Wise had been upheld. He has been prohibited from attending classes since Feb. 29 -- the day after sharing a story in which a character contemplates murdering his professor, then turns to thoughts of suicide. Barber wrote the piece for his creative writing class. "It's the nanny state ran amock; political correctness to the extreme," said Barber in a phone interview with timesnews.net. "Nobody goes after Stephen King, nobody...

Much has been written about discontent in the Republican Party. Conservatives are disappointed no one having conservative views on all issues of importance has been in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. The presumptive nominee, John McCain, has been on the 'wrong' side of many matters before the Senate and has joined with Democrats to sponsor undesirable legislation, thereby causing conservatives to be unenthusiastic about his success. Newt Gingrich, who conservatives had placed some hope in carrying their banner did not enter the race and a substitute, Mitt Romney, did poorly in the primaries, ultimately backing out for 'the...

GARLAND, Texas (AP) - An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: ''My daddy died this year in Iraq.'' While gripping, it wasn't true - and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mom acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie. The sponsor of the contest was Club Libby Lu, a Chicago-based store that sells clothes, accessories and games intended for young girls. The saga began Friday with company officials surprising the girl at a Club Libby Lu at a mall in suburban Garland, about...

The worries and warnings come from across the political spectrum and across the oceans. New York Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff calls America “an empire enthralled with its own power and unaware that it is fading.” Former Clinton administration official Charles Kupchan concludes that “American primacy is already past its peak.” According to Joseph Nye, who served under Presidents Carter and Clinton, America’s “soft power — its ability to attract others by the legitimacy of U.S. policies and the values that underlie them — is in decline.” Peggy Noonan, speechwriter for the most optimistic of presidents, Ronald Reagan, asserts that “in...

CAST YOUR VOTE Should Allen Lee have been punished for writing this essay? Yes No

An Orangevale youth who fatally shot a passing motorist with a hunting rifle had to write a 1,000 word essay on why he was sorry and will serve 30 days in juvenile hall. The sentence is far short of the maximum penalty of 14 years' incarceration. The 14-year-old shot Gary Marcy, 69, of South Natomas, on Sept. 27, while barely missing his wife of nearly 50 years, who was sitting beside Marcy in the vehicle. "I killed a man that day, and nobody knows how it feels," the youth said as part of the essay he read in court. "I...

The year 2005 will mark the 72nd anniversary of the New Deal, the seminal event of the modern Democratic Party. Democratic policies and rhetoric all hail from that era of Big Government protecting the American people from Big Business. As long as the party held to its roots in economic equality, it prospered. When it marched boldly into the quicksand of social change, it alienated the Great Middle of American politics and lost its way. Now the signs are all in place for another great Democratic debacle, but with one major difference. This time, the Democrats are headed for the...

In response to our open letter to the Oprah Winfrey Show, HSLDA President Mike Smith received a call from Tim Bennett, the President of Harpo Productions. Mr. Bennett conveyed that there had been an oversight when homeschoolers were excluded from "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest," but that it was too late to amend the rules to include homeschoolers. Yesterday, HSLDA received a written reply from Harpo Productions, Inc. which recognized that "...homeschooling is an important contributor to the educational success of this country." HSLDA congratulates Oprah Winfrey for acknowledging that homeschooling is a viable educational alternative and entitled to...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 15, 2005) -- The streets were quiet as the long awaited day for the referendum began Saturday morning. Vehicle traffic was banned within the city, so the Iraqi police could ensure better security throughout the day. As the day went on, foot traffic in the predominately Sunni city began to pick up. More and more people were heading to the polls. “We're seeing grass-roots organizations telling people to vote, not necessarily because it's what they want to do, but because they have to do it,” John Kael Weston, a State Department official in Fallujah said. “They realize...

Image after image of unrelenting sorrow, layered one atop the other like a deck of haunting cards. A baby held aloft, inches above a sea of desperate faces, gasping for air. The dead left where they've fallen, in plain view, robbed of even the simple dignity of a shroud. Survivors waiting, then begging, then fighting, finally, over food and water. Here. While the images of natural disasters and man-made ones alike, from Sri Lanka or Baghdad, cause despair, the pictures from New Orleans inspire not just helplessness, but disbelief. The richest, most powerful nation in the world can build schools,...

Good old Time magazine, serving its usual function of normalizing and celebrating whatever trend is leading to America's ruin, has a photo essay about an Islamic K-12 school in Illinois.http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/muslimschool/index.html In the below photo the Moslem girls, dressed in full-body black coverings, play the all-American game of basketball. Isn't it wonderful, this rich, post-assimilationist mix of Islamic and American customs? Doesn't it warm your heart? Well, if your heart's fondest desire is to divide, diminish, and pull down America, and change it out of recognition from anything it's ever been, the answer is yes. But please let us not blame...

Here's an interesting story about the SAT. As of a couple of years ago, a new test was introduced: the Reasoning test. There are five topics on the SAT Reasoning Test: Critical Reading, Math, Writing, Multiple Choice, and an Essay. However, the topic I want to show you is the Essay. Specifically, my own.

As the IDF eases restrictions and removes checkpoints throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza - Arab civilians continue to be caught smuggling weapons in increasingly creative ways.

Islamic teachers suspended for praising essay on killing Jews By Peter Zimonjic (Filed: 27/03/2005) Two teachers at an Islamic school in Canada who praised a pupil's essay about killing Jews with hand grenades and machine guns have been suspended for allegedly inciting racial hatred. The pupil, who has not been identified, illustrated his creative writing assignment, which was written in Arabic, by drawing a picture of a Star of David in flames next to a machine gun. He also drew a Palestinian flag on top of the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. Claims...

In two weeks, Republicans from around the country will convene in New York to rally in support of President George W. Bush, and to listen to an exuberant 20-year-old named Princella Smith. Smith earned her plane ticket to the Big Apple by authoring the winning entry in MTV's Choose or Lose Stand Up and Holla! essay contest, and she'll deliver her words to the 2004 Republican National Convention next Tuesday. The rural Arkansas native's essay, selected by her peers on ChooseorLose.com from more than 1,000 entries, discusses her support of Bush and his call for young people "to do nothing...

Why are we fighting in Iraq: a primer for the politically shallow Cast your thoughts back to before our present campaign, and place yourself in the position of a Presidential administration with the need to protect the nation from radical Islamic terrorism. Your first blow has driven a bunch them from under their Afghanistani rocks and into the cracks of the earth, but there are plenty more around. Now, before you is the choice: (A) declare victory over terrorism, saying crushing the Taliban and the Al Qaida in Afghanistan has solved the problem of radical islamofascists; or (B) decide to...