Free Republic

New building permits surged to a near 13-year high, pointing to sustained housing market strength amidst a period of continuing economic expansion in the United States that is the longest in recorded history. Permits to build new homes in the United States soared 9.2 percent to a rate of 1.551 million units in January, the Commerce Department said on Feb. 19, which is the highest level since March 2007. In another sign of housing sector strength, builder confidence in the housing market remained buoyant in February, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI),...

Canadians’ reputation for politeness is being tested by an ugly dispute over energy policy. It involves the Coastal GasLink pipeline, owned by TC Energy, which will be used to transport natural gas from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, near the Alberta border, to the coastal town of Kitimat. Coastal GasLink was organized in 2012 by the province’s Liberal government, and it’s supported by the current New Democratic Party government. Most First Nations tribes along the pipeline path, including the elected band council of the Wet’suwet’en, support the project. But five hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs oppose it, and many left-wing activists predictably side...

Claim: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claimed during the Democrat debate Wednesday night that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported President George W. Bush in 2004. Verdict: True. Bloomberg did support Bush in 2004. Sanders criticized Bloomberg during the Democrat presidential debate Wednesday night for serving as a former Republican and a fundraiser for Republicans, including Bush.

It was an exciting time. In 2009, a grassroots movement of concerned Americans scheduled 800 Tea Party rallies nationwide on tax day, April 15th. Forty percent of tea partiers voted for Obama, naively believing it would end our nation's racial divide. They did not realize that Obama was a Trojan Horse with a progressive warrior hiding inside his black-skin exterior. Once Obama began implementing his undercover mission to transform America into a socialist/progressive country, Americans said, no. His sinister policies included persecuting Christians and opening borders to illegals. Obama betrayed Americans. In 2009, I was among only a few blacks...

Bernie Sanders came to Denver last weekend and for fun I took my family to his Sunday night rally. Since we are all Republicans, this was a true walk on the wild side in the form of opposition research. As Sun Tzu said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Held at the Colorado Convention Center, the rally “drew thousands” according to local media. There were no lines to get in, other than at the obligatory metal detectors now seen at everything from political rallies to sporting events. Since...

Bills that would have limited how many rounds can be stored in gun magazines and what guns can be sold did not pass in Olympia. Neither bill was approved before Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline. Lawmakers knew earlier this month the proposed ban on firearms defined as assault weapons did not have the votes to proceed.

Mike Bloomberg had a terrible night at the Las Vegas debate. On that point, I’m in agreement with the conventional wisdom. I’m not in agreement that he is done as a candidate, assuming he’s still willing to spend an additional half-billion dollars on advertising, paying social media ‘influencers’ to hype him, and buying up Democrat policitians and media... ...Bloomberg’s reason to be in this contest is to be the last non-Bernie non-Warren candidate standing.

For its 2019 dinner, the White House Correspondents' Association skipped the traditional comedian and invited a historian instead. Ron Chernow buttered up every journalist in the room by proclaiming: "You folks in the media write the early drafts of history, and we historians the later ones. Your work gives freshener and color and immediacy to our sagas. ... you do noble work to preserve democracy." Everyone in the room understood the code words here. "Preserving democracy" is equated with opposing President Donald Trump. "Democracy" means removing Trump from office. His election could cause democracy to "die in darkness." So the...

Voting in the United States has long been considered both a right and a responsibility. But one California lawmaker hopes to make casting a ballot a legal obligation. Assemblyman Marc Levine introduced a bill last week that would essentially require every registered voter to cast a ballot — even if it’s an empty one.

South Korea has seen its first coronavirus death after Daegu city's 2.5million people were put on lock-down today after the country's cases nearly doubled to over 100. Mayor Kwon Young-jin made a televised address, urging citizens to wear masks and remain indoors while revealing his concerns that the contagion could rapidly overwhelm the city's health infrastructure. A man in his 60s from neighbouring North Gyeongsang province tested positive for the coronavirus after dying Wednesday following symptoms of pneumonia, authorities said. He was among 15 people found to be infected at a hospital in Cheongdo. The surge in cases comes after...

This is the moment for the ultimate question of the Bernie Sanders movement: is the United States ready for a socialist President? At Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate, Sanders defended himself as a socialist (he calls himself a democratic socialist) and then dismissed a recent poll that suggested Americans do not have a favorable view of socialism. Who was leading in that poll, he asked the debate moderator? He was, although the moderator didn't know it. The moment allowed Sanders to skate with the impression that it doesn't matter that Americans oppose socialism because clearly they like him. Polling does suggest...

LAS VEGAS -- Mike Bloomberg became a piñata, and Elizabeth Warren resurrected her feisty side. The Democratic candidates formed a circular firing squad Wednesday night, with arrows flying in all directions and fights breaking out among a seemingly infinite permutation of candidates on matters from health care policy to lewd comments about women. Mike Bloomberg It was the billionaire entrepreneur's first time on the debate stage, and his rivals made the most of it. He was slammed on everything from his record on stop-and-frisk to the millions he's sinking into his campaign. Bloomberg kept his composure, standing stone-faced, barely smiling,...

Michael Bloomberg shrugged off his ghastly debate performance with his campaign vowing he's just 'warming up' after the former mayor was universally panned for his stage debut. 'You know you are a winner when you are drawing attacks from all the candidates. Everyone came to destroy Mike tonight. It didn’t happen,' Bloomberg's campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement after the debate. 'He was just warming up tonight,' Sheekey added. The general consensus was Bloomberg bombed in Wednesday night's debate, his first time appearing with his rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Twenty-three years ago, I was asked to give a talk to the New York City Bar Association as part of a symposium titled "Executioners, Jailers, Slave Trappers and the Law: What Role Should Morality Play in Judging?" I was charged with addressing what judges should do when faced with moral quandaries over issues like partial-birth abortion (also called "dilation and evacuation abortions," or "D&E abortions") and physician-assisted suicide. While I was discussing the present, the other panelists -- most of whom were judges -- were discussing the past (as in, "What should judges have done about slavery?" or "Should judges...

In Hong Kong, where there's been one coronavirus fatality, schools remain closed due to a government-imposed shutdown, forcing many children to be start homeschooling themselves during the outbreak.

The West Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 96, a reform of the state weapons preemption law, on 11 February 2020. It passed with a vote of 30 in favor, 2 opposed. It appears all 50 states have some form of weapons preemption law.  Such laws prohibit local governments from enacting rules, ordinances or limits on the exercise of Second Amendment rights. This ensures some weapons laws are uniform across the entire state.The preemption laws vary in effectiveness and scope. In West Virginia, the current preemption law §8-12-5a has this heading: §8-12-5a. Limitations upon municipalities’ power to restrict the purchase, possession,...

Well that didn't take long. The venom and hatred from the far-left and the mainstream media for anything that challenges their beliefs is shockingly predictable. They just can’t stand it when a movie, book, play, or any other form of entertainment doesn’t conform to their Hollywood culture. They really, really hate it if the piece of art is the truth or based on a true story. That's why they hate my play FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers and the fact it is going to be on the main stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb 27th. It is...

Retired Col. Charles E. McGee, an original Tuskegee Airman, speaks with Senior Airman Alfredo Maldonado, right, and Airman 1st Class Quinton Coke, both personnelist with the 66th Force Support Squadron, during a visit to Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., in 2016. McGee served a total of 30 years in the U.S. Air Force, beginning with the U.S. Army Air Corps, and flew a total of 409 combat missions in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps. (Air Force photograph by Mark...

The current hysteria surrounding Attorney General William Barr's decision to intervene in the Roger Stone case and override the Draconian and wholly unjustifiable sentencing recommendation made by prosecutors on the case is hypocritical and reflects a double-standard and a misunderstanding of the Attorney General's role and authority. Based on reports from the DOJ, the prosecutors misled their superiors about the recommendation they would make. They were part of the Mueller Special Counsel team that had a partisan agenda from start to finish. They hoped to inflict the maximum punishment on Stone for his association with the president, after failing to...

HEADLINE: Boy Scouts Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the Face of Thousands of Child Abuse Allegations The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have long been on the left’s hate list. Any organization that has the temerity to train young men in the virtues of integrity, patriotism and self-reliance is putting itself on the fighting side of liberals! At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, a little group of Boy Scouts took the stage as part of the opening ceremony -- and were promptly booed by the delegates. For decades, the BSA has fended off lawsuits demanding that they embrace the holy...