Free Republic

A definitive 20-year study into the effects of long-term cannabis use has demolished the argument that the drug is safe. Cannabis is highly addictive, causes mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs, the study found.

Throughout our nation’s history, the Church has been a force for good in America and abroad. But over the last 50 years, government has systematically eroded our free speech and religious expression. The Bible and the Gospel have been banished from our public schools and our public squares. With more than 75% of Americans calling themselves Christians, it’s time for the Church to rise up and take action to turn the tide in our nation! We have the numbers and we have a voice. If we are silent, we have no one to blame but ourselves for a Godless America.

Americans are caught up with the Ebola crisis and the Secret Service lapses in protecting the White House and the president’s family. But what is transpiring in Hong Kong may be of far greater consequence. Last weekend, Hong Kong authorities used pepper spray and tear gas to scatter the remnants of a student protest of the decision to give Beijing veto power over candidates in future elections. The gassing was a blunder. Citizens poured into the streets in solidarity with the protesters. Hong Kong police lacked the nerve or numbers to remove them. The People’s Liberation Army stayed in its...

Facebook has apologized to drag queens and the larger LGBT community in the wake of controversy over the site's names policy, clarifying that users don't have to use their legal name.

Hungary reacted angrily Wednesday after U.S. President Barack Obama singled out the EU member state for trying to muzzle civil society groups. In a short statement, Hungary's foreign ministry said Obama's comments, made Tuesday in a speech in New York, were "not based on facts." "The Hungarian people are a freedom-loving people, and would not tolerate any restrictions on their freedom," it said. Speaking at the Clinton Foundation, Obama had said: "From Hungary to Egypt, endless regulations and overt intimidation increasingly target civil society." Obama also accused Russia, China, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, and Egypt of intimidating civil organizations. Since June, Hungarian...

Democrats often call themselves “pro-choice.” Republicans defend “freedom.” Unfortunately, neither party really believes in letting individuals do what we want.

The latest Pew survey for the first time sees a major reversal of support for gay marriage and an increase in religious politics. A growing share of the American public wants religion to play a role in U.S. politics. The share of Americans who say churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues is up 6 points since the 2010 midterm elections (from 43% to 49%). That’s an interesting shift at a time when we’ve been incessantly lectured by libertarians that social conservatism is dead and the Republican Party needs to climb on...

The right to live, work and worship according to one’s faith is a freedom foundational to the United States. Many of the first settlers, having faced religious persecution in England, sought a place where they could freely worship and live according to their conscience without interference from the government. The Founders were clear, and the Bill of Rights makes it fundamental to our constitutional order that the government should not infringe on the free exercise of religion. In recent years, however, Americans have increasingly faced attempts to water down this robust understanding of religious freedom to a mere “freedom to...

Author’s Note: This is the third column in a series. The first two installments, “This is Providence,” and “Pharisees and Pharaohs,” can be accessed in my column archive. Some of the themes discussed in this series were also part of a speech I gave at an Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) event in July. The full speech can be viewed by clicking on this link. A trial is a thing to be avoided whenever possible. When it becomes impossible to avoid, it consumes you. You lose a measure of control over your life and you just have to trust your attorneys...

Apoplogize for rough BING Translation. WHETHER RUSSIAN TROOPS WILL COME TO THE CURB? WHY SHOULD WE NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS? MASKS MUST BE RESET. "Radio Freedom" with reference to the statement by the Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, allegedly between Ukraine and the RUSSIAN FEDERATION have agreed that all Russian troops and equipment should be withdrawn from the territory of Ukraine. In recent days we actually observe the rotation of military personnel from the territory of Ukraine, but at the same time, is in the process of replacing people with shoulder straps, the mercenaries and terrorists, that is, in...

This is a battlefield, a war zone—if you will—governed by martial law and disguised as a democracy “Police are specialists in violence. They are armed, trained, and authorized to use force. With varying degrees of subtlety, this colors their every action. Like the possibility of arrest, the threat of violence is implicit in every police encounter. Violence, as well as the law, is what they represent.”—Kristian Williams, activist and author If you don’t want to get probed, poked, pinched, tasered, tackled, searched, seized, stripped, manhandled, arrested, shot, or killed, don’t say, do or even suggest anything that even hints of...

"Employee's Demotion for Comparing Media and Political Reaction to Trayvon Martin's Death to Lack of Response Over Shooting of a White Baby Upheld. Decision Highlights Troubling Aspects of Potential Government Overreach in "Hostile Work Environment" Law” Washington DC - In response to a recently-announced North Carolina administrative decision upholding an employee's demotion for comments about race, and in light of the calls for increased racial dialogue following Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri, the National Center's in-house legal scholar is warning American workers that local and federal government leaders may soon restrict racial and political speech even in private work...

Armed citizens can be EVERYWHERE!

An extensive interview with Steve Forbes on the gold standard, economics and America's future. We touch on topics including among others: *The link between foreign policy/American strength and monetary policy *How currency devaluation helps the financial sector to the detriment of the rest of the American economy [Starting at 3:00] *The significance of a strong currency in enabling trade and thus trust, and social stability/morality *Why the historical record of the gold standard should trump the arguments of its naysayers *Whether politicians will ever be incentivized to truly support a sound dollar *Why quantitative easing was more disastrous than the...

CVS, the leading US drug chain by sales, announced Wednesday, September 3, that it had stopped selling tobacco products.... CVS was cheered by the White House as "setting a powerful example that we hope others in the industry will follow." First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted: "Congratulations and thank you, CVS Health. Creating a healthier future for our next generation is one good reason to live tobacco-free."

Don’t wait for any politician or news media talking head to save you and your family from any barbarians who would make good on their threats With a thousand and one predicted disasters calling the attention of the average citizen, we live in confusing, turbulent times. If Ebola, terrorists or living in a country without borders doesn’t get you, something else will. It’s as if the leaders of some countries want the countries they were elected to serve wiped off the map, leaving the world’s largest bureaucracy called the United Nations to get on with their convenient One World Government....

Support for Scottish independence has risen eight points in a month, according to a new poll. The No camp are now six points ahead of the Yes campaign, down from 14 points in mid-August and 22 points early last month, excluding undecided voters. The latest YouGov poll found that, excluding ''don't knows'', 53% of those questioned planned to vote No, while 47% would back Yes. This compares to 57% for Yes and 43% for No in mid August and 61% for Yes and 39% for No at the beginning of last month.

United States: Indispensable member of the free nations of the globe In the 1946 Fred Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart plays the part of George Bailey whose life challenges–legal, financial, personal–seem so overwhelming that he believes it would be better if he’d never been born. An angel named Clarence shows him what a world without George would look like. George realizes that he has affected the world in countless positive ways, and a world without him would be dark, hopeless and cruel. I wonder if the world is currently having an It’s a Wonderful Life experience. There...

Today is the birthday of a man who left an indelible imprint on American history and the history of the free world more broadly. The Englishman John Locke was born on August 29, 1632. Locke was one of the most heralded Enlightenment thinkers — preeminent among classical liberals — developing theories on natural rights, property, government, not to mention law and philosophy more broadly that would influence the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Western civilization itself. His intellectual achievements were so great that Thomas Jefferson identified Locke as one of “the three greatest men who ever lived, without any...