Free Republic

Chicago desperately needs a real leader in the fight to get illegal guns off our blood-stained streets. Nothing is more important to our city’s future. We believe that leader can and must be Bruce Rauner. That may seem counter-intuitive. Rauner is a Republican who ran for governor as a strong defender of the Second Amendment, against an incumbent Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, with a long record in support of gun control. But it is precisely because Rauner is a Republican and a staunch defender of legal gun rights — and because he now faces the prospect of finding common ground...

Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian academic who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recently declared that we have "the means to limit climate change" and that "all we need is the will to change." That's a rather glib statement given that just five years ago, Pachauri was lamenting the fact that so many of his fellow Indians were living in dire energy poverty. In July 2009, Pachauri asked reporters, "Can you imagine 400 million people who do not have a light bulb in their homes?" He continued, saying, "with the resources of coal that India has, we really don't have...

Experts on gun violence met at a symposium Friday afternoon in Milwaukee as another Milwaukee family mourned the death of a child hit by a stray bullet Thursday night. Laylah C. Petersen — remember her name — was sitting on her grandfather's lap when she was hit. She was 5. Sierra Guyton — remember her name, too — was killed while playing on her school playground last May. She was 10. In Racine, a 4-year-old girl was shot the day before Petersen was shot. Our hearts reach out to Petersen's family and echo the words of Laylah's aunt, Jocelyn Petersen:...

On Thursday night, 5-year-old Laylah C. Petersen became one of about 300 Americans per year killed by stray bullets. Laylah, who was sitting on her grandfather's lap when a bullet pierced the wall of her home and struck her in the head, joins Sierra Guyton, 10, fatally shot on a playground in May, and at least nine other Milwaukee children killed by errant gunfire since 1995. On Friday, city residents were once again left with this question: "What can we do?" While the answer is multifaceted, one thing is clear, according to Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based...

In American politics, it pays to be a fighter. Candidates of every stripe and in every age have found it useful to pose as advocates for the common people, champions who will go to the barricades on our humble behalf. Genuine populists have worn the mantle most effectively. "Fighting Bob" La Follette was an impassioned rabble-rouser through his long career in Wisconsin politics, and fiery Dan Hoan regularly "gave 'em hell" during his 24 years as Milwaukee's mayor. Both men, and many of their contemporaries, were on a never-ending crusade against the "special interests" who sought to rig the system...

A recent Journal Sentinel editorial concerning Gov. Scott Walker's budget-saving Act 10 reforms attempts to take readers to an alternate universe, complete with happily negotiated labor contracts and good governance that didn't require hard decisions from lawmakers in Madison ("A trip to Scott Walker's parallel universe where Act 10 never happened," Our View, Oct. 21) . One would indeed need to be in an alternate universe to expect a world free of the dysfunction that has plagued state and federal government. In no universe real or otherwise were powerful labor bosses and their unions ever going to make meaningful concessions...

In an early scene on "Madam Secretary" — a kinda Hillary Clinton political soap opera on CBS — our heroine mucks horse manure out of a barn. As played by Tea Leoni, Madam Secretary is a former CIA-analyst-turned-professor in the Virginia horse country, in jeans and boots. She holds a pitchfork in her hand. And bits of straw and road apples cling to the tines. She's asked: Why clean up horse poop? "Why?" asks Madam Secretary. "I like it. It relaxes me." Just then the president of the United States (Keith "I'm Easy" Carradine) rolls up the dusty road in...

If you're an Illinoisan who isn't on a political payroll — meaning you won't have a fat six-figure pension like many of our public officials — you'll likely spend this last month before the Illinois governor's election in deep contemplation. Democratic incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn and businessman Bruce Rauner, the Republican, are in a daily knife fight, but if you're wise, you might also spend this time asking yourself these eternal questions: •Since I don't have a government pension, what kind of sauce will I put on my dry dog food to make it tasty when I'm old? •Would bottled...

Hispanics contemplating the upcoming elections must be wondering: "What now?" President Barack Obama has shown Hispanics that he takes us for granted. The midterm elections won't feature a "Latino vote" storyline in the most contested high-level races. As far as 2016 is concerned, it's a crapshoot. How best to proceed then? Disengage from the political process? Carry on with straight-ticket voting and hope that any new officeholders will be better than the current ones? Decide that -- at least in the voting booth -- maybe the devil you know is really no better than the devil you don't? These questions...

President Barack Obama had a choice between liberalism and the Democratic Party. He chose the latter and it cost him dearly. Liberalism, as an ideology, insists that government can do good and great things for the people and the world, if the people running the government are smart liberals. The Democratic Party says the exact same thing. But liberalism is an ideal, while the Democratic Party is that ideal’s representative here in the real world, and in the real world political parties disappoint. Just to be clear — and to avoid a lot of “Oh, yeah? What about Republicans?!” responses...

It seems counter-intuitive and more than a little greedy to spend tens of thousands of dollars building green energy facilities so you can live off the grid and then fight the power company because they aren’t paying you for the extra power you give back to the grid. Let’s have our cake and eat it, too. Most people invest in solar panels and wind energy to relieve themselves of the burden and insecurity of depending on the giant energy grid most of us depend upon. And it is a dependable grid. Not having power in America is not common and...

On Monday, first lady Michelle Obama swooped in to Milwaukee to help reinvigorate a struggling Mary Burke for governor campaign. Weighed down by accusations that her staff plagiarized large portions of her jobs plan, Burke called upon Obama to do a little cheerleading for the Democratic base. "We need to be just as passionate and as hungry as we were back in 2008 and 2012," Obama told the crowd. "They're assuming we won't be organized and energized. And only we can prove them wrong." Well, not quite. Perhaps the first lady can be forgiven for not following Wisconsin politics that...

America has always been awash in bad ideas. The Founding Fathers spoke a good game about liberty but allowed America to become a slave republic, because they didn't want to alienate the Southern farmers and merchants who helped bankroll and fight the war for independence against the British. The Southern states wanted access to American liberty based on skin color. They got their wish for disproportionate representation in the early republic with the three-fifths clause enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Tolerance of slavery was not only a bad idea, it has had disastrous consequences for America ever since. Right up...

STEVENS POINT — OK, the concern over militarization of cops is legitimate. But as someone who has been accused of being a flaming liberal, allow me to add this question: In a country that is buried in guns, do we want the enforcers of our laws to walk around with billy clubs while criminals tote semi-automatic weapons? If the bad guys have semi-automatics, then don’t we want cops to have at least that amount of firepower? Surely, we all know there are tens of thousands of semi-automatic weapons out there. Does anyone want to see a single cop killed because...

More than 300,000 people rallied in Manhattan Sunday, calling on world leaders to act on climate change — the largest climate change rally in history, according to reports. And while New York's rally was the largest in the People's Climate March event, rallies also took place in London, Paris, Berlin, Melbourne and more than 2,000 other locations around the globe, according to the BBC. And hundreds more showed up Monday in New York and marched to Wall Street to protest the role they say investments play in financing practices that cause climate change, The New York Times reported. The rallies...

Detective Bryan Yant was the face of incompetence at the Metropolitan Police Department: a poster child for wrongful shooting deaths and million-dollar payouts, a driving force behind sweeping reforms to the agency’s deadly force policies. In other cities, an officer who kills an unarmed man under suspicious circumstances and is accused of lying to cover his tracks might be prosecuted. In Las Vegas, Yant kept his job. And he’s taken on a role that will make him more influential at Metro. The officer, in­famous for the 2010 killing of Trevon Cole, a small-time marijuana dealer, is doling out advice in...

Ten years ago I was in Iraq and carried an M16 rifle everywhere I went. I propped my M16 beside me while I drove our medical evacuation Humvee on monotonous yet foreboding convoys from Fallujah, Al Asad, Haditha and around western Al Anbar. When we searched vehicles at checkpoints, I covered my fellow Marines with my M16. I slung my M16 in front of me on visits to a truck stop between Jordan and Ramadi where — against orders — we would buy roasted mutton or chicken cooked with tomatoes and peppers and wrapped in flatbread to alleviate the tedium...

Around 50 mayors and law enforcement officials from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Chicago will meet in Milwaukee on Thursday to discuss ways to reduce gun violence. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges are hosting the 2014 Milwaukee-Minneapolis Summit to Combat Gun Violence at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center on Wisconsin Ave. The event is funded with a $38,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation. It is not open to the public. This year's summit will focus on law enforcement perspectives on gun violence and include a review of new models for crime gun investigations, as well as information on...

In a regular Monday ritual, Chicago Police display the numerous illegal guns they have most recently taken off the street, and there is always a dismayingly large cache. So, yes, cops are getting illegal guns off the street. But the river of new illegal guns replacing those recovered by police is so huge that Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has likened police efforts to drinking from a fire hose. Last year, police recovered more than 7,000 illegal firearms, but plenty more remained on the streets to be used in new crimes. On Saturday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence set...

Seven accidental child shootings in one month. On two occasions, two per day. May days • May 3: A 3-year-old Wisconsin boy shoots himself in the head after finding a loaded handgun in the glove box of his mother’s car. • May 12: A South Carolina 3-year-old finds a gun under a mattress and shoots himself in the leg. • May 12: A 4-year-old shoots himself in the head while visiting his grandmother’s house in South Carolina. He dies four days later. • May 17: An Indiana 4-year-old fatally shoots himself in the head with his parents’ gun after managing...