Free Republic

Americans seem to have become accustomed to the casual use of the “F” word, with celebrities tracking, proudly, the number of times they “drop the “f” bomb” in public. The frequent use of the “f” word has coarsened our public discourse. But, many of our most emblematic American values, the very characteristics that shape our national character and contribute to American exceptionalism, have been given a bad rep by liberals because they, too, are “F” words. Freedom from an overly intrusive government that thinks that only government knows what is best for Americans. Democrats prefer to support over-expansive government intrusiveness...

Sen. Rick Santorum has no viable path to victory and brings no new issues or ideas to the table. He no longer serves a purpose, or has a justification to remain in the race. Santorum has no viable claim that he is more conservative or more electable than Gingrich. He has no viable claim that he will be better in raising money, in organization, or would do a better job as president. There is simply no path for him. Further — despite winning Iowa, Santorum lost badly in NH and SC, and has no means to complete in FL. It...

The Senate confirmed McFaul as ambassador on December 17, 2011. Transcript below. NPR: Let's say Vladimir Putin wins the election in March and remains in power in Russia. Where are we in these countries, I mean in this evolution towards democracy you describe? MCFAUL: We're, you know, two decades in. I'm not going to give grades about, oh, how democratic or not it is, but most certainly this system is not the totalitarian dictatorship of the Soviet Union. Let's be very clear about that. Individual rights have progressed far. Choice is greater than it was before. And maybe not as...

.....[William]Bennett introduces The Book of Man:Readings on the Path to Manhood with tidings of oy. [snip] JamesFreemanClarke (1810–1888), an American theologian and essayist, limned the distinctions between true and false manliness. His essay is a particularly interesting glimpse of the 19th-century ideal, since 20th-century feminism has worked so hard to persuade us that the “patriarchy” taught men to be tyrants and emotional stiffs. "[Manliness]expresses the qualities which go to make a perfect man — truth, courage, conscience, freedom, energy, self-possession, self-control. But it does not exclude gentleness, tenderness, compassion, modesty. A man is not less manly, but more so, because...

Rick Perry told worshipers at the First Wesleyan Church here Sunday morning that they should disregard “the politically correct police” who say the separation of church and state means faith has no place in public life. “As a matter of fact, you are Biblically charged to take your values into the public arena,” the Texas governor told 90 worshipers. “You will be criticized, but do not be intimidated,” he added. “Somebody’s values are going to decide the issues of the day, whatever they may be. Whatever policies are being discussed … somebody’s values are going to be installed, if you...

Three incidents in recent days tell us all we need to know about the Obama Administration’s "values." On Dec. 1, the story broke that Bethesda, Maryland-based Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where wounded veterans convalesce, apparently had banned visitors from bringing in Bibles or other religious items. Walter Reed Chief of Staff C.W. Callahan issued a memo in September which said: "No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit." Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, savaged the Obama Administration on the floor of the House, saying, "The President...

We want the State to stay out of our lives and sympathy for benefit claimants has evaporated More than half of us - 54% - think unemployment benefits are too high up from 35% in 1983 Workshy parents are to blame for child poverty, say 63% Rise of climate change scepticism: 37% say environment threat has been exaggerated - up from 24% a decade ago Just 29% think same-sex relationships are wrong - down from 46% in 2000 Only 31% want tax rises to pay for health and education, while it was 63% of us in 2002

Newt Gingrich is adamant that he is not a lobbyist, but rather a visionary who traffics in ideas, not influence. But in the eight years since he started his health care consultancy, he has made millions of dollars while helping companies promote their services and gain access to state and federal officials. In a variety of instances, documents and interviews show, Mr. Gingrich arranged meetings between executives and officials, and salted his presentations to lawmakers with pitches for his clients, who pay as much as $200,000 a year to belong to his Center for Health Transformation. When the center sponsored...

I am now officially a self-declared member of the “Not Romney” camp. I will absolutely, positively support Mitt Romney should he win the GOP nomination, but I believe the GOP would meet certain doom if he is the nominee. Therefore, should Gingrich be the only other choice, I’d side with Gingrich over Romney. But I think in the next few weeks conservatives must ask themselves if they are ready to forgive Newt his sins. I’m not talking about his adultery and wives. I’m not really even talking about his ego. What I am talking about is only tangentially related to...

Ever since the conclusion of the FAMiLY Leader’s presidential forum eleven days ago, a handful of presidential candidates, the media, and social conservatives from all across Iowa have been waiting for hear who Bob Vander Plaats and his pro-family organization will publically support. Waiting for word from Vander Plaats seems a lot like waiting for the white smoke to spew out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Just as is the case in the election of a new pope to lead the Catholic Church, political observers are left to only speculate about what is transpiring at the FAMiLY Leader’s...

The Pew Research Center has provided some timely food for thought as we enter our traditional holiday season. According to a new report comparing attitudes in Europe and America, only 49 percent of Americans now feel that American culture is superior to others. This is down from 60 percent in 2002. For those that may find this troubling, there is more reason for concern in that only 37 percent of young Americans, ages 18- 29, say American culture is superior. What the study does not examine is what we mean by culture. I happened to hear a discussion on one...

See Governor Rick Perry's new ad for Iowa and discover how he lives by the values of hard work, faith, and family. 31 second TV ad at linked URL.

Did you know this about Herman Cain?All achieved before reaching the age of 35. Since he reached the top of the information systems world, he changed careers!• Business Manager. Took charge of Pillsbury’s 400 Burger King restaurants in the Philadelphia area, which were the company’s poorest performers in the country. Spent the first nine months learning the business from the ground up, cooking hamburger and yes, cleaning toilets. After three years he had turned them into the company’s best performers. • Godfather’s Pizza CEO. Was asked by Pillsbury to take charge of their Godfather’s Pizza chain (which was on the...

Some hold this world view that government must be central in our lives and serve as our caretaker - they seek more than equal opportunity, they seek equal outcomes. Those in the White House today don't believe in American exceptionalism, they'd rather emulate the failed policies of Europe. But we see what their policies have led to. 14 million Americans out of work. 45 million Americans on food stamps. And according to WSJ, nearly half of Americans receive government assistance. C-Span Video about 25 minutes

Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry used his speech to a packed audience at the conservative evangelical Liberty University to discuss his own faith — and to call for more Christian influence on America. (snip) “It is important that [pastors] stand in the pulpit every day and defend those values, those Christian values,” Perry said. “America is going to be guided by some set of values — the question is going go to be — whose values? I believe that … it’s the Christian values that this country was based upon.” (snip) “Don’t muzzle your...

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry used his speech to a packed audience at the conservative evangelical Liberty University to discuss his own faith – and to call for more Christian influence on America. The governor, whose speech at the university was scheduled long before his presidential announcement, is looking to burnish his already-strong evangelical credentials ahead of early primaries in Iowa and South Carolina, two states with heavy numbers of evangelical voters. [snip] He said that his “communion with God” had helped him find the path for his life. Interweaving biblical anecdotes, Perry called...

I went to University of Detroit’s Jesuit High School in Northwest Detroit. Out of all my educational experiences, those formative four years were the best and the most enduring. Matched up against four years of the Ivy League at Dartmouth College and a year abroad in England on a Fulbright Scholarship, the Catholic experience was the deepest, the longest lasting and, in my opinion, the greatest contributor to a long – 70 years so far – and wonderfully rewarding life. Here is an undeniably clear revelation of the growing divide between traditional America as seen in this Catholic Preparatory School,...

The U.S. dollar may weaken and Treasury yields rise when Asian markets reopen on Monday, though any selling in response to ratings agency S&P's downgrade of the United States is likely to be tempered by the escalating crisis in the euro zone. The S&P cut in the U.S. long-term credit rating by a notch to AA-plus is an unprecedented blow and results from concerns about the nation's budget deficits and climbing debt burden. It called the outlook "negative," signaling another downgrade is possible in the next 12 to 18 months. "The initial reaction will be a high degree of uncertainty...

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and the as-yet-undeclared Texas Gov. Rick Perry have unseated Mitt Romney as the front-runners in the latest Daily Caller/ConservativeHome Tracking Poll. This time the survey asked five questions: Who is your top pick for president? Who is the most electable? Who is your second choice? Who would do the best job handling the economy? And who would do the best job reducing spending in Washington? Having finally conceded that Chris Christie and Paul Ryan are actually serious when they say they’re not going to run, we removed them from the ballot. We added Rudy Giuliani, who...

The Royal Wedding: Proof that love is more appealing than comedy When tuning in to coverage of the Royal Wedding, there was a "nice" feeling of love, beauty, patriotism and happiness. That feeling was made very evident by the contrast of the feeling of a drag queen insult comic who Jay Leno's Tonight Show sent over to interview people in the crowd. But he/she didn't play well in that the (supposed) comedy took away from the feeling of the event. In fact it was downright embarrassing and even disgusting, not funny. An analogy would be: playing rap music during a...

And it’s getting drafty in here. The Overton Window theory postulates that for a particular area of public policy, at any given time only a narrow range of policy options are acceptable. The acceptable policy positions aren’t just those currently in effect but also those that might be considered tolerable. Outside of the range of the “window” are those policies which are considered unacceptable; policies that even though a politician may wish to promote, would likely lead to his downfall because they are considered unthinkable or radical. But, with a shift in societal attitudes towards those policies, choices which were...

In an important case in the United Kingdom, the High Court held this week that Christian views on sexual morality could be “inimical” to a child’s welfare. Mr. and Mrs. Johns wanted to foster a child as young as five as respite carers for parents who were having difficulty. (Snip) When they retired, they applied to be registered as foster carers again. Early on in the assessment process, their Christian faith was identified (they are Pentecostals). It was felt their views on sexual ethics conflicted with the duty to promote and value diversity.

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of informing Congress that it will no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage for federal purposes as “the legal union between one man and one woman.”

If you haven’t read the headlines lately, but are the parents of young kids (especially daughters) you already know that Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never” is out. Far be it for me to ruin this blog by even mentioning the Bieb, and I expect my name shall disappear from the masthead forthwith, but it sparked a conversation at the homestead about the fine line of responsibility parents have between being the friend or parent. Suffice it to say, the comment was made that “It’s tough, because I want to be the cool parent but feel like this is one of...

The rot in values that is causing America’s decline By SHMULEY BOTEACH 02/01/2011 00:51 Thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, a love of adventure, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, a belief in spreading freedom and democracy – where did that all go? Talkbacks (9) Science and math. Science and math. President Barack Obama’s new mantra is science and math. If only America’s students focused on science and math, he told us in his State of the Union address, then we’ll be as innovative as China and will no longer have to farm out the...

112th Congress promotes Founders' valuesJanuary 19, 2011 at 5:00 PM Facing the political divide It’s tough for progressives to face the abyss that divides the left and right [“Ground rules for a divided nation,” Opinion, Jan. 16]. Our liberal icon Paul Krugman offered the thread of rationale to the mean-spirited “I earned it and I have a right to keep it” crowd. The divide that Krugman eloquently laments emerged just a page away in George Will’s arrogant and defenseless demand for a return to “exceptionalism” [“The restorative agenda of the 112th Congress,” Opinion, Jan. 16]. Indeed, Will unabashedly embraces this...

Home values have fallen 26 percent since their peak in June 2006, worse than the 25.9-percent decline seen during the Depression years between 1928 and 1933, Zillow reported. November marked the 53rd consecutive month (4 ½ years) that home values have fallen.

Lame Duck Lib - "We elect DLC Democrats that undermine our values, and we elect inexperienced black Democrats that have no core values. Democrats are so desperate for victory that we think we are winning with Blue Dog Democrats. We think we are winning with DLC Democrats, and we think we are winning with Barack Obama."... "My reasons are simple, I trust the opponent (Republican, Tea Bag, Nazi) in front of me with whom I totally disagree more than the supporter (“Liberal”, “Progressive”, or “Democrat”) behind me with a knife out ready to stab me in the back for his...

The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.

Fresh off their election defeat for foisting a health care bill they didn't read onto voters who didn't want it, Congressional Democrats are pushing repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) on services that don't want it. This is a short-sighted attempt to bolster their base by delivering on a campaign promise based on the self-interest of a few while disregarding its impact on the whole of the military. Now we must demand Congress not force implementation prematurely and unwisely. Despite being lauded as the right thing to do, repeal will struggle for legitimacy because the process was clouded in...

Cradling the new arrival, April Webster may look like the proud big sister. But the baby-faced schoolgirl and her sometime boyfriend Nathan Fishbourne have just become Britain’s youngest parents after conceiving son Jamie when they were both only 13. April and schoolfriend Nathan started having unprotected sex after they began dating in September last year. She was ‘too embarrassed’ to tell her parents about the sexual side to their relationship until she found out she was pregnant a day before her 14th birthday. The baby arrived by Caesarean section on November 15, weighing 8lb 14oz. The teenagers are still trying...

Despite the Left’s best efforts, conservative and American values are coming back into the culture. After years of declaiming against the Left’s domination of our culture, I’m startled and delighted to discover that the tide is beginning to turn. My fellow conservatives should take note and lend a hand. For the last three decades or so, the usual conservative approach to the arts has been threefold: We complain about what’s being produced; we fret about the influence it will have; then we give up with a shrug. We complain because it seems to us the anti-American Left has made of...

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The election is over, and its results leave no doubt that the American people want change. But correctly gauging just what that means will be key to the success of the new Congress — and government at every level. Certainly people want Washington's policies to help support and encourage economic recovery, but for most Americans, it's not just about dollars and cents. The sweeping anti-incumbent attitude and desire for change that characterized this election were not the result of an American people divided neighbor against neighbor, or red vs. blue. Where there is division is between a united American people...

As if the White House didn’t have enough to worry about, a recent Gallup poll piled on bad news for President Obama. At the beginning of 2010 the president enjoyed support from 69% of Hispanics. By May that number was down to 57%. Now just 55% of Hispanics support the president and his liberal agenda. This news by itself is devastating to the Democrats’ prospects in the 2010 midterm elections. But what’s going on behind the numbers could possibly be a harbinger of doom for Obama’s re-election in 2012. Across the country conservative Latino organizations are springing up as fast...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:(Bethesda, Maryland – October 22, 2010 12:30pm EDT) Values Voters Rally for Montgomery County, Maryland 10/22/10==================================================================== WHAT: Values Voters Rally for Montgomery County, Maryland This is non-partisan, public event where some of our very best candidates for local, state and federal office may meet, greet and rally values voters participating in the 2010 elections. Short speeches will be delivered by select, local pro-life and pro-gun candidates on the Montgomery County ballot. Confirmed candidates include keynote speaker, Michael Lee Philips (Republican nominee for Maryland’s U.S. Congressional District 8); State Senate candidates Dwight Patel and Don Irvine; House of Delegates...

(Note: this is a non-partisan event, open to the general public) Friday, October 22, 20108:00pm – 11:30pmValues Voters Rally for Montgomery County, Maryland! Come out and meet some of our very best candidates for local/state/federal office here in Montgomery County. Listen to short speeches by select pro-life, pro-gun candidates on the 2010 general election ballot, and dance the night away to live, classic rock music performances by friends of Gus Alzona’s Trademark band. Mike Philips, Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives (MD Congressional Dist. 8) will be our main speaker. Additional candidate speakers are being added as confirmed....

Young adults with college degrees are now more likely to be married than those who are less educated, a reversal of longtime trends as the struggling economy pushes weddings to all-time lows. About 62 percent of college-educated 30-year-olds were married or had been married, compared with 60 percent of those without a bachelor's degree, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data. That is a significant shift from the 1990s, when young adults who didn't finish college were more likely to have wed than their better-educated counterparts, 75 percent to 69 percent. -- More than 9 in 10...

The world of musk oxen is dangerous. So is ours. We would do well to emulate their ability to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. We would do well to keep this in mind while we engage in our periodic political disputes. The wolves would like nothing better than to see the cattle preoccupied with squabbling among themselves over a choice patch of grass, while the pack prepares to enjoy beef tartare. There are many crucial issues that divide conservatives and liberals. No one should minimize these differences. But we must also remember the ties that bind us together − the Judeo-Christian and American...

Reverence. Why reverence? The lack of reverence causes a brashness, a coarseness, a noise in our society. Reverence has -- a lack of reverence has us watching the cakes and the circuses. Quick! Reverence to me means quiet, reflective, be still, listen, ponder. In our society we have not given any time to something that's extraordinarily important. Reverence. Silence. Ponder.—Glenn Beck The problem with Beck's statement here is that it is incoherent and incomplete. He postulates that reverence is valuable, but then totally excludes who or what one is to be reverent towards. It is similar to what one might...

GAINESVILLE, Florida — The small Florida church that has sparked global outrage with its plan to hold a Koran-burning event had its website pulled from the Internet on Thursday by its host. Dan Goodgame, a spokesman for the San Antonio, Texas-based web hosting firm Rackspace, told AFP the evangelical Dove World Outreach Center church had, "violated the Offensive Content section of its Acceptable Use policy." The policy forbids content or links to material that is "excessively violent, incites violence, threatens violence, or contains harassing content or hate speech; and creates a risk to a person's safety or health, creates a...

Unfortunately this informative article --which is enlightening and upbeat-- can't be posted. It is worth reading at freep.com

Restoring Honor. What does that mean? Ask many different people and you’ll likely get many different answers. Perhaps somebody wants to restore their own honor after committing a blunder of some sort. Or perhaps that person would like to restore someone else’s honor that was undeservedly taken away. In many parts of the world, and particularly in Eastern Asia, honor is often seen as something a family has earned, and is something that can be lost if a family member makes a mistake. In that case, honor can be difficult to restore. Honor is often spoken about on a more...

WASHINGTON | Thought the housing crisis was over? Not quite. Despite four years of falling prices and recent signs that they were finally bottoming out, homes are expected to lose still more value in many metro areas during the next year. Parts of the country already pummeled by the housing crisis, like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, will be hit hardest. But even some places that have rebounded or held up relatively well - including New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. - will suffer, too. That's the conclusion of economists who have been reducing their estimates for home prices...

If you bomb our cities, you can’t destroy America. If you ruin our economy, you can’t destroy America. If most of the continent falls into the ocean, you can’t destroy America. Even if you kill most of us, you can’t destroy America. America is an idea. The greatest, purest, sweetest, most sublime idea in the history of the world. It lifts man up, it blesses him, it encourage him, it enlightens him, it civilizes him, it opens his heart, it makes him kind and generous and honest and brave and free. It makes him smart and successful and industrious. It...

One fashionable notion among some of the intel ligentsia is that old peo ple have "a duty to die," rather than become a burden to others. This is more than just an idea discussed around a seminar table. Already Britain's government-run medical system is restricting what medications or treatments it will authorize for the elderly. It seems almost certain that similar attempts to contain runaway costs will lead to similar policies when US medical care is taken over by the government. Make no mistake: Letting old people die is a lot cheaper than spending the kind of money required to...

Although I am a registered Republican, I never really considered myself a party-line kind of guy. Party-line people are concerned with the survival of the party, no matter the consequence. Although I realize that this isn’t the ideal situation or approach to political governance, party survival is critical if the party you are trying to preserve is representing your political values in the governing process. However, I consider myself a conservative first, Republican voter second. The basic core values of conservatism from a governance standpoint are less government, less taxes, more personal freedom. Less government is good government because the...

I just returned from Michigan, where I had the honor of speaking at Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the Dream” state summit. Among the other speakers were Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal, Justice Robert Young of the Michigan Supreme Court, and Governor Sarah Palin. I spoke on a panel entitled, “Alinsky: Turning Liberal Tactics into Conservative Victories.” Joining me was James Muffett of Citizens for Traditional Values, a group that I hope we can work with in the future. I was pleasantly surprised that the crowd (well over a thousand at the summit and a packed room of hundreds...