Free Republic

When it comes to limited government, there are few champions as steadfast and principled as Representative Ron Paul. In the House of Representatives, he plays a very useful role constantly challenging the status quo and reminding his colleagues, despite their frequent indifference, that our Constitution was meant to limit the power of government. On taxes, regulation, and political free speech his record is outstanding. While his recent pork votes are troubling, the vast majority of his anti-spending votes reflect a longstanding desire to cut government down to size. But Ron Paul is a purist, too often at the cost of...

"With The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War, by H. W. Crocker III, we are presented with the same old Lost Cause rhetoric in a new bag, a Confederate catechism for the 21st century." Here's the one quote Smeltzer pulls off the cover to criticize: "You think you know about the Civil War, but did you know: That the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave?" So, stating that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free the slaves now automatically gets you labeled as a "Lost Causer." Really? (Follow the link and read the rebuttal)

TAMPA, FLA. - Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-75 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified the highway intersection.]

Andy Dick was arrested early Wednesday for investigation of drug use and sexual battery after the comedian allegedly pulled down a teenager’s top, police said. The former co-star of the TV sitcom “NewsRadio” was released from a detention center after posting $5,000 bail. Calls to his representatives seeking comment were not immediately returned. Police were called to the Buffalo Wild Wings in Murrieta at about 1:13 a.m. to investigate a report of “an intoxicated male” urinating outside the bar and causing a disturbance, according to a police statement. When they arrived, a 17-year-old girl told police that she was outside...

American Culture on the 4th of July By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom July 4, 2007I am never sure whether it is our American culture that shapes our TV, movies and other media or whether our media shapes our thinking to such an extent that it changes culture.Probably a little bit of both.What is culture? One very good online dictionary calls it “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.”On July 4,...

The North is highly likely to conduct a second test to demonstrate its nuclear bomb capability More than a hundred days have passed since North Korea shocked the international community on Oct. 9, 2006, by carrying out its first nuclear test at an underground testing site in a northeastern province of the country. The test was a physical demonstration to vindicate its official pronouncement on Feb. 10, 2005 that North Korea possessed nuclear weapons and would further bolster its nuclear arsenal. Although technically imperfect, nuclear test meant that North Korea had crossed the de facto red line, creating enormous geopolitical...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were arrested Thursday on charges of sneaking illegal immigrants out of jail in exchange for $300,000 in cash bribes. Mario Alvarez, 44, and Samuel McClaren, 43, released inmates from an immigration jail to a smuggling ring that operates in El Centro, about 120 miles east of San Diego, according to a federal complaint filed in January and unsealed Thursday. The smugglers then allegedly took the migrants to Los Angeles. The agents were assigned to a joint effort between the Border Patrol and Mexico's attorney general's office under which migrants arrested in...

A largely forgotten and greatly misunderstood era of American Jewish history concerns the leading role-played by Southern Jews in the Confederate armed forces. Some 3,500 to 5,000 Jews fought for the South, honorably and loyally. They, like their compatriots, showed amazing courage, dedication, and valor, enduring incredible hardships, against overwhelming and often hopeless odds, in fighting, for their homeland -- not for slavery, as is so often said, but for their families, homes, and country. The story of these Southern patriots is told eloquently in two authoritative books: “The Jewish Confederates,” by Robert Rosen, and “Last Order of the Lost...

There is a scene in "Gone With the Wind" where Rhett Butler announces to Scarlett O'Hara that he is going off to fight in the Civil War. O'Hara responds by saying, "But the war is lost. There's no point." To which, Butler replies, "Sometimes my dear the only causes worth fighting for are lost causes!" That statement resonates with me, especially as I get older, because I realize how much of a lost cause life is. Our experience upon this earth is a series of losses. Ultimately, nothing lasts forever. We can lose loved ones, possessions, jobs, opportunities, even dreams...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — If the Democratic Leadership Council has anything to say about it, the Democratic Party will reach out more to voters in the center of political America. "We've got to be for something, and it is pretty clear that America is waiting for us. They are desperate to know what we are for," Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack told those attending the group's conference on Monday. "It worked in 1992 for Bill Clinton, who was chairman of the DLC before he ran for president. It worked in 1996 for Bill Clinton." Since then, Democrats have lost 10 seats in...

One of six Episcopal priests who had opposed the Connecticut Anglican bishop’s support for the ordination of a gay bishop was temporary banned from his church Wednesday. The Bishop who took this first step toward defrocking blamed an unauthorized sabbatical for the move; the six priests blamed the Bishop. Bishop Andrew D. Smith “inhibited” the Rev. Mark Hansen – rector of St. John’s Church since 1990 – from his duties for the next six months. Hansen had been on sabbatical since April 10 – a move the bishop said was detrimental to the church. In Hansen’s place, the bishop installed...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief accuser Peter Paul said Saturday that yesterday's acquittal of her former campaign finance chairman, David Rosen, doesn't mean she's in the clear. "This is by no means an exoneration of Hillary's campaign," Paul told NewsMax. "In fact. it's an indictment of her campaign." Calling Rosen a sacrificial lamb who was set up to take the fall for higher-ups, Paul said, "The jurors clearly didn't believe that he filed these false FEC reports on his own." Paul's allegations about expenses he covered for an August 2000 gala fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton spurred a four-year investigation...

<p>"She looked beautiful," attorney George Felos said, emerging from a visit to her room. He claimed that Terri was "resting comfortably."</p> <p>"In all the years I've seen Mrs. Schiavo, I have never seen such a look of peace and beauty upon her," he insisted. Felos's comments were sharply at odds with accounts from her family and their lawyers, who say her eyes are sunken, her skin is flaking and that she's bleeding from the eyes and mouth.</p>

I'm sad to say that much of the anti-American feeling that is around at the moment is down to the fact that Americans can't seem to see any faults in their system and/or military. We in Europe remember how America has been involved in destabalising and usurping a democratically elected government - Chile on Sept 11 1972 - used Agent Orange in Viet Nam, demonised left wing people in the entertainment industry during McCarthyism, supporting death squad governments in Central/South America, just to mention a few things, and, most recently, your FBI came here and managed to get the servers...

Editorial December 2004 by: Andrew E. Busch Much ink was spilled after November 2 analyzing the vote and offering advice to Democrats on how to regain their footing in national politics. Two pieces of advice achieved the status of a near-consensus. Learn how to address moral values issues with at least some sympathy for the concerns of those Americans who are not enamored of gay marriage, abortion-on-demand, and postmodernist relativism. Find a way to get serious about national security. Because the problems of the Democratic Party in these two areas have been a long time in the making—1972 might be...

MARK Latham will celebrate his first anniversary as opposition leader on Wednesday, but no one is betting on him lasting to his second. If Labor looked split when Mr Latham took over the leadership last December, the rifts are gaping a year on. He has been labelled a dead parrot by a former Beazley adviser, a narcissist who won't listen to anyone by anonymous frontbenchers, and a bully by a state Labor premier. He has allegedly had an angry bust-up with factional heavyweight Stephen Conroy, accusing him of leaking internal ructions to journalists, and says one journalist has been sold...

Kerry, Salazar to campaign together in Pueblo Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is planning his sixth visit to Colorado, this time to hold a rally in Pueblo on Saturday with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ken Salazar. It will be the first appearance together for Kerry and Salazar. The failure of the two to campaign together has been questioned by Republicans. Political experts say Salazar has been better off going it alone in a state where Republicans and unaffiliated voters each outnumber Democrats. President Bush has campaigned several times with Salazar's Republican rival, Pete Coors, and held a fundraiser. Salazar's spokesman,...

When the Civil War broke out between the Union and the Confederacy and raged on for the next four years, the state of North Carolina managed to escape any real ravages of war. As the bloodiest battles went on in its neighbors to the north and the south, Fayetteville waited for some resolution to the conflict and prayed that the war would not come to the city. One Union general would not allow the peace to last. "I will destroy the [Fayetteville] arsenal utterly," proclaimed General William Sherman in a letter written from Fayetteville on March 12, 1865 to his...

Bill Jones strode to the podium at the Republican National Convention last week and, in a speech that lasted two minutes, took a telling verbal detour. Whereas fellow Republican Senate candidates delivered tag-team endorsements of President Bush, Jones mentioned the head of the Republican ticket only once, almost as an afterthought, while praising a certain former movie actor three times. "The California dream is alive and well with Arnold Schwarzenegger as our new governor," Jones said during the convention's opening hours, his voice echoing through New York City's mostly empty Madison Square Garden. "With his dynamic leadership, and that of...

AUSTIN — Democrats blame Gov. Rick Perry and the GOP-led Legislature for slashing children's health insurance and failing to fix public school funding. But, so far, not one Democrat is willing to use those tempting political targets and run in 2006 against the Republican governor, who has two possible challengers inside his own party. What gives? Prospective candidates, mindful that Democratic nominees have lost three straight gubernatorial elections, appear to be wary of moving too soon. "The state is not in transition now — it's completely in the hands of Republicans," said Democratic consultant Kelly Fero, adding that a "defeatist...