Free Republic

William McGurn is his usual magnificent self today. [quote] Not since Herbert Hoover has a party out of power had such an opportunity to run against everything that troubles the American family—prices, interest rates, unemployment, taxes, or the fear for the future of their old age or the future of their children—than is now presented to the Republican Party. The Republicans, however, haven't figured this out. This is their basic problem. They have no strategy for defeating an Obama administration that is highly vulnerable on both domestic and foreign policy. [end quote] Those words were written by Scotty Reston in...

Brett Stephens is not reassured by President Obama's assurances that he "has Israel's back." [quote] Here is a president who fought tooth-and-nail against the very sanctions on Iran for which he now seeks to reap political credit. He inherited from the Bush administration the security assistance to Israel he now advertises as proof of his "unprecedented" commitment to the Jewish state. His defense secretary has repeatedly cast doubt on the efficacy of a U.S. military option against Iran even as the president insists it remains "on the table." His top national security advisers keep warning Israel not to attack Iran...

The Wall Street Journal's editorial section is doing its best to keep the public focused on the Obama administration's usurpation of constitutional liberties despite the rest of the mainstream media's following the administration's lead and burying the matter of Kathleen Sibelius's ObamaCare mandate in the MoveOn.org file. In an editorial entitled "Bishop Dolan's Liberty Letter" they bring his studiously ignored correspondence to light. [quote] Cardinal Dolan explains that "As pastors and shepherds, each of us would prefer to spend our energy engaged in and promoting the works of mercy to which the Church is dedicated: healing the sick, teaching our...

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport CT testified before House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform on the ObamaCare mandate forcing Catholic institutions to materially cooperate with evil. His testimony illustrated various ways in which the Obama Administration is full of baloney. [quote] For my testimony today, I would like to tell a story. Let’s call it, “The Parable of the Kosher Deli.” Once upon a time, a new law is proposed, so that any business that serves food must serve pork. There is a narrow exception for kosher catering halls attached to synagogues, since they serve mostly members of that...

Man abused his creation in the beginning at the behest of the tempter. Mankind lost out on a good deal, original justice, in which we had full reign over our bodies, innocence, complete satisfaction of our material needs, and life in the garden of eden. The evil one was able to persuade us to turn our backs on it all. Paradoxically, we were able to sin because we were created in the image and likeness of God: free. Sin demonstrates our likeness to God as it demonstrates our freedom to choose good or evil. Ironically, this likeness to God--free choice,...

We know that the President is a formidable fundraiser, the best ever. "President Obama says a campaign is like an investment." Solyndra honcho and Obama bundler, George Kaiser certainly wouldn't dispute that. Neither could Warren Buffet, George Soros or Jeff Immelt. [quote] [H]aving raked in $750 million in 2008 and potentially on track to surpass that amount in 2012. His campaign and the Democratic Party raised $224 million in 2011 alone, more than the Republican field combined. In a flagging economy, it may be hard to fathom not only where that money is coming from but also what it could...

Buried on page B7 of today's Wall Street Journal (but highlighted by different editors in the front page "What's News" section, is an item entitled "GE's Work Force Rose in 2011 First Time in Years." The real story is that all of GE's employment growth was overseas. That might be embarrassing for a company whose CEO serves as President Obama's cheerleader to the Fortune 500, and business-bona-fides fig leaf to the public. The President hopes to draw attention to GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's outsourcing to save dying companies at Bain Capital. You may recall the President's recent jab at...

I am on retreat this weekend, and will be sharing meditations and talks with you. It is not a moment too soon to take this break from the daily grind, and I hope not many moments too late. St Luke tells us about the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13-35). They were walking along, talking about everything that had happened concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus. He walks with us, too and, like them, we don't always recognize him. "What words are these that you are exchanging as you walk and are sad?" He asks this of...

Recent leaks about a think tank's attempt to combat global warming orthodoxy in science education were the result of skullduggery. Peter Gleick, part of the man-made climate change establishment, has confessed to pretexting. [quote] In his blog on the Huffington Post, Gleick publicly confessed to deceitful tactics that he described as a serious ethical slip. My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts ... to attack climate science and scientists. [end quote] You might be forgiven for thinking that the attacks mostly go in the opposite direction. In 2009, leaked emails from East Anglia University revealed collusive...

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney explains how the President's killing of the Keystone Pipeline was actually the Republican's fault. They were playing politics, which the President doesn't do. [quote] "In terms of Keystone, as you all know, the history here is pretty clear. And the fact is because Republicans decided to play political with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline"... [end quote] Alas, the President who is unbound by public opinion, the Constitution, congressional opposition, press scrutiny, or...

The Telegraph reports that Britain's new higher taxes on the rich aren't producing any revenue for the government. It appears that people are changing their behavior to avoid the levy. [end quote] Senior sources said that the first official figures indicated that there had been “manoeuvring” by well-off Britons to avoid the new higher rate. The figures will add to pressure on the Coalition to drop the levy amid fears it is forcing entrepreneurs to relocate abroad. [end quote] Not only did revenues to the UK Treasury not go up. They went down by £509 million, or roughly 5%. The...

Whoever desecrated the picture above by tastelessly printing "Pope Robot" across it was wrong as well as wicked, and worse, inelegant; Pope-bot would have been much better. In any event, the Pope and his entourage were actually swaying to el son Cubano. How can I tell? Just look at that motion, the movement in the hips and back as well as head and hands! The photo absolutely pulsates with ritmo. In truth I guessed it from an article announcing Pope Benedict's desire to see Fidel Castro on his upcoming trip to the Pearl of the Antilles. The meeting will depend...

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the AFL-CIO's educational (strong) arm, announced the group's endorsement of the Obama-Biden ticket in 2012. In case it matters to you, she makes $350,000 per year as a union boss. [quote] Declaring that President Obama is the only candidate who will fight to preserve and expand the middle class, close the inequality gap and ensure everyone has a "fair shot" at success, the AFT announced its endorsement of President Obama and Vice President Biden for re-election on Feb. 7. [end quote] This selfless administrator's devotion to the middle class, earnings...

It has been awhile since I read Pope John Paul II's encyclical on the relationship between faith and reason, Fides et Ratio (1998). Praying my way through it again, I came across a series of passages sprinkled with pithy observations that I wanted to share. While discussing each man's journey in search of the truth, the Pope writes that "all human beings desire to know, and truth is the proper object of this desire." (FR, 25) We reject falsity to the extent that we identify it, and feel rewarded when we discover truth. "It is this that St. Augustine teaches...

Charles Kadlec writes in Forbes Magazine about last week's governmental overreach into Americans' lives and liberties. If you don't know by now that the State has ordered the Church to violate its principles, and religious believers to violate their consciences by complying with an ObamaCare diktat to actively cooperate with evil, you are asleep at the wall of separation. To be fair, the President has only overreached into traditional Americans' lives and liberties, on behalf of Left-wing, revolutionary Americans and their radical feminist ideology. It's not as if he's acting the tyrant without someone's support and encouragement. Revolutionary Lefties don't...

The man being prayed over in the picture is Rick Santorum, stunning winner of three primaries or caucuses last Tuesday in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. It's been instructive watching the media, even the Wall Street Journal, grapple with the possibility that this clean, morally-upright, scandal-free, principled, self-sacrificial, family-basked, God-loving, humanitarian, intelligent, well educated, experienced, thoughtful, conservative, Republican man might emerge as the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2012. He may not be glib enough, or slick enough, or sexy enough to lead the nation. And, some things are simply beyond the pale, like believing in the efficacy of prayer, or...

Social networking has its advantages and disadvantages. Among the latter are the occasional dispute one gets dragged into with someone you think is an imbecile; perhaps an intelligent imbecile, but an imbecile nonetheless. That's a harsh judgment, and I'm sure I'm wrong about the person I disputed with, who I don't even know. But, uses of government power inspire passions for and against, and those who meet the outrage of those imposed upon with "tut-tut-you've-got-it-all-wrong" protestations are apt to provoke a reaction. I fell into the trap the other night on a facebook friend's post--another person I don't know--and want...

What would a birthday be without some commemoration? Noman Says is one year old today. It occurred to me just yesterday that somebody out there might be invoking me as an authority in an argument, or mentioning me in a conversation: "Noman says..." That's my hope, especially for readers overseas. It's been a good year, though I'm amazed I stayed with it. If the President had been less forceful shoving his defective ideas about state power down the country's throat, I might not have. Then, there was the economy--always a lively topic. May it once again become safe in America...

I know that President Obama is cool, and everybody just loves him personally. But, does it ever seem as if he's going out of his way to poke his finger in your eye? Not that you'd mind, of course. Well, it turns out you're most probably right. Rule for Radicals #10 (no, I'm not joking) is "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition." The dark lord of discord, Saul Alinsky, explains: [quote] It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential...

Phil Lawler of CatholicCulture.org offers an in-depth analysis of President Obama's accommodation of the religious Left in the flap over his administration's coercion of religious institutions, most obviously Catholic ones. Catholic Leftist's like Sr. Carol Keehan, D.C., President of the Catholic Health Association--known as Obama's nun; the presumptive Bishop of the American Church recognized by secularists and self-hating Catholics--approve of the State intruding upon the Church's internal governance. They won't object about that until Catholic governance reflects their beliefs, at which time enough will be enough, the lamb will lay down with the lion, and Church-State relations will achieve heights...