Free Republic

Economists can argue back and forth in the media about the effect of big government programs such as the stimulus package and Obamacare but few things have illustrated government waste as effectively as this disturbing YouTube video in which a well running Volvo engine was destroyed as part of the Cash for Clunkers program. This video is currently going viral on the Web and has sparked outraged comments from many people whom I suspect have previously remained somewhat uninterested in the often elusive topic of economics. However, the wasteful destruction of this car seems to have awakened an economic sense...

There is not much question about Gate's attitude regarding race. I doubt that Officer Crowley considered Gate's race when confronting him. The question remains, does one have the right to act badly in their home and on their property, without fear of arrest? Does an anonymous 911 call allow police to violate the fourth amendment of the Constitution? Since when does speaking rudely to a police officer constitute a crime? I heard judge Napalitona asking and answering these questions yesterday. His guest was the sheriff from Arizona, he agreed that the arrest was illegal. What are your thoughts?

Prior to the founding of the United States, political theorist and philosopher John Locke developed the theory that government derives its power and authority from the consent of the governed. Benjamin Franklin once wrote that "in free governments the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns." These are the principles that are fundamental to the American system and that have helped shape the nation we know and love today. Flash forward to the current setting and context. President Obama has made his intent clear on health care: Medical decisions will no longer be made by doctors...

I was a racial profiler: Ex-cop says he used skin color to make arrests I'm retired now after a wonderful career with the New York City Police Department, and I have a confession to make. I used a person's race to initiate investigations and make subsequent arrests. In fact, according to the definition bandied about by those on the left who have no idea what they are talking about nor a clue when it comes to police work, I was - yes - a racial profiler. A little background. I was a detective, a third generation member of the greatest...

San Francisco's annual homosexual pride extravaganza was missing one factor this year -- law enforcement. During the public event, people saw nudity, lewd acts, and other debauchery, plus open marijuana use. "And this year, due to some of the negative publicity San Francisco was getting, the San Francisco police department promised they would crack down on the nudity and lewdness on the streets," said Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. According to the pro-family activist, actions during the recent party were clearly illegal -- but police made no arrests.

It promises to be a packed house Monday night when a California school board meets to debate whether to bypass parents and permit "confidential medical services" for students. Several members of the Modesto school board have already expressed support for the proposed controversial policy that would allow students to leave campus for medical services such as abortions. Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute explains concerns expressed by many parents. "The school district there is going to conduct a meeting where they're going to be deciding whether or not to allow, as a matter of policy, young girls to leave...

OVER much of the last four decades, John A. Allison IV built BB&T from a local bank in North Carolina into a regional powerhouse that has weathered the economic crisis far better than many of its troubled rivals — largely by avoiding financial gimmickry. And in his spare time, Mr. Allison travels the country making speeches about his bank’s distinctive philosophy.

Italian newspaper says plane crash north of Tehran which left 168 people dead was caused by explosion of fuses slated to be delivered to Lebanese organization. According to report, members of Revolutionary Guards among casualties 08.02.09 / Israel News An Iranian plane crash two weeks ago – which left 168 people dead – was caused by the explosion of sophisticated fuses slated to be delivered to Hezbollah, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Saturday, quoting sources in the Middle East. According to the report, the pilot of the Tupolev plane, which was making its way from Tehran to Armenia, sent...

ATLANTA, GA - While U.S. airports often have chapels, many of them no longer display crosses or other symbols that would make them specific to a particular faith. The chapel at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport features a silhouette of a person kneeling and a generic stained-glass window. It also has a library stocking everything from Gideon Bibles to Jewish mystical texts, and a large floor mat provides a cushiony spot to kneel for prayer. A large compass on the chapel floor helps guide Muslims who pray toward Mecca.

"Freedom-loving Americans congratulate two congressmen for sponsoring a bill this week to ensure the traditional right of self-defense of United States mariners against acts of piracy," gun rights activist John M. Snyder said here today. "This contrasts sharply and favorably with the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote earlier in the week to recommend Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court of a nominee who doesn't even know if there is a right to self-defense," he added. "Hopefully, the full Senate will refuse to accept its committee's absurd position" Reps. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced H.R. 3376, the proposed United...

Earlier in July, the Violence Policy Center’s Josh Sugarmann – writing on the Huffington Post website – made what had to be one of the more bone-headed attempts in recent memory to drive a wedge between people in the firearms community when he critiqued remarks written by Jan Libourel, editor of Gun World magazine. Libourel is an extraordinarily bright guy, well-read in every sense, and – as is common among gun writers – unabashedly opinionated. As a recognized firearms authority, he’s supposed to be opinionated. That’s his job, and he is very good at it. Gun owners enjoy those opinions,...

Remains of the first American lost in the 1991 Persian Gulf War have been found in the Anbar province of a Iraq, the U.S. Navy said Sunday. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has positively identified the remains of Captain Michael "Scott" Speicher, whose disappearance has bedeviled investigators since his jet was shot down over the Iraq desert on the first night of the 1991 war. The Navy said the discovery illustrates the military's commitment to bring its troops home. "This is a testament to how the Navy never stops looking for one of its own. No matter how long...

Those who would defend human dignity in the face of science's relentless march towards "discovery" are once again under attack. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) are making headlines for introducing controversial legislation that would ban the American scientific community from developing embryos that contain both human and animal material. Dubbed the Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009, the bill upholds the unique dignity of the human species and condemns human-animal hybrids as "grossly unethical because they blur the line between human and animal, male and female, parent and child, and one individual and another individual." One might...

The Talk Shows Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.; Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council.; former Reps. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., and J.C. Watts, R-Okla.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Summers.THIS WEEK (ABC): Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (Michelle Malkin on Roundtable).STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz; Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers.

A new charter school planning to open this fall in Idaho has come under fire since it publicly announced one of the textbooks students will be using is the Bible. Unlike a typical public school, the Nampa Classical Academy has the freedom under Idaho's Public Charter School Commission to develop its own curriculum. Students will be taught, for example, Latin and Western civilization, but it's the school's choice to use the Bible as a historical and literary text that has ignited a public firestorm. At a meeting of the Public Charter School Commission, parents stood and argued for and against...

Several senior U.S. officials said the administration is eyeing a soon-to-be-shuttered state maximum security prison in Michigan and the 134-year-old military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as possible locations for a heavily guarded site to hold the 229 suspected Al Qaeda, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

Imagine the government making an estimable promise of enormous proportion. Imagine the government pledging a promise so big that it would, in fact, as they would argue, actually save an entire sector of the economy. Imagine in doing so, that the same government promises blind fairness, trust, and integrity in the process. Imagine the government assuming the significant portion of funding such a program off of the hard sweat labor you and I commit to everyday. Imagine this program pledging complete utopia in helping to restore a struggling economy, even if the sector it was addressing was a largely insignificant...

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) has positively identified remains recovered in Iraq as those of Captain Michael Scott Speicher. Captain Speicher was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over west-central Iraq on January 17th, 1991 during Operation Desert Storm. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Captain Speicher's family for the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country," said Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy. "I am also extremely grateful to all those who have worked so tirelessly over the last 18 years to bring Captain Speicher home." “Our Navy will never give up looking...

Rumblings in China’s rust-belt BEIJING, July 28 — The merger of two steel companies has been scrapped after a manager was beaten to death last Friday, said state media yesterday.The incident is one of China’s most violent labour disputes in recent years and threw the spotlight back on the country’s rust-belt region, which had been a cauldron of agitation a decade back.The riot took place in Jilin province, one of three north-eastern provinces known collectively as “Dongbei” in China, a region which has suffered the most from the country’s privatisation of state-owned enterprises since the 1990s. Last Friday, privately-owned firm...

Lyndon Johnson "Johnson would come on the plane and the minute he got out of sight of the crowds, he would stand in the doorway and grin from ear to ear and say, 'You dumb sons of bitches. I piss on all of you,' " recalls Robert M. MacMillan, an Air Force One steward. Richard Nixon One evening, Nixon built a fire and forgot to open the flue damper. Two agents came running. "Can you find him?" one of the agents asked the other. "No, I can't find the son of a bitch," the other agent said. From the bedroom,...