Free Republic

On Thursday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein said that he agrees with President Joe Biden’s vow to not change his policies and Biden “is on extremely solid ground” and “there’s going to come in some evidence from the election that people understood that.” Bernstein stated, “I’m exactly where he is. I mean, again, if you look at the actions that we’ve taken to help ease inflationary pressures, I think there’s evidence that they are yielding results. We talked a little bit about energy, we’ve got more work to do there,...

During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that she “was wrong” about inflation and that while “unanticipated and large shocks to the economy” are a part of the reason, she also “didn’t fully understand” supply bottlenecks that have hurt the economy. Yellen reacted to clips of her downplaying the inflation threat in 2021 by stating, “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices, and supply bottlenecks...

(excerpt) All Obama cares about is that every day the general direction of the country is toward where he wants to go. The day-to-day minutia and the problems and the apparent failures of what he's trying to do, irrelevant. Because the chaos and the dismantling is the success. And when you're gonna start dismantling something as big as the health care system, of course it's gonna be a mess. These guys don't know what they're doing. They don't really have an alternative and they don't care right now. All they care about is that it gets so bad that there...

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Many Americans feel insecure. They are worried. Their financial condition is not good. They know they are dependent upon their employers, and they also know that losing their jobs could lead to disaster. An insecure nation is not going to re-elect its leadership. Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well, with all due respect to FDR, that's no longer the case. Americans have a legitimate fear that government is simply out of control, spending the nation into bankruptcy and failing to fix economic problems. That fear is real, and it's a present danger....

The people who are cheerleading immediate democracy in Egypt don’t recall the lesson learned in Gaza, Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) warned MSNBC this morning. Feinstein warned of “fundamentalist Islamic sects” taking control of Egypt in the present chaos and told Andrea Mitchell that “we don’t understand the ebb and flow” of politics in the Middle East, and that simply demanding elections in an environment as unstable as Egypt’s at the present could lead to some very undemocratic long-term outcomes (from The Blaze):

Please share your thoughts with me after reading the following: Background: Private co-ed Christian school. 65 students in this grade level. Student elections for Student Council. Positions on the Council: Two Officers & unknown number available for specific events. 11 students running - all girls. All students required to make one poster and give one short speech to the 8th grade class. FFw to speech & election day. All students presented their speeches. Prior to students returning to their respective classrooms to cast their votes, the students were told that the ballots would have all 11 girls' names listed. Each...

This has got to be McCain's new slogan . . .

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2006 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today expressed confidence that the American people will unite to defeat the terrorist threat once they see it for what it is. At a Pentagon news conference, Marine Gen. Peter Pace said he is not “discouraged or disappointed” with the situation in Iraq and that the United States faces a long fight against an enemy that wants to destroy the American way of life. The terrorist enemy has a 100-year plan, the chairman noted. “They've told us they want to go and establish a caliphate from Spain...

Sonny Bono, in the fight over Proposition 187 (the 1994 initiative that would have rescinded welfare benefits for illegal aliens) had the best line about the debate over illegal immigration. Many charges were tossed back and forth about the initiative and the motivation of its sponsors. The response of the future Congressman to those charges was always: “What is it about illegal that they don’t understand?” Exactly! Like many others, I watched television as the protestors waved their Mexican flags, then changed those flags to American flags, then yelled “Si Se Puede,” then yelled “Yes, We Can,” then demanded the...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2006 – The American people must remind themselves every day that the United States is at war, a top Army general said today. Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute here, said that 21st century warfare is more about "will and perception, than taking territory or enemies killed." The will of the American people and people around the world to confront the terrorists and defeat them is the center of gravity in what Pentagon officials are calling "the long war," Odierno, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. The...

Humans Do Not Understand Mirror Reflections, Say Researchers General Science : December 21, 2005 Newsletter Psychologists at the University of Liverpool have found that people still find it difficult to understand how mirrors work. Dr Marco Bertamini, from the University’s School of Psychology, conducted a number of experiments by covering a mirror on a wall and inviting participants to walk along a line parallel to the mirror. He asked them to guess the point at which they would be able to see their reflection. Results showed that people believe they can see themselves even before they are level with the...

Some of the most heartening tales coming out of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are the tales of Americans standing up and taking responsibility for their own safety and survival rather than whining about “the government” not taking care of them. The Washington Post reports that in Popps Ferry Landing, a neighborhood near Biloxi, Mississippi, the local neighborhood watch is keeping an armed night watch to prevent looters from invading the neighborhood. Following the looting of the local Dollar Store, neighbors who very rarely spoke to each other, got together to protect their own. They’re not going out hunting down...

A new wave of progressive thought has begun to emerge in the Arab press, with a number of recent publications denouncing traditional Muslim views and anti-American ideology. According to quotes translated by the Middle Eastern Media Research Institute, an editorial in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah recently declared, "Arab regimes must understand that the U.S. administration supports the freedom and rights of the Arabs." Editor-in-chief Ahmad Al-Jarallah blasted a Middle Eastern mindset that has "always led us to conflicts with the outside world invariably ending in defeat for us." After offering a fairly balanced picture of U.S. involvement in Iraq, Al-Jarallah...

Never one to mess up a good story by sticking with the facts, the liberal media in Washington refuse to tell us much about the inner-workings of the Senate. Oh sure, they are quick to carp about anything they think may be a misstep by a Republican member. But that is about as deep as their news reports usually go. No one ever reports that few senators fully understand, or even read, any of the bills before voting. Nor are we often informed that an inordinate amount of each senator's time is spent seeing lobbyists and other campaign contributors, rather...

When is it “OK” for an innocent bystander to be brutalized at the whim of a common thug? Amid the collection of worldviews we endeavor to rationalize in our pluralistic cultural, brutalizing ones neighbor and stranger alike is still repugnant to most. Who among us, whether atheist, Christian, or secular humanist will praise and commend the actions of a judge who in the name of love and understanding does not penalize the lawbreaking thief, rapist, and murderer. Why is it so difficult for the average person to apply this simple example of reality to God? If the Creator God...

Revealed: why you can't understand what an opera soprano is singing By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 08/01/2004) Physicists have discovered the reason why even operas sung in English are hard to follow. A study has found that in order for sopranos to be heard above the sound of a large symphony orchestra, they tune into resonances in their vocal tract to amplify the sound at the high end of their range. Although this enables them to make a sound that can fill the Albert Hall, it sacrifices intelligibility because the vowels sung by sopranos in full voice all sound...

I recently posted an article, How much longer will Saddam last? Want to bet on it? 03/28/2003 9:24 PM PST, and I was soon flamed by a malcontent for posting something that the flamer considered immoral. I have been attacked all my life by sub-literate Liberals, and I thought this was similar. After a few remarks, I let it go, considering the source and considering that it warranted no more attention. After thinking about it, I realized that it was not about ME; it was an attack on Free Republic principles, by a tyrant. The reason I say that it...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House's lead salesman to Congress for the president's economic plan played down opposition from Senate Republicans, saying Sunday that the proposal is not fully understood.</p> <p>The $674 billion plan would abolish federal taxes on stock dividends, speed up promised income tax cuts and send rebate checks to 34 million low- and middle-income parents. The 10-year package, all but $4 billion of it for cutting taxes, goes to Congress amid rising government deficits and as Democrats gear up to challenge President Bush's re-election bid.</p>