Free Republic

Drug test welfare recipients. Seriously. The line forms in the bathroom. If you want the working people of America to support you, then produce a sample, and it better be clean. Because America’s welfare system has turned into the cash cow of the drug economy and some of us have gotten sick and tired of it. Some of us look at people unwilling or unable to provide for themselves and we wonder how they can afford to be continually drunk or stoned. We are bankrolling destructive, illegal conduct and our tax dollar are being used not to relieve suffering in...

I don’t know why people self-destruct. But they often do. I don’t know why politicians fall. But they often do. I don’t know why one small corner of our country – the Rochester region of upstate New York – has been the scene of two humiliating congressional sex scandals in as many years. First it was Eric “Tickle Party” Massa, now it is Chris “Congressman Beefcake” Lee. And after a while it reeks of ancient Rome, and a political class that, by its debauchery and venality, loses the faith and confidence of the people. Regular folks become dispirited, they become...

I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe that when it says “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” that it means exactly that. I believe it is an individual right – just like the rights listed through most of the Bill of Rights – and that it specifically means Americans have a constitutional right to own and carry guns.That’s what “keep and bear” means – own and carry. I believe it as absolute and important a right as the freedom of speech or religion or the press. It stands next to the...

They died in the service of our country. The judge, the little girl, the congressional staffer. The three people in their 70s. They all died in the name of American liberty. Just as assuredly as if they were casualties on a foreign battlefield. They were killed by the evil which is the sworn enemy of our freedom and this Republic. In the guise of the terrorists on September 11th, or the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, or a monster with a gun at a Tucson supermarket, it is all the same. Different faces of the same beast. All attacks on us...

No, you don’t have the right to protest at a funeral. I know the First Amendment, I love the First Amendment, but bullhorns and picket signs at a cemetery or mortuary are not the First Amendment. That’s what I hope the Supreme Court decides. As it commences its new term today, I hope that foolishness is not done in the name of freedom. I hope that the justices will remember that your freedom to swing your fists stops at the tip of my nose, and that one person’s liberty must not be empowered to disturb another person’s peace. The case...

My house is not an investment. It is a house. I don’t intend to make money off it; I intend to live in it. It is not its paper value that matters to me, it is its intrinsic value. I don’t care what it is assessed for, or what it would sell for, I am concerned about its ability to protect my family from the elements and meet our shelter needs. It is my home. So the status of the economy and the housing-sales numbers are meaningless to me. I am not looking to sell my home, I am looking...

In my right hip pocket, affixed by a clasp, is a 4-inch knife made in Olean, New York. It’s right where I can get it. Where I can reach back with one hand, pull it out, press my thumb against a knob on the back of the blade, and open it. Engraved on the steel is the phrase, “Carry on, my wayward son.” In New York County, that would make me a criminal. At least that’s the conclusion you draw from a recent extortion by the district attorney of New York County. In a $1.9 million rip-off of hardware and...

The United States hasn’t truly fought since the ninth of August in 1945. As the radioactive dust settled over Nagasaki, and peace with Japan was secured, we gave up war. We have not fought one since. Rather, we have engaged in a half century of half measures, in which we have deployed our military repeatedly but never actually used it once. That is not meant to disrespect the courage and accomplishment of two generations of American servicemen, but rather to acknowledge the failed leadership which has directed them. Since the police action in Korea, we have been led by successive...

I am a Tea Party Republican. And I am a Sarah Palin Republican. Because I am a Constitution Republican. Because my politics is merely an extension of my patriotism. To the extent the Republican Party stands for our Constitution, it’s my party. The extent it doesn’t, it isn’t. I know what I believe, I’m not backing down, I’m not afraid. And I refuse to be shamed by the mockery of those who attack the Tea Party and Sarah Palin. The character assassination of the movement and the woman are the desperate, immoral attacks of evil people. What you can’t successfully...

What would happen if the American public voted powerfully against the Democratic agenda in November, and then the Democrats crammed it through as lame ducks in December? Where would the first shot be fired? Which city would burn first? Whose political career would end? Would there be any accountability at all? There would be no shots fired, or any cities burned, but one political career would be destroyed. What’s left of it. Here’s the background. It’s likely that the Democratic Party, after two years of Obama “change,” will be abandoned by the voters. It’s not disagreement, it’s anger. Americans don’t...

Barack Obama is right. It is time to “reset” our relations with Russia. It’s time to take our lips off their hindquarters, look them in the eye, and tell them to know their place. It’s time to wipe that snotty look off Putin’s face. Because Russia sucks. Barack Obama loves Russia, Bill Clinton loved Russia, any number of deep-thinking liberals love Russia. But Russia hates us – and we must never forget that. Though our current foreign policy has as its priorities selling our country out to China, Muslims and Russia, some of us have to remember that self-preservation and...

Elena Kagan clerked under Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. But apparently she didn’t learn very much. And as a consequence she should not be confirmed to the Supreme Court herself. This is not about partisanship, it is about principle. It is not because she is a liberal, it is because she is not true to the court and its rulings. Much ado was made about her appearance last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. We saw all sorts of pictures on the evening news of her making funny faces, and vacuous reporters weighed in on how she had handled the...

I heard a guy on the radio yesterday say that public education should be abolished. What a freak. In the oneupsmanship of marketing to the conservative audience, some people get a little nuts. Not having a true sense of what people feel – lacking an accurate internal compass – they reach for ever more outlandish positions. That doesn’t serve truth, it exploits and embarrasses it. So here’s the truth. No, conservatives don’t want to abolish public education. We want to improve it and make it more accountable to local taxpayers, parents and values. We conservatives are overwhelmingly the product of...

The canceling of a conservative radio show is being tied to Mike Lee and EnergySolutions, and Lee's opponent is pulling all advertising from the station because of it. Talk show host Bob Lonsberry lost his 10-year-old KNRS morning show on Wednesday due to what his employer said was poor ratings. "His audience numbers were going down," said station general manager Stu Stanek. He said listeners were also asking why the station was delaying Glenn Beck's show until after the drive time. With Lonsberry's contract coming due in a few months, they decided to make changes, Stanek said. But Lonsberry and...

You haven’t been to America until you’ve walked the hillsides of Arlington. On the Virginia side of the Potomac, in the capital of our nation, where heroes lie row upon row. It is one of the most stirring and sacred places in our country. The despoiled farm of a Confederate general, hallowed by those buried in its soil, it is a place of the heart. Presidents are buried there, and generals and admirals, and the common soldiers and sailors of the last 150 years. The precision of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the green of the grass...

The economic ruin of the Gulf Coast isn't coming from the oil well. It's coming from the Oval Office. It's not BP, it's Obama. Don't get me wrong. The ruptured oil well, and the incomprehensible amounts of crude flooding into the ocean, are horrific. This is a potential catastrophe, and the sight of fouled wetlands and helpless oil-covered birds is heartbreaking. And it is a British Petroleum well that is doing that. But right here and now, today, that's not what's putting the people of the Gulf Coast out of work. It's government dictate. Decisions made in Washington and imposed...

I know a Jew from Poland. More correctly, I know his son. I’ve spoken to the father, been introduced and exchanged pleasantries, but it’s mostly the son I know. A guy about my age with curly hair and a black beard and tendency to smile. He’s a fishmonger. Like his father before him and, now, his son after him. I went to the shop first out of curiosity, to see where the shooting had been. The father, a man in his 80s, was working alone on a Thursday just after opening time when two neighborhood punks came in. They shot...

Cancer starts benign enough. A tiny mass of misbegotten cells, duplicating and growing, slowly demanding more of its host until it explodes in a dramatic grab for resources and dominance. Then the balance shifts and there is more death than life, more weak than strong, more tearing down than building up.And that's when cancer kills. It's the same way with welfare and the taxpayers it feeds on. It starts benign enough, as a feel-good program, for one disadvantaged group or another, a sob story turned into a budget line. But it grows from there, and an entitlement is born. A...

It’s not Obama’s fault. It’s not British Petroleum’s fault. It was just an accident. And everyone is doing everything they can to stop the leak and clean up the mess. That’s the truth, and fair-minded people ought to be willing to acknowledge it. But few are. Instead, the explosion of an oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico is being seen through exclusively political eyes as factions jockey to play the mishap to their political and philosophical advantage. The Marxists in the administration and the Democratic Party crucify BP as the representative of the capitalism they hate. Republicans crucify Barack Obama...

Is she a lesbian? That’s what America wants to know about Elena Kagan. Is she queer. No one will say that out loud, and I’m not sure how much of it is more than basic curiosity, but it is the top thing on people’s minds. How do I dare say that? Because it’s the truth. Throughout the day yesterday, I went to Google and typed in the words “Elena Kagan.” As I typed in more letters, and the predictive indicator tried to finish my phrase, it gave an insight into what America is looking for. The predictive indicator takes your...