Free Republic

Within hours of the Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting in Tucson that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the local sheriff blamed the state’s lenient gun laws. “I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in the state carry weapons under any circumstances that they want -- and that's almost where we are,” complained Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. “I think we’re the Tombstone of the United States of America.” Dupnik would prove to have a knack for intemperate remarks, and this one was historically inaccurate, but the frustration of law enforcement officials...

"As you know the president likes competition of all kinds. I think he has gotten better," Carney said. "But here's the thing to understand: The president has made clear, he grew up in Hawaii, he spent time in California, and Chicago, Cambridge, I mean, this is not, he never pretended to or suggested that he had grown up as a hunter."

Former congressman and libertarian icon Ron Paul tweeted a startling reaction to the death of SEAL sniper Chris Kyle on Monday: Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense Kyle and a friend were both killed by a veteran struggling with PTSD while working with him at a gun range on Saturday. Kyle was the author of the best-selling "American Sniper," which detailed his time as a record-holding SEAL sniper.

Honest Abe hasn’t been resting in peace. Abe’s institution of emancipation has devolved into a rancorous mess, with its members divided into three factions. Unlike their competitor party, which is 90% aligned on policy, the GOP has become an indoor shooting range. I have long said Republicans are marksmen because it takes this much skill to repeatedly shoot yourself in the foot. The elephant’s carcass is carved-up into three hefty chunks. There is the Lincoln Legacy faction – the original progressives if you will – who have libertarian leanings. Marginalized for decades, they have recently been rejuvenated by the relative...

The White House is legally required to submit a budget to Congress on the first Monday in February of every year — which evidently means little-to-nothing to the auspicious Obama administration. The White House already warned the House Budget Committee that, yeah, they probably weren’t going to be able to get that done on time… and, lo and behold, they are indeed going to fail to submit a budget by the prescribed deadline, for the fourth time in five years. Paul Ryan is not amused: “I’m disappointed the President has missed his deadline. But I’m not surprised. In four of...

Let all anger, bitterness, and wrath, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice; And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4: 31-32

Japan is backtracking on battery electric-car development, as even Nissan’s vice chairman, the so-called “father of the Prius,” announced plans to copy Toyota and pursue fuel-cell cars that convert hydrogen to electricity. “Because of its shortcomings — driving range, cost and recharging time — the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars,” said Nissan’s vice chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada,..

Harry Reid: ‘I’ve Got Lots of Guns’ February 4, 2013 By Matt Cover (CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told ABC’s “This Week” “I’ve got lots of guns,” when asked his views on the Second Amendment and efforts by some of his Democratic colleagues to enact stricter gun control measures. “I've got lots of guns,” Reid told host George Stephanopoulos in an interview Sunday. “I had guns from the time I was a little boy. I don't hunt anymore, but I did.” Reid said he now keeps his guns “for sentimental reasons.” The top Senate Democrat also noted...

The fever-pitch surrounding Sandy Hook Trutherism is simmering, however a small, yet vocal movement is still feverishly working to convince the greater society that the event either didn’t happen — or that key details are being hidden from the public. We already brought you a point-by-point debunk of the Sandy Hook conspiracy, tackling some of the most talked-about claims. But TheBlaze article was published on Jan. 23, and, since that time, Truthers have come out with new ideas and theories aimed at poking holes in the official narrative. Among the more recent projects is “Sandy Hook — The Documentary,” a...

Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton has described Ireland’s position on military neutrality as “narcissistic”, but conceded it would be difficult for Fine Gael to win public support for a major shift in defense policy. A report on Ireland by one of France’s main EU think tanks, due to be published today, quotes Creighton saying she is “very supportive” of Ireland joining common European defense, but doesn’t believe her party could gain “political traction for that in the short term”. … The report by Notre Europe (Institut Jacques Delors), published to mark the 40th anniversary of Ireland’s EU accession, concludes...

The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party has begun. On one side is the Tea Party. On the other side stand Karl Rove and his establishment team, posing as tacticians while quietly undermining conservatism. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the “biggest donors in the Republican Party” have joined forces with Karl Rove and Steven J. Law, president of American Crossroads, to create the Conservative Victory Project. The Times reports that this new group will dedicate itself to “recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who...

He wore the English crown, but he ended up defeated, humiliated and reviled. Now things are looking up for King Richard III. Scientists announced Monday that they had found the monarch's 500-year-old remains under a parking lot in the city of Leicester -- a discovery Richard's fans say will inspire new research into his maligned history. University of Leicester researchers say tests on a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that it is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries. "Richard III, the last...

A Special Note: This book is so powerful, I recently left my company to become a filmmaker to insure this story is told the world over. SMEARED will be coming to a movie theater near you in the Fall of 2014. Then to Netflix, DVD and finally, with God’s divine will, into every classroom in every school in America. Please read my 250 word book review, below. The truth of our nation’s amazing birth must always be known. I pray you’ll soon appreciate how SMEARED will be used to effectively bypass our failing schools, corrupted news media and Hollywood’s mostly...

The Department of Homeland Security just posted a video called "Options for Consideration Active Shooter Training Video." Its grossly incompetent guidance on how to survive a workplace shooting underscores the Obama administration's total lack of fitness to tell citizens what kind of firearms they can own for self-protection. We should also make sure that as many police as possible see this DHS video, which portrays law enforcement professionals as incompetent buffoons who recklessly endanger their partners and innocent bystanders. Duck and Cover versus Huddle like Sheep The DHS video takes a cue from the much-maligned "Duck and Cover" film of...

He's already being treated like the 2016 GOP presidential front-runner, and now there is another reason Republicans are excitedly buzzing about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: He alone would reverse the party's slide among Hispanic voters. A new nationwide poll from JZ Analytics found that Rubio would get 48 percent of the Hispanic vote, about twice what Mitt Romney won in 2012. Republican strategist told Secrets that a win among Latino voters that big would assure Rubio the presidency, since he would also likely keep the regular GOP base. "If he does that good, then he's the next president," said a...

Sure, Nate Silver was on-point during the 2012 election, but before you place your bets behind the bespectacled number genie, remember that he predicted that this would be a Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl — and that he's gotten a little better at the politics game than anything else. But in a column for The New York Times Magazine published online today, Silver breaks down his latest mumbo-jumbo over S.R.S. rankings and something called the Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, which is exciting if you're a statistician groupie — just not if you're a Baltimore Ravens fan. In the end, Silver seems to...

With Scott Brown backing out of the special election to the Senate in Massachusetts, some wondered whether former Governor and erstwhile presidential candidate Mitt Romney might take a shot at filling the rest of John Kerry's term in office. Instead, the Boston Herald reports that the task might go to the next generation of Romneys: Tagg Romney is considering a run in the special Senate election now that Scott Brown has opted out, the Truth Squad has learned.Calls for Romney, 42, to join in the short campaign to replace Secretary of State John F. Kerry have increased since the Herald...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Online activists in Saudi Arabia are calling for harsher punishments for child abuse after reports that a prominent cleric received only a light sentence after confessing to the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter. *** Saudi media reports say Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a frequent guest on Islamic TV programs, was arrested in November on charges of killing the girl. The reports said he questioned the child's virginity. Saudi media say he was freed last week after serving a short prison term and agreeing to pay $50,000 in "blood money" to avoid a possible death sentence. The...

The Super Bowl power outage on Sunday happened after electrical monitoring equipment “sensed an abnormality in the system,” according to the power provider for the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Entergy, which provides power to the Superdome, along with 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, said in a statement Monday that the change triggered a partial electrical shutdown. Entergy’s service area includes 400,000 customers in southeast Texas, including homes in Beaumont, Port Arthur, The Woodlands, Huntsville and Conroe. The only customer affected by the problem was the Superdome, Entergy spokesman Michael Burns told FuelFix. “Shortly after the beginning of...

Tens of thousands of neo-Nazis rallied in Athens in support of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, in the movement's largest demonstration of support since its rise to power in last June’s general election. Men dressed in military uniforms, holding torches, donning swastikas and chanting anti-immigrant slogans, marched through central Athens in what was reportedly a memorial event paying tribute to the party’s “fallen soldiers,” The International Business Times reported. "This is a day of remembrance. It's a day to remember that Golden Dawn is here to stay. And so long as it does, there will be hope for the country,"...