Free Republic

It's remarkable that he went there. I don't mean that it's remarkable that Barack Obama went to Berlin to make a speech (although it's odd, which is something like remarkable); I mean that it's remarkable that in that much-anticipated speech he chose to criticize the United States. There was no need. He could have given a nice speech and talked about so many things, without having to go there -- that is, to criticize his own country in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands of foreign citizens. Did he think he needed to earn their votes? I honestly...

Economic newscaster Larry Kudlow refers to the last twenty-five years of economic prosperity as the “greatest story never told.” He’s dead-on right on this one. America, and the entire world for that matter, have witnessed in the previous 25 years the greatest period of prosperity in human history. The result of this has been that more wealth and upgraded quality of life has been created during this period than at any time in recorded history. Where has this story been on the nightly news or on the editorial pages of our newspapers? A major reason for this tremendous prosperity over...

A stray cat had kittens in our yard. My wife attempted to barricade the kittens in a contained area to protect them from predators. Short of caging them, this proved impossible. The rambunctious kittens escaped my wife's protection to explore, wrestle and play. With every fall, their climbing skills improved. Mama cat taught “gecko catching 101”. Soon the kittens were supplementing their breast milk with gecko snacks. Had my wife been successful in her intrusive attempts to protect them, the kittens' growth would have been stunted leaving them ill equipped to survive. The kittens scenario illustrates the superiority and compassion...

A note from Radarsite: Why do so many Jews vote Democratic? Recently, in response to Gary Fouse's explosive reports on antisemitism at UC Irvine, and some other related articles, this question came up. And it is a good one. Why are so many American Jews so avowedly left-wing, even at the expense of supporting Israel? How can this be? How can American Jews align themselves with the pro-Arab, anti-Israel, Muslim-appeasing left? How could American Jews be so heavily involved in anti-American organizations like the outrageous ACLU? How did this happen? While I certainly do not pretend to have any...

Of all the themes that recur in this column, one fills my inbox with angry e-mails like no other. It is the notion that you can and should take control of your own life and your economic destiny. It’s my deeply held conviction that if you learn how to do the right things and make good decisions, you will never need to participate in any “recession.” People hate this. Every time I say it, I get barraged with indignant feedback from people who tell me I don’t understand how tough it is. This was never more true than after my...

Psalm 108:1 O Lord, my Heart is Ready to Praise You. I will Sing and Rejoice Before You!

"A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections."

I don’t care whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent; all I know is that you are an American in heart and mind, even though, you may be like me, born of mixed heritage from immigrant families who escaped foreign shores to build lives here in this new land. You are still a product of this great melting pot of Americanism. Yes, my skin is olive and I am now an old geezer left over from WWII, where I served in the South Pacific, but sometimes age combined with many life experiences wakes us up, having given us some...

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. (Psalm 36:5-10)

A PRAYER FOR OUR NATION Published July 19th, 2008 Dear God, We supplicate ourselves before You in this time of strife and indecision and confusion in our land. We pray You see fit to save our nation which has achieved so very much and which has struggled so very hard and which has endeavored to share our God-given bounty with the world. We have not been perfect in all we have done and tried to do but we have done our very best. We are now beset by forces antithetical to Your commands and we are in mortal danger of...

Site pulls slogan after controversy Committeeman linked Obama to O.J. Simpson By David Maccar; Editor A Pemberton GOP committeeman came under heavy scrutiny last week after it was discovered he posted a slogan linking presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama to O.J. Simpson on what was called "The Official Website of the Pemberton Township Republicans."The slogan, "Obama Loves America like O.J. Loved Nicole," referring to retired NFL star and his late ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, was denounced by many as racist. Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murder of Brown and her boyfriend Ronald Goldman in 1994, but was...

This now available from the U.S. State Department: "2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar: Limited Edition for Ramadan." "Yep, you read that correctly. It's 'perfect for Muslim outreach efforts," according to a commentary at the Gates of Vienna blog. "Where's the ACLU on this one?" Screen capture of State Department's offering of "Mosques of America" calendar The product was being advertised by "Global Publishing Solutions," a division of the U.S. State Department, until bloggers started talking about it. Officials then apparently hid the page behind the security of a password-protected wall. However, the page is still viewable in a Google...

This now available from the U.S. State Department: "2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar: Limited Edition for Ramadan." "Yep, you read that correctly. It's 'perfect for Muslim outreach efforts," according to a commentary at the Gates of Vienna blog. "Where's the ACLU on this one?" The product was being advertised by "Global Publishing Solutions," a division of the U.S. State Department, until bloggers started talking about the product. Officials then apparently hid the page behind the security of a password-protected wall. However, a number of sources said the "offering" still was available in a Google cache of the website. According...

You see, the problem with holding a particular ideology is that, unless you’re a total recluse, someone in your inner circle will eventually reveal your intentions (albeit, unintentionally). There has been a lot of scrambling behind the scenes then in public to try and cover up the mess Michelle Obama made when she declared, “for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback." She made this statement in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Later the same day in Madison Wisconsin, she said, “For the first time in my...

...I then added that Pomerania had been historically disputed in all sort of wars, but that now, as the rest of Europe, was finally at peace. Instinctively realizing that this latter observation was the perfect leader of a thread for a nice political conversation, I quickly added that such current status of peace in Europe, and, relatively, in most of the world, was the result of America having become the most powerful nation on Earth ever. Bedazzled by my assertion, more in sheer disbelief than in amazement, he bluntly asked me why it was so. I rapidly quipped that wise...

Summer 2008 Falling Upwards: Declinism, The Box Set Robert J. Lieber Is America finished? Respected public intellectuals, think tank theorists, and members of the media elite seem to think so. The scare headline in a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Parag Khanna titled “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony” asks, “Who Shrunk the Superpower?” Almost daily, learned authors proclaim The End of the American Era, as the title of a 2002 book by Charles Kupchan put it, and instruct us that the rise of China and India, the reawakening of Putin’s Russia, and the expansion of the European Union...

Psalm 90:17 Let the Beauty of the Lord our God be Upon us, And Direct Thou the Work of our Hands Upon us, Even Direct the Work of our Hands.

O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come. When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions. Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and...

In a thread on a UK site, Katherine of London wrote: "Do any of you actually know what Marxism and socialism are? Americans seem to throw these terms around..." - - - It's all about sovereignty, ma'am. The assumption in old Europe was that God granted sovereignty as the divine right of kings (cf. Filmer: Patriarcha, 1680). The assumption among statists is that sovereignty inheres in the state (cf. Hobbes and Hegel). The axiom of the Declaration of Independence is that sovereignty is an endowment to the individual from his Creator. It is then Men who institute government for the...

The United States appears to be on a downward spiral from which there is no apparent escape. Our very way of life is being severely threatened in the interest of fairness, multiculturalism and liberalism in general. Tradition, culture and national identification mean nothing anymore because so-called progressives -- the new term for liberals -- are bent on molding this country into an unidentifiable glob of feel-good socialism. One need only look at recent events in order to verify my concern. The country is flooded with illegal aliens who have no fear of apprehension or deportation and in fact are aided...

For Americans the Fourth of July marks national independence, but the holiday has become symbolic of a more universal cause: human liberty. The development of human freedom, in theory and in practice, is in large measure the story of Christianity. How we understand the past influences how we live in the present, which is why debates about history can be so rancorous. Whether Christianity is a vehicle of oppression or a force for liberation is a question whose answer has remained contentious for two millennia. For many, Christianity is oppressive. For them, the Christian religion is associated with the Crusades,...

"Malicious ATM intrusions, such as the late-winter breach that resulted in the compromise of Citibank debit card data, are not at all surprising given the vulnerable state of many of the servers and other components involved in processing such transactions, according to some industry representatives. In fact, such incidents happen more often than generally perceived, though very few of them get the same kind of public attention that the Citibank breach attracted..."

"Polling stations using electronic voting systems suffered more voting discrepancies than polling stations using traditional paper votes ..."

Barack Obama is EMBARRASSED of America because..

Once upon a time, patriotism was a fairly simple thing. It was tribal identification writ large, an emotional attachment to a people and their land. In most of the world, where patriotism exists at all it's still like this -- tribal patriotism, blood-and-soil emotionalism. A different kind of patriotism emerged from the American and French revolutions. While American patriotism sometimes taps into tribal emotion, it is not fundamentally of that kind. Far more American is the sentiment Benjamin Franklin expressed: "Where liberty dwells, there is my country" Thus, most Americans love their country in a more conditional way -- not...

It is the Republic’s soul that is in danger. The anti-God citizens of this nation are intent on making it their secular realm. If it comes to that, God will judge the country with a heavy hand. The righteous are those who are in league with the God of Scriptures. He watches. He weighs us in the balance. He declares mercy or curse upon America. It is not enough to sing, “God Bless America.” America must live out the law of life in order to be accepted by God. The law of life begins with rescuing little boys and girls...

Last week in Denver, almost all the values of the post-1960s Left were exhibited in one act. It happened on the Denver mayor's most important day -- the one in which he was to deliver his annual State of the City Address. The day was to begin with the singing of the National Anthem by the black jazz singer Rene Marie. But Ms. Marie had, by her own admission, long had other plans. Instead of the National Anthem, she sang "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," a song written in 1899 and often referred to today as the Black National Anthem....

To ascribe a special grace to America is outrageous, as outrageous as the idea of special grace itself. Why shouldn't everyone be saved? Why aren't all individuals, nations, peoples and cultures equally deserving? History seems awfully unfair: half or more of the world's 7,000 or so languages will be lost by 2100, linguists warn, and at present fertility rates Italian, German, Ukrainian, Hungarian and a dozen other major languages will die a century or so later. The agony of dying nations rises in reproach to America's unheeding prosperity. An old joke divides the world into two kinds of people: those...

"If you can't beat 'em, subvert 'em with subterfuge."--RE Bierce With fatal terrorist attacks on the decline worldwide and al Qaeda apparently in disarray, it would seem a time for optimism in the global war on terrorism. But the war has simply shifted to a different arena. Islamists, or those who believe that Islam is a political and religious system that must dominate all others, are focusing less on the military and more on the ideological. --Cinnamon Stillwell, San Francisco Chronicle If you're an Islamist, it's time for Plan B. Islamists aren't dummies: even as al-Qaida is destroyed on the...

Psalm 84:12 O Lord of Hosts, Blessed is the Man that Trusteth in Thee

The flame of which America is the white-hot heart is the living fire of the West. But who knew I would find one of the most moving descriptions of what the United States represents in one of my youngest son’s books? Rick Riordan has created Percy Jackson, son of a human woman and Poseidon, the (Greek) God of the Sea. In The Lightning Thief, Percy discovers what it means to be a half-blood; that the gods truly are immortal—and they are living in America: Explains Charon the Centaur: “Come now, Percy. What you call ‘Western civilization.’ Do you think it’s...

DETROIT, July 5 (UPI) -- Muslims in the Detroit area are upset that neither of the presumptive major party presidential nominees has made an effort to reach out to them. The area has one of the largest and most visible Muslim communities in the United States. In recent campaigns, candidates have addressed meetings or met with local religious leaders, The Detroit News reports. "Any candidate should address the issues of American society, not a particular religion," said Dr. Abdul Raheman Nakadar, a retired cardiologist who publishes The Muslim Observer. "But when you ask a certain group for support, then you...

America the beautiful, or so you used to be. Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see. babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand, Oh, sweet land of liberty; your house is on the sand. Our children wander aimlessly poisoned by cocaine choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray We've kept God in our temples,how callous we have grown. When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne. We've voted in a...

Last month, workmen jacked up a 206-year-old yellow clapboard house, levered it onto a set of remote-controlled dollies, and trundled it two blocks to a new site in St. Nicholas Park, overlooking East Harlem in New York City. The Grange, as it is called, was the home of Alexander Hamilton, best known as co-author of the Federalist papers and America's first secretary of the Treasury. But this founding father also had an extraordinary role in the infant nation's attempt to come to grips with the curse of slavery. Born in the West Indies, Hamilton was one of the most ardent...

How would the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin feel about the way the United States has turned out 232 years after declaring its independence? Most Americans say they're proud to be citizens, but most also think the Founding Fathers wouldn't be pleased. Not pleased, a majority of Americans recently polled said. According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, 69 percent of adult Americans who responded to a poll June 26-29 said the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the nation has turned out overall. Twenty-nine percent responded "pleased," the only other...

WATCHING AMERICA DIE At almost 86, the saddest time of my life, second only to loss of my Beloved Wife, I am forced to watch my America die at the hands of Executioners I shall name below. Before doing so, it is essential to remind ourselves of the Cornerstones of this Great Republic, A Nation Under God, Blessed By God through all adversities, until Puny Governmental Gnats decided to take God out of the Equation, and indeed to begin violating every principal laid down by the Founding Fathers, and from which Greatness was achieved. THE CORNERSTONES: * One Nation Under...

Sorry for the vanity. Did anyone other than me notice an almost complete lack of Patriotic programming on TV yesterday? Where were the John Wayne movies, etc? I do not remember a Forth or July that did not have the movie channels showing war movies all day. The subject of patriotism seemed taboo yesterday. GOD BLESS OUR AMERICA!!!!

http://msunderestimated.com/2008/07/05/an-unrepentant-proud-american/

America has become an empire. Everyone says so. This is a surprise to most Americans, since few imagined that they were building such a thing. But, as historians such as Walter Nugent and Robert Kagan have recently taught us, Americans have been at this imperialist expansionism for quite some time — really since the beginning of the republic. How else to explain that the United States has gone from a handful of agrarian colonies to a world-spanning colossus in the space of only a few centuries? As you read this, American military might is deployed across the planet. The U.S....

Read the Declaration today. Then read it to your kids. Talk to them about the sacrifice of time, treasure and life that our Founders made (and that many in their families made as well). Ask them if they would have signed, knowing that as they did so, they were signing their own death warrants. Then remind them that today, as we eat hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob and gasp at amazing pyrotechnical displays (probably from China), we have men and women—almost children themselves—fighting and dying to protect our liberty. Most of you who have discovered this site hold the same profound...

The Americans Who Risked Everything My father, Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr., delivered this oft-requested address locally a number of times, but it had never before appeared in print until it appeared in The Limbaugh Letter. My dad was renowned for his oratory skills and for his original mind; this speech is, I think, a superb demonstration of both. I will always be grateful to him for instilling in me a passion for the ideas and lives of America's Founders, as well as a deep appreciation for the inspirational power of words which you will see evidenced here: "Our Lives, Our...

Today is the 232nd Birthday of our nation. It is a good day to reflect on just how blessed we are to live in what is truly the greatest nation on earth - not only presently, but in all human history. I do not say that lightly. I know that here have been many great civilizations down through the centuries, and many empires that have come and gone. Some have achieved great wealth, and others extended their domain to vast reaches. But there has never been a nation that existed for the foundational purpose of freedom for it's citizens, and...

In 1776, some wise and brave men decided they had had enough, drew up a list of grievances and submitted it to the world, "We Are Independent".Were you there?Was I?Wellll ... no ... we weren't, so none of us can truly internalize the results of that decision and stand.We read the history of men, families and lives broken or ended .... but .... we weren't there.Our nation has a history of dramatic participation in it's birth, developement and preservation.We have contributed to the planet, in such a short time, many inovated developements that bettered and advanced the lives of every...

On this Fourth of July of our discontent — with spiraling fuel prices, a sluggish economy, a weak dollar, mounting foreign and domestic debt, continuing costs in Iraq, a falling stock market, and a mortgage crisis — we should remember two truths about America. First, the United States remains the most free and affluent country in the history of civilization. Second, almost all our problems are lapses of complacency, remain relatively easily correctable, and pale in comparison to past crises. By almost any barometer, the United States remains the most fortunate country in the world. We continue to be the...

It was just a mere 232 years ago that 56 men put their pen to parchment and signed the Declaration of Independence. With the possible exception of the American Constitution, drafted in 1787, the Declaration of Independence is our most important founding document. Its revolutionary words set the course for our revolutionary nation. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," the document declares, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted...

The Divinely Inspired Constitution Apostle Dallin H. Oaks, The Ensign, Feb 1992 Photograph by Eldon K. Linschoten Not long after I began to teach law, an older professor asked me a challenging question about Latter-day Saints’ belief in the United States Constitution. Earlier in his career he had taught at the University of Utah College of Law. There he met many Latter-day Saint law students. “They all seemed to believe that the Constitution was divinely inspired,” he said, “but none of them could ever tell me what this meant or how it affected their interpretation of the Constitution.” I...

Anything in these remarks that does not stray from the truth is indebted to the American Founders, who bequeathed these ideas to us, to Abraham Lincoln, who preserved and ennobled them in the country's greatest crisis, to Harry V. Jaffa, who has done more than anyone since Lincoln to recover them, and to the late Tom Silver, the wisest and best of those who founded the Claremont Institute for the sake of these ideas. American children are not born understanding the principles of their country, and most American college students—if reports can be believed—are still largely unfamiliar with them...

What else is there to do on Thursdays besides FReep and listen to TSN?! C'mon, eat, drink, breathe SAVAGE? Especially on 4th of July eve?!?!Savage’s websiteLOTS of links to listen to the Savage radio show here!!!

In honor of the I start this thread on Thursday, since most of us will have the day off to celebrate, tomorrow. Americans with a taste for vengeance this Fourth of July can take their aggressions out with a bang. The fuse on an Exploding Bin Laden Noggin burns brightly. The fountain, a spoof of al-Qaida leader and suspected terrorist Osama Bin Laden, is among this year’s most popular fireworks. "No. No. No. No. No," said Steve Nebel as he walked through the Bob’s Fireworks tent on Highway 763 last night combing the tables for a specific fountain. The object...

America’s cities and towns will soon fill with parades, fireworks, and barbecues in celebration of the Fourth of July, the 232nd birthday of America. But one hopes that the speeches will contain fewer bromides and more attention to exactly what is being celebrated. The Fourth of July is Independence Day, but America’s leaders and intellectuals have been trying to move us further and further away from the meaning of Independence Day, away from the philosophy that created this country. What we hear is that independence is outdated, that we’ve reached a new age of “interdependence.” Our presidential candidates call for...