Free Republic

Much has been made recently about the supposed economic recovery. A few blips in a few statistics and many believe our troubles are all over. Of course, they have to redefine recovery as “jobless” to account for the lack of improvement on Main Street. But the banks have money, Wall Street is chugging along, and the administration would like to get on with other agendae. They have even set up a commission to investigate the crisis as if it were all in the past. The truth is that Americans are still losing jobs, the Fed is still inflating, and more...

Islam is an ideology for monsters. It's like Nazism and Communism in its shocking level of theoretical and intellectual evil. Islam harbors a simply stunning level of love for war (jihad) and slavery (sharia). That's why unless a person is brainwashed into it as a child, or conquered into it as an adult, few, if any, good and decent people freely convert to the philosophy of Islam. Only monsters. Any normal, humane, tolerable, at least semi-respectable person morally condemns and personally loathes what the belief-system of Islam essentially constitutes and entails, namely: jihad and the jihadis, plus sharia and the...

Gov. Mark Sanford was back in the national headlines Thursday after CNN spotted him on Capitol Hill. And a day after making a final apology for his conduct, it looks as if the governor was turning the page. Sanford, a former congressman, was in Washington, D.C., on official business. But he took some time to go see old friends on the hill. According to media reports, Sanford spent some time with U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who ran for president in 2008 and its credited with helping start the so-called Tea Party movement. Sanford's political career has been...

As we start the new year 2010, the establishment politicians, economists and Wall Street are trying to convince themselves that we have turned the corner and economic growth has once again begun. The predictions that conditions are getting back to normal come from those who never saw the crisis coming and don't have the vaguest notion what caused it. Some of them concede that it could be a jobless recovery. That will establish a new definition for a recovery. Official unemployment is at 10% but even the government knows that if everyone is counted, including those individuals that are too...

Last week, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission kicked off their first round of hearings on the causes of the economic meltdown on Wall Street. The commission is being compared to the the Pecora Commission launched in 1932 to investigate the causes of the Great Depression. The Pecora commission is beloved by those who believe the solution to every problem is more laws because it was used to justify a number of new laws, including Glass-Steagall. Of course, none of those laws addressed the real causes of the Great Depression. It was the introduction of unsound monetary policy and central economic...

The world today has replaced the medieval, Christian-dominated Dark Age theory of "the divine right of kings" with the current, socialism-dominated Dark Age theory of "the divine right of the majority." This means embracing and sanctifying mob rule. This means democracy is privileged to crush freedom. This means "the will of the people" is allowed to legitimately rip asunder and trample underfoot the rights of the sacred Individual. In todays' absurd and depraved era, 50%-plus-one can do no wrong. The majority, by definition, can never do or be politically evil. Such a group, by its very nature, can never be...

However much Haitians are suffering now due to yesterday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake near Port-au-Prince, it's nothing compared to how much they're suffering due to almost two centuries of heavy-handed Welfare Statism. A society, economy, and polity based on the sheer intellectual nonsense and utter moral depravity of "soft" socialism and quasi-Marxist-Leninist theory is pretty much a society, economy, and polity which is hit with a horrific natural disaster every day. And however much Americans and Westerners think themselves very superior to the agonizing people of Haiti -- and secretly laugh at their extraordinary backwardness and primitivism -- the reality is...

Last week it was revealed that when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, he urged AIG officials not to disclose to the Securities Exchange Commission relevant details of agreements with banks to bail out Goldman Sachs. Apparently he felt at the time that regulators and the public would be angry that taxpayer money was used to fully compensate bankers who made some horrifically bad investment decisions. These banks should have suffered the consequences of the huge risks they were taking. After all, they kept plenty of rewards when times were good. Instead, the Fed...

I'm about to publish the below article and would appreciate any pre-publication feedback: ---------------------------------------------------- "We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. The United States should both abandon its attempts to act as policeman for the world and avoid entangling alliances. We oppose any form of compulsory national service." -Platform of the Libertarian Party Nicely worded. But in most libertarian minds this gets translated into "get out of Iraq, get out of Afghanistan, let Iran develop nuclear weapons, and don't ever fight a battle on the enemy's turf." In the minds of voters,...

In its recent look back on the first ten years of the century, Time Magazine proclaimed the period to be "the decade from hell." The editors made their case based on what they saw as the signature events of the last ten years, notably the ravages of terrorism, failed wars, and a global financial crisis. Taken together, these factors produced an era that Time is convinced will be remembered as one of the low points in our history. As the media hates to dwell on the negative, the commentary was rife with notes of optimism about pending recovery. It could...

I was a Ron Paul supporter in the 2008 campaign for the presidency, and I made no apologies about it. Ron Paul was the candidate at the time that supported a smaller government, individual liberties and the Constitution closer than any other candidate. By far, he was the small government candidate. Others, especially conservatives, would often say that they support many of Paul’s positions, but… Either his voice was too “high and whiny”, or they viewed his position on America’s foreign policy to be “wacko” and “crazy”. The going phrase at the time, and still today, is that Ron Paul...

How much more evil does Islam have to visit upon the West before the West finally decides to decently fight back? How many more attempted massacres of 289 innocents, like Christmas Day over Detroit? How many more successful massacres like Bali (10/12/02), Madrid (3/11/04), London (7/7/05), Mumbai (7/11/06), Mumbai (11/26/08), and New York (9/11/01)? Does anyone seriously doubt that the Muslims are fanatically determined -- at the very least -- to set off simultaneous suitcase nuclear bombs in Washington DC and New York City? The likelihood here is they will succeed! The West ought to hate Islam. We ought to...

Last week on Christmas Eve, after many backroom deals were made, the Senate passed the healthcare reform bill with a strictly partisan vote. I was pleased that my colleagues in the GOP are on the right side of this bill. Although this vote was a major step in healthcare reform becoming reality, they still have to reconcile the Senate bill with the House-passed version in conference committee. This could prove even more difficult and costly than the Senate vote. There was a little bit of controversy surrounding one particular Senator who was initially against the bill, but then, coincidentally, a...

The atrocities just keep coming from Muslims. No outrage or horror is too much for them. They never let up. Yesterday's Northwest Airlines flight #253 from Amsterdam to Detroit is just the latest. But keep checking the headlines, folks -- tomorrow it could easily be something new and worse. In the latest incident, 278 passengers could have been spectacularly slaughtered in mid-flight near Detroit. Fortunately, the jihadi failed. This time. But the lack of a ghastly bloodbath over the American heartland -- courtesy of the followers of Islam -- wasn't for lack of intent or desire. Give them credit: Muslims...

The same grassroots energy that propelled Ron Paul from a little-known Congressman to a force in the presidential primaries now seems to be transferring to his son in his Senate run in Kentucky. Public Policy Polling's (D) latest survey shows him easily ahead of Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who was recruited by the national party after Sen. Jim Bunning (R) was pressured not to seek re-election. Republican Primary Election Matchup Paul 44 Grayson 25 Und 32

“What seems to be a GOP victory at first may well become another liberal victory in the long term. Unless Parker Griffith (formerly D-AL, now R-AL) starts voting like a true fiscal conservative, Alabama could be stuck with another entrenched Big-Government Republican Congressman.” “Welcome to the party, Parker. Here’s an electronic copy of the Constitution. Read it well, as you will have to continue to dodge us if you continue to disregard it.”

Earlier today the US Senate passed a sweeping new law of mind-numbing complexity and bureaucracy which dictates a vast government take-over of the medical industry, and which is likely to devastate virtually the entire health care sector. All these new government schemes, scams, mandates, and dictates just about gaurantee that health care costs will skyrocket, health care quality will plummet, and people will die like flys. Together with the recent, various, industry-wide "bail-outs," and economic "stimuluses" of the past two years, Big Brother has really hammered us in at least three different ways. It would have been far, far better...

In the rush to pass the so-called “healthcare reform bill,” U.S. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) stamped his feet and held his breath until he extracted his presents from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. One such gift exempts Nebraska from paying the $45 million dollar increase in Medicaid imbursement costs. Nelson was the 60th Democrat to get his stocking stuffed. Smart parents know not to give in to petulant children trying these shenanigans. If we gave kids everything they demanded, our family budget would be as busted as last year’s toy under the couch. You know, the one with batteries that...

Last week the House overwhelmingly approved a measure to put a new round of sanctions on Iran. If this measure passes the Senate, the United States could no longer do business with anyone who sold refined petroleum products to Iran or helped them develop their ability to refine their own petroleum. The sad thing is that many of my colleagues voted for this measure because they felt it would deflect a military engagement with Iran. I would put the question to them, how would Congress react if another government threatened our critical trading partners in this way? Would we not...

Liberty Republicans need to think about strategies to counteract the cooptation of the revived liberty movement that Rockefeller or Progressive Republicans will attempt. The Tea Party movement’s explosion shows that liberty Republicanism can succeed. As well, the failure of Rockefeller Republicanism under the Bush administration might keep big government Republicans from success, especially when we liberty Republicans refuse to cooperate with them. Because the Tea Party movement is composed of many fine and well meaning but inexperienced activists, it is susceptible to the same tactics that coopted the libertarian movement in 1980. If a Progressive Republican calls himself a “libertarian”...