Free Republic

The saga of Senator John Kerry's $ 7 million sailing yacht tied up on the Newport waterfront in the tax haven of Rhode Island proved again how adept Democrats are at spending other people's money. This time the $7 million was presumably spent from his wife's inherited fortune. But the larger story here isn't about tax havens. And it isn't about hypocrisy. And it's far less about trophy wives with trust funds. It's not even about being a lifelong leech working in government jobs sucking the blood out of beleaguered taxpayers. It's about the increasing distance and disconnects between the...

Caroline Glick’s article on the foreign policy implications of Angelo Codevilla’s essay on America’s Ruling Class comes as Niall Ferguson is touring Australia warning that the end of American dominance may be imminent and sudden. Somehow the ideas in Codevilla’s essay are popping up everywhere, whether people have read it or not. Ferguson describes how rapidly empires can fall. The Bourbon monarchy in France passed from triumph to terror with astonishing rapidity. The sun set on the British Empire almost as suddenly. The Suez crisis in 1956 proved that Britain could not act in defiance of the US in the...

Many of the wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time — and with the same disastrous results. One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control, and plan economic and social policies so that there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things...

Many of the wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time — and with the same disastrous results. One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control and plan economic and social policies so there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things being...

America is struggling with a sputtering economy and high unemployment — but times are booming for Washington’s governing class. The massive expansion of government under President Barack Obama has basically guaranteed a robust job market for policy professionals, regulators and contractors for years to come. The housing market, boosted by the large number of high-income earners in the area, many working in politics and government, is easily outpacing the markets in most of the country. And there are few signs of economic distress in hotels, restaurants or stores in the D.C. metro area. As a result, there is a yawning...

The stimulus may have been too small to save the economy -- at least according to Krugman -- but the expansion of the Federal Government has done wonders for Washington DC. POLITICO has a new report on the wide disparity between the DC economy and that of the rest of the world. The unemployment rate in the nation's capital is just 6%, well below the national average. The housing market, boosted by the large number of high-income earners in the area, many working in politics and government, is easily outpacing the markets in most of the country. And there are...

One of the great myths of the left is that socialism is a movement of the people, the working classes, or the poor. In fact -- as Frederick Hayek pointed out long ago -- all socialist movements are the creation of intellectual elites, liberally pollinated by millionaires. Karl Marx was the kept intellectual of factory owner Frederick Engels; Bill Ayers, a leader of the terrorist cult called the Weatherman, was a scion of the American upper class; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, is a multi-millionairess; Michael Moore, leftwing propagandist, is a multi-millionaire who has profited handsomely from the...

It is time to put together an intervention. Form a new group, call it "Idiots Anonymous," and open it to anyone in the Obama administration with a diploma from an elite university. If you have an Ivy League degree, you get to attend meetings at no charge. And if you're from Harvard...well, you're large and in charge of the meetings. Of course, don't expect the meetings to accomplish much. Generally, self-anointed smart people succeed largely in making themselves comfortable at the expense of what the BP chairman recently described as "small people." Witness the White House entertainment budget and growth...

This is what we are battling against. Not democrats. Not rinos. But the new generation of guilt ridden new world order loons. The battle is lost so long as these are the prevailing ideas of the next generation. We can fight and resist for awhile, but unless we can convert these heathens, we are dinosaurs.

When the administration slapped the wrist of one of its top technology officials this spring for violating Barack Obama’s ethics pledge, a spokesman claimed the breaches were isolated incidents. But a Daily Caller investigation reveals a cavalier attitude at the Obama White House toward longstanding safeguards designed to prevent abuses of the Presidential Records Act and other laws – including acts that carry serious legal implications. Two sources say a top White House technology official, Chief Information Officer Brook Colangelo, routinely asked technology vendors for special deals based on his position as a public official.

Singer explains Benatar’s antinatalist philosophy, which bases its moral framework by weighing the consequences of existence, in this way: “everyone will suffer to some extent, and if our species continues to reproduce, we can be sure that some future children will suffer severely. Hence continued reproduction will harm some children severely, and benefit none.” Singer then invites readers to engage in a thought experiment: "So why don’t we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required — we could party our way into extinction!"

“The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values.” Zbigniew Brzezinski “Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era” 1970 I had an email exchange with a liberal friend of mine the other day. Although we “agree to disagree” on many topics, we sometimes find common-ground. After receiving his reply to my email, I thought to myself, “I’ll bet that there are more than a few liberals who agree with my friend.” That thought led me to consider the possibility that there are...

The denunciation of Palin took place 45 years after William F. Buckley, Jr., wrote: "I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University." From Richard Nixon's invoking the "silent majority" to Palin's campaigning as a devout, plain-spoken hockey mom, conservatives have claimed that they share the common sense of the common man. Liberals—from Adlai Stevenson to Barack Obama to innumerable writers, artists, and academics—have often been willing foils in this drama, unable to stop themselves from...

When it comes to food, President Obama is like any other guy -- upscale with the missus, comfort fast food when he's traveling solo. On Thursday, POTUS made an unscheduled stop by Duff's Famous Wings near Buffalo for the local delicacy. "This is the wing capital!" he explained to reporters. The president opted for medium wings ("Hot"), then -- at the urging of the crowd -- added a few extra spicy ones, plus french fries and onion rings to his order. --snip-- Here in D.C., Obama takes the first lady to upscale restaurants (Komi last week, Nora's, Citronelle, Equinox, Blue...

<p>Sarah Palin continues to fascinate. Each time she punches a hole in political convention or electrifies a Tea Party in Harry Reid’s home county, makes a lunge at TV stardom or a posting on Facebook or Twitter, one is moved to ask what it all means, as if she were a rare species of political unicorn. Equally fascinating—if not more so—is the reaction she continues to provoke in our intellectual and opining elites, on both left and right.</p>

A certain kind of mind believes that human beings exist as objects to be experimented upon as society is perfected by the privileged class -- a utopia engineered by elites. There's a reason why Engels called it Scientific Socialism. Thomas Sowell alluded to it when he wrote: "The grand delusion of contemporary liberals is that they have both the right and the ability to move their fellow creatures around like blocks of wood -- and that the end results will be no different than if people had voluntarily chosen the same action." But Sowell's insight tells only half the story....

Republicans hope a fresh crop of business executives-turned-political candidates can bolster the party’s fortunes in November. In races from California to Ohio, Democrats are targeting several leading GOP candidates who boast long corporate and Wall Street résumés. The Republican campaign committees recruited these candidates because they’re not subject to anti-incumbent anger and many can self-fund their races. Democrats are hoping the anxiety about the economy and the financial bailout will be directed at these corporate executives now seeking office. Two prominent GOP recruits from the business world are California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina (R), who was CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co....

A friend of mine recently forwarded me a question a friend of his had posed: "If/when our Federal Government comes to pilfer, pillage, plunder our property and destroy our lives, what good can a handgun do against an army with advanced weaponry, tanks, missiles, planes, or whatever else they might have at their disposal to achieve their nefarious goals? (I'm not being facetious: I accept the possibility that what happened in Germany, or similar, could happen here; I'm just not sure that the potential good from an armed citizenry in such a situation outweighs the day-to-day problems caused by masses...

Sarah Palin had a busy day last Saturday. She woke up in Cleveland, Ohio, where at noon she spoke at a $2,500-a-plate fundraiser at the Ohio and Cleveland chapters of Right to Life. She then climbed on a Raytheon Hawker 800 twin-jet charter that carried her to Calgary (and believe me, if you want to see how the rich and famous get around, check it out at hawkerbeechcraft. com). From the airport, it was straight to a day room at the Fairmont Palliser where she got lost looking for the pool, and asked directions from a guy in the elevator....

BILL O’REILLY: Do you believe that you are smart enough, incisive enough, intellectual enough to handle the most powerful job in the world? SARAH PALIN: I believe that I am because I have common sense, and I have, I believe, the values that are reflective of so many other American values. And I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the kind of spinelessness, that perhaps is made up for with some kind of elite Ivy League education . . . — The O’Reilly Factor, Nov. 21, 2009 No sooner had I lighted on this exchange than...