Free Republic

Last week, during a bit of banter on Fox News, my colleague Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something I’d all but forgotten. Last September, during his address to Congress on health care, Barack Obama declared: “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” Dream on. The monstrous mountain of toxic pustules sprouting from greasy boils metastasizing from malign carbuncles that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve is not the last word in “health” “care,” but the first. It ensures that this is all we’ll be talking about, now and...

The Origins of ObamismI do not think it will be easy to delay Obamism. It is not just that both houses of Congress are under liberal leadership with ample majorities, with a White House and captive media egging them on. The problem is that now the entire engine of the federal government is harnessed in the most unapologetic way to pushing through a far left agenda. There is no shame, no hesitancy in using the full powers of the state.How does that work out? Without qualification (remember we are in a new age of transparency and ethical reform) votes are...

Why attack the productive classes who want to be rich? There is class warfare going on in this country — but it’s not against the established rich. It’s against those who are trying to become wealthy. President Obama has declared that those who make over $200,000 will pay higher income taxes. Caps on payroll taxes are supposed to come off as well for the upper class. Envisioned estate taxes will take 45 percent of individual inheritances valued over $3.5 million. Many states have also hiked their income taxes on the upper brackets. Again, most of those targeted are not...

The Great Debate Oddly Is Not OverWe are still in a great public debate between capitalism and socialism, and individual freedom versus statism — odd since hundreds of millions worldwide have escaped poverty the last 30 years due to the spread of Western-inspired free markets.Many choose sides in the debate based on their own predicaments. Sometimes the more independent and secure who have thrived under capitalism promote it, the more dependent who have not - detest it.At other times the realist mind is opposed to the idealist.  And we can also envision the split as an age-old dichotomy between the...

Well they did it. Though I, for one, am not surprised. Abuse of power is addicting and Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi (to name but a few) don't care one whit for the Constitution or the wishes of the people they serve. They care about consolidation of power. And they are determined to have it. One way or another. So, Harry Reid finally succeeded in buying his sixty Democrat votes for the Health Care bill that a majority of Americans do not support. According to Rasmussen: "Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters are now against the health care plan working its way...

The first year of the Obama administration is almost in the books, and pundits across the political spectrum are assessing its accomplishments. Any assessment must be placed in context of the overall political and class balance of forces, in Congress and within the multi-class, socially diverse coalition that carried Obama to the White House. The success, breadth and extent of President Obama’s new policy direction depend in particular on the strength and unity of the people’s forces and their ability to gain allies and mobilize at the grassroots and influence Congress. The Obama administration must work with and unite a...

It wasn’t so long ago that Barack Obama’s speeches were being hailed as “extraordinary” “rhetorical magic” (Joe Klein in Time) that should be “required reading in classrooms” (Bob Herbert in the New York Times). Pity the poor grade-schoolers who have to be on the bus at 5 a.m. for a daylong slog through the 4,000-word sludge of the president’s Nobel thank you. Rich Lowry, my boss at National Review, writes that Obama has become a “crashingly banal” bore. The good news is that he “is not nearly as dull as, say, Herman van Rompuy.” Who? Oh, come on. Herman van...

The USA didn’t participate in Kyoto because Al Gore signed an agreement allowing the USA to be bound by carbon dioxide emission cuts, but not China and India–this despite a unanimous vote in the US Senate beforehand opposing such a proposal.  You see, the impossibility of ratification didn’t matter to Clinton/Gore. What mattered was looking good in the eyes of certain international elites. Now, apparently, everything old is new again. China and India refuse to permit any on site international oversight of their emissions releases, but the beat goes on anyway. From the story: China and other major emerging economies will...

The effort to get same sex marriage on the California ballot in 2010 took a hit Monday. Rick Jacbos, the leader of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign just told us that after spending more than $200,000 on "qualitative research" into the issue in California that "We do not see a path to victory." So, the Courage Campaign sent a note to its supporters Monday calling for "for more research and time to change hearts and minds before returning to the ballot." Lambda Legal, a LGBT legal organization, said largely the same thing Monday. Jacobs told us that the research -- led...

Even in the indoctrination of my university experience, I have always sensed that there was and is something wrong with the socialist/statist form of charity, which is illustrated ironically in the picture below: Although the picture is comical, it is also deadly serious, for this is exactly what statist charity in essence represents. In the name of some Robin Hood sort of politics, the state robs the productive members of society, destroys wealth, and then has the audacity to call it "charity" or redistributive politics. If you disagree with such a system (I vehemently do), you are labeled as a...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IDRSkBOuuc

Student expelled for having unloaded shotguns in truck By RYAN OLSON - Staff Writer Posted: 11/20/2009 12:09:32 AM PST WILLOWS -- The Willows Unified School District board of trustees has expelled a 16-year-old for having unloaded shotguns in his pickup parked just off the Willows High School campus. The board voted 4-0 Thursday to expel junior Gary Tudesko after the weapons were discovered via scent-sniffing dogs on Oct. 26. Board Vice President Alex Parisio abstained from the discussion and vote because he is related to Tudesko's family. Expulsion hearings are normally held in closed sessions, but affected students and their...

The historically famous crossing of the River Rubicon, just north of San Marino in Northern Italy, is not much remembered as the flashpoint where Caesar touched off civil war in 49 B.C. Instead, it is thought of by most people as a point in a course of action from which there is simply no return. We think it is time for America to recognize that such a pivotal point in our American democracy may well be at hand. President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid apparently believe the time is ripe to deliver to the political left the...

I was just reading one of my daughters "history" books called, "Call to Freedom". (credit is given to "CNNfyi.com" so I knew this was going to spell trouble.) In a chapter called "The Great Society", the book brags about LBJ's accomplishments in poverty. Here's a quote..."Partly because of Johnson's Great Society, poverty in the US decreased. Overall unemployment levels stayed low and the percentage of Americans living below the poverty level dropped to about 12% by 1969. Americans' income levels rose more during the 1960's than they had during the prosperous years of the 1950's". There are chapters devoted to...

History Unfolding I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels,...

[...]How will this health care reform define us as a nation and as a people? The answer must include: 1.) A statement disallowing taxpayer dollars to fund abortions and, necessarily connected to this prohibition, embryonic stem-cell destruction. 2.) A statement forbidding the practice of euthanasia. 3.) Allowing the federal conscience laws to stand. [...]There are, at least, three versions of House and Senate bills being worked on, and none are in their final form. This means that Catholics must continue to monitor the process as it goes forward and contact their representatives in Washington, D.C., with their thoughts. It is...

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

The Carter years saw the Misery Index, the combination of the inflation rate with the unemployment rate. Here is the Misery Map, each state's unemployment rate and mortgage foreclosure rate. http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/gapmap/ Note that the unemployment figures for Virginia are somewhat misleading. The counties around Washington DC are booming as the Democrats expand the scope of the Federal Government. The employment picture in the rest of Virginia tends to mirror the 10% unemployment in neighboring states

The economic crisis of the past year, centered as it has been in the financial sector that lies at the heart of American capitalism, is bound to leave some lasting marks. Financial regulation, the role of large banks, and the relationships between the government and key players in the market will never be the same.More important, however, are the ways in which public attitudes about our system might change. The nature of the crisis, and of the government's response, now threaten to undermine the public's sense of the fairness, justice, and legitimacy of democratic capitalism. By allowing the conditions that...

<p>I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.</p> <p>I made a first post in the general section yesterday and would like to see what sort of opinions I can find here amongst those who perhaps have a more relogiously attuned perspective.</p>

THR: What's the last movie you saw? The last book you read? Moore: A Norwegian film called "Troubled Water." Best drama I've seen this year. The last book was "The Coming Insurrection" (a French leftist call-to-arms manifesto that has been labeled a "manual for terrorism" by the French government). I'm also reading the daily newspaper religiously, considering how there won't be any to read a year from now.

.....We wear such amazingly effective political blinders, don’t we? It’s always "the city," "the county," "the state," or "the country," that pays for what we want and heels to our demands. Never Bob the struggling family man. Never Jill the single mom. Never anyone we know. Never anyone we have to explain ourselves to. Such is the cold, impersonal ugliness of statism, and the subtle, de-humanizing way in which it works itself into our consciousness. Statists never stop to think about the individuals they harm because, politically speaking, individuals either don’t matter to them or else escape their notice. They...

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying a wonderful holiday weekend. I am new here and posting to get your thoughts on a piece that I have written recently regarding my take on the state of the nation from a historic and biblically submissive perspective. If this is your cup of tea, I would greatly appreciate your checking out the following excerpt and then, if you like, click on the accompanying link to continue reading and post your thoughts. I greatly appreciate any thoughts or feedback that you might provide. Thanks for your time and kind consideration! Here is...

The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for "mission-critical" jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday. The numbers also reflect the Obama administration's intent to take on several enormous challenges, including the repair of the financial sector, fighting two wars, and addressing climate change. "It has to win the war for talent in order to win the multiple wars it's fighting for the American people," said Max Stier, president and chief...

Those of us who oppose a massive increase in the role the national government plays in health care ("ObamaCare") do so because we fear the immense and unsustainable national debt it would incur and because we are certain that medical care in America would deteriorate. But there is a bigger reason most of us oppose it: We believe that the bigger the government becomes, the smaller the individual citizen becomes. Here are five reasons why bigger government makes less impressive people. 1. People who are able to take care of themselves and do so are generally better than people who...

This is a MUST WATCH 13min video by a brilliant Bill Whittle No transcript yet.

Having strong libertarian tendencies, I pay special attention to issues which present a reasonably good choice between libertarianism and statism – - libertarianism being, in essence, a philosophy that favors individual liberty, less government, and low taxes, and statism being the belief in better living through bigger government. While it seems to me that at least a strong plurality and probably a majority of Americans still hold to libertarian principles, our lives are controlled by the incessant, internecine “liberal-versus-conservative,” “Democrat-versus-Republican” political battles in which libertarian values are either ignored or honored only for show. How can it be, I lament,...

Healthcare is a personal service, not a group service such as National Defense, Law Enforcement, and Fire Suppression. Each of those entities do not serve the individual, they serve the community as a whole. The police are under no obligation to protect you personally; if you need that, you need to hire someone. Fire departments suppress fire for the good of the area; if your building needs to be sacrificed so be it. Should you need better protection, again, you need to have your own equipment and staff. The Armed Forces? Well, 9/11 should tell you that even with their...

August 26, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Obama and ‘Redistributive Change’Forget the recession and the “uninsured.” Obama has bigger fish to fry. By Victor Davis Hanson The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense. Why squander public approval by running up astronomical deficits in a time of pre-existing staggering national debt? Why polarize opponents after promising bipartisan transcendence? Why create vast new programs when the efficacy of big government is already seen as dubious? But that is exactly the wrong way to look at these first seven months of Obamist policy-making. Take increased federal spending and the...

Forget the recession and the "uninsured." Obama has bigger fish to fry.If we believe that Obama is trying to end the recession or fix the health-care system, we’ll miss his real agenda. The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense. Why squander public approval by running up astronomical deficits in a time of pre-existing staggering national debt? Why polarize opponents after promising bipartisan transcendence? Why create vast new programs when the efficacy of big government is already seen as dubious? But that is exactly the wrong way to look at these first seven months of...

Many Americans appear to be awakening from their slumber of apathy as government forces are making their move for total control of our lives. Massive TEA Party protests on April 15th, followed by more than 1000 again on Independence Day, show a growing movement of concerned, dedicated Americans. But there is a major component missing from those protests. ... Meanwhile,as thousands attend the TEA Parties and protest the Federal Reserve, taxes, and out of control federal government, inside their local city halls, international forces are busy turning the communities into little soviets. ... what we face is not a bunch...

Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio State campus. Wednesday, August 12, 2009. Senator Sherrod Brown's plan was well organized. Last minute announcements. Play word games. Stack the house so it looks like more support for you than them. Brown learned well from the Obama Administration. What Brown held was not, according to his staffers, a town hall meeting, but instead a health care "roundtable." Apparently that makes a difference. Apparently so that his office staff could lie, without really lying, to constituents who called to ask if he would be holding any town hall meetings. No, they said. No town hall meetings....

It is fascinating to watch Americans who are satisfied with their health care try again and again to get their elected representatives to hear their objections to America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, the bill that will “reform” America’s health care system. The message they are sending is strong enough that even the dimmest bulb in Congress and the administration ought to be able to understand it: “We don’t like the bill, so pay attention and stop trying to pass it.” Not only do a majority of Americans not like provisions of this bill, but they also don’t like...

Suddenly, a RevolutionWhy public disagreement with the Obama administration rapidly became fury. The approval ratings on nearly every one of the President’s key policy initiatives—cap-and-trade, health care overhaul, government take over of industry and finance, deficit spending, stimulus—are already less than half of polled voters. Obama’s own popularity has fallen dramatically and hovers near fifty percent. A number of well-publicized town meetings have erupted in shouting, as administration and congressional representatives try, often in condescending fashion, to explain the Obama agenda. The Republicans—written off just a few weeks ago as an obsolete party headed for oblivion—are now often polling...

Throughout the course of American history people have prospered when government expansion and regulatory polices have been kept in check. On the national level during the 20th century this was evident during the administrations of Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) — both drastically cut taxes, defended the private sector, curtailed the size and scope of government, and witnessed unprecedented economic booms. Conversely, people have suffered during administrations like Jimmy Carter’s (1977-1981) where taxes and regulations were rampant. In other words, freedom is profitable but progressivism, or “liberalism” as it is known today, is not. And this appears to...

Within the world of the far left, individuals have no value. Only the state matters. That is why the modern American statist devalues individual achievement and wealth. If, as in the socialist world of Marx, Engels, and Adolf Hitler (yes, Hitler, as I will explain later), God does not exist and humans have no souls, then the state determines the value of a human life. This philosophy leads to an ominous conclusion. In my never-ending quest to understand the statist mind, I have attempted to use the principles of objective observation, or phenomenology, to analyze their intentions based on their...

The Las Vegas Review Journal recently reported on the trial of Robert Kahre, a guy accused of setting up a scheme to pay employees in gold coins so that they may tell the IRS they were paid by the coin's nominal, face value, rather than what that gold is actually worth when converted into dollars. Not surprisingly, the story attracted many angry commenters, who hate the IRS and who hate paper currency. Now, in a case that should once again test the (established) privacy rights of web commenters, the newspaper has be subpoenad for their info. And it's not just...

Depending upon whom you ask, the U.S. either has the best health care in the world, or really bad health care. The two main complaints are that health care is too expensive, and that too many Americans don’t have health insurance, and therefore lack access to adequate care. Both issues must be considered in perspective. Read the rest at Annuit Coeptis

Why a website defending government? Because for decades, conservatives have been attacking government and not enough has been done to defend it. Ever since Ronald Reagan declared in 1981 that "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem," Republicans have been waging a political war against this institution. Their core message: the free market is good and government is bad.

It's crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It's even crazier to do it by August. Yet that is what some members of Congress presume to do. They intend, as the New York Times puts it, "to reinvent the nation's health care system".Let that sink in. A handful of people who probably never even ran a small business actually think they can reinvent the health care system. Politicians and bureaucrats clearly have no idea how complicated markets are. Every day people make countless tradeoffs, in all areas of life, based...

It’s worth recalling that when the Founding Fathers led the American colonists in revolt against British oppression, they weren’t rebelling against torture on the rack or being chained in galleys or having to let aristocrats deflower their daughters. They were rebelling against taxes. To them, having to pay duties they hadn’t voted for themselves was a tyrannical taking of property—theft—and, in true Lockean fashion, they concluded that since government exists to protect life, liberty, and property, a regime that does the opposite renders itself illegitimate. What would they make, then, of today’s New York City, where 1.2 percent of the...

There is only one good thing about the Obama administration's attempts to nationalize most health care and to begin to control Americans' energy consumption through cap-and-trade: clarity about the left. These attempts are enabling more and more Americans to understand the thinking and therefore the danger of the left. The left has its first president -- with the possible exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- and for the first time controls the Democratic Party and both houses of Congress. In the name of compassion for the sick and the poor and in the name of preventing worldwide environmental catastrophe, it...

You don’t produce wool by skinning the sheep. But that seems to be the present strategy to get small businesses to begin hiring, buying, and expanding. There is apparent surprise among Obamians that unemployment has soared the last six months. The much-anticipated stimulus sputtered, and there is a sense of bewilderment in the administration about why joblessness and economic growth are stagnant after the government injected trillions of dollars into the system. Perhaps the Obama administration needs to remember the psychology of business. After the shock of the September meltdowns, the natural reaction of anyone whose livelihood relied directly on...

Next month, as the class of 2013 moves into the dorms, Wisconsin's Beloit College will release its annual "Mindset List." The list is that much-forwarded email that always makes you feel old--the one that includes horrifying factoids like, "for today's college freshmen, GPS navigation systems have always been available," and, "there has always been Pearl Jam." More horrifying still, soon they'll all be able to vote. The generation born from the late 1970s to the early '90s has been called "Gen Y," "GenNext," and "the Millennials." Its name is Legion. But whatever name they go by, and despite their image...

On the eve of the celebration of the birth of the United States, Oleg Atbashian looks at our history through the competing lenses of progressivism and progress. Refusing to get bogged down in the merits of relativity, he finds freedom where equality fears to tread. Excuse me while I question your patriotism, progressive comrades. The Fourth of July is coming and you will not be celebrating it — not with the same thoughts and emotions as the rest of your countrymen. If you have been undermining this country for most of the year, why should this day be different?A critical...

Citing laws that govern vocational schools, like those for hairdressers and truck drivers, regulators have begun to require licenses for yoga schools that train instructors, with all the fees, inspections and paperwork that entails. While confrontations have played out differently in different states, threats of shutdowns and fines have, in some cases, been met with accusations of power grabs and religious infringement — disputes that seem far removed from the meditative world yoga calls to mind. In April, New York State sent letters to about 80 schools to warn them to suspend teacher training programs immediately or risk fines of...

Wal-Mart, the company the left loves to hate, has crawled in bed with Obama Recent press reports, including a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, have the news that Wal-Mart has signed a letter to President Obama endorsing the idea of an “employer mandate” – a requirement that employers offer health insurance to their employees.Why would Wal-Mart – the nation’s largest employer – endorse such an idea?Simple: It would cripple many of their competitors. (Source: Heritage Foundation) Back in the 80's and early 90's Wal-Mart and Microsoft prided themselves on staying far away from politics: No lobbyists and no...

with an observation from Hilaire Belloc and an admonition from Friedrich Hayek A robust challenge to Obama's health care plan appears ... in the Times. Written by a Harvard professor. Let me start with the observation from Hilaire Belloc. In his book The Servile State, Belloc writes that “The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.”I rather doubt that President Obama or any of his inner circle is a student of Hilaire Belloc. But they have demonstrated again and again their intuitive grasp of Belloc’s insight. If only, they reason, they can turn over...

We should remember the concept of God-given rights when our elected representatives pas - without reading it - a massive, 1500-page bill that will control virtually every aspect of our daily lives. The House of Representatives rushed to pass this bill, which grants wide powers to the President.

Why not legalize same-sex marriage? Who could it possibly hurt? Children and the rest of society. That’s the conclusion of David Blankenhorn, who is anything but an anti-gay “bigot.” He is a life-long, pro-gay, liberal democrat who disagrees with the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual behavior. Despite this, Blankenhorn makes a powerful case against Same-Sex marriage in his book, The Future of Marriage. He writes, “Across history and cultures . . . marriage’s single most fundamental idea is that every child needs a mother and a father. Changing marriage to accommodate same-sex couples would nullify this principle in culture and in...