Free Republic

You might have thought that Mike Bloomberg—with his trans fat and smokes snatching—was the epitome of nanny staters. But the Big Apple mayor's got nothing on another New Yorker--Nicholas Kristof. In his New York Times column of today, Equality, A True Soul Food, Kristof preaches the urgent need for income redistribution as a means of . . . improving our souls. According to Kristof, "the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul." And hey: what says soul improvement more than . . . raising taxes?! More excerpts and analysis after...

Prepper (noun): An individual or group that prepares or makes preparations in advance of, or prior to, any change in normal circumstances or lifestyle without significant reliance on other persons (i.e., being self-reliant), or without substantial assistance from outside resources (govt., etc.) in order to minimize the effects of that change on their current lifestyle. Over the last few years millions of Americans have lost their jobs, millions more have lost or face losing their home. There is a palpable feeling that politics, culture, and the basic fabric of society is continuing to unravel and with that comes increasing fear...

For those legislating and regulating industry out of the country and reducing our living standard back to maybe 1800 to call themselves Progressives requires a sense of humor, but in a way, they're right. Closing Post-Classical civilization to move into a new era can be called progress, at least by some. Most in the newborn Western Christian era during its early Dark Ages might not have seen it as progress but we at the intended end of its flowering of wealth and technology certainly think of it that way. History leaves no doubt that civilizations rise and fall; the fall...