Free Republic

A Glimpse into the Future By Norma Zager “Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parent, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers” Socrates(470-399 B.C.) Despite the constant egregious flow of rhetoric from our obnoxious politicians, the voice of reason occasionally emerges like a small flower through the weeds in surprising places. Last evening in my university classroom, I was taken by the fresh bloom emerging through the dense grass of our all-too-common uncivil social discourse. Although narcissistic politicians would have us all believe the American people condone their vision for future generations, I was quite hopeful to hear the...

ALBANY, N.Y. – In a Republican Party struggling to find its identity, the surprise withdrawal of the chosen GOP candidate for a New York congressional race amid a rising conservative upstart renews a lingering national debate: Are moderates welcome in today's Grand Old Party? The question became even more relevant Sunday when the ex-candidate, state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, threw her support behind the Democrat in the race rather than the Conservative Party candidate favored by fellow Republicans. The GOP leadership insisted on Sunday political TV talk shows the party is strong and inclusive while Democrats described a Republican party out...

Eight billion dollars isn’t enough — not nearly enough. It’s not often you’ll hear this newspaper make a statement like that. Usually we are urging fiscal restraint. But if this country truly wants high-speed rail, we’re going to have to get serious about the effort. Eight billion dollars won’t get us there. That’s the amount of federal stimulus money promised by the Obama administration for high-speed rail. Already the administration has received requests from 24 states for projects amounting to $50 billion in high-speed projects. It also has received $7 billion in requests from states wanting to improve rail travel...

The past and future of the Leftby Guy Rundle Monday, 28 September 2009 Years ago, I remember seeing a Hinze cartoon in the study of a friend, a Left Labor activist. It showed an inner city 90s teenager — opshop clothes, funny haircut — with a placard “no third runway” about to go off to a demo. “Coming to the airport protest Dad?” she said to an aging figure hunched over a chunky 90s computer. “No thanks, I’ve got to write another article on the death of the left,” said the harried, bearded figure. It was clear that Hinze’s sympathies were with the kid,...

Alex Kurtagic’s dystopian novel, Mister attempts to illustrate the everyday consequences of living in a world in which current social, cultural, political, economic, and demographic trends have been allowed to continue. It treats the result of the liberal utopians’ efforts with sarcasm and derision, but its main target is the so-called “respectable conservative,” that has the right instincts and is fully aware of the destructive forces at work in Western societies, but is too preoccuped with maintaining social status and professional prestige to risk voicing politically incorrect opinions. He silently opts for a reactive strategy of avoidance and adaptation, rather...

Maglev is environmentally friendly and eliminates the need for fossil fuels in transporting goods.Cal State Long Beach was awarded in September $245,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation to support the engineering department for research on magnetic levitation technologies. Magnetic levitation, or maglev, is a form of transportation technology that eliminates the need for any type of fossil fuel because it uses electricity and a system of powerful magnets to lift and propel. The CSULB engineering department is working with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories to develop a maglev system to be used for moving goods and other cargo. This system...

On his blog recently, Paul Krugman has a post on how we are doing in our effort to increase current GDP. It seems, the target of Keynesians, ever and always, is raising GDP a bit more, in both good times and bad times. In fact, I believe that effort goes a long way toward creating an on-going boom and bust cycle and asset bubbles in the U.S. One problem, not well understood, is that policy has serious implications for the longer run welfare of the U.S. economy.

First there was the bagless vacuum cleaner, then the towel-less hand dryer: Now James Dyson, the British inventor, has developed a bladeless electric fan which goes on sale on Tuesday in the US and Australia. The Dyson Air Multiplier fan – which looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie – uses advancements in airflow engineering instead of traditional blades to ‘multiply’ air 15 times and push out 119 gallons of smooth and uninterrupted air every second.

I’ve seen the future, and it’s black and white. It was a sunny Sunday morning in our Lower East Side community playground, animated by a frenetic blur of whooping kids, my own included. Alone on a bench, I’d neglected to bring a book from home and wasn’t in the mood to socialize with the parents nearby. I opted instead to subject the ad-hoc collection of children to an informal Jewish identity census. Before disclosing the outcome of this thoroughly unscientific survey, it’s important to recall that this neighborhood was once the beating heart of Jewish life in America and the...

The Irony of Immortality By Norma Zager The recent scene in a West Wing rerun was startling familiar. It dealt with Iran’s pursuit of The Bomb and the United States’ warning to Israel to discontinue settlement activity. It could have been filmed this morning and yet it was ten years old. Is this a tribute to Aaron Sorkin and his fellow writers’ ability to foresee the future? Or is it merely a testament to man’s inability to evolve? Watching the story unfold I was struck by a great irony. Man’s driving force is his desire for immortality. This fuels his...

The next 100 years George Friedman Published 27 August 2009 Japan and Turkey form an alliance to attack the US. Poland becomes America’s closest ally. Mexico makes a bid for global supremacy, and a third world war takes place in space. Sounds strange? It could all happen. . . In 1492, Columbus sailed west. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. These two events bracketed the European age. Once, Mayans lived unaware that there were Mongols, who were unaware there were Zulus. From the 15th century onwards, European powers collectively overwhelmed the world, creating the first truly global geopolitical system in...

QADISIYAH, Iraq, Sept. 2, 2009 – Children here are getting an opportunity most of their parents never had, as they plan to move into a new school later this year as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project. Construction on Al Hasan Al Basri school, a project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division, began in April 2009 in Qadisiyah province, Iraq. Amenities include 12 classrooms, an administrative area, library, potable water system, communication system with Internet capabilities and fire alarm system. Courtesy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Most of the people...

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what is likely to happen in the future. I can't help but think the clues are obvious, and will be glaringly so in hindsight. Does anyone recall Rhett Butler's comments about the fast-approaching Civil War? "I mean...there's not a cannon factory in the whole South....I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we. They've got factories, shipyards, coal mines... and a fleet to bottle up our habours and starve us to death. All we've got is cotton, and slaves and ...arrogance." So what are we facing? Inflation? Deflation?...

Anyone with an active interest in economics, or with the kind of bank account and job that causes them to read the Wall Street Journal should by now have a very good sense of what is coming down the pipe in the USA. Most of the rest of the world – especially the Chinese – seem to have a very good sense of it. While it is true that the USA is full of ingenious and enterprising people, and so probably won’t go up in a puff of smoke, it may soon be over in its current incarnation. And here’s...

"Just 20 percent of our people are good. 80 percent are bad. You should know that....We're Arabs. But first we are selfish and greedy." -"Sayid" Women look at Iraqi soldiers on a patrol on the outskirts of Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad November 23, 2008. REUTERS/Atef Hassan Introduction excerpt from Michael Totten's The Future of Iraq Pt. IV: Getting an accurate reading of Iraqi public opinion is hard. It might be impossible. I've seen Iraqis cheer American soldiers, and I've seen some Iraqis hug American soldiers in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Baghdad. A few weeks ago, though, hundreds...

If all past, present, and future leftist, socialistic legislation really can't be either undone or successfully changed to pro-conservative, pro-capitalistic, pro-free market solutions instead by any future non-leftist politicians, then what's the point in even seriously running for any future elections in any political office? "Yea! I'm for conservative this, and for conservative that, but "Cap and Trade", socialized health care, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and any other leftist legislation really can't be stopped, because it's already law and permanently in place forever! But, vote for conservatives, anyways!" That makes sense-not!

If all "non-leftist" candidates for political office, in '09 and beyond, really don't have the definitive solutions to actually either "fixing" or actually "getting rid of" Cap and Trade, socialized health care, and everything else that's pro-leftist on all of the issues, then what's the point in even running for any political office? If this country is really screwed for, both, the short-term future and the long-term future, thanks to leftist legislation that's either already intact or will be soon enough, then what's really going on here with those running as the opposition to socialism?

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, July 14, 2009 – Joint operations have become a key term for U.S. and Afghan forces, particularly for soldiers assigned to the Cherokee Troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, here. U.S. soldiers from Cherokee Troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, and Afghan National Army soldiers near the end of a two-day patrol into the western Kherwar district of Afghanistan’s Logar province, July 2, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jaime' D. DeLeon  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The soldiers patrol local villages nearly every day, typically with Afghan security forces by their side. “Seventy percent of...

AMERICA’S recent history has been a relentless tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas, the nation’s two biggest states, are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood has been the brainier, sexier, trendier of the two: its suburbs and freeways, its fads and foibles, its marvellous miscegenation have spread around the world. Texas, once a part of the Confederacy, has trailed behind: its cliché has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots, much like a certain recent...

Don Henderson lived in his van and walked the streets of Federal Way Wa for eight years and lived out in proxy the discipline the Lord has for the United States. This is his story and the words the Lord gave him to share with Amercia and how He will correct all the problems that are being brought on by the ingratitude being shown by the most blessed nation on earth and how this nation is ignoring the Creator.

Can Sarah Palin still have a career in national politics? Absolutely! 67% (3128 votes) Probably 14% (669 votes) Doubtful 13% (604 votes) No way 5% (229 votes) Unsure/Don't care 2% (73 votes) Total Votes: 4703

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, June 30, 2009 – In accordance with Article 5 of the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, Iraqi security forces now have full ownership of security in their cities, towns and villages. Army Capt. Rich Turvey, commander of 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, signs over Joint Security Station Salaam to Iraqi army 1st Lt. Jassim Abbas at a transfer ceremony near Numaniyah, Iraq, June 20, 2009. In accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, Iraqi security forces took full ownership of security in their cities, towns and villages on June 30, 2009. U.S....

This movie looks really good.

If conservative candidates for political office really can't find serious, successful, and foolproof ways of actually "fixing everything leftist" so that they really are conservative, pro-free market, pro-capitalistic, and long-term solutions to issues instead, then they shouldn't run for political office. Profound brainstorming for actual, pro-conservative, pro-free market, pro-capitalistic, long-term solutions on all issues really needs to be front and center, prior to the '10 and '12 elections. Too many non-leftists are still "cowering in corners" in fear of the dominant left, instead of seriously finding ways of ending "everything leftist" for good! Let's really get the political momentum successfully...

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, like Ebenezer Scrooge, we could have a preview of the future so that we could change our course if necessary? This can happen in real life. Such a dispensation was granted to me 35 years ago. It happened while I was studying literature at Oxford University in England. At the time, I hadn’t yet outgrown my youthful flirtation with socialism. The United Kingdom appeared to me to be about 30 years ahead of the United States on the path toward socialism. Living for a while with a teacher and his young family, I saw up...

Shaykh Ali mejbel Al-ghreer (left), the Rabee packing shed owner, Tracy Atwood (center), Inma Chief of Party, and Glen Keiser (right), the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team III leader, participate in the cutting of the ribbon at the grand opening ceremony of the Rabee packing shed in Adhamiyah, June 14. Photo by Pfc. Bailey A. Jester, 1st Cavalry Division. BAGHDAD — Members of embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team III (ePRT) attended the grand opening of the Rabee fruit and vegetable packing facility in Adhamiyah, June 14, the first modern fruit and vegetable packing facility in Iraq. "It [the packing facility] will allow...

6/17/2009 - FORWARD OPERATING BASE FINLEY-SHIELDS, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Nangarhar Province is seeing a rush of construction projects due in large part to the vision and planning of an Air Force civil engineer team here. As part of the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team, civil engineers work with fellow PRT members, including civil affairs teams, to address the needs of a specific district or village and nail down the particulars necessary to get a project approved and built. The civil affairs team works with local leaders on determining the specific needs of an area. The province, approximately 7,700 square miles with...

After 30 years of writing for the Examiner.com, I have seen most everything. I thought I would write today on the watershed events around 2008 that reset the course of the last three decades in American politics. Guns played an amazing part. First, we had the election of Barak Obama, America's first black president who began to pick administration officials and cabinet members with obvious track records opposing gun rights. The intentions coming out of congress and statements by administration officials fueled the fears that our 2nd Amendment rights were in the sights of this new president. The ensuing months...

In attempting to make a comparison of time and eternity, one finds there is no real comparison at all to be had. The chasm between them is actually so vast it practically defies description. Chronicling Biblical history from the creation of Adam and Eve to the end of the thousand year “millennial” reign of Christ, human existence on the earth is only about 7000 years. In light of the “foreverness” of eternity, this amounts to only a “brief moment” of time. In fact, any finite amount of time is negligible (nothing) next to an amount which is infinite.

Lately, I have talked with two successful people whom I admire that both told me they were planning for the shut down of their businesses because of their insecurity over the coming economical climate and increased taxes. Both of them have done very well in their careers and are min their 60's. Their general feeling is that they could end up watching what they have dwindle away and they are too old to rebuild. One man told me, "I just don't have the energy to start it all again." My CPA who lives in a beautiful ocean front estate said...

Something like a week remains before General Motors is reduced to lunch meat on industrial-capital's All-You-Can-Eat buffet spread. The wish is that its deconstructed pieces will re-organize into a "lean, mean machine" for producing "cars that Americans want to buy," and that, by extension, the American Dream of a Happy Motoring economy may be extended a while longer. This fantasy rests on some assumptions that just don't "pencil out." One is that the broad American car-owning public can continue to buy their cars the usual way, on credit. The biggest emerging new class in America is the "former middle class."...

We are going to spend over $3.5 trillion next year, run up an annual debt of $1.7 trillion, and are on schedule to add another $9 trillion to reach an aggregate debt of $20 trillion in eight years. The Obama administration and the Congress spend days on end fighting over how to spread and spend the borrowed money. But still, no one ties the additional expenditures to additional revenues. Can the President say, “We will borrow $.6 trillion from the Chinese, $.4 from the Japanese, $.2 trillion from the Europeans, and $.5 from American bond holders” in order finance this...

The United States of America is really 50 sovereign states in a union and that union can dissolve just like the Soviet Union did. This article will give some possibilities how that break up can occur but there certainly could be other scenarios for this to happen. The major possibility is that after national elections socialist/liberal/progressive forces take control of the executive and legislative branches of government and soon thereafter the Supreme Court. They then would proceed to pass and uphold every sort of socialist legislation such as: hate speech laws, gun laws, immigration laws, socialized medicine, social activism and...

Recent polls from several different organizations show that identification with the Republican party has been dropping. Pew showed that the party has lost a quarter of its identifiers since 2004. The Republicans also have serious problems with those who do still identify with the party. Pundits went into overdrive last week as they assessed President Obama's first 100 days in office. But what about the GOP's first 100 days in opposition? Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party last Tuesday is just one of many indicators pointing to a party in deep and serious trouble. Poll results reveal that...

Is Europe headed for a new Middle Ages? On the basis of some disquieting signs, I should say it is indeed. Politically, it seems to be in the midst of a process of further disintegration. Europe heads for new Middle Ages Ten years ago, in The Rise and Decline of the State, the Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld was among the first to suggest the world was headed towards a new Middle Ages. The European Middle Ages are characterized by international political instability and endless wars. A modicum of spiritual and ecclesiastical control was exerted by the Pope in...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER — Baseel Ali, Deputy Director of Agriculture for the Dhi Qar province, cut a red ribbon at the Nasiriyah Tree Nursery last week to officially open the facility. Just four months earlier, this location was an empty dirt and gravel lot. Today, it consists of two greenhouses used for planting vegetables and a fenced-off area for growing trees. "This will support our province and will greatly benefit us," said the Director of Agriculture, Abdul Salih. "We thank the Americans for everything they've done." The nursery can produce up to 50,000 vegetable and 4,000 tree seedlings each...

Today many in the United States are crying out to President Obama and Government to do more and more to fix our social ills. The notion that Big Government has all our answers and the solutions we need in this very chaotic and unstable world is fairy tale. It is one that is rooted in the personal belief that Fallen Man through and by the efforts of Big Government or "Socialism" can bring security and comfort to it's inhabitants. There is no man made ideology or system that can ever usher in a world Utopia of perfection and bliss. These...

We have been under a sustained financial and psychological assault since the election of Zero last Novemeber. In the last six weeks alone, we have been barraged by an onslaught of radical plans and programs, while our financial future is put in serious jeopardy. We have seen that the actions of an out of control governement in Washington have stripped us of over $ 15 trillion worth of home values, stock values, and savings, with no accountability and no plan to fix it. Today, fellow Americans, we take our country back. Enough crying in our beer, moaning to each other,...

COMBAT OUTPOST AL-GHARRAF, Iraq, March 5, 2009 – Combat Outpost al-Gharraf, formerly named Joint Security Station Jenkins, signifies the transition from coalition to Iraqi control that has swept across the country. A soldier assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division’s Company A, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, fires a weapon while another works as a range safety officer on Combat Outpost al-Gharraf, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Stephen Harmon  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The new U.S.-Iraq security agreement has pushed the Iraqi security forces into the forefront of all operations across the...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, March 2, 2009 – Though coalition forces have been successful over the last seven years on the battlefields of Afghanistan, true and lasting success lies in understanding Afghans. Toward that goal, “human terrain teams” could become a large building block for victory, officials here said. The teams were developed in 2005 to provide field commanders with the relevant social and cultural understanding necessary to meet daily operational requirements. The teams operate in the field, and corresponding human terrain analysis teams are attached to divisional staffs and largely analyze field data and other information. “Much can be accomplished...

The CPAC Convention was held these last few days, firing up the Conservative base in light of our nation’s current socialistic and entitlement mentality (i.e., the “narcissistic crisis”). A variety of conservative speakers were on tap, and the commencing address was given by none other than the true leader of the Conservative movement, The Doctor of Democracy and America’s Real Anchorman: Rush Limbaugh.

–Is that you can’t see it for the present. In the context of the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, one journalist took the time to look back and see what the pundits said would happen next. No one, but no one, got it right. No one foresaw the rapid collapse of European communism and the demise of the Soviet Union. By 1991 The U.S.S.R. was no more, and no one saw this future with any degree of precision. Instead they got it wrong. The end of communism will be a long time...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met with his Iraqi counterpart at the Pentagon here today to discuss mutual interests and concerns regarding stability in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said. Gates lauded Defense Minister Abd al-Qadir al-Mufriji for his forces’ efforts and success in providing security for the Jan. 31 provincial elections. He also commended the Iraqi people for the positive outcome and results for the elections overall, Air Force Lt. Col. Pat Ryder said. The future of Iraq is through the ballot, not the bullet, al-Mufriji said, noting that the election process gives the Iraqi...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Feb. 11, 2009 – The noncommissioned officer in charge of training operations for the Warrior Transition Battalion here appears to be a typical soldier. But if the right sleeve of his shirt should come up a bit, you might catch a glimpse of a story whose protagonist is more than typical. Army Sgt. Cameron E. Stroeh takes an early morning walk in Fort Bragg, N.C., Feb. 9, 2009. Injuries he suffered in 2007 during his deployment to Iraq have limited his physical training. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Victor J. Ayala  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

Haven't been seeing much of Joe Biden, have we? Yes, he sticks his head out from time to time, usually just long enough to stick his foot in his mouth, but for the most part, the Vice President has been markedly absent since the Inauguration. Makes me wonder about his future.

Venturing out each day into this land of strip malls, freeways, office parks, and McHousing pods, one can't help but be impressed at how America looks the same as it did a few years ago, while seemingly overnight we have become another country. All the old mechanisms that enabled our way of life are broken, especially endless revolving credit, at every level, from household to business to the banks to the US Treasury. Peak energy has combined with the diminishing returns of over-investments in complexity to pull the "kill switch" on our vaunted "way of life" -- the set of...

Buck up, Americans. Things may look bleak now, but George Friedman, founder of Strategic Forecasting, Inc., a private intelligence agency sometimes called the "Shadow CIA," sees great things ahead. In his new book, "The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century," Friedman predicts decades of American dominance. "The United States is economically, militarily, and politically the most powerful country in the world, and there is no real challenger to that threat."

A half century ago, the United States was an industrial colossus -- a great monument to the productive potential of a free people. Moreover, with the advent of safe, abundant, and astonishingly inexpensive nuclear energy coupled with initial rapid advances in micro science and engineering, America was poised for another, even more spectacular era of advance. If this advance had been allowed to take place, Americans could have led all of the world's people into a wonderful period of progress and prosperity, orders of magnitude beyond anything the world has ever known -- and, as things stand now, may ever...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 21, 2009 – Members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province visited Zirat village this month to assess the effectiveness of completed projects and to develop ideas for future initiatives. Members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province inspect the condition of a canal used by villagers to irrigate their wheat and corn fields in Zirat, Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2009. NATO photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Until February of last year, the main income for the villagers was earned by harvesting poppy. Since the eradication of poppy production, the villagers...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2009 – With both Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President-elect Barack Obama advocating closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, the Defense Department is focused on a way forward that protects the American people while also ensuring proper detainee treatment, a senior defense official said today. A decision by the convening authority for military commissions that a detainee suspected of being the 20th 9/11 hijacker was submitted to inappropriate interrogation methods does not mean the case against him won’t ultimately go forward, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Judge Susan. J. Crawford told the...