Free Republic

Seven Myths About “Women in Combat" Written by G.S. Newbold, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.) 17 March 2013 Published here with permission from the author. Written By: G.S. Newbold, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.) Marine photo / Cpl. Jennifer Pirante Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Michelle Berglin trains for an upcoming deployment at Camp Pendleton in January. Myth #1 – “It’s about women in combat.” No, it’s not. Women are already in combat, and are serving well and professionally. The issue should be more clearly entitled, “Women in the infantry.” And this is a decidedly different proposition. Myth #2 – “Combat has changed”...

Ten Neo-Confederate Myths (+one) "Secession was not all about slavery." In fact, a study of the earliest secessionists documents shows, when they bother to give reasons at all, their only major concern was to protect the institution of slavery. For example, four seceding states issued "Declarations of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify Secession from the Federal Union". These documents use words like "slavery" and "institution" over 100 times, words like "tax" and "tariff" only once (re: a tax on slaves), "usurpation" once (re: slavery in territories), "oppression" once (re: potential future restrictions on slavery). So secession wasn't just...

On John Kerry’s first international trip as U.S. Secretary of State he made a gaffe worthy of Joe Biden. The headline of London’s Telegraph read “John Kerry invents country of Kyrzakhstan”and the Daily Mail asked “Where’s that exactly, Mr Secretary of State? John Kerry makes up new country ‘Kyrzakhstan.” But more than just fodder for the British press, Kerry’s blunder exposes the truth that he is not the expert on international affairs that the mainstream media, Obama Administration and J Street all vehemently claimed. And at this time, when Kerry created Kyrzakhstan out of thin air, there is no time...

The best thing about math is that it’s a constant. The numbers are what they are. That’s why I’m a data guy, because as a person that believes in absolute truth I have a tendency to like things cut and dried. Leading up to the 2012 election several lies and clever myths were postulated by the ruling class know-it-alls and the charlatans who act on their behalf, and you can bet they will continue peddling their wares this year in light of the results. But the beauty of real numbers is they cut through all the horse puckey right to...

When you think of the Middle Ages, chances are you picture gallant knights sitting astride brilliant destriers galloping through a sea of plagues, ignorance, and filth. And you can hardly be blamed for that, when everything from the movies you watch to your high school history teacher (who was mainly the football coach) has told you that ...

Many of us hold assumptions about things for which we don’t have all the facts. I hear something from a trusted source, and I assume it is fact. That seems to be true about our local immigrant community. I decided to check into some beliefs about immigrants that get bantered about, and borrowed an information sheet I received from Centro Latino, a local nonprofit organization whose mission is to respond to critical needs of Latinos and to bridge the cultural gap between Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking members of our community I addressed issues with more current data I found online. Undocumented...

Most mainstream media outlets aide in the proliferation of myths about our tax system and our economy. Here are 5 myths about the US tax system that you probably thought were true. 1. Once A Millionaire, Always A Millionaire As you can see by the graph below, this shows how many consecutive years millionaires file their taxes as millionaires. Half of the people who become millionaires are only at that status for one year.​ 2. Tax Credits Only Help The Rich This graph shows the effective tax rates since 1980. As you can see, because of tax credits and deductions,...

This morning as the Middle East burned while Obama fundraised in Vegas and our genius president told the world he had lost Egypt as an ally (whoops!), BenSmithing BenSmither John Stanton over at BuzzFeed Politics wrote an hysterically desperate hit-job against Paul Ryan and House Republicans. The BenSmithing troll-tastic goal here is obviously to manufacture the idea that there's some kind animosity brewing between Ryan and his House colleagues. Not because Ben Smith or BuzzFeed or Stanton actually believe there's bad blood. What this is is just another shiny distraction fabricated to keep everyone's eyes off the fact that there...

In his new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore reviews the Bush administration’s publicly stated rationale for the war against terrorism in Afghanistan – it was part of the U.S. response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 – and then suggests that the real reason for the war was, at least in part, to enable Unocal to proceed with a natural gas pipeline project in Afghanistan and for other U.S. energy and oil-service companies to participate in various projects in that country. Unocal has absolutely no intention of participating in an Afghanistan pipeline project nor are we in discussions with...

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has alleged that elusive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a US operator who had tried to destabilise his late wife Benazir Bhutto’s government back in 1989. In fact, as premier Bhutto had “warned America about Osama bin Laden in 1989 with a call to then US president George H. Bush”, Zardari said on NBC’s Meet the Press programme Sunday. “She rang senior Bush and asked of him: ‘Are you destabilizing my government?’ because he (apparently referring to bin Laden) paid the then opposition $10 million to overthrow the first woman elected (prime minister)...

Participants in a recent shale gas energy conference held in Hobbs, New Mexico, referred to a whirlwind trip to Lea County, NM, as “exhausting” but “enlightening.” Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko, Mark Smith, and Daryl Miller, Susquehanna County Commissioner Mary Ann Warren and Pennsylvania state Rep. Tina Pickett were among local elected officials to partake in discussions and serve as guests on informative panels.

Debunking myths about the use of hydraulic fracturing to access oil and natural gas deposits was a big part of a presentation during the Northeast Colorado Chapter of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association banquet at the Country Steak-Out Thursday. Hydraulic fracturing -- sometimes called "fracking" -- is a process of pumping a water, sand and chemical mixture into shale formations under high pressure to break up rock and get oil and natural gas flowing more readily, said Dale Larsen, a sales representative for CALFRAC, who spent most of his career since 1978 as a petroleum engineer in fracking. He...

Jesse’s Statement: The event this man spoke of never happened. I have been to Mc P’s many times since leaving the Navy. I was never there alone. I was always accompanied by other people. If this happened 6 years ago, someone would have known of it before now. Certainly in the UDT/SEAL community it would have been known. This has to be news to all of us. I have always opposed the war in Iraq but I have never spoken or wished any ill will towards the soldiers. My heart aches that soldiers have died or been wounded because this...

It has been said that Mormons have an “exceedingly fine sense of rumor.” We certainly love a good story—after all, can’t we all admit to telling a tale we thought was good, even if we admitted we weren’t 100 percent sure it was true? In the spirit of acting under (more) perfect knowledge, and still appreciating the quality of a good story, the following is an exploration of the truth behind some of the more common or interesting Mormon legends. *The following is an excerpt of "The Truth About Mormon Myths." To read the full article, see the LDS Living...

Ron Paul is the Rodney Dangerfield of Republican presidential candidates.... Why, despite a small but devoted set of supporters, does this 76-year-old obstetrician turned politician routinely get no respect from the media and GOP operatives?... 1. Ron Paul is not a "top-tier" candidate. ...Paul is doing increasingly well in national and state-level polls.... And now that Cain has dropped out, Paul's stock is likely to keep climbing. The congressman is no less a top-tier candidate than anyone else in the race. 2. Ron Paul is a doctrinaire libertarian. ...Paul parts company with many libertarians on many issues. These include immigration,...

An in-depth debate on subjects I am afraid conservatives are too lax in. In this back-and-forth you will learn stats and responses to many of the common misunderstandings about AIDS being just as much a heterosexual plague as a gay on. The response I give in regards to the PORNO industry is devastating!

This past week, President Obama tried to sell his new “millionaires’ tax” to the Rust Belt. “What’s great about this country is our belief that anyone can make it,” he said in Cincinnati on Thursday, praising “the idea that any one of us can open a business or have an idea that could make us millionaires.” But who are the millionaires Obama is talking about? And will a tax on them help the economy? Let’s examine a few presumptions about the man with the monocle on the Monopoly board. 1. Millionaires are rich. Being rich has gotten more expensive. A...

The campaigns by Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. for the GOP presidential nomination, along with the popular and profane Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon,” are putting Mormons in the public eye. SNIP 1. Mormons practice polygamy. Mainstream Mormons do not practice polygamy today, but it remains part of our history and theology. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, married at least 33 women (often without the consent of his first wife, Emma) and preached that polygamy was divinely sanctioned... Polygamy remains a source of tension for mainstream Mormons. Mormon public figures routinely play down our polygamous...

Claim: “Derivatives have no value of their own, yet are a $50 trillion market. Using derivatives, traders can bet on anything.” Inside Job argues that derivatives have no value of its own because its value is derived from another asset. On the other hand: A Reuters special report on derivatives has a good argument: Big companies regularly use derivatives as a form of insurance to guard against jumps in the price of everything from cocoa to interest rates. An airline will buy jet fuel derivatives so that if prices spike, the contract helps to make up the difference in price,...

Runaway spending and deficits continue to grow unabated in part because any attempts to rein them in are relentlessly demagogued by defenders of big government. The latest example is the budget recently authored by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) and passed by the House of Representatives. Most critics have failed to provide any credible alternative to the House budget. Yet that has not stopped them from relentlessly misrepresenting the House budget with the following myths. Myth #1: The House budget recklessly cuts taxes by $4 trillion. Fact: It cancels a future tax increase. Critics charge that the House...