Free Republic

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron compared Republicans that oppose President Barack Obama to the Ku Klux Klan. ...“Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated,” Aaron told USA Today Sports. Aaron continued: “The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”

Maybe if someone taped Gore laughing a hysterically sinister laugh while stoking a dirty coal-fired oven belching black smoke while telling Colin Powell he can get another rack of ribs for the fire, it might be a high enough dose of hypocrisy for us to feel it. As a nation, we’re quickly losing any sensitivity to hypocrisy. That’s dangerous. You might say it’s cynicism, but it’s not. It’s a moral numbness that’s overcoming our ability to express outrage where it is proper, and replacing it instead with an ever growing craving for more and more outrageous examples of personal wickedness.

Last year, Magic Johnson found out that he had the virus that causes AIDS in his body... ...hounded by a new wave of rumors that he must be bisexual, fearing the rejection of NBA players and aware that a $2 million lawsuit from a onetime lover that accuses him of giving her HIV was sure to burst public, Johnson last week rescinded his decision to return to the Los Angeles Lakers.... Of all the turmoil that drove Johnson back out of basketball, it is the grievous lawsuit in Michigan filed by a woman called only Jane Doe that threatens most...

Some people are saying that this time, PETA’s lost all credibility. They’ve crossed the line. I’d ask when PETA ever had any credibility? It is not possible to take them seriously. They have to pretend that they’re outraged by animal abuse so that they can raise lots of money from rich and flaky Hollywood liberals. Their latest attack is on the White House for using real eggs in their Easter egg hunt:

As usual, Mr. Hanson recaps the insanity beautifully.....

To the casual observer it appears that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling will be destroyed by the media because he is a bigot a racist and a despicable person. He is of course all of these things, but that’s not why he will be destroyed by the media. Consider the contrast between him and George Soros. Soros has been convicted of a serious crime he committed in France and cannot set foot in Europe without facing extradition to Paris for immediate imprisonment. Up to now the media has covered for both of these men primarily because they are Democrat...

They may be good at making movies, but Hollywood celebrities’ lifestyles are far from an environmentalist’s dream. Their globetrotting, multiple mansion owning ways are inconsistent with the environmental agenda they loudly promote. Showtime’s new climate change series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” premiered April 13, 2014, slightly more than a week before Earth Day 2014. It relies on several wealthy, Hollywood celebrities to spread fear about climate change. While these actors and directors talk a lot about reducing carbon footprints and saving the world, they haven’t given up their own enormous mansions and private jets. Director James Cameron, former Governor Arnold...

Billionaire hedge fund operator and “green” energy magnate Tom Steyer has pledged $100 million in the 2014 election cycle to help Democratic candidates who oppose the Keystone pipeline and who favor “green” energy over fossil fuels. Steyer claims to be a man of principle who has no financial interest in the causes he supports, but acts only for the public good. That is a ridiculous claim: Steyer is the ultimate rent-seeker who depends on government connections to produce subsidies and mandates that make his “green” energy investments profitable. He also is, or was until recently, a major investor in Kinder...

Calculation for a round trip, 1st Class flight from Washington DC to Tokyo via Seattle reveals a carbon footprint of roughly 15.09 tons.

This is great (and true), and it illustrates the ignorant economics of the left. If it was as simple as liberals purport it to be then could've made the pay gap in his own house $0.00 and he could've done it yesterday....

....Compensation $225k (for a nine month salary) + a generous array of benefits, research assistance, moving expenses, start-up support and the like...

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That adage has more application than usual in California, where Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and supermajorities in the legislature. They can enact any policies they want, with only the judicial branch offering belated checks on their power. And when I say belated, that’s literally the case with state Senator Rod Wright, whom a jury found guilty in January of committing eight felonies regarding his residency and eligibility for the office he held.Normally, politicians who get that kind of a verdict have the decency to resign. If not, the body in...

One for the hypocrisy hall of fame: Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff.Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA’s staff through a Card Check election.A filing with the NLRB does not necessarily mean that the union and management are in direct confrontation. For example, although Volkswagen tacitly backed the United Auto Workers’ recent effort to organize its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, the company still...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A story that sounds like a movie script is slowly grinding its way to trial. All of the 29 defendants in the massive corruption case involving suspended State Senator Leland Yee and reputed gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow appeared in federal court Thursday. With so many defendants, lawyers, and documents, the judge is trying to set up a system to manage what could be an unwieldy trial. What makes it even harder is that not everyone's on the same page. The frustration is beginning to show. There are 29 defendants, even more lawyers, a 137 page...

Mayor Bill de Blasio is the first New York City mayor to release his tax returns in 12 years, according to the WSJ. de Blasio earned $165,000 as public advocate last year and brought in an additional $52,000 in rent on a second home he owns in Park Slope, according to his 2013 tax returns. Mr. de Blasio’s effective tax rate was 8.3%. As WSJ reports, Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who served as mayor from 2002 through 2013, released highly redacted copies of his return that gave scant information about his net worth. In 2001, during...

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke out against racial profiling Wednesday, arguing the practice undermines the relationship between communities and law enforcement officials. He also reflected on his own experiences with profiling in years past. The attorney general told an audiance at the annual National Action Network convention in New York that his father gave him advice as a boy on how to interact with police if he ever felt he had been stopped unfairly. “I thought of my father’s words years later, when – as a college student – I was pulled over twice on the New Jersey turnpike and...

Carney's points make sense, but don't those exact same arguments apply to the big, bad corporations Democrats are targeting? Of course they do. But that's not the point. As we discussed yesterday, Democrats are hoping to replicate their successful 2012 playbook by shifting voters' focus onto ancillary issues, and away from the political fundamentals. This week they're trotting out equal pay for women in an effort to underscore their "Republican war on women" meme. President Obama is signing two executive orders related to the issue today, while the Senate will debate the Paycheck Fairness Act: Obama's latest foray into the...

Despite advocates’ cheers about paycheck equity, the Obama White House has paid women less than men for years.

A recent visit to a Catholic church in another state brought a reminder that somewhere around 40% of Catholics who regularly attend mass are devoted Democrat voters. The car in the next space had a bumper sticker supporting a self-described Catholic Democrat well known for supporting partial birth abortions. The overt act of placing a sign on one’s car begs a few questions. Is it reasonable that in this era of effective mass communication a potential voter could fail to know what a politician’s positions are? Could a Catholic voter be engaged enough to want to place a sign on...

State senator accused of gun charges SAN FRANCISCO — A California state senator who authored gun control legislation asked for campaign donations in exchange for introducing an undercover FBI agent to an arms trafficker, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. The allegations against State Sen. Leland Yee were outlined in an FBI criminal complaint that names 25 other defendants, including Raymond Chow, a onetime gang leader with ties to San Francisco's Chinatown known as "Shrimp Boy," and Keith Jackson, Yee's campaign aide. The affidavit accuses Yee of conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and to illegally import firearms. Yee...