Free Republic

Over a hundred universities and colleges have embraced the concept of having "assault weapons" on campus.  It is worth noting, that when the university administrations buy the weapons for their own use, the menacing nomenclature of "assault weapon" is magically transformed into "semi-automatic rifles". Campus administrations all over the country who have been claiming that allowing adults who have concealed carry permits on their campus will chill free speech and academic freedom, have no such concerns with having "assualt weapons" on campus, as long as the weapons are in the hands of the people they command.  From abcnews.go.com: Once...

How a 19th century "human transcribing machine" inspired generations of linguists. A 1900s-era bicycle—Edmond Edmont's tool of the trade. (Image: Public Domain)Back in 2013, millions of Americans spent a few minutes clicking through this dialect survey. They threw their lots in with "crayfish" or "crawdad." They marveled at the number of words for rubbernecking. At the end, they likely received their geographic diagnoses with pride. Despite coming out on December 20, this quiz was the New York Times's top-trafficked story of that year. A decade earlier, when linguist Bert Vaux wrote the questions that inspired the quiz, he was thinking about...

Before presidents were the standard, a variety of American figures could be found on our banknotes. Twenty dollar bills, soon to be updated. (Photo: selbstfotografiert/CC BY-SA-3.0)This week, the U.S. Treasury announced a number of changes to the banknotes’ designs, most prominently changing the face featured on the $20 bill from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman. The makeover—the first change to the portraits featured on banknotes since 1928—incorporates numerous women and African-Americans from US history, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr. While the currency overhaul seems novel to us, banknote portraiture has changed frequently enough that 53 individuals...

Rosie and Whoopi too. Frequently naked TV actor and horrific human being, Lena Dunham, is worried. Donald Trump is running for President and, if he wins, it will spark a global catastrophe or something. Honestly, we’re not entirely sure what she thinks is going to happen, and we don’t really care. She’s deep in the tank for Hillary, so it’s a safe bet she harbors the same fears about anyone who would dare usurp her chosen queen. Because of her deep-seated fears, she’s joined a growing list of Hollywood leftists who are incentivizing a Trump presidency by promising to leave...

Oh by the way, he'd done it before, and when cops arrested him, he had a loaded handgun. Let’s get this out of the way right at the start: No one is mistaking Matthew Foerstel for a “transgender person” for lack of the better one-word noun I’m sure someone will come up with very soon. He’s clearly just a male pervert going where he’s not supposed to be. I don’t even think he’s claiming to “identify as a woman.” But last week, Target took a step toward completely erasing the distinction between men’s bathrooms/dressing rooms and women’s bathrooms/dressing rooms when...

After his smashing victory in New York knocked Ted Cruz out of the race, Donald Trump is the only Republican candidate who can still get the 1,237 delegates needed to be nominated on the first ballot by the Republicans. Getting brutally honest, this is what Trump should say at his next big rally. “Thank you, thank you I love all of you people and I’m so grateful for your support. We are a movement – did you see that Time Magazine called us a movement? And our movement is aimed at restoring America to her former greatness – making America...

John Kerry, our Secretary of State, has been talked about by three former Obama Secretaries of Defense who have expressed grave concerns about the lack of respect displayed by both Kerry and Obama for members of the American military. And Kerry has expressed contempt for American men at arms on more than one occasion. During his run for President, it was Kerry who said young people needed to go to college or remain stupid and go into the military. Such are the views of the self-described “winter soldier;” the treacherous soldier that attempted to throw his brothers in arms under...

Image from ABC News The above chart, created by ABC News, illustrates the trajectory of support and opposition for policies promoted by media elites that have no actual basis in fact or logic.  New media allows a significant, underdog, method to distribute facts about the policy.  The chart is a little misleading.  It starts in the middle of 1994, when the elite media control was near its height, and at the end of a blitz of media efforts to push the "Assault Weapon Ban" policy. These sort of policies, that rely on emotion, have to be enacted quickly, before...

Provocative Art 2016 will premiere this Friday at the Lotus Gallery, 511 E. Roosevelt, in Phoenix. Local Ricochet members are invited to attend the free reception, and meet some pretty awesome artists, including Roman Genn and Sabo, who will be talking about their work. Also on hand will be original pieces by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, Michael P. Ramirez. Ricochet’s very own Editor, Jon Gabriel has promised to make an appearance as well. Below are some examples of their artwork: -See more at www.provocativeart2016.com

For those of you who still laboring under the misimpression that Islam is not at war with the West-including the presumptive Democratic nominee for President-I have some shocking news. It turns out that the followers of Mohammed have other ideas. The plan to assassinate free speech, counterjihad activist Pamela Geller-which was, thankfully, thwarted through the work of the FBI and a tactically placed drone strike-was simply one of many plots devised by jihadist networks which have agents inside of the United States. Networks that have yet to be penetrated by American human intelligence and which now have a steady supply...

Cruz and Kasich should flush their #Never Trump” ideas down the nearest Transgender toilet The Election 2016 primaries, off the rails for months, have meandered off straight into the girls’ bathroom. Career politicians of the day have joined the transgenders in being where they shouldn’t be. As someone just quipped after reading this line: “Oh how I wish we were back in the good ole’ days when politicians were only in the gutter slinging mud!” Senator Ted Cruz has whipped Clown Kasich out of the rabbit’s hat in an act to ‘jumpsuit’ Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump, who, they want...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) got the dividend it was hoping for this past week when a criminal gave other criminals the right to vote in Virginia. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a man involved in so many crooked deals he can rightfully be called a “not yet convicted felon,” has given other felons in Virginia the right to vote. Using a Barack Obama stunt, Virginia’s Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an “executive order” giving the dregs of society – murderers, rapists, arsonists and robbers who have finished their sentences and parole/probation requirements--the right to vote. In a blah blah blah...

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” – The 16th Amendment, Ratified 1913 The birth of the income tax! Prior to 1913, the constitutionally limited responsibilities of the federal government were generally covered by import tariffs. Occasionally, temporary taxes were imposed to pay for wars, but were to be apportioned by the states and could not be direct, personal taxes, according to the Constitution in Article I, sections 2 and 9. W. Cleon Skousen wrote a very...

Christianity is demonized and its history distorted by its usurping enemies: in the West, by a host of "isms"--including leftism, moral relativism, and multiculturalism--and in the Middle East, by Islam While Christianity continues to be physically erased from the Middle East, lesser known is that its historical role and presence is also being expunged from memory. Last month a video emerged showing Islamic State members tossing hundreds of Christian textbooks, many of them emblazoned with crosses, into a large bonfire. As one report put it, ISIS was “burning Christian textbooks in an attempt to erase all traces of” Christianity from...

Longest Drug Tunnel Under U.S.-Mexico Border Unearthed I first interviewed Dave Stoddard in 2006. With the ObamaGov having vigorously stepped up its efforts to complete the destruction of our country via invasion from and by illegals from foreign powers, I thought it a good time to visit again with him.

Destruction of the Magazine at Delhi During the Indian Mutiny 1857-58 Gun control, or more properly, the restrictions on the ownership and use of guns by the general population, was not a common or popular phenomena in Europe until after the First World War.  One of the most influential and gun control laws was instituted in England and Wales in 1920.  It has been the basis for a great deal of restrictions on the private ownership of firearms around the world, both in the Commonwealth countries and in Europe.  These restrictions were not designed to protect the public from...

In 2016, angry citizens tired of being abused and mistreated are looking for a leader like Andrew Jackson once again In many of our history books today, Christopher Columbus did not discover America, instead he was a ruthless white European marauder who brutalized peaceful indigenous people and helped spread disease among their midst. This type of historical revisionism was on full display this week when one of our greatest Presidents and military heroes, Andrew Jackson, was removed from the front of the $20 bill. Eventually, he will be featured on the back of the bill, while the image of Harriet...

Doing bad things for good purposes is the operational rational of Progressive Liberalism That ultimate symbol of mischievous scamp Bart Simpson in Season One of the longest running show in TV history when caught red-handed offered up one of his signature phrases, “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, there’s no way you can prove anything.” This came to mind when I was thinking about Hillary “They’ll Never Indict Me” Clinton and her morally challenged obviously corrupt character. Donald Trump has said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose...

But then again Marxist name-calling of their enemies is now universal The most ridiculous sound in the world has gotta’ be the one of an overbearing Barack Obama rattling his saber at Brits who want out of the EU. It’s going to take more than insipid “back off” orders from from the likes of Obama to frighten Brits from voting the way they want on Brexit. A feeble quack from a lame duck on his way out of public office will never dim the knowledge that it comes from a no-boots-on-the-ground in jihadist-held territory, no-skin-in-any-game-but-his-own, semi-golf pro, part-time president.

In February it was ruled that Judicial Watch would be permitted to depose Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills for information pertinent both to the Hillary Clinton e-mails and Huma Abedin’s employment outside of the positon she held in Hillary Clinton’s staff. A deposition has already been completed by former Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano, approved by both the State Department and Judicial Watch. The ruling states that “…discovery shall cover the creation and operation of clintonemail.com for State Department business and the actions of the State Department for processing the FOIA requests that implicated Hillary and Ms. Abedin’s e-mails that [are]...