Free Republic

Four times last month, pollsters gauged voters' opinion of the Democratic-run Congress and four times they came back showing almost 3 in 4 Americans disapproving of its performance. But if voters think they hate Congress now, just wait until next January when, as expected, they twin a Democratic Congress with a Democratic president who today is Congress' most liberal member. Besides ensuring the continued crippling increases in energy prices that will leave tens of millions of Americans shivering in their homes for many winters to come while guaranteeing the death of millions of jobs and a more rapid decline in...

I. In the early 1990s, optimism was understandable. The collapse of the communist empire and the apparent embrace of democracy by Russia seemed to augur a new era of global convergence. The great adversaries of the Cold War suddenly shared many common goals, including a desire for economic and political integration. Even after the political crackdown that began in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the disturbing signs of instability that appeared in Russia after 1993, most Americans and Europeans believed that China and Russia were on a path toward liberalism. Boris Yeltsin's Russia seemed committed to the liberal model of...

...Preparedness activity is difficult to track statistically, since people who take measures are usually highly circumspect by nature, said Jim Rawles, the editor of www.survivalblog.com, a preparedness Web site. Nevertheless, interest in the survivalist movement “is experiencing its largest growth since the late 1970s,” Mr. Rawles said in an e-mail, adding that traffic at his blog has more than doubled in the past 11 months, with more than 67,000 unique visitors per week. And its base is growing. “Our core readership is still solidly conservative,” he said. “But in recent months I’ve noticed an increasing number of stridently green and...

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically: “We are watching the world of yesterday.” Europe is turning Muslim. As Broder is sixty years old he is not going to emigrate himself. “I am too old,” he said. However, he urged young people to get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand....

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies. At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in...

One thoughtful article on the internet observed that Bible-believing Christians have not achieved much in politics because they have not devoted themselves to the larger arena of cultural conflict. Politics mostly follows culture rather than leading it. The cultural idea that women have an alleged right to sexual "freedom" preceded the striking down of restrictions on abortion. A temporary victory in the voting booth does not reverse a downward moral trend driven by cultural gatekeepers in news media, entertainment, art, and education. Politics is not a cure-all. So shall we train Christian people to take positions of power in education...

I am not in the habit of posting vanities, but I consider this an important topic, and I have not seen any articles in the MSM or alternative media about it. As an investor, I try to consider the probability of various outcomes happening, and plan accordingly. Rather than react when it is too late, I prefer to plan well ahead and consider contingencies. I regard the potential change in power in DC in 2008 as a distinct threat to individual financial security, and perhaps even to individual liberty. First, although McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, claims that he will...

Folks, whether you avoid thinking about it or not, we may be governed by socialists in all three branches of our government next year. We are going to get a Liberal administration one way or another. We already have Liberal judges all over the country. In the worst-case scenario, we would also get a bigger-margin Democratic congress with Liberals in the leadership positions. As conservatives we don't feel doom and gloom all the time as Liberals do (except now they have 'hope and change'). Lives go on. A good thing about being a conservative is that we prepare for a...