Free Republic

A New Hampshire police group that plans to raffle 31 guns in May received this offer from an alarmed critic of the giveaway: He would raise $30,000, buy all the guns, and bring them to his local police station to be destroyed. Another critic floated an idea to have the guns melted, turned into jewelry, and sold to help victims of gun violence. But the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police plans to proceed with the raffle, citing fears of a lawsuit from disgruntled ticket-buyers.

The State Department defended its selection of a controversial anti-Israel activist to participate in a human rights forum in Poland, praising the longtime Israel critic as “valued and highly credible.” Salam al-Marayati, founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), was selected by the Obama administration to participate in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) annual 10-day human rights conference, the Human Dimension Implementation Meetings (HDIM). Al-Marayati has been a vociferous critic of Israel, once suggesting that Israel should be put “on the suspect list” for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His organization, MPAC, has requested...

Elizabeth Warren has been plagued throughout her campaign for a Massachusetts Senate seat by what appear to fibs of her own creation. It began when claimed to be Cherokee, because her “Papa” (pronounced “Papauw”) had high cheekbones, and there was “family lore.” She reportedly rode that claim all the way to Harvard, where she was pronounced a “minority professor,” when in reality, a genealogist found she is a scant 1/32 Cherokee. Now, the woman who claims to have created the “intellectual foundation” for Occupy Wall Street– notorious for its anti-foreclosure actions– is revealed to have made a small fortune flipping...

Baltimore - The leading voice of Roman Catholic bishops opposing a contraception mandate in the Obama administration's health care law was named Tuesday as the 16th archbishop of Baltimore, the nation's first diocese. Bishop William E. Lori, 60, comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and has testified before Congress several times in the past few months on a proposed measure to make religious employers cover contraception for their employees. The White House later backed off the rule, making insurers pay for the coverage, though many critics are still not satisfied. In one instance

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: the sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today. An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened. Scholars in this out-of-the-way corner of the Hebrew University campus have been quietly at work for 53 years on one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biblical studies -...

A chief critic of ATF's gunwalking operation was reportedly briefed on the program last year --- but didn't object. That's according to unnamed sources speaking to the Washington Post about the classified briefing. The sources said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was given "highly specific information" in an April 2010 briefing, attended by members of Congress from both parties. The operation called "Fast and Furious" is now under fire by Issa and others for allegedly allowing thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. CBS News first broke the story in February. "All...

Los Angeles – Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday proposed that the US government infuse $53 billion into a national high-speed rail network. The announcement was met immediately by deep skepticism from two House Republicans that could be crucial to the plan's success, raising questions about whether it can clear Capitol Hill. House Transportation Committee Chair Rep. John Mica (R) of Florida said previous administration grants to high-speed rail projects were a failure, producing "snail speed trains to nowhere." He called Amtrak a "Soviet-style train system" and said it "hijacked" nearly all the administration's rail projects. Meanwhile, Railroads Subcommittee Chair Rep....

In mid-August, as the controversy over the Ground Zero mosque began to gain international attention, a leading Saudi journalist wrote two opinion articles opposing the project. Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, then manager of the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya satellite television network, first produced a column for the August 16 edition of the international Arab daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat [The Middle East], of which he is the former editor-in-chief. In that first column, Al-Rashid cautioned, “I cannot imagine that Muslims want a mosque on this particular site, because it will be turned into an arena for promoters of hatred,

A US busker called Bongo Jesus has been arrested after hitting a man who criticised his playing over the head with his guitar. The busker, whose real name is Brandin Hochstrasser, 31, was playing in the street in Madison, Wisconsin, when his critic approached him. Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said the 54-year-old homeless man had been unable to keep his thoughts about the guitar playing to himself. "The dispute started over some questionable guitar playing," Mr DeSpain told the Cap Times. "He went over to Bongo Jesus and provided some sort of critique which did not sit well. "When police...

JUSTICE IS BLAND: I eat Nutraloaf, the all-in-one "disciplinary loaf" served at Cook County JailInmates at Cook County Jail are allowed three privileges: television, books, and food. The staff has no compunction about denying its most difficult residents either of the first two, but under the Constitution, correctional facilities can’t withhold food. Nothing in the Eighth Amendment, however, says the food has to taste good. “This is not the Four Seasons,” says Tom Dart, the Cook County sheriff. “Inmates who are injuring people in jail will get their nutritional needs met, but we will not cater to their culinary desires.”...

The Obama administration has tapped an outspoken critic of immigration enforcement on the local level to oversee and promote partnerships between federal and local officials on the issue. Harold Hurtt, a former police chief in Houston and Phoenix, has been hired as the director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of State and Local Coordination. Starting July 6, Hurtt will supervise outreach and communication between ICE, local law enforcement agencies, tribal leaders and representatives from non-governmental organizations.

Epic sci-fi crap typically ain't my cup of tea. I get a lot of angry e-mails from people whose bottle of Mountain Dew it is. The notes are usually pretty threatening, as though me not liking something these people love is a matter of utmost importance. As though the fact some as***le with a web site doesn't care for what they do threatens the substance of their passion. My nephew Jimmy is one of these people. He is spurred to action only when someone insults the s**t he likes. Then, his first reaction is to insult whomever doesn't share his...

LOS ANGELES – Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.

LEBANON, Pa., April 20 (Reuters) - With two days to go before a crucial U.S. presidential vote, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigned through Pennsylvania on Sunday as the former first lady got the support of one of her fiercest critics. Tuesday's primary to help pick the Democratic candidate against Republican John McCain in November's presidential election is the first contest in six weeks and has become a major test in the race to the party's nomination. Clinton, a New York senator, leads in state polls but Obama, an Illinois senator, has cut into her one-time double-digit lead in...

SIERRA VISTA — A recent international airspace incident involved a critic of the government’s illegal-immigration policies and two F-16 fighter jets. Glenn Spencer, head of the American Border Patrol, apparently triggered a security trip wire on Jan. 15 as he was flying from El Paso, Texas, in a Cessna 206. “I was monitoring the progress of the government in securing our border, and I was intercepted by an F-16!” Spencer stated in a letter to his supporters. He uses the letter to drum up support for his watchdog cause. The incident happened shortly after noon, about eight miles east of...

Theodore Roosevelt had this to say about criticism: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows,...

[...] Curiously, what seems to rankle Europeans most is the enthusiasm with which Hirsi Ali has adopted their own secularism and the fervor with which she has embraced their own Western values. Though this continent's intellectuals routinely disparage the pope as an irrelevant dinosaur, Hirsi Ali's rejection of religion in favor of reason, intellect and emancipation seems to make everyone nervous. Typical is the British feminist who complained that not only does Hirsi Ali paint "the whole of the Islamic world with one black brush," she also "paints the whole of the Western world with rosy tints," which is, of...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez's political mentor — who once persuaded the fiery leader to seek power through elections after he led a failed coup — now says the regime has "all the characteristics of a dictatorial government." Luis Miquilena, who helped guide Chavez to his initial 1998 election win and later was his interior minister, spoke out Tuesday five years after he left Chavez's Cabinet, while hundreds of government opponents held a separate protest over a congressional measure that would grant Chavez broad powers to pass laws by decree. "This is a government with a hypocritical authoritarianism that...

LONDON - A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned three weeks ago was moved into intensive care Monday after his condition deteriorated, and his doctor said the toxin has attacked his bone marrow. Prominent Russian exiles claimed Litvinenko was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin... Thallium causes hair loss and interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the vital organs. Litvinenko's white cell count is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist treating him. "It shows his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection," Litvinenko, who...

Director Uwe Boll challenges critics to a brawl New York: German horror film director Uwe Boll is so angry after receiving bad reviews that he is challenging critics to a filmed fight. According to imdb.com, Boll has made a few movies based on video games and says he wants to fight his critics in a boxing ring. Boll is particularly upset with an online petition, which has 13,327 signatures of people requesting him to stop making movies. Boll has invited director Quentin Tarantino to join the fight and wants to film the fight and show it on the Internet. He...