Free Republic

Apathy U by: Emily Mullin, November 27, 2007 “Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” The quote was said by one of our most famous founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. And although it was spoken over 200 years ago, the message is still applicable today. The world has changed slightly since the time of Thomas Jefferson, and so has the youth of America. Young people now live in a sort of bubble, a controlled environment called college. We permeate our brains with information five days a week and our livers with...

“The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon . . . has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right. James Madison (Virginia Resolutions, 24 December 1798) And as the power weilded by government increases, why is the accountibility decreasing, along with the politicians’ respect for the original design? ”All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nore feel those of the future; and hence, we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.”Benjamin Franklin “The Constitution...

John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, appointed by George Washington, wrote to Jedidiah Morse Feb. 28, 1797 (the same year the Treaty of Tripoli was ratified), "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John Adams, America's second President and the same one who signed and sent the Treaty of Tripoli to the Senate, just one year later delivered these words in a military address Oct. 11, 1798, "Our...

Need to know who said "Democracy is doomed to failure when the 51% of the population figures out they can take everything from the other 49%"? Or something like that. thank you

James Hansen has released a new scientific paper The Real Deal: Usufruct & the Gorillareflecting the most rigorous kind of scientific "thinking" that this director of a NASA institute is capable or willing to perform. He explains that all global warming skeptics are controlled by big fish and that no errors in his work can ever matter. I suppose that everyone has already seen these "theories" and everyone could be bored if we responded again. But there is a brand new "argument" in Hansen's new "paper", after all: it turns out that Thomas Jefferson was an AGW alarmist! Who could...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a filly can't be named "Sally Hemings" after Thomas Jefferson's most famous slave and reputed lover. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that the Jockey Club can legally bar horse owner Garrett Redmond from naming his 4-year-old horse after Hemings. Judge Alice Batchelder, writing for the three-judge panel, said Redmond has other options that may be approved by the Jockey Club, which forbids horse owners from using names of famous or notorious people without special permission. The club's rules also say that "names considered in poor taste;...

Stephen Mansfield explains how the "Everson" decison got it wrong and mis-represents the intent of the Founding Fathers, even of Thomas Jefferson himself.

Thomas Jefferson would roll over in his grave knowing Ho Chi Minh used his immortal words from the Declaration of Independence of the United States — "All men are created equal; they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" — as the opening for the Vietnamese communist's Declaration of Independence. This is the same Vietnamese communist regime responsible for the murder of more than 1 million Vietnamese. Although Jefferson's immortal words may be in Vietnam's Declaration of Independence, there they are but hollow words. Vietnam tolerates no challenges...

When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821 Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain, quoted in A.B. Paine's Mark Twain: A Biography (Harper, 1912, Vol. 2, page 724). The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop. --...

PBS Explores Separation of Church and State in New Documentary Posted by Noel Sheppard on June 18, 2007 - 10:56. This may come as a surprise to many religious Americans in the country: PBS this month is broadcasting a documentary presenting both sides of the controversial issue of the “separation of church and state.”As many of you know, this has been an ongoing debate for decades as to when this term first appeared, and what the Founding Fathers’ intent truly was concerning government involvement in organized religion.The documentary’s goals are described thusly at the PBS website (emphasis added throughout): America...

Up on the surface, the signs of the trouble at the Jefferson Memorial are small: A few blacktop patches over uneven seams in some concrete. A cordoned-off section where the sea wall has slipped below the front plaza. The "tilt meter" boxes that visitors can't see unless they know where to look. Underground, though, the problems may be huge: Slowly, almost imperceptibly, parts of the complex seem to be sinking into the mud. It's probably not endangering the majestic 32,000-ton domed structure itself, although it's being monitored for movement. The big problem seems to be a section of the sea...

Jefferson hated "Hate Crime" legislation By William J. Federer WorldNetDaily.com, May 2, 2007 "The legislative powers of government reach to actions only, not to opinions." – Thomas Jefferson, "Separation of church and state" letter, Jan. 1, 1802 "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." – Thomas Jefferson, to Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800 Inasmuch as no one, except perhaps Islamic terrorists, advocates injuring innocent people, the question has to be raised: "Is 'hate crime' legislation about preventing crime, or is it designed to promote the homosexual agenda...

Almost 20 years ago, on June 12, 1987, then-President Ronald Reagan spoke to the people of West Berlin, near the Berlin Wall. From there his now-famous words were amplified even to those in Communist East Berlin: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Various walls have been erected and razed throughout history – some permeable and others impermeable, some ideological and others material. A few of the literal ones are even now under construction – that which separates the West Bank and Israel, Baghdad's Sunni and Shiite districts, and the Mexico-U.S. border. (Column continues below) Then there are those walls created...

Was Thomas Jefferson the first Jewish president? Researchers studying Jefferson’s Y chromosome have found it belongs to a lineage that is rare in Europe but common in the Middle East, raising the possibility that the third president of the United States had a Jewish ancestor many generations ago. No biological samples of Jefferson remain, but his Y chromosome, the genetic element that determines maleness, is assumed to be the same as that carried by living descendants of Field Jefferson, his paternal uncle. These relatives donated cells for an inquiry into whether Jefferson had fathered a hidden family with his slave...

DNA clue to presidential puzzle By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News DNA results from Thomas Jefferson were a mystery DNA tests carried out on two British men have shed light on a mystery surrounding the ancestry of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. In the 1990s, DNA was taken from male relatives of Jefferson to see if he fathered a son with one of his slaves. They found the president had a rare genetic signature found mainly in the Middle East and Africa, calling into question his claim of Welsh ancestry. But this DNA type has now been found in...

The title about says it all, but not quite. There seems to be about 10 trillion books about Jefferson out there, most of which are pretty fawning, IMHO. What I am looking for is a book that explores Jefferson in his later, post-Dec. of Indep. years, i.e. as govenor of VA, his administration as POTUS, etc.* Thanks in advance. (*If it's of any importance I have Forrest McDonald's book The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, a book I can't recommend highly enough.)

WILLIAMSBURG -- College of William and Mary officials removed a 2-foot-high gold cross from the altar of the Sir Christopher Wren Building chapel this week, in an effort to modify the historic chapel into a nondenominational space. The cross is now kept in a nearby storage closet, near communion wine bottles and other religious articles.

"The duty of an upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of these family dissentions, and to cherish the good principles of both parties." -- Thomas Jefferson (letter to George Logan, 1805) Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 11:71

Daniel L. DreisbachProfessor of Justice, Law and Society, American University Professor of Justice, Law and Society is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C., as well as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He received his D.Phil. from Oxford University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. He is author or editor of numerous books, including Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State; The Founders on God and Government; Religion and Political Culture in JeffersonÂ’s...

This natural life being ... the immediate donation of the great creator, cannot legally be disposed of or destroyed by any individual, neither by the person himself nor by any other of his fellow creatures, merely upon their own authority.– Sir William Blackstone, "Commentaries on the Laws of England," Vol. I, p. 129 (1765) Recent investigations at abortion clinics in several states have shown that such businesses are not just a danger to unborn children, but also to the immediate health and welfare of the mothers that enter their doors. In the past two months, Alabama's health department has shut...