Free Republic

The scientific agreement that climate change is happening, and that it's caused by human activity, is significant and growing, according to a new study published Thursday. The research, the most comprehensive analysis of climate research to date, finds that 97.1% of the studies published between 1991 to 2011 that expressed a position on man made climate change agreed that it was happening, and that it was due to human activity. The study looked at peer reviewed research that mentioned climate change or global warming. Peer review is the way that scientific journals approve research papers that are submitted. In peer...

JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri State Highway Patrol has twice turned over the entire list of Missouri concealed weapon permit holders to federal authorities, most recently in January, Sen. Kurt Schaefer said Wednesday. Questioning in the Senate Appropriations Committee revealed that on two occasions, in November 2011 and again in January, the patrol asked for and received the full list from the state Division of Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing. Schaefer later met in his office with Col. Ron Replogle, superintendent of the patrol. After the meeting, he said Replogle had given him sketchy details about turning over the list,...

BURRELL TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – An Indiana County man is facing several charges, after wildlife officials say he went deer hunting in a Walmart parking lot. The Pennsylvania Game Commission says 40-year-old Arcangelo Bianco Jr., fired several rounds from a handgun at a 10-point white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store’s parking lot, and then bagged the animal near Old William Penn Highway. The alleged shooting happened last November, while Bianco was shopping at the store, and then saw the buck in the parking lot. According to charging documents, the deer ran around a corner of the store, and Bianco...

Anyone looking for a clue about the future of health policy debates should take note of a Center for American Progress panel convened earlier this month. The topic at hand was journalist Steven Brill’s Time magazine story on high medical bills, which compared rates charged to uninsured and privately insured patients with the negotiated, lower per-service rates charged to Medicare. But rather than push for a government-run, single-payer system—what liberals often term “Medicare for all”—several of the left-leaning health experts on hand talked up a technocratic alternative known as "all-payer": Instead of the federal government serving as a universal insurer,...

Snip The measure is believed to have no chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate. The vote was 221-207.

California's top-end taxpayers -- already steamed over a recent hike in the nation's highest state income tax -- are now fuming over a new $120 million retroactive tax grab on small business owners. In December, the state's tax authority determined that a tax break claimed over the past few years by 2,500 entrepreneurs and stockholders of California-based small businesses is no longer valid and sent out notices of payment. "How would you feel if you made a decision, which was made four years ago, (and) you absolutely knew was legally correct and four years later a governing body came in...

In keeping with restrictions in State Statutes, and faced with federal encroachments of the 2005 Patriot Act, the Missouri Department of Revenue has been requiring Missouri citizens processing driver license applications and renewals to present what is commonly referred to as “source documents” to prove identity and residency. These required documents include birth certificates, Social Security numbers (in violation of original federal laws related to them), and any documents tracing legal name changes such as marriage and/or divorce documents. Alternative military documents are acceptable when applicable. Despite assurances to the public that providing these source documents would be a “one...

It’s a good thing the U.S Public Health Service called off the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments in 1972. Had someone sued to stop the horror, a federal judge like Anthony Trenga might have stopped the suit — not the experiments. That’s precisely what Judge Trenga did on Jan. 31 in the case of the American Tradition Institute v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The American Tradition Institute sued the EPA in October to stop an ongoing experiment in which the agency was exposing elderly study subjects (up to 75 years of age) to concentrated levels of a deadly (according to EPA)...

AFP - A stock market slide, escalated conflict between Japan and China and more Gangnam-styled success for South Korean singer Psy will shape the incoming Year of the Snake, say Asian soothsayers. Those who make predictions according to the study of feng shui -- or literally "wind-water" -- are influential in many parts of Asia, where people adjust their lives or renovate houses and offices based on the advice. As they bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon, the fortune tellers warn that the "black water snake" that emerges to replace it on February 10 -- the first day...

Why we can't give up our guns. This brings back memories of the Gore recount in Florida where the vote counters tried to do their business behind closed doors and the patriots that put a stop to it.

Last week President Obama bluntly warned Congress that he will not negotiate when it comes to raising the statutory debt limit. If Republicans attempt to use a debt ceiling vote to win concessions on spending from the White House, Mr. Obama threatens simply to raise the limit by executive order or other unilateral action. This is business as usual in Washington. Democrats literally do not believe we have a deficit and debt problem, and reliably propose greater borrowing and spending. Republicans talk a good game when it comes to government debt, but have no credibility to argue against deficits or...

Snap shot in case they change it.

The State of New York this week passed some of the strictest gun control laws in the United States, effectively outlawing 'assault weapons' and limiting the size of magazines. But if Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin is to be believed, the New York State Democrats would have gone further if they could have. Much, much further. In a video posted to his Facebook page, McLaughlin has shared the information of a 'secret' Democrat proposal not simply to make the purchasing of the crudely monikered 'assault weapons' illegal in New York, but also to engage in a mass confiscation programme, removing Americans'...

The Obama administration is attempting to bypass Congress and force publicly-traded companies to reveal their political donations through regulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance has begun the steps necessary to create a regulation that would in many ways mirror the DISCLOSE Act — a bill Senate Democrats have failed to pass through Congress. Created in reaction to the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that said corporations and unions could not have limits placed on their political expenditures, the Senate bill would require political organizations to publicly name their donors and the amounts they give. The...

On Tuesday, 44 House Democrats joined Rep Jan Schakowsky in her bid to submit H.R. 261, legislation supporting a “public option.” When ObamaCare was passed in 2010, the “public option” was removed, but like the seven-headed Hydra, another head has grown in its place. Schakowsky claimed, "Obamacare is already helping millions of Americans get the health care they need, but it can be made even better. The Public Option Deficit Reduction Act will give health care consumers more choice and lower their premiums."

I would bet that the gun manufacturers and ammo manufacturers are balanced on a thin line between wanting to expand to take advantage of the demand and holding off so as to not be holding massive inventory when the mania tapers off. If they keep production as it is, prices stay great and no risk of over extending themselves. I hope the quality hold up. It makes me wonder if a gun manufactured in early 2013 might have some corners cut to get them out the door?

FORTUNE -- You can't blame middle-income Americans for wondering whether the new "fiscal cliff" deal really protects them from big tax increases in the future. That's essentially what President Obama promised in championing the hike in rates for high-earners signed into law on January 2. Still, the politicians and pundits keep talking about how our steep deficits and mountainous debt will rise even after the new revenue is counted. So it's only natural for the folks to ask the obvious question: Now that the affluent are paying far more, where's the extra cash supposed to come from? The answer is...

The Treasury Department will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the Federal Reserve would not accept it. That’s the bottom line of the statement that Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, gave me today. “Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” he said. The inclusion of the Federal Reserve is significant. For the platinum coin idea to work, the Federal Reserve...

The state of Tennessee has suspended the handgun carry permit of James Yeager, CEO of Tactical Response, who recently said he would "start killing people" should President Obama take executive action on gun control. State officials explained they revoked the permit because of Yeager's "material likelihood of risk of harm to the public," according to a local TV station. Tactical Response is a Tennessee-based company that specializes in firearms and tactical training. "The number one priority for our department is to ensure the public's safety," wrote Commissioner Bill Gibbons. "Mr. Yeager's comments were irresponsible, dangerous, and deserved our immediate attention....

The Constitution of the United States is an undeniably powerful document. So powerful in fact, that it took establishment elitists with aspirations of globalized governance over a century to diminish the American people’s connection to it. It’s been a long time coming, but in the new millennium, there is now indeed a subsection of the masses that not only have no relationship to our founding roots, they actually despise those of us who do! There are a number of reasons for this dangerous development in our culture: A public school system that rarely if ever teaches children about the revolution,...