Free Republic

It was a dream come true—or rather about to come true—when the Halls bought their forever home. It had everything they needed and more: five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a family room, a dining room, a roomy garage, good schools, and a good neighborhood. Sure, a fixer-upper, but they felt up to it. Prentiss Hall, a home improvement contractor, made it his life project, and everybody lent a hand—his wife, Tawanda, and six children, cousins, and friends. “We were really excited,” Tawanda told The Epoch Times. They negotiated the price down to $67,000—a bargain, perhaps, but the home demanded a daunting...

I used to have a flower garden in my backyard. A few years ago I decided to move my flowers to the front yard so my neighbors could enjoy them. I found that I could keep some them blooming in the winter by surrounding them with water in containers and covering them with transparent tarps. On warm days I uncover them so can enjoy the ones that are still green or even blooming. They often begin growing again in early March so they are doing well by the end of April. A week before Christmas I got a letter from...

This week, the Supreme Court heard the first arguments regarding Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and as you can imagine, people immediately took to social media in order to voice their opinion on the matter. And if you pay attention to pop-culture and the mainstream news, you’ll find that the majority of those opinions ultimately end up asking “Why not just bake the cake?” After all, how could you favor discrimination if you aren’t racist or prejudiced, right? Actually, no. As you’ll see, it’s quite the opposite. While it’s understandable for first impressions to fall prey to...

<p>Land Grab: The Bureau of Land Management plans a Bundy-like seizure of New Mexico land for a national monument that will restrict Border Patrol access and provide an open corridor for drug and human traffickers.</p> <p>In August 2002, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Ranger Kris Eggle was killed in the line of duty. Allegedly the killers were drug smugglers crossing through the Arizona park, which shares a border with Mexico. Since Eggle's death, Organ Pipe has been called the most dangerous park in America.</p>

York County oyster farmer Anthony Bavuso’s lawsuit against his county’s special-use permit requirement will move to the York County-Poquoson Circuit Court, after the county attempted to dismiss the case. The case revolves around the question of whether York County’s zoning ordinance, which requires those who engage in agricultural or aquaculture activities to obtain a special-use permit, is in violation of the Right to Farm Act in the Code of Virginia. The Complaint was filed on Jan. 31, 2014. “We are thankful we will now find out how the Right to Farm Act can protect local farmers like us,” Bavuso said...

A progressive talk show host this past week did a partial review of Karl Marx’s ten recommendations to establish communist society. He discussed the abolition of rights of inheritance, not completely dismissing it. He also discussed the progressive income tax which he endorsed; of course no self-respecting progressive would ever disagree with that. It is a cornerstone of progressivism. The analog would be that when you go to the grocer’s. The check out clerk would ask for your income statement before determining the charges. He did admit that Marx wanted to destroy all rights of property; mighty charitable of him....

Recovery Delayed Until the Looting Stops By John Helmer in Moscow In theory, Russia's economic performance is correlated with global supply and demand for raw materials and commodities, and thus with the rate of global economic growth, especially China. In the Russian market, 80% of earnings come from commodity stocks. Before the collapse, the enormous gains in market capitalization of Russian producers and exporters of gas, oil, nickel, copper, aluminium, iron-ore, coal, steel, potash, nitrogen fertilizers, and precious metals showed how dependent Russian asset value was on the belief that global demand was in an unstoppable super-cycle, sustained by China....

The judiciary’s war on private property continues in Las Vegas. To borrow a line from Rush Limbaugh, the bad guys in the old west used to wear black hats, now they wear black robes. This was proved again earlier this month as the Nevada Supreme Court sided with the city of Las Vegas over the Pappas family concerning land located in downtown Las Vegas that the city took in order to build a parking garage for the Fremont Street Experience. In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that taking the property "did not violate the state or U.S. constitutions." What...

Sawgrass Rebellion: Property rights the focus of rally Saturday, October 19, 2002By ERIC STAATS, emstaats@naplesnews.com After three weeks on the road, farmers and ranchers from as far away as Oregon and Ohio pulled into Collier County on Friday for a peaceful rally for private property rights.Local property rights advocates met the cross-country caravan about 10 a.m. in the Public parking lot at Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard. From there, a 40-vehicle convoy headed to the rally — dubbed the Sawgrass Rebellion — in the front yard of a remote Golden Gate Estates home on 18th Avenue Southeast. People came...