Free Republic

“It doesn`t hurt to get more education.” “Everything in life is luck.” “Watch, listen, and learn. You can’t know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity.” “One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people—I categorize them as life’s losers—who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.” “I’ve always felt that a lot of modern art is a con,...

My friend Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, posted a link to a long but fascinating article that very nearly convinces me that there was indeed not only a Communist 'conspiracy' but even a rather effective one at work in the middle years of the twentieth century. I say "very nearly" because I'm not sure that the 'conspiracy' was quite so effective, but that's a point for debate. Anyway, if you have an hour, go and read Stephen Koch's long essay, "Lying for the truth: Munzenberg & the Comintern" (The New Criterion, Volume 12, Number 3, November 1993). One hour is...

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” - Barack Obama, election eve, 2008 Barack Obama is an enigma. He won the 2008 presidential election claiming to be a moderate and wanting to bring Americans together and govern from the center. But since he took office, his actions have been far from moderate. He has apologized to foreign dictators abroad for sins he alleges his own country committed and appointed a self-described communist (Van Jones) and an admirer of Mao Zedong to top White House posts. He has used the economic crisis to take over...

<p>Now we find the Navy partnering with the Agriculture Department to purchase hundreds of thousands of gallons of alternative biofuel in place of standard JP-5 fuel for Navy aircraft — the biggest federal purchase of biofuel ever.</p> <p>A look at the lucky seller of this environmentalist version of the proverbial $600 Pentagon toilet seat indicates that the move is not just wasteful, but ethically suspect.</p>

An interesting item appeared in Business Insider on 22 March. The headline reads: "CAUGHT ON TAPE: Former SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan to Destroy JP Morgan, Crash the Stock Market, And Redistribute Wealth in America." From the article you can access an audio recording of a revolutionary organizer and rabble-rouser discussing various plans in a closed meeting at Pace University. The Business Insider explained they had not verified that the voice in the audio was that of Stephen Lerner, a former labor union official. However, it is clear that the voices on the audio are real, and they are revolutionary,...

A curious exchange took place in U.S. Senate hearings on Thursday. The senator from Michigan, Carl M. Levin, expressed surprise at an answer given by the Director of National Intelligence. In answering another senator's question, Director James R. Clapper, Jr., named Russia as the greatest threat to the United States. "I was frankly kind of surprised by your answer," Senator Levin said to Clapper. "[Another senator] asked a very direct question ... and your first answer was Russia; and then you kind of clarified it in terms of saying, well, that's in terms of capability, but they don't have any...

If America became a socialist state and was entirely opposed to capitalism, would it still be America? The Polish writer, Jozef Mackiewicz, once asserted: "There is no Polish state in the guise of the Polish People's Republic. The Polish People's Republic is not a continuation of the history of Poland but a continuation of the history of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution." [P. 136, The Triumph of Provocation]. What happens when we radically transform a country or a person? Would a socialist America still be America? And could this process occur without violence? I recently rediscovered a fascinating discourse on unity...

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing the Brazilian philosopher, and president of the Inter-American Institute, Olavo de Carvalho. During the conversation I suggested that something is wrong with our thinking today; that we don’t worship in the same way, or obey the rules in the same way, or observe common courtesy as we once did. “To someone like me,” he began, “who visited this country in the 1980s, and came back to live here in 2005, the changes that the American mind has undergone in recent decades are really shocking.” Carvalho recommended that I read Tamar Frankel’s book,...

Are the Egyptian people demanding that President Hosni Mubarak step down? There is a mob in the streets of Cairo making this demand. And there is an American president who wants the mob to have its way. The Guardian UK headline reads: "Barak Obama impatient for credible transition in Egypt. " The article states what everyone knows; namely, that the United States government is putting pressure on President Mubarak to step down. Who is likely to fill the power vacuum? Anxieties are focused on the Muslim Brotherhood and the possibility of an Islamic revolution. Regarding the demands of the Egyptian...

The current Left -- or the Socialists -- in Europe were born out of the fire of revolution and war. They came from a determination to change a historical and implacable social order, a drive to ensure that causes of two devastating continental wars in the twentieth century never reoccurred. The Left in the United States, while professing commonality with their European counterparts, have evolved out of peace, economic prosperity, and a determination to impose a rigid social order under the guise of classless society. European Socialism, while desirous of guaranteeing equality of outcome and opposed to unfettered capitalism, nonetheless...

A Chinese guy and a Jewish guy were drinking in a bar All of a sudden the Jewish guy cold-cocks the Chinese guy in the nose. "That's for Pearl Harbor", he yells. The Chinese guy spits out a tooth and says, "The Japanese bombed Pearl. I'm Chinese." "Chinese, Japanese. They're all the same", the Jew says. The two resume their drinking. After a few more drinks, the Chinese guy staggers to his feet and socks the Jew in the eye, shouting., "This is for the Titanic." The Jew, cupping his eye, says, "An iceberg sunk the Titanic." The Chinese guy...