Free Republic

The official Chinese government news agency, Xinhua, has demanded the US immediately adopt stricter gun control measures to reduce the number of firearms the US populace is permitted to possess. The Chinese state-controlled media’s statement, titled (“Innocent Blood Demands No Delay for US Gun Control,”) is primarily focused on the Newtown tragedy in which 26 Americans were killed by a mad gunman. Twenty of the victims were young children. The Chinese government stated, “Their blood and tears demand no delay for the U.S. gun control.” In an apparent effort to restrict information to their populace, the Chinese government wrote of...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures Buckler2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 18:2, Psalm 18:30, Proverbs 2:7 1. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. 2. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

If there is one virtue voters had every reason to expect from Barack Obama, it is a strong sense of social justice. Yet somehow the one-time community organizer has dropped that ball when it comes to the exercise of his constitutional power to pardon individuals who have committed federal offenses. With only one sentence commutation and 22 pardons (for offenders who served their time), Obama has the lowest pardon rate of any modern president. This week Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz informed the Department of Justice that the president's pardon attorney, Ronald Rodgers, withheld information that could have led to...

The film "Casablanca" has many famous lines, but none more immortal than Capt. Renault's order after seeing a Nazi officer shot by Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine: "Round up the usual suspects." He issues that command to give the impression he's trying to solve the crime. In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the Renault approach is alive and well. The three suspects commonly cited are the purported danger of certain firearms, mentally ill individuals and modern forms of entertainment. They all make plausible culprits, until you look closely. The first is our old nemesis the "assault weapon." The Newtown...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Psalm 18:2 1. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. 2. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. God Bless America!

The new political-newspeak-flavor-of-the-month is swirling around the gun control debate, and that word is "defeatist." I've been called that several times over the past week, always from Democrats who support stricter gun control regulations and even firearm bans. Just the other day, I read an article in which President Obama actually used the term "defeatist," which pretty much solidified that word in the vernacular of every blue dog Democrat who loves using political buzzwords. Instead of calling it the "gun control debate," perhaps we should resort to calling it the "War on Defeatists," since such catchy phrases like that seem...

IT IS REMARKABLE how confident so many people are that they know what causes – and just how to prevent – horrific massacres like Friday's bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. In a TV interview over the weekend, one observer insisted that the mass-murder in Newtown was all too predictable, given America's failure to implement an obvious and desperately overdue reform. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?" this individual demanded, showing no hint of uncertainty about exactly what needs to be fixed. Who was that? Was it Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel,...

On Monday, the U.S. Senate got its newest member and lost its most senior member. The newest senator is South Carolina Rep. Tim Scott, whom Gov. Nikki Haley said she would appoint to fill the vacancy caused by the pending resignation of Jim DeMint. The most senior senator was Hawaii's Daniel Inouye, who died at 88 just a few hours after Haley's announcement. Much has been made of the fact that Scott will be the only black senator and the first black Republican senator since Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, who was elected in 1966 and 1978. Haley noted that fact...

This Bible Study offers thoughts about how to move away from violence and mayhem, where the Lord is in all this, and what His life on earth did (and did not) do for us.I can field questions or comments here or feel free to use Spirit and Life Bible Study on Facebook

CNN's Piers Morgan has been on a rabid anti-gun rant since July's Aurora, Colorado, shootings that has gotten even more venomous after Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. On Tuesday, he rudely and disgracefully tore into guest Larry Pratt, the Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, calling him "an unbelievably stupid man" who's "dangerous," concluding the interview by saying, "You shame your country" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BANGKOK -- Most of us can read about sex trafficking with a sense of detachment. It is only when we see its results up close that we are forced to confront the full extent of its horror. Nana Plaza is one of several "red light" districts in Bangkok. It is less than two blocks from my upscale hotel, but worlds away from it, a distance, you could say, separating Heaven from Hell. Girls -- and that's what many of them are -- wear almost nothing. They are there to please. My guide points out a three-story structure. "The higher you...

So I’m reading this email teaser from National Journal’s Influence Alley called Spending Cuts Added to Plan B that says: “In a bid to win more support for Republican House Speaker John Boehner's Plan B to cut taxes for everyone but millionaires, GOP leaders are adding a second bill that would reduce the deficit and avoid the sequester, a GOP leadership aide told the Alley.” So first I’m thinking “What tax cut?” Doesn’t a tax cut necessitate some sort of tax “cutting” action? The net result of the proposal is to increase taxes for some. If these guys worked on...

Television audiences across China watched an anarchist antihero rebel against a totalitarian government and persuade the people to rule themselves. Soon the Internet was crackling with quotes of “V for Vendetta’s” famous line: “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” The airing of the movie Friday night on China Central Television stunned viewers and raised hopes that China is loosening censorship. … The 2005 movie, based on a comic book, is set in an imagined future Britain with a fascist government. The protagonist wears a mask of Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century English...

The unimaginable horror of Sandy Hook jumpstarts another "national conversation" about firearm violence. President Barack Obama, promising "meaningful action," said: "We will have to change. ... We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end." Let's examine four of the "commonsense" measures frequently proposed by "gun control advocates": One, closing the "gun show loophole." What gun show loophole? Restricted from selling at guns shows prior to 1986, a licensed dealer today requires a background check whether he sells guns at a store, a gun show or the back of his SUV. Two, banning "high-capacity" magazines. One of the firearms...

Having seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt. The rise of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organisation last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel. Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".apopemptic \ap-uh-PEMP-tik\, adjective 1. Pertaining to leave-taking or departing; valedictory.noun:1. Obsolete. A farewell address; valedictory. Example sentences:The others followed suit and, politely apopemptic, vanished into the night.-- Sōseki Natsume, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson, I Am a Cat Only to the fool who believes all truths debatable, who believes true virtue resides not in men but in eulogies, true sorrow not in partings but in apopemptic hymns…-- John Gardner, Jason and Medeia Etymology: Rising to...

France’s parliament has passed a contentious budget for next year that includes a raft of new taxes aimed slashing the country’s deficit and putting it on the path to economic recovery. …

Click on link.

A scathing report into the BBC's handling of a shelved Newsnight exposé of Jimmy Savile revealed a culture of "suspicion and mistrust" at the corporation, riven by factions and in-fighting with "rigid management chains" that rendered it "completely incapable" of dealing with the scandal when it was exposed. One senior BBC executive resigned and another three were moved from their jobs following the publication of the 185-page report by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News. After a six-week inquiry that examined more than 10,000 emails and other documents and interviewed 19 people, at a cost of £2m, Pollard...