Free Republic

Almost everyone has heard the phrase, "a gift that keeps on giving"; a reference to a charitable undertaking that encourages beneficiaries in the direction of self-reliance & personal responsibility. Such a gift is likely to involve recognition of important aspects of human nature--a concept or concepts that encourage individuals to identify & employ actual talents--that inspire beneficiaries to solve real problems, rather than look to others to solve those problems for them.

Is it just me or does it seem to me that inthe last 10 years maybe longer that the overwhelming pressure in society is to become a "rental" based economy vs. an "ownership" economy? We see this everywhere, from local businessees offering leasing options for people wanting to buy items like TV's, Furniture, and Appliances, to propsals being made in government to collect "taxes" on miles drven on cars. Over a hundred years ago, Property taxes were the first step to establishing the idea that one doesn't even truly own the land under thier own feet that they may have...

Last night I stumbled across a collections of interviews conducted in the 1930s with blacks who had been born into slavery. They're kind of hard to read since they're written as the words were spoken with a heavy southern black accent. Most interesting to me is the lack of anger from these former slaves. In fact, some spoke quite fondly of their former owners. At worst, they spoke with indifference of their former owners. None of this matches the rage filled narrative of today with the endless claims of payment due.

One of the ongoing discussions on this website is the degree to which the government is you and me, the citizenry, us. Many people hold that when we pay taxes – for instance – we are really just paying back into society, of which we are a part. We are contributing to the coffers of the great American village. Taxation isn’t theft because who is taking the money? The government, which is elected by and composed of citizens. It’s all just a big circle. We’re just paying ourselves. I even had a neighbor tell me once that he actually “enjoyed”...

Sen. Ted Cruz, who recently announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential ticket, thinks, like many conservatives, global warming isn’t happening. As he said on Seth Meyers’ talk show on March 16, “Satellite data demonstrate for the last 17 years there’s been zero warming, none whatsoever.” It’s no surprise that Cruz picked that figure: 17 years ago was 1998, an “El Nino” year, when global temperatures were artificially elevated after which they returned to their normal gradually increasing rate. When you look at all the data published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (not just the cherry-picked data that...

Back before self-esteem spirit animals and pre-nup voodoo dominated the contents of free-form wedding vows, we had simple yet robust odes like ‘in sickness and in health’ and ‘for richer or poorer.’ The true magic of those words lies in their claim that the deepest reserves of sacrificial love can still be tapped when life’s trials are the most daunting. But there is another angle to consider when ‘for richer or poorer’ is weighed and measured in light of modern data. When it comes to viewing marriage as a kind of lottery ticket, richer stands out as a safe bet....

Our kids, at least many of them, are not doing very well. The reason, writes Harvard professor Robert Putnam in his just-published "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis," is the "two-tier pattern of family structure" that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and continues to prevail today. Starting in the late 1960s, rates of divorce, unmarried births and single parenthood rose sharply among all segments of society. About a decade later, they fell and leveled off among the college-educated, who almost entirely raise their kids in Ozzie-and-Harriet style families today (except that Mom usually works outside the home). Among...

When was the last time anyone heard a sermon that condemned the evils of fornication, or adultery, or cohabitation, or divorce, or bearing children outside wedlock (let alone homosexuality)? Controlling these sins is a core Christian value. At one time a preacher could be expected to devote extended attention to these sins. And he could be expected to condemn them unequivocally. Yet today, even as the social and economic fallout from precisely these practices becomes ever more glaring and serious, pastors and priests seem ever more determined to avoid discussing them.Of course, the dowdy old parson long ago became the...

Perhaps the decisive factors in combating poverty and enabling upward mobility were not economic but cultural — the habits, mores and dispositions that equip individuals to take advantage of opportunities. This was dismaying because governments know how to alter incentives and remove barriers but not how to manipulate culture. The assumption that the condition of the poor must improve as macroeconomic conditions improve was to be refuted by a deepened understanding of the crucial role of the family as the primary transmitter of the social capital essential for self-reliance and betterment. Family structure is the primary predictor of social outcomes,...

Morality may be ignored, but it never ceases to provide the foundation and guidelines for a healthy society. “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” —John Adams (1735 - 1826), second President of the U.S.A. It’s hard to consider the success of the book and film “Fifty Shades of Grey” without...

Emojis have become a cultural phenomenon, and now you can bring the fun to a face near you.

I recently saw the end of some TV show where a band called Madison Rising did a great new rendition to the Star Spangled Banner. As a muscian and a rocker it touch me and I just want to share it with all Patriots.

.....we are taking a brief hiatus from our series on the moral law to talk with one of my favorite authors, Stella Morabito, about an article she published in The Federalist, “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Vomitorium.” This is a striking essay worthy of your time and attention. Regular readers will recognize Stella’s name from the HB. She appears regularly in the Heidelquotes. She’s widely published (e.g., in The Federalist, The Washington Examiner, and The American Thinker). She’s been an intelligence analyst, studying aspects of Russian and Soviet politics including communist media and propaganda. She’s a...

Allysha Tomlin may not have been the intended targeted when she was shot to death in Superior Township early Sunday morning, investigators said Tuesday. David Gordon. Police say the 23-year-old was killed when a man she was in a relationship with, 20-year-old David Gordon, shot up her apartment trying to hit Tomlin's on-again-off-again boyfriend and the father of her 2-year-old twins. Gordon was arraigned on an open murder charge, as well as two weapons-related felonies, at the 14A-1 District Court Tuesday, according to police. Officials originally anticipated the arraignment was going to take place Wednesday, when a second person believed...

I know this thread and topic is going to go over like a lead balloon but I have to say it. The constant, prevalent and gruesome pro-life themed articles are really becoming a nuisance to this long time reader and occasional poster. This is not a call for a pro-choice viewpoint, I'm not advocating that personally and realize that will, thankfully, never happen here. However there becomes a point when preaching to the choir about the horrors of abortion in heinous detail either visually or in writing just becomes disgusting. I frequent this site overnight and scanning from top to...

The Vatican will offer homeless people in Rome not only showers but also haircuts and shaves when new facilities open next month, the head of Pope Francis' charity office said. The Vatican announced last year that it would provide shower facilities in St Peter's Square for homeless people. Bishop Konrad Krajewski told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire on Thursday that it would also offer haircuts and shaves when the services start on Feb. 16 in an area under the colonnade of the square. Krajewski, whose official title is the pope's almoner, said barbers and hairdressers would volunteer their services on...

More at Reaganite Republican...

Photographer Eliot Dudik captures breathtaking images in a beautiful region of South Carolina known as the “Lowcountry”.

How do you think 2015 will be for you? If you’re typical, you’ll be pessimistic; and, if you’re typical, you’ll be wrong. Only 21 percent of Americans agree with the proposition that “life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us” — 76 percent disagree. Well, barring some unforeseeable calamity — what Nassim Taleb would call a “black swan,” or Donald Rumsfeld an “unknown unknown” — the 76 percent are mistaken. The next generation of Americans will lead healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives than the present one. That sentence could have been written at any...

""Manspread" - the habit some male NY subway riders have of spreading their legs beyond the confine of their hips to take up two, or even three, seats - is a source of increasing irritation for polite riders concerned about the comfort of others."