Free Republic

Randall and Vicki Weaver and their children wanted nothing more than to be left to live an isolated life in peace in their cabin enclave on a northern Idaho mountain top called Ruby Ridge. Untrusting of the federal government and of the belief society had taken an insurmountable turn for the worse, the Weavers — as many residents in the remote and breathtaking area — taught their children to be self-sufficient and defend themselves with firearms from unwanted intrusions onto the family’s property. But the Weaver’s seemingly idyllic life came to an appallingly violent end over several hours from August...

"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...

Victoria Sharp, 18, joined her Kansas family to sing at the Oregon wildlife refuge occupation She was in the vehicle with the occupier who was shot to death Sharp has gone on to be the focus of many patriot movement videos and broadcasts. (Watch Victoria's Video At Link) The pastor of the Auburn, Kan, church the Sharp family once attended speaks of Victoria, now a champion of the patriot and militia movements. In one of dozens of YouTube videos posted this past month featuring teenager Victoria Sharp, who is from these parts, she flashes a wide smile when an online...

If internationalists were to get their way fully with the world and future historians write their analysis from a globalist perspective of the defunct American nation, they will probably say simply that our collapse was brought about by our own incompetence - that we were our own worst enemy. Yes, they would treat America as a cliché. They will of course leave out the destructive influences and engineered disasters of elitists, that would just complicate the narrative. My hope is that we do not prove these future historians correct, and that they won't have an opportunity to exist. My work...

Is it philosophically wise to dwell upon the morality of government? Are we frivolous and diverted from more serious concerns? Should we be reading poetry, watching TV, playing golf or listening to Mozart? A discussion of the morality of government is more than an intellectual exercise. It has to do with understanding force and raw political power hidden behind the cleverest of disguises. Our perception of government morality directly relates to our quality of life and whether or not we pass human liberty to our heirs. There can be no perception of reality without inquiry into the nature of political...

Behind the orchestrated riots that were allowed to strike Baltimore in recent weeks, and Ferguson, Missouri, before that, lies an agenda that has nothing to do with the fact that “Black Lives Matter.” As the Obama administration and more than a few race-mongers allied with the White House have already made clear, the real goal involves further chipping away at local self-government and community control over police departments — and expanding federal control over local law enforcement in its place. In between fanning the division and unrest with racialist rhetoric, Obama is also exploiting the chaos he is helping to...

Much is being written about “the list” in which independent Americans, who do not drink from the Obama Koolaid, are on a list which will ultimately result in their loss of freedom and very possibly their lives. Some people are calling this list, “Main Core”. Advocates of the Main Core view state that a secret government hit list has been in place since the 1980’s. Some even wrongly suggest the Ed Snowden has revealed this information regarding Main Core to the world, when in fact, nothing could be further than the truth. Main Core’s Eight Million Names This “hit list”...

Yes, it is once again tax time. Chances are there have been a few grumblings this time a year in your home or one nearby concerning everyone’s favorite villain – the IRS. From the missing emails of Lois Lerner and using the tax system to target Tea Party protesters to ever increasing debt loads due to expanding government, crony capitalism and general rampant corruption, few if anyone beliefs the tax authority is a beneficial institution. PJ Media issued a three-part series – a Death by Taxes video panel hosted by Bill Whittle wherein he interviews the notorious tax reformer Grover...

I spoke with my best source and he has information that the Russians training at Ft. Carson, CO., will a part of the Jade Helm 15 drill. This is in line with the Russians being allowed to train for the highly sensitive Grid Ex II drills in November of 2013. Further, this is also consistent with the omnipresent treason of letting the Russians train in the highly secure war games drill known as RIMPAC. In the following video, my BIN colleague, Lisa Haven, links Jade Helm 15 to the FEMA camps and Civilian Inmate Labor Camps. (Watch video at link)...

(Video at link) The militarized Police State has been inching toward using private mercenary groups for law enforcement for some time. Most attempts have failed spectacularly when the public gets wind of it. However, a clever new strategy to achieve this goal was recently deployed and it may appeal to some. This past September, I wrote an article "Blackwater-like contractor seeks to legalize private police in the U.S." which exposed how "private security" firms were being subcontracted for police raids. Outrage ensued. This followed a bungled attempt in 2009 to introduce the private foreign-owned American Police Force to Harding, Montana....

If your New Year’s resolution is to change your light bulbs, don’t worry—the federal government’s here to help. Beginning January 1, 2014, the federal government will ban the use of 60-watt and 40-watt incandescent light bulbs. The light bulb has become a symbol in the fight for consumer freedom and against unnecessary governmental interference into the lives of the American people. 2007, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law an energy bill that placed stringent efficiency requirements on ordinary incandescent bulbs in an attempt to have them completely eliminated by 2014. The law phased out 100-watt and...

It seems that the question “What difference does it make?” continues to be touted by radical socialist Democrats. First it was former State Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton as she became flustered during questioning about Benghazi. Just days ago, following the spending bill that screwed over the American taxpayer for political expediency, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked “What difference does it make” what was in the spending bill? nancy-pelosi-282x300Pelosi addressed reporters during a weekly press briefing on Thursday to discuss the last minute deal, which ignores spending caps mandated by the sequester and included several appropriations that have caused...

Americans are waking up today to the worst “case of the Mondays” they’ll have all year: It’s Tax Day. Most Americans dread Tax Day, and for good reasons. Beyond the huge tab Americans pay to the government, the tax code is so complex that it’s difficult to figure out what we owe to the IRS. This is a pain for taxpayers and a huge drain on the economy. According to the federal Taxpayer Advocate in its 2012 report, Americans’ cost of complying with today’s complex tax code totaled $168 billion in 2010. That’s almost as large as the impact of...

Budget sequestration is as modest a step toward cutting Leviathan as one can imagine. Further progress will be difficult as long as people believe that slashing the size of government conflicts with reviving the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. In his recent debate on Charlie Rose, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said that even wasteful government spending should not be cut, because it would undermine job creation and economic recovery. This view isn’t quite as popular as it once was, but it is still influential. The logic of the argument is that...

I am in favor of not raising the debt ceiling unless the President and Democrats come up with meaningful spending cuts and reforms. Contrary to a lot of the Democrats’ spin, the federal government will not default if the debt ceiling is not raised. Only if Little Timmy Geithner decides to not pay certain debts will the government default. It is his choice. But I do think Republicans should be proactive in their approach to the debt ceiling. I think they should have a plan. Specifically, I think the Republicans should propose a BRAC Commission for spending. The BRAC Commission,...

Tax cheats were given $1.4 billion in government-backed mortgage loans under President Obama’s economic stimulus, and the government doled out at least an additional $27 million in tax credits to delinquents who took the first-time-homebuyer tax break, according to a government audit released Wednesday. Under government rules, delinquent taxpayers are supposed to be ineligible for the mortgage insurance program unless they have reached a repayment agreement with the Internal Revenue Service. But the Federal Housing Administration didn’t have the right controls to weed out bad applications, said the Government Accountability Office, Congress‘ chief investigative arm. That meant FHA insured $1.4...

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day. 2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! 3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. 4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined. 5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English. 6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world. 7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they...

A bill that nobody is paying any attention to is sailing through Congress: Senate Bill 1813. It passed the Senate by 74 to 22, and is expected to sail through the House as well. It’s an act “[t]o reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes.” It’s the “and for other purposes” part of the title that has me worried—specifically Section 40304: “Revocation or denial of passport in case of certain unpaid taxes.” This section would give the IRS the power to keep a U.S. citizen from traveling— —and it’s another example of Executive Power run...

Thirty-one months after Barack Obama’s inauguration, the nation has come down with a serious case of irregularity. It reveals itself in so many areas it’s impossible to enumerate them all. The three most visible manifestations of irregularity can be seen in the economy, energy, and in the administration’s exercise of bureaucratic power. There’s nothing regular about how the economy has performed during the past three years. That’s when what I have been calling the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy, more recently tagged the fear-based economy, began. Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid promised to fundamentally change how the economy operated. To...