Free Republic

The morning after this month's relatively quiet (for most of us) Election Day, story after story arrived celebrating a pro-life defeat. "Mississippi Wins for Women!" The Daily Beast exclaimed. "Birth Control Remains Legal: Mississippi Voters Reject Draconian 'Personhood' Initiative," the National Organization for Women declared. "Our victory in Mississippi has already sent a strong message to extremists who will stop at nothing to outlaw abortion," the American Civil Liberties Union explained. Mississippi's personhood amendment, seeking to amend the state constitution's legal definition of a "person" to "include every human being from the moment of fertilization," lost at the ballot box....

On November 9th, 2011 Americans will get an up close and personal demonstration of the new powers the US government has given itself over America’s broadcast services. There will be a complete take over of the nation’s air waves, both television and radio – plus — cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers. The power to do this is now in the hands of the President. Only he has the authority to do this. On November 9th there will be a test of how effectively the system will...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the House Judiciary Committee in written testimony submitted Wednesday that illegal aliens taken into custody by local law enforcement and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be given a phone number to call if they believe their civil rights have been violated. The phone number will be provided on a form that will include directions on how to file a complaint in six different languages. Napolitano told the committee that ICE has “updated its detainer form to clarify the

Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler ruled against families’ right to consume milk from their own cows. The ruling came in a dispute between the state’s Department of Agriculture and the families over how milk is to be produced, distributed and consumed in Wisconsin. Fiedler rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that they had a fundamental and inherent right to consume milk from their own cows. “What foods may be grown or consumed is an issue subject to the discretion of the government,” Fiedler said. “Neither the state nor the federal Constitution grants individuals an explicit right to determine what they shall...

However, the judge would not rule that the plaintiffs have any Constitutional rights to own a dairy cow, consume milk from their own cow, board a cow at the farm of another farmer, or produce and consume the foods of their choice.

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.

For anyone who's played the game "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral," it might seem obvious that the Marcellus shale isn't alive and doesn't grow -- it's a rock layer in the ground, so it's a mineral. In the Pennsylvania courts, the answer is not so clear. A Susquehanna County Common Pleas court is headed for a hearing to determine whether the gas-rich Marcellus shale is a mineral, and therefore, included in mineral rights. The state Superior Court ruled this month that case law is unclear, leaving big questions over who legitimately controls drilling rights and the valuable natural gas in the mile-deep...

Under the bill’s authority, states are not immune from federal prosecution if they “violate” the act. In the event this bill passes, it will override a state’s sovereign authority as defined and protected under the 11th amendment.... Any state that receives Federal assistance under the direction of bill automatically forfeits its sovereign immunity....

Let us unite our forces and bring the Obama regime in the spotlight for the operation Fast & Furious. Let us do the job the liberal media won't do: inform both politicians and the American public about the disgraceful way in which the Obama DOJ, the ATF and the FBI (all under direct orders form the White House) conspired to arm Mexican drug cartels in order to create murder and mayhem in the border States and thus justify Obama's push for draconian gun laws imposed on American citizens. On September 22, the Republican primary candidates will meet in Orlando, Florida...

Those raw milk proponents advocating "teach, teach, teach" may want to enroll Wisconsin Judge Patrick J. Fiedler in their first class--in the kindergarten section. In response to a request from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the judge issued a clarification of his decision last week regarding his assessment of the constitutionality of food rights. The judge expanded on his original statement that such constitutional issues are "wholly without merit." He explained that the FTCLDF arguments were "extremely underdeveloped." As an example, he said the plaintiffs' use of the Roe v Wade abortion rights case as a precedent does "not explain...

“I will not allow violence against this house,” stated Dustin Hoffman’s character in the original Straw Dogs (1971), a graphic film that is still worth watching, but only by adults. Most will watch Sam Peckinpah’s psychological thriller with some Western themes only once. For many, some quick editing via the remote will be required. The central point of the movie is still valid. Civilized men once had a universal understanding that a man’s home was his castle. Why? The idea that a man’s, or now in many cases a woman’s, house and property should be within their own control is...

President Obama repeatedly asked members of Congress to pass the American Jobs Act last week. But when no Democrat filed Obama’s bill after he presented it to Congress, a conservative congressman swiped the name for his own legislation.

Florida has decided to finally protect the 2nd Amendment at the state level and eliminate onerous restrictions that many municipalities and communities have enacted against gun rights.

August 13, 2011 A very basic question Jason McNew When do human beings receive the unalienable right to life? The question the pro-abortion crowd will not (or cannot) answer. Here in fly-over country South Central PA, we are fortunate to have an excellent local talk radio station (based out of Harrisburg) which has the largest listenership in the area. One of the popular local talk-bubbas is a criminal defense attorney and an atheist. While a bit cantankerous with callers at times, he is thoughtful, respectful, and a fearsome debater. His show can be heard on Saturdays afternoons. Following the GOP...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Britain told Iran on Thursday it was happy to discuss its handling of street unrest after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused its police of "savage" aggression against demonstrators. Britain helped lead Western condemnation of Iran's crackdown on protests against Ahmadinejad's re-election in June 2009. He was quick on Wednesday to criticise the British police's "crushing attack" on unarmed citizens. In a letter to Iran's Foreign Ministry, Britain's top diplomat in Tehran said she hoped such openness would encourage Tehran to allow a U.N.-appointed investigator looking into alleged human rights violations in Iran to enter the country.

I rarely post an article, even more rare that I post a vanity. I feel that this is a topic that involves everybody, both pro and against. I have a few thoughts of my own, but I would also like to hear from heads and tails. Law enforcement, if they wish, please add your viewpoints; I am certain that you have a unique perspective. I'm hoping that this doesn't turn into a flame war. I will submit from the start that I do not use drugs. So if anybody wants to issue a blanket statement that states 'If you don't...

“The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” Thomas Jefferson Well said, Mr. Jefferson! We do not have to store, fire, own, or even like guns to understand that the Second Amendment’s requirement is a need, no American can do without. If there came a point in time, when our elected officials became so arrogant to cease abiding by the Constitution “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed” is in place so that we can protect ourselves, our country and our families...

If sovereigns start being downgraded from triple-A status, debt is going to get a lot more expensive, and those rollovers — which cost very little in the current interest-rate environment — will really start to bite. And the invidious thing about debt is that it doesn’t go away. Deleveraging is painful, and is often accompanied by inflation or default. And the more debt you have to start with, the more painful deleveraging is going to be. Prepare yourselves.

Fueled by federal grants, high-speed cameras that can automatically read up to 30 license plates a second and check them for violations or law enforcement alerts are scanning more streets and highways across Massachusetts this year. The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security doled out $500,000 in federal highway grants earlier this year to 26 police departments for automatic plate readers, which can be stationary or mounted on a cruiser on patrol. Some MetroWest and Milford-area cities and towns already had the high-tech scanners. Those that won grants are now using plate readers or will be soon Rest at...