Free Republic

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” the Book of Proverbs says. To certain right-wing Christians, the concept is simple: A child can be broken, or stamped into shape, much like any domesticated animal. Though all parents hope they’ll pass their values onto their children, for some that hope is more of a mandate. My own parents believe that Proverbs is the word of God, and they believed, too, that a righteous upbringing would produce an adult in their image. Who can blame them? The idea...

To empower parents, Florida Republicans would put children in danger. If passed, their Parental Rights in Education legislation, known more commonly as the “don’t say gay” bills, would prevent public-school districts from “encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity,” CBS News reports. A proposed amendment would have required educators to report a child’s disclosure about their gender identity or sexual orientation to parents within six weeks.

When the Founders designed the basic architecture of the American system, they bore in mind among other antecedents the Roman republic. Their heirs are fascinated by a rather different model of social organization: the junior-high cafeteria. “Nobody should be friends with George W. Bush,” reads the headline over Sarah Jones’s essay in New York magazine, that purported bastion of urbanity. The article addresses the scandalization of American progressives by the private life of talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, whose circle of friends is wide enough to encompass many people with whom she disagrees politically, including the former president. There is much...

When CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Bernie Sanders on Sunday if he wants to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the senator was uncharacteristically vague. “I think that what we need is to create policies which deal with immigration in a rational way. And a rational way is not locking children up in detention centers or separating them from their mothers,” he said. “What we need is Trump to sit down with members of Congress and work on a rational program which deals with this serious issue.” Sanders wasn’t the only potential 2020 presidential candidate on Sunday to refuse to...

One of the interesting things that came out of last night’s blood bath was that even with Republicans winning, CBS Evening News’ exit poll showed that a by a large margin, the same voters that gave the GOP this win think Clinton will be a good president, whereas they were not so impressed with any of the Republican front runners.

On Hannity, Sarah Palin claimed to have a list of 25 impeachable offenses, and that Democrats also want to impeach President Obama. After six years of attacking President Obama in hopes of being noticed, Ms. Palin is rather disgruntled. So like all relentlessly rejected stalkers, she’s upped the ante in a desperate bid for attention. Now she wants him impeached. That will teach mean old Mr. President to ignore Sarah Palin from Alaska Arizona. On Hannity, Palin claimed that Obama is a lawless and imperial president. She said it was time for a little less talk and a lot more...

Sarah Palin was in rare form tonight at CPAC. The crowd loved her, more than any other speaker. She said if she doesn’t run for President, she loves Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Though she gave a rousing rendition of a rage-filled Green Eggs and Ham riff, proving that she is still the Queen of mean girl spite, Palin predictably tripped over reality when she was instructing President Obama on foreign policy. “Mr. President,” she spat, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.” Translation: Nuke Russia now or else...

In 2008, the Anchorage Daily News ran this deck bellow the headline: “NO MORE GUNS: Alaska State Defense Force stripped of many powers.” Irony knows no bounds when it comes to the Tea Party. In 2008, Tea Party Queen and Shoot ‘Em Up and Hang ‘Em Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) disarmed brigade members of the Alaska State Defense Force (think volunteer militia) at the recommendation of the state military officials, based on a report by an investigator with the Washington National Guard. (I)n a major decision proving unpopular with at least some of the force’s roughly 280 members, the...