Free Republic

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore is calling for the Second Amendment to be repealed and sharing his theory for how to successfully remove "nearly every gun from civilian ownership." "We need to start a movement to repeal the Second Amendment and replace it with something that says it’s not about the right of somebody to own a gun, it’s the right of all of us to be protected from gun violence," Moore said Friday on his podcast. "We have a right to live," he said. "If you’re afraid of somebody breaking in, get a dog… you don't need a gun." Moore...

A number of Proceedings articles and commentaries in the past several years have advanced the idea of saving money and fulfilling the vision of “distributed maritime operations” by building a fleet of more, smaller, lighter ships. For aircraft carriers, that argument tends to take the shape of more “Lightning carriers”—based on the hull form of amphibious assault ships such as the USS America (LHA-6) class—and fewer nuclear-powered carriers of the Nimitz (CVN-68) and Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) classes. While LHAs are cheaper to build than CVNs ($3 billion vs. $10 or more billion), the argument misses several key principles that...

In 2009, the U.S. Navy finally began construction of the first new type of aircraft carrier in nearly thirty-five years. Named after former president and naval aviator Gerald R. Ford, the USS Ford fully takes the nuclear supercarrier into the twenty-first century. The technological innovations built into the new ship, while causing the inevitable delays involved in building a first-in-class vessel, will keep the Navy’s unique fleet of super flattops the largest and most advanced in the world for the foreseeable future. USS Ford follows in the steps of the highly successful Nimitz-class carriers. Construction began in 2009 at Huntington...

Three events that made no sense at the time now make sense. I'll C&P the substance in the first comment so the HTML will (hopefully) transfer.

First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in Aspen on Friday afternoon and is here with her daughters for a ski vacation. Few details about her trip were available. Sources said she is staying at the home of Jim and Paula Crown, owners of the Aspen Skiing Co. She is reportedly skiing at Buttermilk today, where the Crowns, of Chicago, own a home on the Tiehack side. Several people have known about the “low-key” vacation, with the Secret Service in town for the past few days scoping out places for the family to relax and enjoy what the resort has to offer....

Filmmaker Michael Moore says he had to rush a copy of his new film Sicko into Canada just before travelling to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year because he feared U.S. federal investigators would seize it. "I had to literally get a master of my film brought to Canada here so it could be safely placed in a country that would not violate my civil liberties," Moore said in an interview with CBC Radio. "My job is to show that Canadians — not so much have the best health care system in the world, which it isn't — but...

The Dixie Chicks appear to be more popular than the president these days. President Bush's approval rating has plummeted, but the Chicks are on top of the pop and country charts with their first album since publicly criticizing Bush three years ago. They did it without the support of country radio, which largely ignored the Dixie Chicks after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 that the group was ashamed Bush was from their home state of Texas. The new album, "Taking the Long Way," took the No. 1 spot Wednesday on the country albums chart and...

At the first annual Paul Wellstone Memorial Dinner, filmmaker and activist Michael Moore is honored. Moore speaks about Bush administration policy and various labor and economic issues. Sen. Wellstone (D-WI), one of the more liberal and progressive members of the Senate, died in a plane crash in October of 2002. TODAY [11-23-05] , C-SPAN, 8PM ET

A PLAY by Joe O’Connor, the novelist brother of pop star Sinead, is to be filmed in Los Angeles with a mainly British cast. The makers of Red Roses and Petrol say it is cheaper to make most of the movie in America and add Irish locations afterwards. The producers wanted to make the entire movie in Dublin but could not get backing in Ireland. Four weeks of shooting begin next month on the film, which producers believe could be the Irish equivalent of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That €5m film raked in €230m last year, making it the...

Senators Plan Bill to Combat Child Obesity29 Jul 2002 20:45 GMT By Niala BoodhooWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers on Tuesday plan to introduce a bill that tries to tackle America's weight problem with a host of health measures, especially aimed at helping obese children.The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic -- in the United States, 61 percent of adults aged 20 to 74 are considered overweight or obese. About a quarter of American youth are overweight or obese."There's a lot of evidence that the lifestyles we have adopted in this country have gotten us into an epidemic of...

“For years I ate fast food because it was efficient and cheap,” says Caesar Barber, 56, a maintenance worker with heart disease and the lead plaintiff in an anti-fast-food lawsuit filed in New York last week. “I had no idea I could be damaging my health.”This fall, Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard is holding a closed-door strategy session for nearly 100 lawyers interested in pressing similar claims against Big Fat,“What changes have you made?” booms Ludwig, as a 226-pound 10-year-old squeezes into his small examining room. The boy proudly describes how he’s stopped eating cookies and slowed down on...