Free Republic

It's no surprise that the right-wing nuts are going after Van Jones, the Bay Area activist who is now Obama's green-jobs advisor. The loonies have picked up on the fact that Jones was one of 100 people (along with Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Hawken) who signed a letter raising questions about the government response to the 9/11 attacks. It's actually not that radical a letter; Indybay has posted it here. But what amazes me is how quickly people who aren't typically considered wackos have bought into this -- take, for example, the former wife of the mayor of San Francisco,...

Imagine it's September 2013 and President Palin is preparing to present her massive tax cut proposal to a joint session of congress. She's momentarily distracted by an MSNBC report that her Second Amendment czar, Sig Sauer, has a peculiar history: He was once (and perhaps still is) a Bircher who argued for the repeal of the 14th Amendment. He's also appeared on numerous radio and TV shows calling for the oppressive United States government to be transformed into a monarchy. Shortly before his appointment he was captured on YouTube calling Democrats "a**holes." Another YouTube video shows him ranting about "black...

I grew up in a home where God was MIA. I don’t remember religion being mentioned except occasional references to some sort of God and a heaven. While my family was proud of their ethnicity, they didn’t practice the religion. Aside from the requisite Bar Mitvahs, they never set foot in a synagogue. My parents did worship at the altar of pleasure. They loved to party; they lived for the times they’d go out with their large, rowdy group, and dance and drink the night away. I’m not sure why my parents were such party animals. It was probably a...

I get asked by readers all the time: how can you go from left to right at such a rapid fire pace? Were you a conservative all along? Are you just yanking our chain; you're really still a liberal in conservative clothing? Great question. This is a topic I ponder daily. Now that I look back, I had the seeds of both a conservative and a liberal in me all along. On the liberal side: I was raised a secular Jew, and, for some God forsaken reason, most of us are Democrats. My upbringing lacked meaning and substance, which propelled...

Hello, my name is Robin of Berkeley and I write for American Thinker. I was left but last year turned right, and, if you'd like to know more, you can read Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Robin (But Were Afraid to Ask) by clicking on my byline. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter which I've been meaning to pen for a while. I just had a provocative conversation with my editor extraordinaire at AT which has prompted this piece. He informed me that I'm getting more attention from liberals, though not the venerating kind....

When I snapped out of my left wing trance last year, I was lost in space. I had no conservative friends and was clueless about web sites and books. I had heard something vaguely about Talk Radio. So I scanned my AM dial and found Michael Savage. (It took several months, and a chat with a rather bemused new friend, before I even realized there were other hosts as well.) Being a lifelong liberal, I'd never heard anybody like Savage in my life. He yelled; he called people "vermin." He was unbridled masculinity, not the touchy feeling kind I was...

When I snapped out of my left wing trance last year, I was lost in space. I had no conservative friends and was clueless about web sites and books. I had heard something vaguely about Talk Radio. So I scanned my AM dial and found Michael Savage. (It took several months, and a chat with a rather bemused new friend, before I even realized there were other hosts as well.) Being a lifelong liberal, I'd never heard anybody like Savage in my life. He yelled; he called people "vermin." He was unbridled masculinity, not the touchy feeling kind I was...

I've been thinking about learning how to fire a gun, maybe even buying one. Now if you are a lifelong conservative, Red State dweller, and NRA member, you might be thinking, "Big yawn. What's next? She'll be telling us what she had for breakfast?" So let me try to convey to you the enormousness, the Alice in Wonderland quality of my even posing the question, something I've never, ever considered in my life. No one I know owns a gun. I've never seen a gun (well on a holster of a police officer but I never wanted to get up...

American Thinker's recovering liberal learns the true meaning of conservatism When I was a child I had a pretend best friend just like me. She looked like me, talked like me, and had the exact same interests. I named her Robin 2. (I also named my stuffed animals by their colors, i.e. Whitey, Greyey, Pinky; what can I say? I wasn't the most creative of tots.) I must have been influenced by my favorite TV show, the Patty Duke Show. (For you young'uns, it was a wholesome show (they all were back then) about identical twin cousins, both played by...

June 23, 2009 Ask Robin By Robin of Berkeley AT's Recovering Liberal Responds to More Burning Questions Dear Robin, I've read all your articles and find them self indulgent, like you are doing some sort of personal therapy. It's not conservative at all. L Hi, L: It's nice of you to take the time to read my articles since clearly they are not your cup of tea. Let me explain: memoir writing is very popular, though only in liberal circles. It's deeply personal, and usually irreverent, witty, and wise. True masters of the genre include Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Gilbert, and...

American Thinker's resident recovering liberal answers readers. Dear Robin: How can we trust that you are really who you say you are? How do we know you are not a liberal impersonating a conservative? Marty Hi Marty: Busted! My articles are actually ghostwritten by Bill Ayers. Don't sweat it, Mart-T, my conscientious editor at American Thinker, a Bay Area guy, has met and vetted me. So I'm for real. Anyway, dude, do you think I could make this stuff up? * * Dear Robin: What draws otherwise smart people to being a progressive liberal? How do they accept the generalized...

Dear friends, family, loved ones, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, my brother in law, Sam, and my cousin Joe: I am sorry and you were right. These are not easy words for anyone to utter, much less a leftist from Berkeley, or a recovering leftist, that is. Even though I've been in recovery for 14 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days, leftists are always right in your face, in an I-hate-you-if-you-disagree sort of way. Hence, this letter of amends to all the people I've lectured, scolded, ranted and raved at, and otherwise annoyed during my 30 plus years of "progressive" politics. My...

Dear friends, family, loved ones, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, my brother in law, Sam, and my cousin Joe: I am sorry and you were right. These are not easy words for anyone to utter, much less a leftist from Berkeley, or a recovering leftist, that is. Even though I've been in recovery for 14 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days, leftists are always right in your face, in an I-hate-you-if-you-disagree sort of way. Hence, this letter of amends to all the people I've lectured, scolded, ranted and raved at, and otherwise annoyed during my 30 plus years of "progressive" politics.

I grew up in a storybook family. My parents, refugees from the urban jungle, felt like royalty in our little suburban home. They even referred to our lives as a fable, with a happily ever after ending. The problem for me was the disconnect between what my parents said and what I experienced. As a kid my life felt more like a Greek tragedy than a fairy tale. While my parents partied hardy, I was bored out of my gourd at home. When what you're told doesn't jive with your own eyes, you proceed in one of two directions. One...

Sarah Palin vs. the Marquis de Sade By Robin of Berkeley I grew up with a mean older brother who was ten when I came on the scene. Family lore is that Tom ran away when my mother left to deliver me. When she returned he responded with disgust, "At least you could have brought me home a brother." Tom's main passion in life was tormenting me. He delighted in mocking me, scaring me, making me cry. He'd laugh and make this strange, guttural sound when he saw my terror. As I got older, he enjoyed more menacing methods of...

As you might know by now, I'm in recent recovery from lifelong liberalism. Part of my program is confessing my sins. In my articles, I try to be as candid and honest as I can (which is great therapy, though, at times, I feel like I'm on one of those reality shows where you folks are chilling with a cold beer and saying, "Does she have any idea what a jerk she's been?" and, "Oh my God, does her face scream Botox or what?") Well, you know, I deserve it. I was leftist for so many years, and I thought...