Free Republic

The Kremlin promised entertainment.Western analysts feared Vladimir Putin would declare another war.But the Russian president’s more than two-hour-long address on Thursday delivered on neither expectation, though Putin presented Russians with a vision of the future that alternated between nuclear saber-rattling and grand social promises. ###Putin, who cut a relaxed figure, also called for the safeguarding of “traditional family values.”“We see what is happening in some countries where moral norms and family institutions are deliberately being destroyed, pushing entire peoples to extinction and degeneration,” he said. “We choose life.”

CNN analyst Van Jones opined that "coming into Labor Day weekend, you are starting to see the beginnings of what could be a blue wave. The disastrous Afghanistan exit, runaway inflation, the growing ineffectiveness of the covid vaccines, and murder rates not seen since the 1990s are just fading memories. Democrat voters will rally to vote for the Party's traditional values—more abortions, more income redistribution, higher taxes, LGBTQ rights, and clean energy. Don't be surprised when you see a bigger Democrat majority in the House and Senate after the votes are counted in November." He went on to dismiss complaints...

"The rate of abortions in Russia steadily goes down, yet it remains rather high," said Deputy Minister of Public Health of the Russian Federation, Mr. Oleg Salagai. "The incessant anti-abortion efforts are providing for the decline of the abortion rate in our country," said the Deputy Minister. In the course of the past year, it has been reduced by nearly 10%. The Russian Orthodox Church devotes much energy to the defense of motherhood and childhood, to anti-abortion education and consulting. According to the Ministry of the Public Health official, in the year 2021, more than one in every five women...

The time to choose has arrived. Americans can decide they don’t want to act. They can sit at home, receiving small doles of their own future money, loaned out by a government whose credit rating was downgraded last summer. The stimulus checks may buffer the effects of social control exacted by power-drunk statists who cover up nursing home deaths in the name of emergency powers. The relaxing of mask mandates may afford some return to normalcy for Americans locked inside for the last twelve months. However, any such relaxation of those mandates is bound to produce a short-lived euphoria that...

Several of the 2020 Democratic primary candidates favored the abolishment of the Electoral College. Or, as once-confident candidate Elizabeth Warren put it, "I plan to be the last American president to be elected by the Electoral College." Furor over the Electoral College among the left arose from the 2000 and 2016 elections. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, respectively, won the popular votes. But, like three earlier presidents, they lost the Electoral College voting -- and with it the presidency. The Founding Fathers saw a purpose in the Electoral College. It ensured that small, rural states would retain importance in national...

When she first welcomed British 'morality' campaigner Mary Whitehouse to her home town of St Louis, Missouri, in December 1972, America's own self-appointed moral guardian, Phyllis Schlafly, might have wondered whether she was looking at a mirror image of herself. Both favouring twin-sets, the two women also sported stiffly lacquered hairstyles — but the similarities between them went far beyond their prim appearance. Middle-aged matrons they might have been, but both were experts at — and relished — riling their opponents. Hugh Carleton-Greene, the BBC's director-general between 1960 and 1969, was so often provoked by Whitehouse that he bought a...

Anti-homosexual bakery now open in Kemerovo, Russia. Only people supporting traditional marriage are allowed in the store.An anti-homosexual bakery has been opened in Kemerovo, Russia. Same-sex couples are not allowed to be customers there. The owners call the business,“Bread from a Russian Oven, by the Ipatov Brothers”. One of the owners of the bakery, Anton Ipatov, says that so far he has heard only praise about his business. "If there is a fire on the ship, and everyone else is just going to bars and getting drunk, quietly minding their own business, then everyone will burn on that ship", explains...

Too few Americans are qualified for the jobs available. Male working-age labor-force participation is at Depression-era lows. Opioid abuse is widespread. Homicidal violence plagues inner cities. Almost half of all children are born out of wedlock, and even more are raised by single mothers. Many college students lack basic skills, and high school students rank below those from two dozen other countries. The causes of these phenomena are multiple and complex, but implicated in these and other maladies is the breakdown of the country’s bourgeois culture. That culture laid out the script we all were supposed to follow: Get married...

RUSH: What essentially happened here at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn, a couple of professors, one of them working at the University of Pennsylvania, the other one University of San Diego, wrote an op-ed suggesting that what might be needed in the United States is a return to some of the nation’s values and moralities of the 1950s. And what happened after that op-ed ran is the story. “To the list of forbidden ideas on American college campuses, add ‘bourgeois norms.'” In other words, the old advisories of hard work, self-discipline, marriage, respect for authority. When people talk about going...

Pope Francis leads the synod of bishops in Paul VI's hall at the Vatican October 6, 2014. Pope Francis opened a global Roman Catholic assembly on Sunday showing his apparent irritation with Church leaders who have waged a sometimes bitter public battle between progressives and conservatives on family issues. A recently released midterm report from the Synod of Bishops on the family, which defended the traditional definition of marriage but used positive language towards same-sex couples in some situations, has garnered controversy among some bishops who say it does not accurately reflect the assembly's views. "In regard to homosexuality, there...

OSCOW, March 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Representatives of French public and the Catholic Christian Church who call for protection of traditional family will hold consultations with spiritual leaders of different religions in the Russian capital of Moscow and will deliver speeches in the Russian Parliament. The French delegation will arrive in Russia on Monday to stay in the country until April 4, a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Council of Europe told ITAR-TASS. “The leadership of organization Manif pour Tous are among our guests. The organization has gathered hundreds of thousands of demonstrators against same-sex marriages and adoption of...

The Russian president is positioning himself as the world's leading defender of traditional values. Vladimir Putin is calling on the conservatives of the world to unite—behind him. The Kremlin leader's full-throated defense of Russia's "traditional values" and his derision of the West's "genderless and infertile" liberalism in his annual state-of-the-nation address last week was just the latest example of Putin attempting to place himself at the vanguard of a new "Conservative International."

Vladimir Putin sought to cast Russia as the moral arbiter of the world on Thursday, as he hit out at America’s “non-traditional values” and its influence across the world. In an annual state of the nation address, the 61-year-old Russian president said his country did not aspire to be “some kind of superpower”. “We do not infringe on anyone’s interests, we do not force our patronage on anyone, or try to teach anyone how to live,” he said. His comments amounted to an oblique rebuttal to the growing international movement against Russia’s restrictive laws on homosexuality. ... Mr Putin defended...

We ought to think about the cultural roots of the budget crisis in Washington. The political left says the shutdown is all about an ideological tantrum of a handful of Republicans. Certainly, tea partiers have an ideology and vision about what ground rules would produce a more prosperous, freer and fairer America. But let's be honest. The gentleman in the White House, our president, is as hard core in his ideological dispositions as any tea partier. Each side believes America would be better off if it were run according to their vision. What's the crucial difference? As a tea partier,...

"Yesterday I apologized for offending many people around the world. Today I am repeating that apology," ... "Through my entire life I have always respected every person I've met, including gays and their families, without any distinction. I've never discriminated against anyone." ... "I have heard the countless reactions around the world to my words, which have depressed and saddened me," ... "It is clear that I have a lot to learn about the lively debate concerning the evolution of the family. In the coming weeks, I pledge to meet representatives of the group that best represent the evolution of...

“I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.” – R.C. Sproul I was delighted to speak on Sunday at Faith Christian Center in Arlington, Texas. I joined that community of believers in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the church’s affiliated school, St. Paul’s Preparatory Academy. The topic of my discussion was “How to Raise Christian Children in Today’s Culture.” As I was preparing my remarks it occurred to me that raising children to both love and faithfully serve the Lord and Creator of the...

Like so many normal Americans, I recently discovered twerking, and true to the intent of its practitioners, it blew my bourgeois mind. No, not because of its transgressive rejection of traditional values like modesty and dignity but because, until then, I had always thought sexuality was supposed to be sexy. The tiresome antics of former Disney princess Miley Cyrus exemplifies a larger phenomenon. Liberalism, in our culture and in our politics, is figuratively twerking all normal Americans. And it is up to us to fight back. Regular authoritarians are content to simply be obeyed; they don’t care what you think...

The re-election of President Obama has left most conservatives in a very pessimistic frame of mind. How could the majority of voters not see that Obama had failed to prevent ongoing economic stagnation and the threat of bankruptcy? How could they endorse additional layer upon additional layer of bureaucratic intervention when the economic results were so awful? Donald J. Devine was Ronald Reagan's pick to head the Office of Personnel Management and is today vice chair of the American Conservative Union. You might see him as the personification of the pessimistic frame of mind. Several years ago, he approached me...

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of this great nation, we find ourselves increasingly overwhelmed by political, judicial, and even church leaders who are dragging her down into an abyss like we have never seen before. In our darkest moments as a nation, we have always relied on our moral foundation to keep us from falling too far. Although past leaders may have personally failed both morally and ethically, our foundation was solid. But now, leaders are weaving their own moral and ethical blindness into the laws of the land. They are forsaking our moral foundation by rejecting God's...

This past month has been eventful and unusual. My sister Kathy and I spent a weekend cleaning out our mother's home in order to rent it out, and two weeks later we both flew to Washington to surprise our dad for his 70th birthday. These two events have provided a backdrop for my reflection here on living a full life, making the most of what you have and moving forward rather than focusing on the past. Our mother has survived two bouts with cancer and had, just a few years ago, recovered enough to move from nursing home to assisted...