Free Republic

So it wasn’t surprising when, in July 2011, the Fullerton political establishment rushed to the defense of officers who had beaten a 130-pound homeless schizophrenic named Kelly Thomas. The public saw the published photo of Thomas’ horribly swollen and bruised face, yet the mayor went on TV saying he had seen worse injuries in the Vietnam War and that it was unclear what killed Thomas, who died in a hospital days after the whomping. We also learned that police officers confiscated the video camera of a bystander and were allowed to watch the surveillance video of the incident and essentially...

The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) is spearheading a return to the non-interventionist policies of Robert Taft of the 20s to the early 50s. Taft was defeated at the 1952 Republican National Convention for the nomination by Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is telling that Barry Goldwater attended that convention as an Eisenhower, not a Taft delegate. The neo-non-interventionists are destined for far more success in the Republican Party than any economic libertarian will ever find in the Democratic Party. As usual, history is instructive. Our Wars of 1812, Mexican-American and Spanish-American were strictly imperialistic. Our entry into WWI was engineered by...

Duck Dynasty is one of our favorite television programs. Obviously, we are not alone. Duck Dynasty has been a ratings success for the A&E television network. It averages 14 million viewers an episode. The question the main stream media should really be asking is - why? Maybe, just maybe, if they paid attention, they might learn something about this wonderful Nation and the longing in the human hearts of real, regular folks. Perhaps if political observers paid attention, they might actually recognize a growing resistance movement... I am tired of the agendas of the Cultural Revolution winding their way into...

As more American awaken to the reality of out-of-control government, pastor, veteran and family man Tom Fodi throws his hat into the ring on a pro-Liberty platform: "In light of these egregious challenges facing our community, coupled with my passion for liberty, I’ve become an outspoken advocate for a return to more constitutional form of government. But, the time for mere words is over. Throughout the past couple months many have approached me, each effectively asking the same question, “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?” After much personal reflection and consultation with those closest to me,...

On January 2, David W. Eckert was stopped by police in Deming, NM for running a stop sign. What happened next is extremely difficult to comprehend. Deming Police Officer Robert Chavez had Eckert exit his vehicle, and patted him down. A lawsuit filed by Eckert says this was “without reasonable suspicion.” According to court documents, the officers who stopped Eckert thought he was “clenching his buttocks.” They brought in a dog to sniff for drugs, and the dog “alerted” to the driver’s seat. Two deputies from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department told Chavez that Eckert was known to insert drugs...

Today in America, we see two kinds of libertarianism, which we might call “Calhounian” and “Heinleinian.” Both kinds believe in freedom, but they are very different in their emphasis—and in their politics. The names behind the adjectives are John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), of South Carolina, and Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988), of California. [Calhoun] was also a proud slaveholding South Carolinian who rose in politics to be vice president of the United States. Indeed, Calhoun spent the last two decades of his life making the case for states’ rights over national unity In particular, he was a passionate advocate of “nullification”—that...

Police used a taser to electric shock a disabled man because he was standing on a bus, as he always does. The man prefers standing because of his spinal injuries, which make it uncomfortable for him to sit.

The case highlights the dangers of marrying policing and profit. “The profit incentive is so incredibly dangerous,” said Scott Bullock, legal counsel for the libertarian-oriented Institute for Justice, which is representing the Jalalis. He told me that officials “set aside policy goals and go after the money,” especially in tough budgetary times. The case also illustrates the inherent problems when a nation’s laws are so contradictory and confusing that well-meaning people can’t easily follow them. One can debate medical-marijuana law. It’s an unsettled matter that is winding its way through the courts. Even the federal prosecutor handling the case admitted...

North Korea might be said to be the exact opposite of the Free State Project. In this talk, north Korea expert -- and Kim Jong Il "autobiographer" -- Michael Malice will give a libertarian perspective on the history, culture, and propaganda behind the world's least-free state.

As Americans obsess over NSA spying, abuse by the IRS and other assaults on our freedom, I can't get my mind off the thousand other ways politicians abuse us. In their arrogance, they assume that only they solve social problems. They will solve them by banning this and that, subsidizing groups they deem worthy and setting up massive bureaucracies with a mandate to cure, treat and rescue wayward souls. Their programs fail, and so they pass new laws to address the failures. It's one reason that 22 million people now work for government. Some of the things they do seem...

During Mass this morning priest's homily was about religious freedom. We also prayed for religious freedom and the unborn and at the end of Mass "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was beautifully sung by a baritone.

Is Justin Amash the new face of Republicanism? By George F. Will Published: Saturday, April 20, 2013, 9:00 p.m. Updated: Saturday, April 20, 2013 WASHINGTON America's most interesting development since November is the Republican Party becoming more interesting. Consider the congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich., who occupies the seat once held by Gerald Ford, the embodiment of vanilla Republicanism.

We all know that a palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same backwards as forward. But what should we call an essay that when read backwards, has the opposite meaning? This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

Some of the most terrifying words the parents of a newborn will ever hear are “there is a problem with the baby.” Sometimes the dreadful news comes later after a tragic childhood accident or disease. When such children grow to adulthood they are joined by an even larger number of those who lived perfectly healthy lives as children only to become disabled in some way as adults. Adults with a disability of some kind are many times unable to work or unable to make enough money from working to support themselves or their families, especially during periods of economic downturn...

We have had the “War on Drugs” since the 70’s. In the 80’s, the “War” went from just skirmishes to an all out nuclear war on drugs. Now, thirty years later what have we accomplished? Has the “War on Drugs” become just another epic government failure like the “War on Poverty” with the only thing accomplished being massive government spending and an equally massive erosion of our Constitutional Rights? My perspective on the “War on Drugs” is a little different from most people. I practiced law for 24 years. Ten of those years were as a prosecutor. The rest were...

Does anyone know exactly when it was that the government started cooking the books on unemployment, and counting people who have given up and left the work force, as "no longer being unemployed"? Seems to me that that one change in statistic-keeping set the stage for moving people from work onto welfare, and I think it was made during Clinton's regime? Or was it Carter? It appears to allow them to move people transparently from work to welfare, and the unemployment statistics only look half as bad as they really are. Look at: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm The U3 is the figure that...

War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength Published during the Soviet Union's rise as a global superpower, George Orwell's 1984 offers a prescient window into the soul of the propaganda apparatus of a utopia dictatorship. While Barack Obama has yet to transform the United States from a constitutional republic, his effort to redesign Old Glory notwithstanding, enough similarities have arisen during his presidency and his campaign for re-election that it is worth taking notice. When reality is refracted through the prism of the state propaganda machine, we lose sight of who we are as a society. Inhabitants of...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills told Morning in America radio host William Bennett this morning that he's polling about 26 percentage points behind DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Bills touted his background as an economics teacher and said his standing will improve once voters get to know him. "Nobody knows me," Bills said as he referred to the campaign's polling data. "What we find out is that once people understand that I grew up blue collar, I actually have been in a union my whole life though I'm a coauthor on Right to Work, I'm a public school teacher who...

Those who follow Northern Kentucky politics are aware that four-term Republican Congressman Geoff Davis is retiring this year, and two well-known GOP politicians have announced their interest in replacing him. Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore and state Rep. Alicia Webb-Edgington are part of the Republican establishment in Northern Kentucky and were likely candidates for the job. But there’s another face in the race, a Lewis County businessman and inventor who hails from the eastern edge of the 4th Congressional District. Thomas Massie comes to the primary with strong ties to the Tea Party and the Rand and Ron Paul brand...

Ron Paul might be striking out in his pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination, but the activist energy his campaign unleashed in Minnesota is positioning one of his followers as the party's unlikely favorite to take on U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November. Kurt Bills is a rookie state representative from Rosemount and a high school economics teacher. Until he made a late and unexpected entry into the race in March, Bills was never mentioned as a Republican prospect to challenge Democratic incumbent Klobuchar. But in recent weeks, an increasing number of Republicans have pegged him as the frontrunner to...