Free Republic

ver the last four years, I have lived with the constant threat from a stalker – a stalker who is now in jail for the third time for violating a restraining order. Every day I live with these questions: What if today is the day that my stalker posts bail? What if today is the day that he discovers my parents’ new address? What if I go to a lecture on campus and he shows up there? I feel that I have no control over my life. My family was forced to move. I have had stay indoors, keep drapes...

Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says Mississippi Republicans may need a regime change after the damaging primary fight between Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel. “This has shown the fissures that are there and I do think the party leaders – it may cause the need for some change in the party leadership,” Lott, now the co-chairman of Squire Patton Boggs' public policy practice, told The Hill during a wide-ranging interview at the firm's Washington office. He warned that the Mississippi establishment is ignoring the Tea Party wing of the GOP at their own peril. “If they...

Is there an epidemic of school shootings? Parents are understandably fearful, but their fear is unjustified. Schools are relatively safe places, and they have gotten much safer. While even one death is too many, the number of children killed in school shootings has declined over the last couple of decades. The drop is even larger than the overall decline in the murder rate.

Thad Cochran is getting his butt kicked in Mississippi by conservative challenger Chris McDaniel. That has sent the NRSC and its friends into a tailspin and they are desperate to tar and feather Chris McDaniel. Some freak in Mississippi has handed them their latest tool. By willfully ignoring the real timeline and facts, the NRSC wishes to drag Chris McDaniel into scandal and, they no doubt hope, down in the polls. It is an open secret in Mississippi that Thad Cochran’s wife is in a nursing home. I have known it for some time, which is why RedState has not...

The godfather of Mississippi's largest and most powerful industry – one that has longed push for more lenient immigration law's to help provide cheap labor – is Sen. Thad Cochran's fundraising chairman, the Daily Caller's Neil Munro writes in a richly reported piece. Joe Sanderson, the owner of Sanderson Farms, the third largest chicken processor nationwide, is a longtime ally of lobbyist and former Gov. Haley Barbour now helping Cochran's reelection efforts.

Saying his victory "would send a shockwave through the incumbent class," Talk radio host Laura Ingraham endorsed state senator Chris McDaniel Tuesday in his bid against incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran, citing his early adoption of a new anti-amnesty pledge. Monday, McDaneil signed an immigration pledge the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), raising the importance of the issue in the bloody primary battle in Mississippi.

Four years after Farrah Fawcett’s death, her alma mater and her former partner, Ryan O’Neal, went to court over an Andy Warhol painting of the blond pop icon. In December a jury settled the case, but it had no hope of deciding on the question at the heart of the dispute: Whom did Farrah really love? It was a Monday morning in mid-December at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the day of closing arguments in the matter of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System v. Ryan O’Neal, and the show was just minutes from getting...

even during the temporary and partial government shutdown, we are spending more than when President Obama took office. . . . .

Former Democratic pollster and Fox News contributor, Pat Caddell, appeared on Fox News Channel over the weekend where he alleged that there is a White House-led cover-up of the details surrounding the Benghazi attacks. Furthermore, he added, that cover-up of information regarding the White House’s response to that attack is being aided by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). “We have John Boehner, who has been purposely suppressing anything about Benghazi because he knew what we found out this week,” Caddell alleged. “And he approved it.”

Courts are being dumbed down because politicians are trying to keep the smartest and most persuasive judges off the bench, argues conservative economist John Lott in his recently released book, ”Dumbing Down the Courts: How Politics Keeps the Smartest Justices Off the Bench.” “While confirmations have been getting tougher for all the nominees, smarter, more influential nominees have had the hardest time getting confirmed,” Lott told The Daily Caller in an interview about his book. “There is a simple reason for this. Judges who understand the law and are articulate may be able to convince other judges hearing cases to...

In his newest book, Dumbing Down the Courts: How Politics Keeps The Smartest Judges Off The Bench, John R. Lott, Jr. examines the increasing role of courts in American life and the consequent difficulty excellence judicial nominees face over confirmation—especially if they are not invested in liberal ideology. Lott shows that we have reached a point where the more fit a nominee is for the bench—via his or her accomplishments, educational honors, and experience—the more unfit he or she may be viewed in the confirming process. And this is more true for Republican nominees than for Democrats. Lott examines how...

Unless you are a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, you probably have never heard of Lillian BeVier. BeVier graduated at the top of her class from Stanford Law School in 1965, where she worked as an editor of the prestigious Stanford Law Review. She went on to receive multiple distinguished awards throughout her career in private practice before joining the University of Virginia law faculty in 1973. By 1991, she was the perfect candidate with ideal credentials when President George H.W. Bush nominated her for a vacancy on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Yet...

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post declared the recall elections of two powerful state senators in Colorado a national “referendum on guns.” Indeed, the defeat of state-senate president John Morse and fellow state senator Angela Giron will cause some Democrats to rethink their push on gun control. But of course, many Democrats have reacted by shrugging off the results. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has dismissed the losses as the result of “voter suppression, pure and simple” (orchestrated by the National Rifle Association and the Koch brothers, of course). Mark Glaze, executive director of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against...

Friday’s new job numbers show something workers already knew: they face a very bleak job market. Unfortunately, Americans have been facing tough times for many years now. According to the latest Gallup poll, Obama’s job approval rating on the economy stands at just 35 percent. After over four years, this continues to be, by far, the worst recovery on record. And that goes for income as well as for job growth. Too often the media’s gauge of whether the economy is improving rests solely on the number of jobs created or the unemployment rate. And indeed, 169,000 jobs were added...

In the days since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a common claim has been: "we will never know what happened between Zimmerman and Martin since the only person who knows the truth and is still alive is Zimmerman." But this statement is not accurate. Zimmerman's defense rested its case Wednesday. And the truth is, we know a lot about what happened on that fateful night. Trayvon Martin's testimony, could he have spoken, wouldn't changed anything. For those who have watched the trial, ask yourself: is there even one piece of convincing evidence that Zimmerman...

Gun control, any already difficult task, just got even more difficult. The 3D printing revolution is well under way. This wonderful new technology will allow small companies and even individuals to manufacture a wide range of items, such as medical devices that fit each individual’s unique size and shape. However, it is increasingly obvious that guns and gun parts can be made, even including entire assault weapons. Unfortunately, the initial regulatory proposals will likely increase crime. As usual, new technology is hard to stop, and the Department of Homeland Security last week declared: "Limiting access [to 3D-printing to make guns]...

First, some background about me: I am a Ph.D.-holder and tenured professor whose immersion in the insular politics of academia had led me to harbor many negative perceptions about firearms. Though I was never staunchly "anti-gun," I was not a gun owner, did not understand the appeal of firearms, and generally believed that gun control legislation was only common sense. That changed four years ago when I (finally) decided to look into the data on guns, crime, and public safety for myself. I am a trained researcher, but I conducted my research for personal not professional reasons. My wife was...

You can tell the conservatives liberals fear most because they start being automatically referred to as "discredited." Ask Sen. Ted Cruz. But no one is called "discredited" by liberals more often than the inestimable economist John Lott, author of the groundbreaking book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Lott's economic analysis of the effect of concealed-carry laws on violent crime is the most thoroughly vetted study in the history of economics, perhaps in the history of the world. Some nut Dutch professor produces dozens of gag studies purportedly finding that thinking about red meat makes people...

Everyone wants to keep criminals from getting guns. However, expanded background checks are not the simple answer that Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) think they are. Unfortunately, as the Senate considers the Manchin-Toomey amendment, Toomey is simply wrong to assert: "It's the people who fail a criminal or mental-health background check who we don't want having guns." Toomey apparently does not understand how the background-check system works. Take his claim on Sunday: "Since checks began in 1998, more than 100,000 people who are ineligible to own guns have been denied them each year." Just because...

Will Senate Democrats be able to end debate on their new gun control bill Tuesday night? President Obama says that it is “not right” to continue the debate. But he might be more afraid that Senators will point out all of his false claims and reveal the gun control bill’s dangers. Mr. Obama got it all backwards in his April 3rd speech in Colorado: "tougher background checks . . . won’t infringe on the rights of responsible gun owners, but will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people." The president kept claiming this week and last week...