Free Republic

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison. President Obama’s choice of former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for Sec. of Defense is a dangerous choice that telegraphs weakness toward Iran. In the Senate, Mr. Hagel compiled a worrisome record toward the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. It is Iran that backs Hezbollah in Lebanon. We haven’t heard much about the Cedar Revolution in that war-torn country. That’s because Hezbollah murdered the democratic leaders for reform. Iran is behind Hamas in Gaza. Hamas defeated the corrupt regime of Mahmoud Abbas in elections in Gaza that soon degenerated into civil war....

In Sunday's New York Times, Elisabeth Rosenthal claimed, as the title of her article put it, "More Guns = More Killing." She based this on evidence that would never be permitted in any other context at the Times: (1) anecdotal observations; and (2) bald assertions of an activist, blandly repeated with absolutely no independent fact-checking by the Times. There is an academic, peer-reviewed, long-term study of the effect of various public policies on public, multiple shootings in all 50 states over a 20-year period...It concluded that the only policy to reduce the incidence of, and casualties from, mass shootings are...

I suppose I'm a bad woman -- by today's standards that is. For some reason, I take absolutely no pride in the accomplishments of women per se. I am utterly uninspired by first women astronauts or Secretaries of State. It is of no consequence to me what percentage of the United States Senate or House of Representatives shares my chromosomes. I don't wait with gnawing impatience for America to pass the milestone of needing a fellow to fill the post of First Gentleman. This is not to say that I resent or disparage female accomplishment. I admire excellence wherever...

Some of the most common and most powerful prescription painkillers on the market will be restricted sharply in the emergency rooms at New York City’s 11 public hospitals, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday in an effort to crack down on what he called a citywide and national epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

Hey, folks, remember the good old days when candidate Barack Obama at least pretended to be bipartisan and conciliatory? Now it's as if he's on a mission to prove he was faking it. Obama is behaving like a bitter ex-spouse who knows all our hot buttons and delights in pushing them. He is governing by crisis, fear, alienation, cronyism and anti-constitutional fiat. He is openly flaunting his militant radicalism, as if he's trying to provoke us -- and his second term hasn't even begun. He is horrifying all Americans who have the slightest concern about our deficits and debt, refusing...

I wish Obama and the Democrats could be as passionate about jobs as they are about, say, the contents of Happy Meals. Or the dust from cement factories. Or the habitat of the red-cockaded woodpecker. While the wizard of DC remains a master of illusion and delusion, focusing everyone’s attention on the man behind the curtain- and his 20 Little Martyrs- the jobless recovery now enters its fifth year with no signs that hiring will be picking up soon.So instead of worrying about the peckers, I wonder about the 12 million martyrs who remain unemployed. And the 3.6 million martyrs...

"As the president said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they're worth taking," Vice President Joe Biden declared on Wednesday as he previewed what his commission on gun violence might actually do. "There are executive orders, there's executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the Cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required." Biden insisted that it is a moral imperative for the White House to do something: "It's critically important...

Joe Biden and Barack Obama have an assault rifle with a 30 round magazine pointed at the temples of Congress, the Senate, and America. They have decided that, to achieve the same gun control that only twenty years ago required the consent of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, all they need to do is issue some Imperial Decrees. This Emperor Obama has decided to simply NOT CONSULT and NOT INVOLVE both of the Houses of government, the House of Congress and the Senate, and unilaterally impose rules that only 20 years ago required consent of both of...

Moscow politics were dominated last month by the angry reaction of Russian officials to the Magnitsky Act. Adopted by the United States Congress in mid-December, this legislation bars US entry to Russians accused of involvement in the death in custody of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and other alleged rights abuses as well as freezes any assets they may have. Initially the authorities promised to draw up a similar list of undesirable Americans, but during the passage of the bill in the Duma, additional clauses were added, banning Americans from adopting Russian children and outlawing human rights organizations that receive any...

I DON'T FALL IN LOVE with politicians – the last presidential candidate I voted for with ardor was Ronald Reagan in 1980 – and my heart doesn't break when those I support don't win. Nor am I a party loyalist. As a conservative I vote for Republicans more often than not; for those of us committed to free enterprise, limited government, military strength, and a healthy civil society, there is usually no better option. But the Republican Party isn't the conservative movement. And a GOP defeat doesn't mean conservatism – or the GOP, for that matter – is in crisis....

Before examining the ridiculous controversy stemming from Monday night’s college football championship broadcast, let us stipulate that there are more urgent and scary ways to describe the current changes in America. We are becoming a culture of dependency. We are becoming a neo-socialist experiment. We are becoming a dumbed-down nation unappreciative of its founders. We are losing touch with the Constitution and the very concept of liberty. I do not argue that today’s essay is our most pressing problem. But as scores of fine writers address the various angles of our republic’s dangle from a precarious thread, I thought...

From New York to New Mexico and across the dependent plains, welfare recipients are getting sauced on the public dime. Drunk, besotted, bombed. But while politicians pay lip service to cutting government waste, fraud and abuse, they're doing very little in practice to stop the EBT party excesses. Where's the compassion for taxpayers? You see the signs everywhere: "We accept EBT." Fast-food restaurants do. Clothing retailers do. Auto repair shops, liquor stores and even sushi joints are joining the club. "EBT" stands for the federal government's electronic benefits transfer card, which is intended to provide poor people with food stamps...

In Washington D.C., the office of the Honorable Joseph Biden was busy phoning up everyone from Mothers Against Pointy Things to the Gay Communist Gun Club of America to Wal-Mart to invite them down for a serious no-holds-barred discussion about doing to the Bill of Rights what his boss had done to the economy.Meanwhile over in Chicago, the latest corpse was being scraped off the sidewalk. In just nine days, Obama’s hometown was already 15% ahead of last year’s whopping murder rate. In New York, one of the city’s liberal judges gave civil rights activists a late Christmas present with...

While President Obama pledged to crack down on access to what he called “weapons of war” in the aftermath of last month’s schoolhouse massacre, the White House has calculated that a ban on military-style assault weapons will be exceedingly difficult to pass through Congress and is focusing on other measures it deems more politically achievable. As a task force led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. readies recommendations on reducing gun violence for delivery to the president next week, White House officials say a new ban will be an element of whatever final package is proposed. But given the...

Journalists were startled yesterday when Matt Drudge used photos of Hitler and Stalin on his Drudge Report website to highlight a story about Obama possibly issuing an executive order to tackle the gun issue. But according to research on Google Trends, web users interest in the history of Hitler and gun control has spiked since Democrats began demanding more restrictions on high capacity magazines and semi-automatic weapons. In December the keywords “Hitler gun control” spiked to a 100 rating - the rating given to Google’s peak search volume since 2004. Search volume for the same terms for the month of...

A Democratic state senator called Thursday for Arizona to ban ammunition clips that hold more than 10 rounds, saying they enable rampages like the ones in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., and her hometown of Tucson. “After Sandy Hook, we said that was enough,” Linda Lopez said. “Those 20 children who were killed there, that was the minority compared to the number of children who die every year because of gun violence.” At a news conference, Lopez said she also will propose legislation to require background checks for all gun sales and to repeal a state law requiring law enforcement to...

Law enforcement and local politicians from around our region sat down Thursday to talk about the sensitive issue of gun violence, or more importantly, how to stop it. The Summit to Combat Gun Violence was actually planned a year ago, but it couldn't have been more timely in light of the mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak called the gathering a "midwest discussion" that brings "midwest values" to a national debate. Held at the Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, those assembled were a who's who of Minnesota leadership. Also in attendance: their counterparts from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri...

Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora said Thursday that the mass shooting of school children in Newtown, Connecticut, last month had raised outrage to the point where previously unfeasible legal changes may be possible. .... Mexico says U.S. guns, particularly assault weapons, help fuel drug cartel-related violence south of the border. Medina Mora says he hopes the Newtown shooting will, in his words, "catalyze the necessary societal support for a change in the regulations that will be more favourable to the interests of our country."

“You come in here, brandish your little book as if I don’t know what’s in there--” “My little book? That’s the Constitution of the United States. It’s our founding document, Piers.” “I know what’s in your Constitution.” “Do you really?” That was the climax of a heated debate between Breitbart News Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro and CNN’s Piers Morgan on live television this evening--one in which Morgan came off much the worse for wear. Shapiro began by pointing out that for weeks, Morgan had bullied guests who defend the right to bear arms by "standing on the graves of the children...

Four months after a brutal assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi killed the ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, politicians in Washington are still railing over how diplomats were left vulnerable to attack. Yet the political furor, which now threatens to hold up President Obama’s national-security nominations, stands in stark contrast to the response in Libya itself. There, Libyans say, the investigation is nonoperational, if not effectively dead, with witnesses too fearful to talk and key police officers targeted for violent retribution. “There is no Libyan investigation. No, no, no,” says Mohamed Buisier, a political activist in...