Free Republic

Silencers are often referred to as suppressors.  The best descriptive term is gun muffler. In New Zealand, which has a strong tradition of gun ownership, gun mufflers are unregulated and cheap.  They are for sale over the counter or in the mail.  The above ads or similar ones can be seen on the online buying and selling site for New Zealand, trademeco.nz.   From trademe.co.nz: This Silencer will fit any centrefire rifle with 17CM of exposed barrel with a diameter smaller than 19mm. Takes away the loud crack (down to about a 22 magnum noise) and helps protect your ears...

This week, we received an anonymous letter in response to this window display commemorating the one year anniversary of Michael Brown's:There was no return address, and it wasn't signed. It was a very short message on a note card telling us that we had lost a customer. In it, the person said we stoked the flames of enmity between races and promoted division. The person asked us why we insisted upon doing that. It's hard to know how to respond. What I want to do is call up the customer and chat. I want to take him or her out...

Part One – Targeted Harvesting “Never again” were two solemn words associated with one of the most tragic times in history when Nazi Germany under the Third Reich systematically committed genocide with the extermination of six million Jewish men, women, and children. The butchery reached into Germany’s anatomical institutes where tens of thousands of Jews and political dissidents found themselves or their executed corpses dissected, burned, frozen, or dismembered in the name of science and the eugenics in advancing a superior race. “Again” is one word we now hear following a number of stealth videos revealing leading Planned Parenthood (PP)...

Style doesn’t get the job done. I believe that Trump, rough edges and all, would I knew I was cutting against the grain and going against conventional political wisdom when, on Tuesday, I offered my presidential Pick Six of the candidates I like best in this race – and Donald Trump was at the top of the list. After a media week of pointless conflicts with Megyn Kelly, of complaining about debate questions, and of generally giving his critics everything they thought they needed to write off his candidacy – how could I still think he would be a good...

ZHUHAI, China, Aug. 12, 2015 /PR Newswire/ -- Zhuhai CTC Electronic Co., Ltd, a leading 3D printer manufacturer in China, announced the debut of its latest multi-functional 3D printer, the Formaker, on the world's biggest crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, kicking off a 30-day crowdfunding campaign. The Formaker, priced at US$999 on the crowdfunding platform, deploys a modular design and integrates four powerful functionalities: high-precision 3D printing, CNC engraving, laser cutting and PCB etching, making the printer one of the most compelling and dedicated multi-functional desktop devices available in the market. Weighing in at 26 lbs., the Formaker features a robust metal...

If our government can't destroy all the private-sector jobs directly, it will do so indirectly by borrowing so much money the system collapses.Conventional economists and pundits are puzzled why jobs growth has been so anemic in this "recovery." Here's one factor they overlook: our government. In theory, our government is supposed to encourage private sector job growth. In reality, all the hundreds of pages of regulations are killing job growth, one small business and one job at a time.Correspondent/entrepreneur Ray Z. was kind enough to share his experience of trying to open a bagel shop and create six jobs: "For...

The state of Michigan gives tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to private companies each year. Yet remarkably, the public is kept in the dark about how much each corporate beneficiary receives — or even who receives the money. That's because the subsidies — most of which are likely delivered in the form of cash payments — are styled as "refundable tax credits." The Department of Treasury claims that revealing details about these credits would violate a law that makes tax return information confidential. It's a scheme that until 2011 let politicians authorize billions in corporate welfare extending years into...

As furor builds over the EPA disaster in Durango, Colorado, I would like to propose a just solution. Given that the EPA is an unaccountable, job-killing, river-polluting behemoth, Congress ought to pass a ban on its onshore operations. Joking aside, while political figures try to brush this fiasco under the table without heads actually rolling or the EPA compensating taxpayers for the environmental damage it caused, the point should be made that the federal government should be held not just to an equal standard as private enterprise, but a higher one. After all, public servants are accountable to all of us. Private individuals are not. Yet Democratic Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper argues the...

Anti-fracking activists are at work in Michigan, organizing a ballot campaign to ban the practice in this state. Since May they have been working to collect the 252,523 valid signatures required to place the measure on the November 2016 ballot. Fracking, or more precisely hydraulic fracturing, is a process for extracting oil and natural gas by injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into shale rock below the earth’s surface. Michigan Capitol Confidential recently communicated about the industry and the proposed ban with Erin McDonough, president and CEO of the Michigan Oil and Gas Association. Before accepting her current...

Chinese stocks opened lower, extending yesterday's losses, after The PBOC weakened its Yuan FIX dramatically for the 2nd consecutive day (from 6.1162 Monday to 6.2298 last night to 6.3306). Offshore Yuan fell another 9 handles against the USD after China closed but was hovering at 6.40 as the market opens (now at 11 hnadles weaker at 6.51). Bear in mind the utter devastation in Chinese credit markets that data showed occurred in July, it remains ironic that for the 3rd days in a row, Chinese margin debt balances grew. Before the real fun and games started, Chinese officials once again...

 Well, I see Ben Carson, just like a number of our establishment Republican candidates, is supporting a continuance of the socialist experiment of laying and collecting a federal tax calculated from profits, gains, salaries and other lawfully earned incomes ___ and he even has invoked God in support of his proposed damnation! In addition to circumventing our Constitution’s command requiring all direct taxes to be apportioned among the States, Carson’s tax reform keeps a patently evil power in our federal government’s hands that has been used over and over by our federal government for nefarious purposes, and has proven to...

The same group that was behind a 2014 ballot measure to increase the state’s minimum wage is now pursuing a voter-initiated law mandating that all Michigan employers provide paid sick leave. Raise Michigan has submitted petition language to the state elections bureau, and the Board of Canvassers is expected to rule relatively quickly on whether the draft language follows the proper form. The proposal would create an “earned sick time act,” which prescribes a paid leave policy all employers would have to adopt unless they chose to provide even more generous benefits. Specifically, businesses would have to allow workers to...

While several companies have developed 3D printing materials and processes with similar properties capable of simulating silicone, so far 3D printing with actual silicone materials hasn’t been possible. However, 100 year old chemical manufacturing giant WACKER CHEMIE revealed in their recently released Q2 Report that their WACKER SILICONES division has developed new technology making it possible to use silicone 3D printing materials with additive manufacturing technology. The new technology was developed alongside German product development company Ingenieure GmbH, and will have applications in markets as diverse as the medical industry, automotive parts, contact lenses and consumer products. The reason that...

There is a Ferguson, Missouri, that most Americans know: The town where a police shooting triggered violent protests, a federal civil rights investigation and a national debate on law enforcement's treatment of minorities. But then there is the Ferguson that new arrivals see: cheap housing, a diverse population and vibrant community activism. That second vision is helping to keep the city's struggling real estate market alive. A year after Michael Brown's death tore Ferguson apart, homes are selling, but at a slower pace. Prices have dropped, but the $50,000 median price so far this year is on par with 2013,...

What is "income inequality" exactly? It is a devious euphemism for the Free Market and the American Dream. Devious, because in this way communists can attack the Free Market and the American Dream without directly seeming to do so. Literally millions of people have immigrated here legally and trespassed illegally hoping and praying "Please God, let there be some income inequality here" because in their countries of origin there is none. In those third country hell-holes they fled from people are born poor, live poor and die poor. It is absolute income equality there, and likely heralded as a "workers...

This week we learned Target is now eliminating any gender classification from its toys and children’s clothing aisles. We’ve already reported here about a California city mandating gender-neutral restrooms.I have to ask, if liberals are so hell-bent on promoting diversity, why are they so doggedly determined to eliminate it?Fresh off the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, Democrats in California (where else?) have introduced a bill that would ban the words “husband” and “wife” from being used in federal law because they are “gendered terms” and discriminate against gay people (and presumably trans-gendered or in-between?)The words husband and wife were...

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Steve Caldeira, CEO of the International Franchise Association, alerts us to the latest plan to ensure “economic justice” through raising worker pay by government decree. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, believing that the Empire State is free from the strictures of supply and demand curves — or more likely that he must appease Big Labor — is promoting a plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour from $8.75 an hour for workers in fast-food restaurants with 30 or more locations. Such a plan may be politically astute — how can anyone...

Prominent hedge fund manager Andy Hall got burned in July after oil prices crashed. Heading up Astenbeck Capital Management, Hall has made very large bets that oil prices would rebound, citing the unsustainably low oil prices and the rise of demand across the world, particularly in Asia. But July was a brutal month for him. His hedge fund lost 17 percent of its value, or about $500 million. Bloomberg profiled him and another notable trader, Pierre Andurand, who has taken the opposite position, arguing that oil prices will remain low for the next two years. And while Hall’s hedge fund...

One charge leveled against Trump is that he hasn't offered any "specifics." Well, not quite... Trump’s code, which he calls the “1-5-10-15 income tax plan,” is a simplistic way to fix our nation’s broken taxation system, without putting the strain on any particular group of people. Under Trump’s tax plan, those making up to… $30,000 per year will pay 1 percent in federal income taxes $30,000 to $100,000 will pay 5 percent $100,000 to $1 million will pay 10 percent $1 million or above will pay 15 percent Note: No deductions, no exceptions, period. Your tax return would fit on...

New Sheriff in town named Donald Trump. He’s taking names and kicking butt, come to clean up the corrupt cesspool of Washington. All you politicians and media gunning for Trump, Better put those guns down when he tells you to, he’s not bluffing Republicans and their Democrat allies (henceforth referred to as Republicrats) have collectively thrown their hands up in the air, how can Donald Trump be the frontrunner? Especially after the GOP establishment (GOPe) has fired every weapon in their arsenal at him. Is he Superman, some comic hero who’s invincible? No, Republicrats, he’s just a guy who’s learned...