Free Republic

The Thinker statue at UofL was found vandalized with pro-Trump writing the morning after the presidential election.

Speaking at a news conference in Qatar, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte compared himself to U.S. President Donald Trump as a leader criticized for bold speech, but he praised Trump as “a realist and a pragmatic thinker.” “Trump is profound even if he does not seem to be one. Just like me, I am not that bright but I am very deliberate. I really think it over before I curse at you,” Duterte said. “Have you seen his building? How can he be stupid?” he exclaimed, referring to Trump Tower in New York City. Duterte went on to claim that Trump...

I voted Republican in the last presidential election. Below are the top ten reasons I am no longer a leftist. This is not a rigorous comparison of theories. This list is idiosyncratic, impressionistic, and intuitive. It’s an accounting of the milestones on my herky-jerky journey.~~snip~~ The left’s selective outrage convinced me that much canonical, left-wing feminism is not so much support for women, as it is a protest against Western, heterosexual men. It’s an “I hate” phenomenon, rather than an “I love” phenomenon. ~~snip~~ Smearing us is not enough. Liberal policies sabotage us. Affirmative action benefits recipients by color, not...

"A week from Tuesday, when the Supreme Court returns from its midwinter break and hears arguments in two criminal cases, it will have been five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument." "If he is true to form, Justice Thomas will spend the arguments as he always does: leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, rubbing his eyes, whispering to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, consulting papers and looking a little irritated and a little bored. He will ask no questions." "In the past 40 years, no other justice has gone an entire term, much...

Return to the Article October 13, 2008What an Obama Administration Might Look LikeBy William Tate With the media having all but declared Barack Obama the winner in the presidential election, it could be time to consider what an Obama administration might look like. The Vice-President, of course, would be Joe "I'm not the guy" Biden, but here are some suggestions for other positions. Secretary of State: Barack Obama. Since Obama has already committed to meeting directly with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the rest of the world's worst despots without pre-conditions, he has for all practical purposes named himself Secretary of State....

Batman is making a killing at the box office because he has it. Rush Limbaugh has it. Reagan had it. McCain has more of it than Obama, and that is why Obama will lose. Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator has a terrific piece showing how Americans pick their presidents. The winners have a more robust "Reptilian Brain" than the losers. Winning non-presidential types have it too. Batman is the cinematic (and comic book) personification of the way Americans like to see themselves. He is a rebel against the Establishment (and likewise with the Star Wars crew and Spiderman.) He...

Who is Alveda King? She is the niece of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the acknowledged leader of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. She has no other claim to fame, and seeks none, but she has taken her uncle’s principles to heart to move in a new direction. Political debate in this or any other free country is governed to a considerable extent by a combination of principle and personality. That is, citizens form parties or other groups and support candidates and causes on the basis of some application of the republican principles...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden may be the leading symbol of global Islamist militancy but the al Qaeda leader wields less influence over Islamist ideology than more obscure religious thinkers, according to a new study issued on Wednesday. The study also found that Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's second-in-command, appears to be insignificant among Islamist intellectuals despite his image as a driving force behind the al Qaeda network. The Militant Ideology Atlas, compiled by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, instead showed Palestinian cleric Mohammed al-Maqdisi as the most influential living Islamist thinker. Maqdisi, reportedly a mentor to the...

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WASHINGTON - Thousands of pages of newly released documents from John Roberts' first government job show a highly intelligent, politically savvy young man, wrestling with charged legal and political issues on behalf of the deeply conservative Reagan administration. As a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith in 1981 and 1982, Roberts advocated positions and drafted memos on issues from judicial restraint to voting rights to affirmative action, which were as controversial then as they are now that Roberts is no longer a twenty-something aide but a nominee for a seat on the Supreme Court. Roberts generally took strongly...

The London bombings have shocked the world and once again raised the question 'Why?'. But people who hurry to blame fundamentalists and poverty are missing the point: Islam itself. Today there is a lot of talk about the root causes of Islamic terrorism and how to deal with them. So what are these root causes then? UK-US foreign policy? The West’s lust for oil? Illiteracy and poverty in the Muslim world? The hijacking of Islam by a few extremists? These, amongst others, are the reasons most left-wing intellectuals and self-declared liberal Muslim thinkers, from British journalist Robert Fisk to Pakistani...

Until modern times, there existed no form of legitimacy in the Middle East outside of Islam. Rulers ruled in the name of God; assassins struck them down in the name of God. The assassinations of the early caliphs and the struggle between the Sunni rulers and the Assassins in the Middle Ages took precisely this form: each side claimed to act in accord with divine will, revealed in divine texts. Religion played a crucial role in the rationale of assassination, but it also played a crucial role in the rationale of government, law, and warfare—indeed, of everything. This invocation of...