Free Republic

At a recent Central Florida Democratic club meeting, a committee member said he was outraged at what the state GOP is doing to purge voter rolls. “If we lose any close elections this year and the abortion amendment, you can blame (Gov) DeSantis and his party for rigging the outcomes due to his bill of suppressing voter turnout,” said the committee member. The new Florida state law says, ‘The supervisor of elections must conduct a general registration list maintenance program to protect the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring the maintenance of accurate and current voter registration records in...

The idea of a target-influenced fuze was not new; similar fuzes for bombs and rockets existed at the outbreak of World War II. The proximity fuze functions as a small radio station in the shell’s nose. The basic components are a vacuum tube (six inches long and three inches in diameter) a battery, and a radio transmitter and receiver; a small glass tube filled with electrolyte solution acts as the battery. After the shell is fired and begins rotating, centrifugal force pushes the solution to the outside of the tube, where a chemical reaction occurs with small pieces of metal...

A Maryland high school teacher was arrested after he allegedly used artificial intelligence to create phony audio, planting racist and antisemitic words into the voice of his boss, authorities said Thursday. Dazhon Darien, a physical education teacher and the athletic director at Pikesville High School, was accused of falsifying the voice of principal Eric Eiswert in January, authorities said. "We now have conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic," Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough told reporters in Towson. "It’s been determined the recording was generated through the use of artificial intelligence technology." Darien was charged with disrupting school...

HIALEAH GARDENS, FL—On the 63rd anniversary of the tragic Bay of Pigs invasion, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law requiring school instruction on the history and evils of communism beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. "We're gonna tell the truth about communism in the state of Florida. We're gonna tell the truth about the evils of communism," DeSantis said at a Wednesday morning press conference. "We're gonna tell the truth about the unprecedented death toll of the 20th century at the hands of communist tyranny—100 million killed at the hands of communist regimes spreading from China to the...

While Charles de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws was an oft-cited source during the federal convention of 1787, his observations weren’t limited to the balance of powers in government. He also touched on the nature of educational systems in republics and despotisms. Parents and educators form our first impressions. They prepare people for civil life in republics and for servitude in despotisms. From previous chapters, Montesquieu had explained the springs, the forces which propel nations. Public Virtue is the propellant in republics, while the bayonet of fear prods despotisms. Education in despotic countries debases the mind. The mind of...

The Great Depression swept across the nation some 90 years ago, creating a level of despair that nearly crushed America. Standing mute and dumbfounded on a breadline, tens of thousands became "forgotten men"; stripped of their jobs, their dignity, and their future. Washington was either indifferent or inept in responding to a calamity that threatened the very foundation of the republic. Today we have a new generation of "forgotten men" – and women. They too have lost faith in a Washington that seems to have dissolved into a dysfunctional collection of politicians far removed from the difficulties facing our citizens....

Despite our best efforts, we occasionally stumble along the way of life. On the discovery of our mistakes, we correct them, learn, move on, and hopefully avoid repetition. As our capacity to learn improves with age, we learn from the mistakes of others as well. But, perhaps the wisest among us learn from the successes of others. To avoid as many of life’s natural pitfalls as possible, pay attention to the examples of the successful, good, and virtuous. That which applies to our personal lives extends to society and that expression of society, republican government. Few republican governments of any...

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—Governor Ron DeSantis is worried that if marijuana (pot) is legalized in Florida, the whole Sunshine State will smell like pot. “It’s basically a license to have it anywhere you want. No time, place, and manner restrictions. This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns, it will reduce the quality of life,” DeSantis said at a Thursday press conference in Fort Lauderdale. The Florida Supreme Court voted Monday in a 5-2 decision to allow recreational marijuana on the November general election ballot. The measure—Amendment 3—would legalize recreational use for adults 21 and over...

Among the features of the ideal republic is the absence of factions and political parties. Per James Madison, a faction is a group of citizens, either a majority or minority, united and actuated by some common passion or interest adverse to the rights of other citizens or the aggregate interests of the community. A political party is a collection of factions. Imagine if every representative, senator, president, and bureaucrat took the Preamble of our Constitution to heart and selflessly dedicated themselves to secure the Blessings of Liberty to themselves and their posterity. This is the public virtue hoped for in...

Two graduate students and a professor on Monday challenged the constitutionality of a 2023 state law that restricts employment of people from China and six other nations at Florida public universities and colleges. Attorneys for Florida International University doctoral students Zhipeng Yin and Zhen Guo and University of Florida professor Zhengfei Guan — all of whom are from China — filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami. The challenge alleges, in part, that the law is unconstitutional because it is trumped by federal immigration laws. The lawsuit said that under the measure (SB 846), people “who are not United...

In this blog article, we will explore the profound quote by Voltaire, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." At its core, this quote serves as a sober reminder of the power of manipulation and the dire consequences it can have on individuals and society as a whole. Voltaire's words encapsulate the notion that when people are persuaded to accept and adopt absurd beliefs or ideas, they become vulnerable to committing acts of great cruelty or injustice. This statement holds immense importance in our modern world, where manipulation is rampant, giving rise to extremism and...

During a recent hearing for an Article V measure under consideration by the New Hampshire House, an opponent testified, “Are we of the same character as the people in the late 1700s who fought a revolution against the British? I don’t think we are…We should be thanking our lucky stars that we have [a Constitution] that’s as good as it is, and we should not try to change it at all.” Are we really so morally inferior to our forebears that we can’t be trusted to amend our Constitution? This position has, as its cornerstone, the assertion that the delegates...

It’s the Article V opponent’s favorite scare tactic: “This has never happened before…we can’t possibly know what the delegates will do! They could rewrite the entire Constitution.” [Cue ominous music.] In fact, the states have met in convention dozens of times, and none of these meetings exceeded its mandate, including the Constitutional Convention of 1787. These folks are misinformed…or they hope you are. Columnist Dick Evans marked the 90th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition on December 5 with a guest column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, “When volunteer lawyers saved us from Prohibition.” Evans pulls back the curtain to...

Use it or lose it. Article V opponents believe America is too corrupt to be trusted with a Convention of the States. They believe We The People fulfilled Ben Franklin’s fears and are no longer fit for self-government. If true, it also means we don’t have any business voting.Thanks to our collective failure to demand Article V Conventions of the States when necessary, We The People slowly, over decades, relinquished our sovereign authority to Scotus.I challenge anyone to explain the practical limits of the Supreme Court of the United States. On paper our system provides mutual checks, but what of...

I am an unabashed American. That’s an American without hyphens. Snowflake objections to our past don’t concern me. I’m proud of it all. All men are born equal, but not all nations. America is #1, every other nation is not, and that is that. I look down my nose just a little at foreigners, not as 1930s Untermensch, but more in pity along the lines of our homegrown 1980s P.J. O’Rourke.1 Americans are simply unequally better than the rest of the world. Thanks to extra-ordinary good luck, I hold a jewel that much of the rest of humanity wants and...

Florida’s undercount in the 2020 census may have cost the state at least one, possibly two, seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and up to $21 billion in federal funding, according to a new report by Florida TaxWatch. The nonpartisan government watchdog group’s analysis found that an estimated 750,000 Floridians, or 3.48 percent of the state’s population, were not counted in the last census. This marked the state’s most significant census undercount in recent decades, despite efforts to improve participation rates between 2010 and 2020. “About 320 federal programs have census-derived federal funding. These programs affect nearly every aspect...

I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to Cat 5 storms. I think anyone would be who knows the sheer destructive power of such a monstropolous beast. But apparently some Florida politicians have no fear — at least, not when it comes to the residents of the Florida Keys. As Hurricane Irma showed in 2017, the Keys are absolutely the worst place in Florida for a hurricane. They’re a chain of islands with only one evacuation route, U.S. 1. This is why state law says the communities there must limit their growth to “maintain a hurricane evacuation clearance time for permanent...

Democrats Learn the Lesson of 1860. The Lincoln and Trump elections flipped the card table of American politics. As in 1860, there was no middle ground in 2016 between the two factions. One works to preserve the United States. The other despises first American principles, publicly rejected the President-elect, and pursues disunion. This faction is called the Democrat Party. Compromise is possible when the parties differ on how to reach a common goal. Every sale in the marketplace is a compromise. The seller is satisfied with a certain sale point just as the buyer has a buy point. Equally motivated...

Catholic persecution is still rising around the world, especially in Africa. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) found that 132 of those in the Catholic clergy and nuns were arrested, kidnapped, and murdered in 2023. All of the stats are likely higher. ACN only counts arrests related to persecution. We all know places will trump up charges to avoid persecution accusations. The stats do not include members of the Catholic Church. Terrorists slaughtered almost 200 Catholics across Nigeria and destroyed villages, leaving tens of thousands homeless from December 23-26. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has intensified his war on the...

The legal challenge to the Florida Democratic Party’s (FDP) decision to list only President Joe Biden’s name on the party’s presidential primary ballot in March will go before a federal court next week. Florida law says that the names of unopposed candidates shall not appear on the ballot. That means that as of now, there will not be a Democratic presidential primary election in March in Florida. Judge Allen Winsor will hold a hearing on Jan. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Division of Florida in Tallahassee on whether to issue a preliminary injunction to require Florida...