Free Republic

Governor Janet Mills (D-ME) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump is not the law and his administration’s actions were “not rational” while discussing their transgender athletes dispute. Mills said, “Very unexpectedly the president called on me to answer a question that was unrelated to the topic at hand. I’ve been to the White House and talked to President Trump before, President Biden, President Obama, several presidents, always been a good conversation, exchange of ideas. This was different, very different, and when he said, ‘I am the law,’ basically, ‘we are the law,’ my jaw dropped, and...

Some food for thought about Pres Trump's speech, customer service, and planning for contingencies. 1. Last night during his speech Pres Trump pointed out that so far $6.1M had been raised for the three affected families. He also pulled out a physical check (not a personal check) for $1M. He said softly "thanks Dan." I *do* wonder if the Dan of that donation is Dan Bongino. Dan's there at the RNC; he's a personal friend-acquaintance of Mr. Trump with access; and this is the kind of thing Dan can now do due to his success. 2. For years I have...

Make Orwell Fiction Again. The Washington state Department of Health recently released a five-part curriculum, and it transcends the typical bounds of the woke agenda so characteristic of the political regressives driving public "education" into the ground. Frank Bergman's headline caught my eye, because the locations of the quotations were quite surreal: "Public School 'Climate' Curriculum: 'Emotions' Should Outweigh 'Rational Thinking.'" From the article: The health department claims the new curriculum aims to help students learn the 'intersections of biological, societal, and environmental issues.' ... In the second phase of the curriculum, 'Climate Change & Pregnancy.' educators and students are...

President Joe Biden suggested on Tuesday it is “not rational” to return economic migrants to their homes in the autocratic states of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. “Fewer immigrants [are] coming from Central America and from Mexico,” Biden told reporters when he was asked about the huge migration on Friday. He added: This is a totally different circumstance [from prior years]. What’s on my watch now is Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. And the ability to send them [the migrants] back to those states is not rational. However, Biden’s migration is unfairly pressuring down Americans’ wages. It is also boosting rents and...

Accountability is an ethical issue. But it’s also a psychological one. When you go through life never being held accountable, it impairs you psychologically. You might have otherwise been a decent, rational person. But when everyone walks around on eggshells about your feelings — never questioning or challenging you in any way — then it creates an unrealistic bubble around your mind and life. Some people are more emotional than others. Some are more sensitive than others. We don’t really know why, but that’s how it is. Being more sensitive is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, deeper and...

Former first lady Michelle Obama said Saturday that she isn't interested in running for office, cautioning that "it doesn't matter who runs" for the presidency until the U.S. becomes unified. The remark came in an interview with actress Tracee Ellis Ross at the United State of Women Summit in Los Angeles when Obama appeared to respond to an audience member urging her to seek office. "Well, that's a whole other story because, that's not the answer either. And when I hear people say, 'you run,' it's part of the problem. We still didn't get 'yes we can' right," she said,...

At the heart of the concerns surrounding the deal with Iran is a simple question: Is Iran rational? For many critics, the answer is self-evident. The Iranians are “apocalyptic,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often said, warning that you can’t “bet on their rationality.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has declared, “I think they’re crazy.” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon restated his opinion recently that the Iranian government is a “messianic and apocalyptic regime.” And yet, these same critics’ preferred policy is one that relies on Iran’s rationality. The alternative to the deal forged by Iran and the six great...

  Many of us never thought that the Republicans would hold tough long enough to get President Obama and the Democrats to agree to a budget deal that does not include raising income tax rates. But they did — and Speaker of the House John Boehner no doubt desires much of the credit for that.Despite the widespread notion that raising tax rates automatically means collecting more revenue for the government, history says otherwise. As far back as the 1920s, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon pointed out that the government received a very similar amount of revenue from high-income...

i'm anti-kyoto, and anti- al gore, but the best way conservatives can persuade people to this, is to make better arguments. conservatives need to do a better job arguing against global warming. they usually make 3 arguments which do not prove their point. 1. it is cold or snowing in one region of the world that is normally hot. some areas get colder, but global warming is about the overall change. 2. co2 is a necessity for human life. yes, but that doesnt mean much. venus has a lot of co2 for that matter. 3. temperatures were far higher than...

In the first five parts of this series, and particularly in Part 5, I presented a new theory of history and the role of philosophical ideas in history. This article presents the theory behind that theory, discussing the deeper epistemological issues that are raised by the rest of the series. To begin, let me briefly summarize the essence of my theory. I have argued that the standard Objectivist theory—the view that a culture is changed by explicit philosophical ideas propagating downward from the ivory tower to the specialized sciences, to art, to the man on the street—is incomplete. This "top-down"...

Im a conservative...and still struggle with the idea of whether or not to be a Christian. I find more in common with Ayn Rand's view that "rational thinking" is man's only absolute. Is there anything wrong with this thinking?

Last weekend's interesting Upfront cover story by Larry Derfner ("Spirited away") focused on Rabbi Ya'acov Israel "The X-Ray" Ifergan. The piece about folk religion, North African-origin miracle workers, and assorted charlatans was also the occasion for a Post editorial exhortation concluding with an expression of hope that "the 'rationalists' will be wise enough to remain aware of the limitations of their own intellect and respectful of other people's desires." I, for one, found that an extremely strange formulation, as condescending an expression of cultural relativism as I've read in many a year; and as removed from the worrisome day-to-day reality...

Meet Joe Dirt Stuart K. Hayashi In 2001, comedian David Spade came out with a movie titled "The Adventures of Joe Dirt." It now appears that the film was about Joe Conason, the author of "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" and an editorialist for the liberal-biased Salon.com. In the person of Brad Pitt, you've already Met Joe Black. Now Meet the Real Joe Dirt. His book purports to expose how right-wingers harness the corporate media to brainwash society. Instead of demonstrating such, however, Joe is too busy flinging his Dirt around. In two...

<p>A chart published by the Legislature's budget office graphically illustrates the roots of California's budget crisis.</p> <p>The chart shows the growth of state general fund revenues, mostly from taxes on personal and corporate income and retail sales, over the past two decades. In the 1982-83 fiscal year, the state took in $20.7 billion. By 2001-02, the total was $67.2 billion.</p>