Free Republic

I live in a picture-perfect region — the Hudson Valley, memorialized by painters and poets; a patchwork of autumn reds and yellows, majestic hillsides, storied waterfalls, and little homesteads dotted picturesquely on the slopes of sleepy hamlets. Towns in our area look like Norman Rockwell paintings: there is Main Street, Millerton, with its white 19th century church steeple, its famous Irving Farm cafe with the excellent curated coffee beans, its charming antiques mall, its popular pizzeria. When you drive to Millerton, it looks like you are driving into the heart of archetypal America; everything that Woody Guthrie songs memorialize, everything...

A new California gun control law geared towards “stopping” firearms advertising to minors is already having a negative impact on youth shooting sports and hunting in the Golden State. In June, the legislature approved Assembly Bill 2571—a bill allegedly aimed at stopping gun violence in response to the horrific Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting. AB 2571 prohibits “a firearm industry member, as defined, from advertising or marketing any firearm-related product, as defined, in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.” If anyone is found in violation of the statute, the civil penalty is $25,000...

Judith Durham, the lead singer of The Seekers whose song "Georgy Girl" was an international hit, has died. The Seekers were a huge hit in the '60s, racking up big hits like "I'll Never Find Another You," and "A World of Our Own." But, "Georgy Girl" was a monster ... the title song to the movie with the same name that also became a blockbuster. Universal Music Australia announced her death, saying she had a brief stay in a hospital and ultimately died from a chronic lung disease. The company said in tribute, “Our lives are changed forever losing our...

The shooting of Jayland Walker by police in Akron, OH last week is becoming yet another flashpoint in urban hatred of and violence towards police, law and order. By now I'm sure most of my readers have read about what happened, but for those overseas who may have missed it: Mr. Walker apparently fired a shot at police from his vehicle before fleeing on foot. He left his gun in the vehicle, but pursuing officers did not know that. When he halted and made what the pursuers considered a suspicious movement, they fired on him. Up to eight officers were...

Boy Scout troops were heading home to Wisconsin after intense week-long New Mexico backpacking trip Two Boy Scout troops who were on a Chicago-bound Amtrak train that derailed after hitting a dump truck in Missouri, assisted fellow passengers in getting them to safety and provided first aid, Fox News has learned. In the immediate aftermath of the derailing, the two groups of Scouts broke windows and helped pull people out of train cars. They also used their advanced first-aid training to help injured passengers before first responders arrived at the crash site. One of the Scouts, a 15-year-old boy, located...

Every day, the battle lines are drawn more clearly for what promises to be a memorable election. The Democrats infamously lumbered the president with an investigation into his relations with Russia that they knew to be unfounded. Then they attempted a completely spurious impeachment proceeding (with no believable evidence that he had committed the alleged offenses which, in any case, were not impeachable). And now, in response to a fortuitous virus pandemic, they purport to require President Trump to commit political suicide by shutting down the economy for so long that the soon-to-be 30 million unemployed will turn him out...

Assistance requested on why my iPhone7+ hotspot via Bluetooth keeps my laptop from reaching FR: “server IP address could not be found.” I am using the hotspot on the phone because my home WiFi has gone wonky. Is there an iPhone setting I need to change or what?

Extended sub-title: The reckonings of one of the South’s white suburban women, whose loyalty is key to whether Trump is reelected SNIP TO EXCERPT: She is 39, a high school English teacher with a PhD and part of a voting demographic whose rebellion could upend the political map of the country: not just suburban women, not just white suburban women, but white suburban women in the South, whose loyalty Trump will need to remain in power. It is the kind of loyalty that has always been expected of white Southern women, who have long played a role as allies of...

When staff at Westglades Middle School heard that Nikolas Cruz had committed the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, some couldn’t believe it. The fact that he was a mass murderer wasn’t what surprised them, but rather the fact that he had attended that school. “How is that possible?” one Westglades educator recalled thinking. “We did our jobs. It took forever, but we got him [to the specialized school] where he needed to go. We couldn’t believe they ever let him into [Stoneman].” Westglades students and staff had never seen anyone like Nikolas Cruz. One student, Paige, recalled the time...

{SNIP} Pretty soon, America might have to start asking: what exactly is “progressive” about going insane? I think we’re getting close to answering that, and the answer is: nothing. The Left has managed to drain the meaning from the word “progressive.” We will not be able to take it seriously for generations to come (if there are any generations to come). The Left has applied every possible gimmick from the bad faith trick-bag to disable thinking in this republic generally, and the language that serves thinking. But its contorted maledictions are working mainly against itself as one preposterous idea after...

GUATEMALA CITY — About 45 minutes before descent, the guards went up and down the aisle unshackling the passengers, and the mood in the cabin began to lighten. A mother with a boy near the front was still crying, but they were the only family aboard the flight. Nearly all the other 93 deportees were men, and they began joking and talking excitedly. Soon Guatemalan territory appeared below, misty and green. A cheer rose. “You see? They’re smiling!” said Matt Albence, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who spends a great deal of time defending his agency’s...

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg lambasted Mike Pence -- a man he used to work directly with during Pence's time as governor of Indiana -- calling the vice president a "cheerleader for the porn star presidency" on Sunday at CNN's town hall. Buttigieg went on to question Pence's faith, asking rhetorically whether Pence stopped "believing in scripture when he started believing Donald Trump." "How would he allow himself to become the cheerleader for the porn star presidency? Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing Donald Trump?" Buttigieg said. "I don't know. I don't know."

"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek revealed in a YouTube video Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek said in the video he was given the health update this week. "Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working," he said. "And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease."

Imagine the following: The IRS sends you, John Q. Citizen, a letter alleging you have not complied with U.S. tax law. In the next paragraph, the tax agency then informs you that it needs a series of personal and business documents. Indeed, it will be sending agents out to discuss your dilemma and collect the necessary records. But when the IRS agents arrive, you explain to them that you cannot find about 50 percent of the documents requested, and have no idea whether they even exist. You sigh that both hard copies of pertinent information have unfortunately disappeared and hard...

A Supreme Court case about jurisdiction in an obscure murder has huge implications for tribes. On the morning of June 22, 1839, the Cherokee leader John Ridge was pulled from his bed, dragged into his front yard and stabbed 84 times while his family watched. He was assassinated for signing the Cherokee Nation’s removal treaty, a document that — in exchange for the tribe’s homelands — promised uninterrupted sovereignty over a third of the land in present-day Oklahoma. That promise was not kept. Sixty-seven years later, federal agents questioned John’s grandson, William D. Polson. They needed to add him to...

In this shameful season of partisan lies, it is nearly impossible to run down every deceit before it lands on the lips of some lusty mob, where it becomes a rallying cry to chase decency, dissent and free speech from the public square. Look at this weekend’s mobs of protesters — many of them paid by hugely wealthy and powerful special interests — that thronged the streets around the Capitol and Supreme Court to shout down any difference of opinion. Jackbooted hippies jeered, harassed and intimidated anyone who hesitated to swear fealty to their warped worldview and twisted lies. No...

Juan Carlos Nazario was sitting on a lakeside bench waiting to play soccer when he heard the staccato popping of gunshots outside Louie’s On the Lake, a popular waterfront grill and pub. He ran to his car to get his gun and moved toward the sounds. Bryan Whittle was driving with his wife, heading off for a Memorial Day weekend getaway, when he saw a commotion outside Louie’s. He thought someone might be drowning, so instead of turning his truck onto the highway, he barreled into the parking lot to offer help. As he jumped out, what he learned stunned...

They came for your laptops. And for your liquids, and your shoes. Now, the Transportation Security Administration is coming for your snacks. Passengers at airports around the country — including all three of the Washington region’s major airports — are reporting that, increasingly, TSA agents are instructing them to remove their snacks and other food items from their carry-ons and place them in those ubiquitous plastic bins for separate screening. It’s not part of agency’s standard policy, according to TSA spokesman Mike England. It’s simply a recommendation issued by the agency last year to help speed the bag-check process. Screening...

AP material - link only https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gun-by-her-side-gop-us-senate-candidate-talks-of-threats/ar-AAyOIk3?ocid=spartandhp

Link only due to MSN site however the entire WSJ article is there, no paywall.