Free Republic

A new study from Lifeway Research reveals that “most Americans want more religious meaning to the Christmas season.” Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said, “Christmas should be more about Jesus.”While that might sound like good news for Christians, the number of Americans who want to “keep Christ in Christmas” - while still a majority - is quickly declining. Just four years ago, 79% of Americans (14% more than this year) agreed that “Christmas should be more about Jesus.”The new survey also confirms another interesting fact about the cultural shift taking place in America. According to the data, the number of...

Mansplaining is the tip of the iceberg. Many of the experiences of women in the workforce are so patterned and commonplace they have spawned an emerging vocabulary, which includes terms like bropropriation (when a man takes credit for a woman’s idea). Here, we propose a number of additions to the vernacular, which are likely to remain relevant for the foreseeable future.

Weakening of the family generally occurs in an environment of weakening of religion. As France is gripped by civil disorder, many commentators identify, quite correctly, as the culprit the outsized burden that France's bloated welfare state places on its citizens. According a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the highest tax burden in the industrialized world is in France — 46.1 percent of GDP. In the United States, it is 27 percent, which includes taxes paid at all levels of government — federal, state and local. Welfare state spending in France is 32 percent of GDP,...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday used a terror attack at a famous Christmas market in a small, scenic town in France on Tuesday night to once again argue for more funding for U.S. border security - despite no evidence of links between terror attacks in the U.S. and illegal immigration over the southern border. His call came a day after he threatened to shut down the government if he doesn't get $5 billion for a border wall. "Another very bad terror attack in France," Trump tweeted. "We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give...

The holidays are here, which means it’s time to debate whether or not the lyrics to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” are creepy or just crappy and annoying. According to CNN, Star 102, WDOK-FM, a Cleveland Christmas radio station has decided it won’t be playing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” this year. The 74-year-old song by “Guys and Dolls” writer Frank Loesser is also known on Urban Dictionary as the “Christmas Date Rape Song.”On the station’s website, radio host Glenn Anderson explained that the song is no longer appropriate for #MeToo era: “Now, I do realize that when the song was written...

It’s the Christmas season again, which means it’s time for the annual debate. Well, actually, it’s time for several annual debates: Is “Happy Holidays” a valid greeting, or is it the sign of a Liberal War on Christmas? Is Wham’s “Last Christmas” the GOAT of Christmas songs, or is it a cheesy artifact that should have been left in the 1980s with parachute pants and bleached bangs? Now that we survived the discomfort of avoiding political discussions with Uncle Frank at Thanksgiving dinner, do we really have to do it again at Christmas? What should Starbucks put on their cups?...

Dennis Prager's defense of saying "Merry Christmas"

Is there morality in government? It is expected that our politicians be moral and of good character and integrity. But given the power unlawfully and unconstitutionally usurped by our elected officials, can it be said that any member of Congress fits within a recognized set of moral parameters? After all, it is the moral nature of our legislators which must affect the life, dreams, and hopes of not only this generation but the generations to come. The amount of power which a lazy and cowardly American public has permitted our politicians to take for themselves is staggering. But what else...

Fifty years ago this year, the '60s revolution sought to overturn U.S. customs, traditions, ideology and politics. The '60s radicals eventually grew older, cut their hair and joined the establishment. Most thought their revolution had fizzled out in the early 1970s without much effect, as Americans returned to "normal." But maybe the '60s, not the silent majority, won out after all. The world a half-century later looks a lot more like 1968 and what followed than what preceded it. Most of the political and cultural agenda from that turbulent period -- both the advances and the regressions -- has long...

Did 1968 win the cultural war? Fifty years ago this year, the '60s revolution sought to overturn U.S. customs, traditions, ideology and politics. The '60s radicals eventually grew older, cut their hair and joined the establishment. Most thought their revolution had fizzled out in the early 1970s without much effect, as Americans returned to "normal." But maybe the '60s, not the silent majority, won out after all. The world a half-century later looks a lot more like 1968 and what followed than what preceded it. Most of the political and cultural agenda from that turbulent period -- both the advances...

Consider two Americans. One is named Mike. Mike is a straight white Christian male from a decaying industrial city in Ohio or Michigan. He never knew his father. His mother is hooked on painkillers. His home life isn’t great. Mom’s various boyfriends enjoy smacking him in the face. He gets passed around to a variety of family members. He gets into drugs early. Crime too. He drifts around high school and doesn’t graduate. He has no skills and no prospects. The other American is Malia Obama. Who has the privilege here? Which one of these citizens is going to have...

Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine and three of his associates were in federal custody on Monday after being arrested overnight, according to the New York Police Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, 22, was arrested on racketeering and firearms charges. Law enforcement also arrested Tekashi 6ix9ine's associates, Kifano Jordan, who goes by "Shotti," Jensel Butler, who goes by "Ish," and Faheem Walter, who goes by "Crippy."

NEWS Roy Clark, country guitar virtuoso, 'Hee Haw' star, has died KRISTIN M. HALL KRISTIN M. HALL Associated PressNovember 15, 2018, 1:21 PM CST Country star Roy Clark, the guitar virtuoso and singer who headlined the cornpone TV show "Hee Haw" for nearly a quarter century and was known for such hits as "Yesterday When I was Young" and "Honeymoon Feeling," has died. He was 85. Publicist Jeremy Westby said Clark died Thursday due to complications from pneumonia at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

FreeperBookClub friends (and other book lovers): My latest epic fantasy novel debuts November 15, and since it's written from a conservative perspective, I'm offering free review copies to folks on conservative fora. It's in PDF format, and can be read on mobile phones, Kindle apps, iPads, or any electronic device. The long-term (and subtle) themes for the series include: - A Burkean comparison of French-style "liberation" with true liberty - Conservatism vs. Reaction - Duty before Desire -- the need for rights WITH responsibility

Not easy being a tourist. Went to Germany for some fun but encountered multiculturalism instead. After a long while I accidentally found out that the central station, where we booked our hotel, is a no-go zone. Good times...

It’s been suggested that Americans would be better off if the United States was more like Sweden. Do the Swedes know something that we don’t? Sweden: Lessons for America? A Personal Exploration by Johan Norberg delves into the economic and social landscape of the Swedish scholar’s homeland. Join him to see that the lessons to be learned from Sweden may not be the ones you expect. The one-hour documentary follows Norberg on a journey through the history of Sweden’s economic rise, from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the most prosperous. The program illuminates key...

About a year ago I saw a feminist program which talked about how virginity wasn't such a big deal and how girls should feel free to experience their sexuality so long as pills, creams, condoms, and legal consent forms were involved. Through the course of the program the act of sex was reduced to little more than a routine biological function akin to going to the bathroom or eating. Ironically, as the program sought to warn girls about being objectified it also managed to reduce men into support systems for penises. And the sole purpose of the penis was clearly...

The primary objective of any people who find themselves in the throes of a revolution is to find ways of diverting its logic from its worst conclusions. [....] The logic that drives each turn of our revolutionary spiral is Progressive Americans’ inherently insatiable desire to exercise their superiority over those they deem inferior. With Newtonian necessity, each such exercise causes a corresponding and opposite reaction. The logic’s force comes not from the substance of the Progressives’ demands. If that were the case, acquiescing to or compromising with them could cut it short. Rather, it comes from that which moves, changes,...

Cultural commentator Camille Paglia said in a recently published video that second-wave feminism – in its attempt to destroy men – is also destroying women and our culture. A video of Paglia’s discussion at the Battle of Ideas festival in London in October 2016 has been made available on YouTube and was recently linked to on the Drudge Report. The video is released with the launch of Paglia’s new book, Provocations: Collected Essays. The feminist icon – who prefers the original brand of feminism that won women the right to vote and raised up heroines such as Katharine Hepburn, Amelia...

This is an article I never anticipated writing. It is so deeply violative of American values. But given the growing nature of the American, or un-American, leftist violence, it’s impossible to avoid. The disruption, violence and intimidation tactics of the left have been increasing dramatically since the American people chose Donald Trump as President. And they’ve jumped forward again in the Kavanaugh character assassination hearings. It’s imperative to remember the level of violence and disruption by leftists since November 2016 (although it began before that with Trump supporters being pummelled and chased and bloodied repeatedly.) I won’t reiterate all of...