Free Republic

...JoanWalsh at Salon writes that she was raised Catholic, but has since turned into "a secularfeministliberaldemocrat." Last Friday evening, when Obama's supporters were still clinging to their belief that his announcement of a compromise would steal all the wind out of the bishops' sails, she asked this: Why did we spend 10 days listening to prominent Catholics, including even some liberals and Democrats, insist that the White House had overreached and trampled on "religious freedom" - in this case, the "freedom" of the Catholic hierarchy to impose rules that even most Catholics don't live by? ("Catholic tribalism and the contraceptive...

“We have to look at the root cause of why the economy is struggling as much as it is,” Santorum said. “Government intervention. Government regulation. Government taxation. Government is crushing and destroying the American spirit and the American free enterprise system.” Santorum said that government spending was impinging on personal freedoms and ultimately chipping away at what made the country great. “When the government gets as big as it’s gotten and starts to take over more of your life, then you get smaller as the individual, you get weaker, you lose control over your lives. You lose the rights that...

As the recent battle for a proper understanding of religious liberty shows, our culture and many of our government leaders and organizations are becoming increasingly secularized and hostile to religion and religious practice.Yet another example of this is a recent rule change in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). According to this program, a person who has been engaged in Public Service employment for ten years, can have the remainder of their Student Loan form the government forgiven, presuming they have faithfully been paying it up till then.However, a recent rule change now excludes those who are involved in any...

Georgians would be allowed to carry concealed weapons in bars, public schools, most government buildings, college campuses and other locations under a sweeping gun bill filed in the House. In addition to banishing many current restrictions, House Bill 981 would prevent police or the National Guard from disarming people during states of emergency, and it would allow citizens to sue if that occurred. Rep. Sean Jerguson, R-Woodstock, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said Thursday that it strikes a balance between the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms, and personal property rights. For instance, any church or business,...

Late on February 15, JotForm lost access to jotform.com. The company soon discovered the U.S. government had seized the domain by lodging a request with the site’s domain registrar GoDaddy. Soon after, it had been taken down. Aytekin Tank, co-founder of Interlogy Internet Technologies, and owner of JotForm, later confirmed that he’d been in contact with the agent assigned to his case at the Secret Service. She was busy and couldn’t look at the site for a few days. So millions of web forms and thousands of customers were left without a service and no reason as to why this...

The term "culture war" has been in the news lately, describing a shift in political focus from unemployment and taxes to birth control and gay marriage. Some say it's because the economy is improving (although we have a long way to go). Others, like me, say it's because it's a perennially important discussion that will never go away. But something peculiar is happening this election season: Instead of putting their moral cards out on the table, conservatives are couching their cultural crusades in the libertarian language of "big government" oppression. Take the latest fight over whether birth control will be...

....Asked about the legalization of online gambling, Santorum responds: "I’m someone who takes the opinion that gaming is not something that is beneficial, particularly having that access on the Internet. Just as we’ve seen from a lot of other things that are vices on the Internet, they end to grow exponentially as a result of that. It’s one thing to come to Las Vegas and do gaming and participate in the shows and that kind of thing as entertainment, it’s another thing to sit in your home and have access to that it. I think it would be dangerous to...

In the pages of the liberal Jewish Daily Forward, Noam Neusner says that President Obama’s claim that religiously motivated schools and services are not truly religious runs counter to tikkun olam, the Jewish obligation to do good to others: The Obama Administration has held – and continues to hold – that if a religious institution wants to serve the community as a whole and employ people who do not subscribe to their faith, what they do is functionally not a religious mission at all, but a public one. In other words, you can practice your faith when it applies only...

Gene Sperling, director of the White House's national economic council, said today at an official meeting that "we need a global minimum tax": “He supports corporate tax reform that would reduce expenditures and loopholes, lower rates for people investing and creating jobs in the U.S., due so further for manufacturing, and that we need to, as we have the Buffett Rule and the individual tax reform, we need a global minimum tax so that people have the assurance that nobody is escaping doing their fair share as part of a race to the bottom or having our tax code actually...

On CNN's Sunday show State of the Union, anchor Candy Crowley again brought tough questions to a Democrat about President Obama's plan to impose on a burden on Catholic-affiliated schools, hospitals, and charities to subsidize contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients. New chief of staff Jacob Lew was asked if as an observant Jew, "was there anything about this that made you think twice when it first went out?" Lew athletically dodged that question. Crowley also asied if he could say "with a straight face that the insurance company's going to pick up the cost of this"? Lew dodged that as well.

The pro-life movement has long argued the inextricable link between the right to life and the other two rights affirmed in our Declaration of Independence.  There is a reason, we have argued, the Founding Fathers intentionally wed “life� to “liberty� and “the pursuit of happiness.�  The “unalienable rights� of the Declaration are derived from our being “created equal� by a “Creator� who “endowed� us with “certain unalienable rights.� Without the first of these rights, there is no basis for the second and third.  Our liberty as Americans is based upon our identity as human persons.  We have been given...

The National Gun Victims Action Council has declared a Valentine’s Day boycott of Starbucks to protest the coffee chain’s support for American gun laws. TTAG Commentator Greg in Allston has a counter-proposal, as originated by Sebastian and gay cynic . . . “OK everyone, let’s have some real fun, shall we? Good! Listen up and please hear me out. The antis are planning a boycott. Let’s counter with a BUYcott. On February14, please make the effort to go to Starbucks and buy something. Don’t like their coffee? Get a tea, a cocoa, a pastry, anything. Thank the clerk for Starbucks’...

Full Article less graphics EWTN Sues Obama Admin EWTN SUES Obama Admin In a remarkable decision, EWTN is suing the Obama Administration over the Contraception Mandate. This extraordinary act, as well as near unanimous outcry from other Faiths, is sparking a Religious Liberty controversy that the Obama Administration, seemed willing to take on. "We had no other option but to take this to the courts," says EWTN President and CEO Michael P. Warsaw. "Under the HHS mandate, EWTN is being forced by the government to make a choice: either we provide employees coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and...

I think the Department of Homeland Security just called me a terrorist. Not only me, but millions of other law-abiding Americans, not to mention Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Patrick Henry, among others.

On January 27, 2012, the 6th Circuit issued a landmark opinion in Ward v. Wilbanks. It is the biggest federal court victory for campus First Amendment rights since my own victory before the 4th Circuit last April. What is striking about the Ward opinion is the thread of common sense running through every aspect of its analysis. Even more striking is the eloquence of the 6th Circuit as it defends fundamental religious freedom against a full-frontal assault from the LGBT community. Julea Ward was one of many counseling students being coerced into affirming homosexuality by a state-run institution. She did...

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...

Following the horrific events that transpired on that fateful Tuesday morning in September, the federal government assumed the tremendous responsibility of safeguarding America’s travelers. When establishing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Department of Transportation (and later, the newly formed Department of Homeland Security) ultimately chose between two methods of protection to combat the exponentially growing threat of global and domestic terrorism. Type one consists of a security force that, among an unfortunate list of other failures, identifies a mere 30% of all knives and guns that pass through its security detectors, yet simultaneously views cupcakes, cans of Play-Doh (a...

As you may know, TTAG commentator Greg responded to a Valentine’s Day Starbucks boycott by the National Gun Victims Action Council by organizing a BUYcott. He’s asking gun owners to reward Starbucks for its letter-of-the-law firearms policy by buying a beverage or food item with a two dollar bill (a suggestion made by NukemJim, the bill representing the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms) on the 14th of Feb. Not forgetting to “thank the clerk for Starbucks’ support of the Constitution.” Ahead of Starbuck’s Appreciation Day–which has already well and truly gone viral—our own Tim Tritt contacted the...

Long ago, Jefferson warned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” The exceptions to that rule have been few and far between recently, and ought to be celebrated when they occur. One did this past week with the announcement that supporters of the so-called “Stop On-Line Privacy Act” and the “Protect Intellectual Property Act” have indefinitely postponed their measures after an unprecedented protest across the Internet. SOPA and PIPA pose a crippling danger to the Internet because they use the legitimate concern over copy-right infringement as an excuse for government to intrude...

On the list of stupid things the Transportation Security Administration could do for their public image: detaining Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the politician most anxious to abolish them, is probably right near the top. But that's exactly what just happened, his Communications Director, Moira Bagley has confirmed it in a tweet. Kelly O'Donnell is reporting that aides say Paul was detained when he refused a full-body pat-down, after the scanner went off. Paul lifted his pant-leg to show he had no metal, and asked to be re-screened. He was denied this request.

Blackstone Chief Executive Objects to Having to Provide Personal Financial Information to the Fed ROBIN SIDEL Stephen Schwarzman, one of Wall Street's most prominent deal makers, is going out of his way to keep the details of his personal fortune a closely held secret. Blackstone Group LP is changing the structure of its investment in a Florida bank after Mr. Schwarzman, founder and chief executive of the private-equity firm, balked at providing information about his personal finances to the Federal Reserve, according to people familiar with the situation.

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt announced that plans are underway to create an Internet ID for everyone in the country. “Right now anyone can access the Internet, obtain information, disseminate opinions, and pretty much do whatever they want without the government knowing who they are and where they live,” Schmidt complained. “This is tantamount to anarchy. We have put up with it for far too long.” Under the ID plan, the US Department of Commerce would compel all Internet service providers to give it access to all user accounts, names, and passwords. “We’re not saying that the days of...

Video at Link

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum says government has gotten too big and people too small and what is at stake in this election is liberty for everyone

Wednesday the United States Supreme Court delivered a knockout blow to the White House in the cause of religious liberty. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a unanimous court swatted away the government’s claim that the Lutheran Church did not have the right to fire a “minister of religion” who, after six years of Lutheran religious training had been commissioned as a minister, upon election by her congregation. The fired minister -- who also taught secular subjects -- claimed discrimination in employment. The Obama administration, always looking for opportunities to undermine the bedrock of First Amendment religious liberty, eagerly agreed....

In a case watched closely by energy companies and manufacturers, the Supreme Court is set to consider Monday whether to blunt one of the government's chief tools for enforcing the Clean Water Act. Based on "any information"—even a newspaper article or an anonymous tip—the Environmental Protection Agency can issue an administrative compliance order directing a property owner to stop discharging pollutants or restore a damaged wetland. The government says such directives, similar to stop-work orders by local zoning inspectors, allow it to respond rapidly to prevent environmental damage.

Government: The redistributionist behemoth By George F. Will, Published: January 6 Liberals have a rendezvous with regret. Their largest achievement is today’s redistributionist government. But such government is inherently regressive: It tends to distribute power and money to the strong, including itself. Government becomes big by having big ambitions for supplanting markets as society’s primary allocator of wealth and opportunity. Therefore it becomes a magnet for factions muscular enough, in money or numbers or both, to bend government to their advantage. The left’s centuries-old mission is to increase social harmony by decreasing antagonisms arising from disparities of wealth — to...

Richard Cordray started his new job on Thursday as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Though he may wear that fancy new title, he lacks the statutory power and constitutional authority of the office. On Wednesday, after the Senate adjourned for one day, President Obama unilaterally installed Mr. Cordray to the CFPB and added three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claiming these were “recess appointments” even though the Senate was in pro-forma session, not recess.

Manasquan, NJ --(Ammoland.com)- Recent statistics released by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) report that for nineteen straight months, and that includes all of 2011, American men & women bought over 10,800,000 plus firearms. This number based on the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System, better know as NICS, and is the adjusted NICS data derived by the NSSF research division subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky, Iowa and Utah for carrying concealed weapon (CCW) permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. The final number, of...

Republi-crats - The Two Parties of Tyranny Dr. David M. Berman www.smellthetruth.com There was a day when Constitutional Americans saw hope in the Republican Party. After years of liberalism, and the four years of the inept, big government administration of President Carter, Reagan was elected. Reagan brought back a sense of belief in the American system of freedom, and personal responsibility. Through the presidency of Ronald Reagan conservatives gave the President a pass on many things because we all saw this as a transition to sanity and doubled our efforts to get the House and Senate into Republican control. We...

CHARLTON (CBS) – A Charlton mom says her local library crossed the line when they sent police to collect her daughter’s overdue library books. Her mom says the 5-year-old girl was so afraid that she burst into tears. Charlton Police Sergeant Dan Dowd stopped by the home of Shannon Benoit to let her know that her daughter had two books several months overdue which needed to be returned or paid for. “I thought it was way overboard,” says Benoit. “I closed my door, I looked at my daughter and she started crying.” Hailey asked her mom if the police were...

--SNIP-- Miles was beaten nearly to death by three Pittsburgh police officers who say they mistook a bottle of MountainDew in Miles’ pocket for a gun ... The cops claimed they confronted Miles because a neighbor had complained that the music student with no criminal record was skulking about her property. That neighbor denies ever making such a complaint. The cops also say Miles should have known they were cops, and say he’s responsible for his own beating for fleeing them. Miles is suing. Which brings us to the update: In response to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by...

There are some things worth paying a premium price: Good car battery Good bed Good work boots Good jeans Good whiskey to celebrate, when your mother-in-law moves out of town

In recent days, in the midst of people of different faiths celebrating the religious High Holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah, there have been extraordinarily brutal mob frenzies over the chance to buy assorted products. People have been beaten and killed in the pursuit of the most insignificant of material items. I have heard many different explanations. Of course, I prefer my own. “We The People” have let the individual down. “We The People” have allowed the lives of the everyday citizen of America to become valueless. The beauty of the American experiment is that as equals, we could live completely...

HELSINKI (AP) — A British-registered ship that was held in a Finnish port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives onboard has permission to travel again, but without those materials or its captain, a port official said Monday. The M/S Thor Liberty was headed to China and had docked in the southern Finnish port of Kotka to pick up anchor chains when police last week discovered and seized the missiles and explosive piric acid on board. The Patriot missiles were an official shipment from Germany to South Korea, while Finnish authorities said the explosives were a...

SMYRNA, Ga. --(Ammoland.com)- GLOCK, Inc. has announced that they have been selected as the official Handgun for the 2012 SHOT Show Auction. A one-of-a-kind, hand-engraved GLOCK 22 will be available to GLOCK collectors and firearm enthusiasts worldwide during the auction, scheduled to take place starting at 10:00PM on December 14th – January 20th, 2012. The exclusive GLOCK, known within the company as the “GLOCK Statue of Liberty Gun,” features an intricate, hand-engraved tribute to the United States and the Statue of Liberty. This theme was selected to recognize GLOCK’s 25th Anniversary in the United States, which coincides with the 125th...

The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution guarantees the American people the right to keep and bear arms. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, exactly 220-years ago today.

The Tea Party Was Born Under This Flag America's First Flag… The Liberty Tree Flag

November 7, 2011 | By Trevor Timm The Stop Online Piracy Act: A Blacklist by Any Other Name Is Still a Blacklist During the past week, momentum against the House’s draconian copyright bill has gained steam, as venture capitalists, Internet giants and major artists have denounced it for handing corporations unprecedented power to censor countless websites and stifle free speech. In response, the bill’s big-pocketed supporters have gone on the offensive, attempting to mislead the public about the bill’s true reach. In a particularly egregious example, the Chamber of Commerce posted an attack on its website insisting that the Stop...

The Case for Ron Paul By Jason McNew Ron Paul, a physician, has earned himself the name "Dr. No" by refusing to vote for any bill which assumes powers other than those given in Article I, Section VIII of the Constitution. When one takes a sober look at our country today, it's easy to see why Dr. Paul would behave this way. Take note that there is no authority in the Constitution for the setting of interest rates (as the Federal Reserve does) -- interference which led directly to the housing bubble (which Ron Paul predicted). Despite U.S. participation in...

Read the column the UK's Daily Mail pulled for being too dangerous Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute in the United States has raised a very interesting issue for those who believe that a complete collapse of European society is inevitable. Mitchell wrote a piece titled 'European Economic Crisis Highlights an Increasingly Important Reason to Oppose Gun Control' where he argued that many of the not so rich in Europe may need to arm themselves for personal protection in anticipation of a possible economic collapse. I agree. Here is how the Mitchell argument plays out. He writes about his first...

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments in a religious liberty case that could determine whether a college has the right to require students to profess certain beliefs about homosexuality in order to get a degree. Augusta State University, in east Georgia, put counseling student Jennifer Keeton on academic probation in 2010 after she acknowledged in private conversations and during class that she disagreed with homosexuality. School administrators claimed Keeton said it would be hard for her to counsel gay clients, a stance they said violated ethical standards for licensed counselors, as put forth by the American...

OKLAHOMA CITY – Despite “suspending” his presidential campaign over the weekend in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual impropriety and marital infidelity, conservative businessman Herman Cain still held his pre-scheduled speaking engagement at the Marriott hotel for the Oklahoma Republican Party. Oklahoma GOP Chairman Pinnell introduced Cain by noting that Cain brought a lot to the Republican race and that tonight’s occasion was “joyous” and that this “Victory Rally” is part of making “Obama a one-term president.” As Cain entered, he was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation. He would later note that after he dropped out, he...

A couple of items have appeared in the news which, when juxtaposed, go a long way to show just who the real threat is in the Church/State debate of recent decades. I’d like to excerpt these stories and make some comments. But first, we do well to recall the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.The part...

Under the ‘worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial’ provision of S.1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is set to be up for a vote on the Senate floor this week, the legislation will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who supports the bill. The bill was drafted in SECRET by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), before being passed in a closed-door committee meeting without any kind of hearing. The language appears in sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA...

Presidential hopeful Ron Paul says his rivals’ militant stances on “the defense of liberty” would make it difficult for him to support any of them for president should he not get the Republican nomination, because their positions would lead to bigger government. But the Texas congressman also told Fox News’ Neal Cavuto Wednesday that despite these concerns, he probably would not run as a third-party candidate. “I would have trouble with what I heard last night because it is almost opposite of the defense of liberty that I’m talking about,” Paul told Cavuto, referring to Tuesday night’s presidential debate. “I...

President Obama pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey named Liberty Wednesday morning in a ceremony at the White House, noting in the process that "tomorrow is one of the best days of the year to be an American...but it's also one of the worst days of the year to be a turkey." "They don't have it so good," added the president, who went on to reference his "we can't wait" push to take actions without congressional approval. "We can't wait to pardon these turkeys. Literally," he said. "Otherwise they'd end up next to the mashed potatoes and stuffing."

Lech Walesa said that there would not be a free Poland without Ronald Reagan, during the unveiling of a statue in Warsaw of the late American president on Monday.The former Solidarity leader said that “as a participant in these events,” it was “inconceivable” that such changes would have come about without the last American president during the post-1945 cold-war era. Walesa added that thirty years ago, it seemed that the fall of the communist system would not be possible without a nuclear war. The bronze statue of Reagan has been installed not far from the American Embassy, on Ujazdowskie Avenue,...

As I reported last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a campaign to expand the concept of "religious liberty," a move intended in part to exempt Catholic and other religious organizations from legal requirements, or, put another way, to permit Catholic organizations to discriminate based on religious belief. One key example of late is the USCCB's complaint that the Department of Health and Human Services' refusal to grant it a contract to provide services to sex trafficking victims was a case of religious discrimination. USCCB will not refer sex trafficking victims for reproductive health services, a requirement of...

Liberal and conservative elites agree on one thing: Americans are too free for their own good. BY A. BARTON HINKLE To outward appearances, it might seem as though the left and right have never been more at odds. And for the average man in the street, drawn to the Tea Party on one side or the Occupy movement on the other, this might be true. But it is not so true for elite opinion. The nation's high and mighty may be divided about many things, but on one point they often agree: Americans are still too darn free.