Free Republic

Those on the left claim they hold their views because they are intellectually superior to those of us on the right. But studies have shown that liberals are more emotional than conservatives. Perhaps this is the real reason for their views. If you look at the positions liberals take on issues, it’s easy to see how their emotions drive them, crowding out logic and facts.  Liberals support higher taxes and increasing spending because they hope it will provide equal things for all people. They feel bad that not everyone can afford cable TV, new cars, eating out at restaurants, etc. Liberals...

In the wake of the San Bernardino attack, liberals are in a total panic over guns. The New York Times broke a 95-year precedent to editorialize about gun control on its front page. But the Times seems restrained compared with the full-on meltdown at the New York Daily News, which has taken to calling the head of the NRA a "terrorist." I have no desire to rehash the all-too-familiar debate over whether such policies would have their intended effects or whether they'd pass constitutional muster. Let's just stipulate I am skeptical on both counts. But it is worth contemplating why...

If you take an honest look at the world, though, what do you think are the chances that we can stop insane violent people from doing insane violent things? Can we “make sure this never happens again”? Not a chance. It is an absolute certainty that evil and violent people will do evil and violent things in the future. The real questions are, how can we best protect ourselves and how can we minimize the number of these people in society. As to the “saving the life of one child” argument, here are some facts to consider: According to the...

From the day the founding Fathers risked their liberty and life by signing the Declaration of Independence, there has been those who have wanted to sink this great ship called the United States of America. Well 143 years later the good ship America took a torpedo hit that at the time seemed like just another glancing blow. What many still consider the greatest step forward in equality for the sexes, was more then just a glancing blow however. It was in fact a deadly strike that entered the very heart of the ship and has been smoldering since. The damage...

Neither Schiavo's parents nor her husband offered new, specific details on her condition, but one of the two priests who visited her hospital room Easter Sunday said the brain-damaged woman's "death is imminent." O'Donnell said Schiavo smiled, raised her hands and made guttural sounds late Sunday while being visited by her father and a friend, who was talking about how she liked to go out dancing. Schiavo's mother did not visit her daughter on Easter, emotions keeping her from the hospice for the first time since Terri's feeding tube was removed 10 days ago, O'Donnell said. "If she goes in...

Heetderks is president of the synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, which officially formed in May from the former Dutch Reform Church, the Calvinist Reformist Church and the nation's small Lutheran Church. Dutch Protestant church leaders have tilted to more liberal views in recent decades in an attempt to keep pace with society. The new Protestant Church will grant 'blessings' to gay couples and permit women pastors, but will not force local congregations to accept them. ...Dutch Protestant church leaders have tilted to more liberal views in recent decades in an attempt to keep pace with society, according...

I have been a student of human nature and philosophy for many years, even into the kookier side of these subjects. One of the frustrating things I notice from those on the right is they argue well in a rational sense, but many or most punches don't hit home because they are not addressing the emotional content the left worships above rational thought. Two of the most corrosive arguments I use against a leftist are these: 1. That their beliefs are shame based; You yourself are of no value unless you sacrifice your life for another, thus to become valuable...

Theodore Dalrymple The Sob Factor Quiet grief and private dignity are now things of the past.11 November 2004 Three British soldiers, members of a famous regiment called the Black Watch, died recently in a car-bomb explosion in Iraq—the first British soldiers to perish this way in the terror-plagued country. For a few days, the British press and broadcasting media treated the event as if nothing else in the world mattered. The reaction was little short of hysterical, no doubt to the encouragement and pleasure of future car-bombers.As is now usual whenever tragedy strikes, the press and broadcasters went straight to...

The so-called assault-weapons ban is about to sunset. About time. It was one of the goofiest gun laws on the books. It outlawed guns because they look mean — the perfect law for a superficial world. The assault-weapons ban was racial profiling for guns. Before we start, you should know I used to be like you when it came to firearms. I had a religious-like hatred of guns. In fact, I was a member of the anti-gun organization Handgun Control Inc. It was a long slow, conversion for me, spurred by the patient influence of my older brother Paul, who...

Gather round, and I shall teach you a new game, called “Michael Moore’s Mystery Message.” It is a fun game, really; you get to see a film, visit a colorful website, manage a few ironic laughs at someone who seeks to make you laugh at President Bush, and, at the end, receive a grand prize. What is this prize? That is a mystery to be unraveled, much like Michael Moore’s message. Are you ready? Watching Michael Moore’s film, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” you get to look at pretty pictures of Iraq as a children’s paradise under the benevolent regime of Saddam Hussein....

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- New Mexico placekicker Katie Hnida alleges she was a target of sexual harassment in 1999 when she was on the football team at Colorado. "I was treated much more like a piece of meat there," she said in a story in The Albuquerque Tribune on Friday. "Because I'm a pretty feminine gal, and they didn't respect that about me." Hnida on Friday declined to speak with The Associated Press about her time at Colorado and the allegations she raised. "I have nothing to say," Hnida, a senior at New Mexico, said after a practice session. Hnida told...

Seldom a film comes about that not merely exposits but also patronizes the sensation-grabbing, flesh-lusting, nihilistic paradigm behind the Oscar nominations, but this time Hollywood has surpassed the veneer of “artistry” to uncover the brazen essence of its propagations. Earlier this week I had given myself an investigative assignment: to see one of the films in competition for the Academy Awards (which I, being fairly insulated from the cultural mainstream, seldom do) and to review it independently, not reading past evaluations, not filtering the works of others to form my perception from theirs. My analysis of the film, in its...