Free Republic

No, this post is not about that kind of fantasy. Instead, we’re dealing strictly with public policy and specifically addressing whether the libertarian agenda is unrealistic. This is because when I talk to people about libertarianism, they often will say something mildly supportive such as: “I like the idea of getting government out of my wallet and out of my bedroom.” But then the other shoe drops and they say something skeptical such as: “But you folks are too idealistic in thinking the private sector can do everything.” If you ask them to elaborate why libertarian ideas are fantasies, you’ll...

“Too often our department spends weeks or months developing a case, make(s) a great arrest of a drug dealer, and (the defendant is) back out on the street within 24 hours.” Ron Tischer, police chief “If people believe that everyone can be locked up without bond because they’re arrested, before they’re convicted, that’s not a realistic expectation.” Circuit Judge Scott Horne A dispute over the setting of bonds and sentences in La Crosse County Circuit Court isn’t over. While both La Crosse Police Chief Ron Tischer and the county’s judges agree they need to meet, they won’t do so until...

Some people confuse being libertarian with being libertine. I’m sometimes asked, for instance, if I’m a libertarian because I want to smoke pot or do other drugs. I respond that I’ve never done drugs and have no desire to use drugs. Then I’m asked if I’m a libertarian because I want to gamble. I respond by saying that I don’t gamble, even when I’m in Las Vegas or some other place where it’s legal. Sometimes I’m asked if I’m libertarian because I want to use prostitutes. I respond by explaining that I’d never patronize a prostitute because I want to...

Three vials containing an experimental drug stored at subzero temperatures were flown into Liberia last week in a last-ditch effort to save two American missionary workers who had contracted Ebola, according to a source familiar with details of the treatment. The drug appears to have worked, sources say. Dr. Kent Brantly's and Nancy Writebol's conditions significantly improved after receiving the medication, sources say. Brantly was able to walk into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being evacuated to the United States last week, and Writebol is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday. On July 22, Brantly woke up feeling...

The ashes were being kept in a plastic box, not a metal urn.Vietnam War veteran Phillip McMullen likely saw some bad things during his time in the service, but what he saw when returned to his Alabama home ranks right up there. McMullen came back to his Citronelle residence after visiting some friends out of town and discovered that his home had been burglarized. The gun safe at McMullen's house had been damaged, but it wasn't broken into. The same could not be said for the plastic box which held his deceased wife's ashes. "They even took my wife's ashes...

Chinese authorities executed on Friday a Japanese man who had been sentenced to death in connection with stimulant drug smuggling, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said. The identity of the man is not immediately known. Kishida told a news conference that while it is up to China to decide what kind of penalty should be imposed on criminals, "We have conveyed to the Chinese side that we have taken a heightened interest in the death penalty handed down to Japanese nationals." China informed Japan of the execution in the morning, Kishida said. A court in Dalian in northeastern China conveyed...

MOBILE, Alabama – One minute the son of a prominent Alabama judge was rolling a marijuana cigar on his couch; the next he was shotgunning the mother of his infant child to death, a detective testified on Wednesday. With a packed courtroom listening intently, Prichard Police Cpl. Robert Martin chronicled an eye-witness account of how Richardson Johnson Kennedy, 22, allegedly killed Tylandria Rivers over prescription pain medicine. According to Martin, the only other person at the Jarrett Road home near Prichard Municipal Park on July 6 told police the defendant was "rolling a blunt" in the living room of the...

Now, should the medical workers in the Ebola infected countries use robotic technology to handle patients, administer certain drugs, and then do certain functions that could prevent the spread of the disease to the workers in the medical field? I thought this would be a much better way to have patients taken care of and reduce risk drastically in regards to patient to doctor/carer transmission.

Complete title: EXCLUSIVE: Report reveals ‘disturbing trend’ of brazen attacks against border security by gangs, drug and human traffickersEXCLUSIVE: A game warden hit in the head with a rock while trying to seize a raft. Police officers wounded in an hours-long standoff with a gang member wanted for murder. Criminals spewing obscenities and death threats at local cops before asking for – and receiving – medical treatment. And that was just last week. A weekly report distributed by a Texas state agency to senior law enforcement officials paints a grim picture of the Mexican border, where authorities regularly confront illegal...

Urban Outfitters Pinpoints Hairroin Salons With Free Hypodermic Pens Urban Outfitters has teamed up with the NYC Hairroin Salon in glamorizing drug use at a time when heroin has devastated the city. Pinpointing Hairroin Salons in their stores that give away free hypodermic needle pens, it’s clear that Urban Outfitters has failed to learn their lesson. After previously pulling shot glasses designed as prescription medication bottles from its shelves after an uproar, the teen-focused store has actually teamed up with a hair salon with the name Hairroin in its latest New York City location. The so-called cutting edge salon glamorizes...

FULL TITLE: Rutherford County School Teacher arrested for the second time on "Public Intoxication" charge in Murfreesboro A Rutherford County School teacher has been rearrested for a second time on similar charges. April Littlepage, age 40, was arrested at the Paddock Club Apartments swimming pool around 4:30 this past Friday afternoon.

An area teacher remained in jail on Monday facing drug charges after a weekend arrest.

The Obama administration on Friday backed down on restrictions of private insurance coverage for hospice drugs under Medicare, saying the regulations were preventing some terminally ill patients from having access to medicine. Under Medicare's Part A hospital program, hospices receive daily payments for each patient but are responsible for all drugs related to a patient's terminal illness. Medicare Part D covers only prescriptions and medications for curative conditions that are unrelated to a terminal illness.

CLENDENIN, WV - A man is in jail after telling police that he snorted Hydrocodone tablets inside a vehicle that had three toddlers in it in Clendenin, West Virginia, in Kanawha County. According to a criminal complaint issued by the Kanawha County Magistrate Court, 33-year-old Ronald Adkins was arrested and charged with child neglect creating risk of injury. The complaint says that police observed a vehicle at the intersection of Elk River Road and Beech Street in Clendenin on Tuesday, July 15. After police went towards the vehicle, they found it had three women, three men, and three toddlers inside...

Given the link between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and birth defects, should expectant mothers who drink be arrested for assault? If not, it is hard to see why Mallory Loyola is in jail. Loyola, who was arrested last week after giving birth to a baby girl who tested positive for amphetamine, is the first woman to be charged under a new Tennessee law that criminalizes drug consumption by pregnant women. The law, ostensibly aimed at protecting children, is really about punishing what its chief sponsor described as "the worst of the worst": women who not only use arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants...

The effects of drug use may be gradual but for teens who fall prey to the addictive nature of illicit substances, the long-term impact can be profound. The Partnership at Drugfree.org reveals in a clever time-lapse PSA both the physical and intellectual damage that comes from adolescent drug use. In “Stop the Damage,” a fresh-faced kid begins by talking about how the prefrontal cortex--that part of the brain that controls cognitive function, such as memory, thinking, and learning--is still maturing in an adolescent brain. Taking drugs at that time alters key motivational circuits, forever changing the adult that kid was...

Obama quietly eliminated the NATIONAL DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER, that was monitoring terrorist activity on the border. Mexican cartel violence is at an all-time high along the increasingly porous southern border yet the Obama Administration has shut down a critical intelligence agency dedicated to identifying, tracking and severing the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism. It’s a senseless move, which is why it was done very quietly. The only real way to discover that the Justice Department’s 19-year-old National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) has been closed is by trying to visit its website. It simply says that on June 15, 2012,...

Americans are misfocused on the surge of children crossing the US-Mexican border. The bigger border issue is the rapid rise of heroin trafficking, driven by young Americans switching from prescription painkillers.The big debate in Washington this summer is the surge of children from Central America crossing illegally into the United States. President Obama and Congress still seem far apart on a solution for this immigration crisis. But they may find it easier to agree on another surge across the US-Mexican border, one that is far more costly.Since 2008, the quantity of heroin seized along the border has jumped nearly fourfold....

CHINA GROVE State records indicate Rowan County has a drug problem. This week, residents learned that it extends to one of its best schools. Four faculty members from Bostian Elementary were arrested Tuesday and accused of being part of a ring that illegally obtained thousands of doses of the painkiller hydrocodone. China Grove police and state investigators say family physician Orrin Walker unlawfully wrote hundreds of prescriptions that were filled by his wife, Abby, her co-workers and friends. Orrin Walker, 48, operated Main Street Family Practice. Abby Walker, 44, was a second-grade teacher at Bostian. Both were charged with trafficking...

A hammer-wielding attacker with a long history of mental illness struck two 55-year-old women walking near Navy Pier, causing a head wound to one woman that took about 30 stitches to close, Cook County prosecutors and his family said Thursday. Jawaun Westbrook, 28, was released on parole last month for a conviction on two counts of aggravated battery to a police officer, Assistant State’s Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said.