Free Republic

"With luck it will help to vindicate the fathers of liberal government and the free market in the 17th and 18th Centuries, falsely accused until now of abetting - or promoting - the great crime of race-based African slavery. For academic orthodoxy holds that John Locke and the great Whig thinkers of the Glorious Revolution (1688) helped to design and foster the economic system of hereditary slavery that shaped Atlantic capitalism for a century and a half. ...Except that this established version of events is not true. It is a near complete inversion of what happened, and this matters in...

This Martha Trowbridge thread has been pulled. Pulled on 08/05/2013 4:02:08 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason: Do not post from sources requiring registration. Okay What, you mean? Like Traitor Republic?

A reporter asked me, "Would you prefer that students know information, or how to find information?" Clearly she thought that knowing where to find information was best. Actually knowing facts was, in her mind, not important. That was the old way, the medieval approach, when children were whipped to make them memorize the state capitals and other such irrelevant stuff. Thank goodness, she clearly believed, we have moved on to more civilized ways. Children no longer know anything. All they know is that they must go somewhere to find what they want to know. But why would the reporter believe...

A Republican, Mormon U.S. Senator has teamed with an Arab American singer to record a song for Hanukkah. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and singer Rasheeda Azar from Indiana, recorded "Eight Days of Hanukkah," a cheerful pop ballad, in New York in October and released it through a Jewish online magazine ahead of the eight-day holiday. Hanukkah ends on Saturday. Known to have a penchant for songwriting outside of lawmaking, Hatch earlier this year wrote a tribute to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, his friend and political rival. Hatch is also known to have an affinity for Jewish people. He wrote...

We Americans like to think of our revolution as not being radical; indeed, most of the time we consider it downright conservative. It certainly does not appear to resemble the revolutions of other nations in which people were killed, property was destroyed, and everything was turned upside down. We can think of Robespierre, Lenin, and Mao Zedong as revolutionaries, but not George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. We cannot quite conceive of revolutionaries in powdered hair and knee breeches. They made speeches, not bombs; they wrote learned pamphlets, not manifestos. They were not abstract theorists and they were not...

Senator Jeff Sessions argues that the GOP elite view on immigration--shared by President Barack Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer--is "nonsense.".....The Sessions memo begins, "The GOP needs to flip the immigration debate on its head. The same set of GOP strategists, lobbyists, and donors who have always favored a proposal like the Gang of Eight immigration bill argue that the great lesson of the 2012 election is that the GOP needs to push for immediate amnesty and a drastic surge in low-skill immigration.."....

Several pieces of Viking jewelry, some of which contain gold, have been uncovered at a farm site in Denmark that dates as far back as 1,300 years. Although the Vikings have a popular reputation as being raiders, they were also farmers, traders and explorers, and the craftsmanship seen in this jewelry demonstrates their artistic skills. Archaeologists working with volunteers used metal detectors to find the jewelry in different spots throughout a farmstead on Zealand, the largest island in Denmark. The remains of the site, which is now called Vestervang, date from the late seventh to the early 11th centuries.

Over two years ago, in March of 2012, when it was taboo to even suggest the Fed may be forced to admit failure once again with its then "final" monetary intervention Operation Twist (following similar failures with QE1 and QE2), we explained clearly "Why The Fed Will Have To Do At Least Another $3.6 Trillion In Quantitative Easing." The premise was simple: while the Fed had succeeded in raising the notional amount of traditional bank liabilities, primarily deposits (through a matched reserve expansion) courtesy of unsterilized QE, it was failing to expand the universe of money-equivalent collateral in the...

A government designed to secure our unalienable rights has become something of a black-hole that devours our liberties. In the sum total of our three national branches, fewer than 1,500* men and women push around over 300 million citizens without restraint or fear for their personal safety. What is to be done? If we weigh the potential benefit, meaning the restoration of our republic, against the remote disadvantages of an amendment convention, there is little reason to avoid one. There’s been some hubbub at FR recently over both the necessity and danger of the states calling an Article V Convention....

George Bush is still a big topic Researchers have revealed what subjects are getting vandalised the most in Wackypedia and are subjected to “edit wars." Articles about ex-US President George W Bush and anarchism are the most hotly contested on Wikipedia's English-language edition, research suggests. It seems that editors were big on debating data at the site. Many religious subjects, such as Jesus and God, were universally debated. Researchers from the University of Oxford and three other institutions analysed logs of the changes made to Wikipedia pages to identify those in the throes of an "edit war". Such a...

Something peculiar has been going on the treasury market during the latest round of quantitative easing (QE). If we study the chart provided below we find that treasury rates increased as soon as a QE-program was enacted, and fell immediately after its termination. Take the TSY 10 year for example; as soon as QE1 was implemented rates rose rapidly from a low of 2.08 per cent to a high of 4.01 per cent. What is striking about this is the fact that the low was set three days into the program, while the high was set three days after the...

Economic blogger and author, Charles Hugh Smith, joins Rick for an in-depth discussion on cycles and why he foresees a banking crisis in 2015. Other cycles covered are cycles of war, and climate.

Hello all. I have an interesting problem. Apparently my mother started a savings account for my son when he was born. The last statement date is 6/30/98. The bank she used no longer exists. My mother passed 8 years ago. Anyone have any ideas of where that money went or how I can retrieve it?

In my last post I talked about something I’ve been noticing recently, that people, especially pro-life nerds like me, are tempted to talk about logical fallacies all the time in conversation. There are several dangers to this. I’ve argued already that the first danger is accusing somebody of a logical fallacy when they didn’t actually commit one. If you dedicate yourself to educating yourself on what the logical fallacies actually are before bringing them up, you will be a more effective debater. But there’s a good, better, best aspect to exposing logical fallacies while creating good dialogues with people. I...

I was posting on a few of the threads concerning the violence from the aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict, requesting that all of our FRiends here add a keyword to such posts. I found a few here and there, with certain words. Being that I was at work, I had not the time to post this. So, I FReepmailed with Jet Jaguar about a specific keyword so our FRiends could look up these items on FRee Republic. After doing a bunch of research while heavily drinking.....*BUUUURP* I found that the keyword, "trayvonstroops," was the dominant one for this task. My...

Fun Gun Reviews Presents: The CZ P09 Duty Model 9mm Pistol. This is a full size Polymer Framed handgun that has a magazine capacity of 19+1, which makes it the highest capacity of any other 9mm pistol with a flush fit magazine in the industry.

"Yep, I said it. Homemade bacon....and have made some of the best bacon I think I have ever had. ...Not only the satisfaction and almost giddiness that you get when you finally taste the bacon, but the texture is something to be reckoned with.....The old school way, and now maybe the only way, to craft and preserve meat....So begin by locating a good pork belly......

Summary: Head Start was launched more than 45 years ago. Much was promised, little delivered. This failure tells us a lot about our Education Establishment. ------ This is the story of an intentionally wasted opportunity. People thought Head Start meant jump start. Surely the idea was to take children from disadvantaged backgrounds and fill their heads with all the information that middle and upper-class kids learn around the house. These poor and minority kids would then be up to speed. Quickly. That’s the jump start everybody imagined was being proposed here. But that is not what the program did. Head...

On Mark’s nationally syndicated show last night, he revealed the thrust of his soon-to-be launched Liberty Movement. He described once again how reform will not emerge from the men and women of the institutions responsible for the fast approaching demise of our society and republic. If reform is to occur, it will only emerge from us, the sovereign people, the foundation of legitimate government. The vehicle for that reform will be the states, and the tool of reform is the constitutional amendment process of Article V. He emphasized that neither of the two amendment processes of Article V provide for...

Old time freepers will know that I am a retired airline/military pilot of 40 years experience. Guys like us stay in touch and swap experiences. It is how we learned as youngsters and how we stayed alive into retirement. This revelation is nothing new to those of us who have been around the pattern a few times. Nothing new at all. Read it and make your own decision.

A basics video to show the difference between black powder and smokeless powder. Many who hear these terms are likely not clear as to what is meant or have some misconceptions.

Rare 3D Camera Found Containing Photos from WWI "One cold morning last year, we attended an estate in the Niagara Falls where we were fortunate enough to come across and purchase a rare World War I Richard Verascope stereo camera previously owned by the French Army. The camera is in pristine condition and included the original leather carrying case and glass slides. Each slide is a piece of history in photographic form and I get shivers every time I place a glass slide into the 3D stereo viewer. Only at A Nerd’s World 986 Bathurst street can you see the...

Power system is 580 watts Solar electric and 400 Watts wind power which powers a 12 volt fridge, lights, water pump, TV's, laptop and many gadgets. ....This video demonstrates some of 12 volt and AC appliances used in off grid cabin. [20 min video] Very good info on solar, wind and propane for every day use.

Should Congress be held accountable for the regulatory policies of the federal government? Most people would say so, and this week the House Judiciary Committee plans to vote on a bill to make Congress explicitly accountable for federal regulations. Introduced by Representative Geoff Davis (R–KY), H.R. 10, the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny” (REINS) Act, would require Congress to approve major new rules before they can take effect. A similar bill, S. 299, has been introduced in the Senate by Rand Paul (R–KY). REINS would significantly change the way regulations are imposed. Congress would no longer be...

August Landmesser (born May 24, 1910; missing and presumed dead Oct 17, 1944; declared dead in 1949) was a worker at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, best known for his appearance in a photograph refusing to perform the Nazi salute at the launch of the naval training vessel Horst Wessel on 13 June 1936. August Landmesser was the only child of August Franz Landmesser and Wilhelmine Magdalene (née Schmidtpott). He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1931 in hope of getting a job. When he became engaged to the Jewish woman Irma Eckler in 1935, he was...

There are many moderators, with different kinds of secret knowledge. Anything you might say about them (including this) will be false for some of the Moderators, but true for others, which only adds to the confusion and mystery. The Moderators infiltrate and take over cliques of all kinds, from drug warriors to libertarians to chatters, and turn them to their own ends. And, just as a black joke, some of their secret cliques advertise themselves as Secret Cliques. They have agents and "sleepers" planted everywhere. Many of these people have no idea who they are really reporting to. Others are...

How far will a .22 LR Kill? Click here

Is there an app-type of software for android sort of like the Bible ones, but of USA historical documents? I don't necessarily mean an app per se, but documents all in one place. Thanks.

To say I'm shocked at Coulter's assertion would just be a lie. This is Ann Coulter. She says ridiculous nonsense on a regular basis. But on top of her magically ridiculous statements, the oh-so-reasonable Sean Hannity -- the host who should rein in commentary on his show that has gone completely off the rails -- simply let her statement stand. Sure, she just said that gun violence is an issue only with communities of color, but whatever. Since when are people of color Americans? If gun violence affects only them (which it doesn't), then we don't really need to address...

As his fans know, Mark finished another book. Every night it seems, he wants to bust out and talk about it, but his publishers have put the ixnay on too much disclosure. Still, he shows a little leg now and then. That happened yesterday, in the first hour of his show. Mark Levin: I want to explain an aspect of this that hasn’t been discussed. We have United States Senators, and we have for a hundred years, since 1913, . . . and the 17th Amendment, which I believe must be repealed. We now have individuals in the US Senate...

AMMO: Cross Section Photos of Bullets Used During WWII In October of 2012, LA-based photographer Sabine Pearlman found herself ensconced in a Swiss WWII bunker photographing 900 different “specimens” of cross sectioned ammunition. Her resulting photo series, AMMO, shows the beauty and craftsmanship that went into creating these destructive little pieces of engineering. Pearlman “strives to create a poetry of images by synergizing the ‘big picture’ with the small details.” Insofar as her AMMO series is concerned, that means the juxtaposition of beauty and destruction. The photos themselves are fascinating to look at, but the series is meant to evoke...

The following is from the Tax Foundation and represents the bulk of peer reviewed economics research on the deleterious effect of high taxes or increased taxes on economic growth. The anti-science voodoo liberal/progressive/Marxist/socialist crowd hate it when you drop empirical research in their laps.

Free 'E' Book.. "As this book is written for boys of all ages, it has been divided under two general heads, "The Tomahawk Camps" and "The Axe Camps," that is, camps which may be built with no tool but a hatchet, and camps that will need the aid of an axe....The shacks, sheds, shanties, and shelters described in the following pages are, all of them, similar to those used by the people on this continent or suggested by the ones in use and are typically American; and the designs are suited to the arctics, the tropics, and temperate climes; also...

"Protect Yourself from FBI Manipulation by attorney Harvey Silverglate. Good advice in the age of total surveillance." [7 min Video]

1st PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1789-97 FAMILY ESSAY "Washington came of very good blood - aw, quite good - I b'lieve." Attributed by his classmates to Amory Blaine in F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. The Washingtons are of unusual antiquity in European terms, let alone American ones. A direct male ancestry has been traced back to William de Wessington or Wessyngton (i.e., Washington, a town in Tyne and Wear, formerly County Durham, in northern England), who was living in the late 12th century. The remoter ancestry is not absolutely certain but a detailed argument has...

Dear Dave, My son has a $115,000 mortgage at 5.8 percent. He also has a home equity line of credit of $40,000 at 9 percent. Currently, he can get a 30-year loan at 3.5 percent, or a 15-year note at 2.75 percent. His take-home pay is between $70,000 and $80,000 a year, and these are his only debts. Should he combine the mortgages into one loan? Daniel Dear Daniel, First, I only recommend mortgages of 15 years or less. Now we’re looking at a 2.75 percent loan versus a 5.8 percent loan versus a 9 percent loan. I advise people...

The Celts were long considered a barbaric and violent society. But new findings from a 2,600-year-old grave in Germany suggest the ancient people were much more sophisticated than previously thought. The little Bettelbühl stream on the Danube River was completely unknown, except to local residents. But that changed in the summer of 2010 when a spectacular discovery was made just next to the creek. Not far from the Heuneburg, the site of an early Celtic settlement, researchers stumbled upon the elaborate grave of a Celtic princess. In addition to gold and amber, they found a subterranean burial chamber fitted with...

I would like to read the first years of National Review articles from the 50s and 60s. Does anyone know where I can access these online? I am a National Review print and online subscriber, but I can't find them on the National Review site.

Listen to Rush 'best of program' on Saturday and Sundays at different times and stations.

This question has stirred much debate. Historically, Christians have voted for candidates of different faiths, including Mormons, based on how they live their lives and how deeply committed they are to upholding the U.S. Constitution. Remember, God ordained government, and we are not electing a pastor-in-chief, we are electing a commander-in-chief. George Washington was Episcopalian, Abraham Lincoln had no religious affiliation while he was president, John Kennedy was Catholic and Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were outspoken Southern Baptists. Over a period of 223 years, our nation’s cities and states have been governed by people of many different faiths, including...

Dear Carrie, I have a 3-year old daughter who I hope will go to college one day. Given the increasing costs, what's the best way for me to save? I've opened a 529 plan, but is there anything else I can do? --A Reader Dear Reader, The first thing you can do is to give yourself credit for starting to save so early. While saving for a child's college education is an enormous challenge, making it a priority when it's so far away can be the first big hurdle. So you're off to a good start. As someone who believes...

I listen to you often and enjoy your radio show, but why don’t you ever ask women to go to work? When a family is broke, and the woman is at home raising one child who is already in the fifth grade, why can’t the wife get a “second job?” George Dear George, I think far too many ladies, in the name of paying for stuff they don’t need, have left the household and the children for the workplace. Many of them didn’t even want to do this; they just felt obligated to do it by people like you. There...

Wondering if any other TH-using FReepers have been having this problem. I had been a regular on Townhall.com, with a valid user name and log-in for over 8 years. Recently I found I had been logged off, and the website didn't recognize the username/password combination when I tried to log back in. I tried the "forgot password" link, which sent a reset e-mail to me, and the link seemed to accept a new password. But it still doesn't work. I even tried the "Sign up" link, but get this error message: "Signup is temporary disabled, please try again later." I've...

A while back I received several e-mails from guys requesting my advice on how to attract a female like me. You see, they seem to have a hard time attracting women that are into shooting and the outdoors… and I understand this. Being that we humans aren’t whitetail deer and you can’t rub your scent on a tree to find yourself a mate, it makes things harder for guys. I’ve decided to throw these guys a bone, and any others who need help, on how to attract such a lady. Here are essential points to follow in attracting the Katniss...

Once upon a time, a teacher would teach American History. On exams, students would be asked questions about American history. Testing was straightforward and needed little discussion. In the modern era, however, content is disparaged and facts are scorned. The goal, seemingly, is to keep kids busy but to teach as little as possible. The big problem is, how do you design exams when the teacher hasn’t taught much, the kids don’t know much, and there is little actual knowledge that the school intends the children to retain? In this fact-free world, what would a valid examination look like? At...

Dear Dave, I’m a stay-at-home mom now, and my husband brings home $2,600 a month. We’re trying to get out of debt, but we need more money coming in. I want to go back to work, but emotionally part of me feels like I should stay home with our 2-year-old daughter. What do you think? Kayla Dear Kayla, I understand the feelings involved, especially if you’ve spent all of your time home with your child. But don’t make the mistake of blaming the debt if you simply want to go back to work. You’re not a bad person if you...

Virtual tour of Herculaneum, documenting the site, and the work of the Herculaneum Conservation Project. Click on the node-markers to view an interactive 360-degree panorama (in a new window). The plan above shows the locations of panoramas made mainly in 2001 (a few are from 1999), where the aim was to provide an overview of the site (as it was then), along with tours of a few selected houses. The menu of houses and other areas at left accesses additional, more recent coverage (including revisits to some houses and other structures) made from 2003 onward.

Mapping the world with Tweets Posted By Joshua KeatingWednesday, May 8, 2013 - 3:39 PM   A new paper on the peer-reviewed online journal First Monday summarizes the results of a project to use geographic data gathered from Tweets to create a picture of the world according to Twitter. The researches, led by GDELT co-creator Kalev Leetaru, used the Twitter decahose, a massive feed of 10 percent of all tweets, access to which is normally sold at high price to marketers. The project covers the period of the Oct. 23, 2102, to November 30, 2012. During this time, 1,535,929,521...

*Video* Everything You Need To Know About Benghazi

"But the Administration still blamed filmmaker Nakoula, who is still in jail. They did this to keep the Benghazi debacle from exploding before the election. It worked. And filmmaker Nakoula is still in jail......Some Obama-defenders will note that Nakoula was jailed for probation violations, of which he may have even been guilty. .... prosecutors can always find a reason to put someone away if they really want to. The question is, why, exactly, were they so eager to put Nakoula away?...Because what it’s looking like is that Nakoula was targeted and jailed so as to provide a scapegoat/villain in a...