Free Republic

The Nothing-to-see-here media continue to do a grand job. Chris Matthews: We may never know if religion was a factor at Fort Hood. That's almost certainly true in your case, Chris. As for yelling "Allahu akbar" as you open fire, Michael Tomasky, one of the American lefties on the Guardian's payroll, explains it for us know-nothings: The fact that Hassan reportedly shouted the above is meant, I suppose, to imply that he was an extremist fanatic. I'm not sure that it does. My understanding is that it's something Arab people often shout before doing something or other. It's used in...

Thirteen dead and 28 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and a great victory for the Taliban. Brave soldiers trained to kill America's enemy abroad were killed in the safety and security of home by a man who believes in and supports everything the enemy does. And he's a U.S. Army major. And his superior officers knew about his beliefs but seemed to think this was just a bit of harmless multicultural diversity - as if believing that "the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor" (i.e. his fellow American soldiers) and...

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a "tragedy" (as too many people called it), but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the "war on terror." Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America's enemy abroad were killed...

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the US military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a “tragedy” (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the “war on terror”. Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America’s enemy abroad were killed...

Mark Steyn - 'nuff said.

Wafting ever upwards on gaseous clouds of hope, only to have his numbers crash . . . On the day America went Balloon Boy crazy, I chanced to be on the radio, appearing live coast to coast on The Hugh Hewitt Show. And, as the Balloon Boy was the hot breaking news, Hugh asked me about it. “I don’t know what to say,” I said, “except it’s one of those peculiar and potentially tragic and instantly horrifying combination of circumstances.” If I sound a bit vague, well, that’s the idea. I’d gotten the gist of what was happening a couple of minutes before...

Maybe when you're such a sorry excuse of a believer that you're incapable of pulling off your lousy "honor killing" without resorting to a Grand Cherokee, you're the one who's becoming "too westernized".

It's now Obama's war, his jobless rate, his debt, etc. Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that "we're going to speak truth to power." Who's Valerie Jarrett? She's "Senior Adviser" to the president of the United States – i.e., the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to "speak truth to power" to. But I suppose if you're as eager to do so as his Senior Adviser, there's always somebody out there: The...

Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that “we’re going to speak truth to power”. Who’s Valerie Jarrett? She’s “Senior Advisor” to the President of the United States – ie, the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to “speak truth to power” to. But I suppose if you’re as eager to do so as his Senior Advisor, there’s always somebody out there: The Supreme Leader of Iran. The Prime Minister of Belgium. The...

‘The environment’ is the most ingenious cover story ever devised for Big Government I’m always appreciative when a fellow says what he really means. Tim Flannery, the jet-setting doomsaying global warm-monger from down under, was in Ottawa the other day promoting his latest eco-tract, and offered a few thoughts on “Copenhagen”—which is transnational-speak for December’s UN Convention on Climate Change. “We all too often mistake the nature of those negotiations in Copenhagen,” remarked professor Flannery. “We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case. The negotiations now ongoing toward the...

Benjamin Disraeli’s most famous advice to aspiring politicians was: “Never complain and never explain.” For the greatest orator of our time, a man who makes Churchill, Lincoln, and Henry V at Agincourt look like first-round rejects on Orating with the Stars, Barack Obama seems to have pretty much given up on the explaining side. He tried it with health care with speech after speech after exclusive interview for months on end and the more he explained the more unpopular the whole racket got. So he declared that the time for explaining is over, and it’s time to sign on or...

Benjamin Disraeli's most famous advice to aspiring politicians was: "Never complain and never explain." For the greatest orator of our time, a man who makes Churchill, Lincoln and Henry V at Agincourt look like first-round rejects on "Orating With The Stars," Barack Obama seems to have pretty much given up on the explaining side. He tried it with health care with speech after speech after exclusive interview for months on end, and the more he explained the more unpopular the whole racket got. So he declared that the time for explaining is over, and it's time to sign on or...

Here is a tale of two soundbites. First: “Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.” Second: “The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Tse Tung and Mother Teresa. Not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is: You’re going to make choices... But here’s the deal: these are your choices; they are no one else’s. In 1947,...

On NY-23, I'm with Fred Thompson and Jack Fowler: A Conservative can win in a three-way race, and Doug Hoffman is deserving of your support. Newt really needs to re-think his support for Dede Scozzafava. This isn't RINO but DIABLO - Democrat In All But Label Only. It's not one of those "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" bi-swinger deals — not when you're pro-"stimulus", pro-cash-for-clunkers. And the reductive argument that her sole redeeming value - a willingness to vote for John Boehner as Speaker — is reason enough to support her is silly in a special election. If he's ever Speaker,...

Here is a tale of two sound bites. First: "Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark." Second: "The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Tse Tung and Mother Teresa. Not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is: You're going to make choices. ... But here's the deal: These are your choices; they are no one else's....

Re: Scozzafava Campaign in Damage-Control Mode [Mark Steyn] Well, I'm with The Weekly Standard on this one. When a GOP candidate with an entourage winds up calling the cops over a reporter from a pro-GOP publication, that's one seriously dumb campaign — and the ludicrous post-911 call spin only makes it more pathetic. But here's my bigger thought: After the great summer surge of town halls and tea parties, the Republican Party gets to take the first electoral test of the new public mood and what does it offer the public for a reliable Republican district? A pro-tax pro-card-check liberal...

Single payer… Public option… Cap & trade… No, wait, is that health care or something else? It’s all so complicated, isn’t it? Which is the point. It’s so hard to follow we have to leave it to our betters – ie, Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi – to follow it for us. They don’t really follow it, either, but, while they may not actually write the legislate or even read it, they do have vast retinues of highly remunerated underlings tasked with reconciling the competing claims of various interest groups. And thus the republic, after a fashion, survives.

October 17, 2009, 0:07 a.m. A Tale of Two SoundbitesWhich one sounds “divisive” to you? By Mark Steyn Here is a tale of two soundbites. First: “Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.� Second: “The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Tse-Tung and Mother Teresa. Not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is: You’re going...

Lies cost the talk-show host a shot at NFL ownership; a White House honcho praises a murderer of millions to schoolkids. Here is a tale of two sound bites. First: "Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark." Second: "The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Tse Tung and Mother Teresa. Not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point,...

Speaking of free speech, Steyn speculates about what the Liberal leader can’t say now In Ottawa on Monday, I kept getting asked—including by three stray passersby on Wellington Street—what Beatles song Michael Ignatieff should sing. Oh, come on, you don’t really need a professional for this, do you? Help! Yesterday (All my troubles seemed so far away). The Fool On The Hill. Hello, Goodbye. Get Back (to Harvard and a little light BBC hosting) . . .

“The people! United! Can never be defeated!” You need a bit of collectivism for street protest, which may be why conservatives have never been much good at it. I don’t mean merely in the philosophical sense that collectivist action for individual liberty is reminiscent of the old Steve Martin sketch where he’d get the crowd to chant along with his non-conformists’ oath: “I promise to be different.” (“I promise to be different.”) “I promise to be unique.” (“I promise to be unique.”) “I promise not to repeat things other people say.” (“I promise not to repeat things other people say.”)...

But that was then, and this is now. As the historian Robert Dallek told Obama recently, "War kills off great reform movements." As the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne reminded the president, his supporters voted for him not to win a war but to win a victory on health care and other domestic issues. Obama's priorities lie not in the Hindu Kush but in America: Why squander your presidency on trying to turn an economically moribund feudal backwater into a functioning nation state when you can turn a functioning nation state into an economically moribund feudal backwater?

Hi, fellow Freepers! Sadly, been away for awhile, running with the wild right winger men and women of the 'net, but glad to back in action in these parts. Currently involved blogging at the fast-growing Threedonia, which I think most, if not all, Freepers would totally dig. We're home to active military, journalists, law professors, teachers, and beyond as contributors. We even have...

Licence to make crass sexual jokes on the BBC about the Queen is depravity, not liberty Earlier this week, David Cameron, the British Conservative Party leader and probable next prime minister, was “cleared” of “breaching” “the broadcasting code” by the country’s TV and radio regulatory authority, Ofcom. Back in July, Mr. Cameron had been appearing on the morning show at Absolute Radio, a national rock station, and had, apropos the political class in general, observed that “the public are rightly, I think, pissed off.” To a question about why he was not using Twitter, the Tory leader replied, “Too many...

Twelve months ago, the advance of Senator Obama to President Obama was starting to look inevitable, thanks in part to some characteristically Beltwaycentric bungling from John McCain, for whom the economic crisis of mid-September provided the perfect opportunity for the peculiar combination of narcissism and self-destruction he appears to favor. But beyond that more and more influential "moderate Republicans" were beginning to hail the Obama ascendancy. I declined to join them, for reasons that, I think, stand up pretty well: Across the electric wires, the hum is ceaseless: Give it up, loser. Don’t go down with the ship when it’s...

Ave atque vale I was overseas when Senator Edward Kennedy died, and a European reporter asked me what my “most vivid memory” of the great man. I didn’t like to say, because it didn’t seem quite the appropriate occasion. But my only close encounter with the Lion of the Senate was many years ago at Logan Airport late one night. A handful of us, tired and bedraggled, were standing on the water shuttle waiting to be ferried across the harbor to downtown Boston. A sixth gentleman hopped aboard, wearing the dark-suited garb of the advance man, and had a word...

October 03, 2009, 7:00 a.m. Beyond TransgressionYou can’t make a Hamlet without breaking a few chicks? By Mark Steyn As the feminists used to say in simpler times, “What part of ‘No’ don’t you understand?� Quite a lot, if the reaction to Roman Polanski’s arrest is anything to go by. I didn’t know, for one thing, that, if you decide to plough on regardless, the world’s artists will rise as one to nail their colors to your mast. Whoopi Goldberg offered a practical defense — that what Polanski did was not “rape-rape,� a distinction she left imprecisely delineated. Which...

Mark Steyn explains Multiculturalism - 8 minutes. Steyn is hilarious.

Even if Roman Polanski is a "great artist," so what? As the feminists used to say in simpler times, "What part of 'No' don't you understand?" Quite a lot, if the reaction to Roman Polanski's arrest is anything to go by. I didn't know, for one thing, that, if you decide to plow on regardless, the world's artists will rise as one to nail their colors to your mast.

What if a blind man with a guide dog had taken on a Muslim bed-and-breakfast owner? What’s new in the exciting world of Canadian “human rights”? Well, the other day Kelly Egan of the Ottawa Citizen reported the story of a gay bed-and-breakfast owner allergic to dogs who got hauled in for “mediation” by the “Human Rights” Tribunal of Ontario after he turned away a blind man with a Seeing Eye dog. Douglas McCue, 68, of the CornerStone B & B in Perth, Ont., suffers from acute sinusitis aggravated by exposure to canines. Ian Martin, a blind diabetic, responded with...

This piece by Lloyd Marcus, a black conservative, is called "Stop Allowing The Left To Set The Rules", and deals with the alleged racism of the anti-Obama opposition. As Mr Marcus notes:

A year ago, in the final stretch of the U.S. election campaign, I would find myself in New York or Los Angeles or points in between and asked for my thoughts on who would win. I usually answered “John McCain,” more in hope than expectation: I’ve no use for the soi-disant “maverick,” who was a catastrophic candidate, but in those heady days between Sarah Palin’s boffo convention speech and McCain’s characteristically inept response to the economic meltdown there was briefly a faint chance that the Alaskan governor might yet save the Republican party from its rendezvous with destiny. And at...

It's a toss-up as to whether President Obama's transnational mush or Gadhafi's ramblings was a more unreal moment at the U.N. Half a decade or so back, I wrote: "It's a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice cream and a quart of dog feces and mix 'em together, the result will taste more like the latter than the former. That's the problem with the U.N." Absolutely right, if I do say so myself. When you make the free nations and the thug states members of the same club, the danger isn't that they'll meet each...

The obvious explanation for his low ratings are his unpopular policies, writes MARK STEYN, but don’t go there A year ago, in the final stretch of the U.S. election campaign, I would find myself in New York or Los Angeles or points in between and asked for my thoughts on who would win. I usually answered “John McCain,” more in hope than expectation: I’ve no use for the soi-disant “maverick,” who was a catastrophic candidate, but in those heady days between Sarah Palin’s boffo convention speech and McCain’s characteristically inept response to the economic meltdown there was briefly a faint...

“The Big Issue, mate?” came the cheery Cockney cry. It is a tradition, in London as elsewhere, for newsboys to hawk their papers on the streets of the city. The only variation to the ancient ritual was that in this instance the salesman for The Big Issue – a newspaper sold by and for “the homeless” – was pitching his wares to me while lying prone alongside a colleague on the sidewalk of a small side street off Piccadilly. I stepped over him and continued on my way. That was Monday. Tuesday he was there again, and Wednesday. And on...

Our security will now depend on the kindness of strangers. ___ It is interesting to contrast the administration’s “wise” diplomacy abroad with its willingness to go nuclear at home. If you go to a town-hall meeting and express misgivings about the effectiveness of the stimulus, you’re a “racist” “angry” “Nazi” “evilmonger” “right-wing domestic terrorist.” It’s perhaps no surprise that that doesn’t leave a lot left over in the rhetorical arsenal for Putin, Chávez, and Ahmadinejad. But you’ve got to figure that by now the world’s strongmen are getting the measure of the new Washington. Diplomacy used to be, as Canada’s...

Scrapping of U.S. missile defense plans hands big victory to Russia's new czar.Was it only April? There was President Barack Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about the Iranian nuclear program and ballistic missile capability, and saluting America's plucky allies: "The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles," he declared. "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven."On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile defense plans for Eastern Europe. The "courageous" Czechs and Poles will...

Scrapping of U.S. missile defense plans hands big victory to Russia's new czar. Was it only April? There was President Barack Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about the Iranian nuclear program and ballistic missile capability, and saluting America's plucky allies: "The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles," he declared. "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile defense plans for Eastern Europe. The "courageous" Czechs and...

Was it only April? There was President Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about Iran's nuclear program and ballistic missile capability, and saluting America's plucky allies: "The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles," he declared. "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile defense plans for Eastern Europe. The "courageous" Czechs and Poles will have to take their chances. Did the "threat from Iran" go away? Not...

This month, with Judge Hadjis’s Marc Lemire decision, the wheels fell off the CHRC racket “Nice to see you all,” said Athanasios Hadjis, the Canadian “Human Rights” Tribunal’s vice-chair (i.e., judge), as he surveyed his courtroom in Ottawa last year. “More of an interest than there was before.” Indeed. The packed benches that greeted him were a rare sight at a CHRT trial, and especially at the Marc Lemire trial, where the prosecutors—the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission—had demanded that everyone other than them be banned from the courtroom, including the defendant, who would be graciously permitted to watch proceedings by...

He'll get some form of health care plan rammed through because it's key to permanently shifting America left. So why can't the silver-tongued post-partisan healer seal the deal on this health care business? Surely it should be the work of moments for the greatest orator in American history to whip up a little medicinal Gettysburg, a touch of Henry V-in-the-Agincourt-casualty-tent, and put this thing away. Yet there he was the other night with the usual leaden medley of tinny grandiosity (all the this-is-the-moment, now-is-the-hour stuff), slippery reassurances (don't worry, you won't be "required" to change your present health arrangements), imputations...

So why can’t the silver-tongued post-partisan healer seal the deal on this health-care business? Surely it should be the work of moments for the greatest orator in American history to whip up a little medicinal Gettysburg, a touch of Henry V-in-the-Agincourt-casualty-tent, and put this thing away. Yet there he was the other night with the usual leaden medley of tinny grandiosity (all the this-is-the-moment, now-is-the-hour stuff), slippery reassurances (don’t worry, you won’t be “required” to change your present health arrangements), imputations of bad faith to anyone who takes a different view (they’re playing “games”), and the copper-bottomed guarantee that you...

Eight Years On [Mark Steyn] No dynamic culture can stand still, so we shouldn't be surprised that fewer and fewer people, from the president down, find it harder and harder to remember quite what "the day that changed the world" was all about. Nevertheless, there is unfinished business — starting with that hole in the ground in lower Manhattan. As James Lileks says: That we couldn’t stand there eight years ago was their fault. That we cannot stand there today is ours. At Ground Zero and in that field in Pennsylvania, we broke faith with the dead. What a small...

Whenever I write about Europe and demography, I get a lot of mail on the general line of, “Oh, yeah, Steyn? When will Muslims be 50.01 per cent of the population then? 2020? 2030? C’mon, you scaremonger…” And I usually reply that it’s not about hitting 50 per cent. It’s about the point at which mediating between the Muslim population and the broader population becomes a central and then the dominant feature of the culture. In Northern Ireland, the Loyalists outnumbered the Republicans by two to one more or less, but an arithmetical majority didn’t prevent 30 years of, to...

For some reason the usual link isn't working so Mark Steyn's post is below.

September 05, 2009, 7:00 a.m. The Omnipresent LeaderThey want us to “pledge to be a servant to our president”? By Mark Steyn On Friday, I had the rare honor of appearing in the pages of the New York Times, apropos President Obama’s plans to beam himself into every schoolhouse in the land in the peculiar belief that Generation iPod will find this an enthralling technical novelty. As Times reporters James C. McKinley Jr. and Sam Dillon wrote: “Mark Steyn, a Canadian author and political commentator, speaking on the Rush Limbaugh show on Wednesday, accused Mr. Obama of trying to...

What’s next in surveillance-happy Britain? Cameras in private homes? Actually, yes. To passing tourists, catching yet another government poster apprising you of electronic surveillance looming in the distance, the initials “CCTV” can be oddly reminiscent of “CCCP,” the Cyrillicized abbreviation for the U.S.S.R. CCTV is the United Kingdom’s ubiquitous acronym. Nobody needs to be told what it stands for. It accompanies you as you make your way to work, whether by car, bus, train, or taxi. And it’s there waiting for you at the end of your shift, as you go to buy your groceries or head to the movies....

So the WH pulls back on it's "lesson plan" and we're just to accept that at face value????

Here is audio of Mark Steyn filling in for Rush Limbaugh today where he said Barack Obama and Harry Reid were "invested in defeat in Iraq," wanting America to fail in Iraq. He was pointing out their false outrage at calls by Rush Limbaugh for Obama to fail in his radical agenda. Steyn said Democrats used Afghanistan and painted it as the "good war" for the purpose of attacking U.S. involvement in Iraq. But now that Obama is President, he is faced with having to make good on his promise to succeed in Afghanistan. . . . . (Watch Video)

A welcome breath of fresh air from Mark Davis.