Free Republic

I’m often asked where Catholic urban legends come from. The simple answer is that many are as old as sixteenth-century Reformation propaganda, which formed the roots of nineteenth-century American nativism, which evolved into the leftist European anti-clericalism of the post-World War II period.

I have taken ten of the most believed or written about misconceptions about Catholics or the Church and debunked them (with evidence wherever possible).

A fascinating new poll out today from the Pew Research Center reports on how they've tracked Americans' beliefs on political issues over time. It's wide-ranging and deep and a fascinating look at what Americans believe. One of the most important parts is how the two coalitions - Republicans and Democrats - have changed over the last twenty years. And it takes a sledgehammer to myths that liberals have been telling themselves.

There is a lot of nonsense in nutrition. One of the worst examples is the constant propaganda against meat consumption. Here are 8 ridiculous myths about meat consumption and health. 1. Meat Rots in Your Colon Some people claim that meat doesn’t get digested properly and “rots” in your colon. This is absolute nonsense, probably invented by dishonest vegans in order to scare people away from eating meat. What happens when we eat meat, is that it gets broken down by stomach acid and digestive enzymes. In the small intestine, the proteins are broken down into amino acids and the...

A key feature of America’s ongoing oil and gas production renaissance is that the vast majority of the jobs created have not come from the “Big Oil” companies, but from small businesses. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Mark Mills shows the dramatic effect of small businesses on oil and gas production and vice versa in his new report, “Where the Jobs Are: Small Businesses Unleash Energy Employment Boom.” The five large oil companies operating in the United States (Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell, Conoco) account for only ten percent of direct oil and gas jobs. The vast majority of jobs come from...

In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama is expected to take sharp aim at wealth inequality. He'll propose a hike in the minimum wage, extended unemployment benefits, and more funding for education and skills improvement. He is also likely to contribute to several persistent myths about the increasing gap between the rich and everyone else. There is no question that income inequality in America is high compared with other countries as well as with the three decades in the U.S. after World War II. And a consensus is growing among business leaders, politicians and...

A study published in the latest issue of the academic journal Applied Economics Letters took on many of the claims made regularly by advocates of stricter gun laws. The study determined that nearly every claim made in support of stronger restrictions on gun ownership is not supported by an exhaustive analysis of crime statistics. The study, “An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates,” conducted by Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius, examined nearly 30 years of statistics and concluded that stricter gun laws do not result in a reduction in gun...

As 2014 begins, President Barack Obama’s approval rating is at its lowest point in his five-year tenure. Imagine where it would be if the establishment press treated him the way it did George W. Bush.The president’s media apparatchiks are propping up what remains of the president’s popularity with five myths.1. The economy has become strong, and is getting stronger.Media reports have been calling recent job gains “robust [1].” Hardly. 2013′s estimated job growth of almost 2.4 million is still only 60 percent of what was achieved annually on a population-adjusted basis for a full six years during the 1980s. (See...

The Beltway consensus seems to be that 2013 was a bad year for the same reason nearly every other recent year was bad: polarization and partisanship. Personally, I can think of plenty of more important things to worry about than partisanship. Democracy is about disagreements, and partisanship is often a sign of healthy disagreement. But polarization is a bit different. It speaks not just to a lack of basic agreement about what kind of society we should live in, but a breakdown in understanding and respect among Americans. There's a lot of them-vs.-us talk these days on the left and...

When it comes to historical memory, the old saying that you can't choose your relatives is just plain wrong. Americans have chosen the Pilgrims as honorary ancestors, and we tend to see their story as inseparable from the story of our nation, "land of the Pilgrims' pride." We imagine these honorary founders as model immigrants, pacifists and pioneers in the democratic experiment. We have burdened them with values they wouldn't have recognized and shrouded their story with myth. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. If you visit Plymouth today, you'll find a distinctive rock about the size of your living-room...

And the Cuban Missile Crisis, on some subsequent readings of history, was not a triumph of bold statesmanship as it was hailed at the time, but a piece of foolhardy grandstanding that unnecessarily humiliated the Soviets and precipitated the arms race that defined the Cold War. Even on civil rights – the subject of one of Kennedy's greatest speeches in June 1963, when he vowed that "Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as he would wish to have his children treated." – the reality never matched the myth. Kennedy...

Back in the 1970s, the comedy group Firesign Theater used to perform a sketch featuring a New Age huckster named Happy Harry Cox who inveigled money from his followers by warning them that they labored under mass delusions that only he could correct. "Dogs flew spaceships!" he bellowed in his radio advertisements. "The Aztecs invented the vacation! Men and women are the same sex! Our forefathers took drugs ... Yes! That's right! Everything you know is wrong! Especially about the government shutdown!" OK, he didn't really say the part about the government shutdown. But he should have. Because, really, practically...

Man, I hate these stupid, crazy, tea bagging right wingers. So foolish, so uncivilized. They run around screaming like crazed anarchists about how they want to stop Obamacare. Damned idiots don’t realize that the government needs to be involved in our health care decisions; we’re too helpless and feeble to handle it ourselves

One key tax myth that drives much of the desire for redistribution is the notion that real household income is not growing for any group but the wealthiest Americans. The notion of income stagnation among the middle class, along with the sister myth asserting that the income distribution is increasingly inequitable, are used to argue against an economic model characterized by people generally keeping their earnings except a small portion paid to fund the core functions of government. The truth is that during the last 20 years, the American economy has continued to generate income growth and increasing ability to...

The specter of libertarianism is haunting America. Advocates of sharply reducing the government’s size, scope and spending are raising big bucks from GOP donors, trying to steal the mantle of populism, being blamed for the demise of Detroit and even getting caught in the middle of a battle for the Republican Party. Yet libertarians are among the most misunderstood forces in today’s politics. Let’s clear up some of the biggest misconceptions.1. Libertarians are a fringe band of “hippies of the right.”In 1971, the controversial and influential author Ayn Rand denounced right-wing anarchists as “hippies of the right,” a charge...

“There are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator.” ~ Potus 44Don’t Patronize Me Bro- By: Larry Walker, II -Whatever you do, don’t listen to anything Potus 44 says, period. The truth is that there are very few Black men who haven’t experienced an auto theft, or attempted carjacking. Both have happened to me, twice in my early 20’s and again in my late 30’s.This past week, diving headlong into Bizarro World,...

Often in reading articles and economic research, I find a number of different repeating myths and misunderstandings that seem to perpetuate an unfortunate outlook on investing in precious metals and rare coins. Some of these are based in partial truths while others are based in complete fiction or a gross misunderstanding of where gold, silver, platinum, and palladium belong within a diversified portfolio. While I don't expect to be able to discuss all of them, I can touch on a few of them that I've seen just today. 1) "People buying gold are waiting for society to fall apart so...

The Obama administration and its defenders have done their best to downplay the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, and to distance the president from the scandal. But in doing so they have made numerous claims that have that turned out to be grossly misleading — at best. 1. It was a few rogue agents in Cincinnati This claim has crumbled in recent weeks. Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of Exempt Organizations, who has refused to testify before Congress, was the first to blame “our line people in Cincinnati” for initiating the targeting. Former IRS commissioner Steven Miller said two “rogue”...

The real story goes something like this: In 1511, messy political squabbling forced Ponce to surrender the governorship of Puerto Rico, an appointment he had held since 1509. As a consolation prize, King Ferdinand offered him Bimini, assuming the stalwart conquistador could finance an expedition and actually find it. J. Michael Francis, a historian at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg who has spent decades studying the Spanish colonies in the Americas , says no mention of a Fountain of Youth occurs in any known documents from Ponce’s lifetime, including contracts and other official correspondence with the Crown. In...

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”...