Free Republic

Christmas is really a pagan holiday to celebrate the winter solstice and the end of the harvast. Jesus was probably born in late September. Even if Jesus was born on December 25th, an orgy of materialism showing friends and family how much you love them is not an appropriate way to celebrate his birth. Many Christians recognize this paradox, hence the emphasis to "put Christ in Christmas." This means evening devotionals about the birth of Christ, special candles, and other rituals. Yet this has the effect of elevating Jesus' birth above his death and resurrection. Most Christians do not...

1400 black babies aborted every day. 365 days a year for 26 years since Roe v. Wade. That works out to about 18 million dead black babies. I wonder if they think that Obama's victory is a civil rights triumph?

Here is how Obama and a filibuster proof Senate will do it. Expand the Supreme Court to 15 Justices. Pack the court with 6 liberals. Pass new federal laws against private ownership of firearms, with vague enough wording so it sounds like hunting weapons are excluded (until the challenges reach the Supreme Court). Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. This will not just shut down talk radio and Fox News. It will be applied to conservative internet forums such as Free Republic, Townhall, and popular conservative blogs. Liberal sites, including the New York Times and MSNBC, will be deemed objective and centrist....

I just talked to my wife, who is a Rhode Island delegate at the convention. The news media has not fully reported the destructive activities of the lefty activists. They have: Attacked an elderly man and put him in a wheelchair Attacked some Iowa delegates, pushed them to the ground, doused them with ammonia, and then took their credentials (thank God that they did not light them on fire). Delegates are now being told not to display their credentials except when safely inside the convention center. Destroyed the windows of an entire downtown street

There are two dangerous stages of economics knowledge, one leans left and the other leans right. The first is ignorance, which leads to a zero sum worldview and a failure to appreciate that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The next stage is the free market zealot, who employs a priori reasoning from first principles based on perfect competition. Here is what you need to know to get past both stages. The business cycle The president has little impact on the ups and downs of the economy. The Federal Reserve's monetary policy does. Understand the liquidity trap,...

The pastor of my church taught this parable in a recent service. Once there was an Indian tribe. This tribe was impoverished and forced to scratch their existence from the earth as best they could. Their main source of food was the chickens they raised. And they had a big problem - someone was stealing the chickens. The longer the thief went uncaught, the more likely others would be forced to resort to theft themselves. It was imperative that the thief be caught rapidly. So the chief publicly proclaimed a severe penalty: 30 lashes with a whip. The town looked...

The Golden Rule is the world’s most universal ethical principle. It can be found in nearly every major religion from Christianity to Zoroastrianism. The Golden Rule is also one of the few ethical principles that can be proven with formal logic. Problems With the Literal Form Literal Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated The literal form of the Golden Rule can lead to absurd conclusions. It gives masochists permission to hurt other people since they want to be hurt. It tells someone who is hard of hearing to yell at others since he wants them to...

This is a well written and accessible look at some of the research surrounding marriage and poverty. In the first chapter Kay Hymowitz shows that the breakdown of marriage has not been a universal phenomenon. Instead divorce and single motherhood are concentrated among the poor. The result is that the breakdown of marriage entraps another generation into poverty. This shows up clearly in the statistics, Only 20% of children in families earning under $15,000 live with both parents, compared to 92% for children whose parents make over $75,000. This also shows up in surprising ways. In a world in which...

Before Iraq: Muslims wanted to kill Americans After Iraq: Muslims want to kill other Muslims It seems more and more likely that Saddam's despotism was keeping Shiite-Sunni conflicts in check. He kept a tight lid on Shiite's in Iraq, and Iraq acted as a buffer between Iran on one side and Syria and Saudi Arabia on the other. Now Saddam is gone, and nature abhors a vacuum. Of course, our armies are partially stabilizing the country. To truly capitalize on these events we need to remove our troops ASAP. Yes this is cutting and running, but here is a...

Answers to common liberal arguments about poverty, out of wedlock childbirths, welfare, and culture. Studies show that welfare does not cause out of wedlock childbirthsIf out of wedlock childbirths cause poverty, then how come blacks were poor in the past, when marriages were much stronger?Since marriage was so great in the past, how come people were so poor?Racism is the real cause of povertyOut of wedlock childbirths are caused by lack of jobs and other economic factorsOut of wedlock childbirths are caused by the loss of manufacturing jobs in the citiesImmigrants have lower rates of out of wedlock childbirths because...

Polygamy and incest are the ultimate wedge issues for supporters of gay marriage. Some oppose polygamy (here) while others support it (here and here). The standard argument for gay marriage is that marriage is a basic civil right that should be available to all people. One problem with the standard argument is that it also applies to polygamy and incest. This backs gay marriage supporters into a corner. If they support polygamy and incest then they make the slippery slope argument of conservatives a reality. But if they oppose polygamy and incest they must drop the standard argument or become...

Depolarize PoliticsNo more debates about abstinence versus having twelve year old children put condoms on cucumbers. No more debates about school prayer. No more debates about back to basics education versus new-fangled experimentation. Everyone is happy. A whole realm of toxic, polarizing political debate will immediately and permanently drop off the political radar. No more forcing Christians to buy a secular education for their children with their taxes. No more backlashes as well-meaning Christians then try to include a semblance of moral guidance with school prayer. Cheap HousingOne reason to buy a house in a good neighborhood is to send...

Conservatives theory: design the government with the idea that it will be run by your worst enemy. Liberal theory: Design the government with the idea that *you* will be running it. Here's an interesting thought: the most anti-Democratic part of the Constitution is the Bill of Rights. There is no part of our Constitution that more systematically thwarts the will of the majority than our basic freedoms of speech and religion. We could have 99.99% of the population staunchly opposed to holocaust revisionism and racism, but the KKK would still have the right to freely express their ideas. Well,...

This is an essential book for anyone who wishes to defend a political philosophy based upon the doctrine of natural rights. I frequently debate politics, abortion, the morality of war, and other ethical positions. Many of my "sparring partners" employ thought experiments to refute rights-based ethics. A common example is Ellen Goodman's thought experiment in which an IVF clinic is on fire. You can save either a a test tube with an embryo, or a small child. Who do you choose? Moral Theory by David Oderberg is the perfect rebuttal. Study the mechanics of natural rights ethics, particularly the Acts/Omission...

There are three economic myths I'd like to see come to an end. The first is the myth that the economy is a zero-sum game and a flat tax (or flatter taxes) favors the rich and therefore hurts the poor and middle class. The second myth is that government can check, rather than enhance, the power of big business, and the third myth is that the president, rather than the head of the Federal Reserve, causes the ups and down in the business cycle. Myth #1: Tax Cuts on "the Rich" hurt everyone else. Reality: You get less of what...

Europe is a laboratory for liberal policies. If social welfare safety nets do not undermine a nation's work ethic and commitment to marriage, then Europe will succeed. If government regulation of industry benefits consumers more than the open competition of free markets, Europe will succeed. If high marginal tax rates do not stifle entrepreneurship and business creation, Europe will succeed. If government bureaucrats can successfully pick winning industries and technologies better than investors risking their own money, Europe will succeed. There is a lot of back and forth in the debate over Europe, so I will borrow from the philosophical...

The primary cause of poverty in America today is the breakdown of breakdown of marriage. Or to put it in a somewhat more sophisticated formulation to forestall some rebuttals, the primary cause of poverty in America today is a breakdown in culture, in which out of wedlock childbirths are the most visible symptom. The raw Census data show that the rate of poverty for single mothers is about five times as high as the rate of poverty for married households. But this is a crude analysis; it could be the case that there is some underlying reason that makes people...

In fact, according to a 1999 study by The Barna Group Christians were more likely than non-Christians to get a divorce in America.... For the record, the Barana study asked people their religion, and whether they had ever been divorced. They were then shocked, shocked! to find that religious and non-religious people are equally likely to be divorced. This is often held up as evidence that religion doesn’t make you any less likely to divorce, which is complete hogwash. News flash: Religious people are far more likely to get married in the first place. This is particularly true of the...

Philosophers of all stripes agree that the essence of ethics is that they are universal. For example, the Golden Rule grants other people the same ethical status that you give yourself. Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative is similar. In 'Practical Ethics' Peter Singer claims that his version of utilitarianism does a better job of capturing the universal nature of ethics than these other approaches. His reasoning begins with the observation that ethics demands considering more than one's own self-interest. Therefore a truly universal system of ethics demands that we give equal consideration to everyone's interests. This principle of equal consideration of...