Free Republic

A part of our system that we should thoroughly appreciate is federalism. Despite the name, it gives more power to the states to handle their issues, and the federal government has little intervention. The ability of a state to have power under the Tenth Amendment is unique. The majority of countries globally have a central government and do not allow states or local governments to have much power. State governments have much power in the United States, but they are not immune to being sued for overreach or exercising oppressively on residents. At what point does Attorney General Bill Bar...

In a theme that continues to be tragically borne out with each passing day of our government’s overbearing, one-size-fits-all coronavirus pandemic response, few things these days seem to actually make any logical or scientific sense. In case you missed it, last week’s “Part I” column covered the government’s draconian response, bankrupt hospitals, and the government happily hampering any future recovery by paying people more money not to work. Stopping there, however, would have lent short shrift to the seemingly endless insane and infuriating inconsistencies of the past two months. So here are a few more, just to get your...

The majority of the United States' 17 intelligence agencies are in agreement. They believe that the coronavirus started in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Even though the intelligence community believes this virus started in a lab, they believe its leak was unintentional and the result of an accident, a senior intelligence official told the Daily Caller. Although all the agencies are not on board, a leaked intelligence report from the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance – made up of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – shows that 70 to 75 percent of the U.S.' agencies believe...

Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) are petty tyrannies but at least they’re voluntary ones. You freely sign up to be told what kinds of shrubs or flowers you’ll be allowed to plant in “your” front yard; what type of vehicle you’ll be permitted to park in “your” driveway - and the exact shade of paint that’s acceptable to use on your mailbox. You must beg permission – and get approval – for everything and you can be hit with punishing fines if you don't, ahead of time, even if the shrub is the "right" variety and the paint the exact same shade...

It was General George Washington who said, "If you want peace, prepare for war." It's time for America's business owners to fight back against a tyrannical government. Some might call that a revolution. But in this case, I'm talking about a war fought in the courts. I'm talking about a legal battle. It's time for lawsuits -- lots of them. It's time to defend our civil rights. It's time to defend our property rights. It's time to make tyrant governors understand this isn't a dictatorship and we're not their serfs. First an important question about the coronavirus. I am impressed...

The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” That’s unambiguous. Not “pretty unambiguous,” just unambiguous. Full stop. Yet governors across the country are ignoring or suspending almost every one of those rights enumerated at the top of the Bill of Rights, with little to no pushback from the press, which just happens to be the only part of the...

A leaked document from the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance – made up of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – shows China purposefully hid and/or destroyed evidence about the Wuhan coronavirus. Specifically, the alliance said the Chinese Communist Party's cover-up can be described as an "assault on international transparency." Australia's The Saturday Telegraph obtained a copy of the 15-page report which concluded China put other countries in grave danger by covering up different aspects of the coronavirus, including the fact that it can be transmitted from human-to-human, doctors magically "disappearing" when trying to talk about...

We began the month of May with a necessary interview with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, about a sexual-assault allegation. The questioning, of course, came after an introduction that included the unholy litany of accusations against the current president of the United States. The Biden interview came a few days after a midnight tweet from the president ridiculing a number of media personalities in cruel ways, including the journalist interviewing Biden. And before that tweet was another from the president, announcing that he would be virtually attending Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral the next morning. During the Mass,...

The world is full of self-righteous crackpots. Especially the troglodytes who crawl out from their subterranean dwellings to play the racist card every time the scent of a Trump supporter is in the air. Or Krispy Kreme has its "Hot Now" light flashing, and it's time for a second breakfast. Enter: Rutgers University Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Brittney Cooper clad in a tight-fitting "Black Femme Power" t-shirt. Lately, Cooper's been showcasing the jaw-dropping intelligence of leftist academia, making the case why parents should strongly consider where they send their kids to college. Unless, of course, they...

Time for reopening? Let's reframe the question. Time for what to reopen? With what precautions? In which states and counties and communities? Mandatory reopening or voluntary? And who really decides? Governors, mayors, the president? Business owners or consumers? Does anyone really expect what economist Arnold Kling calls "patterns of sustainable specialization and trade" to snap back into pre-COVID-19 shape? Any effort to address questions yields the lesson that one-size-fits-all answers are ill-suited for a nation of 329 million people, half in million-plus metropolitan areas and the other half thinly spread out over a continent-sized landmass. Nonetheless, much of the public...

When all babies’ DNA is stored forever and accessible to whoever has the most money or political clout, no one’s most fundamental privacy is secure. The coronavirus pandemic has intensified the discussion about the right to biological privacy. Dr. Anthony Fauci at White House press conferences muses about “certificates of immunity” to be carried by Americans who have antibodies to the virus. Bill Gates advocates a national tracking system so the government can see where the virus is. Whether his envisioned system involves microchipping the population is the subject of some debate. Privacy advocates warn about allowing the government to...

Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has had his highs and lows. I’m sure no one took kindly to the fact that he ordered police to take down the license tags of parishioners who were out celebrating their Easter service. He then held a presser, where he called out those who were trying to defraud the unemployment benefits system by filing under false names, like Tupac Shakur.  “We had somebody apply for unemployment for Tupac Shakur here in Kentucky, and that person may have thought they were being funny, they probably did. Except for the fact that because of them, we...

The country has survived the COVID-19 shutdowns -- so far. But it won't likely survive another major trauma to the system. There are those, like it or not, who anticipate such a result with some relish, as it presents opportunities for them to remake the nation into something they prefer, politically and economically. They get "cover," as it were, from those who call for much longer shutdowns, and who warn that life "will never be the same again." There are people of all persuasions who want to seize the reins of power and purport to shape all policy around the...

One of the less helpful aspects of our current quandary is the shrill argument between two closed-minded camps. One condemns those who wish to open up the economy as science-defying ghouls who care nothing for human life. The other depicts the stay-at-homes as economic saboteurs willing to destroy the national economy in the name of unobtainable safety. Neither reckons with the indispensable bridge -- the testing problem. Whatever mayors, governors, or presidents might say, we cannot restart the economy as long as people are too frightened to resume working, shopping, and socializing. An NPR/Marist poll found that 65 percent of...

<p>This is what freedom looks like, tearing down fences but still staying safe. Chicago residents proved they can be trusted with that freedom.</p> <p>A protest erupted in Lincoln Park in Chicago on Sunday. Attendees tore down fences and entered the park despite the restrictions Mayor Lori Lightfoot put in place. But there were no signs. No chanting slogans. Even the protesters didn’t admit they were protesting.</p>

Let’s just get something straight, right off the top. The goal of this national shutdown was never about “saving lives.” It was about “flattening the curve” to avoid overwhelming our hospitals. No promises of not getting sick yourself. No guarantee if we all just wait it out COVID-19 would pack up and head back to Wuhan. No. It’s here to stay. We did our part. We bought the medical community time. We’d like to go back to work now. But, no. As New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy said this week, …”We’re in here trying to save lives, every single day....

Wait, this title is misleading in that it could be read that either “reporters” or “liberals” suck, and the fact is that both suck. But reporters don’t have to suck. Liberals always do, because their trash ideology is terrible and yet they adhere to it. Reporters could be no-holds-barred truthtellers who could not care less, whose agenda they skewer or narrative they shatter in pursuit of the truth. That’s at least theoretically possible, even though most of them merely aspire to be skeevy prog transcriptionists typing out ham-handed propaganda to please their pinko masters. But if our reporters were not...

There is a price to pay for taking the ‘orange man…bad’ route if you’re a liberal reporter. You’re bound to get slapped in the face. How many times will the liberal media endure being embarrassed before they realize that they’re bad at their jobs and it only helps Trump’s re-election efforts? The coverage of this White House has been atrocious. It’s par for the course—and I know they will never have a reflective moment because they’re all insufferable, self-righteous clowns who think their word is the gospel. I’ve never seen such an arrogant bunch.  In their effort to attack the Trump...

The left never lets a crisis go to waste, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. State officials claim that arrestees may potentially bring the virus into the facility, and due to the close quarters, it will spread quickly. Democrat politicians tell the public that the inmates must be released from jail immediately for their safety. The left ignores one crucial aspect: the safety of the general public. Officials downplay the type of people who are released. But their words are not believable since they are ordering police to arrest citizens, bringing them into jail over disobeying tyrannical edicts issued...

The Chinese government should ban the sale of wild animals and refrain from using traditional Chinese medicine to advance Beijing’s political objectives. But that's not all wet markets are.> The news of Wuhan reopening its wet markets has caused angst and criticism around the world, because one of the wet markets in the city was identified as ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic.Shutting down all wet markets in China is unrealistic. These markets are integral in Chinese people’s culture and way of life. More importantly, we shouldn’t confuse these wet markets with wildlife markets. The majority of wet markets do...