Free Republic

What Is It We're Celebrating, Exactly? Submitted by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,The Fourth of July has become like Christmas – a kind of ersatz celebration with forms but not much significance.What is it we’re celebrating, exactly?A historical event – the successful separation of the colonies from the British empire.The secession of the colonies. Their rejection of the arbitrary authority of the British king and parliament.Good for the colonists.What about us?Do we not also live under the authority of arbitrary government? A president and Congress?An endless conga line of bureaucrats and apparatchiks?Sometimes, we get to vote for some of them. Our...

Five years ago I warned readers that folks on the left do not care one whit about your religious liberty. Four-and-a-half years ago, Pope Benedict voiced particular concerns about "certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion". Four years ago, the US Bishops launched the first annual Fortnight For Freedom,  running from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day. This event, once unnecessary but now imperative, seeks "to highlight the importance of defending religious freedom" in America. Unfortunately, the situation for...

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY Let us once again put INDIVIDUAL interests over “public” (government) interests. Let us proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the people (Lev. 25:10). On this Independence Day, July 4, 2016, we find ourselves wanting to celebrate freedom but freedom and the Constitution and their true meaning is no longer taught in schools. Instead socialism, the synonym for tyranny and big government, is taught and broadcast throughout the land. We’re not even sure what liberty and freedom means and many are not even sure freedom is desirable for individuals and society. How did we reach this...

There was a time when the Fourth of July meant something more than a three-day weekend. Speeches, writings and commemorative ceremonies reminded us of the origins and greatness of America. No matter where in the world our ancestors came from, we today are almost invariably better off because they came to America. Independence Day signified much more than one country announcing its independence from another on July 4, 1776. It represented a new form of government — freer and more accountable to its own people than the monarchies common around the world for centuries. What happened in America did not...

This upcoming election will determine whether the sacrifices made by those before us to preserve and make flourish our way of life will have been in vain. Will American continue to be a free country in which we are empowered to see to our own needs and have equal protection under the law? All of that is under attack by those who do not believe in freedom and distrust the American people. They wish to continue the deconstruction of our nation that is currently in progress by those in power who are, at best, indifferent. This is not a time...

During the Bretton Woods Conference, in 1944, Lord Halifax is said to have “whispered to Lord Keynes: ‘It’s true: they have the money bags but we have all the brains.’” By “they,” Halifax meant the Americans.His frustration with the American mind—often prosaic and anti-intellectual—during the critical Bretton-Woods negotiations seems as valid today. As odious as Britain’s elites are; boy, are they cleverer than ours. Take the impromptu interview, on June 28, which Richard Quest, CNN’s imported British broadcast journalist, conducted with Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party.Farage had emerged exhilarated from the coven that is the European Parliament,...

In the wake of England’s historic Brexit vote, and during America’s own Fourth of July celebrations, we’re reminded that man’s longing for individual freedom is a contagion, and that to declare independence from overreaching governmental control is a big part of the cure. Still, while the UK’s recent “Declaration of Independence” from a decidedly socialist European Union was largely driven by socio-economic considerations, not to mention a desperate attempt to remedy Britain’s demographic suicide cocktail of political correctness, multiculturalism and deadly immigration jihad, America’s own freedom revolution was driven by a longing for both fiscal independence and, to a larger...

It’s a strange world. Tomorrow, while we celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, proclaimed precisely 240 years ago, voters in Great Britain are declaring their independence. Not from us, but the European Union. Still, President Obama waded into their internal politics to warn that a vote to leave the EU would put our so-called BFN (best friend nation) at the back of the bus as far as making any trade deal with the U.S. As an aside, I’ve always thought that opening markets, freeing up trade, shouldn’t require elaborate wheeling and dealing. Complicated agreements tend to serve the...

On Independence Day, remember and pray for all American patriots, American soldiers, and American heroes who sacrificed their freedoms and gave their lives The American flag has been a symbol of pride, of hope, of freedom, of liberation, of exceptionalism, of courage, of inspiration, of strength, and of power. It pains me to see anti-American elements, the enemies of freedom, Islamists, communists, and other traitors burn it, trample it, tear it, trash it, and do unspeakable things to it. Our Stars and Stripes must be properly folded, stored, and disposed of. Yet the Rhode Island Veterans cemetery where Stan Sniezyk’s...

"Since well before 1787, liberty has been understood as freedom from government action, not entitlement to government benefits." [Quote #7 - in dissenting opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges.]

The night after the vote for an independent United Kingdom from the European Union had concluded I found myself at dinner with my wife trying to explain why the world portrayed by many financial analysts and news outlets was so filled with doom and gloom. “Why does the UK leaving the EU necessitate a global or UK financial meltdown?” she asked. And then it hit me, this was the question the world’s largest financial publications were failing to ask, or at the very least to answer honestly. The answer to this question can be as complex as you would like...

In an apparent rejection of the basic principles of the U.S. economy, a new poll shows that most young people do not support capitalism. The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it. It isn't clear that the young people in the poll would prefer some alternative system, though. Just 33 percent said they supported socialism. The survey had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points. The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism...

If freedom holds any value, we must educate our neighbors to the link between property and human rights, and the dangers of a government that can peel off either on a whim President Obama is successfully executing the most dangerous seizure of individual choice in our history because Americans are growing blind to the bond between property rights and human rights. While farm owners surrender their land development rights to governments, federal agencies relocate affordable housing next to million dollar homes, and declare entire neighborhoods discriminatory.

The momentous victory for the Brexit campaign signals a new era of freedom for the British people. After more than four decades of being shackled to the European Union (previously the European Economic Community), Great Britain has declared its independence. The vote for Brexit is a vote for sovereignty and self-determination. Britain will no longer be subject to European legislation, with Britain’s Parliament retaking control. British judges will no longer be overruled by the European Court of Justice, and British businesses will be liberated from mountains of EU regulations, which have undermined economic liberty.

My friend Kathy Shaidle has recently posted a no-holds-barred article on the disaster of “hate speech” legislation, focussing on a proposed Liberal bill to punish “anti-transgender speech” by up to two years in prison. She reminds us that such totalitarian interventions into a presumably democratic society are by no means unique to Canada. As she writes, “bear in mind that New York state, for one, already has similar laws on the books, and they carry fines of up to $250,000. And [an] Oregon 'transmasculine' teacher got $60,000 because her colleagues wouldn’t refer to ‘it’ as ‘they.’”The notion of “hate speech”...

Let’s get it straight. Government self-interest is opposed to the Constitution and individual freedom. State and individual self-interest - embodied in the Constitution and state and individual freedom - is opposed to government self-interest. By its very nature the central government is against the interests of the states and the people. That is why we have a Constitution, to keep this potential monster in its constitutional cage. Again, let’s get it straight. Political government basically does only one thing well: coerce and kill. Government is VERY GOOD at coercion and killing. A good government, limited by the rule of law,...

A former USN Seal’s epic rant trashes Ophonybama and Hitlery’s call for disarming American citizens! http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2016/06/19/8840663677568566951/480x270_8840663677568566951.mp4

A reader who works for the Department of Defense, reacting to my post from earlier today about the State Department’s instructing Fulbright scholars in gender ideology, says this memo was sent around this morning to thousands of employees of that particular agency: This [meeting] will focus on the importance of being able to move from tolerance and acceptance to embracing diversity. We have all observed and been on the receiving end of each of these different levels of human interaction. We can state with absolute certainty the distinction between being tolerated and being embraced, for instance. There are confidence impacts....

I doubt they see the irony. In Philadelphia, where American freedom was born, they’re taxing soda pop. That’s because it’s bad for you. Too much sugar, too much carbonation, too much freedom. So the city council has imposed a tax. It’s being seen as a victory over evil soda pop corporations. Somewhere along the way, apparently, Coca-Cola became the antichrist. And somewhere along the way, apparently, people became incapable of running their own lives. And in the city where men in Independence Hall declared that humankind is endowed at birth with liberty and the right to pursue a self-determined happiness,...

In what is being called “the mother of all corrections,” the American Journal of Political Science has admitted that the results of a study it published were unintentionally misrepresented. The study, “Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies,” purported to show that conservatives are marked by an authoritarian streak. After the study had garnered much scholarly attention, Steven Ludeke and Stig H. R. Rasmussen of the University of Southern Denmark noticed that the data did not support the published results. The correct conclusion is that liberals, particularly economic liberals, lean toward authoritarianism. This study, which was...