Free Republic

No outrage in 2014 under the sacred boy king.

Former FBI Director James Comey gave a no-holds-barred interview on Sunday night in which he called Donald Trump “morally unfit to be president” and a liar who possibly obstructed justice. Comey, speaking to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, touched on many of the scandals that have plagued the Trump administration over the past 16 months, including the Russia dossier and the litany of sexual misconduct allegations leveled at the president. “A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American...

The Cardinal Virtues: Fortitude Msgr. Charles Pope • March 7, 2018 • Fortitude, Pietro PeruginoIn exploring the cardinal virtue of fortitude, it is helpful to follow the schema of St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae (II, IIae, qq. 123-140), where he treats it expansively. Because I am summarizing a large amount of material here, I have not included references for each specific point below. Please allow the previous citation of the Summa to serve for the entire post.Not only is fortitude a cardinal virtue, it is also one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift...

The Cardinal Virtues: Temperance Msgr. Charles Pope • March 6, 2018 • Temperance, Piero del PollaiuoloIn exploring the cardinal virtue of temperance, it is helpful to follow the schema of St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae (II, IIae, qq. 141-170), where he treats it expansively. Because I am summarizing a large amount of material here, I have not included references for each specific point below. Please allow the previous citation of the Summa to serve for the entire post.Temperance, in its broad sense as a general virtue, disposes us to act in moderation and do what is ordinate...

The Democratic Party has learned to stop worrying and love “big government” liberalism. The party’s top presidential prospects are advertising their ardor for socialized medicine, free public college, universal child care and paid family leave. Even the party’s moderate senators are now pushing for the same kind of public health insurance option that their centrist predecessors killed in the early Obama years. And the party’s 2018 platform — the consensus agenda that ostensibly unites all Democrats, from Joe Manchin of West Virginia to Bernie Sanders — calls for vigorous antitrust enforcement to prevent mega-corporations from rigging the economy against working...

Donald Trump issued a substantively sound—though perhaps poorly executed—executive order on refugees attempting to enter the U.S., and liberals across America find another excuse to avoid work (or to avoid looking for work) and conduct a protest. I suppose we should be used to this by now, but somehow the modern left always seems to find some way to take their protests fits to new heights lows. Of course, leading the way into the verbal gutter is the Hollywood elite. Of course, Hollywood liberals—perhaps better known as the “people-who-pretend-to-be-other-people” as Chicks on the Right describe them—are typically familiar with gutters...

“I’m starting to think about this morality stuff,” Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin said as he began his radio show Monday night. “Everything we do should involve morality … but let me ask you a question: If you were alive during George Washington’s times, would you have voted for George Washington?” Levin then went on to list the moral failings of past politicians from the slave-owning founders, to the adulterous John F. Kennedy, to Bill Clinton himself, and so on. “I’m not defending Donald Trump,” Levin exclaimed. “I’m trying to understand hypocrisy.” Referring to the Republican lawmakers that have since...

He represents a hotly contested Latino-majority district in Florida. Trump’s favorable rating among Latinos nationwide is, um, 12/77. Democrats will, of course, give special attention to turning out Latino Democrats in Florida. Curbelo’s probably doomed with Trump at the top of the ticket no matter what he does, but crossing the aisle for Hillary is an obvious first step. Frankly, he may be better off switching party affiliations if he wants to hold his seat. One of the eight thousand fascinating things about Trump as nominee would be watching how congressional loyalties shake out. Some, in purplish districts, will go...

HUMAN beings have an appetite for moral outrage. You see this in public life — in the condemnation of Donald J. Trump for vowing to bar Muslims from the United States, or of Hillary Clinton for her close involvement with Wall Street, to pick two ready examples — and you see this in personal life, where we criticize friends, colleagues and neighbors who behave badly. Why do we get so mad, even when the offense in question does not concern us directly? The answer seems obvious: We denounce wrongdoers because we value fairness and justice, because we want the world...

I tip my cap, unreservedly, to Ted Cruz. With everything on the line - and so many GOP colleagues cowed and intimidated - he took on Donald Trump and won. Late last year I wrote that the GOP needed an actual leader, someone who would step up and take on Trump directly: Now is the time. A presidential campaign is an early test of leadership, a proving ground for dealing with the challenges of the world's most difficult job. I don't want the last man standing. I want the guy who took down the king. If Trump can absorb the...

The West has developed a dangerous concern for ‘proportionality.’ In the current epidemic of Palestinian violence, scores of Arab youths are attacking, supposedly spontaneously, Israeli citizens with knives. Apparently, edged weapons have more Koranic authority, and, in the sense of media spectacle, they provide greater splashes of blood. Thus the attacker is regularly described as “unarmed” and a victim when he is “disproportionately” stopped by bullets. The Obama State Department has condemned the use of “excessive” Israeli force in response to Palestinian terrorism. John Kirby, the hapless State Department spokesman, blamed “both” sides for terrorism, and the president himself called...

The Vatican has fired a who came out gay on the eve of a major meeting of church leaders to discuss homosexu senior priests. In a statement on Saturday, a spokesman for Pope Francis said Polish priest Krzysztof Charamsa's action had been "very serious and irresponsible". Krzysztof will be replaced "by a theologian" in the Vatican.

A Summons to Courage and a Reminder of Victory in an Old Hymn Msgr. Charles Pope • June 14, 2015 • There is a lesser known hymn, at least in Catholic circles, that is remarkably appropriate for our times. It challenges us to see the choice before us soberly, and encourages us with the fact that the victory is already ours if we choose Christ Jesus. In times like these we need courage and conviction; this hymn serves as a powerful anthem to such a call. I would like to present the verses of the hymn and supply commentary throughout....

Most Americans hold either liberal or conservative positions on most matters. In many instances, however, they would be hard pressed to explain their position or the position they oppose. But if you can’t explain both sides, how do you know you’re right? At the very least, you need to understand both the liberal and conservative positions in order to effectively understand your own. I grew up in a liberal world — New York, Jewish and Ivy League graduate school. I was an 8-year-old when President Dwight Eisenhower ran for re-election against the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson. I knew nothing about...

“If we accept that the mother can kill her own child for convenience, what moral ground is left?” If there is one subject that should not be left for the deceitful ‘debate’ of self-serving, bankrupt-of-morals politicians, it’s protecting the lives of unborn children. Any possible ‘debate’ on abortion came to a loud and grinding halt when technology proved for once and for all that babies are not the convenient so-called ‘fetuses’ that give rise to the selfish “My body, my choice” alibi but thumb-sucking infants, photographed as irrefutable proof in their mother’s wombs. Now comes proof that delaying and diluting...

The USA has, by far, the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. Progressives will tell you that this is what makes America the Murder Capitol of Planet Earth. But we're not, and in this devastatingly effective Firewall, Bill Whittle shows why the center of Gun Nut Nation is in fact one of the safest places in the world.

A Glimmer of Light in a Very Bleak Decade – A Consideration of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By: Msgr. Charles PopeIt is difficult to describe the decade of the 1960s as anything but a near complete disaster for this country, Western culture, and the world. Like a tsunami that sweeps in and out in successive waves destroying and reworking the whole landscape and setting loose subsequent disasters, the 1960s was a disastrous series of revolutions whose destructive aftermath is now breeding disease, broken families, addiction, sexual confusion, and social chaos. The sexual revolution, the revolution...

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war… And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.(Revelation 19:11,19)One of the beautiful things about living in these turbulent last days, is the wonderful clarity that current events reveal. Evil at the highest levels has usually tried to hide behind a facade of benevolence if not righteousness, at least...

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, addressing the annual Washington conference of Christians United for Israel, July 21, 2014.With sharp jabs at the Obama administration, Christians United for Israel launched its annual Washington rally with appeals to Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran and cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority. David Brog, the group’s executive director, said CUFI regarded the Iran nuclear talks as a failure and would back legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would impose new sanctions immediately. The Cruz measure is tougher than legislation already under consideration that would trigger sanctions...

There is nothing quite like calling a political opponent’s bluff, which is what President Pro Tem of the State Senate Phil Berger Sr. did to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) North Carolina Conference President Rev. William Barber. Barber has been the leader of the “Moral Monday” protests at the North Carolina General Assembly, which oppose much of what the Republican-led North Carolina legislature has done. What Berger asked Barber in a letter dated April 2 was exactly what Barber wanted the legislature to do. Barber replied in a letter dated April 17 with his “Five Point...