Free Republic

To understand why Bernie Sanders’ ideas are immoral, imagine if parents raised their child based on his principles. One of the hardest things to teach children is that wanting something doesn’t give them the right to take it. Selfishness comes naturally, after all. As a father of two toddlers, I know this firsthand. My older toddler’s favorite toy is whatever his younger brother is playing with. My wife and I have to correct and discipline him over this. We want him to learn that it’s wrong to take things that don’t belong to you. That’s very different than Sanders’ view...

The Clark County School District sent Deanna Wright to an anti-bullying conference in Orlando. She went to Walt Disney World instead of attending the end of the conference. Wright is the president of the School Board. Last year, taxpayers paid for her trip to the 2017 National Conference on Bullying. The conference opened on March 1 and ended at 11 a.m. on March 3. On March 3, at 9:53 a.m. — while the conference was ongoing — she took an Uber from her hotel to a Disney World parking lot. Late that evening, she took another Uber from Disney World...

Politics is a dirty business, but politicians usually avoid attacking charities supported by their own church. Not Steve Sisolak. Sisolak, a Democrat, has talked numerous times about his faith and is reportedly a “devout Catholic who goes to Mass every day.” Last week, Nevada Democrats put out a pro-abortion screed against Adam Laxalt, Sisolak’s Republican gubernatorial opponent. It viciously attacked First Choice Pregnancy Services, a crisis pregnancy center. Crisis pregnancy centers offer women free pregnancy-related services, such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling to help expectant moms choose life. Nevada Democrats labeled First Choice a “fake clinic” that “coerces women...

Democrats are positioning themselves to vote down a bill that would permanently prevent the separation of illegal immigrant parents and children. Remember this the next time you see liberals compare President Donald Trump and his administration to Nazis on this issue. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ordering that families remain together while officials determine the outcome of their case. Illegal immigration activists — yes, you read that right — are likely to sue Trump over that. To understand what’s happening and how to fix it, review the history. In 1997, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most...

Two weeks ago, Sen. Dean Heller’s campaign released video evidence that Rep. Jacky Rosen lied about her résumé by claiming to have a college degree she doesn’t have. Rosen is the Democrat running against Heller for U.S. Senate in one of the country’s highest profile-races. Wait, you haven’t heard about that the résumé scandal? Not surprising. That’s because the media didn’t cover it, even though Rosen’s fib is on tape. In 1979, Rosen earned a degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, but here’s what she told CSPAN3 last year. “When I was in college in Minnesota, I actually...

In February, the campaign team of Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen saw a pay bump — thanks to the Republican tax plan. Rep. Rosen is challenging Sen. Dean Heller, and she’s repeatedly voiced her opposition to the tax cuts Republicans passed last year. The tax cuts will “increase the economic anxiety of too many Nevada families at their kitchen tables,” she wrote in November. In December, she called it a “disastrous tax scheme” and accused Heller of raising taxes on “hardworking Nevadans.” Given their refusal to return phone calls seeking comment, it’s debatable whether Rosen’s staff qualifies as “hardworking.” What’s not...

It’d be nice if the media defended the NRA as fiercely as they defend MS-13. Last week, President Donald Trump hosted a summit with California law enforcement officers to discuss the dangers of the state’s “sanctuary” policies. During Q&A, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims worried that the sanctuary law prevented her from telling federal officials if she had an MS-13 gang member in custody. “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are,” said Trump. “These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before.” The...

Most politicians would do anything to avoid disparaging veterans. But Rep. Jacky Rosen, now running for the U.S. Senate, isn’t most politicians, and Sen. Dean Heller wants to make sure you know about it. Last Friday, Rosen and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto attended a fundraiser hosted by Jane Fonda and other Hollywood elites. Yes, that’s the same Jane Fonda whom many Vietnam War veterans dubbed “Hanoi Jane” when she was photographed smiling while sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. The same Jane Fonda who said POWs claiming torture were “hypocrites and liars.” The same Jane Fonda who voiced North...

If you want to empower women, stop talking about the mythical gender pay gap. ... It’s important to understand how the left is twisting numbers for political purposes, but it’s also vital to rebut the destructive message they’re sending. The subtext of Equal Pay Day is that women can’t. No matter how hard women work, no matter how smart they are, no matter their choices, women can’t earn as much as men. Try your hardest, sister, but your gender will keep you down.

The people most responsible for the much-hyped gender pay gap are women. Tuesday was Equal Pay Day, a chance for liberals to lament that women in America make only 80 cents — or 81 cents in Nevada — for every dollar a male makes. Activists say a woman has to work more than 15 months to make as much as a man did in 2017. The hyper-liberal National Partnership for Women and Families calculates this by comparing the median annual earnings of men and women working full-time. Democrats and the national mainstream media take this as proof positive that America...

It’s easy to vote illegally in Nevada. All a non-citizen has to do is go the DMV and ask. The DMV uses the same form regardless of whether you’re getting a driver’s license, ID card or driver’s authorization card. The latter are for those, like illegal aliens, who can’t meet the proof of identity requirements for the other documents. At the bottom of that form is a voter registration application. The voter registration form asks if you’re a citizen and if you’re old enough to vote. What’s to stop someone from lying? Nothing and no one. You could get a...

If students playing hooky solved gun violence, mass shootings would have ended decades ago — kids, just ask your parents if they ever cut class. That’s not going to stop today’s students from trying again. At 10 a.m. today, students from a dozen Las Vegas schools will walk out of their classes for 17 minutes as part of the National School Walkout. ... One proposal is to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. “It’s all in the title — assault weapons don’t protect, they harm and too easily these deadly weapons can be bought, sold and distributed within the borders...

Going to press events is a normal part of my job. What happened Monday — as I walked to a news conference at which Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Sisolak announced his education plan — isn’t. Sisolak held the event on the third floor of a building owned by Switch. As I got off the elevator, there were two security guards there and a Sisolak campaign staffer. The staffer asked me to sign in and then walked away in a panic when he realized who I was — a conservative columnist. Sisolak’s communications director, Barb Solish, came out and told me,...

The big gun-control bill House Democrats are pushing after the horrific Florida school shooting has a significant flaw. It won’t prevent the next school shooting. On Monday, House Democrats introduced an assault weapons ban. Of the 193 Democrats in the House, 168 are sponsors or co-sponsors. The bill would make it illegal to sell most semi-automatic rifles. It specifically outlaws 205 types of weapons. That list includes rifles, pistols and even shotguns. If that’s not enough, its language is so broad that it would ban any “part … that is designed or functions to accelerate the rate of fire of...

Being a shooting victim doesn’t make you an expert on ending gun violence. But you wouldn’t know that from watching CNN. It’s been a week since a monster killed 17 people at a Florida high school. The calls for gun control have been reflexive and ambiguous, but the media have found a new mouthpiece — shooting survivors. “Students seize control of gun debate” blared a MSNBC caption. An organization portraying itself as being made up of students announced a March 24 rally in D.C. and other cities called “March For Our Lives.” Some students say they won’t return to class...

After every mass shooting, Democrats and their allies in the media tell Americans to “do something.” The response to Wednesday’s horrific shooting in Florida was no different. ... Across the country, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, part-time comedian Jimmy Kimmel and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsome all called on elected officials to “do something.” But what is “something”? Without details, it’s like a group of lost hikers declaring they need to “find their way home.” Yes, everyone can agree with that, but which way do you go?

The past five days show why conservatives are right to loathe the liberal bias of the national mainstream media. It started with the Olympics. Vice President Mike Pence was in South Korea for the opening ceremonies, which Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong un, also attended. Her presence triggered swooning from liberal outlets. “Kim Jong-un’s sister turns on the charm, taking Pence’s spotlight,” declared a New York Times headline. That charm consisted of her “sphinx-like smile” and “the sprinkle of freckles on her cheeks.” The Washington Post said people “marveled at her barely there makeup”...

Teenage girls shouldn’t have to take their pants off in front of random teenage boys. The Clark County School District disagrees. According to a concerned parent and student, the principal of a local high school is allowing a male student to use the girls’ locker room to change for physical education class. “Last year, sometime during the year, he just started coming and changing in the locker room with us,” said a girl who was in PE class. “I felt uncomfortable and would try and hide and change somewhere else. Other people in my class told me that they felt...

Either Democrats don’t believe their own rhetoric or they want children to die. That’s the state of American politics with a government shutdown looming as of this writing. On Thursday, the House passed a temporary spending measure and six years of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Although Republicans have a 51-49 majority in the upper chamber, Senate rules require a spending bill to get 60 votes. This gives Democrats the power to force a shutdown. Democrats are holding out for protections for illegals brought to the United States as children. Almost every House Democrat, including Rep. Jacky Rosen,...

Do you remember when Donald Trump’s “inexperience” terrified Democrats? That was before it looked as if Oprah might run for president. On Sunday at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey gave a speech condemning sexual harassers and repeatedly warning abusers that “their time is up.” Oprah’s oratory had the left and the mainstream media — but I repeat myself — giddy with the possibility of a Democratic presidential bid. From its official Twitter account, NBC wrote, “Nothing but respect for OUR future president,” accompanied by a picture of Oprah. It has since taken the tweet down. CNN started an Oprah 2020...