Free Republic

Watchlisted: You’re Probably Already on a Government Extremism List“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught.”—Hunter S. ThompsonAccording to the FBI, you may be an anti-government extremist if you’ve:a) purchased a Bible or other religious materials,b) used terms like “MAGA” and “Trump,”c) shopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s, or Bass Pro Shops,d) purchased tickets to travel by bus, cars, or plane,e) all of the above.In fact, if you selected any of those options in recent years, you’re probably already on a government watchlist.That’s how broadly the government’s net is being cast in its pursuit of...

The New Abnormal: Authoritarian Control Freaks Want to Micromanage Our Lives“Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.”—Jean-Jacques RousseauAuthoritarian control freaks out to micromanage our lives have become the new normal or, to be more accurate, the new abnormal when it comes to how the government relates to the citizenry.This overbearing despotism, which pre-dates the COVID-19 hysteria, is the very definition of a Nanny State, where government representatives (those elected and appointed to work for us) adopt the authoritarian notion that the government knows best and therefore must control, regulate and dictate almost everything about the citizenry’s public, private...

“Make no mistake about it…your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason… I doubt that the proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection.”—Justice Antonin Scalia dissenting in Maryland v. KingBe warned: the DNA detectives are on the prowl.Whatever skeletons may be lurking on your family tree or in your closet, whatever crimes you may have committed, whatever associations you may have with those on the government’s most wanted lists: the...

John Whitehead's Commentary “Children are being targeted and sold for sex in America every day.”—John Ryan, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children It takes a special kind of evil to prostitute and traffick a child for sex, and yet this evil walks among us every minute of every day. Consider this: every two minutes, a child is bought and sold for sex. Hundreds of young girls and boys—some as young as 9 years old—are being bought and sold for sex, as many as 20 times per day. Adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year...

“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility.” — Professor Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Discourse in the Age of Show Business While America continues to fixate on the drama-filled reality show scripted by the powers-that-be, directed from the nation’s capital, and played out in high definition across the country, the American...

“Children are being targeted and sold for sex in America every day.”—John Ryan, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Children, young girls—some as young as 9 years old—are being bought and sold for sex in America. The average age for a young woman being sold for sex is now 13 years old. This is America’s dirty little secret. Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to the buying and selling of young girls—has become big business in America, the fastest growing business in organized crime and the second most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns. As investigative journalist Amy Fine...

Being a citizen in the American corporate state is much like playing against a stacked deck: you’re always going to lose. The game is rigged, and “we the people” keep getting dealt the same losing hand. Even so, most stay in the game, against all odds, trusting that their luck will change. The problem, of course, is that luck will not save us. As I make clear in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the people dealing the cards—the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc.—have only...

Police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions.—Law professor Joanna C. Schwartz (paraphrased) “In a democratic society,” observed Oakland police chief Sean Whent, “people have a say in how they are policed.” Unfortunately, if you can be kicked, punched, tasered, shot, intimidated, harassed, stripped, searched, brutalized, terrorized, wrongfully arrested, and even killed by a police officer, and that officer is never held accountable for violating your rights and his oath of office to serve and protect, never forced to make amends, never told that what he did was wrong, and...

The federal government and the Obama administration are under fire for a variety of unconstitutional programs aimed at both militarizing and controlling local police and law enforcement, including supplying a vast array of sophisticated U.S. Defense Department “weapons of war” to city and county governments. Billions of dollars in military equipment has already been handed to municipal police departments and county sheriffs’ offices nationwide under the rapidly expanding federal schemes, but concerns from across the political spectrum are growing quickly as well. This year alone, over 150 so-called “mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles,” or MRAPs, used by U.S. forces in Iraq, were...

“Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. Where was the judge he had never seen? Where was the High Court he had never reached? He raised his hands and spread out all his fingers. But the hands of one of the men closed round his throat, just as the other drove the knife deep into his heart and turned it twice.” – Franz Kafka, The Trial In a bizarre and ludicrous attempt at “transparency,” the Obama administration has announced that it asked a secret court to approve a secret order to...

Constitutional Attorney John Whitehead, who represented wrongly-incarcerated marine Brandon J. Raub for free, appeared on Glenn Beck’s program to talk about how Brandon is unfortunately not alone in many ways.

Police state, ho!by John Whitehead6/28/04 With each passing day, America is inching further down a slippery slope toward a police state. Soon, we’ll have picked up so much momentum that there will be no turning back. Incredibly, not too many people appear concerned. Bombarded by media images and a mind-numbing entertainment culture, people seem to be so distracted that they do not even realize that our civil liberties are slowly and stealthily eroding away. Yet the signs of a police state are everywhere. They have infiltrated all aspects of our lives, from the mundane to the downright oppressive. We were...

Thanksgiving – American style Posted: November 27, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern By John W. Whitehead© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom of worship as one chooses.--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Zorach v. Clauson (1952) On a sunny fall day in 1621, as the story goes, Gov. William Bradford declared a day of public thanksgiving for the tiny colony of settlers at Cape Cod. After a long, desperate winter that claimed almost half of the Pilgrims' original party, the rest struggled all summer to provide for their basic needs. Aided by friendly...

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom of worship as one chooses. - Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Zorach v. Clauson (1952) On a sunny fall day in 1621, as the story goes, Gov. William Bradford declared a day of public thanksgiving for the tiny colony of settlers at Cape Cod. After a long, desperate winter that claimed almost half of the pilgrims’ original party, the rest struggled all summer to provide for their basic needs. Aided by friendly Native Americans who spoke English and knew how to live in the...

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to decide whether a Texas law that criminalizes sex between homosexuals is constitutional, once again the debate over gay rights has become the center of an unfolding drama between those who oppose it for religious/moral reasons and those who champion it. Yet this case is more than just a legal battle over gay rights—it is part of a cultural war over whether homosexual behavior, as a whole, will not only be legalized but also considered a legitimate lifestyle. Prior to reaching the high court, this debate has already played out in the halls of...

(CNSNews.com) - A letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft Monday from the House Judiciary Committee asked more than 125 questions about implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act by the Department of Justice, including queries about secret search warrants and detention of suspected terrorists. "As the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight of the Department of Justice's efforts to combat terrorism," wrote Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the committee, and John Conyers (D-Mich.), its ranking member, "which includes implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act ("Act") signed into law...