Free Republic

There isn’t much left in this regime to shock the consumer of news. We have grown accustomed to the daily cavalcade of assaults on American freedoms in the Federal Register. Both the autocrat-in-chief and his press secretary have mainstreamed the practice of lying about virtually every issue. They attempt to take both sides of foreign policy issues within the same speech, claiming to be supporters of Israel while supporting Hamas, claiming to be opposed to the risk of nuclear war while encouraging Iranian nuclear advancement. What is left to shock us, in such an environment? Well, sometime Friday, January 5,...

Javier Milei caused a political earthquake in November after winning the presidency in Argentina, ending decades of socialist rule. The wild-haired economist got to work immediately after being sworn in, slashing the number of government ministries, including the nation's gender and diversity bureaucracy. He's now pushing the ball further down the field, with a sweeping executive order that eliminates many of the more communistic aspects of Argentina's government. That comes as the once-wealthy South American country desperately tries to recover from a self-inflicted inflation crisis that has seen prices rise 160 percent in the preceding year. Milei ran on a...

On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, the United States House of Representatives passed the CARS Act, which would defend American auto manufacturers, workers, and consumers from an unconstitutionally over-regulatory U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the many other related federal efforts to effectively ban normal petroleum-powered vehicles. Passing the House isn’t enough, of course. Like any other bill, it must pass the U.S. Senate and be signed into law – or override a veto – in order to go into effect. But it’s still worthwhile because bills like this one force politicians to go on the record, providing a legitimate campaign...

The world’s central planners meet, speak, plan and party together. Whether they do so in Davos or New York, Paris or Washington D.C.; whether in the name of the WEF or UN or Congress or EU, these central planners share the same goal: to repeat so many seemingly-unrelated lies, so often and so vigorously, that they can get the public to believe that statism is the solution. Well, their solution will never be right, because their premises will never be right. Facts are facts, no matter what the dictators of Davos may say. For example, a few truths: 1. Carbon...

During the 2020 “pandemic,” America learned a new concept: “essential workers.” Governments took it upon themselves to decide who was important, or at least, important enough to remain at work while other businesses were being unconstitutionally shuttered for days, for weeks, for months, and in far too many cases, forever. What we soon learned – those for whom it wasn’t obvious from the start, that is – was that in fact, all jobs are essential. Our economy is the most complex of symbiotic relationships, as all the cogs of our economic engine work together for the greater good. In 2020,...

I don’t often read food reviews, but when the article concerns one of your favorites, you just can’t resist, right? Well, as a Chicagoan, when I saw an internet article come up on my screen, by a newcomer to Chicago reviewing the best of Chicago’s Italian Beef sandwiches, I naturally had to click on it. I didn’t expect to find a political meaning in the piece – and frankly, I’m quite sure that the writer didn’t intend any political undertone either – but there it was, in the subtext, for anyone who knows Chicago. The Italian beef is a great...

While budgets should have been getting tighter for years now, some states, at least, are finally awakening to the need to watch their spending. Well, better late than never, right? One example of this newfound awareness is the effort of some to reconsider our generous subsidies for solar panels, particularly the rooftop panels that one sees high atop single family homes across otherwise reasonable suburbs. Mississippi, Florida, and other states are in the news right now as they debate the question of rethinking the levels at which the taxpayer ought to subsidize the homeowner for this choice of dubious economic...

The 21st century so far hasn’t been the best of times for America. First 9/11, then a financial crisis and deep recession, then a global pandemic without recent precedent. The economy has suffered, and politics has been upended. American self-confidence has been badly bruised, and public trust in institutions has plummeted. What can we do about it? That’s the question that John Cogan and Kevin Warsh, both policy veterans and Journal contributors, asked themselves in September 2020 when prompted by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. She had just taken over as director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where both...

Joe Biden wants everyone to be vaccinated against the China Virus commonly known as Covid-19. Whether that’s a good idea or not is at this point an open question. The vaccines and boosters currently available appear to be ineffective at preventing people from catching the virus, but there is evidence often interpreted as proof that they are effective in reducing the danger of the virus to those who do catch it. There is also evidence often interpreted as proof that they are dangerous, often causing severe heart ailments in otherwise healthy people. The oddity here is that the virus may...

On Tuesday, November 2, the Democratic Party suffered a serious electoral walloping. Republican gains - in states and districts we were long told were solid blue - showed that a public horrified by the tyrannical Biden/Harris/Pelosi/Schumer regime is indeed able to channel that horror into effective action in the voting booth. Some would expect the Democratic Party leadership to regroup after being dealt such a stern lesson… but not our Democrats. No, the lesson they took from this election was that they can expect to be turned into a minority party in 2022, so they had better make the most...

MSNBC political commentator and author George Will said Wednesday on “The Beat” that the Republican base needed to be quarantined because they were “addicted to furiousness.” Melber said, “What has happened to this moderate Republican Party?”Will said, “Well, it’s one thing to be for limited government. It’s one thing to be as the founders were, for a government of limited delegated and enumerated powers. This, however, is beyond politics. This is clinical psychology we have to consult.

Reflections on the anniversary of George Washington‘s first inauguration… The United States of America declared our independence in 1776, and amazingly, won a revolution against the greatest military power on earth, as a loose and perpetually destitute federation. The Constitutional Convention in 1787, accompanied by its subsequent statewide ratification conventions, unified us as a nation, and set forth the building blocks for future success. We held elections in 1788... a new House and Senate found their way to the temporary capital in New York in the spring of 1789, and finally, on April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath...

House Bill 3088 Sponsored by Representative NOSSE SUMMARYRepeals crimes of prostitution, commercial sexual solicitation and promoting prostitution. Takes effect on 91st day following adjournment sine die. (See full bill at link)

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin faces murder and manslaughter charges for kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he stopped breathing. But even if Chauvin is convicted, Floyd's family may not be able to pursue claims under a federal statute that authorizes lawsuits against government officials who violate people's constitutional rights. The uncertain prospects for the lawsuit Floyd's relatives plan to file underlines the unjust and irrational consequences of qualified immunity, a doctrine that shields police from liability for outrageous conduct when the rights they violated were not "clearly established" at the time. Congress should seize the opportunity created by...

America has lost a voice that strongly and consistently provided the road map to steer us away from the political and cultural abyss we currently face. That voice belonged to historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, who died Dec. 30 at age 97. Gertrude spoke passionately about how our most important institutions—families, communities, churches, and private enterprise—must be “remoralized,” as it is only through a strong civil society that we can have a strong nation. In her words, people learn to function as “free, responsible, moral adults” in these institutions and apply that responsibility and morality as citizens of a nation. But she...

I think the time is coming for an idea that is so old that it is new again: cutting the Federal government in half. The idea is: cancel all Federal welfare-type programs, including all means-tested welfare programs (apparently there are over 150 of them), all healthcare-related programs including Medicare and Medicaid, all education-related, arts-related and housing-related programs, and anything else of this sort -- in short, most everything except for the military, national parks, and maybe some public works. Social Security could eventually be reformed to a system of private retirement accounts, known as a "provident fund" system and in...

Pornographers are bracing for the first major obscenity clampdown in three decades under President Trump’s new pick for attorney general, William Barr, a strident social conservative whose views threaten the lucrative industry. Anti-porn campaigners were thrilled with Trump's selection of Barr, previously attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, noting his enthusiastic obscenity prosecutions in the early ‘90s. Pornographers are taking the threat seriously, but argue a crackdown would be hypocritical under the thrice-married Trump. His links to the industry include softcore Playboy cameos, an alleged affair with Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal, an alleged tryst with hardcore star...

Founding Father Patrick Henry famously proclaimed "I smell a rat!" What did it smell like? What was that rat's name? What was the rat's color: brown or grey? What was the rat's purpose? The rat's purpose really is the only important question here. I asked the other questions mainly in jest. Welcome to the 6th and final posting in this series examining the claims that progressives make in regard to Marbury vs Madison. In parts 1 through 5, I mainly examined some of the inconsistencies relating to the progressives' claims. Here in part 6 I highlight where the problem actually...

In parts 1 through 4 of this series (Scroll to the bottom for more detail about the parts) I have been examining progressivism and its relation (or lack therof) to the 1803 court ruling Marbury vs Madison. Here in part 5, I just want to ask two questions. First, what is the purpose of a bill of rights? We could be talking about the Bill of Rights of the Federal Constitution, or the Bill of Rights that exists in your State constitution. It doesn't matter really, where that bill of rights happens to exist. What is it for: Is it...

In his book The Promise of American Life, Herbert Croly wrote the following: (page 29) But although Hamilton is much the finer man and much the sounder thinker and statesman, there were certain limitations in his ideas and sympathies the effects of which have been almost as baleful as the effects of Jefferson's intellectual superficiality and insincerity. He perverted the American national idea almost as much as Jefferson perverted the American democratic idea, and the proper relation of these two fundamental conceptions one to another cannot be completely understood until this double perversion is corrected. To make Hamilton and Jefferson...