Free Republic

Stealth: (1) the attribute or characteristic of acting in secrecy, or in such a way that the actions are unnoticed or difficult to detect by others. (2) an act of secrecy, especially one involving thievery. It is said that no one can take advantage of you unless you let them. But that assumes that you are aware that someone is trying to take advantage of you. When you are asleep, you are vulnerable to attack by stealth. A thief can sneak up on you in the night without your knowledge,... In its entirety: CFP: “How To Conquer a Country Without...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – The support Chrysler LLC offers the military is “an investment in freedom,” the company’s chief executive officer said today. Bob Nardelli, Chrysler chairman and CEO, talks with Marian Watt of Operation Quiet Comfort on May 16, 2008. Nardelli was at the Pentagon to talk with senior defense officials regarding his company's military-support initiatives. He visited representatives of some 38 troop-support groups who were participating in the 4th Annual America Supports You Salute to Our Military Men and Women. Defense Department photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Bob Nardelli, Chrysler’s top official,...

Barak Obama touts one form of Socialism after another and has the nerve to call it change. Hillary, already known for being a Socialist as well as a bald faced liar is simply annoyed that her chances of making the grade are slipping away. In all her campaign contributions, she has yet to garner enough money to give back the silverware she ripped off when she was in the White House. This is the Democrat’s idea of change. It’s time to face reality. What is really the Republican’s idea of change? The hand wringing over the lack of a genuine...

Bui Tin was a colonel and editor for North Vietnam who later defected and became an opponent of the communist regime. His presence at Independence Palace (later renamed "Reunification Hall" by the communists) on 4-30-75 was in order to accept South Vietnam's surrender. He now lives in France. Below is an English translation of an article he wrote to DCVOnline, a Vietnamese language pro-democracy website, to state his views on the anniversary of April 30, on which date in 1975 the communists took Saigon. I am glad that the freerepublic can be one of the first sites this English translation...

FREE CITIES How About Global Welfare Reform? by Ken Hagerty 04/08/2008 12:00:00 AM THE END OF THE COLD WAR deprived our foreign aid system of its strategic underpinnings. No longer could official development assistance be justified as part of a global struggle between two great superpowers and their competing economic systems. Foreign aid became a more amorphous exercise, motivated by a marbled mixture of altruism, vanity, pragmatism, guilt, and noblesse oblige. Development assistance has become a global welfare system, with many of the same syndromes that afflicted America's war on poverty. In 1996 the United States scrapped the war on...

A friend of mine took his two-year old to the doctor for a check up, but before the checkup there would be some questions. The worst being, "are there any guns in the home". My friends's wife wisely lied to them and said no. My friend has a sizeable collection. Does anyone know what this is all about, has it become common practice? Why is a doctor asking this question? Why does it matter to them? Has some law been slipped through?

The Confluence of Religion & Freedom by Nancy Salvato, Senior EditorApril 28, 2008   “Textbooks today are trapped in an ideological straitjacket that, in contrast to the surrounding popular culture, restricts content and sterilizes social realities.” – The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption I’ve always enjoyed learning about history. When I look back on my history classes, it wasn’t because I was interested in reading the textbooks, it was the teacher who made history come alive, by inserting anecdotes that made it “real,” showing footage of actual events, or by connecting what happened in the past to the present....

At this moment in time, the issue of academic freedom is probably more far reaching and is as great a threat to our liberty as limited school choice, dumbed-down curriculum, lack of accountability, or unsafe school environments, which typically dominate when the topic of education is in the news. Thanks to Ben Stein, the issue of Intelligent Design, which falls under academic freedom is garnering renewed attention and hopefully people will tune in and learn more about the importance of presenting a balanced curriculum in our schools, but even more than that, allowing for a more balanced coverage of issues,...

RENO, Nevada (AP) — Outmaneuvered by raucous Ron Paul supporters, Nevada Republican Party leaders abruptly shut down their state convention and now must resume the event to complete a list of 31 delegates to the GOP national convention. Outnumbered supporters of expected Republican presidential nominee John McCain faced off Saturday against well-organized Paul supporters. A large share of the more than 1,300 state convention delegates enabled Paul supporters to get a rule change positioning them for more national convention delegate slots than expected. "I've seen factions walk out. I've never seen a party walk out," said Jeff Greenspan, regional coordinator...

Russia's greatest living novelist, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is working feverishly to complete his collected works and is writing every day despite failing health, a missing vertebra and being unable to walk, his wife, Natalia, revealed yesterday.

Mocked and belittled Interview: Ben Stein’s new documentary may give macro-evolutionary theory a deserved hard time, and he plans to have fun with it along the way | Megan Basham Bebeto Matthews/AP Though audiences probably know Ben Stein best as the economics teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the actor had a distinguished career preceding the classic '80s movie—just not in the entertainment industry. Long before ad-libbing the world's most famously boring free-market lecture, Stein was a Yale-trained trial lawyer, a professor at Pepperdine University, an economist, and a speechwriter for presidents Nixon and Ford. Even today, along with his...

<p>Imagine: One day you’re frolicking in the open air on a large compound, doing your daily chores, and feasting on hearty homegrown fare; the next you’re gagging on a diet of T&A courtesy of MTV, and fast-food compliments of your fat foster mom. As the makeshift mom hollers at you to swallow your zombifying meds—the Texas foster care system is notorious for pumping its charges full of psychotropic drugs—her flaccid live-in lover eyes you lustily.</p>

Llewellyn Werner, a California investor, admits he is facing obstacles most amusement park developers never have to deal with. Such as insurgent attacks and looting. But when the amusement park you’re building lies in downtown Baghdad, those risks come with the territory. Mr Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is pouring millions of dollars into developing The Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the same firm that developed Disneyland. “The people...

The earliest American definition of liberty—stated frequently by the Founding Fathers—is about constraints on personal actions: if I don’t hurt anybody else, I should be free to pursue my own will. As Thomas Jefferson put it in his first inaugural address, “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” Despite more recent attempts to expand our understanding of freedom to include claims on one another or...

In the aftermath of World War II, statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic recognized that the defense of freedom would require the active engagement of a new generation of leaders. The result was the Atlantic alliance. In the six decades that followed, this alliance helped the West prevail against Soviet communism and ensured the advance of democracy from the Atlantic to the Urals. Today we may be tempted to bask in our achievements and wax nostalgic about all we have been through. But this is no time for nostalgia. At this moment, our alliance now finds itself threatened on...

This master teacher, theologian, Chief Pastor and Pope acted with precision, purpose, and profound care.

VetsCoR Founding Ideals VetsCoR was founded in 2002 because the original members believe, as did our Founding Fathers, in individual Freedom and Liberty, with the individual solely responsible for his or her life. The vision of the Founding Fathers of this great nation was one of free men and women, pursuing life, liberty, and their own vision of happiness, constrained only by their responsibility to do no harm to others. To this end, the Founders wrote one of the most important documents in the history of mankind! Wisely, it specifically limited the role of centralized government and maximized the power...

Would this not send a strong message to support Christianity? Would it not also be a counter to the homosexual “Day of Silence?” Any comments?

Join Honest and Eeevil for two hours of common sense conservative discussion. This week we'll talk about energy and our government's role in the current situation, and the implications of the Security and Prosperity Partnership. http://www.spp.gov (to read about the SPP, you know, the one that doesn't exist but has a government suffix!) Call 646 478 5613 on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 8 pm est. The show is podcast, so just plug the UrL: http://www. blogtalkradio.com/freedom into Itunes and all the shows will be automatically loaded. Bring your popcorn/and or margueritas, we're gonna need 'em! Well, I know I...

I have had it with the political rhetoric in this country -- of the promises from candidates who do not have the constitutional authority to deliver on what they are promising. Obama says he's going to meet with our enemies -- he actually believes, in his arrogance, that all he has to do is say "I'm coming over there," and Captain Marmalade in Iran will be glad to sit down with him, change the error of his ways and become just like people in the United States. Who does he think he's kidding?!! It's going to be just like Mr....

There's a nostalgic quality to the angry demonstrations that have greeted the arrival of the Olympic flame in Europe and the United States this week. For some time now the modern wisdom that has brought young malcontents on to the streets of London, Paris and San Francisco has held the US and its dependable ally Britain to be the root of all evil. Governments from Beijing to Caracas could trample their citizens into the ground and you wouldn't fill a telephone box with people upset about it. But call for the heads of the warmongers Bush and Blair and a...

BAGHDAD — The Raider Brigade Combat Team has a new ally in its mission to help the Iraqi government and Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers build upon the predominately Sunni community of Doura in Baghdad’s Rashid district. The 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, “Warriors” will be attached to the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team next week as part of its mission to help the government and the Iraqi people. “It is our intent to create a safe and stable living environment for the people of the Doura district,” said Army Lt. Col. Timothy Watson, commander of 2-4th Infantry Regiment,...

Muhammad Al-Munajid: Some of these heretics say: "Islam is not the private property of anyone." So what do they want? They say: "No sect has a monopoly on Islam." So what do they want? They say: "We want to issue rulings." Someone who is ignorant, who does not know any Arabic, or who has no knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence wants to issue rulings?! They say: "We reinterpret the texts." There is a very dangerous conspiracy against the religion of Islam in newspapers and in what these people say. A journalist, or one of those lowlifes, wants to... These people are...

Al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahri declared the United Nations an enemy to Muslims and vowed attacks on Jews “wherever they may be found—as prescribed in the Quran.” Zawahiri called twin bomb attacks on U.N. buildings in Algiers which killed 41 people in December and the bombing of a U.N. building in Baghdad in 2003 which killed 22, “down payments on the debt of blood owed by these unbelievers.” UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon issued an urgent plea for mercy to al-Qaeda. “We’re not your enemy, really, we’re not,” Ban insisted. “Look, our Human Rights Commission just voted 32-0 to punish those...

"Contrary to the government's assertion, it is by no means self-evident that a person engaged in extra-territorial or resistance activities — even militant activities — is necessarily a threat to the security of the United States. One country's terrorist can often be another country's freedom-fighter." * * * It happens that those words were written by one of our wisest federal Judges, John Noonan, who rides the 9th United States appellate circuit. He was deciding, in 2004, an immigration case involving a Sikh militant. We thought of the judge's point as we were ruminating on two current criminal prosecutions on...

I don’t know what everyone else is planning on doing with their whopping three to six Benjamins this tax season, but I plan on paying off bills – medical bills, to be more specific. Here’s to stimulating the economy. It’s odd. One year, the IRS is hunting me down, insisting that I owe them thousands of dollars. Now, they are genuinely sorry about that entire hullabaloo a year ago because, really, what’s a grand or two between friends? As a matter of fact, here, just take it back. They don’t need it anyway. Or here’s an idea. How about I...

For Peyton Gilbert, the battle over the Trans-Texas Corridor is reminiscent of the moment in 1836 when Lt. Col. William Travis drew a line in the sand at the Alamo and invited those willing to fight thousands of Mexican soldiers to step across. "That line in the sand is the Trans-Texas Corridor, and it's a threat to our sovereignty again, just like at the Alamo," said Gilbert, 14, who is from Whitehouse, near Tyler. Gilbert was among a large crowd of people who marched down Congress Avenue to the Capitol on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate against the proposed highway-rail-utility corridor...

The West stands by idly as its foundations are rent asunder.Last Friday the UN's Human Rights Council took a direct swipe at freedom of expression. In a 32-0 vote, the council instructed its "expert on freedom of expression" to report to the council on all instances in which individuals "abuse" their freedom of speech by giving expression to racial or religious bias. The measure was proposed by paragons of freedom Egypt and Pakistan. It was supported by all Arab, Muslim and African countries - founts of liberty one and all. European states abstained. The US, which is not a member...

ON MARCH 22, Taiwan's citizens, demonstrating their commitment to a free and open political system, overwhelmingly elected Ma Ying-jeou, the candidate of the Nationalist Party, as their new president. With 76% of eligible voters turning out, Ma beat the Democratic People's Party candidate, 58% to 42%. This represents Taiwan's second peaceful transition of power through free and fair national elections; the first came in 2000, when incumbent President Chen Shui-bian, of the DPP, defeated the Nationalists, who had maintained one-party rule for nearly half a century.

Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.

Fjordman - 3/26/2008 I do not have the time right now to include hyperlinks to every single piece of information stated here, but almost all of this information should be available online with a quick web search. Robert Spencer has dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood in a number of books, for instance in Onward Muslim Soldiers. I would also strongly recommend the recent book "Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam," by former Muslim Patrick Sookhdeo. Sookhdeo does excellent research, particularly regarding the systematic Islamization of Britain, but the same blueprints are used in other countries, too....

This site is awesome. The song "Freedom Never Cries" Most people look at the military as a service to the Government, it is really a service and sacrifice to the people of the United States. God Bless our Troops!

While some may wonder why one would take the opportunity on this Holiest of Holy Days for Christians, to want to call upon the Almighty to Bless our Great Republic and at the same time, all of you, far from being a dichotomy whatsoever, the two invocations, are inextricably entwined Understandably, this devoted observance drives the secular progressives and the illogical fanatics to, and proponents of, The Establishment Clause, bonkers. So be it.

Death could not contain the One who poured Himself out in Love. The light floods the once dark cave and now fills the entire world with hope. Love has triumphed over death and heavens gates have been opened wide.

As those of us who are Christians prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I would like to thank the men and women of our armed forces, past and present, for their sacrifice, which guarantees our right to worship as our conscience dictates. I also pray for their families. Especially those who are separated from their loved one who may be in harm's way. Thank all of your who serve or have served, and your loved ones. May God Bless and Keep you all the days of your lives.

In the turbulent 1960s, a civil rights movement arose that resulted in the creation of a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Soon, there were state commissions on civil rights around the country. Then came the U.S. Commission on the Status of Women. Soon, there followed state Commissions on the Status of Women. Perhaps it is time for a Commission on the Status of Freedom. America grew into a powerful, prosperous nation because its Constitution guaranteed to every citizen the freedom endowed by the Creator. While it took a century to extend those freedoms to black Americans, and to women, the...

TONGREN, China - A Tibetan monk crouched in the quiet courtyard of a nearly deserted monastery and bitterly recalled the words he and his fellow monks have been forced to recite every year at government-organized classes: "I love this country." The "patriotic education classes" have been imposed on the monks for the past decade, but the young monk in the centuries-old Rongwo monastery still can speak his own mind to a journalist. "We want freedom," he said. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back to his land." The monastery is located in the valley town of Tongren, in Qinghai...

Remember Me By Salena Zito Time punishes war. The war in Iraq is no exception; as each moment passes, public resolve, politics and passion erode its mission. Collectively, many Americans tend to remember the mistakes and politics that led us there, rather than the faces of the men and women who serve and defend us. Seven months ago, Lizzie Palmer, a young lady from Columbus, Ohio, barely over the threshold of childhood, felt compelled to do her part to remind people of those faces. The result is a stunning video that was showcased on Chris Wallace's Fox News Sunday last...

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net) A right-wing American weekly newspaper will distribute free copies of a book that insults Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and associates Islam with terrorism, Washington-based news agency America in Arabic reported. The neo-conservative, Republican-oriented Human Events newspaper will distribute Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (2006), America in Arabic said. The book -- regularly priced at 30 dollars -- is released by Regnery, which has published a string of controversial neo-con books and is a division of Eagle Publishing, which owns Human Events. Well-known British writer Karen Armstrong, author of Muhammad: A Prophet...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic states are bidding to use the United Nations to limit freedom of expression and belief around the world, the global humanist body IHEU told the U.N.'s Human Rights Council on Wednesday. In a statement submitted to the 48-nation Council, the IHEU said the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were also aiming to undermine the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "The Islamic states see human rights exclusively in Islamic terms, and by sheer weight of numbers this view is becoming dominant within the U.N. system. The implications for the universality of...

Carmen Peláez is a liberal with a deep laugh and a great sense of the absurd. All of those qualities are tested when she encounters fellow New Yorkers who still admire Fidel Castro. Ms. Peláez, a Cuban-American actress, was born in this country and raised in Miami. She came to New York in 1993 to study acting. In the mid-’90s, she traveled to Cuba to explore the world of her great-aunt, Amelia Peláez, a noted painter who died in 1968. All those experiences pulse through “Rum & Coke,” a one-woman show in which she channels relatives on both sides of...

It's fairly popular in media and other socialistic endeavors around the world to engage in America bashing full time. I mean, we've got this war that seems to be not going to many places (just ask the relatives of Sadam's reign of terror if they're sad) and a political race that is going to boil down to selecting two candidates, Hillary and Oback, that are based on nothing more than "it's our time" and a caricature of the illusion of Camelot during the Kennedy administration which was an illusion of...well, you get my drift. An outside observer would wonder how...

It can be said that modern conservatism knows only two times. There was the time before him and there was the time after him, and those two times could not be more contrasting. In this stark contrast lies his larger-than-life legacy, and let there be no mistake: It is a legacy that will endure the ages.

Free State Project’s Porcupine Freedom Festival PorcFest 2008! When: June 9th – 15th Where: Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire Who: Liberty activists moving to NH or already there Why: Socialize, learn about NH, meet with Freedom/Liberty lovers for a week, have FUN How: Registration Details are at http://freestateproject.org/festival/ PorcFest 2008 is to showcase New Hampshire and the FSP community. Attendees will be able to choose from events in several categories: * Bus Tours: organized trips to various parts of NH * Outdoors: planned hikes and events exploring the environment of NH * Activism: engage in pro-liberty activism in...

Love with the perfect dictator In the liberal breast beats a strange passion for normalizing What's wrong with this picture? "Saying he is no longer healthy enough to hold office, Cuban leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not seek re-election after 49 years in power" — the Miami Herald. Hmm. Castro didn't really have to "seek" re-election, did he? He's a — what's the word? Oh, yeah — "dictator." If he "seeks" re-election, he's pretty much guaranteed to find it — assuming for the purposes of argument you can be "re-elected" if you've never been freely or fairly elected...

>Nebraska State Senator DiAnna Schimek's 20-year legislative career is nearly over. She feels victimized, no doubt, by the voter-enacted term limits that make this her final year in power. Still, Senator Schimek hopes to go out with her boots on, firing one final shotgun blast to maim or kill the initiative process she has long abhorred. You see, it was only through the voter initiative that Nebraskans passed term limits . . . three times. Yup. It took three petition drives and three votes of the people. Of course, term limits passed overwhelmingly each time. But a charmed third initiative...

I am not much of a policy wonk. Rarely do I don my pointy hat and delve into the mysteries of exactly how government tries to run our lives. Usually it is enough for me to spout generalities while railing against bureaucrats, liberals, and eager beaver do gooders who often act as surrogates for government policy in lieu of direct intervention by agencies. No, I have eschewed covering policy for the most part. I am not smart enough and fear if I cram  my head with too much of that stuff, other more important things will dribble out of my...

BELGRADE -- The government has information suggesting that Hashim Thaci will declare Kosovo independence on February 17. In talks with EU High Representative Javier Solana’s adviser Stefan Lene, Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardžić said that the EU could not expect Serbia to sign off Kosovo’s independence, right before a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence, said the Kosovo Ministry. At this moment in time, by signing any sort of agreement with the EU, Serbia would be giving its consent and justification to creating a fake state on its territory, Samardžić reiterated, adding that Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica “will not sign such an...

Skip to comments.(reprise) DFU SONG -- Tribute to President Ronald Reagan (Do You Hear the People Sing)6-2004 | Lyrics, Doug from Upland Posted on 06/05/2004 2:23:01 PM PDT by doug from upland MIDI - DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING Every now and then we find that a great leader comes along One who has greatness that we celebrate in poetry and song He grew up in the Midwest and he had learned his lessons well But how far he would go nobody could really tell His accomplishments were growing but he’s not one who would boast He learned that...

In honor of the 58th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s 39th birthday (quotes below). “We, the members of the New Republican Party, believe that the preservation and enhancement of the values that strengthen and protect individual freedom, family life, communities and neighborhoods and the liberty of our beloved nation should be at the heart of any legislative or political program presented to the American people.” “We believe that liberty can be measured by how much freedom Americans have to make their own decisions, even their own mistakes.” “Families must continue to be the foundation of our nation. Families—not government programs—are the...