Free Republic

While waiting for my favorite Sunday morning classical music program on NPR, I heard a news story about a new law in San Francisco designed to stop smoking outdoors in public parks. I don't know if it's passed already or just a proposal. In any case, one line from one of the people interviewed really caught my attention. The person, perhaps a public official, said something like "I think people will get used to the new outdoor restrictions just like they did the indoor restrictions 10 years ago."I couldn't help but think of the fable of the toad in the...

See the link for a lengthy report on the "nonpartisan" groups Ms. Kerry supports. Here's the concluding paragraph.Today’s environmental groups are simply political machines reporting millions in contributions and expenditures each year for the purpose of raising more money to pursue their agenda. Especially in this election year, the American voter should see these groups and their many affiliate organizations as they are - the newest insidious conspiracy of political action committees and perhaps the newest multi-million dollar manipulation of federal election laws.

Every time I have heard the replay of Kerry's testimony I am galled as much by Kerry's phony accent as by what he says. Does this bother anyone else? When talks about see "atrocities" and committing "atrocities." Just the delivery makes me want to commit an atrocity.

German Family Flees Country to Stop Government from Taking Custody A few weeks ago, a German homeschool family escaped to Central America, just ahead of a judge who wanted to take custody of their school-aged child. A social worker helped the family escape by warning the family of the judge's intent and delaying the paperwork. German Homeschoolers Escape to Austria Another German homeschool family had to flee to Austria. The judge, after being informed that the family had already left (even though he possessed documents including the registration of the child in question at the local school in Austria), went...

From:Morgan Thomson Sir, I am Morgan Thompson legal representative to Dr. Jean Bertrand Aristide former President of Haiti.My client Dr. Jean Bertrand Aristide deposited some valuables with a security company.My client advised me to arrange for a foreign Partner who will help him to redeem the valuables so that we can move for investment any where in the world.This is why I am seeking your assistance to redeem the deposited precious valuables after we can use it for further investment. I am looking forward for any one who can help us to make this business a success.kindly help us because...

On the evening of July 9 the H family from Tulsa County was minding their own business at home when there was a knock at the door. The mother answered. It was a social worker who insisted on entering the home and interviewing the children. The mother immediately called HSLDA's emergency number which was answered by Senior Counsel Christopher Klicka. Klicka asked to talk to the social worker but the social worker refused. Due to the refusal of the social worker to communicate he began instructing the mother on her rights and also giving her statements to relay to the...

Sadly, our constitutional Republic as envisioned by our Founders -- a government "to ... establish Justice" -- has devolved into little more than a system of government by judicial decree. Imagine the audacity of our Founders -- who expected judges to honor our Constitution; to be constitutional constructionists bound by the letter of that venerable document and its proper amendments; and to be accountable to the law as written, not interpreted as if they had, themselves, written it. To be sure, such interpretative mutilation of the Constitution is in clear violation of the original intent of our Founders. This becomes...

I have 3 questions for Edwards and company: 1) Initially the Democrats accused Bush of going to war for cheap oil. Who would have benefited from that cheap oil? AND, who benefits from Edwards' legal escapades? 2) If Bush's actions in Iraq have, as the Democrats now complain, led to higher oil prices, what have Edwards' action done for medical costs? 3) What does John Edwards think of civil court cases such as the infamous/famous McDonalds coffee suit? Just wanna know...

Global Warming Fallacies Human-caused global warming advocates have based their propaganda campaign on several false premises: • The planet is already heating up. The historical record shows that global temperatures are not unusually warm today. Figure 1 shows the temperature of a large Atlantic Ocean region known as the Sargaso Sea during the past 3,000 years. This data, which is similar to many other studies of various world locations by means of experiment and of the historical record, shows a period of higher temperatures 1,000 years ago, and a period of lower temperatures 300 years ago. Source: "Environmental Effects of...

Must Homeschoolers Provide a Public Education? When Brendan Flask [not his real name] was 9 years old, he couldn't stand to go to public school. His teachers reported more and more problems trying to make him obey, resulting in many days of unexcused absences. The family tried a number of ways to resolve these problems, and finally decided to start homeschooling in December 2003. Little did they know their homeschool proposal would be rejected because it failed to provide a "free appropriate public education." The family had little warning that there were problems. They turned in a home education proposal...

HSLDA’s Emergency Appeal Denied By Pennsylvania Supreme Court In a situation very similar to the Stumbo case in North Carolina, an over-zealous social worker in Pennsylvania is causing serious legal problems for the Gauthiers, an HSLDA member family. In mid-February, Mr. and Mrs. Gauthier took their infant daughter Isis to the hospital because she was listless and had a slight fever. Apparently because they did not immediately follow the doctor’s recommendation, the parents were reported to social services for possible medical neglect. While their daughter was lying in ICU, several social workers interrogated both parents at the hospital. After Mr....

REMEMBER THE ALAMO "I am beseiged. The enemy has demanded surrender at discretion...I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid...If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his honor and that of his country." These are the words of William B. Travis, who commanded the Alamo when Texas rebelled against Mexico's despot, Santa Anna. March 6 was the 168th anniversary of the Alamo's fall, which cost Travis...

The Federalist Patriot Founders' Quote Daily "It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow." --Alexander Hamilton or James Madison, Federalist No. 62

"The troops returning home are worried. 'We've lost the peace,' men tell you. 'We can't make it stick.' ... Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American. ... Never has American prestige in Europe been lower.... Instead of coming in with a bold plan of relief and reconstruction we came in full of evasions and apologies.... A great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease. The taste of victory had gone sour in the mouth of every thoughtful American I...

"If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful." --C.S. Lewis "Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just." --Cicero "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." --Sir Winston Churchill "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks...

CULTURE "The possible permutations of perversity programming -- the proper name for what is called, oxymoronically, 'reality television' -- are as limitless as, apparently, is the supply of despicably greedy or spectacularly stupid people willing to degrade themselves for money...But perhaps the monetary incentive is superfluous, given today's endemic exhibitionism that makes many people feel unrecognized, unauthenticated -- or something -- unless they are presented, graphically, to an audience. Ours is an age besotted with graphic entertainments. And in an increasingly infantilized society, whose moral philosophy is reducible to a celebration of 'choice,' adults are decreasingly distinguishable from children in...

"...[T]he national Democrat party seems to have lost its marbles. ...Just look at their presidential candidates: it's like they're lost in a time warp. ...And Dennis Kucinich -- a long-time member of Congress -- now calls for legislation -- I love this -- to ban 'mind control' weapons in outer space. ...It makes you wonder if at their next presidential debate, the Democrats are all going to show up wearing aluminum-foil helmets to protect their brain waves from the mother ship!" --House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

Gov. Douglas and the Five Supreme Legislators July 2003 Who is entitled to make the laws that Vermonters have to live by, the democratically elected legislature, or the Vermont Supreme Court? At his July 3 news conference Gov. Douglas reopened this question in the context of seeking a nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Referring specifically to the 1997 education finance case (Brigham) that led to Act 60, and the 2000 gay marriage case (Baker) that led to civil unions, Douglas remarked that the Vermont Supreme Court could well profit from a dose of judicial restraint. The friends of...

Christians Can Change this World by Dr Peter Hammond If God can change you, then God can use you to change some part of this world. That our fallen world needs changing is beyond question. When our newspapers and films glamourise immorality, undermine traditional family values and encourage selfishness, greed and lust; when criminals escape justice by legal technicalities; when half of the world suffers under totalitarian dictatorships and persecution; when pornography, perversion, abortions, terrorism and the occult are increasing - then we know that this world needs to be changed. But most Christians have abandoned their moral responsibility to...

First Things First Habits and routine are a vital part of discipleship. We make time for those things we deem important. God has decreed that we work six days and give the seventh to rest and worship. This was so important to God that He gave us an example to follow, by resting after creating the universe. “By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing ; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy …” Genesis 2: 2-3 Why does our week...