Free Republic

BOTTINEAU It wouldn't be surprising if Jonathan Bartlett bleeds red, white and blue. The Bottineau resident has a deepening appreciation for this nation's founding fathers and early citizens and citizen soldiers. A few years ago, Bartlett was introduced to Project Appleseed, a combination heritage and marksmanship program conducted by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association. He was so captured by the experience that he continues to rise through the ranks of RWVA. "It was inspiring. It motivated me to be involved," said Bartlett. "Something really connected with the shooting aspect and the history of our founding. Our founders inspired our free...

..A new genealogical analysis of four Republican presidential candidates by the web site Ancestry.com finds that Perry is a first cousin (six times removed) of Sam Houston, the commander-in-chief of Texas revolutionary forces and twice-elected president of the Republic of Texas. “Texans have that Texas pride,” said Anastasia Harman, lead family historian for Ancestry.com. “That Texas pride is obviously in his blood.” Houston, Texas’ seventh governor, and Perry, the state’s 47th governor, are both related to Captain John Paxton, a hero of the U.S. Revolutionary War who survived the infamous winter encampment at Valley Forge with General George Washington. Paxton’s...

Gingrich: Health Insurance Mandate 'Started As Conservative Effort to Stop Hillarycare' By Terence P. Jeffrey December 11, 2011 (CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday defended his previous support of a federal mandate requiring people to buy health insurance by saying that "virtually every conservative saw the mandate as a less dangerous future" than the health-care plan being advanced by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1993 and that the idea of mandating that people buy health insurance "started as a conservative effort to stop Hillarycare in the 1990s." As recently as this May, Gingrich defended what he called...

Israel government scores own goal with US Jewish organisations The Israeli government is facing an unusual backlash from major US Jewish organisations after launching an advertising campaign essentially urging Israeli expats not to marry clueless American Jews or raise their children in the United States. 2:03PM GMT 03 Dec 2011 The first ad shows a young Israeli woman wincing after her boyfriend mistakes candles and music marking Yom HaZikaron, Israel's memorial day, for a romantic night in. The words "They will always remain Israelis. Their partners won't always understand what that means. Help them return to Israel" are read by...

Giving amnesty to illegal immigrants will greatly increase long-term costs to the taxpayer. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would, over time, increase their use of means-tested welfare, Social Security, and Medicare. Fiscal costs would rise in the intermediate term and increase dramatically when amnesty recipients reach retirement. Although it is difficult to provide a precise estimate, it seems likely that if 10 million adult illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. were granted amnesty, the net retirement cost to government (benefits minus taxes) could be over $2.6 trillion.

As ever with enviro-scholars, Professor Markham knoweth not what he hath wrought. Highlights: Germany is driving the Climate Change campaign. Many major international enviro-organizations (Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Birdlife International, etc.) are controlled by their German chapters. Several militant leaders of Germany’s confrontational early-1980s environmentalist protests were, a decade later, running government ministries. While Germany’s big enviro-organizations masquerade as citizens’ crusades, they are in fact top-down bureaucracies full of cynical well-paid careerists who work in tandem with state and corporate elites. Only 40 (forty) persons within Greenpeace-Germany’s half million members may vote for the board of directors. WWF-Germany has...

We’ve made a bit of a mistake as a conservative movement fixating so much on the race for the White House. There’s a behind the scenes fight happening in Washington right now. Congressional Republicans are not just selling us out, they are hell bent — and I really do mean hell bent — on destroying the conservative groups raising red flags about what they are doing.For so long the GOP in Washington could hide behind surveys like the American Conservative Union survey, which shows just how much more someone is Republican than Democrat. No one actually did a survey that...

This week, JD Foster and Curtis Dubay from the Heritage Foundation wrote an article arguing that repatriation was a bad idea right now. ATR disagrees with this (and this seems to be a departure from prior Heritage Foundation policy on this, as well). Below are our reasons why: What Is Repatriation? Under U.S. tax law, a company that earns a profit overseas must, in general, pay income tax to the overseas government AND to the IRS if they bring the remaining profit back to the U.S. The company gets a credit for the foreign income tax paid, but the difference...

This week, Heritage is releasing a first-of-its-kind television ad that will air on Fox News, Fox Business, and other networks. Featured in the ad are Heritage Trustee Steve Forbes and leading Heritage policy expert James Carafano. Have you seen it yet? With a potential audience of more than 1,000,000 people, Heritage now reaches conservatives in a brand-new way--rallying them together to call on Congress and the White House to cut government spending, stop the liberal assault on our values, and protect our Constitution. I’m calling on you as a fellow conservative to help us raise the funds needed to cover...

If conservatives believe that reducing the burden of government creates economic growth, lefties at the Daily Kos have to believe the opposite: cutting government is an economic disaster. Take the Thursday blog post by Vyan titled "Cutting our way toward 3rd World status." The target is the Heritage Foundation, which apparently wants America to be a "third world nation with no middle class," like Somalia, because of the "(Koch Funded) Heritage Idea that the U.S. should change it's constitution to require it to only spend a maximum of 18% of it's GDP and require a Super-Majority Vote to increase

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley isn't retreating from her decision to keep the Confederate flag atop the north end of the Statehouse in Columbia despite complaints from the NAACP, whose president this week said the ethnic minority governor is a "contradiction" for allowing the flag to fly. Speaking to a crowd at an NAACP national conference in Los Angeles on Monday, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous attempted to shame Haley into removing the flag by comparing African American slavery to oppression Haley's ancestors in India faced under British rule. "Perhaps one of the most perplexing examples of the contradictions of this...

Next time you're about to slam somebody for carrying on like a Neanderthal, think twice: You might be hitting close to home. A new study published in the Molecular Biology and Evolution reports that people of non-African heritage carry a chromosome which originates from Neanderthals, offering evidence that the two populations interbred at a certain point in history.

Oakland A’s ready for their first Jewish heritage gameby andy altman-ohr Thursday, May 12, 2011 Once known for their outrageous promotional stunts — such as Hot Pants Day, Mustache Day and Dinger Night — the Oakland A’s have decided to host an event that’s much more commonplace, at least these days: Jewish Heritage Night. Already a standby on the schedules of many teams across the country, Jewish Heritage Night with the A’s will make its debut Tuesday, May 17 in a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. First pitch at the newly renamed Overstock.com Coliseum in Oakland is...

On March 23rd we went to the Atlas Shrugged movie premiere at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. Afterward we were able to catch up with producer Harmon Kaslow and several people who attended the premiere. Here is what they had to say about the movie.

Back in the Jurassic Era when I was young, we learned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in school, and I often heard it on the radio on national holidays. We learned two verses, the first and the fifth. The words of the fifth verse made a deep impression on me: As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. It implanted in my youthful mind the idea that fighting for freedom sometimes requires actually FIGHTING for freedom, which includes the possibility of dying for freedom. But now, I rarely hear this inspiring hymn on...

Last week, House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) outlined $58 billion in non-security domestic spending cuts. Within hours, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) attacked the proposal calling it “unworkable” and “even more draconian than we originally anticipated.” But these outcries were hardly unexpected considering Washington’s spending addiction. As National Review’s Rich Lowry commented in his column this morning, “There is a complicated mathematical symbol practically unknown to the House Appropriations Committee. It’s called the minus sign.” In response to these outcries, Matthias Shapiro, the creator of Obama Budget Cuts Visualization and The National Debt Road Trip videos, has created another new video which...

From Bartleby's:    Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations.  1989.     NUMBER: 71 AUTHOR: Dean Alfange (1900–  ) QUOTATION: I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon—if I can. I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the...

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. Index of Economic Freedom World Rankings World Rank Country Index Year Overall Score Change from Previous Business Freedom Trade Freedom Fiscal Freedom Government Size Monetary Freedom Investment Freedom Financial Freedom Property Rights Freedom From Corruption Labor Freedom 1 Hong Kong 2011 89.7 0 98.7 90 93.3 89.6 87.1 90...

WASHINGTON – Two more big guns of the conservative movement confirmed today they are not participating in the Conservative Political Action Conference next month because of the continued participation of the homosexual activist organization GOProud. The Heritage Foundation, the largest think tank in Washington and not known as part of the religious right, confirmed that it is not taking part in what has been the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country. Heritage has been an active participant in CPAC every year for the last 10. "We have withdrawn," said Mike Gonzalez, vice president of communications for the Heritage...

I enjoy making up politically correct versions of Christmas carols. But today many young people are unfamiliar with the carols we knew so well. This year I listened to radio and watched TV in the weeks before Christmas. Unless I tuned to a religious station, carols were few and far between. Even mall music included fewer carols than in the past. My favorite carol is “Good King Wenceslas.” It expresses the essence of religion: not dogma but treating our fellow humans with kindness. But I haven’t heard it on TV or radio for years. Kids used to grow up hearing...

PARIS (Reuters) – Peking Opera, Spanish Flamenco and the art of French gastronomy won places Tuesday on UNESCO's list of intangible world heritages to preserve. The U.N. culture and education agency deemed the traditions and 43 others from a total of 11 countries worthy of recognition on the list at a meeting in Nairobi. Among the more obscure traditions, Luxembourg won recognition for a centuries-old annual hopping procession in the eastern border village of Echternach. The blade-twirling of a scissor-dancing ritual in Peru's Chanka region, which has roots going back to the 16th century, was also nominated as was Turkey's...

Ah yes, Michael Bennet’s senate campaign is banking, politically, on the fact that most Coloradans don’t know their own history. Bennet pounced on a separation-of-church-and-state speech given in 2009 by Ken Buck...Buck, like Delaware campaign cutie and senate hopeful, Christine O’Donnell, knows that the phrase “separation of church and state” appears nowhere in any of our founding documents. They both note that the “separation” ruse has been used, to our detriment, to expunge religious ethics from American culture.

First there was the Contract With America. Then came the Pledge to America. The Heritage Foundation plans to issue its Solutions for America blueprint on Monday–just after Republicans issued their Pledge to America, which outlined what they’ll do if they win back power in the November elections. “Now is the time to be bold, and to act as befits our character,” foundation President Edwin J. Feulner writes in a letter addressed to “My fellow conservatives.” “That is what our parents and grandparents would expect of us, what future generations demand – and what The Heritage Foundation offers to America.” Feulner...

Clint Howard, long-time character actor and brother of the more liberal director Ron Howard, is displaying his conservative stripes in a new advertisement for Heritage Action for American, the new grassroots advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation. The video calls attention to the propensity of politicians with unpopular voting records to avoid townhall meetings. The video, titled “August Recess Excuses,” aims to raise awareness about the disconnect between the issues that concern congressional leaders and those that concern their constituents. “The ‘August Recess Excuses’ video highlights the lengths our so-called representatives will go to avoid their constituents,” Heritage Action’s CEO...

Kristin Theresa Jaroma, Ever since the oil spill disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the issue at hand has been the long-term and near-term effects of this on local residents, local businesses, and the South’s economic hit, Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation said at the Bloggers Briefing there on August 10, 2010. As a result, pressure has been placed on the Obama Administration to end the moratorium. The oil spill liability cap issue, and the secondary costs that BP must pay as a result of the economic disaster, have been contentions issues for Democrats and Republicans alike. The...

20 April 2010: An oil rig rented and operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, killing 11 workers. 21 April 2010: All 115 workers are evacuated from the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. 22 April 2010: The Deepwater Horizon collapses into the sea and sinks. 22 April 2010: President Obama delivers a speech on Wall Street to advocate more government intervention in the country's financial sector, but offers no reforms for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which helped precipitate the 2008 meltdown. He also delivers a speech regarding the contributions of Earth Day to environmental awareness. Meanwhile, 200,000...

According to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, there are 16 countries that do a better job of protecting private property rights than the United States. A dismal international ranking of 17 in protecting private property rights should serve as a wake up call to Americans concerned about individual freedom and liberty. It is impossible for a people to remain free without respect for the rule of law and protection of private property rights. The protection of private property and respect for the rule of law are fundamental constitutional principles,...

Judgement at Heritage Bethany Stotts, July 30, 2010 Scholars at a recent Heritage Foundation lecture debated whether judicial activism is a “value-neutral” label for judges’ actions or an aspersion cast on some of their decisions. Their comments were made in light of former Harvard University professor Cass Sunstein’s 2006 book Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America. Sunstein was confirmed last year to head the Obama Administration’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA); he taught at the University of Chicago at the time of publication. “There are, broadly speaking, two accounts of judicial activism,” asserts...

Barack Obama, during his Cairo speech, said: "I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story." AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE: Dear Mr. Obama: Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians. Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians. Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of Independence? Bill of Rights? Didn't think so. Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England ? No. Did Muslims fight...

Todd Gaziano, a Congressional appointee on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, dropped a big one by saying orders were given by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes to “Never bring another lawsuit against a black or other national minority, apparently no matter what they do.” And Video of New Black Panther Chairman Malik Shabazz Praises Osama bin Laden.

Here is another outstanding video from Heritage.org on the reform no one is talking about, but the one that is desperately needed: Welfare Reform. Brandon Stewart at Heritage’s, “The Foundry” blog, has all the information on how “Welfare Can and Must be Reformed.” Great video!

Iran and Human Rights Spencer Irvine, June 14, 2010 The human rights violations and overall human rights conditions in Iran have greatly deteriorated, guest panelists in the Heritage Foundation forum, “Human Rights Under Attack: Oppression in Iran,” claimed. With Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Jim Phillips, the three guest panelists discussed and agreed on the need for more U.S. government-led pressure for sanctions against Iran. Panelist Renee Redman, director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, dissected the success of the Iranian government in “suppress[ing] dissent” of political dissidents. She said that the Iranian government has “successfully kept [suppression of dissent]...

Last month, a federal appeals court put a halt to the Federal Communications Commission's attempt to exert its authority over the Internet and its power play to regulate the companies who provide access to it. According to the Heritage Foundation, "The decision, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, centers around the FCC's efforts to enact 'net neutrality,' a policy that would prevent ISPs such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from managing the flow of traffic on the Internet by discriminating among content and applications that put a high load on their networks." So what...

Great virtual video! PATRICK HENRY, first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, gave his famous and fiery speech before the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775 imploring his fellow Americans to take up arms against the British colonialists that ended in the immortal lines "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!" [youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W72tx_UW9TM;"] link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W72tx_UW9TM link: http://factreal.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/founding-fathers-and-war-give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-by-patrick-henry/ more

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday declared May Jewish American Heritage Month for 2010, calling it a time to honor "the invaluable contributions Jewish Americans have made to our nation." Obama said in a statement that the U.S. has always been both a haven and a home for Jewish Americans, including those who arrived in the country "before America's birth" and those "who sought refuge from the horrors of pogroms and the Holocaust."

I'm sure you've seen those TV ads for prescription drugs that are offered to treat a relatively minor problem, but then come with a long list of nasty side effects that make one wonder why anybody would take that drug. The prescription seems far worse than the disease. To put it in a nutshell, ObamaCare is rather like Saturday Night Live's "Happy Fun Ball." It isn't FUN like Happy Fun Ball, of course, but it does have that same list of toxic and deadly side effects that just goes on and on. Here's a dramatic re-enactment of the SNL Happy...

President Obama this morning cited The Heritage Foundation’s research in an attempt to sell his health care package as a “middle of the road, centrist approach.” We take great exception to this misuse of our work and abuse of our name. This is but the latest act in a campaign to sell this big-government program as a moderate law that incorporates conservative ideas. Americans should not be fooled. Let’s be very clear: We oppose this new law because it is a radical new intrusion into the daily lives of all Americans and a massive takeover of one-sixth of the...

Abstract: Despite the famed 1996 Welfare Reform Act and the more recent welfare adjustments in 2006, 60.8 million Americans remain dependent on the government for their daily housing, food, and health care. The number of taxpayers is shrinking--and the country may be rapidly approaching the point where more than one-third of Americans do not pay taxes for benefits they receive. In February 2009, the Democrat-controlled Congress and the new Obama Administration may have driven the final stake into the heart of any semblance of fiscal responsibility when they enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--essentially overturning the fiscal foundation of...

A nation in decline By Tom DeWeese web posted February 1, 2010 Many politicians are asking the question today: "Why are the American People so angry?" The following may lend a clue to the clueless. According to the annual "Index on Economic Freedom," produced by the Heritage Foundation, the United States now ranks 8th, just behind Canada. That's a drop of two full points since last year, and the largest drop of all nations in overall economic freedom. . The index ranking is based on 10 measures of economic openness, regulatory efficiency, the rule of law, and competitiveness. The basic...

India China Paradox Sheila Archambault, January 27, 2010 Sheila Archambault The main question should not be if India will economically catch up with China but if India should try to catch up with China, said a scholar at a Heritage Foundation event discussing India and China’s future and current position in the international political economy. Some leaders in India argue that India and China are different countries, with distinct cultures and histories, so India should feel no obligation to try to catch up with China, but instead, India should develop at its own pace and in its own way, said...

For the first time in the history of the Index for Economic Freedom, the United States is no longer in the top category of economically free countries and is even second in the North American region (behind Canada)...

If we adopt the compassion of time rather than that of cash, we are not trying to do the same thing as liberals, only a bit more cheaply. Instead, we must ask of every idea that calls itself compassionate, "Does it make great demands on men (and women) to give themselves to their brethren?" Are we offering not coerced silver, but our lives? If we talk of crisis pregnancies, are we actually willing to provide a home to a pregnant young woman? If we talk of abandoned children, are we actually willing to adopt a child? We need to ask...

Russia’s Arms Control Goals Sarah Carlsruh, December 7, 2009 The scenario of World War Three with thousands of nuclear weapons flying across the globe in both directions and tens of billions of people killed, that really has disappeared,” asserted former National Intelligence Council (NIC) chairman Fritz Ermarth at the Heritage Foundation on December 1st. Yet, that does not mean that the threat of nuclear weapons has vanished. The START I arms-reduction treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union was entered into force on December 5, 1994 and expires on December 5th, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian...

Perhaps, we need to think about our heritage these days. Perhaps, it's time to remember that we were always never as scared as we are today. Perhaps, it's time to appreciate the heritage that others would have us forget. For one, I have had enough of "modern" PC America. Perhaps, our forefathers really did have something going.

Religion and Families Allie Winegar Duzett, November 5, 2009 Studies of the past decade’s religiosity “can be boiled into good news and bad news,” said Annette Mahoney of Bowling Green State University at a recent Heritage Foundation conference, Religious Practice and the Family: What the Research Says. “The bad news is that almost no research has been done on how religion operates when problems are not prevented,” she said, adding that “the good news is that religion does matter for families.” Mahoney explained that religion tends to help people in “maintaining any family relationship, traditional or not, such as being...

Abstract: Supporters of Proposition 8 in California have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry. Arguments for same-sex marriage are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to the union of husband and wife is a form of bigotry, irrational prejudice, and even hatred against homosexual persons. As this ideology seeps into the culture more generally, individuals and institutions that support marriage as the union of husband and wife risk paying a price for that belief in many...

TheConservatives.com Status Update Allie Winegar Duzett, November 2, 2009 John Solomon is not just a writer for The Washington Times—he is also a founder of the new Times-sponsored website, TheConservatives.com. Solomon discussed this new website at a recent Heritage Foundation Bloggers’ Briefing. TheConservatives.com is an innovative new site with amazing new technologies. At this website, people can keep up with profiled conservatives, such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, in a way that they couldn’t before: the site aggregates everything that such profiled conservatives are up to. This means that if you want to check out what Mitt Romney is...

Minority Raises Its Profile Allie Winegar Duzett, November 2, 2009 Yet another eloquent conservative spokesman whom media outlets can’t seem to find spoke at the Bloggers’ Briefing at the Heritage Foundation last week. “For those of you who want to know, I’m not going to be on Dancing with the Stars,” Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) said, laughing about his relationship with former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay at a recent Heritage Foundation Bloggers’ Briefing. “It’s been an interesting ten months,” Rep. Olson began, referring to the myriad of legislation the Obama administration has proposed: health care, cap and trade, et cetera....

Advanced Ambulance Chasing by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 14, 2009 The lawsuit industry makes up about six percent of America’s GDP and costs thirty times more than what the NIH spends annually on cures for deadly diseases, said Lawrence J. McQuillan at a recent Heritage Foundation event. McQuillan, the director of Business and Economic Studies at the Pacific Research Institute, has dedicated countless hours to the study of tort and the potential effects of tort reform on the American economy (many of his results can be found in the PRI publication “Jackpot Justice: The True Cost of America’s Tort System”)....

Topping Torts by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 14, 2009 When Haley Barbour was first elected governor there, he said at the recent Heritage Foundation event, Tort Reform in the States: Protecting Consumers and Enhancing Economic Growth, Mississippi was the worst place for tort abuse. The state had been dealing with bad state Supreme Court decisions, extreme lawsuit abuse, and campaigns to stop lawsuit reform. So Barbour decided to run for governor on a platform of tort reform. This was vital, Barbour said, to getting tort reform passed at all. According to Barbour, state tort reform can never pass without the...