Free Republic

CONCORD, Calif. — A student effort to come up with a special menu for Black History Month backfired at a Northern California high school. Interim President Sister Ann Bernard of Carondelet High School in Concord, Calif., said students who were members of the Black Student Union club at neighboring De La Salle High School planned a special lunch to celebrate the month. The menu included fried chicken, corn bread and watermelon. "They thought this was a very clever way, in their own way, of celebrating Black History Month. It was as simple, and naive as that," Sister Bernard explained. On...

Consider the lame-duck descent confirmed. A day after the Washington Post/ABC poll showed disapproval for Barack Obama and ObamaCare reaching new highs, the new CBS News poll shows his approval plummeting nine points in a month to 37%. Support for the Affordable Care Act managed to drop even faster:

WASHINGTON -- When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell decided today to sign legislation that repeals Virginia’s 19-year-old restriction on selling more than one handgun a month, he ignored the pleas of the Virginia Tech families affected by the worst shooting massacre in the history of the Commonwealth and the United States. Colin Goddard, who survived being shot four times at Virginia Tech and now works as an advocate with the Brady Campaign, was outraged. "When the Virginia Tech families spoke to the governor on Saturday, he offered sympathy, not solutions. Sympathy alone will not save lives. The governor had a chance...

The Virginia Senate on Monday passed the House bill that repeals the state’s longstanding law limiting handgun purchases to one per month, sending the legislation to the desk of Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has said he would sign it. Opponents of the law, put in place in 1993 to prevent gun-runners from shuttling firearms from Virginia to other states along the East Coast, say that the technology related to background checks and the numerous exemptions in the law has rendered it obsolete.

The dominoes keep falling. Virginia has dropped its “one gun a month” law, as seen here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/handgun-ban-lifted-in-virginia/2012/02/03/gIQAfHYNuQ_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_buzz Back when they passed it, one of my graduates in Virginia called me to share his misery. He asked, “Mas, how would YOU feel if they passed a ‘one-gun-a-month’ law in the free state where YOU live?!?” I replied, “Hell, I’d find the money somehow…” He was not amused. I don’t blame him. He was right and I was wrong. Arbitrary restrictions on productive members of society are nothing to joke about. I don’t care how many firearms responsible, law abiding citizens own....

Legislation (HB940, SB323) that would overturn Virginia’s One Gun A Month law has already passed the Virginia House of Delegates and is slated to be voted on in the State Senate as early as today. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has said he will sign it into law should it pass. Despite the fact that Virginia is largely considered to be a pro-gun state, legislators have for years rationed the Second Amendment rights of its citizens with a law that limits handgun purchases to one a month — in effect, treating a constitutionally protected right as nothing more than a privilege....

The State Senate is set to vote Friday on a bill to repeal the law that says people can only buy one handgun per month. Retired Alexandria police Officer Ken Howard frequently visits a Lorton range to shoot and says the one handgun a month restriction can get in the way if a new firearm catches his eye. Steven Miller has a gun on layaway at the range because of the one handgun a month rule. The law has been on the books since it was pushed by Gov. Doug Wilder in 1993 at a time when Virginia guns kept...

A law that limits Virginians to one gun purchase per month is one step closer to being repealed. On Wednesday the Virginia House voted 66-32 to toss out the 18-year-old law. A similar Senate bill passed a voice vote -- a formal vote was delayed until Thursday. The vote in the House was along party lines; just two Democrats went along with the Republican majority. Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell vowed to sign the bill. The law was passed nearly two decades ago in an attempt to stop the flow of illegal guns from Virginia to the Northeast. New York City,...

Gannett Rag - Link Only http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/05/26/bachmann-to-announce-in-waterloo-next-month/

WASHINGTON -- The White House says President Barack Obama will speak to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 7, addressing a major trade group that has been sharply critical of some of his domestic policies. The announcement comes amid the changing political terrain in Washington that has given more power to congressional Republicans, traditional allies of the business sector.

Ali Stunt stunned doctors when she beat the odds and survived pancreatic cancer. She talks to Elizabeth Grice about the need for early diagnosis. As soon as she regained consciousness, Ali Stunt checked the clock in the recovery room. It was 1.30pm. The time told her all she needed to know: instead of having been wheeled back to the hospital ward as inoperable, she’d had five hours of surgery to remove a cancerous growth in her pancreas. Bleary as she was, she understood the significance of waking up in the afternoon. “It meant they had managed to operate and that...

Japan's key stock index surged Wednesday to end above 10,000 for the first time in nearly a month, as an overnight rally on Wall Street and a stabilizing euro against the yen amid eased worries about sovereign debt problems in the eurozone boosted investor confidence and benefited exporter shares. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced 179.26 points, or 1.81 percent, from Tuesday to 10,067.15, ending above the psychologically important level

Broke state declares April ‘financial literacy month’posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer April 30th, 2010, 3:00 am We hooted recently over the Orange County Business Council’s new Web site, CaliforniaSquirrel.com, which targets the “distractions” elected officials pursue at the expense of more important public business. CaliforniaSquirrel would like to call your attention to Assembly Concurrent Resolution 147 (acr 147, Lieu & Niello), which declares April 2010 as Financial Aid and Literacy Month “to raise public awareness about the need for increased financial literacy.” Irony alert! Irony alert! “The California Legislature giving us advice on financial literacy?” CaliforniaSquirrel.com practically screeches,...

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Bob McDonnell has conceded a "major omission" for not noting slavery in declaring April Confederate History Month in Virginia.

RICHMOND, Va. - Gun control advocates thought they had defeated an attempt to repeal Virginia's "one gun a month" law. But there will be one more attempt this week to do away with it. Democrats shipped off the proposed repeal to a Senate subcommittee which killed it along with several other gun bills March 4. Prince William Delegate Scott Lingamfelter says they'll make one last attempt to revive the repeal in another committee Monday. "The level to which we are willing in the House to trust the decisions of law abiding citizens, it seems to me that the Senate has...

Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R - Prince William and Fauquier Counties) Virginia State Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R - Prince William & Fauquier Counties), a retired US Army Colonel who sits on the influential Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee, has pre-filed House Bill 49 ahead of the 2010 Virginia General Assembly session. HB 49 would repeal Virginia's one handgun a month purchase rationing scheme. Only 3 other states ration handgun purchases: California, Maryland, and New Jersey (South Carolina repealed their gun rationing law several years ago). Governor-elect Bob McDonnell (R) voted for the one handgun a month law in 1993 as...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Officials say a Somali national tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month with powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that together could have caused an explosion. The hallmarks bear chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner. Police spokesman Abdulahi Hassan Barise says the suspect was arrested before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight departed. It was scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai.

TRENTON -- A N.J. gun law needs exceptions for various groups — including retailers who will only be able to buy one handgun a month from suppliers — members of a task force reviewing the legislation said today. The law, intended to restrict the flow of weapons to criminals, has riled gun advocates who say it penalizes law-abiding citizens like target shooters and collectors. The task force’s central proposal would make it easier for gun store owners to stock their shelves while still limiting customers to buying one handgun every 30 days. "As it stands now, retailers would be prohibited...

Muslim governments are taking advantage of the Ramadan TV season to broadcast anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda, some of it reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda that preceded the Holocaust. With Muslims across the world fasting during the daylight hours and gathering at home for their daily "break of the fast" meal, Arab propaganda ministries take advantage of the large potential audiences for TV shows by broadcasting their top programs, with many shows produced specifically for Ramadan TV watchers

During the month of June, NASA is joining other organizations throughout the United States to observe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. LGBT Pride Month commemorates the events of June 1969, when patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that was all too common for members of the LGBT community during that era. Celebrating LGBT Pride each June commemorates this act of rejecting discrimination and standing up for the American values of fairness and equality. This month-long observance gives all of us an opportunity to appreciate the accomplishments of LGBT Americans and celebrate...