Free Republic

Term Limits: If Trump adds term limits to his signature issue of immigration then I’m instantly a Trumpista Theories abound, thus far, regarding the increased numbers of voters in the republican primaries as compared to the deflating democrat totals. They include everything from democrats not bothering to cast a ballot because Hillary Clinton is the presumptive heir to Obama’s throne, to discontent with their own candidates. Those of us who have a tendency to sit in the balcony (far outside the Beltway) and observe the antics, bustling and rhetoric of all the candidates, may have arrived at a different viewpoint...

Here's a question most anyone who learns I am researching confidence artists asks me: Are con artists clinical psychopaths-or are they just slightly more devious versions of our more conniving selves? Is it a qualitative difference between our small daily deceptions and the wiles of the confidence man, or is it just a simple matter of degree? 
 Robert Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the most common assessment tool for antisocial, psychopathic behavior, looks for things like responsibility, remorse, pathological lying, manipulativeness, cunning, promiscuity and general impulsiveness, superficial charm, grandiosity, and the like. Score high enough, and you are labeled psychopathic,
 or...

We have been lied to and misled by so called “conservatives” for at least twenty years. The broken promises from “conservative” Republicans have arrived as fast as the pieces of candy on Lucy’s conveyor belt. We even began to lie to ourselves, believing “Well they’re doing the best they can with what power they have.” Laboring under that belief we overlooked George W. Bush’s ineptitude; and made excuses for his not knowing how to fight a war against Muslims and the hostile Democrat controlled media. We steamed while the “conservatives” did nothing to combat the ridiculous charge that the economic...

An election is coming.  Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.  ~George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter 5 ********** The politicians were talking themselves red, white and blue in the face.  ~Clare Boothe Luce ********** If the World Series runs until election day, the networks will run the first one-half inning and project the winner.  ~Lindsey Nelson ********** I offer my opponents a bargain:  if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.  ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952 ********** A politician thinks of...

A heavy price will be paid in allowing emotion to guide our choices in a presidential campaign that far overshadows initial anger and frustration at overreaching government Projection is what psychologists attach to individuals who 'project' their own behavior onto others, and, in this presidential race, the practice has run rampant. There are two candidates in particular who so believe that they deserve the presidency that they will stoop to new depths to attain their objective. It is fascinating to see poll leaders in both parties act so similarly on stage when either referring to opponents not present or blaring...

In his Republic, Cicero produced one of history's staunchest defenses for a career in politics. Composed in the late 50s B.C. while the Roman republic enjoyed a period of precarious stability under the triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, and styled after the famous work of Plato, the Republic first addressed the claims of those who want nothing to do with governing the state, and would prefer a quiet life unsullied by politics. Politicians, after all, tend to be "worthless," according to these critics. Moreover, who would want to try to rule a capricious citizenry, or subject themselves to "foul...

The only chivalrous actions today are the ones which involve verbal shivs that the unvalorous contending candidates keep digging into their opponent's ribs. As a kid growing up, I got a political education from my father who was a small town newspaper editor in Pennsylvania. I thought I knew all about the processes, twists and turns of the political jungle. How wrong I was! The world’s wars in the years from the early ‘40s up through ‘70s caused me to leave them, and when those and my military service were completed, I found myself in New England. Now quite a...

In her 1957 masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand introduced us to a powerful concept which she called “the sanction of the victim.” This concept is defined as “the willingness of the good to suffer at the hands of the evil, to accept the role of sacrificial victim for the ‘sin‘ of creating values.” As Rand explains through the character of her hero, John Galt, “Evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from us,” and, “I saw that evil was impotent…and the only weapon of its triumph was the willingness of the good to...

"Look, Ted's a great lawyer," Huckabee said Tuesday about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. "But I don't think American needs a good lawyer right now, it needs a good leader. My question to you would be can you name me what efforts (Cruz) has been a leader in ... He's been a senator. He's been a lawyer and a lobbyist ... What has Ted Cruz done in his life that prepares him to be president of the United States?" Huckabee's comments came during a 12-minute exchange with Joseph Brown, pastor of Marion Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, Iowa. Brown, who started...

The political left has been trying to run other people’s lives for centuries. So we should not be surprised to see the Obama administration now trying to force neighborhoods across America to have the mix of people the government wants them to have. There are not enough poor people living in middle class neighborhoods to suit the political left. Not enough blacks in white neighborhoods. Not enough Hispanics here, not enough Asians there. Nowhere in the Constitution does it grant the federal government the power to dictate such things. But places that do not mix and match people the way...

Fox News is reporting this morning that a Virginia state senator is making good on his promise to push for defunding armed bodyguards for anti-gun Gov. Terry McAuliffe unless the Democrat does an about face on an October order to prohibit firearms in most state office buildings. It brings up an interesting question that could apply to any government official anywhere, from mayors on up. If an elected official is opposed to the carrying of defensive sidearms by average citizens, should that official automatically lose his/her security guards? Virginia State Sen. Charles Carrico, a Republican, is quoted by Fox News...

The National Rifle Association, the country's most influential gun-rights supporter, is challenging President Obama's new plan to use his presidential power to tighten firearms laws, calling it a "political stunt" that fails to increase public safety. President Obama said this weekend that he'll meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss his "options” toward curbing gun violence, after ordering his White House team several months ago to identify "new actions" that he can take. The president also said that he's taking action because Congress has failed to act. He is expected to use so-called executive orders to tighten federal...

Out of Egypt The Angel spoke in Joseph's dream Not long after Jesus’ birth, “Take the mother and the Child For Herod seeks the infant's life.” In secrecy they stole away. Nor the wise men there remained, Herod's scheming they had sensed; More guidance from God's unseen hand. The children of that fateful land, Those that lived near Bethlehem, While their mothers’ shrieking cried, Died at hand of royal felon Toward the west the parents fled out of sight of everyone; Egypt had been long foretold For from that land “I called My Son.” Yet still King Herod grabs a...

Link only per agreement with Gannett

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump got into an interesting war of words on Twitter last week with a Saudi prince. "Dopey Prince (Al-Waleed bin Talal) wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy's money. Can't do it when I get elected," Trump tweeted. Trump's social-media salvo was truly provocative, and not because he called a billionaire member of the Saudi royal family "dopey." What made Trump's outburst on Twitter so interesting was his willingness to call out the tacit and longstanding subversion of the U.S. political system by foreign interests. "You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but...

“Who did you vote for in the last election?” a senior female colleague asked me when I first entered the English Department of a Chicago area community college! Thankfully, in this case, I just had received tenure, because had I not, I very well would have been drummed out of their University of Chicago ghetto of political correctness when that crap all started, way back in the late 1960’s. “We don’t teach that any more. . .that’s old fashioned,” a minority female professor told me late in my teaching career. Horror of horrors, I still required my students to spell...

In an upside-down world where an increasing number of world leaders are selling their populations out, the geese serve as one of nature’s best reminders that some things other than man-made were Creator-made to endure. Many times throughout the day, the geese are honking their way across the skies outside our windows. It’s as if they want all humans to know that they are on their way south. Their distinctive honking is pure enthusiasm. It takes only a little imagination to think their honking is like calling out to other geese in their signature V-formations, “Only 100 miles to go!”...

In days of yore the Lie was 'No one is talking about Confiscation', but something has changed as of late. Such talk is now common amongst the national Socialist elite despite the lack of a shooting being prevalent in the media. It is axiomatic that one does not call for confiscation until its foundational steps are in place: Intergalactic Background Checks and Registration. The reason should be clear to everyone, people need to be fooled into registering their firearms with the solemn promise that it won't lead to confiscation. This was the case in the UK for example, were the...

Republicans rate gun issues more important to their vote than others do, but there’s a great deal of skepticism among all voters about politicians who raise gun-related issues. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe most politicians raise gun issues just to get elected rather than to address real problems. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds only 11% think most have real problems in mind, while another 11% are undecided.

Bush lied, people died! That was the relentless chant for much of the former president’s administration. One might discern from such protestation that voters expect their politicians to be honest. Yet, last week, we’ve watched as the same media which lambasted Bush over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq collectively shrugged in response to the revelation that Hillary Clinton knowingly deceived the American people regarding the September 11, 2012, attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya.In case you somehow missed it, here’s what we learned, as reported by Reason: According to documents revealed as part of the ongoing Congressional...