Free Republic

Media coverage now implies that the U.S. Supreme Court will determine the fate of President Obama's health care law. But nothing the court decides will keep the law alive for more than a brief period of time...even if the law survives the Supreme Court and the next election, the clock will be ticking.

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on April 3, 1965: If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a...

For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the...

"A hundred dollars on Denver." "You sure?" said the guy at the Las Vegas casino who takes the sports bets. "You don't want the points?" No, things did not look good for the underdog Denver Broncos football team. They suffered three straight ugly losses at the end of the regular season. Their quarterback, Tim Tebow, looked seriously unimpressive. Yet somehow, Denver found themselves in a playoff game against the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. But how can you not pull for Tim Tebow, the polite, respectful rookie quarterback who enjoys stratospheric name recognition, popularity and polarization? Tebow, a devout Christian,...

It was, in it’s way, a great moment. Dumb and profound at once. On NBC television, singer Cee Lo Green ushered in 2012 at a Times Square studio by singing John Lennon​’s leftist anthem “Imagine,” only he updated an originally atheist lyric so that it now came out as a multiculturally sensitive, ecumenical one. In 1971, Lennon wrote and sang about his paradise on earth, in which there’s “nothing to kill or die for/and no religion too.” Green changed that to “nothing to kill or die for/and all religion’s true.”

Such is The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, a scholarly work of over 1400 pages treating, as the foreword says, "the results of modern scientific criticism with rigor and clarity". The writer, Cardinal Martini, Archbishop of Milan, Italy at the time, went on to say that the volume, "will also be an instrument for rich ecumenical dialogue." There are eighty plus contributors (Catholics only) but only three editors, Raymond S. Brown, S.S., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., and Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm. and it is they who give this publication the Nihil Obstat. Most of the books of the Bible are...

Andrew Klavan talks turkey

I hate the death penalty and always have, so I do not say this lightly, but it’s high time even opponents of capital punishment start thinking seriously about executing convicted terrorists. Unlike even the worst criminals such as serial killers, terrorists remain dangerous to societies at large even after they’ve been locked up with life sentences because innocents outside the prison walls are frequently kidnapped to secure their release. The Israeli government just struck a deal with Hamas to free Gilad Shalit, a soldier who was kidnapped five years ago near the border with Gaza. In exchange for Shalit’s release,...

Link.

Presidencies can go through various stages in terms of their effect on the opposition – from eliciting respect and some amount of fear, to provoking anger, to becoming the object of ridicule. Barack Obama has reached the third stage.Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has written a column in which he cites passages from Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress last night and then chronicles the reaction among congressional Republicans, which included chuckles, guffaws and giggles. Hostility to Obama has given way to indifference to what he says; witness the fact the GOP did not even feel the need...

(Charley Reese was a long-time columnist for the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel. He wrote this “545” column in 1985. It has been updated a couple of times since, including here.) Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I...

According to thefreedictionary.com, the definition of the word "acronym" is as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as RADAR for Radio Detecting And Ranging." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, that's a pretty good definition of the word, but it leaves out something very, very important. Acronyms can be a crap load of fun, especially when it's really slow at work, despite Jew Hater Obama's assurances that all is well with economy. On a boring, rainy day when...

“Just to be clear, I’m running for president of the United States of America, and I’m not running for second place.” That was my announcement on Saturday, May 21, 2011, in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. It was a high noon event with over 15,000 of my closest friends in attendance! I wanted to be very clear of my intentions because of the three usual reservations expressed by skeptics about a “dark horse” candidate winning the Republican nomination for the presidency. Name recognition, money and not being a previous officeholder are the usual negatives pointed out by political pundits. My name...

Today is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas of Myra. He was a real man, a bishop (circa 343 AD), a servant of Christ. He did not have reindeer.

-Best of the New Media's Resurgent Right- The Camp of the Saints brings you his regular quote-of-the-week -here-  The Conservative Wahoo sounds the call: Steele Must Go  -here- Moonbattery -this week's RR Featured Blog- finds Bush Derangement Syndrome still raging amongst liberals -here-  The Lonely Conservative reports that serial failure Obama is leaving the economic summit empty handed... is anybody surprised -here-  Adrienne's Corner has an informative Bill Whittle clip on gun rights -here-      Weasel Zippers finds Bubba actually praising W's new book... -here- Fishersville Mike:Coming to Terms with a One-Term Obama  -here- Conservative Pup sees the Communist Party USA dropping all pretenses -here- And So It...

Clip from conservative talk show host Dave Weinbaum's weekly radio show concerning Barack Obama's call for a civilian militia.

Once again, Connecticut and the nation got some “face time” with the former’s state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s press conference, flanked with members who have served in the Unite States Marines and speaks about a son who is now at present serving in the Marines.

Dear FRiends, I am looking for recommendations for a good online commentary on the Gospel of Luke.

I've been hearing this a lot on the radio while traveling thru Illinois and Indiana. Thought I would share...

Barbara from Harlem (a frequent caller to the Mark Levin Show) and her co-host provide commentary on the response of those who blindly defend President Barack Obama's policies. They also update their listeners on the Climate Gate controversy. They bring straight conservative talk from black Americans to all Americans. Check out the site!

Charles Krauthammer CALLS IT AS HE SEES IT. Your daily dose of Charles Krauthammer. His analysis is always on … and so for your listening pleasure … the entire commentary.

When one is close to Jesus, doing the will of the Father, it is a closeness that can only be described in famililial terms. Saint Francis also spoke about the "family" of God. In his Letter To The Faithful, he says, "To all those who love the Lord with their whole heart, with their whole soul and mind, with their whole strength (cf. Mk 12:30) and love their neighbors as themselves (cf. Mt 22:39) and hate their bodies with their vices and sins, and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and produce worthy fruits of penance:...

Our Presidents and the Congress swear to defend it. Men and women have died to preserve it. Groups as diametrically opposed as the ACLU and NRA defend the rights enumerated in it. So why do average Americans seem so indifferent toward the Constitution? Make no mistake that there are those without who wish to destroy our Constitution and those within who profit from its demise. The only thing left to impede their success is an apathetic American public. Americans should demand that Congress make a simple resolution and reaffirm their commitment to our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and particularly...

Decline Is a Choice The New Liberalism and the end of American ascendancy. by Charles Krauthammer 10/19/2009, Volume 015, Issue 05 The weathervanes of conventional wisdom are registering another round of angst about America in decline. New theories, old slogans: Imperial overstretch. The Asian awakening. The post-American world. Inexorable forces beyond our control bringing the inevitable humbling of the world hegemon. On the other side of this debate are a few--notably Josef Joffe in a recent essay in Foreign Affairs--who resist the current fashion and insist that America remains the indispensable power. They note that declinist predictions are cyclical, that...

OK, so JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and a talented cast (to whom, if things are really fair, a lot of the credit must be given) successfully rebooted Star Trek. Obviously there will be another film, and if nearly thirty years of films in the franchise have taught us anything, it is that making a crappy Trek film is all too easy. So what next for the series? More Shakespeare? Or something else? Based on recent comments, it sounds like Star Trek 2 (or whatever it will be called) could get all sorts of modern, at least from a...

As we reported Tuesday, industry pub Inside Radio said that Palin reps were making discreet inquiries to see if how radio syndicators might be interested in Sarah Palin. Well, it didn't take long for the Palin-hatin' drive-by media to try to shoot that buzz down and smear Palin in the process. On the website of Broadcasting & Cable, an establishment industry pub, contributing editor Paige Albiniak attempts to make us believe that syndicators have no interest at all in Sarah Palin: "My own sources say much what they said when asked about a TV show for Palin: Don’t think so....

Links to some of my favorite conservative blog posts over the past two days. Good way to catch up on what you may have missed this weekend.

(WSWS) -- Several current and former agents within the National Security Agency (NSA), speaking on condition of anonymity, have told the New York Times that the spy agency likely monitors millions of e-mail communications and telephone calls made by Americans. The new revelations follow the disclosure in April that the NSA’s monitoring of domestic e-mail traffic broke the law in 2008 and 2009. Last year, Congress passed legislation providing the NSA greater latitude to spy on the communications of Americans, so long as it resulted inadvertently from the agency’s efforts to spy on foreigners or those it “reasonably believed” to...

... For conservative commentators Mr. Obama’s election and the turmoil of the opposition present a changed environment, not only from the past eight years when Republicans held the White House, but from the previous three decades, when conservative ideas dominated the national political agenda. Since the financial meltdown, though, many Americans have sought government action, prompting conservative magazines to refocus on first principles and refight battles they assumed had already been won. “We’re seeing free-market capitalism trampled in some new way every 12 hours,” said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, the magazine William F. Buckley started in 1955, which...

Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last — but that it was essential and inevi­table to torture to death only one tiny creature . . . and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you con­sent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth — The Brothers Karamazov. + + + A dangerous and divisive precedent is being set by the hi­jacking of L’Osservatore Romano, at the hands of its editor, Giovanni Maria...

Rush Limbaugh and others talk about old friend Cal Thomas, holding the conservative line for a quarter century.

U.S. Stimulus Package Passed! Salvation for Everyone! It’s true. I know, hard to believe, but it is true – believe it! This is truth, change and hope for all Americans, for all world citizens, for all to believe in! While the entire U.S. economy, and by default, the world’s economic condition, balanced on the very precipice of falling into the abyss of depression, catastrophe and collapse, the U.S. government passed the greatest increase in government spending and powers in the history of…well, history. On the night of its passage, in the last minutes before total financial Armageddon, on the very...

While Europe was drenched in blood, what was happening in the United States? True, America lost soldiers in World War I. And even more American soldiers gave their lives in World War II. Yes, America suffered through the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. And yes, America had equality issues still unaddressed in the first half of the twentieth century. But, even given our country’s failures, the citizens of the United States enjoyed relative peace, political freedom, personal liberty, and economic opportunities that the rest of the Western world – even enlightened Britain – could not match....

In recent years many politicians, members of the media and pop culture icons, posing as paragons of tolerance, charity and virtue have begun to accept and promote Godless secular beliefs, multiculturalism, socialism and Marxism as the way to prosperity. In addition, many who famously inherited a richly blessed conservative heritage have turned their back on it in favor of wealth, fame, glamour and acceptance by radically secular, left wing, no growth eco-Marxists. As these events have unfolded many conservative websites and Internet radio programs have tried to alert the masses and fight back by actively promoting self-reliance, utilitarianism and Judeo-Christian...

EL MARCO takes his camera on a tour of BLUE Colorado. Psychedelic cops, One World Cafe, and Radical Colorado

Catena Aurea Luke 13: 1-9 1. There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2. And Jesus answering said to them, Suppose you that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3. I tell you, Nay: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. 4. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5. I tell you, Nay: but, except you repent,...

He'll be talking about his book: "Preferential Policies: An International Perspective"Just a heads up about everyone's favorite columnist. CSPAN 2 Saturday 3 PM PDT, 6PM EDT.

Programming Note: • Dan Proft will join WLS morning personality Jerry Agar for a post-State of the Union address discussion this evening on WLS-AM 890 (www.wlsam.com) beginning after the Democrat response to the President's address which is expected to be approximately 9pm CST. Proft and Agar will talk politics and policy until 12:00 midnight tonight. Their guests will include Congressman Peter Roskam, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., University of Chicago international relations professor Charles Lipson, and retired two-star Gen. David Harris. • Showing his range (in an admittedly disturbing way), you can also hear Proft on the Don Wade & Roma...

Programming Notes: Fresh off his uncontrollable lurch into the insight that Clinton and McCain would win their respective New Hampshire primaries, Proft will be on Bruce DuMont's "Beyond the Beltway" program Sunday night. That's 6-8pm on WLS-AM 890 with a television rebroadcast of the program's first hour at 10:30pm on WYCC, Channel 20. On Wednesday, January 16, Proft will join Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform) and Ramesh Ponnuru (National Review) for a panel discussion sponsored by the America's Future Foundation (http://www.americasfuture.org/) entitled "The State of the Republican Brand." The event is from 7-8:30pm on Jan. 16 at the Union...

Programming Note: Fresh off his uncontrollable lurch into the insight that Clinton and McCain would win their respective New Hampshire primaries, Proft will again be on the one hour televised version of Bruce DuMont's "Beyond the Beltway" Sunday night at 10:30pm on WYCC, Channel 20. For the radio version of BTB from 6-8pm Sunday evening on WLS-AM 890, DuMont will be broadcasting live from Grand Rapids, Michigan. ________________________________________ I do not pretend to understand the mind, to the extent there is such evidence, of the befuddled iteration of Homo sapiens known as the Democrat primary voter. Thus, in order to...

“Right Night: NRO Takes Manchester” will feature our version of the three wise men: the tremendous trio of Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long, and Mark Steyn. The night will be cosponsored by the good folks at the new Center for the Renewal of New England Politics and Culture at the Granite State’s own Thomas More College. See You Tomorrow in Manchester [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If you signed up for the Long-Steyn-Goldberg show, you'll be getting an e-mail tonight. Basically starts at 4:30, runs to a bit after midnight at the Manchester Radisson. Some special guests on site are rumored to include...

If the Aryan Nation plotted to develop a media property designed to denigrate and destroy black culture, could they do a better job than Black Entertainment Television (BET)? This question occurred to me after learning that BET executives invited two of the "Jena Six" to present the award for Best Hip-Hop Video last week at their annual hip-hop music awards. The answer ossified into the indisputable after hearing one of BET's newsreaders actually compare the Jena Six to the "Little Rock Nine" from a half century earlier. Let's explore this comparison. In Little Rock in 1957, nine black students were...

The State Department has designated Fatah al-Islam, a self-declared al-Qaeda affiliate of Sunni Muslim extremists based in northern Lebanon, a “terrorist” group. Back in March, the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, explained that this outfit, consisting of a relatively small number of fighters but heavily armed, was actually a creature of the United States. In line with a reorientation of U.S. policy to bolster Sunni Muslims in the growing contest with the Shiites of Hizballah and its controlling hands in Iran, the U.S. had covertly joined with Saudi Arabia to support the terrorists of Fatah al-Islam.

Are reporters above the law? Should they be? We have lately been running laps around this block in connection with the 2005 leak of the NSA terrorist surveillance program and the 2003 exposure of Valerie Plame’s CIA status. The first of these two episodes did not land any reporters into trouble, but a federal grand jury is still hearing evidence in the case and there was movement in the case last month. The second led to Judith Miller of the New York Times being put in the slammer by a court. There she remained for 85 days, until she disgorged...

The opinion writers for the New York Times do not seem to have gotten the news that the troop surge is working. (For the latest indication, see this USA Today story reporting that “the number of truck bombs and other large al-Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq have declined nearly 50 percent since the United States started increasing troop levels in Iraq about six months ago.”) Columnist Nicholas Kristof writes today that “staggering on” in Iraq will only delay “the inevitable”—that is, our defeat. Oddly enough he buttresses this argument with an analogy to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He argues that...

Last week we sat down for an interview with Max Boot, a regular contributor to this blog and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Boot talks about “How Not to Get Out of Iraq” (his article in the September issue of COMMENTARY), General Petraeus’s September report, the war in Iraq, and more. Follow the Link: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/peach/790

On the television program, the Gong Show, any of the three judges could sound a large gong if one of the acts being rehearsed by amateur performers was particularly poor. At this past Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, sponsored by the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson was asked a simple question: “Do you think homosexuality is a choice, or is it biological?” His answer: “It’s a choice!” Wrong answer! No one sounded a gong, but given the ensuing raised eyebrows, the ensuing criticism, the ensuing Richardson campaign “clarification,” and the ensuing Richardson excuse—“jet lag”—one should...

It’s time to declare victory and go home. That was the formula that Senator George Aiken famously suggested for Vietnam in 1966. Today, it bears relevance to Iraq. No, not to the U. S. military presence in that country, but to the Democrats in Congress. Since November, the Pelosi-Reid Democrats have demonstrated shocking disdain for the well-being of our country. Their only concern has been to defeat or embarrass George W. Bush. Once, one of the noblest American traditions held that politics stops at the water’s edge. But, for the Pelosi-Reid Democrats, it seems that the inverse is true: namely,...

Last week, the New York Times published a curious op-ed entitled “Why Africa Fears Western Medicine,” by Harriet A. Washington. The piece was published days after the Libyan government’s release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been falsely accused of injecting hundreds of children with H.I.V., and then sentenced to death (the release was arranged, with much fanfare, via a $426 million ransom paid by European governments). Washington writes that “to dismiss the Libyan accusations of medical malfeasance out of hand means losing an opportunity to understand why a dangerous suspicion of medicine is so widespread...

If you want an illustration of the old adage that “good news is no news,” simply try to find stories about the pilgrimage by tens of thousands of Shiites to the Kadhimiya shrine in northwest Baghdad on Thursday. There were a few accounts—see, for instance, this New York Times article and this from the Los Angeles Times—but they were buried deep inside the newspapers. What happened on Thursday was pretty remarkable: nothing. At least nothing terribly violent. Last year at least twenty pilgrims were killed by sniper and mortar attacks. In 2005, 1,000 pilgrims died on a bridge after rumors...