Free Republic

A shooting rampage that left a pregnant woman, her 3-year-old daughter, and seven others dead on Friday near the capital of the Philippines illustrates that the United States isn’t the only nation facing problems with gun violence. The alleged gunman had been on an alcohol and methamphetamine binge for the past week and had just returned home “because of a marital problem,” reports the Associated Press. The shooting spree began in a neighborhood outside Manila. The gunman was killed in a shootout with police.... Illegal gun ownership and gun trade in the Philippines are also problems. Filipinos are required by...

Attention national media: You know Martin O'Malley, defender of the underdog. It's time to get to know Martin O'Malley, thug. The Maryland governor, widely rumored to harbor presidential aspirations, canonized himself in the progressive movement... during his many appearances on national cable TV news during election season as President Barack Obama's surrogate. But the man who says that we should celebrate diversity cannot tolerate those who oppose his political viewpoints. Here are three examples from the past year...

The left-wing title provoked anger by quoting a convicted paedophile’s view that sex between a man and a child can be consensual — and not cause harm. And it repeated controversial research that as many as one in five men is “capable of being sexually aroused by children". The article, by feature writer Jon Henley, also stated that pervert Jimmy Savile was technically NOT a paedophile but an ephebophile — someone attracted to adolescents. Cops believe he may have abused up to 300 victims. Stunned readers blasted the story online. Henry Evans accused the paper of publishing “essentially pro-paedophile propaganda”....

This photograph, released by the White House on Thursday, reveals the terrible moment when President Barack Obama was told the shocking news about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The President, who has described the day of the shootings as the ‘worst day of my presidency,’ is seen bowing his head and closing his eyes as John Brennan, his deputy national security adviser, informs him about the tragic events unfolding in Newtown, Connecticut. In the wake of the tragedy, the president has tasked his deputy Joe Biden with leading a task force to look at proposals to tighten current...

The late night drama cast Senator Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden as heroes. They did what Obama and Boehner failed to do, come together on an agreement to limit the bite of the fiscal cliff's tax hikes. That agreement led to bipartisan Senate action. But the appearance of the Senate coming to the rescue obscures the fact the Senate has recklessly refused to act for months, sitting on the House-passed bill to avert the tax hikes, H.R.8, for fully five months before jamming a massive amendment through when there was no time to consider any changes, or even...

Legislate in haste ... repent at leisure. In their haste to rid Americans of the unconscionable plague of perfectly safe if somewhat inefficient incandescent lighting, politicians in Washington have forced us to adopt more expensive technology in its place. Compact flourescent lighting (CFLs) are already known to be a considerable disposal risk, thanks to the mercury used in them. A new study reported earlier this week by Miami's CBS affiliate warns of an operational risk as well ... ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancers and even acute burns (via Katie Pavlich): Every time you turn on the lights, you...

So you want a trillion dollar platinum coin? Ok: here are some facts: •Platinum has traditionally been the most valuable precious metal for one simple reason: it is rare. •It is so rare, that all the platinum ever mined could fit into a 25 cubic foot box.

#WhyIsMyPaycheckLessThisWeek because Obama Phones and birth control are more important than reducing the debt. #WhyIsMyPaycheckLessThisWeek Because Congress read the legislation as attentively as you did. #WhyIsMyPaycheckLessThisWeek Because you didn't do your homework before voting. Because you are one of the many millionaires and billionaires that are earning $50-$250k Because Obama family vacations don't pay themselves, comrade. Because funding the Muslim Brotherhood is more important than putting food on your table. So Michelle Obama can wear $6800 jackets to meet the Queen of England. because it's racist to not pay your "fair share." Because you thought more about your American Idol...

What if the threat of a voluntary default by the United States could be erased by simply turning one tiny scrap of platinum into a coin? That's right. No debt ceiling problem. No bickering in Congress. No market jitters. The only thing needed is for the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion. Of course, this is not going to happen. Creating money out of thin air is hardly a solution. It could lead to even more concerns from those worried about inflation. Critics of the Federal Reserve's monetary easing programs would likely...

The disastrous 2012 election and embarrassing fiscal cliff standoff has brought forth one principal conclusion from establishment Republicans: They have a primary problem.The intra-party contests, or threat thereof, have become the original sin that explains many of the party’s woes in the minds of GOP leaders. It’s the primaries that push their presidential nominees far to the right (see “self-deportation” and “47 percent”); produce lackluster Senate candidates (Todd Akin has almost become a one-word shorthand); and, as seen most vividly in the last two weeks, dissuade scores of gerrymandered House members from face-saving compromise while politically emasculating their speaker.What to...

A German minister is calling for children to be given the vote, it was reported on Thursday. He said that excluding the country’s 13 million under-18s was “absurd”, triggering a backlash from other politicians. Dirk Niebel, Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), “We must give children a voice—in elections as well.” The current age limit on voting in Germany is 18, which, he said, was “completely inappropriate”, although he was not specific about when he wanted children to be given suffrage. On a practical level, the Free Democrat (FDP) politician said that parents could...

The National Jewish Democratic Council are getting their panties in a bunch over the selection of Rand Paul to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claiming his anti-foreign aid position is anti-Israel (no comment from them though on their President's belief that much of the Jerusalem area should be Judenrein). You would think that a press release that "expresses outrage" over someone who is a "radical ideologue" with a "deeply disturbing record" would have more to say about that person than he wants us to send less money overseas. No money quotes? No taking the side of Hezbollah in the Israel-Lebanon...

A radical new kind of airship funded by the US military is about to make its first test flight - and it looks uncannily like the Thunderbird 2 craft from the classic TV show. The Aeroscraft airship will carry three times as much as the biggest military cargo planes over thousands of miles, use a third of the fuel, and it doesn't even need a landing strip. It could also have major implications for cargo haulage, and almost everything now laboriously transported across the planet's surface by boat, train and lorry could within years be carried through the skies, its...

Middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 under the new fiscal cliff deal, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Earners in the latter group will pay an average 1.3 percent more - or an additional $2,711 - in taxes this year, while workers making between $30,000 and $200,000 will see their paychecks shrink by as much as 1.7 percent - or up to $1,784 - the D.C.-based think tank reported. Overall, nearly 80 percent of households will pay more money to the federal government as a result of...

A newspaper based in White Plains that drew nationwide anger after publishing the names and addresses of handgun permit holders last month is being guarded by armed security personnel at two of its offices, the publisher said Wednesday. The increased security comes as the newspaper, The Journal News, has promised to forge ahead with plans to expand its interactive map of permit holders to include a third county in the suburbs of New York City, and local officials there have vowed to block the records’ release. The armed guards — hired from local private security companies — have been stationed...

Republican Bruce Castor who has expressed interest in taking on Gov. Tom Corbett in the 2014 GOP gubernatorial primary said Wednesday's announcement a lawsuit against the NCAA over Penn State's sanction "smacks of political gamesmanship and ‘too little too late.'" The lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court seeks to have the court lift the sanctions that were imposed on Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

HARTFORD — Josemaria Islas, an undocumented immigrant from New Haven, had his deportation case continued for two months Thursday as advocates continue to push for the government to let him remain in the country through the use of prosecutorial discretion. Islas, who came here from Mexico, has been living and working in New Haven for the past seven years, contributing to the support of his sister’s family, which includes three children.

Alliance Defending Freedom recently settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of Julea Ward, a former graduate student at Eastern Michigan University who was expelled from her counseling program after refusing to violate her religious beliefs. Media reports have unfortunately suggested that Julea’s lawsuit involved her refusal to counsel a client because he identified as gay: this is untrue. Instead, her case involved her religious objection to being forced to provide counseling about sexual relationships outside of marriage, an objection which applies equally to homosexual and heterosexual clients. Her objection is to providing counseling on certain topics, not to counseling any...

ADOLF HITLER'S PLOT TO BOMB NEW YORK Newly discovered papers reveal the Nazis’ most bizarre plan – sending manned rockets into space to attack America. The head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goering banged his fi st on the table in anger. He needed a dynamic new scheme to catch the Fuhrer’s eye. In the warped world of the Third Reich, competition between the German army and the German air force – the Luftwaffe – was fierce. Under Adolf Hitler’s power-crazed dictatorial leadership senior Nazis vied and tussled for infl uence throughout the Second World War. At the end of 1941,...

On New Year’s Day, several on-duty plain clothes officers were dining at a Belleville, Ill. Denny’s, when a customer complained to the manager that one of the officers was carrying a gun. The Denny’s manager told the officer she would have to leave or put the gun in her car, as guns are not allowed on their premises. “It’s absolutely a slap in the face I totally agree it’s completely disrespectful,” Belleville Police Captain Don sax said in a KTVI Fox2 report. “I’ve never known anybody that didn’t want a police officer present in an establishment in a business...

Gay clergy in civil partnerships will be allowed to become bishops if they are sexually abstinent, according to new policyThe Church of England has agreed that gay clergy in civil partnerships can become bishops so long as they remain sexually abstinent, a decision that looks set to reopen one of the church's most bitter internal debates. The decision was taken in mid-December by the House of Bishops, the section of the General Synod which is responsible for church teaching. A summary of the meeting was placed on the church's website on 20 December but the change to policy was buried...

A key state lawmaker is pressing for stronger pool safety measures in Connecticut schools following the deaths of 2 students in swim classes last year. The Hartford Courant reports that state Rep. Stephen D. Dargan a West Haven Democrat who is House chairman of the Public Safety Committee, is introducing legislation to establish a uniform policy on school pool safety to reduce hazards. The newspaper said its review last year found that safety standards in children's swim classes vary throughout Connecticut. They range from stringent requirements governing state-licensed organizations and youth camps to more vague guidelines in public schools. Manchester...

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced two reparations resolutions on the first day of the 113th Congress. The first, H.R. 40, is “to acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.” The second, H.R. 98, is “to provide a remedy for...

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A nation coming apart at the seams, rent by strife and factionalism. Founding principles are jettisoned, replaced by a cynical “will to power” that engenders graft and corruption. The people, having rejected moral traditions and embraced relativism, become obsessed with sex, heartily applauding sexual anarchy and perversion. Monogamy is disregarded, and marriage as an institution begins to disintegrate. A declining birthrate threatens eventual extinction as the use of contraceptives and abortion abounds as a means to limit the number of children. Unemployment grows and a flagging creative spirit haunts a once robust economy. All these symptoms of a sick society...

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of Central Intelligence, and vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council.  He is widely credited as having been the first senior official to predict the fall of the Soviet Union. He’s also, written a number of good books (including How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill, and The Cure for Poverty: It’s the Free Market: History’s Greatest Invention), plus he often speaks to groups of business executives. Recently he took time out of his busy schedule to sit down across a Skype connection with me,...

The odd-year gubernatorial election of what now feels like a solidly purple Virginia (…dagger) could potentially serve as a bellwether of which way the national attitude is trending after almost a year into President Obama’s second term, and conservative Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will be facing former DNC chief Terry McAuliffe in what will likely be a pretty rough race.One of the items on which the Obama administration has already started moving “forward” in the more politically safe second-term-secured atmosphere is all of the regulations on which they were rather conspicuously holding back before the election, with the Environmental Protection...

An unruly passenger who got drunk and belligerent on a Kennedy Airport-bound intercontinental flight yesterday was subdued by passengers and taped to his seat the rest of the way, according to witness reports. The passenger, who was on an Icelandair flight, “drank all of his duty-free liquor on the flight,” tried to “choke the woman next to him” and was “screaming the plane was going to crash,” according to passenger Andy Ellwood, who snapped the man’s photo and posted it to his blog.

Everyone has a weakness. For me, it’s salted caramel ice cream. For my dog, Lulu, it’s expensive shoes. For most cats, it’s catnip. Here are five things every cat lover should know about this mysterious product that drives cats batty.   1. Catnip is an actual plant. A member of the mint family, Nepeta cataria L. (aka catnip) grows throughout the United States. The plant features small, lavender flowers and jagged, heart-shaped leaves that smell faintly of mint.   2. It’s easy to grow. Cat lovers who possess a green thumb can grow catnip from seed after the last hard...

The side that controls the language of an argument controls the argument, and the side that takes and maintains the offensive controls the entire conflict. The enemy must then react to our actions instead of making us react to his, and continue to react until he is no longer capable of fighting. We are indeed at war with an adversary with whom good faith and win-win negotiation are not possible. Recognize Incrementalism for What It Is Incrementalism is the process whereby an aggressor who cannot achieve his entire long-term objective immediately will seek to do it a piece at a...

I have noticed a number of stories lately about fascias petitions being started at this WH web site. I love it. An opportunity to make a humorous point and skewer this pompous web site at the same time. Lets start a Freeper petition there. Ideas?

WXIX-TV Tucson reporter Ben Swann takes a look at what he called the "politically incorrect" truth about the Second Amendment. In his "Reality Check" segment for the local FOX affiliate, Swann explains the true intention behind the Second Amendment. "This is where American history becomes very politically incorrect because the Second Amendment was not drafted for hunting, or just self defense from an attacker. The Second Amendment was put into place to guarantee the rights of the individual to be equally armed as military, both foreign and domestic, in the event that the citizenry might actually, at some point, have...

The Electoral College vote was just completed in Congress, following results of the 2012 election. It is available at CSPN's video library page Unlike the reading in prior years, there was no call for objections from VP Joe Biden at the podium! (About 20:00 in, is when objections could have been heard) http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Countin

Connecticut State Representative Stephen D. Dargan (D-New Haven), co-chairman of the state’s Public Safety Committee, has introduced a bill that would make public the names and addresses of gun permit holders in Connecticut under the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Dargan’s bill is in response to the Dec. 14th shootings in the Sandy Hook School in Newtown, CT, and also occurs as a Westchester County, NY newspaper, the Journal News, is drawing widespread, nationwide anger for publishing a map with the names and addresses of gun permit holders. The bill, if passed, would reverse the state legislature’s decision, made...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and...

Congratulations, genuises. Turns out you’re rich! America: You break it, you buy it. Twitchy.com has more reaction as Obama voters get their latest, smaller paychecks. The next time an Obamabot complains about taxes, or rising prices, or falling wages, or anything else having to do with the money coming out of his own pocket, you just need to ask him one question: “Why are you so greedy?” P.S. Trending: #WhyIsMyPaycheckLessThisWeek P.P.S. “What. Happened? You reelected a lying SCOAMF. That’s what happened.”

(CNSNews.com) – Government unemployment numbers for December showed that while the general unemployment rate remained flat at 7.8 percent, unemployment for women and African-Americans rose despite an economy that created 155,000 jobs. Unemployment for women rose to 7.3 percent in December from 7.0 percent while the rate for African-Americans rose sharply to 14.0 percent from 13.2 percent in November.

EL-ARISH, Egypt January 4, 2013 (AP)Egyptian authorities seized six U.S.-made missiles in the Sinai Peninsula Friday that security officials said were likely smuggled from Libya and bound for the Gaza Strip. Libya's 2011 uprising and subsequent civil war left the country awash in weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and other munitions. Since the end of the country's eight-month conflict, smugglers have transferred some of the weapons to Islamic militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which has faced a security vacuum since the country's own uprising, and from there onward in underground tunnels to neighboring Gaza. Security officials said that police...

Lawrence W. Schonbrun, the executive director of Class Action Watch, is not a fan of the plaintiff lawyers who purport to represent the little guy, and in an op-ed piece for The Washington Times claims as a general matter that the "class action system was meant to protect us from businesses that cheat large numbers of people out of small amounts of money" but "the cruel irony . . . is that class action lawyers inflict the very harm the class action was intended to remedy." Schonbrun once practiced as a plaintiff's class action lawyer until he saw the light...

FULL TITLE: More than 100 children rescued from clutches of pedophiles in ground-breaking raid across 19 states that saw 245 arrested More than 100 children have been rescued from the clutches of pedophiles after a massive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency raid. The ground-breaking investigation - named 'Operation Sunflower' - was executed America-wide between November 2012 and the first week of December, and resulted in 245 arrests. A total of 123 sexually exploited children were identified by ICE agents working with Homeland Security Investigations by targeting people who own, trade and produce child pornography. Of those, 44 victims were...

White House petition calls for Joe Biden reality show By Justin Sink - 01/04/13 01:01 PM ET A new petition on the White House's website is calling for a reality show starring Joe Biden, a day after the vice president's jokes at a Senate swearing-in ceremony became a viral Internet sensation. The petition says the program would feature "the daily activities and interactions of the Vice President with elected officials, foreign dignitaries and everyday American families" along with "a glimpse of the lighthearted side of politics." "Vice President Joe Biden has a demonstrated ability to bring people together, whether at...

Government unemployment numbers for December showed that while the general unemployment rate remained flat at 7.8 percent, unemployment for women and African-Americans rose despite an economy that created 155,000 jobs. Unemployment for women rose to 7.3 percent in December from 7.0 percent while the rate for African-Americans rose sharply to 14.0 percent from 13.2 percent in November. Unemployment among African Americans has remained quite high throughout the sluggish economic recovery of the past several years, despite the steady decline in overall unemployment in the economy generally. The number of employed African Americans actually fell in December – a month that...

The numbers, brought to you by Breitbart, are real and from the FBI. I want to say I'm surprised, but I'm not...

ASPEN, Colo. — According to Todd Hartley, to enact new gun legislation in the U.S. would be to “shut the barn doors after the horse has already gotten out.” So in his weekly “I’m With Stupid” column in the Aspen Times on Friday — a column that Hartley claims is meant to encourage aspiring and current gun owners to “seek less violent ways to make up for your shortcomings” — the Basalt resident is attempting another method of gun control. He’s defaming the genitalia of gun owners. “If you own multiple guns or feel the need to possess a military-style...

What a wonderful life we had as kids, not a worry in the world.

Nato has begun to deploy Patriot missiles to Turkey to help Turkish troops repel attacks by missiles or aircraft from neighbouring Syria. The US European Command said its troops and equipment had started arriving in southern Turkey, and more would arrive in the coming days. Germany and the Netherlands are preparing to ship their Patriot batteries early next week. The six battery units are scheduled to be operational by the end of January. Nato approved the deployment of the surface-to-air missiles early last month, after a request from Turkey, amid "grave concerns" that Syria could use chemical weapons. Syria has...

Michelle Obama recently revealed that she and President Obama don’t give Christmas gifts to each other. They merely say, “We’re in Hawaii,” and that’s Christmas gift enough. But actually the present is from taxpayers, and it’s an expensive one. The total cost to taxpayers of Obama’s vacations to Hawaii since becoming president is likely in excess of $20 million, and possibly much, much more. During a time of budget deficits that threaten the nation’s security and its future, the Obamas have chosen to maintain a “family tradition” and vacation halfway around the world instead of finding far cheaper alternatives closer...

Two remarkable legal proceedings are currently wending their way through the federal criminal courts. The cases involve very different parties: Conrad Black, one of the most consequential public intellectuals and businessmen of our era, and James “Whitey” Bulger, a Boston-based alleged racketeer and serial murderer. But both cases highlight some of the same profound problems with the way federal prosecutorial business is done these days. In both cases, as in countless others, the feds have used certain techniques that virtually assure convictions of both the innocent and the guilty, the wealthy and the poor, the violent drug dealer and the...

Only days after U.S. Marine veteran Jon Hammar was thrown into a Mexican prison for carrying an antique shotgun into the country, gangsters in the jail warned him of his likely fate—beheading. “They threw every threat in the book at me,” Hammar said Thursday in his first public remarks since his release Dec. 21 after more than four months in prison. “They’d cut my head off, they told my family,” he said. The gangsters demanded money to let Hammar, 27, remain alive, and the beheading threat was a scare tactic that harkened back to his tours of duty as a...

Though “Coach is Right” rarely posts pieces not original with its staff writers, this letter from Marine Corporal Joshua Boston to California Senator Diane Feinstein concerning her proposed “assault weapons” ban must be the exception. For in just 200 words, Corporal Boston has captured both the essence of our nation’s existence and the courage which will be required of determined Americans if our nation is to endure. Senator Dianne Feinstein, I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to...