Free Republic

So now I know how a Martian would feel coming to Earth and looking around. You see, I spent the last two weeks out in Central California, away from the coasts, trying a lawsuit. Some other time we’ll talk about how our legal system uses you non-lawyers like inmates use a handsome young lad on his debut trip to San Quentin. In any case, now I have come home, plugged back in, and it’s pretty clear to me that America under Obama has gone completely insane. That's not a subjective impression but, rather, an objective finding of fact. What's going...

Gentlemen,” Herbert Hoover told visiting dignitaries in June of 1930, “you have come six weeks too late.” The Depression, he declared, was over. Sadly, for him and for the country, he wasn’t correct. Still, sometimes you do arrive too late and miss all the action. Take the group of immigration reform activists who crashed Rep. Eric Cantor’s “victory” party in June. “What do we want? Immigration reform! When do we want it? Now!” they chanted. Two problems: Cantor had, like Elvis, already left the building. And because of the primary results, the former House Majority Leader will be leaving Congress...

The pots and pans are clanging for the ouster of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the Obamacare website rollout takes on the aspect of that of the Edsel. Yet, though it is a website that has America laughing, Obama's legacy legislation itself could, in its entirety, be in peril. As ex-pilot George W. Bush used to say, this thing looks like a five-spiral crash. Republicans are clamoring for Sebelius's firing. Herewith, a dissent. Why not leave her right where she is? After all, Sebelius's continuance testifies more eloquently than any attack ad just how far Obama's beliefs...

President Obama pledged to end partisanship, but instead has exacerbated it. He recently accused House Republicans of being extortionists for opposing a raise in the debt ceiling and wanting to defund Obamacare. Dictionary.com defines extortion as "the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or authority." Republicans should fling the extortion label back at the president, who wants to raise the debt ceiling, threatening to curtail many government operations if the GOP doesn't surrender. 2006, when George W. Bush was president, Sen. Obama said: "The fact that we are here today...

The fascinating issue of America's character arose in a "Ricochet Podcast" featuring the sagacious Norman Podhoretz. Hosts Peter Robinson, Rob Long and James Lileks interviewed Podhoretz on a range of issues, but primarily American foreign policy. Long lamented that President Obama has been making a consummate mess of America's foreign policy, most recently in Syria, yet polls don't seem to reflect that Americans are as atuned to Obama's incompetence as one might expect -- and hope. Nor do Americans seem to be bothered by Russian President Vladimir Putin's denunciation of the United States in an op-ed for The New York...

By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem, Israel --- March 24, 2013 … Russian media sources have confirmed that Syria President Bashar Assad was shot by an Iranian bodyguard Saturday night. "The lone assassination pumped several bullets at point blank range into Assad," said the source. "Assad was rushed to Al-Shami Hospital in Damascus in critical condition. He died on the operating table from heart failure resulting from massive blood loss." An Israeli security analyst believes the report to be accurate. "In the last 24 hours have we seen Assad? Any photographs or video? No. Nor will we see any as...

One of the earliest fears about tax-favored savings accounts like IRAs and 401(k) plans was that when this pool of savings grew large enough Congress would not be able to resist tapping it to help solve the nation’s debt problems. We’re about to find out if those fears—persistent for decades—have been justified. Everything including the sacred mortgage deduction is on the table as lawmakers wrestle with the fiscal cliff, a year-end avalanche of scheduled spending cuts and tax increases. With a combined $10 trillion sitting in IRAs and 401(k) plans, retirement accounts make a juicy target. Some of this money...

I have never responded to the columnist down the river. But I was fascinated by Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass’ take on the recent mob attacks in and around the Streeterville neighborhood. In his interview with the unidentified doctor who was injured in the attack, Kass asked if the attack was “racial.” “I don’t think it was racially motivated,” the doctor said. “They were black, I’m Asian, but I think it was something else. I think it was about having fun because they could.” Still, whether white people are comfortable saying it out loud or choose to keep a lid...

City thieves are getting slipperier. They’ve taken to ripping off the rancid cooking oil left at the curb by restaurants — as the list of strange “commodities” sought by sticky-fingered opportunists grows. In a sputtering economy, the price of resale goods like cardboard, scrap metal, old appliances and even grease has spiked — and criminals have taken notice. Used cooking oil cost next to nothing four years ago. Now it goes for 38 cents a pound. Cardboard and other paper goods went for about 1 cent a pound two years ago. Now it costs 6 cents. “It’s really crazy out...

Since mid-2010, precisely at the time millions of US citizens used up all of their 99 week of unemployment insurance, disability claims have risen by 2.2 million. Those on disability are not counted in the workforce and are not considered unemployed. Please consider Disabled Americans Shrink Size of U.S. Labor Force

Occupy Oakland protesters claimed victory after they shut down one of the nation's busiest shipping ports - escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and camps. In a five-hour stand-off protesters vandalised businesses and smashed bank windows, as they tried to shut down the city - and police appeared to respond using tear gas and flash bang grenades. The California demonstrators blocked operations at the city's port and stopped traffic on Wednesday in protests against economic inequality and police brutality, marred by scattered vandalism. Police in riot gear arrested dozens of protesters who had marched...

Advocates for the unemployed have cheered a push by the Obama administration to ban discrimination against the jobless. But business groups and their allies are calling the effort unnecessary and counterproductive. The job creation bill that President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision that would allow unsuccessful job applicants to sue if they think a company of 15 more employees denied them a job because they were unemployed. The provision would ban employment ads that explicitly declare the unemployed ineligible, with phrases like "Jobless need not apply." As The Lookout has reported, such ads appear to...

Soon after a tornado ripped through North Minneapolis pm Sunday afternoon, an estimated 20 looters ripped off Broadway Liquor Outlet. The high winds that downed trees and tore off roofs in the area also smashed the glass storefront of the liquor store at 2201 W. Broadway Ave., which was closed. The looters stole liquor, cigarettes and cash, said owner Dean Rose. The store had plywood boards nailed to its exterior by 7:30 p.m., but broken glass and cases of beer could be seen scattered on the floor inside. Rose said Sunday night he didn't know the extent of the theft....

The dollar hit its lowest level since July 2008 Thursday, putting more pressure on savers, people living on a fixed-income and all consumers facing soaring commodity prices, most notably in energy. Somewhere, Ben Bernanke is probably smiling. Yes, Bernanke...talked tough about the dollar this week but "currency depreciation is always a central bankers dirty little secret," says Vincent Reinhart, a former director of the Fed's Division of Monetary Affairs. "They don't mind some depreciation at time…The trick is to generate some depreciation but not a lot." It depends on your definition of "a lot"… Since Bernanke took office on Feb...

Our prayers this morning are with Sue Krentz (widow of rancher Robert Krentz) who was hit by a drunk driver while leaving church last night. Her husband was murdered in March by an illegal alien on his border ranch - a major impetus for SB1070's passage. Mrs. Krentz' friend was also injured. Authorities have not released the extent of their injuries.UPDATE: It was a hit-and-run DUI. The suspect, Ramon Saucedo, 66, was arrested after fleeing the scene.UPDATE: The Krentz Family has notified Stand With Arizona that "Susan is in critical but stable condition at UMC (Tucson). She had lots of...

MEXICO CITY -- As if Mexicans needed more evidence that criminal groups are trying to hijack the political life of the nation, it came with a ferocious triple-whammy punch in the past 24 hours. Assailants shot and seriously wounded the mayor-elect of a town in the border state of Chihuahua on Friday afternoon, less than a day after commandos in Nuevo Leon state executed a sitting mayor, making him the 10th municipal chief slain so far this year. In Mexico City, a fugitive legislator with drug charges pending against him sneaked into Congress and took his seat, automatically obtaining immunity...

A woman tells a Florida TV station that she's "embarrassed" by the attention she's received since calling 911 to report that McDonald's had run out of chicken nuggets. She says that she called because the cashier wouldn't return her money. But authorities said that 911 calls are for emergencies and her situation was not an emergency. According to the police report, Goodman called 911 three times Saturday to report that a McDonald's employee wasn't giving her a refund for the chicken nuggets she wanted. "The manager just took my money and won't give me my money back, trying to make...