Free Republic

The apparatchiks, you see, are different from you and me… As the Government Shutdown of October 2013 fades away into the history books, there are two lessons that the American Left desperately wants the country to forget. Oh, the Left is fine with American voters retaining a vague memory of the event – “The government was closed; people didn’t get their checks, it was the Republicans’ fault, of course” – but the Left doesn’t want every aspect remembered. They certainly don’t want the really important lessons to be retained. They’re praying that we forget, as soon as possible. So, while...

On the morning of October 19, 1781, General Charles Cornwallis was ashamed of himself. Equestrian Washington The prior week had begun with General Cornwallis finding himself – along with his 8000 British, Loyalist American, and Hessian troops – hemmed in at Yorktown. He had consciously settled in there that spring, erecting fortifications, seemingly declaring the site permanently “British-held ground.” But gradually, things went against him. The American Commander in Chief, General George Washington, and French General Rochambeau moved in with their American and French troops… The great British Navy under Admiral Thomas Graves was unable to offer support, as French...

Democrats keep saying "Obamacare is the law of the land; just accept it and stop trying to change it!" Never mind the fact that the Democrats have already changed it, again and again, by issuing over 1200 waivers and postponements for their cronies. Even though the law doesn’t make any provision for such waivers, the Democrats issue them at the drop of a hat to the politically connected, and reject any proposal for waivers for the rest of us. Nope, the rest of us can’t change it. They say that it is settled law, so we must accept it. But...

Ordinarily, in a presidency lasting four, or even eight, long years, the strengths and weaknesses of an administration become evident through trends and statistics. Relatively few are the single defining moments, like Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall, or George W. Bush at Ground Zero, when a lasting truth of a particular presidency is instantly framed for the world to see. Historians will look back at the October Shutdown of 2013, however, and see an opportunity for worthwhile study, as so many aspects of this era have been crystallized in these unusual days of budget stalemate in Washington, D.C. While...

When budget negotiations come down to the wire – sorry, I mean the “Continuing Resolution” negotiations, since we haven’t had an actual budget in forty years – the Democrats always use the same mantra: “Those Wascally Wepublicans are forcing a government shutdown!” As if we should all be shaking in our boots at the prospect of the federal government shutting down for an hour, let alone a few days, or even a week or two. But should we really worry, and should we really hold the more adult party – the only one, after all, actually trying to RESOLVE our...

In the great Rob Reiner costumer, “The Princess Bride,” the hired criminal Vizzini disdainfully objects to the hero Wesley’s efforts to free Princess Buttercup, charging “You're trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen!” Back home in Chicago, we have a related saying about ethics in politics: “An honest politician is one who stays bought.” In either case, the perpetrator of the first crime is offended by the very notion that anyone might dare try to reverse that crime. The first crime is fine; having once turned the tables on the laws of God and man, none may challenge the new...

On Monday, September 16, 2013, a gunman entered the Washington Navy Yards and began a shooting rampage in which a dozen were killed and still more were wounded. As America watched in horror, President Barack Hussein Obama delivered a televised rant, attacking Republicans, conservatives, and of course, the law-abiding firearms owners who might have helped to stop the carnage, had they been allowed. The National Rifle Association has a practice of not talking politics on the day that such events unfold. Even though such occasions are invariably excellent examples of the need for gun ownership by the law-abiding – in...

The “Road to Damascus” has long served as a term signifying discovery and conversion, a reframing of one’s attitude toward life. It may be gradual, or it may be instantaneous, just as one may spend a long time traveling a road, hundreds of miles even, or one may just turn a corner onto a new road, and be immediately overwhelmed. Known as the “City of Jasmine,” Damascus is the capital of Syria, and has therefore been identified as one of America’s key enemies for many years. Bashir Assad, like his father before him, has supported terrorist organizations – Hezbollah in...

Too many government school districts begin the year with the threat of teachers’ strikes looming around the corner. Children wonder if they’ll start on time, parents wonder if they’ll need to arrange alternate child care options for a day, a week, even a month. And still such schools don’t lose customers, because it’s “free” – the parents pay for it in their taxes anyway, if they even pay property taxes at all; in any case, they may as well go. So the districts that employ “teachers” who would rather march, chant and yell than do their jobs are never immediately...

On August 8, 1974, Richard M. Nixon, fearing certain conviction by the United States Senate in an impeachment trial, resigned the office of the Presidency, the only person ever to do so. There were good reasons to impeach him. He had committed the economic sin of signing and managing a leviathanate Democrat hodgepodge of wage and price controls. He had negotiated and signed an Anti-Ballistic Missile reduction treaty that basically advertised that we could not now, and never would, defend ourselves against ICBMs. He oversaw the creation of nanny-state agencies such as the EPA and OSHA. He created the well-intentioned...

The President of the United States is committed to supporting the rebels in Syria, in their effort to overthrow the vicious dictator Bashir Assad. No one on earth – not his supporters, not the authors of a dictionary, not his closest friends, would ever argue the point. He is a vicious dictator, a malevolent cancer on the map of the middle east. So the American President commits to sending American aid – guns and ammo, technology and funding – to support the rebels trying to pull this vicious dictator off his perch. But who are these rebels? They are loosely...

Late on a Saturday night in the big city, fleeing the scene of a shooting, a criminal plows into an intersection, the police in hot pursuit. The suspect totals an otherwise uninvolved car, in which a mother is picking up her daughter from work. The innocent mother is killed. By morning, there is an uproar, as activists and pundits rise up to blame the police for the poor lady’s death. One February evening in a gated community in Florida, a neighborhood watch volunteer notices a young thug in the bushes, apparently high, likely casing potential homes to burglarize. The watchman...

Reflecting on the real-life impact of the IRS "Questionnaire-Gate" scandals… “Congratulations, Restauranteur!” You’ve just signed a lease on a great property. It’s a beautiful restaurant, just the right size, with a modern kitchen, and a terrific location with plenty of parking. You start decorating – painting, ordering window treatments, maybe updating the floor a bit, bringing in a custom bar that you found at an auction, re-upholstering the chairs, no, every other chair, to make it distinctive. You’re making it your own. You’ve had the menu in mind for a while, so you start outfitting the kitchen to meet your...

Each Memorial Day, Americans proudly, and solemnly, display our flags only at the half-staff position for the morning, not to return them to the full-staff position until noon. This we do in memory of the million-some casualties whom our nation has lost in battle since the Founding era. We hold parades in their honor; we hoist a flag and raise a toast at city parks and private barbecues. We may wear red, white and blue clothing, or flag lapel pins, or decorate our homes with bunting. But for all this show of support, who are we really honoring? Do we...

The feast of Pentecost is the celebration of one of the most important moments in church history. It commemorates the day when, after the Resurrection of the Lord, the Holy Spirit gave the Faithful a special ability to speak to crowds of different nationalities in their own languages. Now, we don’t know exactly what happened that day – whether the Apostles instantly learned other languages, or their audiences instantly learned to hear them in their heads as if they had. All we know is that the leaders of the Church were suddenly, miraculously, able to reach people, and this was...

On May 11, 1996, 105 passengers boarded a ValuJet flight in Miami, bound for Atlanta. They never made it. Shortly after takeoff, a small explosion in the airtight cargo hold developed into a fire, which should have burned out quickly, but didn’t. The 27-year-old plane’s crew of five, and all 105 passengers, were killed as the plane plummeted into the Everglades. Many chalked this up to the dangers of plane travel and the poor maintenance record of ValuJet, which, as a budget carrier, certainly gave plausible grounds for the argument… but it wasn’t a lack of maintenance that caused this...

There aren’t many things that this nation of immigrants agrees on, but there is one: that our immigration system is broken. Not just mildly in need of correction, but terribly, destructively and counterproductively errant. Americans are horrified that there are tens of millions of noncitizens in the United States, without permission, while others are horrified that those millions aren’t granted the same full legal status that citizens enjoy. The severity of the problem is such that an effort is afoot for what its supporters call “comprehensive immigration reform,” and its supporters have the mainstream media so deep in their pocket...

Hundreds of hourly employees of fast food restaurants and clothing shops, radicalized by the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, walked off the job last week, to protest the fact that the minimum wage isn’t a “living wage,” to encourage further unionization, and especially, to do their day’s service to the Democratic Party that keeps them in bondage. This periodic saber-rattling of the American Left – about the alleged “need” to force other people to pay employees more than they think a job is worth – masquerades as a show of solidarity with the underpaid denizens of America’s lower class. But...

The week of April 15, 2013 was a week of contrasts. Monday was practically a high holy day for the American Left, the day known as Tax Day, when personal income tax forms have their formal deadline in the United States. The Democrats planned for an exciting and successful week of passing unconstitutional programs, as gun control and immigration amnesty bills were to be the business of the day in the United States Senate. But then reality set in, and two very different kinds of terror rocked the nation. First, a pair of Chechen muslim brothers set off horrific bombs...

Ever think of what gun control has to do with crime prevention? Ever think about the political parties desires regarding crime prevention at all? Just as an intellectual exercise, let’s imagine for a moment that you weren’t happy about the level of crime in America, and you wished there was more of it. I know, sounds ridiculous, even impossible. But just for the moment, let’s consider what one might do – what policies one might further, what positions a political party might adopt – in pursuit of such a goal. FREEDOM FOR THE GUILTY You might want to start by...