Free Republic

A Unitarian church in Middlebury Vermont has been attempting to induce people to give their guns to the Government to be destroyed for a price far below market value.  From wcax.com: Minister Barnaby Feder says he recognizes that guns tend to sell for much more than $50 online, but that he hopes this incentive will at least make people aware of the option to dispose of firearms. So far no guns have been brought to the police department for cash. I do not see anyone organizing massive protests over this clear Church/State cooperation.   The money has been turned over...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Councilman Nick Mosby's resolution calling on the city to review doing business with Florida firms due to the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law will be given a committee hearing like its sponsor wanted. The resolution encourages the city to review doing business with firms in that state, not because Mosby wants to see the law abolished, but rather to consider the "the subjective nature in which it's been applied in the state of Florida," Mosby told Patch. The resolution, according to the meeting agenda, calls for: Divestment from the State of Florida FOR the purpose of requesting that...

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has misplaced one of its M-16 rifles, officials said Tuesday. In an internal email sent to department supervisors Friday, Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers said the weapon’s disappearance was “embarrassing” and urged supervisors “to turn over EVERY rock to find this missing rifle.” Department spokesman Steve Whitmore could not immediately say when the gun was misplaced but noted that the department has been suspended by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services from receiving excess federal property because of the mishap.

Jennie Granato, a resident and tax-paying citizen of Montgomery County, Ohio, has found herself without a front yard and very little to show for it. Because the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC), as part of a $5M bike path extension, has begun to seize up private property for their “essential” project, including almost the entirety of Miss Granato’s front lawn.

In 1975 & 76 the United States was experiencing a crisis of confidence. Unemployment was at 8.5%, our allies in South Vietnam, who 58,000 American servicemen gave their lives to defend, had just been overrun and the reverberations of an OPEC embargo were sending oil prices from $15 a barrel to $100. At the same time Paul Ehrlich was warning about overpopulation and starvation, Newsweek was telling of a coming ice age and many thought we were conceding Eastern Europe to the Soviets. It was into this emotional and economic morass stepped Ronald Wilson Reagan with a message of hope....

Navy veteran James Williams, who was in the service for 21 years, traveled to the Capital on Tuesday to present the Dream Defenders with thousands of signed petitions. Williams, who is now retired and lives in Brazil, said that when he heard about injustice in two cases -- Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander -- he had to take action. "It's not right," said Williams, 65, who was a U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class. "If we don't say anything, it will continue." Williams efforts also further demonstrate the impact of social media and reaching a global audience online to tell...

For the Journal of the American Revolution, Todd Andrlik compiled a list of the ages of the key participants in the Revolutionary War as of July 4, 1776. Many of them were surprisingly young: Marquis de Lafayette, 18 James Monroe, 18 Gilbert Stuart, 20 Aaron Burr, 20 Alexander Hamilton, 21 Betsy Ross, 24 James Madison, 25 This is kind of blowing my mind...because of the compression of history, I'd always assumed all these people were around the same age. But in thinking about it, all startups need young people...Hamilton, Lafayette, and Burr were perhaps the Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg of...

By now most have probably heard about the 400 surface-to-air missiles that were stolen in Benghazi. An attorney for the witnesses/whistleblowers came out in an interview with WMAL yesterday to drop this bomb shell. But this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Here we see one of the most powerful gatherings of highest level IT company owners and founders coming together in a lightly veiled advocacy of greatly increased immigration and AMNESTY for those illegals already here . They are openly using imagery of the United States Marine Corps to accomplish this goal . The is only marginally ‘legal’ or permissible under U.S.M.C. regulations and restrictions on the use of U.S.M.C. imagery . The undocumented boy featured in this clip is NOT a Marine , he has not earned the right (yet) to use these images in any way . What is...

The trend continues towards private capital returning to the mortgage market. Redwood was one of the first securitizing California jumbo loans. Now Two Harbors (Pine River) is entering the market without a government guarantee. Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) by Jody Shenn — Two Harbors Investment Corp., the mortgage real-estate investment trust run by Pine River Capital Management LP, is planning its first issuance of home-loan securities without government backing. Even with investors in AAA slices of such deals demanding even higher yields in comparison to benchmark rates, Two Harbors could earn about 6 percent to 7 percent when retaining the subordinate...

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama is known as an open critic of the comprehensive immigration overhaul being considered by Congress. There has been a surge of asylum requests from Mexican immigrants in recent days, and Sessions is not mincing words about it- saying the House should not move forward on the immigration bill until the asylum issue is resolved. “The House cannot allow such actions to continue,” Sessions told FoxNews.com in a written statement. “They must use every power they have to end this absurdity. No immigration bill should advance until these abuses are ended.” According to a FoxNews...

It seems that yet another aspect of Obamacare is being delayed. The Obama administration has delayed a provision that would cap out-of-pocket health costs. The administration is giving some insurers and employers a grace period of a year before they have to adhere to the legal limit. Obamacare caps individual costs at $6,350 a year but this requirement is being pushed back to 2015. This just continues to show Obama's contempt for the rule of law and his innate desire to rule by imperial edict. As the chief executive officer of the country, Obama is obliged to enforce all the...

A new rush through the U.S. border has been triggered by an outspoken progressive group that is exploiting new asylum regulations to demand American citizenship for 1.7 million illegals previously deported to Mexico, according to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Border officials have told advocates and TV stations that hundreds of people are using the group’s innovative legal tactic to get approval from the border patrol for a temporary legal stay in the country. The National Immigrant Youth Alliance triggered the rush by sending a group of illegals back to Mexico. The illegals then successfully used the asylum claim...

Commercial flight with a pet carrier 99.7% cheaper... Although über-patriot Allen West first made clear to Mark Levin (on his radio show Monday 8/11) that he's loathe to engage in 'small ball' with some of the more petty White House scandals, he nonetheless was asked 'how do you justify' the latest Obama middle-finger-to-America -namely, the shipping of 'Bo' the dog to Martha's Vineyard via two exotic, VERY expensive-to-operate Marine VTOL aircraft... West responded 'You don't' justify it- labeling it 'an outrage'. With Obama -in West's eyes- 'It's not about serving... it's about being served.' He then described today's 'progressive' debt + money-printing-and-spending...

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Northwood University welcomed Supreme Court Justice Brian K. Zahra as the keynote speaker for Friedman Legacy Day, an event celebrating the life and free market ideas of economist Milton Friedman, who would have been 101 years old Wednesday. Justice Zahra was introduced by former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice and current Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Mackinac Center Clifford W. Taylor. Zahra reflected on Chapter 9 of Milton Friedman's 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom. In it, Friedman advocates for the elimination of licensure for those who want to practice medicine....

White Presidents, on the other hand, are free game. A rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask during a show at the Missouri State Fair found himself banned forever. SEDALIA, Mo. (KSDK) - The rodeo clown who donned an Obama mask during a show at the Missouri State Fair over the weekend has been permanently banned from performer there ever again. In a statement released to the media Monday afternoon, the commission apologized again for the rodeo clown's actions and said they were inappropriate and not keeping with the fair's standards. The commission unanimously voted to ratify a decision by...

Anti-Assad rebels from the Jabhat al-Nusra Front are reported to have carried out a raid on the Syrian town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border this past week. Rebel troops are said to have gone door-to-door killing everyone they encountered—including an estimated 450 women, children, and elderly men. The Jabhat al-Nusra Front is one of the groups receiving military assistance from the Obama Administration and was visited earlier this year by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) for a photo op. McCain hastened to mention that “the reports of the massacre have yet to be confirmed by the Administration. Even if...

Even as a Salon writer publishes thinly-veiled chick porn about the unreconstructed Slavic men that animate her fantasies (she’s exaggerating — trust me), American women are cheerfully thinking up ways to exterminate their “ineffectual� husbands. Last summer, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl – which sold more than two million copies and is being made into a Hollywood film – brought out unsettling streaks in some of my married girlfriends. With Flynn’s husband-hating heroine, Amy, as their role model, these women sat around planning the imaginary stitching-up and neutralisation of their spouses over last orders and a dwindling bowl of edamame beans....

According to Kate Berry of American Banker, the cost of doing business with the Federal Housing Administration could skyrocket if the agency adopts a new method for calculating lenders’ liability for poorly underwritten loans that default. The method under consideration would have the FHA examine a random sampling of each lender’s loans, calculate the percentage of loans in the sample with underwriting defects, and then extrapolate that rate to the lender’s FHA portfolio. Lenders would then have to compensate FHA for the “estimated total risk” to the agency’s insurance fund. “If this goes through, it means it will be a...

Welcome back to our series on what weakens our integrity and how to strengthen it. Thus far we have discussed how we decide to commit a dishonest act, and how the distance between that act and its consequences can increase our ability to rationalize immorality as acceptable behavior. Today we are going to discuss another important factor that influences our comfort level with dishonest decisions: seeing other people make them. Dishonesty as a Social Contagion As psychology professor Dan Ariely explored the nature and motivations for dishonesty, he found himself wondering whether it might spread from person to person like...

Global sovereign yields jumped almost 10 basis points (except for Greece). wbm081313 And as of 11am EST, the US Treasury 10 year yield rose almost 9 basis points as retail sales rose in July for a fourth consecutive month. ust10081313 The US Treasury yield curve steepened (of course, it looks like the Treasury 10 year yield increase since the short-end of the curve is low and seemingly constant). 102081313 The Fannie Mae 3.0% agency MBS continues its fall from May 1, 2013. I reach a plateau since mid July but may start falling again. fannie3081313 And the Dow Jones is...

Today's US National Debt Clock status.

"In an interview with the Anatolia News Agency, Saad Al-Shater, the son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, the detained Khairat Al-Shater, said that his father had in his hand evidence that will land the head of United States of America, president Obama, in prison."

Farrakhan says O has failed. Black unemployment is now higher than when Obama took office. Even though 'one of our own' is the president, he cannot solve our problems

The on-line exchange system is the Achilles heel of the Affordable Care Act. If there is not an ObamaCare exchange doing business in a state, no one can enroll for ObamaCare coverage and Mr. Obama’s namesake “healthcare” plan will literally starve to death. But the American people must also do their part to assist in the death of ObamaCare and end the left’s drive to single payer insurance. Just 17 states have agreed to build an ObamaCare exchange. And with October 1st, the grand opening day for ObamaCare enrollment rapidly approaching, not one of these states is ready to complete...

On the first day of its release, Mark Levin's The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic reached the #1 spot in sales on Amazon.com--not just for political books, but all books. Levin appeared on Hannity on the Fox News Channel on Monday evening to discuss the book, and his proposals to restore the Framers' vision for limited government through an Article V convention that would propose eleven new constitutional amendments to restrain the runaway power of the federal government. "I'm simply saying, I think it's time, if Americans want to remain free, to start reacquainting ourselves with the Constitution, and...

A few guns turned in at a Phoenix gun Turn in, May, 2013 Several private buyers competed with the police for a small number of turn ins at the Sumter gun turn in event in South Carolina last Saturday.  The events were held at two locations, which diluted the already meager collection.  A total of 35 items were turned in. Armaborealis from palmettoshootersforum.com gives us this detailed account: DreamerOfDreams and I headed down to the Alice drive location. We showed up around 1030-1100 ish and set up across the street with some folding chairs and signs. We were pretty far...

During a sit-down interview with Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith, Anthony Weiner said he knows what his wife’s role will be in a Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, but he’s “not telling.” That’s a big admission because it seems to be the first open verification of a Clinton run. And now the Clinton camp is firing back at Weiner saying it has no idea what he’s talking about.

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Republican establishment adviser Ana Navarro has worked for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), No Labels co-chair and failed GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, and is close to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jeb Bush. Like other advisers to these candidates, Navarro is quickly becoming the "Republican" the mainstream media love to use as their preferred attack dog against conservatives. On NBC News' Meet The Press on Sunday, Navarro attacked Rep. Steve King (R-IA), saying to his face that he should "go get himself some therapy for his melon fixation. I think there might be medication for that." "I think he's a...

Last week I wrote a column about the reality that House Republicans are ready to cave on so-called comprehensive immigration reform. There was a final paragraph in that column my editor decided not to use. Ironically, what was omitted by my editor was not lost on scores of astute letter writers who commented on the piece. I would like them to know that I have the same feelings as they do regarding what House Republicans are contemplating. Here is the paragraph that was omitted: “Hence, a prediction. If Republicans abet the passage of comprehensive immigration reform—piecemeal or otherwise—a third political...

Parents at Rose City Middle School are outraged at the behavior of a school board member and several teachers. Neal Erickson, a former teacher at the middle school in Ogemaw County, was convicted of having sex with an eighth grade student. Though he is in custody, parents are upset that a school board member and six teachers have publicly supported Erickson. According to the Ogemaw County Herald, West Branch-Rose City school board member Mike Egan sat with Erickson's family in court during sentencing, and the six teachers wrote letters to the judge requesting leniency. In their letters, some teachers blamed...

Everything is going swimmingly here on Walled-in Pond. Now that our case goods have arrived (a week without Cheetos is like a vacation without sunshine) the home seems to be stocked with most of the necessary amenities. There was a brief bit of drama over the artwork in the living pavilion. Certain people in the  vacation party felt it was a bit too stark, what with all those black and white pictures of…white people hanging on the walls. So we had our interior decorator ‘copter in on one of the Ospreys with Little Bo to spruce things up with a...

When I first tuned into this earlier today, I thought ‘ugh…Karl Rove again!’ But it wasn’t just Karl Rove, it was also Mike Lee and they were debating the defunding of Obamacare. And it went for two full segments before they finally hand to end it.

Long title: "Bombshell, the secret lawsuit has finally been revealed your mortgage documents are fake and your foreclosure is a fraud." The enormity of the crimes that have been committed against defendants in foreclosure cases is easy for much of society to ignore. Those who are defendants in foreclosure cases are, after all, those who deserve to suffer the consequences of failed generations of economic policy. Those who are defendants in foreclosure cases are, after all, the people that deserve scorn and disgust and contempt because they chose to live in a country that gave away their jobs, their industry,...

Matt Bevin is running against Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky’s Republican primary. Bevin appeared on the Andrea Tantaros Show today and hammered away at McConnell for being a Senate deal-maker whose deals, says Bevin, tend not to benefit the American people or the Republican Party. Bevin also laid down a marker for how he would behave if he defeats McConnell: “There is no chance that I will become a career politician.” The Tea Party-flavored Bevin told Tantaros that his Senate models are not long-serving politicians of either party, but new senators like fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz...

Good morning, everyone. I asked KathyinAlaska to do a private prayer request for us last week, and am going public now. My wife, NanaJ, is undergoing cancer (endometrial) surgery today at UMC in Tucson. We are not anxious about this; she is very calm and ready for today. We have family here and she is in very good hands. My request is for her to know she is not alone and that His will be done; that we can turn this into an opportunity to glorify God's name. Thank you all. Jinx

An elected politician since 1992, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is closer to the ruling elite than the people of South Carolina, his words... by Mark Vogl (conservative) Monday, August 12, 2013 Senator Lindsey Graham has a southern accent, but that's about all there is in common between him and the people of South Carolina! Graham has been an elected politician since November, 1992. He served first in the South Carolina State House, before moving to Congress in 1996, and then on to the United States Senate in 2003. The South Carolina conservative Strom Thurmond held the seat before Graham, demonstrating...

Grand Rapids Public Schools is laying off teachers this year and will be using an evaluation system that takes performance — rather than seniority — into account, according to WOOD-TV. The local teachers union president is unhappy, calling the system "unfair and subjective." Previously, when school districts made layoffs in response to declining enrollment (Grand Rapids will be down about 700 students this year), they did so based strictly on longevity, ignoring how good teachers actually were at their jobs. And when districts had a problem teacher, even criminal, the tenure process made it nearly impossible to remove them. Recent...

SOUTH CAROLINA – State Senator Lee Bright, who has a perfect conservative voting record and the rare ability to unite all wings of the conservative movement, will officially begin his U.S. Senate run against Lindsey Graham Tuesday morning in a 10 am EDT tele-conference with Republican leaders, including liberty and Tea Party activists from across South Carolina. “I’m eager to get started” said Bright, adding that Tuesday’s announcement is “the first step towards bringing this nation back to its founding principles. Conservative Republican leaders all across South Carolina recognize that, which is why we’re inviting all of them to join...

We are going after Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. The information we’ve gleaned from researching him is incredible. When you look at his LOOOOOONG history in Washington you begin to realize that all the corruption we hate isn’t new, guys like Graham have been doing it for decades. So the question is how do we defeat him and how do we ensure that the candidate we replace him with doesn’t lose to a Democrat in the general election. With that in mind, we are going back to South Carolina and will give you an opportunity to meet the candidates who...

The drug trade is expanding throughout the world as reported by Holly Ellyatt for CNBC: "according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and European crime-fighting agency Europol, the annual global drugs trade is worth around $435 billion a year, with the annual cocaine trade worth $84 billion." The United States has the most junkies per capita but drug consumption in Brazil, Argentina and other emerging markets is approaching America's degenerate levels. Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder and his Justice Department have decided to release more drug dealers from U.S. prisons many of whom no...

Monday, August 12, 2013 Hiroshima's Lessons for the War on Terror Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog In the summer of '45, the United States concluded a war that had come to be seen by some as unwinnable after the carnage at Iwo Jima, with a bang. On August 6th, the bomb fell on Hiroshima. And then on the 9th, it was Nagasaki's turn. Six days later, Japan, which had been preparing to fight to the last man, surrendered. For generations of liberals, those two names would come to represent the horror of America's war machine, when...

In case you missed it, because for some reason the national press has ignored what should be a salacious story, Tennessee Senator Lamar! Alexander’s political campaign coordinated the “timing and even funding for” an exhibit about Lamar! Alexander. Alexander is gearing up for a re-election campaign in 2014 where he expects to get a primary challenge. He used your tax dollars to secure an earmark for a state museum to do an exhibit about himself. Then the museum coordinated with Alexander’s re-election campaign to turn the exhibit into a traveling exhibit over this campaign season. Lamar Alexander is one of...

NEW ORLEANS — The Orleans Parish sheriff will no longer honor many requests from the federal immigration authorities to detain people who are suspected of being here illegally, making New Orleans one of a growing number of jurisdictions to adopt such a policy and the first to do so in the Deep South. The policy, articulated in filings that accompanied a legal settlement in federal court, is similar to others that have been instituted since 2011 by Chicago, New York and Washington, several counties and the State of Connecticut. But in some respects, the policy in New Orleans goes farther...

When Obamacare was passed through Congress, calculations were made. The Democrats made the assumption that most states would support the law and would gladly jump on the band wagon of the health insurance exchanges. After the dust settled down and the insurance exchanges are about to go online October 1, that turned out to not be the case. Over half of the states, 33 to be exact, have refused to participate in the exchanges. That left the Obama administration scrambling. Their law specifically prohibits the large employers in these states from being subject to the employer mandate. I have made...

The former head of the National Security Agency said Sunday that not only does ending the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs seems unlikely, but he images those endeavors could expand in scope during the coming years. Former NSA chief Michael Hayden told television host Bob Schieffer of CBS’ Face the Nation over the weekend that the current program that collects the metadata of millions of American phone customers on a regular basis for the United States government could in the future perhaps be used to soak up even more statistics about US citizens. In early June, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden...

The construction of an advanced early missile warning radar will begin on Tuesday in central Russia to enhance the capabilities of the country's missile defenses, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. The new Voronezh-class radar will be built near the town of Orsk in the Orenburg region as part of the comprehensive missile early warning network to be completed in Russia by 2020, Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin told reporters on Monday. "In addition to the Orenburg radar, the preparations for construction of new-generation radars are underway in the Krasnoyarsk and the Altai regions," Zolotukhin said. The new assembly technology allows the construction...

Neo Con Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are now in Egypt with the approval of the Obama White House. Pretty much the first thing they did after hosting meetings with top officials in Cairo was to personally urge the Egyptian government to release Muslim Brotherhood prisoners. This would be the same Muslim Brotherhood that Representatives Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Trent Franks of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Tom Rooney of Florida and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia have alleged poses a serious security threat to the United States if it is able to infiltrate and influence key leaders and...

A big economic slump has started in China as predicted. The rest of the world has came to know about it through none other than Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang. They disclosed to the world a steep rise in short-term interest rates, falling exports and a slump in the nation’s economic growth — undesirable facts and figures that those in power in Beijing would have concealed in the past. This is because the Xi-Li leadership has realized that the Chinese economy is in such dire straits that any further deterioration would cause a serious global impact....