Free Republic

The Founders did not Grant the Federal Judiciary the Power to Interpret the Constitution By Robert Greenslade © Nitwit Press March 29, 2004 Several prominent conservative commentators have stated that it is critical to re-elect George W. Bush because presidents have a direct voice in the appointment of federal judges and these judges “have the power to interpret the Constitution.” Since most Americans have been carefully indoctrinated in a federally funded education camp masquerading as an institution of higher learning, most people, including conservative media pundits, only have a vague understanding of the system of government established by the Constitution....

Does a President have the Constitutional Authority to initiate a Military Conflict as Commander in Chief? Analysis By Robert Greenslade - Sierra Times.com With a military conflict against Iraq apparently only days away, the power of the president, as commander in chief, continues to be debated by political pundits in the media. Several commentators claim the president does not need any congressional authorization to initiate military actions against another country because the president is the commander in chief of the military forces of the United States. This is a total misconception of the commander in chief powers. A president does...

Dispelling the Myths By Al Benson, Jr. Published 02. 9. 03 at 23:42 Sierra Time As February is black history month and also the month that Abraham Lincoln was born in a few observations regarding the issue of slavery might be appropriate. My friend Walter (Donnie) Kennedy has just had a book published called "Myths of American Slavery" (Pelican Publishing, Gretna, Louisiana) in which he deals with this touchy subject in such a way as to dispel many of the popular myths that have sprung up to become part of our "national legend" if you will. In our politically correct...

Most People Agree... by Lady Liberty Published 11. 3. 02 at 18:09 Sierra Time As we consider the issues and candidates in this year's elections, it seems an appropriate time to remember one salient detail about the political system in our country: we do NOT live in a democracy. As simple as that fact may be, many people tend to forget it. A lot of them are politicians. In recent years, politicians - up to and including the President - have developed the habit of peppering their speeches with the phrase, "the American people believe" or "the American people want"...

The Sniper and the Keystone Cops: Another Case of Why Gun Control is Evil by William L. Anderson The Beltway Snipers’ murder spree ended the other night at a rest stop that I frequent on my way home after teaching an MBA economics class in Frederick, Maryland. It is a good thing the killers were asleep and unaware that others at the stop had called the police, because had they escaped, most likely they would still be at large. Journalists who populate the Beltway area are second in their love for statism only to the North Korean propagandists, and soon...

Call To New America, Part 8 Last Call By Wayne Hicks Published 10. 21. 02 at 19:29 Sierra Time When I wrote my last “Call To New America” article, I thought it would be the last one -- but then some new thoughts occurred to me, and one more had to be written. I promise that this one will be the last in the series. I’m not going to try to sell you any land, this time. Those who are interested in throwing their lot in with me and the many others who will not surrender our rights can easily...

Hey! Imagine That! by Sean Corrigan The debate about quite who was responsible for the Bubble continues in the Jackson Hole Fed get-together, amid much self-exculpatory hogwash from Sir Al and a deal of sound sense from the Europeans and Japanese. But the Fed, like all such institutions, doesn’t eat its own, so criticism from that venerable old curmudgeon of the 1980s bond market, Dr Doom himself, Henry Kaufman – that Greenspan could have done more to keep stock prices in check by making a public statement to the effect that Wall Street had pushed itself to irrational levels –...

THE QUANDARY OF SAFETY My dictionary defines this fascinating word with two other words, perplexity and uncertainty. It almost sounds like an enigma within an enigma. For this essay, safety is defined as the state of being safe from the risk of experiencing loss. Is cash under the mattress safe? It is from some hazards but not others. It has the advantage that the owner can check it as often as necessary. Unfortunately there are few other places for your assets that are so accessible. One of the major problems that exists today is that some former means of insuring...

Property Rights? What Property Rights? By Jeff Adams Published 08. 23. 02 at 20:55 Sierra Time A fundamental aspect of freedom and liberty in America is property rights. By property rights, I mean that one has a fundamental right to purchase property and own that property in its entirety. If I own a piece of property, free and clear, then my sole ownership of that property permits me to do with it as I will, and I shouldn't have to answer to anyone else about it unless I am intruding on another's rights. What kind of "property" am I talking...

<p>Here's a question for constitutional scholars: Can a sitting president be charged with plagiarism?</p> <p>As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is "1984, " the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism -- not a how-to manual.</p>

Bonds up, dollar flops Treasurys rise on weakness in equities futures; dollar drops against euro, yen. June 24, 2002: 9:28 AM EDT NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. Treasurys climbed across the curve early Monday -- with equities futures pointed to a down open for stocks -- while the dollar continued to sink. The dollar sank to a two-year low against the euro and was weaker against the yen following a Bank of Japan intervention to stop the yen's rise. Around 9:25 a.m. ET, two-year notes rose 2/32 of a point to 100-26/32 to yield 2.81 percent, while 5-year notes rose...

Nat Hentoff 'All of Us Are in Danger' The Sons and Daughters of Liberty n 1756, in Boston and other cities and towns, the coming of the American Revolution was speeded by mechanics, merchants, and artisans who organized against British tyranny. Calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, they set up committees of correspondence in the colonies to spread detailed news about British attacks on their liberties. They focused on the general search warrant, which allowed customs officers to invade and ransack their homes and offices at will. In the spirit of the Sons of Liberty, on February 4 of this...

Betrayal of the Public Trust by Gary North We are all dependent on each other to some degree. The free market is a gigantic system of interdependence. There are degrees of dependence, of course. But every buyer and every seller has some influence on a particular price. So do our perceptions of what each other might do under slightly different circumstances – say, a price hike or reduction of 10%. What we personally know about any one tool in our lives is minuscule. Compared to what some primitive hunter knows about his spear or his traps, we know almost nothing...

Democracy Doesn't Work! By Ray Thomas Copyright © 2002 Published 06. 16. 02 at 22:34 Sierra Time HEINLEIN WAS RIGHT What most people don't realize about Robert Heinlein, the dean of American science fiction writers, is that he was an individualist and a philosopher, in addition to being a superlative writer of fiction that enthralls. In his book, "Time Enough for Love," most of the book was taken up by the fascinating reminiscences of Lazarus Long, his 2,000-year-old hero. And almost every word out of his mouth was philosophy 101. Some examples: "I don't trust a man who talks about...

June 11, 2002 PC shield for terrorists My Sept. 12 column predicted that the United States would prove to be too "politically correct" to be able to deal with the terrorist threat. The admission that I was right came on June 6 from FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, when according to The Washington Times, he told Congress that fears of racial profiling did impede the FBI's terrorism investigation of Arab men. After admitting that the FBI was too politically correct to do its job, Mueller gave Congress assurances -- to the great relief of Wisconsin Democrat Russell D. Feingold...

An Atlanta police officer accidentally shot himself to death in his Clayton County home Wednesday afternoon. Atlanta police Officer Remon Ingram, 26, of Arctic Court, near Morrow, apparently shot himself to death with a .380-caliber pistol just before 5 p.m., Clayton County police spokesman Maj. Doug Jewett said. "He was apparently showing the gun to a girlfriend," Jewett said. Ingram had been with the Atlanta Police Department for five years in the department's Field Operations Division, Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley said. ©The News Daily 2002

Cuttin' through the Bull #117 PROTECTING YOUR CHILDREN By Ray Thomas Copyright © 2002 Published 06. 9. 02 at 13:43 Sierra Time They forced the children to take Nyquil to make them sleep. The children were forced to live in one room that contained no furniture so they had to sleep on the floor. They had no access to bathrooms and were forced to "do their business" right there on the floor and live in the stink. They yelled slurs at them, and videotaped them being physically and sexually abused. Should the child protectors snatch these children from these abusive...

The Anti-Gun Crowd On The March Again By Sheriff Michael E. Cook Published 06. 4. 02 at 20:48 Sierra Time I got a request by e-mail to go to a web site and vote on a poll to give my opinion on the discussion in Congress on a law that would close the Gun Show Loophole. I went to the site and voted and then I got to thinking about the word loophole. My question would be what loophole? How can Congress vote on something that doesn't exist? I have been going to, or putting on Gun Shows for years...

The Great Problem-Solver by Joseph Sobran Early this month the respected investor Warren Buffett, reputedly the second richest man on earth, said that a nuclear attack on this country is “virtually a certainty.” Vice President Dick Cheney says more terrorist attacks are sure to come – it’s a matter of when, not if – and FBI Director Robert Mueller adds that suicide bombings here, like those afflicting Israel, are “inevitable.” We are told that another major al-Qaeda operation, of unknown but probably unpleasant nature, may be in the offing. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has added his own grim warning, more...

The War on Cash by Russell Madden As a communication instructor and informal philosopher, I find it fascinating — if a bit disheartening, at times — to see how different groups of people can examine the same set of facts and reach diametrically opposed interpretations of what those facts imply. For example, few dispute the notion that the Drug War frequently results in excessive violence among dealers, degraded lives of users, burgeoning prisons, and enriched thugs who then use their money to corrupt police and judges. The pro-Drug War crowd appeals to those negative results to justify such draconian policies...