Free Republic

I'm just so thankful to be an American with a uterus today, because federal agencies have really got all the bases covered for me. (Which is a relief because who has got time to use reason? Also, science is hard. Let's go shopping.) The CDC issued a nuanced, thoughtful report this morning with the brilliant recommendation that card-carrying members of the x-chromosome club ought to either be using contraception throughout the entirety of their childbearing years, or teetotaling. Thankfully, being a simple suburban housewife with little capacity to make reasonable, well-researched choices for my own health and wellbeing and that...

Former President Jimmy Carter confidently predicted the reelection of President Obama next year. Carter accredited his confidence to “the fact that all of the GOP contenders are so far outside of the mainstream that voters will fear to turn over the awesome powers of the presidency to such extremists.” Carter characterized the Republican opposition to what he termed the President’s efforts to create a “more caring and nurturing role for government.” “The notion that individuals want to or are capable of managing for themselves is out of date and out of step with where the American people want to go,”...

Earlier this month a SWAT team burst into the home of Jose Guereña. Awaken by his wife’s screams that armed men were breaking into the house, Guereña grabbed his rifle to defend his family. The SWAT team shot him 60 times. As Guereña lay bleeding, they blocked paramedics from tending to his wounds. An hour later he died. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik blamed the “baleful influence of right wing talk radio” for the death. “If it weren’t for the repeated assertions by talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh that people have a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms...

With Senate passage of the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP), the US government has moved a step closer to total control over the Internet. Under the Act, the government will be authorized to seize domains, block websites and censor search engines. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) emphasized that “the bill is merely an extension of existing authority. It is not new censorship.” The extension was deemed necessary because “rogue websites can escape government control by locating outside the United States. This new law will counter this by allowing the government to...