FGF-Books

Wilder and His Betters

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:14:00 -0400

A classic by Joseph Sobran
Billy Wilder's death at 95 summoned generous eulogies, and most of them rang true. He was an excellent writer-director, one of Hollywood's rare originals. At his best — in perhaps a dozen of his many films — he displayed a caustic wit unusual in that sentimental, formulaic medium. And who else in the film industry could have produced movies as different as DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE APARTMENT?

A Federal Judge Ignores Truth Part II: He Rewrites History

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:52:30 -0400

by Charles G. Mills
In an earlier column, I described how Judge Vaughn R. Walker took sex out of marriage in order to hold that requiring spouses to be of the opposite sex unconstitutionally denied both a fundamental right and the equal protection of the laws. In the process, he made a series of findings of fact about history that are simply false.

Iraqi Constitution Doomed to Failure

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:08:07 -0400

by Jon Basil Utley
Washington waits and waits while constantly demanding that Iraq’s government function properly—that its leaders compromise and work together, that it at least provide electricity, trash pick-up, and minimal services to its citizens. Yet all this is impossible because of the structure of government America set up there. Hopelessly dysfunctional, it was doomed from the start.

A Federal Judge Ignores Truth Part I: He Takes Sex Out of Marriage

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:08:07 -0400

by Charles G. Mills
After a two-week trial with 19 witnesses, Vaughn R. Walker, the Chief Judge of the Northern District of California, issued a 136-page decision holding that the California constitutional provision limiting marriage to a man and a woman violates the Constitution of the United States.

The Fourteenth Amendment and The Flag

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:09:23 -0400

by Charles G. Mills
Many law school professors, political scientists, constitutional lawyers, and liberal journalists hold the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in such awe and reverence that they must think it was handed down on Mount Sinai. The truth is that its adoption was tainted because it was accomplished by military force and three-quarters of the states did not provide simultaneous consent.

Confronting Washington’s Job-Killers

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:03:04 -0400

by Jon Basil Utley
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The news that the Environmental Protection Agency prevented early clean-up of floating oil in the Gulf by refusing to waive its “clean water” limit of 15 parts per million should make us all focus on the job killing structure in Washington, D.C. Just three days after the BP spill, the Dutch government offered their oil-skimming ships and ocean oil-cleansing technology, but were rejected because the cleaned ocean water would not reach the EPA’s limits of being 99.9985 percent pure. Imagine if even half the oil had been skimmed off; the rest probably would not have even reached shore because oil degrades quickly in warm ocean water.

Idealism versus Freedom

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:00:59 -0400

A classic by Joe Sobran
Of all the apocryphal sayings ascribed to our Founding Fathers, my favorite is one attributed to George Washington: "Government is not reason. It is not persuasion. It is force." If he never said it, he should have.

Everyone who believes in a moral order should ponder those eleven words.

The Big Tent Is a Big Lie

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:09:13 -0400

by Charles G. Mills
Every four years, the professional politicians and their con-artist employees who run the media extravaganza that passes for a Republican Convention talk about a “big tent.” To them, a “big tent” is a metaphor for a Republican Party that welcomes those who want to bump off unborn babies and old people, abolish the idea that it takes a man and a woman to make a marriage, and destroy public decency.

Eisenhower and Faubus

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:42:41 -0400

by Charles G. Mills

Racial segregation of the schools was not always a part of Southern life. But as the Progressives and Populists took power early in the 20th century, it became pervasive for over 50 years.
In May 1954, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation is unconstitutional in all cases.

The State and Heresy

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:32:03 -0400

A classic by Joe Sobran
In recent weeks I've been debating with people I usually agree with: conservative Christians. Many of them feel I've gone too far in the direction of philosophical anarchism, in defiance of both Scripture and Catholic teaching.

One reader, a self-identified Catholic socialist, went so far as to call my views "heresy."

The Conquered Banner

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:50:51 -0400

by Charles G. Mills
A campaign of hatred and vilification of the Confederate flag is underway on the grounds that the flag does not conform to 21st-century standards of racial equality. The flag in question was never actually a national flag of the Confederacy. It was officially designated as the flag of regiments of the Confederate States Army and called the “Battle Flag.” Ironically, after a protracted battle to get the Battle Flag removed from the state flag of Georgia, Georgia finally adopted a new flag. This new flag, which was acceptable to the haters of the Confederate flag, was closely modeled on the first flag of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars.

A Venture in Triviality

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:04:47 -0400

by Charles G. Mills
In August 1945, Time Magazine published a letter from William F. Buckley, Jr., that made a connection between Catholicism and anti-communism. Buckley eventually became chairman of the Yale Daily News and founder of National Review, the catalyst for late-twentieth-century conservatism. Many people believe that the magazine’s mission ended with the election of Ronald Reagan as President; the truth is that its mission faded long before that.