Free Republic

“I don't necessarily agree with everything that I say.” ― Marshall McLuhan On the occasion of George Washington’s birthday, I would like to submit a proposal to Congress naming Marshall McLuhan the patron saint of Politicians. You all remember Marshall; the man considered the father of the electronic age, who coined the term “media” and was the first to take note of the fact that “the medium is the message.” Ironically, Mr. McLuhan’s complex theories on how the electronic gods we create come to rule us have been reduced to sound bites, such as “we become what we behold.”  ...

This must be Barack Obama’s way of thanking our veterans for serving. US veterans are receiving letters from the government informing them that they are disabled and not allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm. If the veteran does decide to purchase a firearm he will by fined, imprisoned or both. This comes on page 2 of the VA letter.

President Obama is displaying a more emotional side of his personality as he works to sell his second-term agenda to the public. The Spock-like Obama criticized for being aloof has been ditched in favor of a president who tells personal anecdotes about his life, shares locked-away thoughts from his past and on several occasions has wiped away a tear or two in public. While Obama has more flexibility to be himself now because he doesn’t face reelection, the personal touches are also in tune with a White House effort to enact an agenda that includes gun control, immigration reform and...

Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs. Slowly, the cat is being let out of the bag. Last January 18th, in a little noticed interview of Richard Cordray, acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Bloomberg reported "[t]he U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency's first foray into consumer investments." That thought generates some skepticism, as aptly expressed...

In a chapel on Rikers Island today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the press shouldn’t be irked about being barred from photographing a round of golf between President Barack Obama and Tiger Woods. “I don’t know why the president has to have people watch what he does,” said Mr. Bloomberg, responding to a question from CBS’s Rich Lamb during a press conference introducing an anti-recidivism program. “He has a right to a vacation. You take a vacation occasionally, you don’t work 24/7. He does. He works very hard and he certainly has a right to his private life.”

<p>Israel will award President Barack Obama the country's Presidential Medal of Distinction during his upcoming visit.</p> <p>Israeli President Shimon Peres' office said Monday that Obama will be recognized for his "unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens."</p>

After weeks without talks on the U.S. budget crisis, President Barack Obama called Republican leaders on Thursday to discuss the harsh “sequestration” cuts to government spending due to begin in just over a week. In what might be just the start of long negotiations to prevent the $85 billion in cuts, Obama spoke to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The conversations were “good,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, but he declined to provide details. A McConnell spokesman said it was the first outreach from Obama since the New Year’s Eve “fiscal cliff”...

>>> An initiative by Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat intends to take advantage of the wide coverage to unleash a public relations barrage and to present to them "Jerusalem's other side." According to the plan, journalists will be taken on tours around Jerusalem and will visit the main historical sites, such as City of David and the Western Wall Tunnel. They will also be taken to an Israel Museum's exhibition about King Herod and to the Ice City, where they will see a custom built ice sculptor in Obama's image. <<<

Yusuf Ibrahim, a Muslim man, targeted and murdered two Coptic Egyptian Christian men who lived and worked in New Jersey. He beheaded them and cut off their hands.

In response to Obama: Cuts that Hurt the Economy are GOP's Raison D'etre: Several outlets are noting Obama's comments on Al Sharpton's radio show, but the Free Beacon was kind enough to put it on You Tube... (Trying to wrap my head around the fact that the President of the United States went on that ridiculous race hustler's radio show...ugh...so mortifying.) But just listen to Obama. He says 75% of the American people agree with him, that the way to reduce our deficit sensibly is through his combination of spending cuts and tax revenue (but mostly tax revenue), as if...

"The President’s part of the sequester – the White House recommended it, frankly, back in August 2011, so now we’re feeling the effects of it..."

Here's the link.

So, the DC runs with a story about a college professor has been pegged for firing by the college's president. But once again, information is sorely lacking.It links to a report that summarizes, "Taken in its totality, Professor Sweet’s conduct constitutes "just cause" for termination based on Article 17.1(b) of the agreement between the District Board of Trustees of Brevard Community College and the United Faculty of Florida, 2012-2015. "What is interesting (not surprising to most normally-intelligent/non-liberal people) is what you get when you try to find out more about this professor and find a total void (avoiding needless metaphorical...

The argument in favor of using unmanned aerial vehicle strikes is, therefore, that the act of killing the individual is a military necessity dictated by the enemy's strategy and that it is carried out with the understanding that both intelligence and precision might fail, no matter how much care is taken. This means not only that civilians might be killed in a particular strike but also that the strike might hit the wrong target. The fact that a specific known individual is being targeted does not change the issue from a military matter to a judicial one. It would seem...

WASHINGTON — Last year, the Obama administration announced to the world that it was planning to pursue a new Asia/Pacific-oriented national security strategy. Since then, North Korea has countered with a strategy of its own. In December, Pyongyang successfully launched a multistage intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a warhead-sized payload to the U.S. mainland. On Feb. 12, the North Koreans tested an improved-design nuclear weapon. After the test, Pyongyang announced that despite tightened United Nations sanctions that theoretically went into force last month, its latest nuclear test bolstered its defenses against U.S. "hostility." In a lengthy broadcast on the...

In this animated satire, a former K.G.B. agent welcomes a future in which Americans live under the watchful eyes of drones. When I began thinking of this animated Op-Docs video, I had two things in mind. The first was the adoption of drones by the Seattle Police Department. (The program has since been scuttled.) The second was Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1924 novel “We,” which was a forerunner to dystopian novels including George Orwell’s “1984,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano.” “We” is set in a futuristic city that is constructed almost entirely out of glass. This total...

A defense official in the United Arab Emirates says the Gulf nation has signed $1.4 billion in military contracts that include purchases of U.S.-made drones. The deal, worth nearly $200 million and confirmed by Fox News, suggests Gulf Arab states are looking to boost surveillance capabilities to match claims by rival Iran of growing drone technology. The UAE says the Predator drones, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, will not be outfitted for weapons capabilities, but used for reconnaissance. snip Iran has claimed it has developed its own sophisticated drones and managed to reverse-engineer a CIA drone seized in December...

President Barack Obama claimed today that since he has been president both parties have worked together to cut the federal deficit by $2.5 trillion—despite the fact that the national debt has increased $5.9 trillion during Obama’s presidency, which is more than it increased under all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined. “Over the last few years both parties have worked together to reduce our deficits by more than $2.5 trillion,” Obama said in a speech at the White House in which he called on Congress to avoid modest automatic cuts in anticipated spending that are set to begin...

It’s no secret government schools have put President Obama on a pedestal unlike any other national leader. Schools have been named after him long before his retirement or death, which is rather unprecedented. Students have been led in organized chants of his honored name. There are lesson plans comparing him to Abraham Lincoln. But sometimes school employees take the rhetoric a bit too far and wind up in propaganda territory. The latest example comes from DeKalb County, Georgia. For Black History Month, Livsey Elementary School created a cute display with the lines: Rosa sat…so Martin could walk. Martin walked…so Obama...

President Obama confidently stated in 2009, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan,” …unless you are one of the 7 million people the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is estimating that will lose their employment based health insurance. Fail. Need some more concrete evidence? Check this out: Universal Orlando plans to stop offering medical insurance to part-time employees beginning next year, a move the resort says has been forced by the federal government’s health-care overhaul. The giant theme-park resort, which generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue, began informing employees this month that...