Free Republic

It’s not a stretch to suggest that Americans are over medicated. In 2011 doctors across the nation wrote an astounding four billion medical prescriptions, amounting to an average of 13 prescriptions for every man, woman and child in the United States. In the next few weeks the American Psychiatric Associations is releasing their updated fifth version their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5); the so-called ‘bible’ of psychiatric diagnoses. The new manual promises to take mental illness and the use of prescription drugs to a whole new level. You may not be considered “crazy” or “mentally ill” today,...

UK: Muslims screaming "Allahu akbar" behead British soldier with machete on public street In the face of appeasement and denial everywhere in the West, the jihad grows more brazen. Here is the feed from the BBC: 1753: Senior aides to Mayor of London Boris Johnson describe the Woolwich killing as a 'sickening deluded deranged act of violence', says the BBC's Robin Brant. 1744: Senior Whitehall sources have told the BBC that the Woolwich attackers are thought to have tried to film their attack whilst shouting "Allahu Akbar" - God is Great, says political editor Nick Robinson. The men were said...

Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies, agreed to forfeit his right to an appeal and will get life in prison.

When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story. ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.

Syria will "give Hizbullah everything" in recognition of its support and will follow the terrorist group's model of "resistance" against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying. --snip-- Assad was quoted as saying Syria could "easily" respond to Israeli air strikes by "firing a few rockets at Israel."

Three taken into custody believed to be college students who helped Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover up for the bombing after the fatal blasts Boston police say there is no threat to public safety Boston police announced on Wednesday that three new suspects were arrested in connection to the marathon bombing and they are thought to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's roommates who helped him cover his tracks after the fatal blasts.  The Boston Police Department were the first ones to report the arrest over their Twitter feed, and The Boston Globe claimed that the three people in custody were college students and the...

Republicans want to limit the number of bullets federal agencies can purchase so American gun owners can buy more.

<p>BOSTON (CBSNewYork/AP) – The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings acknowledged to the FBI his role in the attacks but did so before he was advised of his constitutional right to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, U.S. officials said Wednesday.</p>

Slipped through her fingers: Big sis admits DHS knew Boston jihadist traveled to Russia in 2012.- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stunned a Senate panel when she admitted that her agency knew of alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev's trip to Russia last year even though his name was misspelled on a travel document, as she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on sweeping immigration amnesty legislation. The admission that her department was aware of Tsarnaev's six-month trip to Dagestan - a hotbed of radical Islamic activity - surprised two 'Gang of Eight' senators, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY),...

A man taken hostage by the alleged Boston bombers after he was car jacked was able to escape after they stopped to buy cans of Red Bull at a gas station, MailOnline can reveal. The carjacking victim, whose name has not been revealed, has told authorities that being Chinese almost certainly saved his life, saying that the brothers told him they would not kill him because he was 'not American.' The victim was able to jump out of the car and flee while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, looked to buy cans of the energy drink and chocolate bars. From interviews with...

Terror never rests, even on the placid train trip between New York and Toronto. With the help of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Canadian law enforcement officials announced Monday that they had stopped an Al Qaeda-linked plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto Amtrak passenger train, and have arrested two suspects in Montreal and Toronto. Police charged Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser with "terrorism related offenses," officials said at a news conference Monday afternoon. The men were observed gathering information on trains in the Toronto area, officials said, which they planned to attack. The charges against the...

Law-enforcement officials trying to understand what happened in Boston are looking into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev had taken a turn toward radical Islam. Among the things they are examining: a six-month trip he took last year to Dagestan, a republic in Russia's south, bordering Chechnya. A close examination of the Tsarnaev family shows that, over the past five years or so, the personal lives of the family members slipped into turmoil, according to interviews with the parents, relatives and friends. The upheaval in the household was driven, at least in part, by a growing interest in religion by both Tamerlan and...

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is suing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and six other lawmakers, charging that they mishandled the Ethics investigation that led to his public censure in late 2010. In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Washington D.C., Rangel claims the Ethics Committee that investigated his alleged wrongdoing are guilty of "numerous flagrant, knowing and intentional violations" of his due process rights. House members who approved his censure were "knowingly deceived" by the committee leaders – including then-Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and ranking member Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) – into thinking that the probe "had been conducted in...

BREAKING NEWS: The FBI has identified two suspects in Monday's the Boston Marathon bombing, releasing photos and video showing them and asking the public to help locate them. The suspects, one of whom wore a a dark ballcap and the other who wore backwards white ballcap,appear to be in their twenties and were captured on footage near where one of two explosions killed three and injured 176. In video that appears to be from a surveillance camera and which was shown by the FBI, both suspects are walking west on Boylston Street, near the finish line and where the explosions...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Secret Service says it has intercepted a letter addressed to President Barack Obama that contained a "suspicious substance." Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says the letter was intercepted at a facility away from the White House. He says the letter was received Tuesday.

An idea in the first edition, "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," is touched on again. "The pressurized cooker should be placed in crowded areas and left to blow up. More than one of these could be planted to explode at the same time. However, keep in mind that the range of the shrapnel in this operation is short range so the pressurized cooker or pipe should be placed close to the intended targets and should not be concealed from them by barriers such as walls."

Investigators have a suspect — a Saudi Arabian national — in the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, The Post has learned. Law enforcement sources said the 20-year-old suspect was under guard at an undisclosed Boston hospital. It was not immediately clear why the man was hospitalized and whether he was injured in the attack or in his apprehension. The man was caught less than two hours after the 2:50 p.m. bombing on the finish line of the race, in the heart of Boston. 12 DEAD, 50 INJURED AFTER 2 EXPLOSIONS ROCK BOSTON MARATHON NY AUTHORITIES RAMP UP SECURITY AFTER BOSTON EXPLOSIONS...

ALEPPO, Syria — In the heart of rebel-held territory in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, a small group of intrepid Westerners is undertaking a mission of great stealth.

President Obama and I were college classmate at Columbia University, class of ’83. I know all too well how mindlessly liberal the students and faculty of that institution can be, and Barack Obama is certainly no exception. My time at Columbia made it crystal clear: liberals always believe they are morally superior. While they publicly state that their mission is to save the world from prejudice, patriotism, racism, greed, and inequality, they are, in fact, hostile and resentful towards anyone who has achieved self-made success through American values. It is in this cesspool of intolerance that Obama and his Marxist...

The National Rifle Association will oppose the background check bill introduced by Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) Wednesday, the pro-Second Amendment group told the Free Beacon. Manchin and Toomey held a press conference Wednesday morning announcing a bipartisan bill that would expand background checks for all commercial firearm sales, including gun shows and Internet sales. The bill is the latest effort by the Senate to introduce background check legislation, after negotiations between Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Democrats broke down earlier this year. Manchin’s office told BuzzFeed Wednesday that the senators had been...

Vice President Joe Biden blasted the NRA for engaging in a "disinformation" campaign meant to "scare people" from supporting background checks. “Kinda scary man, the black helicopter crowd is really upset,” Biden said about the NRA´s concern with the creation of a federal government gun registry. Biden was speaking at the White House with Attorney General Eric Holder on reducing gun violence and was joined by law enforcement officials

At least 12 people were wounded Tuesday in stabbings on the campus of Lone Star College Cy-Fair near Houston, local media outlets are reporting. As many as 14 people were hurt in the stabbing spree. Police say they have arrested a suspect. One victim is reportedly in critical condition. It was initially thought that there was a second attacker still at large, but officials now believe the attacks have ended. Officials put the school on lockdown in the aftermath of the attacks, telling students to stay away from the area. Those already on campus were told to seek shelter immediately....

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign asked the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office on Tuesday to investigate how Mother Jones magazine obtained a recording of a February strategy session. “Senator McConnell’s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings,” McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement. “Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.”

Thirteen people have been killed in Serbia after a man went on a gun rampage in a village near Belgrade, local media report. Six men, six women and a two-year-old boy died before the gunman tried to kill himself and his wife. The pair are now said to be in a serious condition. Police identified the gunman as Ljubisa Bogdanovic, a 60-year-old war veteran.

WASHINGTON — President Obama is returning to Connecticut on Monday to again memorialize the victims of the school massacre there and to continue his push for what he calls “common-sense measures to reduce gun violence” at the start of a potentially make-or-break week for gun-control legislation in Congress.

Washington (CNN) -- Recent announcements of American military deployments in response to belligerent statements by North Korea may have contributed to escalating tensions between the two countries, Pentagon officials told CNN on Thursday in explaining an effort to reduce U.S. rhetoric about the reclusive state. "We accused the North Koreans of amping things up, now we are worried we did the same thing," one Defense Department official said. They spoke on the same day a U.S. official first told CNN that communications intercepts indicated North Korea may be planning to launch a mobile ballistic missile in the coming days or...

Sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help to find two children taken from their grandmother's home Wednesday morning. Authorities say Joshua Hakken came into Patricia Hauser's home, on the 14000 block of Shady Shores Drive, tied her up and took her two grandchildren. Hakken fled the home in Hauser's 2009 silver Toyota Camry. Authorities are looking for the children, 2-year old Chase and 4-year old Cole Hakken, who could possibly be in a black 2006 GMC pickup with Florida tag BHNV-86 registered to Joshua Hakken. Deputies believe Sharyn Hakken may be with them as well. Chase Hakken is 3...

Jerusalem, Israel --- March 24, 2013 … Russian media sources have confirmed that Syria President Bashar Assad was shot by an Iranian bodyguard Saturday night. "The lone assassination pumped several bullets at point blank range into Assad," said the source. "Assad was rushed to Al-Shami Hospital in Damascus in critical condition. He died on the operating table from heart failure resulting from massive blood loss." An Israeli security analyst believes the report to be accurate. "In the last 24 hours have we seen Assad? Any photographs or video? No. Nor will we see any as loyalists who are closest to...

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from requiring Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan to provide mandatory contraception coverage to his employees under the federal health care law.

<p>The Associated Press on Thursday updated its stylebook so that married individuals will be referred to as husband and wife, regardless of whether they are in a same-sex marriage. The change comes a week after the AP received criticism for an internal memo designating the word "partners" for individuals in same-sex marriages.</p>

Secretary of State John Kerry called all the foreign ministers of countries that deal with North Korea following Monday's nuclear test and all but one of them picked up the phone -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kerry made his first remarks about the new nuclear test, which the North Koreans warned the State Department about in advance. "With respect to the DPRK, President Obama made it crystal clear last night and previously in all comments, as have other countries, that North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program are a threat now to the United...

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The Affordable Care Act is looking less and less affordable. Start with the IRS’s new estimate for what the cheapest family plan will cost by 2016: $20,000 a year to cover two adults and three kids. And that will only cover 60 percent of medical bills, so add hefty out-of-pocket costs, too. The next surprise is for parents who thought their kids would be covered by an employer. Sloppy wording in the law left that unclear until last week, when the IRS ruled that kids won’t be covered. Starting in 2014, the law will require employers with 50 or more...

The polarizing debate over whether Boy Scouts of America should allow gay members could culminate with a vote on a new policy Wednesday. But no matter which way the vote goes, activists on both sides aren't going to be satisfied. The controversy pits leaders of religious groups that sponsor about 1 million Boy Scouts against activists who want the organization to end its ban on openly gay Scouts and Scout leaders. Neither side is happy with BSA's proposal to let local troops decide if they want to allow gay members.

Israel conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria, foreign officials and Syrian state TV say, amid fears President Bashar al-Assad's regime is providing weapons to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah. A statement from the Syrian military read aloud on state TV confirmed the strike, saying the jets bombed a military research centre in the area of Jamraya, northwest of the capital, Damascus.

“The Club for Growth will not oppose tomorrow’s vote on the debt ceiling,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in the statement. “The Club for Growth will, on the other hand, strongly oppose any efforts during the upcoming debate over the continuing resolution and sequester that fail to arrest out-of-control spending and put sensible limits on the growth of government.” That's a major reversal for an organization whose primary mission is to force lawmakers to curb government spending. Until now, Club for Growth has demanded that any vote to increase the debt limit include a balanced budget amendment. The...

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The petition has reached 25,000 signatures. (And yes, the screen shot is real - I happened upon it at exactly the magic number!)

n spite of Vice President Joe Biden’s threat in this morning’s gun grab task force meeting that “executive actions” are on the way, the legitimacy and survivability of such a move is by no means assured, as the gun ban juggernaut, reanimated following Sandy Hook, has encountered some unforeseen bumps in the road that have the potential of halting it in its tracks with no place to go that isn’t blocked.

Georgia Power asked state regulators for permission to shut down 15 power plants yesterday, claiming new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) make the plants too expensive to run. The 15 coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired power plants currently produce 2,061 megawatts (MW) for Georgia energy consumers. Georgia Power plans to close 11 of the plants on the exact day the EPA’s new mercury regulations are set to take effect, April 16, 2015. Georgia Power will seek waivers from the EPA to keep four of the other plants open for a single year, and then shut those down too...

NEWT GINGRICH: Let me ask you this. And I appreciate E.J.'s support here. But I want to make a point that probably he may not be as enthusiastic about. They have two vehicles. They have a continuing resolution, which is at the end of March, and they have the sequester bill. Now, these are legitimate government spending bills. The debt ceiling is different because it triggers all of these international financial problems and triggers the credit of the United States. They don't have to say, "We're going to be wimps." I've helped closed the government twice. It actually worked. Bill...

Putnam County clerk refuses to release names of gun owners to the paper who published names of gun owners on a map.

REPUBLICAN HORROR NEW YEAR

(Reuters) - The White House and congressional lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would delay harsh spending cuts by two months, Obama administration officials said on Monday. President Barack Obama called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who both signed off on the deal, one source said. The agreement includes a balance of spending cuts and revenue increases to pay for the delay in the automatic spending cuts that would go into effect without a deal by lawmakers.

UPDATE 12:15 pm EST: The Republican controlled legislature has passed the right-to-work legislation 58-51. Michigan Governor Snyder is expected to sign the bill into law later today. The vote to turn Michigan into a right-to-work state will take place today after days of protests in Lansing about the pro-worker legislation that prevents having to pay dues to a union. Not surprisingly, local police are bracing for possible violence today as more protests are planned. Even with the outcome considered a foregone conclusion, the heated battle over right-to-work legislation in the traditional union bastion of Michigan shows no sign of cooling....

The president-elect of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, praised President Barack Obama's immigration plan in a meeting today at the White House. “We fully support your proposal,” said Peña Nieto in reference to Obama's immigration plan, according to the pool report. “We want to contribute. We want to be part of this.” Obama indicated his willingness to visit Mexico after the president-elect invited the American president to the 2013 North American Leaders Summit. “Any excuses to go to Mexico,” said Obama. “I’m always game.”

Actor Larry Hagman, notorious and beloved as 'Dallas' villain J.R. Ewing, dies From staff reports Larry Hagman, the North Texas native who played the conniving and mischievous J.R. Ewing on the TV show Dallas, died Friday at a Dallas hospital. He was 81. Mr. Hagman died at 4:20 p.m. Friday at Medical City Dallas Hospital from complications of his recent battle with cancer, members of his family said.

After election day in Utah-04, Democrat Jim Matheson was ahead of Mia Love by 2,646 votes. But there were approximately 72,000 provisional and absentee ballots yet to be counted. The results for the final canvass are being released today. We will update.

A 2004 Congressional Research Service report notes that there is no constitutional instruction or federal law on postponing a federal election. However, the report theorizes that presidential emergency power could be used to delay an election -- specifically, if "attacks, disruptions and destruction are so severe and so dangerous in certain localities, particularly in crowded urban areas, that the President under a rule of necessity may look to protect the public safety by federalizing State national guard and restricting movement and activities in such areas which would obviously affect the ability to conduct an election at those sites." Congress could...

“Gallup will not conduct daily tracking surveys for a second night, Tuesday, Oct. 30, due to the ongoing effects of superstorm Sandy and will continue to reassess the situation on a day-to-day basis,” read a statement from the organization. “Gallup will provide an update on Wednesday about plans from that point forward.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/83057.html