Free Republic

Up front, let me apologize to used car salesmen. But as guys like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin celebrated the “breakthrough” immigration bill in the Senate last week, I couldn’t stop picturing them in cheesy, loud plaid suits, trying to pass of a lemon as a sweetheart deal. “This baby’s top of the line, it’s got seats made from genuine seat material and an AM/AM radio!” We’ll circle back to the clowns clad in plaid shortly. Let me share a few semi-random thoughts on immigration with you. 1. The Senate was deluged with phone calls from...

Was it just me, or has it been Jesus Week in the news? First, the news was filled with reports that Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man who converted to Christianity 16 years ago, is in mortal danger. Though the Afghan constitution clearly guarantees the right to change one’s faith, some local prosecutor has decided that Sharia law is firmly in place and anyone who denies Islam must be executed. Forgive my cynical nature, but I found it very interesting that the press gave more coverage to this one man (valuable though he is) than they have to pretty much any...

The newly-minted ban on abortion in South Dakota is already generating a storm of debate as blasts of hot air from politicians and pro-abortion activists meets the cold wind of reality. But like a squall line in summer, it will soon pass through and blow itself out. Whether you agree with the ban or not, rest assured that the result will be, to quote Shakespeare, like “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” That’s not to say that the South Dakota lawmakers are that far off in the woods. When he signed the bill,...

How strange that a bland guy from Trenton could be the catalyst of an apocalypse. What’s stranger still is that a group of people could shout warnings of this imminent apocalypse over and over and still be believed. I could be wrong, but my bet is that the Republic will still be here when this column runs, even though Sam Alito will have been on the Supreme Court for at least a whole day by then. As I write this, Massachusetts Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry are making a last desperate stand to hold back the ride of the...

Osama bin Laden again found his way out of his cave to a microphone, in order to make new pronouncements for his twisted god. You’d expect that a guy cutting himself down to about one message per year would make sure he packed a lot of good stuff into it. Alas, for the most part it was the usual delusional rhetoric. And when I say delusional rhetoric, I’m not talking about the “kill the infidel” boilerplate, I’m talking about things like his assertion that the American media is painting a rosy picture of the war in Iraq, that our troops...

At this time of year I always find myself gladdened by the great contributions of Martin Luther King Jr., but also a little dismayed. I find myself wondering how this man of love and action was replaced by icons of hating and waiting. If you think hate is too strong a word, consider the case of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton being given prominence at Rosa Park’s funeral. Farrakhan is at least as well known for his praise of Hitler, his statements against Jews and his belief that whites were created inherently evil as he is for his “leadership” in...

How would you like to receive (or buy and send) Christmas cards from the NRA with the message “Peace on Earth through the use of magnum hollow points?” How about a set of “Jesus loves welfare reform” cards from the American Conservative Union? A card from David Duke wishing you and yours “an all-white Christmas?” Or AFL-CIO cards that reminding those on your Christmas card list that the Christ Child was wrapped in swaddling clothes proudly made in the USA by members of United Textile Workers Local 402? Sorry if I got your hopes up, because none of those particular...