Free Republic

You’ll find the information needed to attend today’s anti-SAFE Act rally in the activism tab-in our latest update-but an equally important date is right around the corner. Remember 1986-an exceptional organization created to prevent history from repeating itself-is holding a nationwide press event this coming Tuesday! The public event in Arizona-the state whose courageous example inspired the creation of American Rattlesnake-is merely one of many being held around the country to echo the sentiments of millions of Americans who refuse to accept the imposition of another legislative amnesty by an unaccountable Congress and White House. Florida will be holding a...

President Obama continues to insist that he first became aware of his IRS targeting conservative groups a week ago Friday when the news first broke. This, despite the fact that his White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, had been informed of the probe on April 22. And despite the fact, as the New York Times reports, that officials in his Treasury Department knew in March that tea party groups had been targeted. President Obama continues to insist that he first became aware of his IRS targeting conservative groups a week ago Friday when the news first broke.This, despite the fact that...

Suicide rates are tied to the economy. The Boston Globe reported in 2011: A new report issued today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that the overall suicide rate rises and falls with the state of the economy — dating all the way back to the Great Depression. The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that suicide rates increased in times of economic crisis: the Great Depression (1929-1933), the end of the New Deal (1937-1938), the Oil Crisis (1973-1975), and the Double-Dip Recession (1980-1982). Those rates tended to fall during strong economic times...

Planned Parenthood’s new advertisement asserting that aborted babies will thank their would-be mothers evidences a shift to macabre honesty in the organization’s messaging. “There’s nothing worse for a child than being unwanted,” claimed PP spokeswoman Adora Slaughter. “Add to this the burdensome tedium of motherhood and you have a formula that maximizes unhappiness. Abortion rescues all the participants from this fate.” “Previously, we have invested almost all our energy on advising women to carefully consider the responsibilities they could avoid by aborting a potential child they don’t want,” Slaughter said. “I mean, having a baby you don’t want is like...

Carry permits for concealed weapons are soaring all across the country. Part of the reason for this is uncertainty about the future. No one knows what is going to happen with tax rates, inflation, Obamacare, and the stock market. This uncertainty has translated into uncertainty about public safety, both from ordinary criminals and from the possibility of a breakdown of public order. A comment writer in Lane County, Oregon expresses the motives for and results of obtaining a concealed carry permit well: After many years of no guns in the home (grandchildren, after all), we made the decision to resume...

A few days ago I got up determined to keep Islam and politics out of my mind - I tend to think about such subjects a lot these days - at least until I would turn my computer on and start working. I went to the front door to check my mail and among the letters there was a leaflet with the menu of a local takeaway. I inspected it and found the dreaded word: "Halal". There is no way you can keep Islam out of your life, even out of your thoughts for long, in today's Britain, even...

"If you believe Islam is the truth, why don't you believe Islam can compete in the marketplace of ideas?"

My nephew and his squeeze are talking marriage. They've been childhood sweethearts since 6th grade - they're now both 21. He wants a 'prenup', a prenuptial agreement, and she's never heard of such a thing. Should they have one? Some background: they are each others best friend and confidant. When he left his grandfather's house after high school graduation to be more independent and encountered roughened circumstances, she supported him while she worked at WalMart, and together they became partners in a business that failed. Nephew moved back home while she went to school. But that's not all - her...

Mark Zuckerberg and Marco Rubio have become amnesty’s two indistinguishable amigos. They have morphed into Marco Zuckerberg and Mark Rubio. You’ve heard the radio spots and seen the television ads featuring Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio talking about the dire need to do something about the “immigration problem” not “illegal immigration” but immigration. During a minute’s worth of huffing and puffing Rubio tries to bulldoze past any logical objections to erasing our borders with faux tough talk designed to impress us with his credentials as an “insider’ who KNOWS more than we do. Rubio’s media crusade is funded by liberal...

The true source of the hellishly-hot-mess of a government America currently finds herself saddled with ultimately has to be the willfully uninformed Americans that voted for him... especially the ones not on welfare that pulled the lever for Obama twice. It's these supporters that are really what's wrong with this country.  Why try to blame a statist ruling class living like kings on our dime- unprincipled people usually take care of themselves first. But they wouldn't be there if not for millions of voters who handed it to them on a platter. People like John Kerry, Hillary, Obama... they're...

This Benjamin .22 pump air rifle was in like new condition The gun turn in event at Phoenix the last two weekends also collected air guns. No gift cards were given for them, but a few came in anyway. The lucky private buyer paid $45 for the Benjamin pictured above, including a tin of 500 pellets. This table of air rifles and handguns was turned in on 11 May. Most of them are relatively inexpensive, but you can see what appears to be a decent quality break open air rifle with scope under the imitation model 94 Winchester. The...

President Obama is already trying to sweep another one of his scandals under the rug, the IRS debacle, in which that agency "used inappropriate criteria that identified for review tea party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions." This is a huge scandal, with many major ramifications for free speech and other aspects of our constitutional rights. The President stood before the American people for "a mere four minutes" yesterday and fired the acting director of the IRS, a guy who already had decided to step down before the scandal broke, and who...

Raymond Ibrahim, a scholar of Islam and Islamic history who has a particular focus on Muslim persecution of Christians, has on his website - for which I also write - a new article, Islamic Forced Conversions — Past and Present, highlighting the astonishing similarities of past atrocities, which many people in the West believe to have been consigned to distant history (belief largely due to the mainstream media's "carpet non-coverage" and total neglect of these everyday slaughters, massacres, beheadings, torture and discrimination), to current ones. His piece was inspired by last Sunday’s canonization by Pope Francis I of the 813...

Radio host Dennis Miller and National Review columnist Mark Steyn considered Thursday the possible outcomes if the United States continues down the path of socialism. If socialism became the prevailing governing philosophy, Miller speculated, escaping it wouldn’t require a move to the Australian outback. Instead he suggested heading for the state of Texas, because it would be the first place to push back against it. “If I ever do flee, don’t think fleeing has to involve you going over to Alice Springs or something,” Miller said. “I’m going to Texas because that’ll be the first place that pushes back. They’re...

As we explained in our last activism update, the forces intent upon diminishing our rights have been emboldened by a recent series of horrific events. Most prominently, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Rather than be cowed by rapacious politicians, we should resist this encroachment upon our fundamental liberties. To that end, I’m urging my fellow New Yorkers-especially those living in Richmond County-to attend an important rally against Governor Andrew Cuomo and the legislature that rubber-stamped this egregious violation of our natural right to defend our lives, liberty, and property. The absurdity of this law was demonstrated most recently by...

If there is anyone in the world who should have some sympathy for what the Tea Party movement and like-minded conservative organizations are going through right now with the IRS, it should be NAACP chairman emeritus Julian Bond. Even though the NAACP spent a lot of time and money in a failed effort to demonize Tea Party activists over the past few years, including alleging them to be racist, the NAACP should supportive of the complaints of the Tea Party right now because they endured their own brush with the IRS back in 2004. Back in July of 2004, at...

"Goodlatte suggested the Speaker is more involved in the behind-the-scenes wrangling of how to move a gun bill than the Ohio Republican has let on in public."

Obama being born out of an apple pie in the middle of a Kansas wheat field as Toby Keith sings the National Anthem—such are the contents of an amicus brief filed by an Alabama Democrat Party which has resorted to ridicule in responding to the Obama eligibility case McInnish-Goode v Chapman which will be held in front of Judge Roy Moore and the Alabama Supreme Court! In an exclusive story, WND reporter Drew Zahn, (1) claims the flippant nature of this brief indicates that the Obama team will be unable to brush off legitimate questions about how he can serve...

One of the strange things about North Carolina (and there are many) is that Durham County has a firearm registry. It’s banned everywhere else in the state, but the legislature authorized Durham to register firearms. I don’t know if anyone actually registers, but legally  you’re supposed to. Kind of like legally you’re suppose to come to a complete stop at the stop sign, but frequently you don’t. Now a Democrat NC Senator has manged to pass a bill through the House that repeals that registry, ending the only firearm registry in North Carolina. A bill put forward by Sen. Mike Woodard,...

If right-to-carry concealed carry laws are deemed so dangerous by gun control proponents, letting anyone who is not a criminal carry a gun with no other regulations should be really bad, right? Well, on June 9th, if Illinois hasn't adopted a concealed handgun law by that point in time, it will be legal to carry a concealed handgun in Union county and probably effectively in the rest of the state. The problem for gun control advocates is the same as it is each time that states pass right-to-carry laws: they have made predictions about impending disaster that never occur. In...

The mere thought of granting amnesty to 11 -- 20 million illegal immigrants should frighten any common sense American citizen. Amnesty means that wannabe tyrants like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Michael Bloomberg, and Barack Obama will achieve their "dream of a permanent Democratic majority" in the U.S. The entire political, cultural, social, and economic landscape created by our Founding Fathers will be destroyed by amnesty. Concerned citizens must engage in the democratic process to stop the current immigration "reform" madness. This article provides them with all the tools they need to do so by clicking here. Please take action NOW...

Kristen Stewart: Um, sweetie? You don’t need to screw the director once you’ve already gotten the part. Also, the perma-stoned look is so 2004.

Ok. Like all of us here---I have been paying a LOT of attention to the scandals that have just "popped up" lately for the Regime. It does NOT look good for him, or perhaps the whole demo party!! I am hearing rumors of just "how this could turn out"--from "he will walk, maybe a little bit less trusted" to "this could OVERTURN the whole 2012 election (considering that the IRS supplied personal info to the libs about Romney--which was then used in an illegal way in the campaign). I would NOT mind that--but I do not expect it to happen....

The recent wave of left-wing discussion panels calling for the Redskins to change their name seems to have died off, but not everyone has given up hope. Paul Woody of the Richmond Times-Dispatch identifies himself as someone who would like to see it change. To bolster his case, he went to speak to leaders from three different Virginia tribes of Native Americans. Give Woody credit for bringing back the results, because none of the Native Americans he spoke to are offended by it.

NBC's David Gregory suggested that the White House is blaming the growing IRS scandal on the Treasury Department for not "deal[ing] with this more quickly":

The terrible ten year rape/ kidnapping ordeal suffered by three innocent Cleveland women at the hands of Ariel Castro, a registered Democrat (look it up) may yet put the baby killing crowd at NARAL and NOW in a web of their own evil lies. Their captivity included daily rapes and the predictable pregnancies that followed. The startling evidence shows Castro’s depravity extended to stomach punching pregnant victims to cause miscarriages thereby murdering at least five innocent babies. That Castro’s crimes are revolting and demand the death penalty is a widely held sentiment; but what will women’s organizations do or say?...

Some guns that went past private buyers and were turned in at the Phoenix events Yes, you do see a stainless mini-14 with a folding stock, an M1 carbine, a utility double, and many more. Just short of a thousand were turned in. Another mysterious source comes up with $100K to further fund gun turn in events in Phoenix this Saturday, May 18th. The hours have changed to 0900 - 1300. Private buyers have made amazing deals at these events during the last two weekends, and some fantastic firearms have been turned in, in spite of dozens of private buyers...

You won't believe how much has changed since then. Notice anything peculiar (other than the fashions) in some of these photos? (Many photos at link)

Author, with a Kassnar .22 AR lookalike (complete with homemade folding stock). Photo ©2013 by Dean Weingarten. The Arizona state legislature recently passed a law requiring cities to sell guns they collect in gun buy-backs, rather than destroy them, as is typically done. The law has been passed but not yet gone into effect – so the city of Phoenix and the a group called Arizonans for Gun Safety set up a series of three buybacks to be held before the law took effect.AFGS provided $100,000 of private money, and they partnered with the local grocery chain Bashas to give...

Some days one can't help but look at the headlines and think of Ayn Rand. With all the destructive measures by desperate governments from Cyprus to Argentina, it seems sometimes like we're reading from the pages of her seminal work, Atlas Shrugged. But what we're seeing now seems to have far surpassed Atlas Shrugged. We're definitely into 1984 territory. We've recently learned that the US federal government has (a) secretly tapped the Associated Press's phone records, and (b) used the nation's tax authorities to target opposition political groups. This is the same sort of thing one would expect from Belarus...

When it’s “public health,” lead by meddling doctors: To pediatricians, gun control is a public health issue, not a political one. But they’re treading a fine line, and they know it.The American Academy of Pediatrics has begun a renewed push to try to get Congress to pass gun control measures, sending more than 100 pediatricians to Capitol Hill earlier this month. Gun control is always political. Doctors should focus on healing patience, not butting their noses in where they don’t belong. Miller’s done research on gun deaths using what CDC data he could get — dating from before Congress cut its funding.He divided...

#1 27 Percent Unemployment/60 Percent Youth Unemployment In Greece #2 Detroit, Michigan Is Insolvent And Is Rapidly Running Out Of Cash #3 Economic Despair In France #4 7,000 Abandoned Buildings In Dayton, Ohio #5 Overwhelmed By Squatters In Spain #6 The Collapse Of Chinese Power Consumption #7 Horrible Economic Data Coming Out Of The Second Largest Economy On The Planet #8 One Out Of Every Five U.S. Households On Food Stamps #9 Child Hunger In America #10 The Tremendous Suffering Of Hundreds Of Millions Of Desperately Poor People That We Never Hear About

People like Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion (Amazon USA) , (Amazon UK) , and Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God Is Not Great (Amazon USA) , (Amazon UK) , et al, when attacking “religion”, play on various ambiguities. They create ambiguities in their choice of terms and then these ambiguities are convenient for them. The first instance of ambiguity is the use of the term “religion”. It puts together all sorts of people and doctrines which may have very little in common. To give an analogy, the flat earth theory is undoubtedly a theory of physics. It says something...

These ladies agreed to have their picture taken with some of their purchases, but only after I told them I was new media. They insisted that they did not want their pictures used for anti-freedom propaganda. They said that they would be checking up on me. Ladies, this story is for you. The gift cards could not always compete with cash. About 60-70 percent of the people bringing guns to the turn in wanted to get rid of the guns because they considered them worth less than the value of the cards, or because they thought the firearms were...

Six months into his second administration Barack Obama's Presidency has become overrun with scandal. The events of the past seven days; the Benghazi hearings, the news about twelve revisions of the Benghazi talking points, the IRS scandal and yesterday's Justice Dept. attack on freedom of the Press via the AP phone records, is a lot of “distractions” during course of a four-year-term, however this is only one week. Presidents tend to have problems their second term--but Obama's second term problems seemed jacked up on steroids. The Obama administration may be buckling under the weight of its own hubris, but they...

With light years between Ryan's House budget and Murray's Senate budget, Reid pressures Republicans for meetings unlikely to yield agreement. WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans are blocking negotiations over a 2014 federal budget agreement because they fear it might result in further tax increases and a hike in the federal debt ceiling. House Republicans have stalled making appointments to a budget conference committee which would be charged with developing a spending plan with conferees from the Senate. Republicans in the upper chamber, meanwhile, are blocking efforts by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, to make conference committee appointments. Senate Republican...

What do speed traps, parking tickets, toll roads, speed cameras and red light cameras all have in common? They are all major revenue sources for state and local governments. All over America today there are state and local governments that are drowning in debt. Many have chosen to use "traffic enforcement" as a way to raise desperately needed revenue. According to the National Motorist Association, issuing speeding tickets raises somewhere between 4.5 billion and 6 billion dollars in the United States each year. And the average price of a speeding ticket just keeps going up. Today, the national average is...

If you’re a sports fan, or even if you’re not, you’ve likely heard about NBA athlete Jason Collins publicly announcing that he’s gay. Of course, gays in professional sports is hardly a revelation, but Collins has the distinction of being the first openly gay athlete who currently plays for a major American team sport. It’s making headlines everywhere, right on up to the cover of Sports Illustrated. While the media begins developing this story into the next pop culture melodrama, let’s be honest about something: gays coming out in pro sports is not that big a deal. It’ no...

Go to Amazon.com today and you can buy an official Nike “US Soccer� jersey on sale for $78.99. For a mere $35.00, the clothing manufacturer Xara sells a “USA Soccer� jersey that is not licensed by US Soccer but is instead, in their own words, “A Unique Soccer Experience Representing a Country.� Apparently that “US Soccer� trademark is worth about $45.00 per shirt to Nike and the US Soccer.Total sales of officially licensed merchandise totaled $12.6 billion in 2010 in just MLB, NFL, and college sports alone, so apparel sales are clearly big business in spectator sports. It is in...

The Government has forced Cody Wilson’s company, Defense Distributed, to take down his designs for 3D printed firearms. I can’t say I’m surprised, and if you had read my other article earlier in the week you would understand why: This is a blatant attack on the first amendment. Forget, for a minute, that these plans can be used to create guns. What is the difference between banning these plans from distribution, and banning a book? There are quite a few books out there that could be considered just as dangerous. I downloaded a PDF book on building machine guns last...

The Three Whistleblowers at the Benghazi hearing spoke softly, but with the emotional wallop of The Three Tenors. They told the truth, and it blasted like thunder through Obama's tissue palace of lies... Obama stands center stage in this tragic opera of America's downfall, cheapening, endangering, and destroying the lives of the best among us. The pile of corpses grows ever higher, and the lies more noxious. Let's pay tribute to some of his many victims, and vow to honor their memory by holding him to account. BENGHAZI: Ambassador Chris Stevens, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Tyrone Woods. BOSTON MARATHON...

Raymond Ibrahim’s fundamental new book Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Amazon USA), (Amazon UK ), has been widely reported, covered and praised and does not require an introduction, but it prompts a reflection. The problem of Christian discrimination and persecution by Muslims is in fact two problems. Like unpunished crimes’ victims who suffer twice, for the crime and for the injustice of the criminal’s going scot-free, while the atrocities committed against Christians are unbearable enough on their own, the total indifference of the rest of the world adds to the pain. Floods, earthquakes, natural calamities and...

You knew the mainstream media was biased, but this is incredible. It was revealed today that CBS News President David Rhodes' brother is Obama Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, who was instrumental in rewriting the Benghazi talking points. But it gets worse. It is now learned that ABC President Ben Sherwood's sister, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is a Special Assistant to Barack Obama on national security affairs. But even this isn't it! CNN's deputy bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is the wife of Tom Nides, who until February was Hillary Clinton's deputy.

Why is there such a shortage of ammunition? Is the FedGov buying it all up so that we can’t get any? When will this ammo crisis end? When and where can you find reasonably priced ammunition in the Bryan/College Station area? The Department of Homeland Security recently put in a five year order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. The government contracts provide that Uncle Sam has priority to be supplied first and this allows the government at any time over that five year period to play havoc with the supply of ammunition. There have been calls from prominent Republicans...

Happy, private, buyer of .22 "Assault Rifle" at Phoenix gun turn in event. This rifle seems to have most things needed to make a media inspired "assault rifle". It has a flash hider, large magazine, folding stock, pistol grip, and is semi-automatic. Luckily, it has "brown privilege", so it is less likely to be discriminated against than if it were black. The ordinary Philippene made semi-auto .22 was fitted with some AR-15 style hardware to give it more sales appeal. Interesting homemade folding stock using cabinet hardware Note the hardware latch used to secure the folding stock Detail of...

The left hates the fact that men and women are different. They hate the differences so much that they pretend they don't exist. It's kinda' like when my five year old is mad at her brother. She closes her eyes, covers hear ears and announces, "I can't hear you." Journalist Kate Stone Lombardi believes that the different ways that Mothers Day and Fathers Day are celebrated shows how backwards we are and not as hip as say... Time Magazine. Of course, there is not a thing wrong with children saying thank you for all those cuddles and comfort, or for...

Schizophrenia is no less schizophrenia if one of the voices happens to be talking sense. Hard schizophrenia is no less difficult if murderous insanity is linked up tight with weird, pathetic, and arbitary scruples. In fact, if such an arbitary pattern is applied long enough, one may detect a method in the madness. I am talking about our erratic public policy when it comes to protecting human life. Gosnell is a disgrace because he killed babies in this spot instead of the officially-approved that spot. As one observer noted, he is apparently being charged with murder because he enjoyed himself...

Likely WWII war trophy. This Luger came in with an Original Holster The holster is in the lower left, just three guns to the left of what appears to be a Model 97 Winchester shotun I arrived at the gun turn in at a little after 9 am on Saturday morning. I had a couple of inexpensive .22 rifles to test the system with. I promptly got in the line of vehicles to enter the area for the turn in. The line was a couple of hundred yards long when I entered itThis woman was one of many that offered...

Ayn Rand was no fan of C.S. Lewis. She called the famous apologist an “abysmal bastard,” a “monstrosity,” a “cheap, awful, miserable, touchy, social-meta­physical mediocrity,” a “pickpocket of concepts,” and a “God-damn, beaten mystic.” (I suspect Lewis would have particularly relished the last of these.) These insults and more can be found in her marginal notes on a copy of Lewis’ Abolition of Man, as printed in Ayn Rand’s Marginalia: Her critical comments on the writings of over 20 authors, edited by Robert Mayhew. Excerpts appear below, with Lewis’ writing (complete with Rand’s highlighting and underlining) on the left and...

Were the theories of John Maynard Keynes blemished by the fact that he was a staunch eugenicist, a homosexual, and a bigot? Ricardo Crespo, an expert on Keynes, believes that these factors are not significant in evaluating Keynes' contribution. Ricardo Crespo John Maynard Keynes, the last century’s most famous economist, was in the news this week. Harvard’s celebrity economic historian Niall Ferguson was addressing the Altegris strategic investment conference in California, an event for investors and financial analysts, when he was asked a question about Keynes’s impact upon modern economies. To the consternation of his audience, he said that the...