Free Republic

Sen. Chuck Hagel backed down this week from previously held positions on nuclear arms cuts during meetings with senators who are considering his nomination to be defense secretary in an apparent effort to sway those concerned about his liberal anti-nuclear views. Hagel has told senators he is no longer a staunch supporter of the nuclear weapons views of retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, who authored an anti-nuclear weapons report sponsored by the international disarmament group Global Zero. “Hagel has thrown Cartwright under the bus about the Global Zero [report] in his meetings with senators,” said a congressional aide familiar...

WASHINGTON — They seem right out of a Hollywood fantasy, and they are: Cars that drive themselves have appeared in movies like “I, Robot” and the television show “Knight Rider.” Now, three years after Google invented one, automated cars could be on their way to a freeway near you. In the U.S., California and other states are rewriting the rules of the road to make way for driverless cars. Just one problem: What happens to the millions of people who make a living driving cars and trucks — jobs that always have seemed sheltered from the onslaught of technology? “All...

Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army officer who is facing 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, now wants to avoid the death penalty, according to The Associated Press.

(CNN) -- Actor Burt Reynolds is in intensive care in a Florida hospital, where he went for treatment of flu symptoms, one of his representatives said Friday. Reynolds was dehydrated when he went to the hospital, and was eventually transferred to its intensive care unit, his representative Erik Kritzer told CNN. Kritzer declined to divulge what hospital the actor was in, saying, "He would like that (kept) private." "He is doing better at this time," Kritzer said late Friday afternoon of the 76-year-old actor. "We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular...

The state agency revealed Friday that the employee who improperly accessed thousands of drivers license records, and ignited calls for stiffer laws, was an officer responsible for training his colleagues in proper data usage. The Department of Natural Resources said Captain John Hunt, who was administrative manager of the agency's enforcement division, viewed drivers license data on 5,000 people while off-duty and without a work-related purpose. Altogether, Hunt made about 19,000 queries of the driver and vehicle services (DVS) database over nearly five years -- 11,800 of them while off duty. The DVS database, which contains photographs, addresses and driving...

PHOENIX -- Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would give Arizona high school seniors the option to recite a loyalty oath before they graduate. Originally, House Bill 2467 would have made the oath a prerequisite for graduation from any public high school in the state. The Arizona Capitol Times reported the change Tuesday. "To me it's not a Republican bill, it's not a Democrat bill, it's an American bill," said Rep. Steve Smith of Maricopa, one of the bill's sponsors. "People feel that our high school kids that will be adults should understand their role as an American citizen."

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Thursday outlined a slate of climate change actions that President Obama could execute with his own authority. The lawmakers conveyed a bleak outlook for climate legislation this Congress, noting considerable Republican opposition in the House. But they said Obama’s climate comments during his Monday inaugural address raised the prospects for administrative action to address the issue. “Congress has not been interested in acting, especially in the House, in the last two years. So we’re calling on the president to develop a plan for the administration to take action without action...

This week, two students at the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York used an “assault rifle” that may soon be banned by law to frighten away armed burglars who had broken into their home. Local station ABC 13 reports that the students, Christopher Boise and Raymond (no last name given) were awakened in the wee hours Tuesday morning to noises coming from the basement. Boise got up to investigate and found two men, one with a gun pointed at him, at the bottom of the stairs in the lower level of his apartment. Hearing Boise’s cry of alarm,...

Why New Zealand is right to consider banning them in order to save its wildlife. You know what animal makes a good pet? No animal. Dogs will bite you to death and then eat your corpse. Snakes will asphyxiate you, escape, infest the Everglades, and eat all its mammals. Pet parrots perpetuate a trade that upends ecosystems, and hamsters pass you dangerous zoonotic diseases. But perhaps the worst pet of all, environmentally speaking, is a cat. Domesticated cats started out as parasites on human civilization. Unlike other species, and admittedly to their credit, they domesticated themselves. When humans started growing...

A t-shirt emblazoned with one of the most memorable lines from the classic adventure film The Princess Bride caused a furore on a Qantas flight last week. Wynand Mullins boarded a plane bound for Auckland on Sunday with “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die” printed on the front of his top. While some fellow fliers recognised that the line was from the swashbuckling 1987 film The Princess Bride, it went over the heads of other passengers, who told cabin crew they felt threatened by the t-shirt’s message. Mr Mullins told Fairfax New Zealand: "The...

Ted Nugent on Bloomberg: ‘What Kind of Idiot Thinks That Our Founding Fathers Were Protecting Deer Hunting?’ CNSNews.com) – Rock star and Second Amendment advocate Ted Nugent recently criticized New York City’s Democratic Mayor Michael Bloomberg for focusing the gun control debate in the United States on deer hunting. “If you listen to Mike Bloomberg -- framing the Second Amendment as a deer hunting issue – this is bizarro world,” Nugent said on Jan. 17 at the Shot Show 2013 gun show in Las Vegas. “He’s got to be the dumbest upright species in the history of breathing creatures.” “What...

Dearborn: Muslim attorney "outraged" that McDonald's is not compensating those "injured" by eating "false halal" chicken I asked in writing about a previous story on this settlement: "'There was no evidence that the chain set out to deceive customers.' So why the $700,000 payout?" This story makes the answer clear: it is a form of tribute, of jizya. Now a Muslim attorney in Dearborn is angry that the payout is mostly going to various Muslim groups, not to those who were "injured" by eating "false halal" chicken sandwiches. The attorney for the Muslim who filed the complaint explains that there...

Federal Drug Administration advisers voted today to restrict access to certain kinds of prescription drugs in an effort to fight drug abuse. The vote had experts divided over the risk of drug abuse as weighed against the risk of increased pain or difficulty for patients on the medication. “It will have an impact on a lot of patients who have been receiving them for some time for legitimate purposes,” Dr. Lynn Webster, president-elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, said per Health Day News ahead of the vote. The FDA rule change is designed to implement

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas Senate is voting on legislation that would allow concealed handguns in churches, the first of several gun-related measures expected in this year's session.

When trying to verify Joe Biden's recent story that he was golfing within earshot of the Oct. 2, 2006, shooting at Nickel Mines, one thing is clear. There are a lot of places to enjoy a round of golf in the region. But whether the 70-year-old vice president was playing at any of the courses on the day of the one-room schoolhouse massacre still remains a mystery. If he was in the area, he wasn't at Moccasin Run Golf Club in Atglen. Curt King, the owner of the club, said there is no record of Biden — then a U.S....

MISSION VIEJO [california] (CBSLA.com) — Emergency rooms across the Southland have been pushed to near-capacity levels amid a surge of influenza activity in the western United States that has lead to several flu-related deaths. A Mission Hospital official has confirmed that a 46-year-old woman who tested positive for influenza A died on Tuesday. The mother of two – who reportedly did not receive the flu vaccine – appeared to be otherwise healthy, officials said. While flu activity is declining across much of the U.S., its toll is just beginning to emerge in the West. Statewide, there have been at least...

US Federal Reserve is reporting a major deposit withdrawal from the nation’s bank accounts. The financial system hasn’t seen such a massive fund outflow since 9/11 attacks. ­The first week of January 2013 has seen $114 billion withdrawn from 25 of the US’ biggest banks, pushing deposits down to $5.37 trillion, according to the US Fed. Financial analysts suggest it could be down to the Transaction Account Guarantee insurance program coming to an end on December 31 last year and clients moving their money that is no longer insured by the government. The program was introduced in the wake of...

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has been a consistent supporter of legalizing same-sex marriage. In 2011, he filmed his own video backing this November’s ballot initiative in Maryland and posted it on YouTube, and he recently donated Ravens tickets to a Marylanders for Marriage Equality fund-raiser.

The mayor of Oak Harbor, Wash. has revealed to Examiner that he will revive a discussion about the city’s illegal prohibition on firearms in city parks at a Feb. 5 city council meeting, and he will not back down from what could be a political and philosophical donnybrook. At issue is political correctness and anti-gun hoplophobia versus state law and constitutionally-protected rights. The Oak Harbor case is something of a microcosm of the national divide over gun rights. Mayor Scott Dudley anticipates a standing-room-only audience at the meeting because of a recent video showing a verbal confrontation between a local...

You'll notice that it bans all semi-auto shotguns that have a pistol grip (AKA every home defense shotgun). You'll also notice they're going after some semi-auto pistols just for how they look. Below you'll find portions of the bill as we pick it apart: UPDATE 1: Some hunting rifles are included in this ban. Any semi-automatic rifle which holds more than 10 rounds above 22 caliber will be banned. semi-autos over 22 cal that hold more than 10 rounds banned Update 2: Seems that intra-state commerce could still be possible for assault weapons: Seems that intra-state commerce could still be...