Free Republic

The Baltimore Ravens outlasted the Denver Broncos 38-35 on Saturday in one of the greatest playoff games in NFL history, shocking the No. 1 seed to reach the AFC Championship Game. Ray Lewis, in his 17th season, made 17 tackles in the game. His career isn't over quite yet.

President Barack Obama's second inaugural address has been described as one of the most partisan ever given, heralding a sweeping left-wing agenda and demonizing his opponents. But President Obama's target is not simply the Republican Party: it is the Constitution itself, and the values of liberty that it enshrines. In the address itself, President Obama made the case that liberty is not timeless; that it must adjust to the times, and that "preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action"--not to defend those freedoms from infringement, but to give them "meaning" through government regulation and redistribution. White House communications director...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign is calling for supporters to back his opposition to expanded gun controls, warning in a new email that "they're coming for your guns." "You and I are literally surrounded. The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights. On your freedom," the email opens. It goes on to warn that "our freedom is under direct assault ... from those who want to shred our Constitution."

LEGISLATIVE WARNING FROM EVAN NAPPEN: SOME NJ GUN BILLS COULD CANCEL ALL NJ FID CARDS, MANDATE POLICE TURN-IN OR FACE FELONY By Evan F. Nappen, Attorney at Law (Exclusive to ANJRPC) Out of the 23 bills recently filed in New Jersey, three dealing with mental health evaluations as a condition of issuance of FID cards contain potential severe unintended consequences that could invalidate every FID card in the state. They are A3688 (sponsors: Mainor and Jimenez), A3667 (sponsors: Cryan, O'Donnell, and Jasey) and A3676 (sponsor: Jimenez.) All three of these bills require a mental health evaluation approved by the Superintendent...

We've given up on changing the world. The pragmatic (and brutal) approach to beating terrorism is the only way Is being an international terrorist like being a Page 3 model? By which I mean, when Mokhtar Belmohktar, 40, from Algeria, is pictured in our newspapers, his one eye staring flintily into the camera, clutching his gun like these people always do, is this really what it is all about? Maybe he'll buy lots of copies, clip them out, post them to friends and keep one stuck to the fridge for ever. Or maybe not. Maybe it's all about Allah;...

First Lady Michelle Obama rolls her eyes (0:09 in clip) after House Speaker cracks a joke to President Obama at the luncheon that took place after the inauguration.

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama opened his second inaugural address by quoting the statement from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." He then went on to say that if men were in fact created equal, then homosexual “love” must be equal as well. “What makes us exceptional, what makes us American," said Obama, “is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The rally is called Guns Across America and the idea is to show gun owners are neighbors and law-abiding citizens. Rally supporters are being asked to dress appropriately, not in camo or hunting gear. Many of those same supporters showed up carrying firearms, open-carry pistols, semi-automatic rifles and shotguns along with concealed carry permit holders, all legal in Ohio. Those carrying firearms are not allowed on statehouse grounds and the rally supporters said they do not have a rally permit. "I'm here because I believe in the second amendment and I believe I should be able to...

I’m confused. I hear there is some kind of celebration of a black leader going on in Washington today, Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, except that it’s somebody else.  I think I’ll skip whoever this poser may be, and celebrate Dr. King instead for his conservative principles.Scott writes movingly below about King’s prophetic gifts and courage, and rightly so.  I appended a brief note about how King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” contains a short treatise about natural law that is a serious difficulty and deep embarrassment for today’s liberals, who wish to acknowledge and empower nothing higher than an...

The Washington Post reports today that al Qaeda’s successful attack on the Algerian natural gas plant has greatly boosted al Qaeda’s prestige in Africa. Along the way, the Post notes rather casually: The assailants were well-trained and armed with what appear to have been weapons from the late Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s arsenal. The overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi has turned out to be a terrible blunder. It has empowered radical Muslims, led directly to the Benghazi debacle, and scattered Gaddafi’s armory among terrorist elements, including al Qaeda. There has been, of course, no accountability for the Libya decision, either with...

President Obama defended the idea of entitlements like Medicare and Social Security in his second inaugural address Monday, arguing that these programs strengthen the nation and free Americans to "take the risks that make this country great." "We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future," Obama said. "For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn." He continued: "We do not believe that...

Covington VA --(Ammoland.com)- The Senate Courts of Justice committee this week killed or neutralized all but one anti-gun bill. The one bad bill that passed out of committee initially, did so because Senator Edwards was away from the General Assembly due to weather and normally pro-gun Senator Stanley voted to support the bill. :-( Senator Marsh’s “gun show loophole” bill was heavily modified and ended up requiring that only gun dealers could sell guns at a gun show. After the meeting Senator Stanley indicated that he had misunderstood the full ramifications of the modified bill. The committee reconvened on the...

Going to Afghanistan after 9/11 was a necessity; staying there in force was a mistake — and dragging out our failure is a travesty. We invaded to smash al Qaeda and punish the Taliban for hosting them. Mission accomplished. Within six months. The correct military action would have been to remove our conventional-force presence while the jihadi bodies were still warm. Instead, ideologues safe at home declared that we had to nation-build where there was no nation. Or “we’d have to go back.” Going back would have been an eff of a lot cheaper. And while we tied our forces...

CNN correspondent Jim Acosta was positively giddy while covering President Obama's inauguration parade on Monday afternoon, and didn't hold back his feelings on-air. "You know, I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making," Acosta gushed. Video below the break. Acosta later added that "It's good to be the President. It's almost like being a rock star on every street corner of Washington on this day." Unfortunately, Acosta has not been alone at CNN in exhibiting extreme enthusiasm for President Obama. During the inauguration parade, Wolf...

What is former Pres Bill Clinton thinking right here?

Excellent advice but surely a total buzzkill for leftists, for whom the big gun-control push is at least as much a cultural struggle as it is a serious attempt to reduce mass shootings. Tightening the laws on background checks and banning high-capacity magazines might not stop future Sandy Hooks or Columbines but it will potentially force the yokels to behave in a bit more civilized fashion. Like they do in, say, Chicago.Next he’ll be telling them not to use kids as props for their big gun-grab rituals. I thought this guy was supposed to be fun. “Do not patronize the...

A lawmaker from the blatantly anti-Semitic Hungarian Jobbik Party, who recently called for a list to be compiled of Jews who he alleges pose a “security risk”, is planning to embark on a lecture tour regarding the “Zionist threat.” Hungarian lawmaker Marton Gyongyosi will tour nationwide to give lectures “about attacks on Jobbik and himself and the party’s foreign policy, with focus on its strong and true criticism of Israel,” the Jobbik party said in a statement released Friday. “Jobbik has been exposed to unprecedented attacks in Hungary and abroad … Relying on its huge lobbying and blackmailing potential, Zionism...

Making it up as they go.