Free Republic

Si vis bellum, projice infirmitate.* Hamas has given President Biden a chance for a “do over,” an opportunity to display leadership and courage in protecting our national security and world peace that has been absent from his past life. Whether he can rise to the occasion or not is unclear. But, if he fails, countless more lives will likely be sacrificed. October 23 marks the 40th anniversary of the terrorist truck bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 American Marines, soldiers, and sailors. Given former Senator Biden’s prominent role in incentivizing that attack, which was typical of his long history...

Tennessee house Democrat Justin Jones, who was just reinstated to the chamber after being expelled for leading a disruptive gun-control protest on the floor, assaulted a driver and faced serious charges for other misconduct committed while attending racial-justice protests in the summer of 2020. Footage of rioting outside the state Capitol in 2020 first shared by Scoop Nashville appears to show Jones repeatedly hitting the driver of a car with a traffic cone. The video, which was resurfaced by the Post Millenial, shows Jones and other activists stopping and surrounding the vehicle before the driver escaped. Jones was charged with...

A Florida man was arrested for murder on Saturday after allegedly assaulting a couple in the parking lot of a Kentucky hotel then shooting and killing an employee, according to the McCracken County Sheriff's Office. In addition to first-degree murder, 55-year-old Robert Pannell was also charged with assault, wanton endangerment, disorderly conduct, menacing, and resisting arrest. Law enforcement officers were called to a Best Western hotel in southwestern Kentucky about an active shooter around 9:48 a.m. on Saturday morning. A Paducah police officer located Pannell in the parking lot and detained him, while a sheriff's deputy began searching the hotel...

A Florida woman was arrested on Thanksgiving after driving recklessly toward a closed course for a 5K turkey trot that was in progress, according to WESH. Some 3,000 runners were participating in the Coffee Pot Turkey Trot in St. Petersburg, Florida, when Ashlee Lauren Morgan, 38, was “driving recklessly south on Coffee Pot Boulevard Northeast, approaching the Snell Isle Bridge,” according to the St. Petersburg police department. She was pulled over and three officers requested her credentials. She refused, according to reports, and fled the scene “at a high rate of speed onto the race course.” Another officer attempted to...

NOKOMIS, Fla. – A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly shined a laser at a Sarasota County Sheriff’s office helicopter. Deputies said Nick Davidson, 44, pointed the green laser at the chopper on Tuesday, while pilots were responding to a fire. The Sarasota Sheriff’s office said Davidson’s actions could not have come at a worse time because the area was under a state of emergency after Hurricane Ian. Deputies were busy assessing damage and guiding ground units around potential hazards. “Not only are Davidson’s actions dangerous, but they have the potential to flash blind and cause long-term damage to...

A man wanted out of Pennsylvania was arrested Sunday morning in Smyth County, Virginia. Officials say a deputy was working radar in the construction zone near the 53-mile marker on Interstate 81 just after midnight, when a Ford pickup was traveling at a high rate of speed. The deputy attempted a traffic stop, but the truck accelerated and fled to exit 47, north on Highway 11, and eventually into a field at the end of Tranquility Lane. Officials say, after a brief standoff, in which the driver made multiple threats that he had a firearm, he was taken into custody....

Forcing America to install literally millions of wind turbines and tens of millions of solar panels, and plant tens of millions more acres in biofuel crops, would devastate wildlife habitats and countless species, while driving up electricity prices for families, factories, farms, businesses, schools and hospitals. The wind and sunlight may be free, clean and green. But the massive technologies required to harness those forces for human benefit certainly are not. If Trump Administration advisors thought they could appease their opponents by implementing a rule focused on the useless and ultimately dangerous goal of limiting CO2 emissions, they were sorely...

KINGSPORT — A Greeneville woman has been arrested after allegedly zooming through Interstate 81 traffic at 115 mph while hauling a 16-year-old and toddler as passengers. According to an affidavit filed in Kingsport General Sessions Court, Britanni N. Starnes, 20, is charged with reckless endangerment and speeding. The incident occurred Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. A Kingsport officer near mile marker 56 spotted a 2010 Nissan Versa speeding in the northbound lanes. Radar reportedly confirmed the vehicle was traveling at 115 mph. After being pulled over, Starnes claimed she was rushing to the hospital, where her brother was being treated for...

Authorities say a Thurmont, Maryland, man has been charged in a pipe bomb explosion that damaged a local police department vehicle. Officials said Saturday that 22-year-old Kyle Rutger Mueller is charged with four counts of possession of a destructive device, two counts of malicious destruction of property and one count of reckless endangerment. Officials say the pipe bomb with black powder residue and nails exploded about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, damaging a marked police SUV parked in front of an officer's home on Clark Avenue. No one was hurt. Police told News4 a Burger King receipt left in a bag of...

Raleigh, N.C. — A highway contractor pleaded guilty Thursday in a scheme to supply defective components to bridges in North Carolina, authorities said. Joel De La Torre, 33, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to federal charges of making false statements concerning highway projects and aggravated identity theft. He will be sentenced in July, when he faces up to seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Defects were found in October 2011 in elastomeric bridge bearings – slabs of rubber reinforced with multiple layers of steel and placed underneath bridges to absorb shock – that had been shipped to 25 highway...

The collapse of MF Global Holdings gives Americans yet another reason not to trust Wall Street. The firm filed for bankruptcy as federal regulators were looking for $600 million missing from customer accounts. Its CEO, former Democratic New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, had bet that European leaders would bail out smallish countries that were too big to fail. His bet did not pay off. The only good news out of this story is that Washington won't be bailing out MF Global. Corzine said he won't take a reported $12 million in severance. If he truly wants to atone, then Corzine...

Subprime Scandal: With the housing market crashing again, the truth is finally dawning on some media elite that Washington played a bigger role in the mortgage mess than first told. A new book, "Reckless Endangerment," zeroes in on the corrupt partnership between Fannie Mae and Beltway insiders — who used the federally chartered firm as a giant slush fund to enrich themselves while pushing liberal housing schemes. This may be nothing new to our readers, who have read as much on these pages from the first days of the crisis. What's surprising here is the author — a New York...

Report: "Reckless Endangerment"June 10, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Last night I promised that I would begin reading on my own a book, and I did: "Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon." It's by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner (he might pronounce it Rose-ner), and Gretchen is a business writer for the New York Times. I have to confess, before I knew anything of the book or knew anything of the contents of the book, simply because she was at the New York Times I figured it was going to have an obviously left-wing slant...

An autopsy will be conducted Monday afternoon for a 3-year-old girl who was found dead in a minivan at a Canton church. The girl and her three older sisters were at Souls Harbor Word of Faith Church on Sunday while their father, Michael Ingram, rehearsed with the church band. At 5:20 p.m., when it was time to go, no one could find the 3-year-old. One of her sisters found her on the floor in the back of the family's Kia Sedona, not breathing. The 3-year-old's skin "was hot and wet," the sister told police. Three adults performed CPR, but the...

Disgruntled flight attendant Steven Slater might not be the working class hero we've declared him, or so say witnesses to the ordeal. Passengers on board Monday's JetBlue flight where Slater made his infamous emergency exit say that it was Slater who instigated the fight with a passenger, cursing at her after she asked where her bag was stowed, The Wall Street Journal reported today One passenger explained that while exiting the plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport, she overheard a young woman asking Slater where she could find her luggage before the interaction took a nasty turn. "I didn't...

PHOENIX -- A Phoenix woman accused of leading a high speed chase through north Phoenix last Thursday night has been booked into jail. Georgia Lynn Baker, 43, was released from a hospital Sunday evening and was booked into Maricopa County Jail on charges of first-degree murder of a law-enforcement agent, endangerment, unlawful flight from law enforcement, aggressive assault and unlawful use of a means of transportation.

Property rights are under assault on at least six different fronts, from all branches and levels of government. ... The unfortunate erosion of property rights has occurred despite a huge public backlash in the past several years against the Kelo v. New London decision in 2005....

Link to Newspaper is: http://www.thestranger.com This is their "top story". Some are posting comments under the article that this is a hate crime for what this newspaper has done. Drudgereport.com is posting link right now, so this has "worldwide visibility"...

Case of Illinois Mother on Trial for Leaving Child in Car for Minutes Sparks Debate CHICAGO — Treffly Coyne was out of her car for just minutes and no more than 10 yards away. But that was long and far enough to land her in court after a police officer spotted her sleeping 2-year-old daughter alone in the vehicle; Coyne had taken her two older daughters to pour $8.29 in coins into a Salvation Army kettle. Minutes later, she was under arrest — the focus of both a police investigation and a probe by the state's child welfare agency. Now...

INDIANAPOLIS — A man accused of stabbing his 11-month-old son in the back with a kitchen knife, then throwing the boy out a car window, was caught Friday and will face attempted murder charges. Kevin Chandler, 30, was captured about 10:45 a.m. in a Lawrence home, an Indianapolis suburb, by police acting on an anonymous tip from a woman. Officers met no resistance when they arrived to arrest him, said Sgt. Dale Horstman of the Speedway Police Department. Speedway Police have charged Chandler with attempted murder and aggravated battery in the attack on his son, Devon Chandler. Chandler was taken...