Free Republic

People, the news media and pundits like to throw around the word “crisis.” The mainstream media and their ilk tell us that we are currently experiencing a crisis in the sub-prime mortgage market, an economic crisis, a crisis with the environment, a crisis in race relations and with oil prices. There is a crisis with the polar bears, the environmentalists tell us, as they taut their questionable consensus on the global warming crisis, this even as 31,000 scientists rebuke their “consensus.” Educators tell us there is a crisis in public education. We even have a steroid crisis in the sports...

All McCain voters are selling the rest of us TRUE CONSERVATIVES out! Enough! Show you have the values of your convictions and leave the BLUE BLOOD REPUBLICANS in Washington, crawling on their knees for forgiveness!

Charity, do-gooding, philanthropy it’s all just selfishness masquerading as virtue. So says the cynic. In modern times, the theory that each of us, despite occasional appearances of self-sacrificial nobility, is ultimately and invariably looking out for No. 1 got a big boost from Darwin’s theory of evolution. By the logic of natural selection, any tendency to act selflessly ought to be snuffed out in the struggle to survive and propagate. So if someone seems to be behaving as an altruist — say, by giving away a fortune to relieve the sufferings of others — that person is really following the...

Former professional basketball player Jason Caffey had two children with his wife, and at least six other children with women in metro Atlanta, Alabama, Louisiana and Illinois. Professional football player Travis Henry, a Denver Broncos running back with a $25 million contract, has nine children by nine women in four Southern states, including a Lithonia boy fathered out of wedlock three years ago. Caffey, who earned as much as $5 million a season in a 10-year NBA career with the Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks, filed for bankruptcy in Alabama in August. His wife, who lives in...

On Thursday, Congress attempted to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP expansion. SCHIP? Isn't that something to do with health care for children? Absolutely. And here is Bay Area Democratic Rep. Pete Stark addressing the issue with his customary forensic incisiveness: "The Republicans are worried that they can't pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the...

Egoism is a state of mind where a person values all things in terms of their value to the self. Egoism and selfishness are virtues, in fact the greatest of all virtues, as they enable life. All living beings are selfish. To survive, they must be. Without fulfilling one's basic needs of water, food, or protection, one would cease to exist. Although selfishness is a necessity, many people hold selflessness as their goal in life, and this altruistic thinking is a dominating and corrosive mainstay of today's society. If one were to give all of his money to charity or...

'Embryo Bank' Stirs Ethics Fears Firm Lets Clients Pick Among Fertilized Eggs By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, January 6, 2007; A01 A Texas company has started producing batches of ready-made embryos that single women and infertile couples can order after reviewing detailed information about the race, education, appearance, personality and other characteristics of the egg and sperm donors. The Abraham Center of Life LLC of San Antonio, the first commercial dealer making embryos in advance for unspecified recipients, was created to help make it easier and more affordable for clients to have babies that match their preferences,...

ELTON JOHN: 'I WOULD BAN RELIGION COMPLETELY' Sat Nov 11 2006 15:42:55 ET Sir Elton John wants religion banned completely -- because he believes it promotes hatred of gays. Speaking to the Observer Music Monthly Magazine the singer said religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings". The PRESS ASSOCIATION reports: In a candid interview for a dedicated Gay issue of the magazine he shared his views on topics as varied as being a pop icon to Tony Blair's stance on the war in Iraq. He said there was a lack of religious leadership, particularly in world politics, and...

As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick. Not, at least, with the inherited form of colon cancer that has devastated his family, killing his mother, her father and her two brothers, and that he too may face because of a genetic mutation that makes him unusually susceptible. By subjecting Chloe to a genetic test when she was an eight-cell embryo in a petri dish, Mr. Kingsbury and his...

LONDON, August 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This week, a popular BBC radio announcer told the public that she had entered into a “suicide pact” with friends should she be incapacitated by illness. Jenni Murray, the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, a feminist and euthanasia advocate, said that she does not want to be “trapped” into caring for her mother who is ill with Parkinson’s disease. Murray, a member of the Order of the British Empire and a patron of the Family Planning Association, is airing her views tonight on a BBC television program called “Don’t Get Me Started.”...

John Gizzi, veteran political editor of the conservative weekly Human Events, normally is an optimist. Over the years I have watched him find the one possible thread to explain the rationale for the election of a conservative Republican. John knows more about politics than any 10 political junkies combined have forgotten. If there is a way to see a possibility for a Republican victory Gizzi makes the case. And that is as it should be inasmuch as he is writing to give conservatives hope. He and his paper's message are always the same: "Shoulder on." You can imagine my shock...

Selfishness Has Its Value to the EconomyBy Peter Brown Self-interest gets a bad rap these days. It is both the driving principle of capitalism and a fact of human nature. And, it explains so much about many Americans' ambivalence toward Wal-Mart. A survey of attitudes toward the nation's largest retailer among New Yorkers, who might be expected to be among the least supportive of the firm and its practices, explains much about that love/hate relationship. They don't like the company and wish it were operated differently. But in a New York minute they are on their way to shop there....

DEAR ABBY: I am a female who is almost 38 years old. Most of my adult life has been spent in school, working or traveling. It is only in the last two years that I have met someone and settled down somewhat -- although we are not married. We are both artists, so much of our time is filled doing the things that we love and believe in. Neither of us feels a giant void in our relationship or our lives that needs to be filled by a baby. In the past year or so, several of my co-workers and...

I've had it with the phrase "Bridges to Nowhere." Someone has to speak up for Alaskans. I've lived in Ketchikan and the Mat-Su valley, two of the places next to "nowhere." Ketchikan is a thin strip of roadway on a mountain cliff next to the ocean. The bridge would connect Ketchikan to the island next door, which has many square miles of flat land that could be developed for the benefit of the community. The Knik Arm bridge connects Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, with the Mat-Su valley, Alaska's fastest growing community. Calling the Knik Arm bridge a bridge to "nowhere"...

Before the divorce rate began its inexorable rise in the late 1960s, the common wisdom had been that, where children are concerned, divorce itself is a problem. But as it became widespread -- peaking at almost one in two first marriages in the mid-1980s -- popular thinking morphed into a new, adult-friendly idea: It's not the act of divorcing that's the problem, but simply the way that parents handle it.

On Sunday they packed 'em in -- a circumstance you wouldn't have noted for some long while in English churches, which, like European churches in general, seem to resound mainly with historic echoes. But there was praying to be done, and it seemed to the English people meet, right and their bounden duty -- as the Book of Common Prayer would have it -- to lay their sorrows and perplexities before the Lord. And so, three days after the explosions and screams that scarred a London morning, something like the old European civilization popped back into view. I didn't say...

Why are some people more prone to give charity or put themselves in danger in order to help others? A team of Israeli psychologists claim they have the answer - they've located the first gene linked to altruistic behavior. According to a study conducted by Prof. Richard Ebstein and colleagues at the Hebrew University and Herzog Memorial Hospital in Jerusalem, a link exists between people who appear selfless and seek to help others, and a gene variant on chromosome No. 11. Volunteers who filled out a questionnaire exhibiting these traits then had DNA samples taken where the gene variant was...

Mass shows support for dozens of gays, lesbians 'Let go of anger and hate,' pastor says BY STEVE SCOTT Pioneer Press Responding to requests by families and friends of gays and lesbians, the Rev. John Clay celebrated a Mass of healing and support Thursday night at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in St. Paul. Nearly 150 people at the church at West Seventh Street and Western Avenue heard Clay call for people to love "those who aren't like us." He implored them to "listen to what it feels like to grow up in a society in which the majority is hostile"...

Forget, for a moment, that last week Californians overwhelmingly re-elected one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate. And forget that we wanted to put another liberal senator in the White House. On Tuesday, we also voted to lock up criminals and throw away the key, and we soundly rejected a beta-version of socialized medicine. Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, California in 2004 is not a liberal state. Yes, there are a good many liberals who make California their home, as do many, albeit fewer, conservatives. But it's not the sensibilities of Berkeley or Bakersfield that decided this year's election...

Come and show unity for the first and most fundamental of human rights. What: Life Chain (national) When: 2-3 p.m. Sunday, October 3 Where: Fred Meyer, Burlington, WA 920 S. Burlington Blvd. Burlington, WA 98233 Map Or, check with your own local pro-life organizations and churches. Bring a sign. Proverbs 24:11 [KJV] If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; 24:12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?...

Here is some info most people do not or do not want you to know. If tomorrow the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, abortion would not dissapear. In fact abortion laws would go down to State levels and State Laws. The fact of the matter is the feminist want abortion to be mandated by federal law so that they have a national issue to project there other communist stances, abortion to them is the stepping stone to bigger government, bigger taxes and secularism. The view of the left is simple, if one woman wants an abortion in say North...

<p>Dozens of gay and lesbian couples arrived in this rural town Friday to get married after a county clerk announced she would grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but the offer was soon revoked.</p> <p>The Sandoval County clerk's office granted licenses to 26 same-sex couples before New Mexico attorney general Patricia Madrid issued a late afternoon opinion saying the licenses were "invalid under state law."</p>

Meet Joe Dirt Stuart K. Hayashi In 2001, comedian David Spade came out with a movie titled "The Adventures of Joe Dirt." It now appears that the film was about Joe Conason, the author of "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" and an editorialist for the liberal-biased Salon.com. In the person of Brad Pitt, you've already Met Joe Black. Now Meet the Real Joe Dirt. His book purports to expose how right-wingers harness the corporate media to brainwash society. Instead of demonstrating such, however, Joe is too busy flinging his Dirt around. In two...

WHY WE CHEAT By SUSAN EDELMAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FORBIDDEN PLEASURES: Some researchers believe changes in gender roles are prompting more married women to sleep around. July 13, 2003 -- More women are cheating on their husbands - and doing it without remorse, sex researchers say. A stunning 90 percent of adulterous wives told one Manhattan researcher they suffered "no guilt," but rather felt "entitled" to the pleasure and excitement of their secret trysts, said Susan Shapiro Barash, a gender-studies professor and author. "Women feel entitled because they're not getting what they need in the marriage. That's why women today have affairs,"...

Ross Nustad doesn't know who, if anybody, is to blame for his only brother's death Friday on Lake Minnetonka. But what troubles him about the information he has is that rescuers trying to reach Ryan Nustad were hindered by other boaters. "These people wouldn't move those damn boats," Ross Nustad said Monday evening. There may never be any way to tell whether his younger brother could have been saved if he'd been found more quickly, Nustad said, but his family has heard stories of miraculous rescues before. About 300 boats had pulled into Cruiser's Cove along Big Island to party...

20th Century evil is hydra-headed. Lop off one head; it grows another. With the defeat of the Kaiser's welfare Reich, the menace of Nazism arose. With the defeat of Nazism, Communism menaced. With the collapse of the Reds, the Greens were waiting in the wings. Why? The short answer is that they are interchangeable. They posture as enemies, but they were (and are) each others' best source of recruits. That prompts another "Why?" The answer is that these evils are variants of a more fundamental evil. They are all mutations of nihilism–radical rejection of the good, absolutely and in principle;...

The 20th century is one of wars and dictatorships. It opened with the First World War, during which Communist dictatorship appeared on the European fringe in Russia, and following which Fascist and Nazi dictatorships arose in the heart of Europe. Then came the Second World War and the Cold War. Communist dictatorship spread to Asia, Africa and the Americas (Cuba). Even areas which hadn't arrived at dictatorship were well along the road. They suffered continuous erosion of citizens' rights. We must learn why! We must know the cause to find a cure. History is a record of human actions, and...

The Difference between US and Them US: In 1994, The Green family with legal and valid passports and visas were on vacation in Italy. 7-year-old Nicholas Green of Bodega Bay, California, was with his parents and sister when the family was set upon by robbers. Shots were fired and young Nicholas was mortally wounded. For two days Nicholas lay in a hospital while the entire nation of Italy watched, waited and prayed. Nicholas did not live, but from the depths of this terrible tragedy came an act of goodness that touched not only all of Italy, but also Nicholas' fellow...

A couple trying to become the parents of the world's first human clone, using the same process that produced Dolly the sheep, have spoken for the first time ... to the Sunday Herald. Bill, a high school teacher, and Kathy, a sales representative -- they do not want their last name revealed -- are one of six couples who will participate in a cloning experiment later this year led by American fertility expert Dr Panos Zavos. The couple, from northeast America, have agreed to a clone of Kathy and are awaiting a call to tell them to fly out to...