Free Republic

Chris Christie took a well-deserved victory lap this week at the annual meeting of the Republican Governor’s Association, basking in the glow of a midterm victory that capped off a highly successful year for him as chairman of the group. The New Jersey governor’s formidable fundraising skills played a significant role in the GOP’s victories around the country, including in blue states such as Maryland and Massachusetts. But, as Politico notes, Christie wasn’t getting much love, in terms of his 2016 prospects, from the candidates he helped. That’s not terribly surprising given the plethora of potential candidates, including a bevy...

Kasich shared the stage for an afternoon panel discussion with Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Mike Pence of Indiana, Rick Perry of Texas and Scott Walker of Wisconsin. It probably wasn't supposed to sound and look like a primary debate, even with NBC's Chuck Todd moderating, but it did. And Kasich was in the center of the scrum. Or was it the left? On three policy issues important to the party's conservative base Kasich tracked more moderate than his potential rivals for the GOP nomination. And while many were happy to bash President Barack Obama, particularly as he plans an...

He has kept a relatively low national profile, appearing infrequently on TV. And for those who have heard him speak, the experience is not exactly transporting: He’s colorless and unexciting to watch. In fact, though the cruisers all thought the world of Walker, almost none of them had ever actually seen him in action. But he is riveting if you’re watching the box scores, which is what political junkies do in the runup to major elections.

The former Florida governor quietly met with Wall Street executives on Monday in a Manhattan bank to lay down the necessary ground work for a run by lining up donors. It was his fifth visit to the city since June.

"Whether it’s two years, six years, 20 years from now, because at 47, I mean I think about Hillary Clinton, I could run 20 years from now for president and still be about the same age as the former secretary of State is right now," Walker said in an interview with the local Fox affiliate published Sunday night.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hit back at Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, Monday for his comments that Cruz doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to net neutrality. Cruz used a video that he uploaded to YouTube and social media that shows the senator explaining what net neutrality is and how it works.

What still gives a lot of Republican leaders pause about Scott Walker is, well, Scott Walker. The Wisconsin dynamo is good, but the knock on him is that he knows it. He has a reputation as a one-man band, serving these past four years as his own chief speechwriter, chief policy aide, chief fundraiser, and chief political analyst. He is known to listen to a few trusted Wisconsin gurus—like consultant R.J. Johnson—but for the most part is anti-team effort.

Video

Before Mikaela Shiffrin even reached her teens, she was like so many small skiers, tugged by a Poma lift up a hill, idle time between runs for adjusting goggles and wiping noses. This was at Burke Mountain Academy, a Vermont school for young, elite ski racers, and Shiffrin was a star there by any measure, with a propensity for seeking the kind of perfect turns that — eventually, linked together, over and over — lead to race wins. She skipped no steps. As she sat back and let the rope tug her up the hill, Shiffrin watched the other skiers...

Posting for two reasons... 1. Beautifully done...no stylizations or runs. (also, yeah I watched some of The Voice this year and knew this kid would win) and 2. Anyone else notice some of the players not exactly being respectful as the anthem was being sung, i.e. Ravens players jumping around on the sideline, no hands over heart.

In addition, and most importantly, George W. Bush was a conviction president on foreign policy matters, driven by a clear sense of the national interest. President Bush emphatically made his case to the American people and to the world, explaining why he believed the use of force was necessary, and dozens of countries decided to follow him. In the case of Barack Obama, whose foreign policy has been weak-kneed, confused and strategically incoherent, the president hasn’t effectively made the case for military intervention in Syria, and has made no serious effort to cultivate support both at home and abroad. President...

"Someone as refreshingly unique and unusual as second-place finisher—the Jewish, lesbian, banshee-voiced, wind-up box of endearing quirk Michelle Chamuel—would have been a much more invigorating choice for the show, and a winner who might have been able to put the series on the industry map."

It is hard to decide the most appalling images to emerge Thursday at the murder trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. What happened in his abortion clinic is beyond any morbid Hollywood horror.

So how many dead American babies does it take to make the news? I wrote two-and-a-half weeks ago about the U.S. media’s determination to ignore a story that’s inconvenient to their biases. But, given the gun-banners’ ceaseless grief-feasting on Sandy Hook, at some point doesn’t the corpse count in Philadelphia merit maybe, oh, a thousandth of the attention?

Different Marxist factions had different ideas about how best to go about this. The Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci drew a distinction between what he called a "war of manoeuvre" and a "war of position." The war of manoeuvre was the Stalinist model. One simply used political violence to achieve one's ends. But Gramsci thought this would not work in the more highly developed Western countries. For these countries, he recommended a war of position. A war of position is one in which one first identifies "switch-points of social power" and then one seeks to peacefully take control of those switch-points....

"Tens of thousands of people have gathered in central Paris for a final mass protest against a bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption."

"Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued."

While Jorge Mario Bergoglio served a higher authority as a Catholic shepherd in this cosmopolitan capital, he was also tested by more earthly powers: Argentine governments.

The elevation Wednesday of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the Roman Catholic Church’s 266th pope and the first from Latin America brought cheers across South America but also served as a reminder of the church’s role during the region’s dark days of dictatorship in the latter half of the 20th century. More recently, Bergoglio has been known for his confrontations with Argentina’s last two presidents, the husband and wife team of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner.

Saturday's Pool D World Baseball Classic game between Canada and Mexico saw plenty of aggressive play before devolving into an extended and ugly brawl in the ninth inning. After a number of hard slides and a collision at the plate involving Mexico's Karim Garcia, Arnold Leon threw two pitches at Canada's Rene Tosoni, sparking a bench-clearing fight between the teams.