Free Republic

In 1999, nobody could have told me that the US government would ever come up with a project that was more vile, wretched, stupid, and evil than Kosovo, but the present conflict in Ukraine qualifies for that.US support for Zelensky and the Kiev regime is the Mac-Daddy of all stupid and evil policies.

It continues to be a mystery why this country’s corporations refuse to learn the lesson of previous companies who have endured bottom line harm for entering the social activist arena. Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Gillette are just a few of the big names who suffered following social signaling as a company.Despite these glaring examples of paying a steep price for trying to appeal to non-customers the practice still continues. Not having learned from Gillette, Harry’s Razors recently made the public announcement it was severing its connection with The Michael Knowles Show, after years of being a primary advertiser. This was...

In his autobiography, "Up From the Projects," the late economist Walter Williams explained his move away from the belief that minimum wages help the poor. His change of heart on the topic began when one of his UCLA professors asked him whether he cared more about the intentions behind the minimum wage or its effects. Williams devoted much of his professional career to studying minimum wages and documenting their negative effects, particularly on young Black people. While Williams had the good sense to learn that good intentions alone are insufficient to produce good public policy, many others have failed to...

In the post-Parkland hysteria, President Trump directed the Department of Justice to perform some regulatory legerdemain where bump fire stocks are concerned. The ATF had long ago passed on the stocks, deeming them perfectly legal accessories for semi-automatic rifles. Now, in a Saturday morning move apparently meant to fly under the radar . . . The U.S. Department of Justice formally submitted a regulation on Saturday to ban “bump stocks,” a modification to high-capacity rifles that lets them fire like an automatic weapon. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum in February directing the department to make the regulatory change, which...

The Obama administration's decision to exempt members of Congress and their staffs from participating in Obamacare is fundamentally unfair, says former Education Secretary William Bennett.

Alex Conant @AlexConant: "We haven't had a cohort of people living permanently in US without full rights of citizenship since slavery". Mind you, he isn’t talking only about illegal immigrants. He’s talking about any non-citizen who lives in this country permanently, including millions of Green Card holders. And by implication: Conn Carroll @conncarroll: For those of you keeping score at home, Rubio spokesman @AlexConant just compared all Schumer-Rubio opponents to slave owners If this is Team Rubio’s strategy for winning over conservatives, good luck with that.

As Toby Harnden reports, Hillary Clinton has opted to stay well clear of today’s midterms, sitting them out in a two-week tour of Asia and Australasia. In fact she’s been as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel in the past few days. That’s a perfectly astute move from her point of view. Firstly, she can argue, it’s her job as Secretary of State to represent America on the world stage, and should be above the fray of domestic politics. Secondly, almost every poll is pointing to electoral disaster for her party as well as her administration, and the safest option is...

Thomas Sowell tells a fascinating tale on today’s unfurling economic disaster. He digs deep and finds the roots starting way back in the era of the last gloom and doom and malaise administration, the Carter White House: "The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 directed federal regulatory agencies to 'encourage' banks and other lending institutions "to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered consistent with the safe and sound operation of such institutions.' "That sounds pretty innocent and, in fact, it had little effect for more than a decade. However, its premise was that...

Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff met with key aides about a new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer on the same day its manufacturer donated money to his campaign, documents obtained by The Associated Press show. Texas became the first state to require the vaccine against human papillomavirus earlier this month when Perry issued an executive order requiring it for girls entering sixth grade. Lawmakers are considering overriding the measure. A calendar for chief of staff Deirdre Delisi obtained under Texas' open records laws shows she met with the governor's budget director and three members of his office for an...

Rice says need to keep focus on Palestinian state despite Lebanon crisis U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a frenetic set of meetings amid intense Israeli Hezbollah fighting, said Tuesday the United States wants an "urgent and enduring" peace where problems are solved without war. Talking to reporters after meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Rice said, "We need to get to a sustainable peace, there must be a way for people to reconcile their differences." Earlier, meeting in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, she said the time has come for a new Middle East. "I have...