Free Republic

KINGSTON New Hampshire (Reuters) - As President Barack Obama considers sidestepping Congress to loosen U.S. immigration policy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Americans are deeply worried that illegal immigration is threatening the nation's culture and economy. Seventy percent of Americans - including 86 percent of Republicans - believe undocumented immigrants threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs, according to the poll. The findings suggest immigration could join Obamacare - the healthcare insurance overhaul - and the economy as hot button issues that encourage more Republicans to vote in November's congressional election. With Congress failing to agree on broad immigration reforms, Obama could...

I never heard of David Cloud before yesterday. I was directed to an article of his entitled "Calvin's Camels." But apparently, now that I look into it, Cloud is something of a big deal in independent, fundamentalist Baptist circles. He's ministered for over thirty years. Nary a bad word to say about him, personally. I want to stress that I am not here attacking the man, David Cloud. I am examining what he wrote and comparing it to Scripture, which also demands subjecting it to the test of logic and reason. I hope God blesses David Cloud real good, okay?...

Updated August 18, 2008 (first published June 4, 2008) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) - Many people have walked into the Roman Catholic Church through the broad door of the “church fathers,” and this is a loud warning today when there is a widespread attraction to the “church fathers” within evangelicalism. The Catholic apologetic ministries use the “church fathers” to prove that Rome’s doctrines go back to the earliest centuries. In...

If the election were held today, Barack Obama would be the new President of the United States of America. The latest Real Clear Politics average of national polls shows Obama ahead of McCain by nearly seven percentage points. It looks like the Democrats are going to have control of both the White House and Congress for the next four years. And, mark it down, if there is a Democrat sweep, conservative Republicans will get the blame. The fact of the matter is, however, that President Bush and the Republicans who dominated Congress during most of his administration governed as anything...

Congress is investigating oil speculators, bank stocks are being pummeled, and housing prices are dropping precipitously in certain markets. And this is the good news. I was always taught in my graduate and undergraduate classes that markets are rational, but after looking at the current market valuation of bank stocks, one must seriously consider if our markets are being manipulated. It would be reasonable to question whether the U.S. is being subjected to an economic attack. In the aftermath of 9/11, there was a great deal of speculation about...

TONY BLAIR SAYS RELIGION MUST BE SAVED FROM EXTREMISM (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008) On April 3 former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that religion must be saved from extremism. Blair’s speech was a part of “The Cardinal’s Lectures” at the Westminster Cathedral sponsored by Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England. Blair, who became a Catholic last year, said that religion must become the centerpiece of a program to solve the world’s problems. To do this, it must reject “extremism,” “exclusion,” and “strange convictions.” He was referring to Islamic terrorism, of...

Tragedy has struck the western portion of the United States causing devastating mudslides and flooding. We've watched in horror as lives have been taken, neighborhoods have submerged into permanent burial grounds and towns have become covered in water. The state of California is already stretched to the maximum in its budget, and now millions of dollars are needed to rebuild once again the areas of destruction. The rest of the United States is strapped as they work to pay their monthly bills, donate to their local charities, and write out large donations to help the relief efforts in south east...

I'm getting damned tired of being made to feel like I have to defend the United States of America against accusations made by people from other countries who consistently prove themselves to be lacking in any respectability or honor whatsoever, and I think it's about time I expressed a few of my more contentious views concerning the "international community" in general. When this country and it's coalition partners first invaded Iraq some 21 months ago, the international press began a disinformation campaign of practically unparalleled proportions, designed specifically to turn world opinion against our efforts to root out and destroy...

Did anybody notice that more Bush bashing came in when the president stepped in to assess the Hurricane Charley situation? I heard a number of prominant Democrats imply that his intentions were nothing more than politics; and yet if he ignored the situation, they'd be the first to say that "he didn't care"!? Something is not right here. It seems to me that bashing the president has gotten so out of hand that many who do so, do it without using common logic. It almost makes me wish Bush would win, just so that the bashers would whine some more....

IS ANOTHER oil shock in the making? All indications point to that considering the rise in world crude prices, not just in the spot market, but also in the futures segment. In the past, the rise in the spot price of crude as, for instance, ahead of both the Gulf wars, was not accompanied by a sympathetic jump in the forward price simply because the market expected the spike to be short-lived. But, this time, the forward price has been going up sharply. Crude oil has jumped 13 per cent in three weeks. Oil for July delivery reached a record...