Free Republic

All Things Considered is an iconic program from National Public Radio (NPR).  They have a reliably "progressive" approach to the world, but sometimes they stumble onto inconvenient truths.  That is what seems to have happened a month ago when NPR ran this story on how a naive investor pushed Colt to develop a so called "smart" gun, which is actually a "stupid" gun. First, the push for the "stupid" gun came from the new owner of the company, Donald Zilkha.  He was a banker from New York City.  He did not own a gun.  I suspect, he knew nothing...

Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group, labeled the so-called charity "a slush fund for the Clintons. Only a small fraction of the money raised is distributed as aid. The vast bulk of the money is used on administration, travel, salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends." Clinton Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian asserted that "no laws have been broken. How any charitable trust spends the funds it receives is a matter of discretion. The donors all gave voluntarily. They wanted the Clinton family to have this money. We haven't heard...

Monopolies were and are considered universally evil except when it comes to unions. We hear quite a bit about inequality today. This seems to be the mantra in the waning of the Obama Administration with the President saying, “Income inequality is “the defining challenge of our time.” This is all code for another of President Obama’s descriptions of the same policy, the need to, “Spread this wealth around,” or in other words “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.” Let’s spread the wealth around and end inequality. One of the President’s and the Democrat Party’s...

Fire feeds on oil: In the world of eco-terrorism, Islamic terrorism, it doesn't make much difference: Pitch western civilization backward a thousand years into another dark age A number of seemingly disparate variables are influencing the world’s volatile equation of oil and fire, needing just a spark to ignite a conflagration. And one of huge proportions has been blazing well to the north of us in Alberta, consuming the tinder dry landscape surrounding Ft. McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil sands development. Initial cause of the fire is yet undetermined, investigators employing drones to examine the hundreds of square miles...

Hijacking the Environmental Movement What makes 350 so devious, is that they hijack public emotions (and ignorance) using phony “divestment” as a disorganizing tool to redirect activism away from effective work.—Jay Taber A coalition of environmental activist groups, led by 350.org, is promoting a series of “Break Free From Fossil Fuels” training sessions and protests during May 4-15, 2016, at locations involved in fossil fuel production or transportation. The protests will occur at key sites related to production and transport of fossil fuels, including rail lines and yards, in the United States and Canada. The problem? 350.org only cares about...

The oil price rout has caused a lot of headaches in the renewable industry, especially in the heavily subsidized U.S. solar sector, which is suffering some setbacks even as solar installations are growing rapidly. Solar power suppliers are scaling back operations as demand is growing slower than expected, and the sector is wondering where to go from here. Investors have, of course, sensed the uncertainty. An industry that showed so much promise—particularly against the background of international efforts to curb the effects of climate change—is now in the doldrums. So what went wrong?

Investor’s Business Daily reported Wednesday that fast food chain Wendy’s will be expanding the use of self-service kiosks in response to the rising minimum wage: Wendy’s said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages. It will be up to franchisees whether to deploy the labor-saving technology, but Wendy’s President Todd Penegor did note that some franchise locations have been raising prices to offset wage hikes Other fast food chains are also experimenting with self-service kiosks. McDonalds...

I now Understand... What’s so enticing about the (just-around-the corner) self-driving cars? In view of my slightly advanced age, I may be forgiven to be a bit slow in learning—but now I understand: It’s all about what happens in the back seat! Special: Do You Like Entering Contests & Big Prize Sweepstakes? As the Globe and Mail reports, Kirk, of the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence, told the Canadian Press on Monday that “… once computers are doing the driving, there will be a lot more sex in cars.” Another (biased ?) pundit, Sergio Marchionne, is claimed to have...

Until recently, most people in Europe and the United States-at least, those of us who had grown up and lived our lives as citizens-gave little thought to national immigration policy. Unless you had a vested interest in the issue, either as an immigrant yourself or someone who profited from specific immigration policies, e.g. as an immigration attorney, a member of a group like LULAC, the NCLR, or someone who worked for a VOLAG, the likelihood that this was a galvanizing domestic issue for you would be very slim. However, with the continuing flood of unaccompanied minors across the nation’s southern...

Crude oil futures rose 3.5 percent in mid-afternoon trading on Wednesday, following official data earlier in the day showing a 3.4-million drop in crude inventories and a fall in crude output to 8.8 million barrels per day, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2014. June deliveries of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) were up US$1.57, or 3.5 percent, settling at US$46.23 per barrel on the New York exchange. This jump is higher than any closing price the commodity has seen since November of last year.

It might not be a great time to start offshore drilling, with oil prices as depressed as they are, but it might just be a great time to buy an offshore drilling rig for a cut-rate price—in fact, you might be able to get one for only one tenth of what they cost in 2011. This is the cost coup recently pulled off by Ocean Rig, a company controlled by shipping billionaire George Economou, who has landed a drillship—the Cerrado—for only US$65 million at auction, which represents less than 10 percent of the estimated price when it was built over...

In a surprise move, Saudi Arabia sacked its long-time oil minister over the weekend, an event that illustrates the near-total control that the new young Saudi prince has obtained over the country’s energy industry. For many years, Ali al-Naimi, the outgoing Saudi oil minister, was the voice of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and policy. Even seemingly insignificant remarks from al-Naimi could move oil prices up or down. But the 80-year old oil minister has seen his power eclipsed by the 30-year old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In April, when al-Naimi was forced to backtrack on the Doha oil...

Libyan officials attached to the government in Tripoli are warning that the country will have to halt the majority of its output from southeastern fields within a month’s time as the Hariga port remains under blockade over an export dispute between rival governments. Fields in the south-east which provide the majority of the Libyan oil output will be shut down in a month unless blockade on the Mediterranean Sea terminal Marsa el-Hariga if lifted, officials in Tripoli have warned on Tuesday. Factions loyal to the eastern government in Tobruk, and the parallel National Oil Company in Benghazi, have been in...

Of course. “Dan, you have no evidence whatsoever that ESPN fired them because of their Christianity.” You’re right. I don’t. It’s possible they didn’t and I certainly can’t prove they did. But here’s what I do know: ESPN has already proved it will fire people who are outspoken in the expression of views that don’t comport to the left-wing worldview that ESPN either a) holds; or b) intends to appease at every opportunity.

Pres. Obama doubled down on his infamous “You didn’t build that” claim when he declared “You can’t build” that and then told college graduates they gained their degrees by being “lucky.” In remarks about the economy on Friday, Obama chastised those who think they’re self-sufficient and don’t need government:“You can’t build your own metro system. You can’t build your own highway. You can’t build your own airport. And so we have a specific problem with under-investing in infrastructure.”Then, on Saturday, Pres. Obama told Howard University graduates that his “pet peeve” is people like them who don’t credit luck for their...

Instead, he showed he's more committed to federalism than most of the #NeverTrump shriekers For a guy who supposedly doesn’t understand policy, Donald Trump sure seems to understand it a lot better than some of the people who cover the news . . . or some of the people who knee-jerk react to the headlines in the news. One of the first media narratives we got coming out of Trump’s essential clinching of the nomination was that he was now abandoning his conservative positions and tacking to the left, thus proving that all conservatives who voted for him had been...

"Donald Trump's Economic Plans Would Destroy the US Economy!" screams the headline in The Atlantic. Of course to go with the headline they find a very unflattering picture.... I do give The Atlantic one bit of credit: They didn't bury the lede. "I've borrowed knowing that you can pay back with discounts," he told CNBC. "I would borrow knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.” "This policy would be so disastrous that even its suggestion is dangerous." Oh really? The article goes on to say that suggesting that one might haircut the debt would collapse markets...

Saudi Arabia revealed more details about its planned initial public offering of the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. As part of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to diversify the Saudi economy over the next decade and a half, the IPO of Aramco could raise cash while also making the company more transparent. The Telegraph reported that Saudi Aramco plans a three-way listing, with shares listed in London, New York, and Hong Kong. Also, Aramco hopes to convince some of the oil majors, including ExxonMobil, BP and China’s Sinopec, into taking “strategic stakes” in Aramco, “offering them long-term access...

Saudi construction giant Binladin group has laid off tens of thousands of workers, leading to rare protests, as workers torch seven buses demanding compensation as low oil prices begin to bite in earnest. The numbers of layoffs range from 50,000 to 77,000, many of who say they were not paid for several months. Binladin group, which last year had all of its contracts frozen after a crane fell over the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing 107, denied that it owed its workers any compensation. The company said the layoffs were a “routine” adjustment to a slowdown in construction activity in...

Because presidents - like CEOs and other leaders - don't get to sit out or make delusional fantasyland choices when none of the options are appealing Here’s a scenario a real president could face one day soon: Mr. President, Russia has amassed troops on the borders of Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin has cut off all diplomatic contact with the U.S. No negotiations are possible. We can send troops to defend our allies. If we do, we’re looking at the potential for World War III. If we don’t, we will be in violation of our NATO obligations and we...