Free Republic

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal released the results of a poll performed in conjunction with NBC News. The poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe American society is racist. Seventy-one percent believe race relations are either very or fairly bad. Most troubling, 65 percent of black Americans say that racial discrimination is built into American society, "including into our policies and institutions." The notion that America is systemically racist bodes ill for the future. It's also a dramatic lie. American history is replete with racism; racism was indeed the root of systems ranging from slavery to Jim Crow....

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? REALLY READ IT. Have you tried to understand what our founders thought about how a government should be empowered? It’s an incredible document when talking about freedom. It’s a nasty letter when talking about the King of England. It starts off by saying that the government serves at the will of the people not the other way around: When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of...

This weekend, we celebrate the founding of the greatest nation in the world. We honor the men and women who dedicated—and often sacrificed—their lives to create the land of the free and home of the brave and have defended it for nearly two-and-a-half centuries. I love this country. I join you in celebrating it. But I find myself asking: Is America still the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or is our nation dangerously adrift on a sea of complacency and immorality? Too often we are content to think only of our families and ourselves, ignoring...

The government does a lot that is absurd, foolish, and wrong, but the last thing we should cut is the state’s role in protecting our lives and property. The government does a lot that is absurd, foolish, and wrong, but the last thing we should cut is the state’s role in protecting our lives and property.

Put yourself, in your mind’s eye, back in June 1776, specifically, the period between June 7 and July 1. It is precisely at that time that one of the most crucial political battles in the history of the American republic was fought—the battle over whether the American colonists would, as thirteen united colonies, declare independence to the world. Without that bold step—which put every outspoken leader, national or local, at risk of prison or death—the United States of America would never have been born.Yet the chief leaders of the American Revolution had a serious problem. Despite the broad support for...

The Declaration of Dependence signed by 547 New York City Loyalists in November 1776 was not the only such declaration written and signed by loyal inhabitants of the colony of New York soon after British military forces established their presence in the region. At least three others are known to exist, bearing a total of 3,414 signatures of individuals willing to pledge their support of, and subservience to, the British government.In the December 1776 issue of the London publication The Lady’s Magazine or Entertaining Companion the Fair Sex, Appropriated Solely to Their Use and Amusement under “Home News,” this article...

A federal worker with diabetes says she has to ration her insulin because she can’t afford the medication amid the government shutdown. When Department of the Interior worker Mallory Lorge — who suffers from Type 1 diabetes — felt her blood sugar rise last week, she said she was forced to try to ignore it. “I can’t afford to go to the ER. I can’t afford anything. I just went to bed and hoped I’d wake up,” Lorge told NBC News. Lorge, 31, said she has two vials of insulin left in her fridge — but she’s conserving them as...

The latest hot rumor (well… more than just a rumor since the President confirmed it) in White House personnel shakeups is that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be submitting his resignation this week. While the two-year mark in any administration is a time when cabinet members tend to pack it in if they don’t plan to stay for a full term, there were signs that this might be coming for the past several months. There’s been an obvious and concerted effort to gin up any sort of “scandals” they could find surrounding Zinke, much the same as with other Trump...

A chart of basic biographical data for every signer of the Declaration of Independence. I am actually familiar with just 14 of the 56 names, which is kind of depressing and embarrassing. Almost one half were lawyers. Only one was unmarried. Eleven had at least 10 children. Fourteen lived to be at least 80 years old. Eight were foreign born - from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

Former Navy SEAL and current Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke delivers brief remarks at the Capitol Building in Utah. Prior to President Trump signing a national monument proclamation, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told a packed-house crowd the Antiquities Act, an obscure law that Barack Obama used to broaden federal monuments in Utah, ‘was never meant to prevent. It was meant to protect.’ “Our public land is for the public to use,” Zinke said.

Now that we’ve had a few days to cool down over the riot last Saturday in Charlottesville, we can look at the matter a little more dispassionately and discern a pattern working its way out. The people who organized the so-called “Unite the Right” rally are members of a fringe group that, for better or worse, has come to be called the “alt-right.” Their core ideology appear­s to be that “white men,” that is, those of northwest European heritage, are the bearers of civilization and all that is noble, and are presently under assault by the Left. When President Trump...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visited Bunkerville, Nevada over the weekend and spoke with reporters of his support for the national monuments. In April, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary to review all monuments since 1996 that included more than 100,000 acres. Zinke visited the Gold Butte and Basin and Range National Monuments as part of his review. Zinke told reporters that he is an advocate for monuments. “I am an advocate for public access,” he said. Zinke also said that he is in favor of the traditional uses, specifically citing ‘ranching’ as a part of the culture...

Two Harvard University researchers announced Friday that they have found a second parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence in a tiny records office in southern England. The only other parchment copy is maintained by the National Archives in Washington, D.C., researchers Emily Sneff and Danielle Allen said in a statement. The newly discovered document — which the two have dated to the 1780s — was found in the town of Chichester archives, and is believed to have originally belonged to Duke of Richmond who was known as the “Radical Duke,’’ for the support he gave to Americans during the...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it possesses a “limited amount” of 9mm bullets for agents in the field as well as for training purposes, and it is rationing its ammunition based on internal requests until it can award a new contract. [ ] The apparent role poor planning, or another agenda, played in the issue came to light when ICE said it would have run out of 9mm ammo by June 2017 in the absence of a modified contract with its supplier, Vista Outdoor Inc. So, the agency last month approved a $363,307 ceiling increase to contract No. HSCEMS-11-D-00002....

When Thomas Jefferson crafted the Declaration of Independence, he pointed to “certain unalienable rights” with which we were endowed by our “Creator.” What did he mean when he wrote the phrase “unalienable rights,” and what rights are “unalienable”? Jefferson understood “unalienable rights” as fixed rights given to us by our Creator rather than by government. The emphasis on our Creator is crucial, because it shows that the rights are permanent just as the Creator is permanent. Jefferson’s thought on the source of these rights was impacted by Oxford’s William Blackstone, who described “unalienable rights” as “absolute” rights–showing that they were...

The Justice Department reached a settlement this week with the Denver Sheriff Department, after they allegedly discriminated against work-authorized immigrants by only considering the applications of U.S. citizens. “The Denver Sheriff Department discriminated based on citizenship status by requiring applicants for deputy sheriff positions to be U.S. citizens and publishing job postings with U.S. citizenship requirements, in violation of the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act),” a statement from the DOJ reads.  INA prohibits employers from limiting jobs to U.S. citizens (except where they are required to do so by law).

The Department of Interior’s blog [1] stated Thursday that the biggest threat to seven of the most iconic landmarks in the United States is climate change. “Climate change is the biggest threat to our national parks,” the blog stated. “It’s not just a future threat -- we’re seeing the impacts right now at national parks and other public lands across the country. “We must #ActOnClimate to ensure that current and future generations can enjoy America’s most treasured places,” the blog stated. “If we don’t, we will have to say goodbye to these iconic views.” Here are the seven places the...

In the sadistic era of fraudulent Hope and Change, inspectors general inside the federal government have been kicked, neutered and starved of the authority and information they need to do their jobs. It's transparently clear: President Obama loathes and fears independent watchdogs. Accountability is an empty talking point without whistleblower protection and investigative autonomy. That is why Capitol Hill must do everything in its power to stop the White House war on the public's ombudsmen. Federal inspector generals across dozens of agencies are begging lawmakers to grant them access to public records as guaranteed by the 1978 Inspector General Act....

Many historians call the Founding Fathers "Deists," and many of them were not true Christians -- after all, Thomas Jefferson tore all the miracles out of the Gospels! But judging by the Declaration of Independence, our Founders were more religious than many think: our founding document mentions God no less than four times.This is not to say America was founded as an explicitly Christian nation -- the federal government has never had an established religion. But the Jewish and Christian understandings of God deeply influenced the founding generation, and that influence radiates from the Declaration of Independence.Here are the four...

The Declaration of Independence came under attack from an unlikely quarter—a state legislator. Louisiana lawmaker Barbara Norton (D-Shreveport), argued that America’s founding document was racist during debate on a bill requiring public school students in the state to recite the Declaration of Independence daily, Fox & Friends reported Saturday. “For the Declaration of Independence only Caucasians (were) free,” Norton, who is black, said Wednesday during the debate on the floor of the Louisiana House of Representatives. “And for you to bring a bill to require that our children will recite the Declaration of Independence I think it’s a little bit...