Free Republic

From Orwell’s A Clergyman’s Daughter (h/t Hitchens): Nowadays, a clergyman who wants to keep his congregation has only two courses open to him. Either it must be Anglo-Catholicism pure and simple – or rather, pure and not simple; or he must be daringly modern and broad-minded and preach comforting sermons providing there is no Hell and all good religions are the same. Incidentally, Jesus would agree. While poking fun at effeminate religious types in robes, he would also have little time for dumb men absolutely opposed to absolutes (a contradiction in terms). But I digress. In his book review for...

If George Orwell were alive today he’d be censored by today’s Orwellian press-police. As America’s poshest-acting, bisexual neo-conservative, Christopher Hitchens points out in Why Orwell Matters (pages 79-80): It is true on the face of it that Orwell was one of the founding fathers of anti-Communism; that he had a strong patriotic sense and a very potent instinct for what we might call elementary right and wrong; that he despised government and bureaucracy and was a stout individualist; that he distrusted intellectuals and academics and reposed a faith in popular wisdom; that he upheld a somewhat orthodoxy in sexual matters...

A group of Navy SEALS may have stormed a Pakistani garrison town and taken off the top of Bin Laden's head, but he still lives on in the heads of the political establishment. The big Bin Laden has gone to feed the sharks, but it is the little Bin Laden who dictated that he receive a Muslim burial, forbade the release of the death photos and warned off the town of Virginia Beach from celebrating their hometown heroes. It was never the big Bin Laden that the West was afraid of, but the little one. A small turbaned figure that...

War is Peace. Ignorance is Bliss.

A year or so ago, as I wandered through the National Archives in D.C., a group of what looked like junior high school kids came tumbling in with their teacher in the lead, on the way to view the pitifully faded Declaration of Independence. I know that was what they were headed for, because the entire clutch of kids slammed on the brakes right next to me, as I stood in front of an ornately carved case in the dimly lit corner of the West gallery. 30 kids chattered, "Is this it, is this it?" as they shoved closer. "No",...

President Obama gave an important speech yesterday outlining his deficit-reduction plan. I won't comment here on the specifics of his proposals, partly because there weren't any specifics, but also because I want to focus on a single line in his speech. The president said: "My plan will require us to come together and make up the additional savings with more spending cuts and more spending reductions in the tax code." "Spending reductions in the tax code." It has sort of a nice ring to it, until you realize that what he really means is "higher taxes." So, the president wants...

  Orwell - Obama Proves Him Right George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four introduced and defined Newspeak, a mind-bending lexicon that includes a term worth mulling over today, as the armed forces of the United States wage war in partnership with al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood against Moammar Ghadafi’s regime in Libya.  The term to which I’m referring – doublethink – can be found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:   dou•ble•think (‘d&-b&l-”thi[ng]k), noun, Date: 1949 : a simultaneous belief in two contradictory ideas.   Doublethink is a dizzying concept.   In her syndicated column last week, Diana West examined America’s de facto cross-over...

“It starts to be the practice that orphaned children are shot en masse,” explains Martin Amis in Koba The Dread: Laughter And The Twenty Million (p. 129). Later: “The Cheka executes vets and meteorologists.” Or as I like to say, Remember Red Russia. Today, the chatterers focus on terminating unborn babies en masse (today’s useless eaters). Some have entertained the possibility of show trials for so-called “global warming deniers” also known as “climate change deniers” in light of recent cooling periods. There are no bullets but there are calls to put down the elderly useless eaters (even suicidal teenagers in...

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell exposed Labour’s state socialism, Stalinism, and politically–correct intellectuals, among other tools. Adored by conservatives, the dystopian novel, helps us understand the adjective, Orwellian, aka the “Official encouragement of policies contributing to the socio-economic disintegration of the family.” Here’s why: Energy “Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week.” Control the energy and you control the people. The...

The Elite, is almost a dubious term that few can define. Those who are Elites will never admit it, not even to themselves. In this article we will attempt to define the concept according to the writing of Orwell and the Socialist leaders of the mid-twentieth century and today. Orwell wrote, "There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them." At first glance the reader is incredulous; what a bizarre sentence, it doesn't make sense. However, like most deep thoughts, the sentence induces a secondary response that slowly sifts through the reader's...

Like Orwell’s farm animals, we have awakened to see the new commandments on the barnyard wall.Californians have been experiencing ten days of the wettest, snowiest weather in recent memory. In the usually arid San Joaquin Valley, flooding is ubiquitous. The high Sierra passes are locked in snow well before the first of the year. If the United Kingdom is dealing with the irony of its elites’ recently warning of an end to snow on a now snowy island, out here our version of that embarrassment is water everywhere after Energy Secretary Chu warned us that our farms would blow away...

This is an cartoon promo from the new book by author and radio host Paul A. Ibbetson titled, "Oliver's Tale: A Squirrel's Story of Love, Courage, and Revolution." This is a political adventure tale, a conservative version of George Orwell's "Animal Farm." We invite you to watch and comment.

It’s not just the Constitution that is a “living document,” as Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer proved yesterday when discussing the Second Amendment.  Breyer argued that James Madison only included the right to bear arms reluctantly, and only because the states wouldn’t sign the Constitution for fear of creating an overmighty central government.  That’s why he voted against the majority in theHeller decision that overturned the federal handgun ban in Washington DC: Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Breyer said history stands with the dissenters in the court’s decision to overturn a Washington, D.C., handgun ban in the 2008 case “D.C. v. Heller.”Breyer...

In its devotion to Islamic outreach the Obama Administration has become the first to dispatch a U.S. Attorney General to personally “salute” a Muslim group’s efforts to fulfill the “nation’s promise of equal justice and opportunity.” Addressing a San Francisco-based organization (Muslim Advocates) that urges members not to cooperate in federal terrorism investigations, Attorney General Eric Holder said he is “grateful” to have it as a partner in promoting tolerance, ensuring public safety and protecting civil rights. ... “Muslims and Arab Americans have helped build and strengthen our nation,” he pointed out. They have also been “absolutely essential in identifying...

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... (ORWELL 1984)

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... (ORWELL 1984)

This is the December 8, 2010 interview on Angel 95 f.m. talking about the new book, "Oliver's Tale: A Squirrel's Story of Love, Courage, and Revolution." This is a conservative version of George Orwell's "Animal Farm."

This is the 11-21-10 interview with radio host and author Paul A. Ibbetson on Political Pistachio Radio with Douglas V. Gibbs. Radio host & author Paul A. Ibbetson's "Oliver's Tale" is a delightful tale using social, political, & religious messages. Oliver experiences a spiritual growth in his relationship with God as he becomes privy to the secret plan of the Gray Skunk, a mesmerizing and dangerous foe. Following God's instructions, Oliver has an adventure in both the forest and city to save not only himself, but all that he holds dear. Oliver's Tale is the story of how one very...

The Communist Party USA has scrubbed its website of references that stated it "actively supported" President Obama's election. An article posted on the party's official website on Dec. 30, 2007, previously stated, "Our Party actively supported Obama during the primary election." The article was referring to Obama's 2004 election to the Senate. It detailed how the African-American community and trade unionists played key roles in defeating the "ultra right." "This was also reflected in the historic election of Barack Obama. Our Party actively supported Obama during the primary election," stated the article, a screen shot of which was captured by...

Radio host and author Paul A. Ibbetson's fictional version of Animal Farm with a conservative twist. The delightful tale of Oliver the Squirrel unfolds on this departure from the conservative political discussions found previously in Ibbetson's books. Oliver's Tale is a thinker's piece and while written in the same spirit as George Orwell's Animal Farm it has its own unique social, political, and religious message to be discovered by readers. Surrounded by a colorful cast of animal characters, Oliver experiences a spiritual growth in his relationship with God as he becomes privy to the secret plan of the Gray Skunk,...