Free Republic

My post “12 facts about guns and mass shootings” included a mention of Israel and Switzerland, societies where guns are reputed to be widely available, but where gun violence is rare. Janet Rosenbaum, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center School, has actually researched this question, and she wrote to tell me I had it wrong. We spoke shortly thereafter on the phone. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows. Ricky Carioti — The Washington Post Ezra Klein: Israel and Switzerland are often mentioned...

With two weeks to go before Election Day, a new Reuters/Ipsos forecast released today predicts an Electoral College landslide for President Barack Obama over Republican rival Mitt Romney. Obama leads Romney by a point in the Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll, 47-46. But results from Ipsos' tracking in key swing states leads to a projection of a much bigger Electoral College victory. The Ipsos projection has Obama winning the big three swing states of Florida, Ohio and Virginia. Ipsos' final Electoral College score: 332-206. Here's what the firm's projected map looks like: Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-romney-electoral-college-map-reuters-poll-ipsos-2012-10#ixzz2AAPaoCGJ

MIDLAND, Tex. — The desolate stretch of West Texas desert known as the Permian Basin is still the lonely domain of scurrying roadrunners by day and howling coyotes by night. But the roar of scores of new oil rigs and the distinctive acrid fumes of drilling equipment are unmistakable signs that crude is gushing again. And not just here. Across the country, the oil and gas industry is vastly increasing production, reversing two decades of decline. Using new technology and spurred by rising oil prices since the mid-2000s, the industry is extracting millions of barrels more a week, from the...

“Would you believe,” as Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86, used to say, that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin knows more about American history than the members of what Rush Limbaugh calls “the drive-by media,” who are currently making fun of her? Probably not. But she does, at least as far as Paul Revere’s ride is concerned. Palin recently said that Revere, as part of his famous ride, warned the British that they would have a fight on their hands if they tried to seize the caches of arms and ammunition that the colonists had hidden at places like Lexington and...

Creators Syndicate – The WikiLeaks de facto declassification of privileged material makes it case closed: Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction — and intended to restart his program once the heat was off. President George W. Bush, in the 2003 State of the Union address, uttered the infamous "16 words": "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Former Ambassador Joe Wilson sprang into action and, in an op-ed piece, in effect wrote, "No, the Cheney administration sent me to investigate the allegation — and I found it without merit." Put...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnUfPQVOqpw This is what the Left has resorted to: Uploading a mock debate between two Pikachus to discredit the Tea Party. Pokemon to the rescue!

HONOLULU – Lillie Gonzales does whatever it takes to provide for three ravenous sons who live under her roof. She grows her own vegetables at home on Kauai, runs her own small business and like a record 42 million other Americans, she relies on food stamps. Gonzales and her husband consistently qualify for food stamps now that Hawaii and other states are quietly expanding eligibility and offering the benefit to more working, moderate income families. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed by The Associated Press shows that 30 states have adopted rules making it easier to qualify for...

Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After scrutinizing Roosevelt's record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years. "Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10-...

CHICAGO — Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo. He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion. “This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.

Can someone tell me how many "gaffes" Palin has had besides the "I can see Russia from my house" via Saturday Night live, and the question about John McCain's "specific examples of pushing for me regulation"? Compared to Obama, I don't see how this woman has had as many gaffes as Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap2Cg_FDRy4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5R6kVry4_c

Is there anyway companies will wake up, and stop requiring an over priced college education for employment to the higher ranks of their businesses? It's time for companies to begin to bankrupt these lazy, ungrateful, Marxist college professors! If Obama thinks "nobody should go broke for wanting a college education" then obviously college is not worth pursuing, considering most graduates don't know anything about their job once they enter the workforce. I'm sure college is needed for a lot of fields, but for the most part it's way overrated, and all it's doing is supplying a bunch of anti-American losers...

From my understanding they NEVER claimed there was a direct connection to 9-11 and Iraq, only that there was a relationship between Iraq and AlQaeda. Could someone confirm or correct?

Joblessness is Here to Stay Short-term prospects may be brightening, but high unemployment will be a fixture for the foreseeable future.

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

For at least 114 years, climate “scientists” have been claiming that the climate was going to kill us…but they have kept switching whether it was a coming ice age, or global warming.

CO2 is Life: CNN Meteorologist Debunks Man Made Global Warming Myth

I continue to hear the BS that Bush somehow filtered the Iraq pre-war Intelligence before it was received by the Senate over sight committee. It was my understanding that it IS the Senate's job to oversee intelligence. Is that correct?

Income and Insurance. A common assumption is that most uninsured Americans simply cannot afford the cost of coverage. However, the evidence points to other factors in many cases. For example, during the last decade, the ranks of the uninsured have increased among affluent households and decreased among low-income households. [See Figure I .] * From 1993 to 2000 the number of uninsured people in households with annual incomes above $75,000 increased by 63 percent and the number in households with annual incomes from $50,000 to $75,000 increased by 48.2 percent. * By contrast, the number of uninsured people in households...