Free Republic

This week, the universally stupid brainchild of US Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey known as the Ex-PATRIOT Act inched a bit closer towards becoming law. ‘Ex-PATRIOT’ is an absurd acronym that stands for “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy”. I call it the Tax Slave Act… and it proposes three key provisions: 1) Individuals who are deemed, in the sole discretion of the US government, to have renounced US citizenship in order to avoid US taxes, will be permanently barred from re-entering the United States. 2) Such individuals will also be required to pay a 30%...

The active duty soldier who had his guns confiscated by the District of Columbia two years ago will have his property returned by Memorial Day. It took the help of a high-powered lawyer, two U.S. Senators, a member of Congress and national publicity to force the obstinate District to show some respect for the Constitution. It should never happen again. On Friday, D.C. property clerk Derek Gray determined the city would finally return 1st Lt. Augustine Kim’s “dangerous articles” because the Army national guardsman fulfilled the plea agreement arranged with the U.S. attorney’s office a year earlier. The Metropolitan Police...

BELLEVUE, Wash., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against the police departments in San Francisco and Oakland, California for refusing to return firearms to people who had been charged with crimes, but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the Calguns Foundation and two private citizens. The case is known as Churchill, et al. v. Harris, et al. The police agencies apparently are relying on a state Department of Justice document that requires proof of ownership of each firearm before they are returned. But Don...

Former U.S.ambassador Dan Simpson is once again weighing in on the gun issue. Some of you may remember the “modest proposal” he came out with shortly after the VA Tech shootings, and while his new screed does not contain ideas like: The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty his proposals are still unacceptable. Perhaps he needs a reminder of just what sort of unintended consequences his anti-gun nuttery might produce . . . [Foreword by David Codrea: This may make some uncomfortable, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. And after all, it's just a hypothetical "ping,"...

Enter the US Army Military Personnel Exchange Program, wherein officers in the US Army are being exchanged with officers from countries around the world for the purported purpose of cross training for international crisis.  What is happening right before our eyes is the international soviet socialist elite are putting together an international coalition army for the purpose of disarming the American citizens. Understand, this army must be coordinated and considering the reality of diverse languages requires a communication system which has to be established before this foreign army can begin operations in the United States.  This is why we have...

A few years ago, when Jack Hands was just 90 years old, he fatally shot a much-younger man who threatened him during an altercation in his northeast Houston home. Two weapons involved in the 2010 incident were confiscated by authorities. A Harris County grand jury reviewed the case and cleared the World War II-era veteran last September of one count of murder and a possession of a prohibited weapon charge. Now the retired security guard wants his guns back. He’s particularly attached to the heirloom shotgun, which he says he carried growing up in Georgia. Officials with the Houston Police...

The execution of citizens of the town of Bochnia by the Germans during the occupation of Poland, 18 December 1939. Fifty-six people were executed that day in an exercise of "government monopoly of violence." Three Death Penalties for Prohibited Arms Possession. A special German court in Zamość [near Krakow] sentenced to death 19 year-old Franciszek Pokrywka of Powieki, 27 year-old Iwan Zilnyk and 35 year-old Paweł Huzar, both of Ułazów, for prohibited possession of firearms as well as for violating the duty to report possession of firearms. Pokrywka had an automatic pistol with six cartridges and, despite the universally-known order...

In a paper entitled “Greek debt: The endgame scenarios”, Buchheit, one of the most prominent lawyers globally in debt restructuring cases, said that that “the restructuring could be facilitated in some way by a change to Greek law”. If English law is applied to the new bonds issued under the complex PSI, the Greek side would have to face the following consequences: Property confiscation: According to international law as well as many national legal systems, when a property is located within the jurisdiction of the legislating state, the latter has the power (de facto or by law) to nationalise or...

Gunshots ring out in the dead of night, and not a single person reports it. Yet police know exactly where the shots came from, even before they arrive on the scene. It sounds like a scene from The Minority Report, but it's real. A new technology called ShotSpotter enables law enforcement officials to precisely and instantaneously locate shooters, and it has been quietly rolling out across America. From Long Island, N.Y., to San Francisco, Calif., more than 60 cities in the U.S. have been leveraging ShotSpotter to make their streets safer.

Phillip Foster, 73, a retired Canadian diplomat, has been sentenced to house arrest after a 2010 self-defence incident in his home. Foster was attacked in his home by a drunk former romantic partner of one of Foster’s daughters. The attacker, Richard Dean Cantwell, assaulted Foster and was smashing Foster’s possessions. Foster armed himself with a .22-calibre revolver — a potent, if relatively low-powered, firearm. Cantwell attacked Foster, knocking him to the ground, and Foster shot Cantwell in the leg. Cantwell was able to wrest the gun from Foster, but fled the scene. He survived his injury. It’s hard to imagine...

Most people land in Milwaukee County's "gun court" as defendants, charged with carrying a concealed firearm, being a felon with a gun or using one in a reckless manner. But once a month, people appear on their own accord to ask the judge for help getting guns back from police, who in their effort to keep dangerous weapons off the streets might seize any and all guns in certain situations and sort out the details later. A gun's lawful owner may not be convicted, charged or even involved, such as when someone in their household uses it when they're away....

How Bankrupt Governments Will Confiscate Your GoldAbout two weeks ago, GoldMoney sent out an apologetic email to all of its Dutch customers. The email explained how the Dutch financial regulator (AFM) considered GoldMoney to be in violation of various licensing rules and compliance requirements.Among other things, AFM indicated that GoldMoney was selling ‘investment objects’ without a license… something that they consider a heinous breach of their silly bureaucracy.Now, there are so many technicalities involved here– whether physical metal constitutes ‘investment objects’ anymore than a collection of 80s action figures or a cellar of fine Bordeaux. Then there’s the jurisdictional issue–...

In the coming weeks, Americans could face sweeping changes to the tax deferral status and funding strategies of their retirement plans.

On August 30, the Cleveland Scene reported that after having attempted to get police to return her collection of firearms for an entire year, a Lakewood, OH veteran was finally forced to file a lawsuit against the police department, which had confiscated the collection from her home when she was away. From the article: Francesca Rice no longer serves in her country's armed forces, but she brought a piece of the action back home with her. It seems the Lakewood vet had stockpiled her Edgewater Towers condo with a home arsenal including handguns, shotguns, a sniper rifle — plus a...

Francesca Rice no longer serves in her country’s armed forces, but she brought a piece of the action back home with her. It seems the Lakewood vet had stockpiled her Edgewater Towers condo with a home arsenal including handguns, shotguns, a sniper rifle — plus a Thompson sub-machine gun, just in case the pizza guy got fresh. Her cache somehow caught the attention of Lakewood Police, who paid a visit last September. When they found Rice wasn’t home, they asked an obliging employee of the complex to open up the apartment without her consent. Once inside, they raided the gun...

When I was a kid, it was a big deal when the postman came around. He was an important man carrying important documents from far away lands that we could only dream about… and each time he pulled up there was a brief glimmer of anxiety, wondering what unexpected surprise he might be delivering that day. At the time, I remember postage stamps for first class mail costing about 20 cents. If you’re a bit older than me, you might remember them being much cheaper than that. In fact, prior to President Nixon taking the US dollar off the gold...

Those who believe our government is too honorable to raid private retirement accounts had better wake up! The seriously dangerous and wounded animal we know as government is fighting for its survival. It will do anything short of dying, reducing spending, or revealing itself as the Ponzi scheme it truly is. Your notions of integrity, law, and morality do not apply to this animal. The biggest, meanest man in town is trying to escape death and will use whatever means possible. Rightly or wrongly, he believes you are his antidote and he is going after whatever he can get. One...

While the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) may have successfully sold the molestation of airline passengers as a “necessary inconvenience” on the road to national security, it is not so easy to explain away theft. Thus far, 200 current TSA officers have been formally accused of stealing from passengers’ luggage. Over 500 TSA officers have been fired or suspended for theft since the agency was established in 2001. “We’re not saying that the thefts are acceptable,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “They’re not. But in the grand scheme of things, the risk of losing something from your luggage must be...

DALLAS — Dallas will keep $2,000 found by a teenager in a parking lot last February. The money will go into the city's general fund — not back to Plano high school student Ashley Donaldson, who found the cash in an envelope at the Pavillion Shopping Center in North Dallas. "I don't regret making the decision I did," she said. "I feel proud of myself for giving the money back. It's one of the biggest decisions of my life." The 15-year-old Shepton High School student spotted the money on the ground and took it to a nearby Chase Bank. Over...

If you own a gun in Illinois, take precautions. The state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, wants to release the names of guns owners in response to an Associated Press request. Publication of that list would tell the criminal class where the guns are, which could be useful to two different sorts of lawbreakers: gun thieves who want to know where the guns are and burglars who want to know where they are not. New York City released its list recently at The New York Times' request. It included "dozens of boldface names and public figures: prominent business leaders, elected officials,...

Obama used the op-ed to call for "instant, accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks" and better record-keeping to "stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun."

“Gun grabbers” is an inflammatory name for gun control advocates. After all, these firearms-focused folk don’t want to prise guns from [the cold, dead fingers of] Americans lawfully exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms. No, they want to change the laws so that most Americans can’t get their hands on guns in the first place. Or if they can, these not-gun grabbers want to make sure that privately owned guns aren’t too dangerous; from the way the weapons fire bullets (never automatically) to the amount of bullets they can fire without reloading (no more than 10). And they’d...

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Arizona has common sense gun laws. The concept that the government could or should only “allow” certain people to have guns stands the very concept of American jurisprudence on its head. It presumes that the government knows all, controls all, and should be doing so. It is wrong and ineffective. It is crazy to set up a huge expensive bureaucratic system, require everyone to jump though hoops and prove that they are *not* criminals in order to try, ineffectively, to prevent the few individuals who are not responsible, from having legal access to guns. This is a failed paradigm, and...

People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds. .The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday threatened to expropriate any bank that stands in the way of ambitious plans to finance homebuilding and he made specific mention of a unit of Spain's BBVA. The left-wing president has made similar threats in the past, but most analysts doubt he wants to take over the whole banking system. In recent days a close Chavez aide has twice said BBVA's Provincial unit is up for sale, a claim denied by the bank. Chavez has accelerated a program of nationalizations throughout the economy since September as he rushes to make the state the key...

The holy grail of the anti self defense and anti rights special interest groups is gun registration. This is because once your gun is required to be registered, it is in effect, already confiscated. Only a little thought will reveal to you why this is so. The Government will know who has legal possession of each firearm. They will know where the firearm is stored. When physical possession of the gun is desired, they can order you to turn it in. This has happened repeatedly. The historical examples include NAZI Germany, Soviet Russia, Red China, and Cambodia. Recent examples include...

Well, if Donald Berwick’s favorite health-care system is to survive, the Brits have to do something, don’t they? The British government’s tax agency has proposed a new process for employers in the private and public sectors to pay their workers. Instead of actually giving the money to the employees, they’ll pay Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, which will then decide just how much to allow the workers to keep: The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate...

If you were a) jacked up, b) held at gunpoint, or c) politely asked to hand over your firearm as you a) left town, b) went about your business or c) tried to help your neighbors in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you might be eligible to get your illegally confiscated gun back if you follow the rules established by the court. According to the terms of the permanent injunction against the city, issued in October 2008, the city has to “make an aggressive attempt to return any and all firearms which may have been confiscated during the period August...

Is it really wise to own gold? The government has banned it twice before -- if I have my facts right. It could be simply confiscated or driven underground. It could become especially heavily taxed. These things could happen on very short notice -- "Stroke of the pen, Law of The Land... Kinda cool," as was said by R.E. Kinda scary, too... That they think that fast and loose. So, what about the probability of a general confiscation of gold precisely to prevent anybody from having a port in the storm, and forcing us all into a common and vulnerable...

N. Korea threatens to seize S. Korean assets at Mount Kumgang SEOUL, March 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has informed South Korea of its plan to look into all of the real estate owned by South Koreans inside the scenic mountain resort along its east coast, as it apparently grows impatient with Seoul's refusal to allow its citizens to travel there, according to industry sources here Thursday. In a recently faxed message to the South Korean government, the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a state agency in charge of cross-border exchanges, said, "South Korean figures who possess real estate in the...

If you were wondering where the hidden taxes are in "Health Reform", guess what - President Obama has just given you something to sit on. The forced march to pass ObamaCare continues, and all that matters now is raw politics. But opponents should go down swinging, and that means exposing such policy debacles as President Obama's 11th-hour decision to apply the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax to "unearned income." That's what savings and investment income are called in Washington, and this destructive tax wasn't in either the House or Senate bills, though it may now become law with almost no scrutiny....

It has been reported by Business Week that the US Labor Department and Treasury Department are asking for public comment on a plan to convert individuals' retirement accounts (IRAs and 401(k)s) into government sponsored annuities featuring US Government bonds. The scheme would start off as voluntary, but only makes sense -- like socialized health care -- if it becomes mandatory and universal. In essence the government is asking if we would mind if they nationalized our money in return for a promise of more money in the future . . . like a Ponzi scheme called Social Security, but even...

More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval.

Bill 0'Reilly, interviewing the founder of Oath Keepers, questioned Oath Keeper's opposition to the govt confiscating guns - or even discussing the issue in public. B0R implied there was some violent, subversive agenda to even discussing the issue and stated plainly that any mayor - such as in New Orleans after Katrina - had a perfect right to confiscate guns because they had to maintain "control" or "anarchy" would result.

The Obama Retirement Trap Has Started Feb 11th, 2010 | By Ron Holland | Category: Featured, Personal Investing I begin with a quote from a politician who believed in an all-powerful central government and in using that power to achieve his vision for a nation. “He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.” ~ Otto von Bismarck, a statesman who created the modern Germany and known as the iron chancellor But however well-intentioned he might have been, he built the regulatory groundwork and government institutions for a centralized federal state that was later taken over by an...

An increasing number of Americans are concerned enough about the threat of precious metals confiscation to want to store gold or silver overseas. But laws in effect in 21 states may stand in their way. I learned about these laws last year when one of my subscribers in Arizona called. He wanted to buy gold from a foreign dealer for storage offshore, but the dealer refused to sell to him. The reason: the Arizona Model Commodities Act. After some research, I learned that 21 states have enacted the MCA or some variation of it: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,...

About a year ago I saw an article about the Argentinean Government proposing a bill that would in effect nationalize all of their 401K/IRA type retirement accounts. Well as of November, 2009 that has now become a reality, over $29 Billion in retirement accounts have now been seized by the Government and they will use that money to pay down debt. As I remember the plan the poor owner of that account would get Government issued bonds that will pay between 2 and 3% to replace those monies the government takes. You can read this article from the London Telegraph...

Now this is a guaranteed rape job. In a short conversation this noontime that CNBC apparently has omitted from their archives (Why's that folks?) Rick Santelli was talking about a potential to effectively force money into the Treasury market. Where would they get this? From your 401k and IRA accounts! From Businessweek: The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury...

A group of red shirt-wearing Chavista thugs show up at a farm and seize the farm in the name of the government, under the pretext that the 103 hectare farm is “idle land” and that the law allows them to take it over for “food production.” The farmer protests politely, explaining that he’s been raising cattle on his farm for 23 years. He is rebuffed by another guy, who says, “this is not going to be a debate; this is a public act approved by the Venezuelan people. I’m governor and I’m here to ensure public order. There won’t be...

I have no idea if I am doing this correctly but I got this and thought it was important. Now all Guns' must be listed on your next (2010) tax return! As if we didn't have enough to get upset about! If you have a gun, I hope it isn't registered! Senate Bill SB-2099 will require us to put on our 2009 1040 federal tax form all guns that you have or own. It will require fingerprints and a tax of $50 per gun. This bill was introduced on Feb.. 24, 2009, by the Obama staff. BUT . ...this bill...

In my previous article you can see the actual executive order in which U.S. citizens lost the right to own gold. From May 1st 1933 until 1971, U.S. citizens could no longer hold gold as a protection against paper money, which also lost its gold backing at the same time. Foreign central banks could continue to exchange the U.S. dollars that came into their possession [known as Eurodollars for decades] for gold and did so particularly when the $ was devalued and then floated against the gold price in 1971. Why? The ‘why' of it all, is critical to our...

I recently finished reading The Great New Orleans Gun Grab: Descent Into Anarchy by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson. To give you an idea of how interesting this book is, I finished all 190 pages PLUS the Appendix materials in just under three hours. Both Hutchinson and Masson are professional writers, and they do an excellent job conveying a story that is fascinating, frightening, horrifying, and often, beyond belief. I found myself muttering, numerous times, "Certainly this did not happen in the United States." Well, it did happen. And every gun owner owes it to himself to at least know...

We assure you, this is not a fatuous question. Is it possible you may well ask under what circumstances did this happen in 1933? What we can confirm is that in 1933 the U.S. government banned the ownership of gold by U.S. citizens and purchased all but rare gold coins from the U.S. Public

There's a lot of Internet chatter these days about the possibility of the U.S. government seizing its citizens' private gold holdings. What are the chances?

Henry Kissinger tells Russian President Medvedev " by September 2009 we'll have confiscated all privately owned guns.

The ACLU, not exactly known for being sympathetic to the right to keep and bear arms, is going to bat for a New Orleans man who had his gun confiscated. From the Associated Press: The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana filed the federal lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Errol Houston Jr., who was arrested last year following a traffic stop. The lawsuit says the district attorney's office declined to prosecute Houston but has refused to return his .40-caliber firearm. Why? After all: "Mr. Houston has done nothing wrong. There are no criminal charges against him. His firearm, which he...

Massachusetts wants even more tax revenue—from New Hampshire.___ Should New Hampshire businesses have to collect Massachusetts sales taxes from border-crossing shoppers? That’s the issue in Town Fair Tire v. Massachusetts, a case before the Bay State’s Supreme Judicial Court with ramifications for commerce and constitutional law well beyond New England. In 2003, a Massachusetts Department of Revenue audit uncovered invoices from three New Hampshire outlets of the Town Fair Tire company (TFT) to customers with Massachusetts addresses. Because Connecticut-based TFT also has locations in Massachusetts—and therefore benefits from various public services there, from police protection to road maintenance—the Massachusetts Appellate...

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy...

My oldest daughter patted my hand indulgently and said "Dad, I can assure you that nobody is going to come take your guns." We were again discussing gun rights and she cannot fathom my trepidation about the current trend in our federal government. I agree that the current legislation being considered doesn't empower the police to come confiscate our guns, but it does put in place a national permit system to oversee citizens rights to own a gun. That is step one: make it an earned privilege to own a gun. Step two is to raise the bar so high...