Free Republic

The Free State Project is picking up speed as Libertarians and other freedom-minded people begin moving to a small state where they hope to make a big difference. New Hampshire was chosen last fall as the destination for thousands of small-government advocates who are promising to move in and try to staunch the onslaught of socialism. Now they're starting to make good on their promise. An estimated 300 or 350 Free Staters (or Porcupines, as they call themselves) attended the first semi-official gathering in New Hampshire June 24-27. Though the Porcupine Freedom Festival wasn't officially sponsored by the FSP, "it...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

Scalia: What a massive disruption of the social order ... this ruling entails. *********************************************************** Read below one of the most brilliant defenses of traditional values, morality and conventions that have governed civilization for the past 5000 years. Judge Scalia is a national treasure: *********************************************************** Excerpted from his dissent in today's sodomy ruling: I begin with the Court ’s surprising readiness to recon- sider a decision rendered a mere 17 years ago in Bowers v. Hardwick .I do not myself believe in rigid adherence to stare decisis in constitutional cases;but I do believe that we should be consistent rather than...

For Patrick Buchanan, the real political divide is between the 'New World Order Party' and the 'America First' party For the past two decades it has become apparent that an implosion has taken place within the ranks of American conservatism - that ideological tendency which emphasizes liberty over equality, national interest over global commitments, and moral principles over pragmatic policies. For once we move from the abstract to the concrete, the weakness of this ideology, as indeed all ideology, begins to show. Real interests trump general guides. In the case of the rift between "paleo" and "neo" conservatives, common animosities...

Except for the arrest of a leading al Qaeda official, the pre-war news has not been happy. Turkey turned its back on America at the eleventh hour, blocking U.S. troop deployments and throwing Washington’s military calculations into confusion. The French recently talked of vetoing a UN resolution on the use of military force against Iraq. Even the Pope, a man who lived under communism in Poland, has declared that a war against totalitarian Iraq would be immoral. On March 5 the Pope sent an emissary to warn President Bush that, “God is not on your side if you invade Iraq.”...

IT EXPLAINS WHY WE’RE GOING TO WAR, AND WHY WE’LL KEEP GOING TO WAR. Since the end of the cold war, the United States has been trying to come up with an operating theory of the world—and a military strategy to accompany it. Now there’s a leading contender. It involves identifying the problem parts of the world and aggressively shrinking them. Since September 11, 2001, the author, a professor of warfare analysis, has been advising the Office of the Secretary of Defense and giving this briefing continually at the Pentagon and in the intelligence community. Now he gives it to...

Who would have suspected that George W. Bush, a president who came into office vowing to "change the tone" of the meretricious Clinton era (a dark age when America howled under the twin lashes of peace and prosperity), would emerge as the country's leading exponent of situational ethics? Maybe true conservatives always understood. Ever since Ronald Reagan ended his second term with the Department of Education still intact, it's been clear how little even a committed ideologue can achieve in real politics. So it's hardly surprising that Bush, who ran the most content-free campaign since some nameless William Henry Harrison...

Translated by J. C. Rolfe.[Arkenberg Introduction]. Rolfe's annotations appear in brackets with no attribution; mine are noted. I have also replaced modern place names, as used by Rolfe, with those in use by the Romans and Hellenes; thus, for example, Rolfe's "Italy" is now "Italia". I. OF the origin of the Vitellii different and widely varying accounts are given, some saying that the family was ancient and noble, others that it was new and obscure, if not of mean extraction. I should believe that these came respectively from the flatterers and detractors of the emperor, were it not for...

I used to do two series of threads. One was about politics and government in the Greco-Roman civilization, and the other was my own columns. Here's a list of them: Ancient Politics and Government The Athenian Constitution, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five by Aristotle Chapter One of Polybius and the Founding Fathers by Marshall Davies Lloyd Deeds of Augustus by Caesar Augustus Cicero by Plutarch The Conspiracy of Catiline by Sallust Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius JuliusAugustusTiberiusCaligulaClaudiusNeroGalbaOtho The American Constitutionalist-In Defense of "Underage" Drinking -Anarchy vs. the Right to Life -Calling a...

Under God, Under Man?Jim Babka | Should Christians be upset by court's decision on Pledge of Allegiance? You must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard the news. Two “pin-head” federal judges said that mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment rights of second-graders (more correctly, one second-grader’s parent). The pin-head label came from the Rev. Jerry Falwell. He also called them “Dumb and Dumber” — of course he meant that with love. Something must be wrong with me. The news didn’t shock me, surprise me, worry me, anger me, or cause me...

Heath Readings in The Literature of Europe Copyright, 1933 By D. C. Heath and Company PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BOETHIUS (ca. 470-525 A. D.) Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, celebrated philosopher and statesman, was born of a family to high rank and educated at Rome and at Athens, Early in life he made the acquaintance of the Greek Classics, many of which he translated. His abilities as a scholar and politician rapidly brought him into public prominence, and in 510 he was selected by King Theodoric as his counsellor. Boethius carried on his work with great success ...

I. THE ancestors of Otho came from an old and illustrious family in the town of Ferentium and were descended from the princes of Etruria. His grandfather Marcus Salvius Otho, whose father was a Roman eques but whose mother was of lowly origin and perhaps not even free-born, became a senator through the influence of Livia Augusta, in whose house he was reared; but did not advance beyond the grade of praetor. His father Lucius Otho was of a distinguished family on his mother's side, with many powerful connections, and was so beloved by Tiberius and so like him in ...

The situation is already bad enough. Every state in the union has already been forced by federal blackmail to raise the drinking age to 21. Now a group called the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse is trying to whip up hysteria about the evils of people drinking a few years before they get government permission. They came out with attention getting claims that 25 percent of alcohol consumption is by "children", which to them apparently includes a number of potential voters. It turns out the real number is 11 percent, including, it should be noted, people over 18. ...

The Transformation of Individual Rights by Tibor R. Machan Across the centuries an important idea emerged as crucial for how people should live in their communities. Finally, in the US Declaration of Independence, this idea gained official recognition and, eventually, worldwide popularity. I am talking of course, about the idea of individual rights. Although there had been rumblings about them already in ancient Greece, not until the English philosopher John Locke wrote his book, Second Treatise on Government, did a full blown theory back up the idea. This was Locke's theory of natural rights. Its essence is that because of ...

I. THE race of the Caesars ended with Nero [Nero was the last who bore the name because of connection with the family of Augustus; after him it became a designation of rank]. That this would be so was shown by many portents and especially by two very significant ones. Years before, as Livia was returning to her estate near Veii, immediately after her marriage with Augustus [38 B.C.E.], an eagle which flew by dropped into her lap a white hen, holding in its beak a sprig of laurel, just as the eagle had carried it off. Livia resolved to ...

Joe Sobran, as evidenced by his recent columns, seems close to being convinced, if not already convinced, by Hans Herman Hoppe's book, Democracy: The God that Failed. As you might have guessed from the title, Hoppe thinks democracy was a bad idea, but he goes further than that; he thinks government, in any form, was a bad idea. He's an anarcho-capitalist. In an anarcho-capitalist society, instead of using police and an official court system to punish criminals, individuals would hire defense agencies, in much the same way we hire insurance agencies now. Then, if you're robbed, your agency would ...

There is no subject more interesting to every man than the subject of government. His security, be he rich or poor, and in a great measure his prosperity, are connected therewith; it is therefore his interest as well as his duty to make himself acquainted with its principles, and what the practise ought to be. Every art and science, however imperfectly known at first, has been studied, improved and brought to what we call perfection by the progressive labors of succeeding generations; but the science of government has stood still. No improvement has been made in the principle and scarcely ...

With Conservative Like This, Who Needs Liberals? Let me start off by addressing those who have been bashing(and I do mean bash) me and other well intentioned and well known Freepers as being anti-Bush, Libertarians, from the reform party or whatever.  I voted for GWB, and I can ping several freepers to this thread that met me in real life at several Bush rallies (with megaphone in hand). I was a member of the Broward County Young Republicans before moving to the West coast of Florida and I was active in Jeb Bush's campaign for Governor.  I've been on this ...

December 20, 2001 Really Strange Bedfellows II A final word (for now) on libertarians vs. conservatives by Nick Gilespie It's been a long, long while since I've been accused of impairing the morals of a minor (really). In fact, the last time I can remember such a claim being leveled against me was back in high school when I coaxed some classmates at good old Mater Dei High School into seeing Monty Python's Life of Brian rather than a less theologically charged movie. Some of my friends' mothers--and a buttinsky parish priest--saw my actions as proof positive of heretical tendencies ...

The notion that the political alliance between libertarians and conservatives is contingent and inherently unstable has become a cliché, and a tiresome one at that, usually made by persons who have little understanding of either libertarianism or conservatism. And despite appearances, the recent testy exchanges between the conservative National Review’s Jonah Goldberg and the libertarian Reason magazine’s Nick Gillespie and Virginia Postrel do nothing to confirm the cliché.It is not that the idea of a fusion of libertarianism and conservatism does not raise important and difficult philosophical issues; it does. The emphasis within traditional conservative thinking on authority, including the ...