Free Republic

A Virginia state senator called Second Amendment supporters "little kids" at a public meeting over the weekend as tensions between gun rights activists boil over in the state. Sen. Dave Marsden, who supports Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, is an advocate of proposed gun control legislation and is part of the Democratic majority in the Virginia General Assembly. Instead of apologizing for the insensitive remarks, Marsden called Second Amendment supporters "mentally ill" in a letter he sent following a meeting with constituents. Mornings on the Mall host Mary Walter read part of Marsden's letter on-air and asked him to comment....

Astronomer Brian G. Marsden, a comet and asteroid tracker who stood sentinel to protect the Earth from collisions with interplanetary rocks and other remnants of the solar system's creation, died Thursday of cancer at Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. He was 73. Director emeritus of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., Marsden was perhaps best known for his 1998 announcement that an asteroid known as 1997 XF11 might strike the Earth in 2028, causing untold damage. The announcement sparked additional studies which quickly showed that such an impact was unlikely. Marsden,...

Defying recent voting trends that saw several Northern Virginia Republicans win big in November, Del. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax) narrowly won a special election Tuesday night to represent a broad swath of southwestern Fairfax County in the Virginia Senate.... With all 39 precincts counted just before 9 p.m. Wednesday, Marsden led Hunt by 317 votes out of 23,569 votes cast. In Fairfax County, a recount requires less than a 1 percent difference and unofficial results from Tuesday night indicate the 37th vote fell just outside of that margin. Marsden won big in Burke and Fairfax Station and among absentee voters....

Virginia's incoming governor Bob McDonnell (R) congratulated Virginia's newest senator Dave Marsden (D) tonight on his upset against Steve Hunt (R) in Fairfax County. "I look forward to continuing to work with him in the years ahead in his new capacity,'' McDonnell said. "In these tough economic times, Virginians need leaders in Richmond who will work together to create new jobs and more opportunities. While we may not agree on every issue, I know that Dave and I share a commitment to making this a better Virginia for all our citizens." Marsden will be sworn in tomorrow at noon when...

As expected, the slumping economy weighed heavily on voters. David Wilder, 56, of Burke said mounting job losses and, to a lesser degree, the debate over health care pushed him to vote for Hunt. "It's the economy, it's the stimulus, it's health care, it's the way the system is being run," said Wilder, a physician.

In recent days, Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell has contributed $90,000 and the Republican caucus in the senate has contributed another $90,000 to the state GOP party -- all of which is being spent on Steve Hunt's campaign for state senate in the 37th District next week. The money is being spent on mailers, phone calls and one internal poll, which shows Hunt leading Democrat Dave Marsden in the race to replace Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) who was elected attorney general in November.

Attention terrorists and Islamofascists: You can now read the Toronto Sun without having your delicate sensibilities offended, as my weekly column is no longer with Sun Media. I am currently exploring US syndication and other venues for the column. In the meantime, you can continue to read it here at RachelMarsden.com, every Monday. After more than 2 years of writing weekly for the Sun, I’ve been under a new Editor-in-Chief, Lou Clancy, since October 5th, who comes from Canada’s most liberal newspaper: The Toronto Star. My column about Islam was spiked on his first day at the job. Best of...

For half a century, the Cold War and the fight against communism had us in its grip. But despite the persistent threat of nuclear war with the Soviet bloc, the sense of fear wasn't nearly as pervasive and relentless as it is now with the war on terrorism. Even as children performed "duck and cover" drills at school and the world was catching its breath after the Cuban Missile Crisis, people sat in movie theatres laughing at actor Slim Pickens' character riding the H-bomb down to global destruction in Stanley Kubrick's movie, Dr. Strangelove. Our enemy today isn't big on...

Following in the footsteps of intellectual giants like Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn -- who have apparently convinced themselves that standing in front of a camera and reading lines that someone else wrote for you qualifies you to give advice on foreign policy -- world-renowned holistic health guru, Dr. Deepak Chopra, has somehow managed to parlay his ability to cure sore throats into making my blood pressure spike to gasket-blowing levels. In his Huffington Post column (www.huffingtonpost.com) this week, Chopra advises us to bend over and take our medicine, saying that "becoming used to terror helps (us) defeat it." I...

<p>A California Institute of Technology graduate student was arrested Tuesday in connection with last summer's vandalism of 125 sport utility vehicles and fires set at a San Gabriel Valley auto dealership in apparent support of the Earth Liberation Front, the FBI said.</p>

VANCOUVER - A 28-year-old woman who once accused a swim coach at Simon Fraser University of harassment in a milestone case linked to the downfall of the school's president has herself been charged with criminally harassing a 52-year-old man. Rachel Marsden, a one-time assistant to TV news anchor Connie Chung, made a brief appearance yesterday in provincial court where her lawyer negotiated her release after a night in custody. A sombre Ms. Marsden agreed to terms that include the payment of $10,000 and agreements to not contact the alleged victim as well as members of his family. She is also...