Free Republic

Everybody had a good laugh last August when Roll Call broke the story about Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, getting arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for playing footsies in a toilet stall. The late-night talk show hosts mined the material for days; Slate produced a re-enactment of the bathroom ballet; and newspapers, magazines, and cable channels shredded Craig. The angle taken by most reporters and commentators wasn't that Craig's restroom conduct was particularly shameful. The press doesn't object to same-sex sex at all, nor should it. Craig's true offense, said the press and the clowns, was hypocrisy, which they...

Freeping: My First Ten Years Of Free Republic by B-chan*** "I have been sitting here for the last 45 mins looking straight at the sun. there is a host over the sun so i can look at it..its a sign a miracle.. can anyone else look at the sun and see anything?" - classygreeneyedblonde, 2002 *** Ten years ago this week, on 18 July 1998, I joined a then-fledgling news discussion site on the then-fledgling World Wide Web. The name of the site was freerepublic.com. I had logged on before, of course. I remember spending many an hour at my...

Because conservatism as normally understood is not possible in America today. Conservatism stands for loyalty to what is settled. It presumes that one belongs to a culture and civilization that is basically well-founded and coherent, so that it will return to type if a few errors are debunked and excesses suppressed. None of that makes sense today. All authoritative American institutions are left-liberal in their principles. As such, they are profoundly at odds with the implicit habitual goods fostered by tradition and with any orientation toward the transcendent. The protection of those things must be at the heart of any...

In the early- to mid- 1970’s, the current crop of liberal alarmists were coming to the fore and feeling their oats. There was Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the book which singlehandedly led to the elimination of DDT. And finally, there was the grand-daddy of them all, Paul Erlich’s The Population Bomb, an updated salute to Malthus. I can still remember the words on the cover: “While you were reading these words, people will die of starvation, most of them children.” It seems that the world was eating itself out of house and home, beyond any possibility of rescue. It is...

US Congressman John Culberson from the 7th district of Texas starts Qikking and is planning to Qik Mars Landing at NASA. This is again for one of the history books as John becomes the first congressman in US to start using Qik. His profile on Qik is qik.com/johnculberson.

What is the New Age Movement? What is secular humanism? What influence do they have on America’s society and public schools? Are they making our society and public schools better or worse? What kind of following do they have? Who are their leaders? It is my purpose to answer these questions and many more as they relate to the effects of the New Age Movement and secular humanism in America’s society and public schools. Hopefully, those who read this article will become enlightened as I did to the realization that America is rapidly becoming a New Age nation.

The identity consciousness of pupils and students must be countered. They must be prepared to take their place as planetary citizens in a multi-cultural, multi-religious, non-racial and non-sexist society. Narrow-mindedness must be replaced by the largest possible degree of open-mindedness on all matters, thereby superseding any narrow ideological orientation.

Different types of educational curriculums, programs, and strategies are being used to support the acculturation of humanism in American schools.. Some of these are global education, non-directive education, affective education, and active learning. These methods use the guise as acceptable programs recognized by leaders of different aspects of our government and society. By having the acceptance of our governmental leaders, it has made the transition of these programs into mainstream America and its school systems a simple task. However, it is not too late to begin a counter attack. America must find out the truth about the evils contained in...

Many of the leading educators in the United States have accepted the humanist approach to education. These are the same people who have developed our curriculums, spent federal money on educational programs, and advised our government on educational trends. William H. Kilpatrick, one of John Dewey’s followers, stated that the old education format was based on “a psychology that stressed acquisition, even drill, and minimized critical thinking.”

Trying to figure out the political mind of Focus on the Family leader Dr. James Dobson is like attempting to solve a Rubik's Cube while blind and, folks, I tried it and it can't be done. That's a bit of hyperbole I threw in this column just to make a point because even I'm not that stupid. But I would like to ask Dr. Dobson a question. Just the other day, Dobson apparently changed his mind and decided he could possibly support John McCain, who is the Republic Party's presumptive presidential nominee. For those of you who haven't followed the...

In the recent www.feministing.com post Two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to harassing women, Jessica Valenti quotes from Reuters: Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women...and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed Thursday. The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the...

While tar baby can be used as a racist attack on black people, it isn't used that way in any of these examples. John Kerry used it in the same manner as John McCain and Mitt Romney. I, for the first time, find myself coming to the defense of John Kerry. He isn't racist because of what he said here (but he is still an elitist windbag.) The fact is this: You are being played, and those playing you for a fool rely on your ignorance. Pick up a copy of "The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus" by Joel Chandler...

A Mississippi congressman (Rep Thompson, D) wants to create even more defensless victim zones. Thompson is displeased with a recent Georgia State law that removes infringements on the right of Georia citizens to bear arms on public transportation. While there is no history of problems in this area, Thompson wishes to ban guns from unspecified zones around airports, far beyond the traditional security zones established to prevent terrorists from smuggling arms onto airliners. Most airports around the country respect the second amendment rights of citizens to bear arms outside the designated security zones.

First, they can't even understand what the hell the Messiah is proposing. Furthermore, it is not completely clear what he is promising. [snip] “What we’re trying to do,” said one of the advisers, David Cutler, in explaining the gap between Mr. Obama’s words and his intent, “is find a way to talk to people in a way they understand.” Try English, moron. See, socialists have a hard time explaining these "complicated" policies to the little people because the have to dodge, hedge, and deflect, lest someone figure out that the policy is an utter boondoggle designed to take away our...

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is installing software which monitors diversity in all law firms it uses, regularly and just-in-time. Those firms falling short of Wal-Mart's diversity target numbers will be terminated. That move by Wal-Mart, which sets policy for how global supply chains are managed, will in itself radically change the composition of law firms - and eventually law schools.

One of the most liberal members of Congress in Florida Robert Wexler (Obamapropagandist and notorious leftist) is not a resident of his district. He has lived in Maryland since the late 90s. He claims to live in a house in Del Ray (owned by his mother-law) in an active adult community where no children are allowed, though he has three children). You can't live there with kids, it's against the rules of the community. Another example of Democrat hubris - I am above the law. It seems he has no connection to Florida at all. Clearly it's a phantom residence,...

When I set up this blog, I wanted to make it easy for people to post comments, but alas, the spam-pornographers are making this increasingly difficult. Since yesterday, I have had hundreds of spam comments and trackbacks added to almost every post on this blog. I just set up a new spam-blocking program (I already had one running that was catching the standard sales stuff, but the porn purveyors were able to bypass it) and in the first twenty minutes it caught 245 spam comments, every single one of them pornographic. How many times since my constitutional law class as...

Why did the MSM treat Barack Obama’s guided tour through the Middle East and Europe as a Major Event that required their nightly news anchors to fly to Jordan (CBS’ Katie Couric), Israel (ABC’s Charles Gibson) and Germany (NBC’s Brian Williams)? Believe it or not, John McCain talked them into it, reports The Associated Press: McCain raised the stakes for Obama's trip, "especially if he winds up going into two war zones,” said Paul Friedman, senior vice president of CBS News. “The question really needs to be posed: Is this type of coverage fair?” said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. “This...

Maxine Waters, the dumbest little commie in congress, wants to take over! No lie! Check out the latest "Geeks On Caffeine" cartoon and see what's on her hit list! Note: The author of this cartoon requests that you visit the web site and refrain from pasting the cartoon within the thread. Thanks a bunch!

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN: RUSSIAN NUKES IN CUBA! Published in July 23rd, 2008 For the kidlets out there and for the adults who tend to forget and/or prefer to ignore history’s uglies, this is not unprecedented. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080722180457.q0jlf4en&show_article=1. The Russians are “thinking” of basing long-range, nuclear-capable bombers in Cuba. (”Why?” would be a good question since Cuba is just a 90 mile raft trip away.) In October, 1962, the “Cuban Missile Crisis” had many Americans flocking to churches, building air raid shelters, and generally believing that Armageddon was at hand. The U.S.S.R. had surreptitiously built nuclear missile bases in Fidel...

Oh yes there’s trouble! Right here in Obamessiahland! Apparently, quite a few Democrats read up on their party’s nomination rules and they found something that I was saying last month. Barack Obama isn’t the nominee until there’s a vote in Denver at the convention. Those folks aren’t at all happy with the Exalted One and they, in the words of Malcolm Reynolds, aim to misbehave. In response to the grumblings, the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee and its current Secretary sent out an e-mail that basically says that the PUMAs (as the disgruntled ones call themselves) are a...

St. Louis—In what could be the biggest disaster since Hurricane Katrina, Budweiser—after being sold to Belgian based InBev—has immediately plans to change the formulation for their beer. The change comes to reflect a European style of beer, giving it a more “fruitier and nuttier taste,” a veritable Bud “spritzer.” The beer, known to the common working class man, will now appeal to the most erudite of Americans. The “King Of Beers” will indeed have a flavor made for a king, flushing years of perfection down the toilet.

It’s official: we do not favor the hysteria surrounding the Olsen twins. While Elle and Harper’s Bazaar proclaim one of the twins - Mary Kate as a style icon, we here at The Fashion Time consider her hippie-drippy style weird and ridiculous. The first thing you should know about Mary Kate – she loves full length dresses and skirts. Maxi never looks good on short women. She loves belts which make her waist appear too skinny, and cause her to look like a victim of anorexia. She loves fur and is always criticized by PETA. She loves weird vintage pieces...

The son of Egyptian and Palestinian parents who raised their son on a steady diet of anti-Western mantra, the Holy blessings of the act of martyrdom, and other radical Islamic virtues, Khadr was captured by U.S. troops far from his Toronto home.....

A note from Radarsite: Why do so many Jews vote Democratic? Recently, in response to Gary Fouse's explosive reports on antisemitism at UC Irvine, and some other related articles, this question came up. And it is a good one. Why are so many American Jews so avowedly left-wing, even at the expense of supporting Israel? How can this be? How can American Jews align themselves with the pro-Arab, anti-Israel, Muslim-appeasing left? How could American Jews be so heavily involved in anti-American organizations like the outrageous ACLU? How did this happen? While I certainly do not pretend to have any...

A friend of a friend produced this video, one of the best I’ve seen when it comes to documenting the anti-Americanism of the radical left. Complete with an upside down flag, spitting on an Iraq War veteran and calling him a rapist, it’s sure to make your blood boil. Good gosh, can we please rid our country of this kind of human garbage? You know, the Left would like to turn almost anything now into a hate crime. Do you think we could get the Dems in Congress to include US servicemen and women in their next piece of hate...

"Basically throwing me out on the street." Yup. Getting $750,000, as agreed in their prenup, is being "thrown out into the street." You remember Tricia Walsh-Smith--according to the AP, she vilified husband Philip Smith in a "furious YouTube video, which has attracted more than 3 million hits. She makes embarrassing claims about their intimate life and then calls his office to repeat those claims to a stunned assistant. "On the video, Walsh-Smith also goes through their wedding album, describing family members as 'bad,' 'evil' or 'nasty,' and expresses concern about eviction from the couple's luxury apartment." Her routine was so...

The phrase, “Let them eat cake,” is often attributed to Marie Antoinette, but some believe that Jean-Jacques Rousseau also used the phrase when writing about a French Aristocrat insensitive towards peasants who could not afford bread at the time. Whoever quoted the line is for history to figure out, but it would seem that this is the same bit of advice that Americans are getting from Congressional Democrats daily. While Americans struggle daily with the high price of gasoline and demand that Congressional Leaders and the President do something long lasting to address the problem in poll after poll. Congressional...

Gasoline is at over $4 a gallon in late summer of an election year. Once upon a time, incumbent congressmen and senators would have reacted to this about as well as Dracula to sunlight and crucifixes. And they would have rushed to get prices lower by the first Tuesday in November, so as to best protect their precious re-elections. But not this year. Democrats have stopped all attempts to increase domestic drilling with the ruthless efficiency of The Terminator. On its face, this would seem to be an insane and suicidal move. Even with a biased mainstream media giving them...

Many of us have taken to calling the media establishment the "MSM," or "Mainstream Media." But is that a fair and properly descriptive monicker to bestow upon them? A New York Times Blogger pondered that very question on July 21 in a "The Caucus" blog entry -- one that was a barely disguised effort to highlight and advertise the opinion of one Markos Moulitsas of the DailyKos. Still, regardless of the origin of the question, it is an interesting point to ponder. With the failing of newspapers country wide, with the ever falling audience that the big three TV networks...

THE OLD GRAY B*TCH: CENSORSHIP AT THE NEW YORK TIMES Published July 22nd, 2008 The New York Times, which last week printed an op-ed piece by Senator Obama on the Iraq War, has rejected an article on the same subject by Senator John McCain. Says editorial page editor, David Shipley, “It would be terrific to have an article from Sen. McCain that mirrors Sen. Obama’s piece.” (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/07/mccain-oped-not.html) As our Black brethren might say, “Say what???” Since the “paper of record,” “the old, gray lady,” has now become a senile, old, corrupt, censorial b*tch determined to dictate rather than report and...

A human rights activist and author says after years of a sagging birthrate, the U.S. has once again climbed above the all-important replacement birth rate. Steve Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, recently he completed work on his latest book -- Population Control: Real Costs, Illusionary Benefits. As previously reported by OneNewsNow, Mosher says due to years of voluntary birth control, the native European population is dying off. But he says fortunately that is not the case in the United States. "The good news is that we have now gotten back up to 2.1 children [per family], which is...

Liberalism in action, California style: The mayor and others are now admitting what the grand jury reported - that a majority of those on the streets are not homeless. The head of the city's homeless program, Dariush Kayhan, estimates that 50 to 75 percent of street people live in supportive housing. "We just warehouse addicts," said the grand jury's Stuart Smith. "Granted, it is a nicer place for them, but it doesn't address the problem." Almost three out of four people on the street live in supportive housing. The article explains that people who live in or move to San...

Apparently the Britney Spears/Kevin Federline divorce/custody battle is over, at least for a while. In the face of a trial that was scheduled to start in a month, Spears instead agreed to give Federline sole legal and physical custody of their two sons. I have received many letters over the past several months saying that I should take up Britney Spears' cause. After all, I publicly advocate shared parenting, and should do so whether the noncustodial parent is a father, as is usually the case, or is a mother, as in this case. A few people have told me that...

Karachi Kids by: Robin Beshear, July 21, 2008 California-born Muslim Imran Raza takes Americans behind the doors of the radical madrassa Jamia Binoria in his upcoming documentary, The Karachi Kids. The film focuses on the story of two American boys from Atlanta who were sent by their Islamic father to the Taliban-affiliated madrassa in Pakistan. The film takes place over a four-year time period, showing the progression of brainwashing that happens at these madrassas. At the beginning of the film, the boys are eager to go back to America and be with their families. By the end, they want to...

The Grinch nixes another holiday. What's next? Roast beast tax?Everyone down in Whoville liked tax holidays A LOT. But, the Grinch, who lived north of D.C., the Grinch he DID NOT! The Grinch hated tax breaks. Don't ask the reason. It took money from the quote-unquote "poor"... and cut cash for his sleazing. So the Grinch growled, his fingers nervously drumming. I must. I must keep this gas tax holiday from coming. Then a thought dawned and turned into a smile. The grin the Grinch shows when he's about to defile. I'll take this tax break and turn it inside...

In perhaps the most distasteful and contrarian effort yet, stories are surfacing through news agencies this morning of a private congressional talks that would actually raise the Federal Gas Tax by ...

It’s not so much that Barack Obama is so perfect a being that he lacks the sorts of foibles comedians seize upon to mock mercilessly, it’s more that jokemeisters don’t want to navigate a minefield of hypersensitivity that could destroy their careers. The fact that Obama has proven as prickly and prissy as any other earnest do-gooder liberal - columnist Kathleen Parker calls him a “purse-lipped church lady, clucking his tongue in disapproval of the chuckling masses” - makes it all the harder to tweak him without the joke blowing up in your face. That said, Los Angeles Times columnist...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sharon Young has designed and sold political buttons and T-shirts for about 15 years now. But maybe she’s been barking up the wrong tree. Her newest creation — campaign buttons for canines — is leading the pack. Patriotic Pets buttons come with slogans such as "Bark Obama for President" and "100 percent McCain9." "I’ve never seen anything like this," says Young, a Smithville, Mo., resident and founder of www.politicalshop.com. "I think it’s probably the biggest product line we’ve ever had. It’s at least a conversation piece. It’s the only one out there."

Left of left Muslim B. Hussein Obama has close ones who are anti-America per Little Green Footballs blogger Charles Johnson. One flies a Commie flag on his Harvard campus apartment room wall. Another is friend to Hamas and bloody colleagues. The first one has been exposed to the world. Sam Graham-Felsen, Obama campaign’s New Media Department official blogger, is the Commie lover. He flies the Red Banner as well as writes as a hard-core Marxist for Commie publications. Need say more? The second one has slid off the Obama official website. Hatem El-Hady was fund-raiser for Islam World Rule so-called...

Guest Column BUYER BEWARE! What You Would Get In a Vice-President Romney Hint: a demagogue who has already changed history) When Ann Coulter endorsed Mitt Romney she called the former Massachusetts governor "manifestly our best candidate" -- though the paper for which she is "chief legal correspondent," Human Events, ranked Romney the #8 RINO (Republican In Name Only) in the nation in 2005. GOP establishment pom pom girl Laura Ingraham and water boy Sean Hannity evangelize Romney on their radio shows as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Curiouser and curiouser! Romney the wallflower bats his eyelashes and coyly pretends...

I think St. Paul would have approved of Batman: The Dark Knight. The story is chock-full of christology and soteriology. That is, Batman represents salvation by faith and grace, succeeding in redeeming Gotham where the law failed. The Queen Consort saw it as good versus evil and therefore representative of all religions, but I disagreed vehemently (in a rare moment of self-control, though, I didn’t escalate the argument). Christianity is alone in having not just a way in which man is saved, nor in having a generic messiah who effects our salvation, but in ascribing our redemption to a particular...

Allow me to introduce someone who resides on MySpace from Chicago Il. You know, that social networking little place on the internet where children play and meet new friends……

Whoa! "Geeks On Caffeine" has gone over the top today! GOC takes on both Whoopi Goldberg and her recent comment that the "n-word" is both a "term of affection" and "a black word only!" Here's to hoping that the moderators will allow this cartoon to remain posted, because the message is great! A must read for today! NOTE: The author of the comic has requested that you visit his web site and refrain from pasting the cartoon within the thread. Thanks!

OLYMPICS PART TWO: SCANDALS AND CONTROVERSIES Published July 20th, 2008 Idealism is an admirable quality. The reality is, despite the idealistic dreams of the founder of the modern Olympiad and the current members of the IOC, the Games have never even approached the “equality of sports which are international and democratic” nor have they ever come close to their goal of contributing “to building a peaceful and better world.” Would that it were so, but it isn’t so. In fact, for many decades now, the Olympics have been a venue for nationalistic propaganda, racism, boycotts, drug use, terrorism, and just...

IF ACCOUNTANT Ulrika Hylander happens to get pregnant here, she would rather return home to Sweden. After all, she and her husband would together be entitled to more than a year's duration of paid parental leave there. Under existing laws here, she would get three months. Her husband, three days. The 39-year-old moved here last July when her husband was posted to work as a finance manager in a Swedish company. She mused: "It's tougher to have children here." Perhaps not for much longer. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew hinted at a dialogue on Wednesday that Singapore is reviewing its...

Fertility rate highest for 34 years Is there something in the water, or is England and Wales experiencing something of a baby boom? The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the average number of children per woman in England and Wales is now 1.91 – which is the highest number since 1973 when the average was two children for every woman. This is the sixth consecutive increase in fertility year on year since 2001, but it's still a long way off the 1960s peak when the average was 2.93 children per woman. And it's all age...

New York, July 18 (PTI) More babies were born in the United States last year than any other year in history, pointing to a potential start of a new baby boom like the one that followed World War II. A record number of 4,315,000 babies were born in the US last year, nearly the double of those born a century ago, the National Centre for Health Statistics said. "It's a record, and it's a particularly interesting record because the year it beats is 1957, which was the height of the baby boom," Robert Engelman, author of "More: Population, Nature and...

THE OLYMPICS PART ONE: BACKGROUND Published July 19th, 2008 As we approach the August 8th opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the XXIX Games of the Olympiad in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, it seems fitting to try to understand exactly what these “games” are. Their history may be examined on various websites, one of the best being http://www.musarium.com/kodak/olympics/olympichistory/. The Official Website of the Olympic Movement declares: “Olympism is a state of mind based on equality of sports which are international and democratic. It is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body,...

She was like an angel...