Free Republic

It didn’t take all that much to tip a great civilization into the shackles of empire. Rome holds a special place in the popular imagination. Cast as a culture steeped in myth, with values reminiscent of our own, it is often treated as the forebearer of our own political system, an ancestral democracy that provides a republican link between the present and the ancient past. From architecture to literature to political system, Rome is where it all began. But in his latest book, Richard Alston wants us all to think a little more critically about our beloved Rome. Alston is...

"What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else." –Author Tom Clancy The American people remain eager to be persuaded that a new president in the White House can solve the problems that plague us. Yet no matter who wins this next presidential election, you can rest assured that the new boss will be the same as the old boss, and we—the permanent underclass in America—will continue to be forced to march in lockstep with the police state in all matters, public and private. Indeed, as I point...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., -- In an exclusive interview with FTMDaily's (http://ftmdaily.com/) Jerry Robinson, former Congressman Ron Paul discusses some of his core values as an American and as a human being. "On Faith and Family: A Conversation With Dr. Ron Paul" provides compelling insight on the problems facing the nation today, as well as reflections on Paul's three presidential campaigns. Paul explained that war and strong-arm diplomacy, both part of America's compulsion to police the world, are fundamentally unsound policies. Most disturbingly, he said, is that a vocal minority of the Christian Evangelical community is strongly in favor of such foreign...

BERLIN -- After being injured fighting the Syrian government, 31-year-old Mohannad reached his home in Frankfurt, Germany, with a simple plan: rest, recuperate, then rejoin the fight with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. As related in German newspaper accounts, which by law couldn’t identify him by his full name, Mohannad even transferred the equivalent of $6,800 to a Syrian bank for use by the terror organization. With that as evidence that he was supporting a terrorist organization, German authorities seized his passport and prevented him from returning to Turkey _ the jumping-off point for radicals seeking to join...

Just when you think you know a state ... Hours after an outpouring of support for gay basketball player Derrick Gordon had sent a message that tolerance reigns in Massachusetts, John Ashcroft came to Amherst on Wednesday. The former attorney general of President George W. Bush spent his University of Massachusetts visit fending off hecklers who called him a hyprocrite and a war criminal among other things. I am not here to defend Ashcroft. I am here to dispute hypocrisy, a label that becomes attached to university communities such as UMass when freedom of speech and opinion is treated as...

The House Oversight Committee will vote next Thursday on whether to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, sources say. A committee aide tells National Review Online the panel will “make an announcement on the contempt process for Lois Lerner sometime today,” and a GOP congressman confirms that committee chairman Darrell Issa has indicated the vote will take place “next week.” Lerner has twice declined to answer questions from lawmakers about her role in the targeting of right-leaning groups. At a June hearing, the panel determined in a party-line vote that she had waived her...

So the White House is turning its focus to a smaller package that would extend the Bush-era tax rates on income below $250,000, pause the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester and renew unemployment insurance benefits, according to senior administration officials. It would hold off a significant portion of the fiscal cliff, minimizing any economic shock in the new year. But it means a host of tax provisions would likely expire, little would be done to address the debt and deficit, and no process would be set up for overhauling the tax code next year. There would be no...

FLORIDA’S GOP ESTABLISHMENT TRYING TO REDISTRICT ALLEN WEST OUT OF A SEAT? - January 31st, 2012Allen West: House GOP leadership ‘sold us down the road’ for ‘pathetic policy’ - January 06, 2012

MICHIGAN, August 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney told an interviewer this week that he supports legal abortion in cases that threaten either life or health of mother, as well as rape and incest. The former Massachusetts governor emphasized his differences with the GOP platform position on abortion, which embraces a pro-life position without exceptions, during a CBS interview at a campaign stop in Michigan. “The platform as written at this convention for the Republicans does not allow for exceptions on abortion with regard to the health of the mother or rape or incest. Is that where...

George W. Bush-era energy policy wonks are finding a new home with Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor can count on support from a who’s who of former Bush officials willing to raise money, brainstorm policy ideas and generally help spread the word among the ranks of like-minded GOP energy experts. Already on board the Romney train are Jim Connaughton, who ran Bush’s White House Council on Environmental Quality for all eight years; former Assistant Energy Secretary Andy Karsner; former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead; and former EPA congressional affairs liaison Edward Krenik. The former Bush officials all told POLITICO...

Without saying his name, Mormon leaders and grassroots Mormons daily reference Wilford Woodruff when they interact with non-Mormons and the media. How so? Well, they like to tell others how polygamy is a supposed bygone of another era; how a certain Lds "prophet" in 1890 put the kabosh on it...or, at least, started a mainstream Mormon move toward monogamy. Yet, there's a little-known episode that this same Wilford Woodruff said that occurred in the 1870s -- before becoming the head "prophet" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the last two weeks before he left the St....

With some of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's former top advisers on her payroll, it isn't surprising that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman espouses many of the same policies he has - from tax cuts to stimulate the economy to promises to run California more like a business. Those similarities are why one prominent California politician said electing Whitman would be the equivalent of another Schwarzenegger term. The politician who said that was Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove (Sacramento County), a Tea Party favorite who backed Whitman's primary rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.Shortly after taking office in 2004, Schwarzenegger...

Considering her influence in our culture and international iconic status, I believe the messages behind her art warrants this level of analysis. The power of images should never be underestimated and I am quite impressed with what the video's author uncovered. Any discerning believer with a heart for the greater culture would benefit from watching this. As the saying goes, "the devil's in the details." Be sure to click the link.

North Korea early on Friday called for an end to hostile relations with the United States, after a year marked by nuclear and missile tests and its rejection of international peace efforts. The call was made in a New Year joint editorial of several leading state North Korean newspapers, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, and comes with a US Christian missionary apparently detained in the isolated country. "The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK...

NOVEMBER 2, 2009 GOP Set to Propose Its Own Health Bill By GREG HITT WASHINGTON -- Republicans are preparing an alternative health-care bill to Democratic legislation, House Republican Leader John Boehner said, marking a shift in strategy as the full House is set to begin debate on the issue this week. Mr. Boehner said Sunday the Republican bill would extend health-insurance coverage to "millions" of Americans but wouldn't try to match the scope of the House Democratic bill unveiled last week. The Democratic legislation, if passed, is estimated to expand coverage to more than 30 million Americans now without insurance....

President Jimmy Carter made a statement that the recent tone of disrespect towards President Obama might have a racial component. This immediately led to an emotional debate - yes, he’s right - no, he’s crazy - the lefties are trying to stifle legitimate debate by equating genuine disagreement with policies with racism and playing the race card. It seems to me that Carter has hit a nerve. Of course some folks disagree with some of President Obama’s policies and have a right to criticize and to express their point of view, and even to attempt to influence the direction of...

IF only it were just about the color of his skin. With all due respect to Jimmy Carter, the racist component of Obama-hatred has been undeniable since the summer of 2008, when Sarah Palin rallied all-white mobs to the defense of the “real America.” Joe Wilson may or may not be in that camp, but, either way, that’s not the news. As we watched and rewatched the South Carolina congressman’s star turn, what grabbed us was the act itself. What made the lone, piercing cry of “You lie!” shocking was that it breached a previously secure barrier. It was the...

A group of black newspaper publishers on Friday charged Republican Rep. Joe Wilson with racism for yelling, "You lie," at President Obama during his nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has canceled a planned January conference in South Carolina, where Wilson is a representative, and joined an economic boycott of the Palmetto State started 10 years ago by the state NAACP in protest of the confederate flag waving from the Statehouse grounds. Wilson shouted his accusation Wednesday night in response to Obama saying that his health care reform plan would not...

Keeping The Cable Guys Honest * Home * About CNN: Town Hall Protesters, Like the Founders, are White Supremacists 2009 August 22 Leave a comment tags: CNN, Don Lemon, Media Bias, News, Obamacare, Politics, race, Tim Wise, Town Hall by davidforsmark Remember this? It was an iconic symbol of the media’s contempt for the Tea Party protesters, a CNN reporter arguing the Obama viewpoint in an extremely condescending and confrontational way. Even some mainstream media commentators and former CNN reporters expressed embarassment at Susan Roesgen’s unprofessionalism. But if CNN thought this kind of thing was inappropriate, then their newest airhead...

I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but despite my constant mockery of everything Obama during the presidential campaign (what can I say, I’m a partisan hack), I now realize how much I actually bought into some of his absolutely empty hope and change rhetoric. When Barack Obama said he was a post-racial candidate, I initially believed him. He seemed different from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who are incapable of seeing any issue as something other than a conflict between two races. I thought that while his election would be bad for a lot of issues I cared about,...