Free Republic

Michael Gaynor, 25, completed his bachelor’s degree and certification to teach elementary and high-school physical education in May 2009, then set out during a recession to find that dream job. Over the next two years, the quest would take him from substitute teaching and respite care work in Iowa, back to his parents’ home in Skokie; to Florida, where he waited tables, then back to Skokie; to Colorado as a substitute teacher, coach and camp counselor, then, back to Skokie. “My moves back home were always transitional. They allowed me to save up money, not having to pay rent and...

The problem is that we conservative economic thinkers have gotten ourselves into a bungle by playing on the liberals' playing field. We have accepted that government goods are to be valued for each of us individually as a function of our income. Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/flat_tax_philosophy.html#ixzz1eGOEp4K0

First, the context: Modern political science -- which readily understands imperialism, resistance, and clash of competing interests -- does not similarly understand “the wasting away of nations.” That, says David Goldman, author of How Civilizations Die: (and why Islam is dying too), is because political scientists tend to assume that people will follow their rational self-interest. In fact, they often don’t.From antiquity, he notes, a symptom of a civilization’s decline has been the destruction of children:Macedonian poet Poseidippus of Pella wrote: “Even a rich man always exposes a daughter.” A 200 BCE survey of seventy-nine families in Miletus, an ancient...

I recently came across this article by Robert J Pestritto on the origins of the administrative state, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Some excerpts: Relying heavily on European models of administrative power, Wilson laid out a vision for administrative discretion in 1891 that directly rejected the rule-of-law model: The functions of government are in a very real sense independent of legislation, and even constitutions, because [they are] as old as government and inherent in its very nature. The bulk and complex minuteness of our positive law, which covers almost every case that can arise in Administration, obscures for...

25million empty bedrooms across the country at a time when many are struggling to bu Older people should be taxed out of their family homes to free up space for younger generations, says a report backed by Labour. It argues that 'empty nesters' in their 60s are taking up too much room and should be 'encouraged' by a new 'land tax' to downsize to smaller homes. The call comes from the Intergenerational Foundation, a left-leaning think-tank that aims to 'promote fairness between generations'. Labour MP Tessa Jowell sponsored the report's launch in a Commons hospitality room yesterday, saying the current...

With Muammar Qaddafi finally out of the picture, Republican lawmakers are pressing the U.S. to open its wallet to help the new regime in Libya rebuild its nation, restore essential services and care for those wounded in the eight-months-long bloody conflict – an expense they say oil-rich Libya can and will reimburse. “They’re willing to reimburse us. It’s not a matter of money,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Fox News, making a tough sales pitch in an era of high unemployment and increasing austerity. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., noted that the Libyans’ top request was for help in tending to...

History is a tough thing. There are so many adages. History repeats itself. If you don’t remember history you are doomed. We have a history together. You may or may not know, but I am on the board of the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lots of people say it’s “an honor” to do this or that, but to me this is an amazing privilege and opportunity to do something good for some people, and my country.James Altucher and other popular bloggers say you need to bleed a little when you blog. Maybe I haven’t done...

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, there's a big piece in the New York Times Magazine coming this weekend. It is entitled: "Does Anyone Have a Grip on the GOP?" The subhead: "The Republican Elite Tries to Take Its Party Back." This article prints like 24 pages. It is a major, major New York Times Magazine piece. It confirms everything that I have thought, everything I have speculated, everything I have said about the battle between the Republican elite and the Tea Party. I can't read the whole thing on the program; I don't intend to. I've got some highlights or quotes...

Step 1: The first rule of the establishment is: Do not admit you are part of the establishment! Step 2: Disarm them with praise Step 3: Moderate whoever they pick as the 2012 nominee. Step 4: Teach them about compromise. Step 5: Never forget reality

Democracy's New DiscontentsProgressives now blame the failure of their agenda on the American system of government. Once upon a time, loud dissent, filibustering in the Senate, and gridlock in the House were as democratic as apple pie.A Senator Obama once defended his attempts to block confirmation votes on judicial appointments by alleging, “The Founding Fathers established the filibuster as a means of protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority.” In 2005, progressives were relieved that a Democratic minority had just gridlocked Congress — ending recently reelected president George W. Bush’s plan to reform Social Security. Gridlock, in other...

New photographs obtained exclusively by BigGovernment.com reveal that Barack Obama appeared and marched with members of the New Black Panther Party as he campaigned for president in Selma, Alabama in March 2007. The photographs, captured from a Flickr photo-sharing account before it was scrubbed, are the latest evidence of the mainstream media’s failure to examine Obama’s extremist ties and radical roots.

Late last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took what is being called "the final step" towards implementing their illegal Net Neutrality regulations. You may recall, that back on December 21, the FCC bypassed government regulations and seized control of the Internet -- delivering what many believe is a knockout blow to one of the last, great free-market frontiers our nation and the world has ever seen. According to the organization Less Government, regardless of a multiple lawsuits, a move by the House of Representatives and a D.C. Circuit Court unanimously ruling that the FCC had no authority to take...

The other day our sister newspaper, the Gloucester County Times, reported on a raid at a fraternity house at Rowan University where — get ready for a shock — some college kids were drinking. About 100 of the kids were underage and will face charges. Believe it or not, that incident has its roots in the same problem that led to the controversy over the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. That problem lies in the way the federal government distributes highway funding: poorly. It’s obvious in the case of the bridge that would have connected the city of Ketchikan,...

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

The left believes that a clever elite can fix all the world’s problems; conservatives accept that human error can lead to disastrous outcomes. Liberals fancy themselves rational in contrast to conservatives’ dour acknowledgment of tradition and tragedy. Why, then, is the left so impossibly, stubbornly, counter-factually dense when it comes to the state of Israel (among other matters)? Liberal rationality is a pose. Knowledge is existential — that is, we tend to ignore facts that apply to a world in which we will not exist at all. I saw that before the 2008 banking crash, when I tried to warn...

We Are Heroes, Who Need to Create a Crisis: SEIU’s Stephen Lerner at Progressive Summit Tells Unions, Community Organizers and Students They Need to Escalate Protests, Break Laws, Occupy Abandoned Houses and Spread the Crisis All Over U.S.

For well over 100 years, big and central Government fans have railed against freedom, states rights and human rights. Many of us middle-aged types remember growing up with the fear of a nuclear exchange between us and the dreaded Communist Russia.In fact, they have only gotten more funded, more organized, sneakier and changed their name many times while you weren’t looking. The term Communism has the ring now of ‘a fossil’ museum piece. You almost sound paranoid and fringe to even talk about the dangers of communism. Certainly to talk about the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism renders you mentally ill....

On Uprising Radio, April 2008, Van Jones had this to say: VAN JONES: One of the things that has happened too often to progressives is that we don’t understand the relationship between minimum goals and maximum goals. Right after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, if the civil rights leaders had jumped out and said, ‘OK, now we want reparations for slavery; we want redistribution of all wealth; and we want to legalize mixed marriages,’ if that had been their…, if they’d have come out with a maximum program the very next day, they’d have been laughed at....

At a Town Hall event in Los Angeles, Dem congresswoman Maxine Waters said the president should use the bully pulpit to, "bring the gangstas in, put them around the table and let them know that if they don't come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes, that they've worked so hard for, we're gonna tax them out of business"

The left are now wringing their hands fearing their agenda is overripe, blaming everyone else for their own spoiled pickling. While Obama's sinking prospects for re-election are disquieting, the real source of liberals' despair is their sudden, unexpected realization that the progressive agenda is dead in its tracks and will likely be in full retreat after 2012. Obama is finished, but the demise of their identity politician is neither the main event nor surprising. He was a lame duck after he returned from Copenhagen empty handed in September 2009, expecting the mere presence of his electro-magnetic glow would secure the...