Free Republic

One of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States says Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate to provide all contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, in their health care plans. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com “we will not comply” with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD. “We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just...

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

Today is one of those "minor" holidays. No one gets the day off work because it's Flag Day and it's business as usual throughout the country. A few towns and cities across the nation have small parades or other community events to celebrate but it largely passes unnoticed by most Americans. Officially, Flag Day is the commemoration of the 1777 adoption of the United States Flag by the Continental Congress. We all know the story of Betsy Ross stitching the first flag (which may or may not be 100% true according to historians). But especially on Flag Day we should...

The Next American Civil War: The Populist Revolt Against the Liberal Elite Lee Harris Remember those rowdy Town-Hall meetings last summer sparked by President Obama’s proposed health-care reform? Harris wants to make the case that those eruptions of populist anger could prove to be the beginning of the next American civil war. Yes, that kind of civil war. Drawing from a wealth of history and political philosophy, he contends that the philosophical divide between the Tea Party populists and the liberal intellectuals is so deep that nothing short of a “civil breakdown” is likely to mend the rift. And he...

On the evening of June 16, 1775, Colonel William Prescott took 1,200 Massachusetts and Connecticut soldiers to fortify Bunker Hill. General Thomas Gage had ordered that the position be captured. Mistakenly, Prescott passed the position, digging in at a lower position known as Breed’s Hill. What would ensue was a furious battle that would embolden the American people. The British, though victorious, were taught a painful lesson. The British casualties that were injured or killed totaled 1,054. It was a demoralizing victory, and as General Henry Clinton noted, “It was a dear bought victory, another such would have ruined us.”...

Caller: I'm very frustrated about what happened they didn't listen to the people at all. I don't know if you happened to hear what Michelle Bachmann said about peacefully not complying with obamacare? I think that's going to be me. I have read the bill and I know about the provisions that will throw me in prison and really I don't care. I'll be more than happy to go to prison to fight for my freedom. Host: How do you see your freedom on the line here? Caller: They are taking our money by fiat. They are taking our money...

Sources: Pelosi, Dems lock up 218 By PATRICK O'CONNOR & JOHN BRESNAHAN & JONATHAN ALLEN | 11/7/09 7:16 PM EST POLITICO 44 Hours before an expected vote on a sweeping health care bill, House Democrats believe they've secured the 218 votes they need to approve the bill, several party insiders said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to the House floor about 6:30 p.m. to say, “Today we will pass the Affordable Health Care for America Act.. . .We will make history. We will also make progress for America's working families." In response to a question about whether the bill would...

UNITED SOCIALIST STATES OF AMERICA - A SONG By Ron and Kay Rivoli Pass it on. The Obama administration and their abettors in the Congress are marxist ideologues. They have no interest in helping health care, the economy, jobs, defense, or foeirn policy. They are all about control and they intend to build a command economy on the ashes of the Free Market and republican Principles. This is their fundamental change. And they are going about it with a will. It is up to We the People to stop them. Sons of liberty - Fight or Perish! A PETITION FOR...

Tanya Bachand has always been interested in politics, though she viewed it as largely a spectator sport. "I never felt compelled to get off my couch ... and do something," said the 34-year-old attorney from Wallingford. But as she grew increasingly alarmed by the billions of dollars the federal government was spending on bailout and stimulus packages, Bachand was driven to act: She recently joined a burgeoning grass-roots political uprising known as the Tea Party movement. Launched by a cable television personality's tirade and fueled by the blogosphere and right-wing columnists, activists such as Bachand have staged protests across the...

Sons of Liberty This was the flag of the early colonist who had joined together in the protest against the British impositions on American economic freedom.... The flag of nine red and white stripes that represented these "Sons of Liberty" became known as the "Rebellious Stripes." On December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty protested the parliament's Tea Act, an action that became known as the Boston Tea Party. The colonists' believed the tax to be a violation of their legitimate economic liberty.... The Sons of Liberty would rally under a large tree which became known as "The Liberty Tree".

Almost 240 years ago William Read donated a small triangular plot of land at Thames and Farewell streets to William Ellery and other Sons of Liberty, shortly after the successful struggle to force the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. The donation was welcomed not for the land, but for the tall buttonwood tree, known as "The Liberty Tree," that stood on the property. The Newport Historical Society put the famous tree's history in the spotlight Friday as a way to celebrate Arbor Day. Edward Andrews, a historian now completing his doctoral dissertation at the University of New Hampshire,...

The phrase “student activists” usually conjures up images of sign-waving protestors railing against various evils of the establishment. Indeed, for decades after the modern student movement began at the University of California-Berkeley in the 1960s, such protestors were traditionally liberal —and reflexively so, given that administrations were comparatively conservative. But now that today’s educational establishment is populated with yesterday’s student radicals, conservatives find themselves in the odd position of being the protestors. But rather than rely on disruptive tactics, modern conservatives are improving on plays from the liberal handbook: They’re making their points with wit and humor, not catcalling and...

Whoopee! "Repressive speech policies" of American colleges, John Leo assures us, "are under heavy pressure and starting to break down." Authorities at Utah State University actually permitted a debate on race based admission to take place on campus. And golly gee, at Thomas Jefferson's alma mater, William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, after first cavalierly refusing a permit and thus provoking shrieks of protest, one Timothy J. Sullivan, the president of that institution, did allow a group styling itself "Sons of Liberty," to hold an affirmative action bake sale. For pure smarm, his press release takes the cake. What I...

After pressure from and public exposure by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the College of William & Mary (W&M) has reversed course and allowed an "affirmative action bake sale" to proceed without interference.  A student group, the Sons of Liberty, saw its satirical protest unlawfully halted by W&M in November; it was one of many such protests nationwide that were shut down on campuses this past fall.  While W&M allowed the group's bake sale to proceed without incident this time, W&M President Timothy J. Sullivan issued a statement denying that his administration acted improperly in stopping...

William and Mary is strongly committed to freedom of expression under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. For that reason, the College has approved the request of a student group calling itself the Sons of Liberty to conduct a protest against affirmative action in the University Center. A similar event, held last semester, did not meet the administrative requirements we routinely impose on such activities. The application for Tuesday’s event did. The right to freedom of expression belongs to every member of this community, including the President. I am exercising that right by writing this letter. Members of...

Study any account of the growth of America and one fact always jumps out at you -- the heroic self-determination of the men and women who shaped the events of our history. Throughout those sprawling colonial years to the trying times of the Revolution, and beyond to the boom towns of the West, the railroad age, Edison, Henry Ford and the roaring twenties, there is observable in the people of these eras an unrelenting sense of self-reliance and willingness to take risks. It is not a history of government social agendas with their inevitable concomitants of futility and despair. It...