Free Republic

Bill Maher on Friday once again exposed himself as a total hypocrite. Minutes after telling his HBO Real Time panel "the Second Amendment is bulls--t," he admitted having two firearms in his house - "one upstairs and one down" - claiming, "As long as we live in the gun country, I ain’t giving up my gun"

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. President Obama's choice to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was approved by the Senate on a vote of 63-34, with thirteen Republicans voting to confirm him. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) created quite a stir with his 13-hour filibuster against the Brennan nomination. Not until he received written assurances from Attorney General Eric Holder that U.S. citizens would not be targeted for killing by drones on U.S. soil would the doughty Kentuckian stand down. Good for him. John Brennan then proceeded to take the Oath of Office, as administered by Vice...

CLEMENTE: “No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out. BURNETT: “So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible. CLEMENTE: “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.” >Snip< “All of that...

A new poll shows a willingness by 4 out of 10 Americans to give up some civil liberties to fight terrorism. But they don’t want the government eavesdropping on their cell phone calls or emails. … When it comes to security versus personal freedoms, 81 percent favor expanding use of cameras on streets and in public places. That's up 20 points since 2001. Seventy-nine percent favor using facial-recognition technology to search for suspected terrorists at public events. …

Among the many thoughtful details that the founders bequeathed to the rest of us is the purposeful naming of our nation; The United States of America. A single moniker like “America” would have neglected the composure of independence and cooperative defiance necessary to earn the crucial signatures on the Declaration of Independence and, soon afterward, the Articles of Confederation wherein the new country’s name was made official. The basic tenet behind the name is captured plainly in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. The Ninth of our Bill of Rights reads, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not...

Video warns military, too – D.C. lawmakers about to commit 'treason' “This is a message to every member of law enforcement and the military,” a sizzling new YouTube video begins. “You know you have a choice to make.” The video, produced by a man identified on Facebook as Aaron Hawkins, is a challenge to those who enforce America’s laws, warning them the day is coming when gun-control legislation will undermine the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and police forces will be asked to restrict or even confiscate American citizens’ firearms. On that day, the video warns, America’s lawmakers will have committed...

The words are written in crayon, in the haphazard bumpiness of a child's scrawl. "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure." They're the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution. Aaron Harvey's son wrote as part of a school lesson, "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure." TheBlaze has redacted the child's name. Harvey's son attends Cedar Hills Elementary in...

In the American Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers proclaimed that we are endowed by our Creator with the unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, we have long forgotten what our Founders meant by that now iconic phrase—“the pursuit of happiness”—and, as a consequence, we are now in jeopardy of losing the very liberty our Founders purchased for us at the risk of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Indeed, if we properly understood what our Founding Fathers meant by the phrase “pursuit of happiness,” a photographer in New Mexico, a pastry business owner in Colorado,...

This must be Shared! As Americans we need to stand together to NOT lose our Rights!

"The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust." -- Samuel Butler In the current political climate surrounding the hot topic of gun control, there has been much attention focused on the subject of "gun owner paranoia." One mainstream news agency after another has decried the lack of progress regarding the gun control bills currently stagnating in Congress due to gun owners' supposed fears regarding gun bans and firearms confiscation. However, despite the government assurances that gun confiscation is off the table, a sentiment that is being...

During the Senate Judiciary Committee debate on gun legislation Thursday, Senator Leahy cut off Senator Cruz and angrily scolded the young senator for "lecturing" him on how to be a Senator.

A New Jersey mother was arrested and told to turn over her guns after reading the Constitution and peacefully protesting at a tax dispute forum, she says. Eileen Hart was with her husband Keith and her 7-year-old daughter on Saturday at the Gloucester Community Center to dispute a mandatory home re-evaluation that would roughly double her property value (and therefore dramatically increase her rates), objecting on multiple grounds. As an Orthodox Jew, she refused to have the inspectors in her home when her husband was away at work. As an American citizen, she objected to the seemingly arbitrary reappraisal, noting...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted fellow GOP Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday, saying the two “think the whole world is a battlefield.” Paul criticized the hawkish senators for thinking the laws of war should take precedence over the Bill of Rights. The two had criticized Paul’s statements about drone policy during the Kentucky Republican’s 13-hour filibuster on Thursday. “They think the whole world is a battlefield including America and that the laws of war should apply,” Paul said in an interview on Fox News about McCain and Graham, who had described Paul’s comments about drones...

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley wants state lawmakers to consider passing legislation that would require residents to obtain a license before purchasing a handgun. Such a law would be an impediment to a constitutional guarantee for which there is no such requirement. I find it interesting that liberals attack the requirement that a person needs to show identification in order to vote, but they will put multiple restrictions on people who have a right to keep and bear arms as set down in the Constitution.Unlike the Second Amendment, there is no absolute right to vote. Consider the 26th Amendment that was...

In the past two weeks, I've highlighted ways we can reduce violent crime in the U.S. But I've saved the best and most powerful solutions for last because they work from the inside out. In Part 1, I revealed how rational and rewarding it would be to post armed guards at our schools. In Part 2, I showed how reducing the number of firearms in the U.S. would not curb violent crime. Today and next week, I will discuss an age-old solution that America's Founding Fathers knew was key for maintaining civility in our communities -- a solution being mimicked...

Benjamin Franklin stated it best when he said: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” What beautiful words of wisdom, that apply today in America, as much if not more so, than the day he was first quoted. With the proposal of each new bill and the passing of each new law today, we find ourselves deeper and deeper in debt. Not just in the financial sense, but equally if not more importantly, in our deficit of freedom. Government today is completely and totally reactionary and utilizes each and...

Former Obama administration regulatory czar Cass Sunstein has published an op-ed: that the president wants a "second Bill of Rights" alongside the existing one. Sunstein located the source of Obama's inspiration in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union address, rather than the South African constitution--though the American academics whose writings inspired South Africa's ambitious Bill of Rights could well have taken Roosevelt's proposals as their foundation. Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights--not a list of constitutional amendments, but policy goals--was as follows: In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak,...

Part III Part I dealt with guns and the Second Amendment. Part II dealt mainly with the First Amendment. This Part III looks at the origins and purposes of the Bill of Rights and questions the direction in which our nation is headed.The Bill of Rights in generalWhen the Constitution was being considered there was opposition to inclusion of any Bill of Rights and the Bill of Rights as we now know it -- the First through Tenth Amendments -- was added not long after the Constitution had been adopted. The Founders' indifference toward a bill of rights in the...

In the early 1980s, transit officials in Washington couldn't figure out why traffic on the Beltway would grind to a near halt every day around the exact same time. The usual explanations didn't fit. Then it was discovered that a single driver was to blame. Every day on his drive to work, this commuter would plant himself in the left lane and set his cruise control to 55 mph, the posted speed limit, forcing those behind him to merge right, and you can imagine the effects. To his credit, this driver came forward in a letter to the editor of...

Good news! Today at the WA State Capitol in Olympia over 2000 pro second amendment supporters rallied in the cold for freedom! Despite some mis-communication about start time(10am vs noon)there was an out pouring of folks from all walks of life but it was good to note that at least 50% of the group participants were under the age of 35. Not all of today's youth are bums. Most were carrying openly...long guns as well as pistols. At 10 am there were 100 people. At 11am there were 300. At noon there were at least 1200 and the numbers were...

I’m a pretty big fan of irony and juxtaposition. It doesn’t get any better than a pro-gun rally at the Ohio Statehouse during the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Weekend. Guns Across America is doing just that in several state capitols tomorrow. According to the Facebook event page for Ohio, the group’s intent is to have a peaceful demonstration to stop any and all future gun control legislation. Because nothing says peaceful demonstration like walking around downtown Columbus with an assault weapon strapped to your back. The organizers of the group are being very careful about public perception. There are...

One of the Idiot Liberal Talking points against the second amendment is this: "Back in the founders days they only had Muskets so it should only apply to muskets and flintlock type weapons." I am going to destroy that argument right here, right now! The 1st amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Conclusion: They didn't have the Internet, Telephones, Television...

"So this is what it looks like when a society is starting to collapse," the man standing behind the counter at the hardware store said matter-of-factly. The remark had been directed at no one in particular, but generally at anyone standing nearby. As I was among that audience, I looked at him inquisitively, eliciting in return a look indicating that his observation should be intuitively obvious to even the casual observer. "We should not be this busy," he continued. "People are normally out Christmas shopping for the latest tech gadgets for their kids, but instead they are spending their hard-earned...

Exclusive: Ellis Washington has historical chart linking firearm restrictions to genocide Here’s the Formula: Hatred + Government + Disarmed Civilians = Genocide. What makes the argument so powerful? Two factors. First, it makes common sense: Unarmed, defenseless people have no hope against armed aggressors. Second, it states the historical truth: Evil governments did wipe out 170,000,000 innocent non-military lives in the 20th century alone. ~ Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership website The pretext: Massacre of the innocents – Newtown, Conn. I am a professor at a wonderful online school called National Paralegal College (NPC). Shannon Southard, a student...

"God made man but Sam Colt made them equal." Yet is said that the 2nd Amendment follows hard upon the 1st so as to serve as its bodyguard -- providing the added incentive of coercive force by a wary citizenry to guarantee that those initial cherished liberties, expounded by our Founders, did not go the way of the 10th Amendment. The 2nd Amendment, interpreted as the right to bear arms by a free people, has not escaped that yawning chasm that has opened up between the political Right and Left, and the rationale behind this stratification falls along the same...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) says, “corporations control the patterns of thinking” in the United States and that the Bill of Rights to the Constitution should be amended so that the government is given the power to restrict freedom of speech. "We need a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to control the so-called free speech rights of corporations," said Johnson. “These corporations, along with the people they support, other millionaires who they’re putting into office, are stealing your government. They’re stealing the government and the U.S. Supreme Court was a big enabler with the Citizens United case,” Johnson...

Over two centuries ago a group of British colonists huddling amid the forests and rivers of a new continent decided what they could and could not say by killing enough soldiers and mercenaries that the people who had been in charge of their speech decided they should try their luck somewhere where the regulating was easier. This state of affairs in which the country that those colonists formed became and remains one of the very few places in the world, even among Western democracies, where freedom of speech is absolute, came about through stirring speeches, deeply felt debates, classical ideas...

"The DOC NOAA National Weather Service - Western Acquisition Division, Boulder, requires the following items, Purchase Description Determined by Line Item, to the following: LI 001: 16,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP). No reloads may be used with these weapons. All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production. Inside Delivery to locations below:

As the political debate about gun violence finally sounds out across the country in the wake of last week's Colorado theater massacre, as President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney begin to stake out their positions, I keep coming back in my mind to the ways in which America has treated gun rights differently from other rights since September 11, 2001. On paper, all constitutional amendments may be equal. But in practice, some amendments are more equal than others. And no amendment has been more equal in the past 11 years than the Second Amendment. There is a...

During a debate on the Senate floor July 16, 2012, about the DISCLOSE Act, legislation that would circumvent and restrict the First Amendment,Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calls for 'limits on First Amendment rights'

Since we’re dreaming here, why not start with that part of the Constitution most beloved by Americans? I would rewrite the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law” is a peculiarly stingy way to begin an amendment that protects the rights of conscience, speech, press, assembly and petition. James Madison proposed more capacious language for those rights. He would have said, for example, that “the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or...

"Wasn't he, uh, that guy who said 'Give me liberty or give me death'?" Yeah, he was. If any mention is made of Patrick Henry, or any incidental reference linked to his name, the vast majority of folks remember he said something like that, since it is cited as his single, or at least the most 'historical thing' that he did. What they don't remember was the obstructionism he caused in the framing of our Constitution. Kindness, perhaps, leaves him with only that one quote as his single contribution to American history. Kindness, perhaps, leaves out the problems he introduced...

A book owned by George Washington and containing his own annotated copy of the Constitution sold for almost $10 million at Christie's, more than three times what it was expected to draw. A fierce bidding war between two unidentified parties forced the price up, and applause erupted in the venerable auction house when the hammer came down and the 223-year-old book sold for $9,826,500 to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association.The Acts of Congress volume includes a copy of the Constitution, a draft of the Bill of Rights, and acts creating the executive, State and Treasury department. The book was printed...

...Now comes Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) with a comparable contribution to another debate, the one concerning government regulation of political speech. Joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), 26 other Democrats and one Republican, he proposes a constitutional amendment to radically contract First Amendment protections. His purpose is to vastly expand government's power - i.e., the power of incumbent legislators - to write laws regulating, rationing or even proscribing speech in elections that determine the composition of the legislature and the rest of the government. McGovern's proposal vindicates those who say that most campaign-finance "reforms" are incompatible with the...

The recent exchange between an atheist and a judge in a small courtroom in rural Pennsylvania could have come out of a Dickens novel. Magisterial District Judge Mark Martin was hearing a case in which an irate Muslim stood accused of attacking an atheist, Ernest Perce, because he was wearing a "Zombie Mohammed" costume on Halloween. Although the judge had "no doubt that the incident occurred," he dismissed the charge of criminal harassment against the Muslim and proceeded to browbeat Perce. Martin explained that such a costume would have led to Perce's execution in many countries under sharia, or Islamic...

So the Senate has voted down the effort to undo President Obama's quite reasonable mandate that all employers have to pay for their employees' contraception. I was shocked that there was a dispute about this — especially because of “religious objections.” Who knew that was still a thing? Even worse, when I dug out a copy of the revered Bill of Rights to show someone how it guarantees everyone a right to contraception, I found no mention of that right! In fact, the Bill of Rights doesn’t guarantee anything people need — not food, shelter or even broadband internet. The...

While the writing and illustrations in Amelia Hamilton’s, “One Nation Under God: A Book for Little Patriots,” are catered towards children, the book’s message is anything but childish. Patriotic to its core, the book teaches children about the basic and essential elements of U.S. government and history in an engaging and delightful manner. From ‘One Nation Under God’ to ‘Ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights,’ the book counts its way through the significant building blocks of America. Hamilton’s background in both English and 18th century history shows, as she knows how to fuse fact with fun when writing...

The 1913 Income Tax In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It was a fairly short amendment, as such things go, weighing in at a whopping 30 words. It reads as follows: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census of enumeration. It was a simple little thing, with rather large consequences for the republic. Prior to the income tax being instituted, the United States government managed to fund itself with various excise taxes, and...

WHY does anyone in government or any of the news media, to include Fox, even pretend that we still have a Constitution?

What a way to celebrate the 220th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Each member of Congress, before assuming office, took an oath swearing to protect the Constitution, yet here we now have a Congress which has instead decided to ignore the fact that they are guardians of the Constitution. Instead they have approved an act which now permits indefinite detention of anyone deemed a terrorist in America.... Essentially, Congress has granted the President the power to ignore the Bill of Rights and detain Americans without due process. So, a brief recap, since terrorists threaten the lovely liberties we wrap...

David Hochstetler doesn’t want to be in the limelight. “I’d rather just be left alone,” he said. As a producer of raw milk, though, Hochstetler — operator of Forest Grove Dairy south of Middlebury — finds himself at the center of controversy. He’s faced repeated inspections by federal regulators, apparently, and his situation prompted Elkhart County Sheriff Brad Rogers to intervene, advising the feds to watch their step or face arrest by his department. “With Mr. Hochstetler, he’s had harassment and ongoing visits that were unreasonable,” said Rogers, who told federal officials in a Dec. 2 email that they would...

As a heated issue among the American public, gun control has undoubtedly become one of the most salient topics in relation to law and public policy. Additionally, as a response to the wave of campus crime and gun violence through the recent decades, many universities have adapted the policy of a gun-free zone for their campuses. Setting aside the Constitutional intent on the issue, empirical results on college campuses have consistently illustrated the harm that gun-free zones pose.

I remember my Prof. reading this to us, back in the day... It may be that every American “knows” the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us a Bill of Rights as a guarantor of various liberties, and this belief may be so deeply ingrained in the national psyche that virtually every famous political actor in the country has attested to the framers’ wisdom in their crafting of the great bill, but the plain, historical and undeniable fact of the matter is the framers overwhelmingly rejected any notion of a bill of rights. When the proposal was put forth during the Constitutional...

John Jay, the co-writer of the Federalist Papers and the first chief justice of the United States (1789-95), wrote in a 1786 letter to Thomas Jefferson that he was worried that under our evolving founding document that became the Constitution, Congress would have exorbitant power. “These three great departments of sovereignty,” he told Jefferson, “should be forever separated and so distributed to serve as checks on each other.”

Sometimes in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to muddle through the confusion and reveal the basic premise of an object. Such is the case with the First Amendment of the U. S. Bill of Rights, and more specifically, the establishment clause. The First Amendment has fallen under a barrage of hyperbole surrounding what it means and what it doesn’t mean. So-called experts in the field of interpretation have managed, over the years, to drape a veil of confusion and distortion over the First Amendment. This confusion and distortion can easily be corrected by simply recalling our basic...

The home secretary has called for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped, less than a fortnight after Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said it was "here to stay". The act enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. But Theresa May told the Sunday Telegraph she "personally" would like to see it go because of the problems it caused for the Home Office. ..... Prime Minister David Cameron said he agreed with Mrs May that the act should be scrapped and replaced with a British Bill of Rights.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.Article. I. Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the...

The Inspiration In developing the 9C1 pistol and visiting with gun dealers for feedback, we found these small businessmen and gun enthusiasts patriotic and intensely passionate about American Freedoms, Liberty, and our enviable Rights. We also found this group more knowledgeable of our history and of America’s Constitution than average citizens. So much so we were embarrassed over our own ignorance and endeavored to learn more about our history and that document so meticulously constructed by the brightest minds among America’s Founding generation. It is this evolution that inspired us to engrave the Bill of Rights on the 9C1...

We're losing our Bill of Rights. The reason why is so basic it's overlooked; though Thomas Jefferson warned us about this threat to individual liberty when he wrote, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Jefferson said this in a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey on January 6, 1816. It was the basic truth that we can't retain our liberty unless we first grasp it that impelled me to write Saving the Bill of Rights. After two years spent in the National Archives researching...