Free Republic

North Korea might be said to be the exact opposite of the Free State Project. In this talk, north Korea expert -- and Kim Jong Il "autobiographer" -- Michael Malice will give a libertarian perspective on the history, culture, and propaganda behind the world's least-free state.

As Americans obsess over NSA spying, abuse by the IRS and other assaults on our freedom, I can't get my mind off the thousand other ways politicians abuse us. In their arrogance, they assume that only they solve social problems. They will solve them by banning this and that, subsidizing groups they deem worthy and setting up massive bureaucracies with a mandate to cure, treat and rescue wayward souls. Their programs fail, and so they pass new laws to address the failures. It's one reason that 22 million people now work for government. Some of the things they do seem...

During Mass this morning priest's homily was about religious freedom. We also prayed for religious freedom and the unborn and at the end of Mass "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was beautifully sung by a baritone.

Is Justin Amash the new face of Republicanism? By George F. Will Published: Saturday, April 20, 2013, 9:00 p.m. Updated: Saturday, April 20, 2013 WASHINGTON America's most interesting development since November is the Republican Party becoming more interesting. Consider the congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich., who occupies the seat once held by Gerald Ford, the embodiment of vanilla Republicanism.

We all know that a palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same backwards as forward. But what should we call an essay that when read backwards, has the opposite meaning? This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

Some of the most terrifying words the parents of a newborn will ever hear are “there is a problem with the baby.” Sometimes the dreadful news comes later after a tragic childhood accident or disease. When such children grow to adulthood they are joined by an even larger number of those who lived perfectly healthy lives as children only to become disabled in some way as adults. Adults with a disability of some kind are many times unable to work or unable to make enough money from working to support themselves or their families, especially during periods of economic downturn...

We have had the “War on Drugs” since the 70’s. In the 80’s, the “War” went from just skirmishes to an all out nuclear war on drugs. Now, thirty years later what have we accomplished? Has the “War on Drugs” become just another epic government failure like the “War on Poverty” with the only thing accomplished being massive government spending and an equally massive erosion of our Constitutional Rights? My perspective on the “War on Drugs” is a little different from most people. I practiced law for 24 years. Ten of those years were as a prosecutor. The rest were...

Does anyone know exactly when it was that the government started cooking the books on unemployment, and counting people who have given up and left the work force, as "no longer being unemployed"? Seems to me that that one change in statistic-keeping set the stage for moving people from work onto welfare, and I think it was made during Clinton's regime? Or was it Carter? It appears to allow them to move people transparently from work to welfare, and the unemployment statistics only look half as bad as they really are. Look at: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm The U3 is the figure that...

War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength Published during the Soviet Union's rise as a global superpower, George Orwell's 1984 offers a prescient window into the soul of the propaganda apparatus of a utopia dictatorship. While Barack Obama has yet to transform the United States from a constitutional republic, his effort to redesign Old Glory notwithstanding, enough similarities have arisen during his presidency and his campaign for re-election that it is worth taking notice. When reality is refracted through the prism of the state propaganda machine, we lose sight of who we are as a society. Inhabitants of...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills told Morning in America radio host William Bennett this morning that he's polling about 26 percentage points behind DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Bills touted his background as an economics teacher and said his standing will improve once voters get to know him. "Nobody knows me," Bills said as he referred to the campaign's polling data. "What we find out is that once people understand that I grew up blue collar, I actually have been in a union my whole life though I'm a coauthor on Right to Work, I'm a public school teacher who...

Those who follow Northern Kentucky politics are aware that four-term Republican Congressman Geoff Davis is retiring this year, and two well-known GOP politicians have announced their interest in replacing him. Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore and state Rep. Alicia Webb-Edgington are part of the Republican establishment in Northern Kentucky and were likely candidates for the job. But there’s another face in the race, a Lewis County businessman and inventor who hails from the eastern edge of the 4th Congressional District. Thomas Massie comes to the primary with strong ties to the Tea Party and the Rand and Ron Paul brand...

Ron Paul might be striking out in his pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination, but the activist energy his campaign unleashed in Minnesota is positioning one of his followers as the party's unlikely favorite to take on U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November. Kurt Bills is a rookie state representative from Rosemount and a high school economics teacher. Until he made a late and unexpected entry into the race in March, Bills was never mentioned as a Republican prospect to challenge Democratic incumbent Klobuchar. But in recent weeks, an increasing number of Republicans have pegged him as the frontrunner to...

Plan on purchasing, owning, transporting and/or operating a firearm in your lifetime? Do not relocate to the state of Illinois. The state has one of the worst gun laws in the country and the Illinois Police and the Illinois Attorney General really need to stop pursuing innocent gun owners, sellers, and users, and pursue those who actually commit crimes that injure or harm others. Stemming from a public safety initiative, Illinois implemented a law in 1968 that says a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card must be issued by the Illinois State Police before a resident can possess or purchase firearms...

A freshman state legislator joined a Republican field seeking a U.S. Senate seat Thursday, setting his sights on a robust Minnesota network for presidential candidate Ron Paul as a possible route to the party nomination. State Rep. Kurt Bills announced his campaign on a busy intersection in Rosemount, just up the street from a high school where he teaches an early morning economics course before heading to the state Capitol each day. The former city council member said he'd make the nation's debt and deficit the focus of his campaign, though he wouldn't offer hints of how he'd solve it....

John Hanson Story John Hanson (1721-1783) When we think of the President of the United States, many people do not realize that we are actually referring to presidents elected under the U.S. Constitution. Everybody knows that the first president in that sense was George Washington. But in fact the Articles of Confederation, the predecessor to the Constitution, also called for a president– albeit one with greatly diminished powers. Eight men were appointed to serve one-year terms as president under the Articles of Confederation. The first was John Hanson, in 1781. His exact title was the “President of the United States...

Recent momentous events at Cato have drudged up some age-old questions about libertarianism and politics: how should libertarians interact with politics and political candidates? Should libertarians compromise “full freedom” by promoting half-measures in the form of less-than-perfect candidates who are better than the alternatives on some matters but perhaps worse on others? Many of the most long-standing divisions within libertarianism are partially a result of different answers to these questions. Some regard all interactions with politics and politicians as inherently corrupting and a tacit endorsement of governmental oppression. Others feel that a refusal to engage in politics is a one-way-ticket...

VIDEO: In this red-hot 16 minute debate, libertarian Wayne Allyn Root, obliterates a pitiful, whiny, parasitic, anti-freedom socialist. It's interesting and noteworthy how the broadcaster seems to label those rightfully afraid of socialism as being afraid of the "big, bad, wolf". Watch how quickly the socialist pulls out the race card (and how Wayne Allyn Root dismantles it). This is universally done by the left, regardless of whether the debate is with a democrat, socialist, or communist. Along with class warfare, it's the only tool they have. It's laudable how Root maintains his composure and pleasant disposition, even in the...

Washington (CNN) -- Briefly back in Congress doing his day job, Ron Paul met with high school students outside his office. True to form, he signed copies of the Constitution and wryly told them with a chuckle, "No one around here reads it very much. I'd like to get everybody to read it." [...] What Paul did not do was attend a closed-door gathering of House Republicans. In fact, the GOP presidential contender is known to never attend these meetings. But Paul's Republican colleagues who did go had no shortage of opinions about his strong showing in the presidential race...

Rep. Ron Paul will drop off the campaign trail in South Carolina on Wednesday and fly back to Washington to cast a vote against raising the debt ceiling, his campaign said Tuesday. ... Mr. Obama said late last month the federal government was once again close to breaching the legal limit on how much it can borrow, and he requested Congress raise the ceiling again. Opponents would need to pass a resolution disapproving of the increase and have it signed into law, or else override a presidential veto, to bloc the increase — which is highly unlikely. But returning to...

He has a solid, unshakeable base. His poll numbers are rising, not sinking. He hasn’t had to go negative. He hasn’t had to deliver a speech to get past his newsletter-induced Reverend Wright moment. Oh, and one other thing: he’s in this race ’til the finish line. His name is Ron Paul, and you have the establishment to thank for his shocking march from the margins to something almost mainstream. In retrospect, at least, there’s really nothing shocking about it. At every step, he has been boosted up and pushed forward by the horrendous failure of the establishment to remove...

S.C. Sen. Tom Davis – the leading fiscal conservative in South Carolina state government and one of the most coveted endorsements of the 2012 “First in the South” presidential primary – will announce his support for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul on Sunday. Davis will endorse Paul’s candidacy at a campaign event Sunday evening in Myrtle Beach, S.C. – confirming a report published earlier this week on Buzzfeed. Paul’s campaign has described Davis’ forthcoming endorsement as “consequential” and “game-changing.” Why? Click here. A first-term State Senator, Davis wields a disproportionate impact given his stellar fiscal voting record and his advocacy on...

Ron Paul Is More Conservative Than Rick Santorum. By Joe Deaux 01/11/12 - 04:02 PM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- During a Republican presidential debate Saturday, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had a spat about who was more conservative as each clawed for blocks of Republican voters needed to topple front-runner Mitt Romney. According to a study done back in 2004 though, Paul was the more conservative of the two by a fairly healthy margin. A list put together at voteview.com found that out of the 3,320 individuals (1 being the most liberal and 3,320...

Now that Ron Paul has achieved electoral respectability in the Republican primaries, the media is in high dudgeon over his extremism. Paul, according to the procurators of good taste at the New York Times, "long ago disqualified himself for the presidency" by, among other things, "peddling claptrap proposals" such as "cutting a third of the federal budget."

While other candidates were speaking at coffeehouses and diners on the day before the Iowa caucuses, Ron Paul was greeted by a crowd of 500 and scores of national media who packed a downtown hotel ballroom for a morning event. “This is almost like a real rally,” the Republican presidential hopeful exclaimed. “This is great!” Polls show Paul in a position to pull off an upset victory in the caucuses Tuesday night, an accomplishment that, if it happens, would amount to one extremely sharp stick in the eye of the GOP establishment. The turnout had Paul’s supporters crowing. “For somebody...

Ask any conservative about Ron Paul and you will usually hear the following statement: "I love him on fiscal policy but his foreign policy is naive and dangerous." You can also throw in the obligatory "He hates Israel." If someone had asked me about Paul from 9/12/01 through October of 2011, I'd have said the exact same things. Something about my certitude always felt a bit uncomfortable, though, because I admired the "good parts" of Ron Paul (and later, his son Rand). Having participated in the Tea Party movement since its inception, and then witnessing the phony propaganda concocted to...

The RevPac event I attended on Monday night was an quite an experience. First of all, the choice of setting seemed designed to highlight some of the recurring themes in Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. While most of his primary opponents have held Manhattan fundraisers targeting donors in this city’s ever-dwindling, yet still potent, financial services sector, the rigidly anti-corporatist, free market dogma of the Paul campaign-highlighted by the appearance of bearish Euro Pacific CEO Peter Schiff-lent a new dimension to what would otherwise have been a routine campaign fundraiser. The optics of the event were pleasing, which I suppose was...

BRUTAL. And we still have a month to go until the Caucus.

The dueling-perspectives political panel is compatible with the aims of CNN, MSNBC and the other progressive broadcasters. Here is how it works: You invite a member of the Republican establishment – often a RINO, preferably a bimbo – to do battle with a lefty from similar circles. The sides are ideologically so close that, in all likelihood, the panelists hang out after the show. This format is positively postmodernist. Why? Because, by presenting the public with two competing perspectives you mislead viewers into believing that indeed there are two realities, and that it is up to them to decide which...

<p>“I think the downturn in the economy occurred in the year 2000,” Paul told CNN, adding that there have been no new jobs since then “and yet we’ve had a 30 million increase in population.”</p> <p>“Just go out and talk to the people – unemployment rate in the true numbers (is) over 20%, so there’s been a depression,” Paul said after an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”</p>

His point is actually correct, a large part of the reason many schools way over-charg­e for tuition is that they know student will be lent them money and the students will often spend 50-60K a year “(or more) on tuition as opposed to finding the best deal for their money because the figure “i can just borrow it” not taking into account the crippling effects of being in your mid-twenti­es with 300K or so in debt. getting of the student loan program (for but the truly neediest cases,, and even then limiting it to no more than 15K a year)...

In a wide-ranging interview on Meet the Press today, Ron Paul talked about his plan to cut $1 trillion in spending, his hope that the government will eventually get out of the housing market, and his frustration at the U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. Paul also lamented the “uselessness” of some of the arguments in the GOP primary debates. “I mean, arguing over who mows Mitt Romney’s lawn,” Paul said. “In the midst of a crisis, a sovereign debt worldwide crisis, the biggest in the history of the world, and the financial system of the world is about...

<p>WASHINGTON — Republican presidential contender Ron Paul said Sunday he wants to end federal student loans, calling it a failed program that has put students $1 trillion in debt when there are no jobs and when the quality of education has deteriorated.</p>

“You’ve got to give it to Ron Paul," Palin said. "Whether you agree with everything he says or not, at least he is one there in Congress trying to make our President stick to the law and understand that Congress does have a role to play in these foreign policy decisions that are made and Ron Paul, I think hit the nail on the head, when he came out and said Obama had better be careful when he interjects himself and our country in other nations’ business.”

Ron Paul is taking to the airwaves with a $2 million ad campaign in key early-voting states that touts his plan for massive budget cuts and likens his Republican presidential rivals to President Obama. The slickly produced ads will begin airing this weekend in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, according to Paul spokesman Jesse Benton. One of the ads (at left) focuses on Paul's recently unveiled economic plan, which calls for the dismantling of five Cabinet agencies, among other budget cuts. Another highlights Paul's consistent calls for federal belt-tightening by showing him making similar points in film clips...

The Kelo vs. New London case saw the Supreme Court expanding the government’s eminent domain powers to include taking property and giving it to other private citizens for the purposes of economic development and enhancing tax revenues. It was a terrible blow to property rights in America. And now, in perhaps a fitting end to the sad chapter in American jurisprudence, the City of New London is now using the property the fought to seize all the way to the Supreme Court as a dumping ground. Video below, and a letter to the editor noting the irony of the city...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQscE3Xed64

When we usually speak of taxes we tend to personalize it. For all the hyper-morality we tend to wax fancy about on the macro level, taxes are the one thing we always seem to have to do a little philosophic double-take on. Messing with your money is messing with your own self, your own identity. Really, it is.Income tax, of course, effects most of us--but seemingly, unfortunately, never enough of us. Property tax is in the news every time the liberal sadists here throw a school levy up for vote. Usually we're all connected in some way to the guilt-fest,...

Sentinel events arise in everyone’s personal history like a volcano in the middle of a barren plain – obvious and undeniable. I was taking a music composition course in the bell tower on the quadrangle at the University of Michigan when President Kennedy was shot. As the giant bells inexplicably began to toll, the date and time were etched forever in my memory. While an intern at Yale-New Haven Hospital, I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon from the house staff break room. And on an otherwise ordinary morning in September 2001, I watched, horrified, a small TV...

The Drug War, with an impact stretching far beyond the inner cities, is one of America’s worst policies. It costs billions we don’t have; it promotes the growth of transnational criminal gangs and supports large black markets in money and arms that terrorists as well as drug lords can use; if fills the prisons and it hasn’t stopped either the use of existing illegal drugs or the development of new ones. Furthermore, as a Cato Institute paper estimates that legalizing and taxing drugs would yield more than $80 billion a year in savings and new revenue. (Something tells me that...

In his ongoing mission to declare Republicans who dare question America’s foreign policy “isolationist,” Sen. John McCain asked recently concerning Libya: “I wonder what Ronald Reagan would be saying today.” Columnist George Will answered McCain: “Wondering is speculation; we know this: When a terrorist attack that killed 241 Marines and other troops taught Reagan the folly of deploying them at Beirut airport with a vague mission and dangerous rules of engagement, he was strong enough to reverse this intervention in a civil war.” Will added: “Would that he had heeded a freshman congressman from Arizona who opposed the House resolution...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The right to life was the foundation of American liberty, but a widespread moral change must occur before abortion is made illegal again, Republican lawmaker and presidential candidate Ron Paul told religious conservative activists on Friday. “If we do not have high respect for life, how can we be dealing with our personal freedom, personal privacy, our rights to homeschool our kids, the right to pick our religion and make personal choices on what we do?” Paul asked the audience at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in downtown Washington, D.C.“Life is precious,...

At the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, presidential candidate Ron Paul used the Bible to show evangelicals why big government is bad and how their fight to protect faith and family are all rooted in liberty. Paul roused the conservative Christian crowd on Friday as he recounted the story of the Israelites and their pleas for an earthly king. He used that story, found in 1 Samuel chapter eight, to explain to the faith conference why big government is morally wrong for America. He told the crowd that the Israelites had a perfectly good family system prior to their first...

WILMINGTON, NC – Former U.S. congressional candidate for North Carolina’s 11th District, Dr. Dan Eichenbaum, will give the keynote address at the 2011 Republican Liberty Caucus Convention. The convention will take place Saturday, June 4, at 11:30am at the Front Street Brewery at 9 N. Front Street in Wilmington.

Most people can’t imagine an America without a minimum wage. Without such wage regulation many believe poverty would run rampant, families would become homeless and children would be starving in the streets. Yet conservatives have rightly recognized that these are moralistic and emotional responses to what is essentially an economic problem. Pointing out the policy’s failure, National Review founder William F. Buckley wrote: “The minimum wage is about as discredited as the Flat Earth Society…” Yet the very notion of getting rid of it remains something most Americans simply cannot fathom. Most people can’t imagine an America without the War...

The Texas congressman announced on "Good Morning America" that he is launching an official campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. As the founding father of a libertarian movement that paved the way for the tea party, Mr. Paul thinks his odds have improved since his last campaign in 2008. He said people are finally “agreeing with much of what I’ve been saying for 30 years. The time is right.” What do you think? Could Ron Paul be the nominee?

John King who is anchoring with Wolf Blitzer on CNN the Bin Laden coverage is clearly 3 sheets to the wind--and falling all over himself to give Obama all the credit. By the way, why are libs celebrating Bin Laden's death? I thought Bush carried out 9-11 according to them. Now that they have the death of Bin Laden to give the credit to Obama for, I guess Bush is no longer the culprit. It's nauseating listening to Obama claim he tasked the CIA with killing Bin Laden as it's number one goal the killing of Bin Laden as if...

When Florida pastor Terry Jones decided to “send a message” to Muslims by burning a Koran last week, it incited outrage and violence throughout the Arab world. American leaders rightly responded by condemning the senseless and dangerous act. Yet in the end, and despite the pastor’s obvious and irresponsible recklessness, Jones used his free speech and political leaders used theirs. Such is the nature of free expression in a free society. But one politician’s condemnation of Jones contained a suggested remedy far more dangerous to American freedom than burning the Koran. Said Sen. Lindsey Graham on CBS’ Face the Nation:...

Last week I wrote of the religion of power. This linked article contains a doctoral level diagnosis of America's problems with herself, and, I dare add, the foreplay to American Suicide. We had best get out, hunt and find or beg for some readable version of the Judeo-Christian Bible. Only there can you find The Divine POV through which to ingest, digest and eventually comprehend this diabolically doomed marriage between Marxism and Islamic Jihadists. That Infernally Odd Couple now threatens to destroy the entire Free World as we know it. But, given my own estimate of the child-aborting Free World,...

As we initiate new military action in another Arab country (Libya), we must question and demand answers from this administration about the goals of the mission. How realistic are the chances for success? What is the true risk to our military personnel and what exit strategy is in place?

Congressman, Wake Up Mr, or Ms, Freshman (or any Congressman seeking tea party support): Please Vote against the Continuing Resolution. The eyes of the Tea Party are watching. The Continuing Resolution is a Democrat Trojan Horse that contains $105 BILLION life support for Obamacare. Mr. Congressman, don’t get fooled by the laid back Republicans who don’t see this as a golden opportunity. This is your chance. Don’t blow it. Pay attention to Michele Bachmann. Forget about Boehner. It will take courage. Do you have the right stuff? Don’t fall under the spell of the go-along, get-along crowd. You were sent...