Free Republic

Has anyone noticed that the media tends to push calling today the "Fourth of July" or "July Fourth" versus simply calling it was it is: "Independence Day"? This seems to pass down into our speaking lexicon, and people end up wishing you a "Happy Fourth". My take on it is there's a nefarious, underlying reason and leftists who control the media and the schools do this on purpose. It's akin to the whole "Happy Holidays" nonsense. I think the left and the media wants us to forget that this is a day when we remember and celebrate our country's "independence"....

Leftist politicians cite the disproportionate ratio of Blacks among the criminal population as “evidence” of racism among law-enforcement personnel. Two recent studies undermine this contention. One study by professors from Michigan State and Arizona State universities– “Is There Evidence of Racial Disparity in Police Use of Deadly Force?”–analyzed officer-involved fatal shootings in 2015 and 2016. This study found that the higher rates of Blacks getting shot by cops matched the higher rates of Blacks engaging in criminal behavior. A second study done by Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. found that police officers were more reluctant to use deadly force...

“PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES MUST BE VETTED” December 4, 2017 Dear Ms. Harris: My name is Gary Wilmott and I reside in Southern California. I couldn’t help but notice that the press has recently been extolling you as the next “Obama” and the inevitable frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. While this growing presidential buzz may be quite intoxicating for you, I suggest that you take a serious look at Article II of the U.S. Constitution, i.e., the presidential eligibility clause. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 mandates that a president be a NATURAL-born citizen, which you clearly are not....

Maxine Waters isn’t about to let Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer hold her back from calling for members of the Trump administration to be harassed in public. During an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, Waters listened to a clip of Schumer denouncing her rhetoric as “un-American,” and was asked if she was “surprised” that Democratic leaders called her out. “Well, I’m surprised that Chuck Schumer, you know, reached into the other house (of Congress) to do that. I’ve not quite seen that done before, but one of the things I recognize, being an elected official, is in the final analysis,...

Former President Bill Clinton took the occasion of his appearance on The Daily Show to assail President Trump for “pouring poison down the country’s throat.” The issue that inspired Clinton’s reemergence on the political scene was immigration. “It started before he was elected when he criticized the Obama Administration for letting too many criminals into the country,” he said. “Sure, some of these immigrants rape and murder Americans, but not all of them do. And blocking criminals from entering America merely shifts the problem south of the border where law-enforcement is less effective in tracking down and apprehending suspects.” “When...

Independence Day makes Progressives squirm. They despise the principles of the American Revolution. If they could, their scotus judges would gut the Declaration as thoroughly as they have the Constitution. To them, our Noble Declaration, this expression of God-given reason subverts social justice; they are right. Since the Declaration is indeed hostile to their moral relativism, the Left has long attempted to minimize our founding to a fuzzy faith in the people. The “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and “all men are created equal,” translates in their Marxist minds as widespread democracy accompanied with equal...

The Night of the Long Knives was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. When Hitler rose to power in early 1933, he owed much of his success to the muscle of his Nazi Storm Troopers, the SA, a violent, ruthless army headed by Ernst Röhm, Hitler’s long-time friend. Röhm and his Storm Troopers brought Germany into submission by gaining control of the streets gangster-style and violently eliminating Hitler’s political enemies. However, a threatening, revolutionary force was no longer useful now...

Nevertheless, because of precisely what George Santayana was talking about, we are headed, one unnoticed step at a time, in just that direction It is a no-brainer that we are right now doomed to go through some really bad times. Anybody who tells you anything different is either trying to sell you something or they probably just need to back off on their meds. Nevertheless, Mr. Santayana’s beat-to-death, pure gold adage is about to fall upon us in its full weight because very few around us have even a nodding acquaintance with vital history. I mean, most of the universities...

During the longest siege a capital city has faced in the history of modern warfare, and amid the mortars and grenades, a heavy metal band agreed to play a concert… Scream for Me Sarajevo is the astonishing story of the most unlikely of rock concerts, performed by Bruce Dickinson and his band Skunkworks in 1994. Risking their lives, they were smuggled into the besieged city to play a concert for its citizens amidst the chaos of war.

Democrat pollster and political consultant par excellence Doug Schoen has spent over 30 years advising presidents and prime ministers. Unlike most such political animals, he also has a deep understanding of political philosophy, which has moved further "right" the more he has seen government in action. Last but not least, Doug's one of those rare few remaining JFK Democrats who has always believed in defending capitalism and America's national interest. I had Doug on the Big Ideas podcast to draw out some of his lessons from a life well-spent as a master practitioner and student of politics, to share his...

Tuesday, June 26, 2018 Prohibitionism in a Civil War of Values Posted by Daniel Greenfield “Prohibitionism never works” is a cliché. And like most clichés, it’s true and not true at the same time. Everyone believes that prohibitionism works and never works. The progressive advocating for drug legalization believes just as fervently in the power of gun control as in the futility of banning pot. He doesn’t see the contradiction, because he knows that the drug laws never stopped him from getting high. But he would never want to buy guns, legally or illegally. So banning them should work. The...

June 28 is the anniversary of two days that might be said to mark the beginning and end of the First World War. It's the anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife - heirs to the Austrian throne - by Serbian radical Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, the proximate cause of the beginning of the war. If you're interested in further information on the subject there are hundreds of books and films - the best books I know of (and I'm no expert) are Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August (this won a...

On July 4, 1917, General Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force arrived in France, the advance team of what was to become a million-man force in support of France and England of The Great War that we now know as World War I. On a day of speeches, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Stanton somberly declared “Nous voila, Lafayette!” - rendered in English, that’s “Lafayette, we are here!” What was it about this Lafayette, this long-dead French noble, that his name need only be cited, and it would instantly call to mind a century-and-a-half old debt of honor, a justification in the American conscience...

North Koreans for years have dug up the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, hiding them away in the hope they may someday bring a cash reward when relations between the two countries improve, North Korean sources say. Expectations have recently been raised again following the June 12 meeting between North Korea’s national leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. president Donald Trump, a source in North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service. “Residents are now paying closer attention to this issue following the announcement in Singapore that North Korea is thinking of sending the remains of...

Taking a week off centered on the Fourth. Anyone have any good, current book suggestions? Subject matters of interest: History, Politics, Historical biographies. (No offense to anyone, but Bill O'Reilly's historical books are not of interest to me.)

Sophocles, Euripides, and the Greek epic poets, historians, and tragedians explore the idea of hamartia. Such an innate character flaw, such as Oedipus’s self-regard or Jason’s obtuseness, can be repressed, but it will inevitably resurface at the most inopportune moment. *** The next step in the slow cycle of classical self-destruction is koros—a greed or overreaching ambition that is the result of hamartia. It thus deludes the apparently successful into believing there will be few consequences to their excess. Koros makes self-reflection impossible. *** The final act in a multistoried Greek tragedy is the advent of Nemesis or divine retribution....

SEOUL, South Korea -- The U.S. military said it moved 100 wooden coffins to the inter-Korean border on Saturday to prepare for North Korea's returning of the remains of American soldiers who have been missing since the 1950-53 Korean War. U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Chad Carroll also said 158 metal transfer cases were sent to a U.S. air base near Seoul, South Korea's capital, and would be used to send the remains home. North Korea agreed to send home U.S. war remains during the June 12 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. While...

In documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act, Judicial Watch found that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was actively colluding with the IRS to harm the TEA Party groups that he mendaciously courted in his successful 2010 reelection bid. These groups are believed to have played a significant role in Republicans capturing a majority in Congress. A Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress enabled the passage of the Affordable Care Act (which came to be known as Obamacare) on a straight party line vote in late 2009. The loss of this majority constituted a serious impediment to the...

The American Civil Liberties Union is reexamining its long-standing position in favor of freedom of speech. Spokesman Bertram Petty explained that "in the past the biggest threat to freedom of speech came from the government trying to silence advocates of socialist and communist solutions to public problems. Now that socialist and communist principles form an important part of the guidance for government activities in the United States it is no longer clear that freedom of speech to attack policies based on these ideas is worthy of our support." "For example, a knee-jerk defense of freedom of speech would compel the...

After a week of hounding President Trump for continuing former President Obama's occasional practice of separating the children of illegal immigrants from their parents, they now are howling over his executive order allowing these children to stay with their parents in detention centers. Aspiring 2020 presidential contender Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif) called Trump's effort to keep immigrant children with their parents "inhumane. When we demanded that children and parents not be separated it was our hope that both would be released. ICE could give the parents instructions to return for a court hearing on whether they can stay and release...