Free Republic

As Americans gear up for the holiday season, they're fine-tuning wish lists, digging out unfortunate Christmas sweaters and bracing for the onslaught of holiday advertising campaigns. This year adds a new contender to the long list of groups vying for attention, and it comes with a twist. The American Humanist Association today launched its first nationwide "godless holiday campaign." Its slogan: "No God? ... No Problem!" The ads, which show smiling people in Santa hats, will appear first on Washington, D.C., buses and subway trains over Thanksgiving weekend. In early December the campaign will expand to Los Angeles, San Francisco,...

So Glenn Beck on Fox News recently (September 29, 2009) showed a graphic murder. This is the sort of thing that would get a video pulled from youtube almost immediately, but for some reason Fox deemed it important enough to put on the Glenn Beck show. Now I've seen the ugly side of mankind. But to be honest this is something that one has to mentally prepare for. It should not be the sort of thing that should get pushed in your face. I mean the only warning Beck gives is to tell 'children to leave the room' before showing...

Wolf and Mellett in their Talk origins paper, The Role of ‘Nebraska man’ in the creation-evolution debate,[1] claim Nebraska man was a careless mistake by an honest scientist. However, the evidence suggests that Osborn deliberately overstated the find because the theory of evolution was centre stage in a struggle for control of education policy in America...

Newsweek, in all of its wisdom, is still arguing that Sarah Palin lied about the death panel provisions in ObamaCare, but we really should have a death panel anyways. The author of the below piece, Evan Thomas, writes that his 79 year old mother wanted to die but the doctors wouldn't let her because the assisted living facility she was staying at was sustained by Medicare. He didn't like this and muses on how we can fix health care in this country by, you guessed it, getting people into hospice care and out of hospitals. People need to die and...

You owe your life — and everything else — to the sovereign. The rights of subjects are not natural rights, but merely grants from the sovereign. There is no right even to complain about the actions of the sovereign, except insofar as the sovereign allows the subject to complain. These are the principles of unlimited, arbitrary, and absolute power, the principles of such rulers as Louis XIV. Intellectuals have assiduously promoted them; think of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. A new intellectual champion of absolutism has now emerged. Mild-mannered University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein has been advancing the...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography. For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians...

BC: I must say that I am filled with admiration for the way you sat before those inquisitors/twits on The View and remained dignified throughout. Apart from publicly displaying your bravery, what’s the payoff from appearing alongside those demented harpies? Ann Coulter: Being around that bunch makes me feel younger and more attractive! It’s like going to a spa. BC: Do you have any untelevised comments from that appearance you wish to share? Perhaps something along the lines of their lambasting you during a commercial break? Ann Coulter: Actually I think the show speaks very well for itself. That’s why...

The story is quite simple. Adam and Eve had two sons. The first born son, Cain, became a farmer. The second son, Abel, became a herder of sheep. Abel offered a sacrifice of a lamb to the Lord. The Lord accepted his offering. Cain brought an offering of grain. The Lord had no regard for the offering. Cain was furious. He invited his brother to go out into a field. Cain killed Abel. The Lord came along and asked the whereabouts of his brother. Cain answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is our introduction to...

PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY Sun Jan 25 2009 22:13:43 ET Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury. The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK. STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars...

No holiday in the world compares to Thanksgiving. Material traditions aside, this important day gives us cause to unite not just as families but as a nation, bowed humbly in gratitude to God for His abundant mercy and bounteous grace to our people. President Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863, formalized this blessed holiday in the midst of Civil War, "as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." The great purpose of this day was, Lincoln intended, a call for "humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience." We were then a...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan this afternoon dismissed her lawsuit against the woman she defeated, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, over an advertisement that Hagan said attacked her personal faith. Dole, a Republican, had launched an ad in the last week of the campaign tying Hagan to a political action group called "Godless Americans" that promotes the separation of church and state. The advertisement ended with a photo of Hagan and another woman’s voice saying, "There is no God." Hagan, a Democrat, attended a fundraiser in August at the Boston home of a couple who is active in the group. The...

After airing an interview clip of Sarah Palin telling Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that she was looking for guidance from God about running for national office again, an appalled Chris Matthews called it "troubling," when he let loose this rant on Tuesday's "Hardball": Is, is this commentary about theocracy and going to God for approval? We've been through that with President Bush who said he, "didn't take advice from his father, he got it from another father." And we've been through this sort of Joan of Arc period. Are we gonna get another piece of this where God's leading...

My son's fatalism amazes me, but he's not alone in worrying that time is running out. Recently, one of my friends told me that her son can't sleep because he is so anxious about global warming. Other friends try to shield their children from watching storms on the evening news. Was it so long ago that weather was the safe subject for conversations? For our children the forecast evokes the horsemen of the apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. It's not clear to me that global warming causes every natural disaster, but in a child's mind, climate change and horrific...

The winner of the 2001 International Emmy award for Best Documentary, Welcome to North Korea is a grotesquely surreal look at the all-too-real conditions in modern-day North Korea.

Religious right is deadBILL PRESS 26.DEC.07 No matter who becomes the next president of the United States, the American people have already won a great victory — with the total disintegration of the once all-powerful religious right. Starting in 1979 when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, Christian conservatives have been the most powerful voting bloc in the Republican Party. Ironically, they began by casting out of the White House a born-again Christian who continued, as president, his lifelong practice of teaching Sunday school, and replacing him with a divorced and remarried man who seldom stepped inside a church. But...

Last week, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote a column titled "Secular Europe's Merits," in which he explained why he prefers the secularism of Europe to the religiosity of America. To his credit (other New York Times columnists do not generally agree to debate anything they write -- Paul Krugman, for example, has refused to discuss his new book on liberalism with me), Cohen agreed to come on my show, and proved to be a charming guest. A distinguished foreign correspondent for Reuters and the International Herald Tribune, Cohen nevertheless betrayed what I believe is endemic to those who...

On Dec. 7, 2007, the movie "The Golden Compass," based on the first book in the fantasy trilogy entitled "His Dark Materials" by atheist Philip Pullman will be released in theaters throughout the world. Pullman wrote his fantasy trilogy because he was so upset by the Christian evangelism of C.S. Lewis in his wonderful series of Christian tales entitled "The Chronicles Of Narnia." Pullman is an avowed atheist who has dedicated his life to undermining Christianity and the Church among young readers. The film's release is only another example of a culture spiraling away from faith, a culture into which...

A prominent black Christian pastor says Barack Obama (D-Illinois) made "an inept attempt to be a theology major" in Thursday night's Democratic presidential forum on homosexual issues. During Thursday's forum, Obama was asked by one of the moderators why many black churches remain strongly opposed to homosexuality. Moderator Jonathan Capeheart of the Washington Post then referred to such opposition as "homophobia." Obama responded to the question by saying some black pastors "have elevated one line of Romans over the Sermon on the Mount." Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., who chairs the High Impact Leadership Coalition, says Obama is an intelligent man...

The God that whined Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Back in the day, the many atheists I knew went about their unbelieving lives in a quietly sardonic, but non-combative way: They'd abandoned organized religion, but sought no quarrel with those who stayed. They explained their non-belief to their children, but let them join the boy scouts. Everything old is new again, but ? different. Yesterday's live-and-let-live atheism has morphed into today's truculent "atheism with attitude," where God is not only dead, but --postmodern glee having replaced Nietszchean gloom regarding His demise -- with good riddance...

Cardinal Rogery Mahony celebrates a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los...LA Cardinal Apologizes to PlaintiffsSunday, July 15, 2007 6:27 PM EDTThe Associated PressBy GILLIAN FLACCUS LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, apologized Sunday to the hundreds of people who will get a share of a $660 million settlement over allegations of clergy sex abuse."There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them. The one thing I wish I could give the victims ... I cannot,"...

With the predictability of a John McCain temper tantrum (or a John Edwards $200-haircut), every two year the Democrats announce that they're going to fight like hell for the religious vote - a vow duly reported by the media in the hushed tones of revelation. Thus, a story on the recent CNN Democratic presidential forum began with the following observation: "After barring their souls in a live television confessional, top Democratic White House hopefuls have put Republicans on notice that religious voters are up for grabs." At the forum, sponsored by Jim (Hugo-Chavez-Is-My- Shepard) Wallis and his Sojourners collective, Hillary...

The effort to recast Darwin as a religious man, more religious in fact than the common run of Christians and other believers, in the runup to the bicentennial of his birth is well under way in many quarters: "Darwin counted himself an agnostic, but in his reverence for the creative agency of nature we should count him a devoutly religious man. "There is a grandeur in this view of life," he famously wrote on the last page of The Origin of Species. The grandeur of which he spoke of has more of the divine about it than did the anthropomorphic...

Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean - who once drew criticism by dismissing the GOP as a "white Christian party'' -- told a San Francisco audience that his party should open its arms to a new group of converts: young evangelical Christian voters. "We ought to reach out to those folks ... and not be afraid,'' Dean told an audience of about 125 at a $50-a head Democratic National Committee fundraiser Wednesday night at the Palace Hotel. ... ... "People don't want to go to church anymore ... and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who's...

A northern Swedish bishop is heading a campaign to boycott Scandic Hotels following the group's decision to remove copies of the Bible from its rooms. Bishop Tony Guldbrandzén has decided to cancel all reservations made by the diocese of Härnösand with the Swedish-owned hotel chain. The bishop's office has so far made around one hundred cancellations for the month of May, which is the time of year when the diocesan council is due to meet.

Adherents to the neo-pagan cult Wicca soon will be permitted to place their symbol the pentacle -- a five-pointed star inscribed inside a circle -- on headstones in military cemeteries, US officials said Monday. After months of legal wrangling, the US Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to allow Wiccans to place the symbol on headstones, as do adherents to the Christian, Muslim and Jewish and other faiths. The policy change will go into effect in the next few months, officials said. "VA will be adding the pentacle to its list of approved emblems of belief that will be engraved on...

SEATTLE- In bizarre series of events that have led to multiple arrests, Seattle police say a group of employees at a car dealership in West Seattle stole more than $100,000 from a disabled man. Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said the bizarre series of events began when the victim, a 60-year-old man with a diminished mental capacity, went to the Huling Brothers dealership in late July. The man was covered in his own urine and feces and asked a salesman about buying a truck. "I think that anyone would look at that individual and at least pause - and think...

The mother of a boy convicted Friday in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl on Labor Day told a judge the girl was also to blame and that her son was the victim of "little flipper girls" who think it's cool to have sex with multiple partners. That prompted Milwaukee County Children's Court Judge Mary Triggiano to abruptly interrupt her. "What he did was rape that girl," Triggiano said, calling the deflection of responsibility to the girl appalling. "He got caught. He didn't take responsibility until something pegged him

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know. WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction. WHEN? Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd, at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose. WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy ( a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against...

A fresh wave of atheistic books has hit the market this autumn, some climbing onto best-seller lists in what proponents see as a backlash against the way religion is entwined in politics. "Religion is fragmenting the human community," said Sam Harris, author of "Letter to a Christian Nation," No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction list on October 15. There is a "huge visibility and political empowerment of religion. President George W. Bush uses his first veto to deny funding for stem cell research and scientists everywhere are horrified," he said in an interview. Religious polarization is part of...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A fresh wave of atheistic books has hit the market this autumn, some climbing onto best-seller lists in what proponents see as a backlash against the way religion is entwined in politics. "Religion is fragmenting the human community," said Sam Harris, author of "Letter to a Christian Nation," No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction list on October 15. There is a "huge visibility and political empowerment of religion. President George W. Bush uses his first veto to deny funding for stem cell research and scientists everywhere are horrified," he said in an interview. Religious polarization...

She is the poster girl for the Right, perfectly decked out. Shiny blond hair. The ultimate façade. But facades are easy. I can put on a black dress. I can smile. I can make my hair look as long as hers. It proves nothing. What is important is what lies behind the façade. Will the real Ann Coulter please stand up? The real Ann Coulter is no beauty queen. It was her comments about the 9-11 widows that pushed me to investigate and to write my latest book. “I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much,” Coulter has...

At any moment, state inspectors can step uninvited into one of the three child care centers that Ethel White runs in Auburn, Ala., to make sure they meet state requirements intended to ensure that the children are safe. There must be continuing training for the staff. Her nurseries must have two sinks, one exclusively for food preparation. All cabinets must have safety locks. Medications for the children must be kept under lock and key, and refrigerated. The Rev. Ray Fuson of the Harvest Temple Church of God in Montgomery, Ala., does not have to worry about unannounced state inspections at...

Lefty sow Susan Estrich, attorney to Leona Helmsley, Claus von Bulow, and Michael Milken, now snorts for your attention in an incalculably tasteless and repulsive way. Her new book, SOULLESS - designed to look EXACTLY like Coulter's GODLESS - claims not only to excoriate Ann but also "cast(s) a light on 'the Anns', 'wannabes' like Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck". On the cover, Estrich stretches the seams of a black cocktail dress and sneers knowingly at the camera. Yep, the book looks just like Ann's, and she's dressed up to look like a bloated, wrinkly version of Ann... Except for...

Ultrasound images which show 12-week-old foetuses sucking their thumbs and walking in the womb are dangerously misleading, a group of scientists warned today. The 3D images of unborn babies apparently behaving in a similar way to newborns raised questions over whether the upper limit for abortions should be reduced form 24 weeks. However, a group of scientists has now warned the scans could be dangerously misleading as they do not reflect the true nature of an unborn baby's brain. Dr Donald Peebles, a consultant in foetal medicine at University College London, said the temptation to associate foetal movements with adult...

When Ann Coulter’s most recent book, Godless, came out, all anyone heard about it was her “attack” on the four women from New Jersey. But Coulter’s book, actually has very little to say about the Jersey Girls, and much to say about a number of other topics, including education. In chapter 6: The Liberal Priesthood: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Teacher, Coulter takes on teacher indoctrination, pay, qualifications, and crime. Coulter asserts that teachers are always presumed heroes, and are spoken of in “reverential terms,” but are busy “inculcating students in the precepts of the Socialist Party of America—as understood...

Liberals are always cheering for the wrong people. Have you ever noticed? In our war on Islamo-fascism, they ask America to withdraw. When Hugo Chavez smells sulfur at the United Nations, liberal Democratic senators "understand" him (i.e., Tom Harkin). But no one is a liberal's hero the way an adulterer is. You would think in a world shaped by modern liberal feminists that liberal media types and liberal politicians would be rushing to the aid of the poor wife and kids, offering them welfare and state-funded counseling and beating the offending man to within an inch of his life. But...

"Unhinged" I picked up my friend Michelle Malkin's book, "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild" to peruse it, thinking I would get around to reading it when I finished the other three books I'm currently reading on and off. After reading the first few pages, though, I was hooked and had to read the whole thing. Michelle deliberately chose the title, "Unhinged," purposely, to convey that the American Left, generally speaking, has long since come unglued, giving itself over to irrationality and extremism rather than reasoned discourse. "This book," writes Michelle, "is not about liberals being liberal. It is about liberals...

Americans have waited too long for the right to vote on abortion, and the United States Supreme Court continues to drag its feet on the issue, said controversial columnist and best-selling author Ann Coulter, speaking to a packed house of more than 2,300 at the Schuster Performing Arts Center on Sunday night. Her speech was part of Dayton Right to Life's Viva la Vita 2006 and included closing remarks by Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state. Coulter took shots at Democrats for their "crazy" ideas and support for gay marriage and abortion rights. She called the...

by Mark Finkelstein September 7, 2006 - 12:23 A few months back, 9/11 widow Kristin Breitweiser suggested that former CIA Director George Tenet and named FBI agents are as deserving of the death penalty as Zacarias Moussaoui. You might think that with opinions like that, Breitweiser has made her liberal bones. Apparently not enough to suit Ann Curry's taste. On this morning's Today show, Curry found Breitweiser's comments on Ann Coulter insufficently bitter, and tried to lure her into even a more avid condemnation of the conservative commentator. Curry began with this bouquet: "From your grief, you have drawn strength....

When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer" ”a new breed of legislative aide” was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move...

Think about it a minute. Compare the concept of democracy – where individuals may speak and act and express their faith according to their own understandings – with theocracy, where an elite few dictate what all individuals can and cannot say, do or express concerning their beliefs. Think Iran. Think Ahmadinejad and his coterie of Islamist extremists, exercising total control over the oil giant nation, funding and arming Hezbollah, orchestrating much of the inhuman violence in Iraq, promoting and supporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and terrorist murder around the world, actively and defiantly preparing nuclear capability while at the...

When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer"—a new breed of legislative aide—was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move for a...

We all know the basic alternatives that form the familiar "spectrum" of American politics and culture. If a young person is turned off by religion or attracted by the achievements of science, and he wants to embrace a secular outlook, he is told--by both sides of the debate--that his place is with the collectivists and social subjectivists of the left. On the other hand, if he admires the free market and wants America to have a bold, independent national defense, then he is told--again, by both sides--that his natural home is with the religious right. But what if all of...

Not surprisingly, the Bible Belt region lives up to its name with states like Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia containing the highest percentage of those who believe the Bible is literally true. Alabama and Arkansas came out on top as 75% say they believe the Bible is literally true. West Virginia (70%) and Tennessee (68%) are close behind. The northeast region of our map represents the other extreme. In Vermont and Massachusetts, only 22% of those respondents believe the Bible is literally true—the lowest percentages in all states surveyed. Earlier this summer, a national survey found that 54% of...

This groundbreaking documentary from Dr. Kennedy and Coral Ridge Ministries, looks into the chilling social impact of Darwin's theory of evolution -- and the mounting evidence that Darwin had it wrong on the origin of life. This 60 minute special featuring Ann Coulter, author of Godless; Richard Weikart, author of From Darwin to Hitler, Lee Strobel, author of The Case for a Creator; Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution; Phillip Johnson, author of Darwin on Trial; Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box, and Ian Taylor, author of In the Minds of Men will show why evolution is a...

ORLANDO, Fla. _Rep. Katherine Harris said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws" and that a failure to elect Christians to political office will allow lawmaking bodies to "legislate sin." The remarks, published in the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, unleashed a torrent of criticism from political and religious officials. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was "disgusted" by the comments "and deeply disappointed in Rep. Harris personally." Harris, Wasserman Schultz said, "clearly shows that she does not deserve to be a Representative . ....

Ever since I announced my bid for the United States Presidency, I’ve been questioned about some of my more radical political opinions. Most of those questions have dealt with my proposed economic policies – for example, the abolition of the IRS and the implementation of the Fair Tax. Today, I offer an answer to questions about why I am opposed to the idea of gays adopting or teaching children. Several years ago, I began writing columns questioning the so-called gay rights movement. I prefer to call it the “gay privileges” movement because gays are not presently deprived of anything that...

Examining which issues raise its organizational blood pressure, it is easy to see that the Anti-Defamation League chiefly represents two categories of Jews. One, Jews for whom the doctrines of secular fundamentalism and of the Democratic Party have replaced the authentic principles of Judaism. Two, Jews who consider Christian conservatives to be a far greater peril than Islamic extremism. It now turns out that the ADL represents yet a third category of Jews: those passionately dedicated to defending Darwin. Once again, like a friendly and frolicsome puppy with a large, bushy tail that constantly knocks down expensive vases, the ADL,...

Liberals are actively undermining First Amendment rights to free speech by trying to crush opposing views. Growing ever bolder in their naked grab for power they are leaving scorched earth behind those who disagree with them. This is why Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller no longer find themselves included in the modern Democratic Party. What is left over for the Democrats are wildly anti-American, anti-God and anti-biblical leftists who are now bragging about their use of brute force to crush the voices of those who disagree with them. Perhaps that's why this week in one of the boldest...

ROCKFORD, August 16, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, radical feminism, genetic experimentation and mutilation, are the seven “sacraments” of “one” US political party says the Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Rockford Illinois.  While stopping short of telling his flock how to vote, and without naming the Democrats by name, Bishop Thomas George Doran wrote in a column in the local diocesan newspaper that these “unholy sacraments of our secular culture are the seeds of the destruction of our nation.” He said that the continuance in office of those espousing them represent a “clear and present...