Free Republic

In January 2007, with Iraq in flames and Democrats set to take over Congress, President Bush had two options. He could side with Senator Barack Obama and begin a gradual drawdown of American troops in Iraq, leaving the Iraqis to a grim fate and dealing a serious and consequential blow to American interests in the Middle East and beyond. Or he could side with Senator John McCain and change strategies, sending additional troops to Iraq in an effort to secure the population and assist the Iraqis in their fight against al Qaeda and the Iranian-backed Shiite militias--the so-called "surge" policy....

Not until a year after Lexington did the Continental Congress muster the resolve to declare the 13 colonies free and independent states, no longer subject to Parliament or Crown. Not for five years after July 4, 1776, did George Washington's army truly attain America's independence at Yorktown. Even then, Washington and his aide Alexander Hamilton knew that the 13 states, while politically independent, were dependent upon Europe for the necessities of their national life. Without French ships and guns, French muskets and troops, the Americans could not have forced Gen. Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. Cornwallis would have sailed away, as...

KENNER, La. — Senator John McCain marked the unofficial beginning of the general election with a speech here Tuesday in which he sought to distance himself from President Bush and to argue that he has stronger credentials as an independent agent of change than his all-but-certain Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama. “For all his fine words and all his promise, he has never taken the hard but right course of risking his own interests for yours, of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for our country,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Obama in a prime-time...

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong. Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit. The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, “Progress in Brain Research.” Some brains do deteriorate with age. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, strikes 13 percent of Americans 65 and older. But for most aging adults,...

Obama is a complete fool and Oprah said he has wisdom!!! Shame, on Obama for saying 57 States in the USA, also two States he didn’t see, Alaska and Hawaii.

The Clinton campaign narrative was supposed to go something like this: Senator Clinton’s commanding lead in the polls would persist throughout 2007. January would kick off with a solid win in Iowa, followed by a blowout in New Hampshire. The race effectively would be settled by mid-January, leaving the rest of the primary season to serve as a coronation, allowing Clinton to position herself for the general campaign. Conventional wisdom said the “female vote” was a lock for Clinton. The campaign has a director of women’s outreach, Ann Lewis, who focuses exclusively on building support among women. She encourages the...

Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one in which we are engaged. It little matters what befalls any one of us who for the time being stand in the forefront of the battle. I hope we shall win, and I believe that if we can wake the people to what the fight really means we shall win. But, win or lose, we shall not falter. Whatever fate may at the moment overtake any of us, the movement itself will not stop. Our cause is based on the eternal principles of righteousness; and even though we...

Most people learn over time, but often learning comes too late to be fully useful. There are certainly many things that I know now that would have been extremely useful to me earlier in my life; things that could have saved me from many of the mistakes and hurts I suffered over the years—and most of those that I inflicted on others too.

Proverbs 5:15-23INTRODUCTION Sex and wisdom are closely intertwined in the OT. Wisdom and Folly are both pictured throughout the early chapters of Proverbs as women – one honorable and blessed, the other seductive and ultimately deadly. Further, the Song of Songs is included among the wisdom books. In some way, skill in living and skill in love-making are connected. BASIC PERSPECTIVES Sex is a mystery. Sex is a mystery because masculinity and femininity are elusive qualities. Sexual desire is a mystery, so spontaneous and powerful that we might almost forgive ancient pagans for thinking of sex as a goddess, a...

Why the world wants believers to shut up — and why we mustn't The blessing of upright men exalts a town, But by the mouth of wicked men it is torn down (Proverbs 11:11, my translation) The interpretive key to understanding many of the Proverbs from 10:1 and on is in knowing the nature of Hebrew poetry, which does not tend to rhyme sounds as much as thoughts. That "rhyming" can be synonymous, or it can advance or complete the thought, or it can be contrastive. In this case, the "but" clues us that it is contrastive. Solomon is giving...

From the riotous coverage of this election, starting months ago and ending with the November 7 crescendo, one might conclude that momentous events are afoot: To the Barricades! Out with the Old, in with the New! Actually we have just endured a typical midterm election, when a president halfway through his second term suffers losses on Capitol Hill. On average that has meant 31 House seats lost and six Senate seats poof. Now, once the lawyers have conjured with the corpus delicti in all the close elections, we shall see that this is about what happened. Do not let the...

Finding Wisdom in the Wreckage November 9th, 2006 In retail the customer is always right; in politics the voters are never wrong. Republicans need to bear that in mind as they contemplate the wreckage left behind by Tuesday night’s Democrat tide. Defeat can be a great teacher and now is the Republican’s time to learn. Waste no time grumbling about the irresponsibility of the voters who handed power to a party so fundamentally unserious that it has nothing useful to say about any of the principal issues with which our government must grapple. Democrats didn’t deserve to win, but Republicans...

Gang: I hope you will excuse the vanity. I am going to be an election judge at a precinct in Galveston County tomorrow. It will be a loooong day (polls open from 7am to 7pm) and we are going to be using a lot of new equipment (including an e-Slate and e-Scan machine). in the final analysis the buck stops with me, the election judge. I have been an election judge before, but I know it is going to take a lot of patience and more than a little wisdom to get the job done right. If I might bother...

The 'can lady', as she was called by so many who certainly recognized a community fixture when they saw one for the three hundredth time, walked the neighborhoods and the business strip every morning at first light, picking up the occasional discarded aluminum can, and the occasional currency and coin, lying upon the city's sidewalks and streets. Many observers may have felt a pang of angst that society did not provide social services to prevent such a sad fate. Some may even have tried to 'remedy' the old lady's perilous situation through the mechanisms of government. Any who did would...

The True Lover Of God Mary Lindow Jun 25 2006 06:04PM THE TRUE LOVER OF GOD DOES NOT NEED TO BE LAVISHED UPON BY MAN THE PRESENT EVILS AND PRESSURES OF OUR TIME ARE NOT NEW TO GOD OR......TO THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD! The Bride of Christ has been either over stroked with false platitudes or has been allowed to be spoiled with a gluttony of self-love, self-analysis, and self-promotion. All members of the Lord’s Body, leaders and simple followers, have all had the virus of “I WANNA BE SOMEBODY” attempt to sidetrack and infect the human nature side...

"Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state." -- George Mason (speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 14 June 1788) Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (405)

"Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace." -- Thomas Jefferson (letter to James Monroe, 24 October 1823) Reference: Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, Foley (685); orignal The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 5 (198)

This is the first in a series that will ultimately publish and provide commentary for each chapter of the book of Proverbs. The inspiration for this is the new book entitled “The Richest Man who Ever Lived� by Steven K. Scott. It's the best book I have read in a long time and is already changing my life.Author Steven Scott has been through it all. He lost 9 jobs in his first 6 years out of college and was tagged as a hopeless corporate failure. On the advice of his friend Gary Smalley, who was also a nobody at the...

Florida's Favorite Governor, Jeb Bush Gov. Jeb Bush told the first graduating class of this community's high school Saturday to be giving, be grateful and be humble. 'As you become adults, I hope of each of you continues giving of yourself,' he urged the 65 graduating students during a commencement address held in a courtyard outside The Villages Charter High School. The governor also said the students showed character last year when many of them helped clean up debris in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. When the students look back on that, they should 'be grateful for all the wonderful things...

PROPOSALS INVITED TOWARD A MORE CIVIL DISCOURSE RE RELIGIOUS FIGURES AT ODDS WITH VARIOUS SENSIBILITIES The current thread regarding Pat Robertson is but the latest in a long tradition of certain flavors of evangelical Christian and particularly Pentecostal/Charismatic religious figures being thoroughly shredded by what--90% or more of the posts--usually in the harshest, most hostile, even demonizing wording possible. It seems that when folks are perceived to be in such Pentecostal/charismatic categories, all bets are off, no holds barred--the most viscious attacks are the minimal Standard Operating Procedure. Instead of exhorting one another in Christian Love, the worst attitudes normally...

VIRGINIA BEACH-Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson is warning that, according to God, storms and possibly a tidal wave will pound America's coastline this year.

www.roymcdanielcobsulting.com

The Washington Post religion section recently had an article about the Gnostic gospels. What are they? — A reader in SterlingThe Gnostic gospels are attributed to the work of a community known as the "Gnostics," which existed in the early Church. (Gnosis in Greek means "knowledge.") However, before addressing the issue of the Gnostic gospels, we must first understand more about the Gnostic community and the heresy entitled "Gnosticism." The origins of Gnosticism are unclear. The first traces of Gnosticism arise centuries before Christianity and are rooted in the ancient religions of Syria, Babylonia, Phoenicia and Persia, and in the...

Friday's lead story in America's largest newspaper must have made for sober reading at AEI and the Council on Foreign Relations, the twin dorms that house the Wilsonian wings of our national parties. Americans, it appears, have had a bellyful of interventionism and globaloney. Reporters Susan Page and David Jackson merit quoting at length: "In a USA Today/Gallup Poll, nearly half of those surveyed said the United States 'should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along as best they can on their own.' ... "The leave-us-alone mood is apparent not only in the proportion of Americans,...

At this command, we have written in large, black letters: DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) on the back of our security badges." Maj (CENTCOM) "'Leaning forward' is really just the first phase of 'falling on your face.'" Marine Col (MARFOREUR) "I am so far down the food chain that I've got plankton bites on my butt." "None of us is as dumb as all of us." Excerpted from a brief (EUCOM) "We're from the nuke shop, sir. We're the crazy aunt in the closet that nobody likes to talk about ..." Lt Col (EUCOM) in briefings "Things are looking up for...

It was 15 years ago today that our 8-year-old son Ryan suffered a severe brain injury that left him unable to walk or talk or feed himself. He was in the hospital (in two hospitals, actually) for over six months, and ever since has lived with us at home. I thought I would share some of the lessons I've learned in these past 15 years: Some Run Away I thought I'd start out with the most unpleasant reality first. That in times of real trouble, some people you thought were your true-blue friends or close family members you thought were...

Fanatical Muslims can be very dangerous to the society. 9/11, 3/11, 7/7 or countless other terrorist attacks on innocent civilians across the world show that we are dealing with a very dangerous clique. These people (and I use that term loosely) should not have rights. They should be kicked out of the country or locked up in concentration camps and treated as dangerous. A Persian proverb says, “Compassion to the wolf is cruelty to the lamb”. In nutshell, stop apologizing! Become tough and threatening. You'll be surprised to see how soon these " valiant" jihadis will head back to their...

by Br. Shane Johnson, LC Other Articles by Br. Shane Johnson, LC The Visionary 01/05/06 He is a pope of surprises. He always seems to be the Benedict we thought we knew, but didn’t. He was the surprisingly endearing father at World Youth Day and the equally endearing grandfather at his recent encounter with young first communicants in Rome. He was a defanged, compassionate German Shepherd at his private heart-to-hearts with dissident theologian Hans Küng and the head of the schismatic Lefebvrite movement, bishop Bernard Fellay. In This Article...A Transcendent HopeLies and SeductionsThe Truth of Peace A Transcendent Hope And so,...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

The Wisdom of God is one of His most profound attributes. With it, God acts right in every situation. God is perfect in all His applications of knowledge. This wisdom is seen in designing this world. Ps. 104:24 "O LORD, how many are Your works! in wisdom have You made them all: the earth is full of Your riches." It was used in providing salvation for this world. Eph. "And to make all humans se what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus...

In Muslim nations that go to the ballot box, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, extremist political parties get crushed by voters. Those extremists are not able to earn more than a small per cent of the vote. Most people want good government, the electricity to work, the trains to run on time, low crime and so forth. The people are wise, and with a proper outlet to let that wisdom flow to government, superior outcomes prevail. Voters choose secular political parties over religious ones, and moderate parties over extremists. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the two best examples of...

WHO DIED AND left Cindy Sheehan in charge? Not her son, Casey. When he was killed in Iraq, he left only a bereaved, bereft mother. We put her in charge — the press, the politicians, the people. We put her in charge not just of her own message and her mission, which is all she had asked for, but we cranked up her voice to equal volume with the man she's calling out: POTUS himself, George W. Bush. "We" are the TV bloviators who prefer talking-head chatter to the shoe-leather work of reporting; the only shoe leather some of them...

The liberal media is delighted with Cindy Sheehan. This is the woman who lost a son in Iraq and has camped outside President Bush's Crawford Ranch, intending to stay until the President speaks with her or returns to Washington. For the reporters waiting around in the dusty heat of West Texas, Ms. Sheehan is a godsend, a dramatic, heart-wrenching story that gives the media both a telegenic drama and another opportunity for indulging their dislike of Bush and the war in Iraq.

...."... I think it's important for me and for you to look for the depth of a person's soul and character. I was touched by the fact your mother gave you the cross.' " Bush publicly testified of Putin, "I was able to get a sense of his soul." ...Bush is even apt to apply this particular brand of illogic to his own character. In one of the 2000 presidential debates, Al Gore pointed out that Bush as governor of Texas opposed a measure to expand children's healthcare and instead used the money for a tax cut. The debate moderator...

Words of wisdom show up at the oddest times and places. It was my good fortune to encounter two versions of them last Thursday. The first was at a funeral in Newport, the celebration of a life well lived by Yvonne Ladd Graham. "Miz G" - I could never bring myself to call her "Yvonne," even though she was only 10 years my senior and her husband has always been "Jim" - was among the last of a rare breed in these parts: a full-time farm wife. She raised children, and then grandchildren, while her extended tribe raised corn, soybeans...

Everybody's heard them: Dad's favorite sayings, phrases, words of wisdom, philosophies, etc. They're funny, wise, annoying, and sometimes just plain goofy, but they've stuck with us through the years, and remind us of the man who taught us how to be adults. So what's your favorite "dadism"? Here's a few of mine:Just do it. It'll keep your mom happy.Keep your eye on the ball.Always be willing to learn. No one can ever take knowledge away from you.THE BRAKE'S ON THE LEFT!!!!

It is at this time of the year that some sentimental Americans reflect on the greatness of the Founding Fathers. Albeit, in the face of “political Correctness,” the “pop culture” mindset, and a government school system that has abandoned American history, the numbers who ponder such topics is shrinking. Nevertheless, several profound essays have been written on the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and their fates in the wake of that momentous occasion. It is worthwhile to consider just a few from among those perhaps greatest of Americans, how their examples spoke to the nation at its inception, and...

Forrest Gump's mother told him: "Life is like a box of chocolates... ." My own mother told me: "Honey child, there's a thin line between love and hate." What words of wisdom did your mother or loved one impress upon you? Anyone?

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. * Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance. * Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. * A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. * Words that soak into your ears are whispered. ..not yelled. * Meanness don't jes' happen overnight. * Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads I really like this one. * Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you. * It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge. * You cannot...

Iran is planning to mount a staunch defense of its nuclear energy program at an international conference beginning today and will insist on rights to the same technology afforded to all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior Iranian official said in an interview yesterday. The high-level counteroffensive, to be led by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, comes in anticipation of a tough speech the Bush administration is preparing to give today calling for international measures against Tehran unless it gives up sensitive aspects of its nuclear program. (See rest of article.)

As the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church cloister themselves to choose a successor to John Paul II, we may ask one more time what it was about the late pope that elicited the love and respect of millions of people, including many not sharing his convictions. And what it was about him that also produced the confusion, as well as the contempt, of many, including some identifying themselves as Christians, and Catholics. I'm convinced that the answer to this question is found in a little book by C.S. Lewis, published in 1944, "The Abolition of Man." It is also...

Proverbs 24: 3-6 By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength; for waging war you need guidance, and for victory many advisers.

Psalm 16: 7 I will praise the Lord who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

Psalm 36: 5-7a Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love!

Litany of the Holy Spirit Lord, have mercy on us.Christ, have mercy on us.Lord, have mercy on us. Father all powerful, have mercy on usJesus, Eternal Son of the Father, Redeemer of the world, save us.Spirit of the Father and the Son, boundless life of both, sanctify us.Holy Trinity, hear us. Holy Spirit, Who proceedest from the Father and the Son, enter our hearts.Holy Spirit, Who art equal to the Father and the Son, enter our hearts. Promise of God the Father, have mercy on us.Ray of heavenly light, have mercy on usAuthor of all good, have mercy on usSource...

Hearing about the great wisdom of Solomon, the queen of Sheba went to Jerusalem to see if he was really as wise as people had been telling her. She tested Solomon with difficult questions, and finally concluded that Solomon was even wiser than she had been told - so wise that he just might have the answer to a question that was really troubling her. "We have in our kingdom a difficult case, King Solomon. We have a helpless woman we just can't decide what to do with. For 15 years, she has been able to do almost nothing for...

The Gold and the Glory by Ron Wood Meri Burlingame Mar 5, 2005 [Some added paragraphing; BOLD & COLOR emphases by Quix] The Gold and the Glory by Ron Wood TOUCHED BY GRACE HERE: http://www.touchedbygrace.org I am passing along to you the following account from Chuck Pierce. It details a supernatural manifestation of God's presence among worshipping, penitent people. I say "penitent," because only when we get low and humble ourselves, does God disclose his glory. I was in a similar supernatural setting among intercessors seeking God's intervention in our nation's election in Waco, Texas, in November 2004. We prostrated...

The seizure brought on by his dramatic trip to the hospital a week ago suggests the international sense of his indispensability. Pope John Paul (news - web sites) is a graphic figure in the lives of Catholics and many non-Catholics. He is, of course, a towering theological figure who has presided over the development of Catholic thought and practice for the 26 years of his papacy. He is a major historical figure, who began as a Catholic seminarian in a Poland subservient first to a Nazi overlord (they hanged him in Nuremberg), then to a communist overlord (nothing happened to...

One of the more curious aspects of the commentary on this war has not been the bias of the mainstream media but the cynical punditry that somehow ends up as the conventional wisdom among our New York and Washington elites. Here is a small sample of misplaced metaphors, allusions, and conventional wisdom of the last three years. THE POTTERY BARN RULE "You break it, you bought it" — so we were told ad nauseam throughout the war in Iraq. Bush and his Team America posse supposedly barged into an upscale store, rashly knocked over items, and now, quite startled, must...

If W was a democrat, the nomination of Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State, would have been hailed as "the bridging of the racial divide in this country." If W was a democrat,the nomination of Margaret Spellings as Education Secretary would have closed the gender gap. Alberto Gonzalez? He would have literally crossed the Rio Grande. If W was a democrat, the mass graves and burqua covered women would have been enough justification for the Iraq war. If W was a democrat, "No child left behind" would have been the signature educational achievement of the 21st century. If W was...