Free Republic

Europe is dying. Its culture has been coming apart since World War I, and it is now almost gone. Western culture is beginning its descent in America as well. It is a tragedy, and many people will have their lives made miserable and many more will die before it is resolved. Yet there are some who actually celebrate the death of western Christian culture. They act like petulant children, incapable of imagining that they could ever drown, who are drilling holes through the bottom of their boat because a service provider didn’t smile at them. They are so myopic all...

Last Thursday night, more than 100 community members gathered at the Waterloo Center for the Arts for a panel discussion of Racial Justice. The forum engaged the philosophy behind the Black Lives Matter movement and discussed the system of racial injustice here in the Cedar Valley and in the nation. Panel members included the Reverend Abraham Funchess, the Reverend Belinda Creighton-Smith, the Reverend Mary E. Robinson, Public Defender Aaron Hawbaker, and Chief Dan Trelka. As panelists eloquently explained, the Black Lives Matter movement is about reasserting the inherent dignity and respect of a group of people who have been diminished...

We are in the midst of a cultural collapse. One of the indicators is a phenomena called “mircoaggression.” Most people have never heard of the term, but its applications are taken for granted at most American universities. Microaggression is a phrase used to refer to a variety of verbal and nonverbal forms of communication that could be said to show disrespect for a particular group of people, especially those who have encountered historical discrimination, and which now includes any group the liberal establishment has classified as victims. The implications of the paradigm behind the term should not be minimized. We...

When some of us expressed fear of what we saw and heard about the protests against religious-rights laws, many people either saw no issue or condemned us for being alarmist or hate-filled Christians. It is time for well-meaning people to think this through. Hillary Clinton said last week culture and religious beliefs “have” to be changed to achieve women's rights. Is that just feel-good rhetoric, or does she really mean it? If so, what does it imply to say religious beliefs “have” to be changed? We don’t need to discuss theology. At its foundation this isn’t about theology at all,...

Obama's man on Ebola is former Biden staff chief 1 hour ago • BY JIM KUHNHENN(0) Comments WASHINGTON (AP) — He's tackled the financial crisis, served two vice presidents and been portrayed by Kevin Spacey in an HBO film, but Ron Klain's newest job as the U.S. point person on Ebola may be his toughest challenge to date. A longtime Democratic operative, Klain was tasked Friday by President Barack Obama with running the government's response to the Ebola crisis. Klain has been a trusted adviser at the Obama White House, and served as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff...

Cedar Falls conversion ban passes August 18, 2014 10:00 pm • By Mike Anderson(1) Comments Cedar Falls rental moratorium faces fight CEDAR FALLS | City staff have finished writing a resolution to impose a six-month moratorium on new rental permits in parts of the city, but t… Read more Councilman applies for permit to turn his home into rental CEDAR FALLS | At-large councilman Nick Taiber has no plans to rent out his home in the Overman Park neighborhood, but on Aug. 15 he went to Ci… Read more Cedar Falls rental housing task force looks for focus CEDAR FALLS...

Braley camp: He knew he was being recorded when he disparaged Iowa farmers and Grassley POSTED AT 9:21 AM ON APRIL 1, 2014 BY GUY BENSON Many of us assumed this recording was made surreptitiously. It must have been. There’s no way a statewide office-seeker from Iowa would knowingly demean farmers and a beloved state political figure on tape, right? Wrong, says the Braley campaign, via the Des Moines Register: Braley’s campaign strategists say the candidate knew he was being videotaped at the private fundraiser when he made the remark that has the political world buzzing, describing Chuck Grassley as...

We deserve better than Fox News I’ve gathered information for this column from two recent books: David Brock’s “The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine” (2012) and Gabriel Sherman’s “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” (2014). Both books deserve serious attention, if only to refute. If you watch Fox News, you owe it to yourself to understand its history and outlook. If you find Fox News unbalanced and unfair, both books offer powerful support. Thinking Americans — whether liberal or conservative — have every reason to feel deeply, constantly, seriously dissatisfied. Consider: (1) Watching...

This year President Barack Obama and his party will begin their campaign against “the rich” while emphasizing the “gap” in wages between those on top and those on the bottom. Their solution will be to increase the minimum wage, raise taxes on “the rich” and increase government spending. They will exploit ignorance and envy to maintain power. Their solution will make the gap larger and create an endless recession. Unless reversed, the result is likely to be a financial collapse, wiping out savings, retirement accounts and putting almost everyone in the country into the category we now call the "working...

Anyone who uses the term "fair share" when writing or talking about government revenues should be required to take a physical. We need to discover if they are indeed alive. One can see them figuratively as zombies shuffling down the street, driven by an unquenchable appetite to eat the rich. Instead of growling, they keep repeating "fair share, fair share." Their brains are no longer alive, but they are automated nevertheless by a virus spread by political demagogues who gain power by creating social class enmity and propagating greed. The ironies inherent in the "fair share" demagogues are delicious, if...

Given the results of recent national elections, it appears that the nation is split on a number of issues that neither side considers negotiable. In May 2009, I wrote an article suggesting an amicable divorce between the two sides, with a partitioning of national assets between the two groups based on what was dear to each. It was a rhetorical device to outline the differences found in a split nation, and to make a larger point about ideology applied to everyday life. Looking at the recent election, it may be time to revisit the idea. The winners of the last...

Given the results of recent national elections, it appears that the nation is split on a number of issues that neither side considers negotiable. In May 2009, I wrote an article suggesting an amicable divorce between the two sides, with a partitioning of national assets between the two groups based on what was dear to each. It was a rhetorical device to outline the differences found in a split nation, and to make a larger point about ideology applied to everyday life. Looking at the recent election, it may be time to revisit the idea. The winners of the last...

WATERLOO, Iowa --- Nearly 1,000 Waterloo jobs may be on the line in the wake of a decision by bankrupt mortgage company Residential Capital LLC, the parent company of GMAC Mortgage, to sell assets to two firms for $3 billion. On Wednesday the board of directors of New York-based ResCap granted preliminary approval to a $3 billion bid from the team of Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC and Walter Investment Management Corp. for the company’s mortgage servicing and origination business. ResCap and 50 of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. The bankruptcy court will consider the proposed...

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- University of Northern Iowa leaders said they stand behind a National Guard specialist who has filed a grievance against a professor who he said refused to allow him to make up a test he missed while attending an out-of-state Guard drill. Freshman James Roethler said he missed the test because the Iowa Army National Guard required him to attend a four-day weapons certification drill in Wisconsin beginning Oct. 19. The soldiers’ bus left for Wisconsin Oct. 18. If he had failed to attend the training he would have been considered absent without leave, or AWOL, and...

Canada is getting rich; its GDP is about $1.4 trillion per year. This means that if Obama’s government took everything produced in Canada each year (a 100 percent tax on everything); he would still be running a $400 billion debt per year (more than a billion per day). The average UNI professor would have to work for 61,000 years to pay for what Obama’s government adds to the national debt in one day! One in seven Americans are now on food stamps. In 2008, the average median household income was $54,700/year. It has now dropped to $50,700. At the same...

Dr. Barbara Bellar, a former nun, Army major, medical doctor and Illinois politician recently put this into perspective. I quote: "So let me get this straight. We are going to be gifted with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, which purportedly adds 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it and signed by the president who smokes, with funding...

Suzie: Daddy, Daddy, our teacher has asked us to write a story on why President Obama should be re-elected. Dad: That’s wonderful. You have a very good teacher. Suzie: I asked her what I should write about, and she said that Romney was too rich to be president and couldn’t relate to the rest of us. Dad: That’s right, Sweetums. Rich people oppress the poor and make the rest of us poorer. So, have you done some research? Suzie: Yes. I looked up a lot of stuff and I’m confused. The computer said that John Kerry was our candidate before...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said Friday he will push for more money in federal grants to pay for anti-bullying programs and attach more strings to teacher training money the federal government already doles out. Harkin made his remarks following a 2 ½- hour hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee held in the gymnasium of East High School in Des Moines Friday afternoon. But testimony at the hearing, which included brutally frank and heart-wrenching accounts of bullying from student panelists, made it clear that the federal government has a limited ability to do...

DES MOINES — The Iowa House voted Tuesday to ban red light cameras on a 58-42 vote that broke largely — but not completely — along party lines. The bill now goes to the Senate, where there seems to be little chance that it will make it to the floor for a vote. The legislation took a long route to Tuesday’s vote. A camera ban had momentum at the start of the session, including tentative support from the governor and one legislator offering a constitutional amendment to ban the devices in the state. But as the session wore on, support...

More Jobs, More Revenue, More American Energy: A Bipartisan Opportunity Washington is so stuck in partisanship and ideological warfare that our representatives are missing easy opportunities for bipartisan solutions that would actually make things better for all Americans. A thousand small solutions may be preferable to a magic committee of twelve trying to create a gigantic (and almost certainly bad) deal. House Republicans could take a creative step toward a bipartisan, thousand-solution strategy by passing a bill supported by Senate Democrats the first week they return to Washington. Virginia Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb have created such a...