Free Republic

The debate over health care reform has turned violent in the last week as protesters on both sides of the issue clashed in cities across the country, revealing a long-simmering civil unrest. {Cut} As it turns out, it was the so-called liberals, actually union thugs, instigating the fights. In Tampa, SEIU goons attacked senior citizens who came out because they quite rightly feel that the health care reform proposal threatens their ability to obtain health care. {Cut} Make no mistake, the civil unrest brewing here is not exclusively over the health care issue. That is simply the spark which made...

I am a lifetime law-abiding gun owner and avid shooter. In my life I have had many occasions to buy firearms for sporting purposes. I have not had a need to own an AK-47 nor an opportunity to try one. I am told it is the finest assault rifle ever made. If I am in a situation wherein the AK-47 is the best choice, then I need to get one and I believe that I have that right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Assuming that situation is in defense of my home or country, if an AK-47 makes the difference...

Many in the survivalist community like to focus on what I call the “Hollywood Disasters”. This includes things like a total economic collapse, an unstoppable virus, a biological weapons attack or perhaps a complete shut down of the electrical grid. Now please do not misunderstand me, each of these threats is real and honestly could happen. My question to you is how likely are any of them to occur in the next 30 days, how about the next 10 years? Now answer these questions for yourself… What is more likely to happen tomorrow morning, you lose your job or we...

If you’ve watched Survivorman, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Les Stroud, the star of the show, seems to starve during every episode. I don’t mean this as a criticism; Stroud is the real deal. But his hunger pangs raise a point: Boy Scout improv works better on the page than in the forest. If you want to bring down enough bacon to keep up your strength, you’re going to need bullets—and the more, the better. With this in mind, I recently tested two different approaches to the survival question. The Pocket Protector The Henry U.S. Survival firearm ($245;...

With the Middle East still in chaos and rumors of war in the air, the idea of rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple on a foundation occupied and administered by Islamic militants might seem fanciful – even preposterous. But the author of a new book, "The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth About the Real Nature of the Beast," returned from Turkey recently with news that a prominent Islamic teacher and best-selling author and Jewish Sanhedrin rabbis are conspiring to do just that. {Cut} Adnan Oktar, who uses the pen name of Harun Yahya, is a controversial but highly influential Muslim intellectual and...

Somewhere West of the Rockies - -(AmmoLand.com)- AmmoLand.com’s featured Gun Blogger of the Month, for August 2009, is the SurvivalBlog.com. James Wesley, Rawles (JWR) is a survivalist author and lecturer. JWR is also the editor of www.SurvivalBlog.com. “I’m also a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, and now work as a full-time blogger and freelance writer. This blog reflects my interests. I’ve been an enthusiastic survivalist since my teenage years. I grew up in the Bomb Shelter era, and that mind set just never wore off” says James Wesley, Rawles. The first amazing thing about the SurvivalBlog.com is JWR has not...

I offer pure speculation. I wasn’t there. I don’t have the details. But much as others seem to believe the life experience that comes from being black qualifies them to opine without specific knowledge, surely my 30-some years as a police officer permits me to also guess at what happened when Cambridge, Mass., police officers arrived at the home of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Gates’ angst probably originated when he didn’t get the expected Harvard professor’s treatment, the absence of which he appears to have attributed to racism on the cop’s part. I’ll agree the cop probably...

CHICAGO (Reuters Life!) - Armed with pruning shears and a paper bag, Nance Klehm walks along a Chicago sidewalk, pointing out plants and weeds that can make a tasty salad or stir-fry. She snips stalks from a weed with downy leaves and white powder commonly called goosefoot or lamb's quarters. "I collect a lot of this," said Klehm, 43. "It's indistinguishable from spinach when you cook it. I never, never grow spinach or other greens except kale. Everything else I forage." Klehm is among a small group of urban foragers across the United States who collect weeds and plants from...

Some see the current economic downturn as tough — but temporary — times to be endured. But others see it as a harbinger of even grimmer days ahead. So they’re preparing for the worst by stockpiling food: piles and piles and piles of it. Call them “suburban survivalists,” or call them, well, a little goofy. But they’re dead serious about being ready for a big crash … by making sure they have a nice little nosh in case of a catastrophe. Across the country, there are people preparing for the possibility that we will not have access to food by...

At its heart Marxism, the core ideology of Socialism, contains an irrational, utopian and coercive perversion of human equality. Marxism seeks and enforces equality in situations where equality does not exist, demanding legal enforcement of equal societal outcomes including those related to economics, religion and human sexuality. This ideology even extends to international relationships whereby no nation is allowed to "excessively" prosper or achieve greatness, i.e.: all nations must be "equal". Under the guiding hand of academia and mass media, Marxist ideas are slowly and silently transforming the mental attitudes of Americas. We fail to recognize Marxist Equality at work...

It turns out that last fall when our financial system was near a collapse, the Bush administration and Congress had discussions about a potential breakdown of law and order in our country. They also talked about how the nation’s people would be fed and how long the food supply would last. Scary stuff in this article. We’re not crazy after all!!! A major economic collapse is one of the things we SurvivalMoms are preparing for. I hope this article confirms what you already know deep down inside: if your family is to survive and thrive, it will be because of...

Since 52% of American voters were foolish enough to buy the story that Barack Hussein Obama is some sort of "liberal messiah," I thought it would be interesting to compare the belief systems of America's father of liberalism and author of our Declaration of Independence, with the Marxist belief system of the false messiah. And since today's liberals have so much trouble properly interpreting our Founders' simple message to future generations, I am under no illusion that these facts will carry anymore weight with modern Marxists than Article II - Section I of the Constitution, which clearly states that Barack...

It's unanimous: We all want violence against women to stop. In fact, nine out of 10 women said that ending domestic violence and sexual assault should be the top priority for a new women's movement (according to the Center for the Advancement of Women) -- and also for every politician. There are ways you can make this happen -- for one woman, and for all.

You're going to be healthy — whether you like it or not. The Obama administration is pushing for a national healthcare bill this summer and Democrats in the Senate are responding, with a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee measure that would make healthcare both a right and a responsibility. {Cut} So now the federal government is taking a leaf out of Mitt Romney's Massachusetts book, with its intention to force citizens to obtain health insurance at the end of a gun. Many support this, too, with a poll last year showing that even 52 percent of Republicans find this...

A Virginia Republican's fierce call to resist President Obama's political agenda -- with bullets if necessary -- ignited an outcry on the Internet yesterday, and forced her to clarify that she was not looking to incite any violence. Appearing at a "Tea Party" rally on Wednesday to protest President Obama's expansion of government, Catherine Crabill, a political neophyte running for the House of Delegates in the Northern Neck, quoted from a March 1775 speech by Patrick Henry and then went further, calling on Americans to resist the course Obama has set for the country. "We have a chance to fight...

As a master zombie scholar it is my duty to fulfill the queries of the people, and I am happy to oblige. Mallory “Subsister” Morrow dropped me a line asking which is the superior weapon class for use in a zombie outbreak. An exhaustive number of factors must be taken into account when preparing for any life-threatening situation, and a war with the walking dead is no exception. First, some people hold to the notion that machine guns and shotguns will dominate when our fair planet is overrun. These pre-dead are notoriously difficult to persuade and must be denied entrance...

There are no layoffs, no furloughs and no signs of a recession at gun stores such as Barnwood Arms in Ripon. A spike in sales that began after Barack Obama won November's presidential election continued throughout the spring, with the FBI reporting dramatic monthly increases in the number of background checks it performed on would-be gun buyers. Although the Obama administration hasn't taken a strong stand on gun laws, customers are betting that a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress will translate into stricter gun-control laws and perhaps the revival of a national assault rifle ban that...

President Barack Obama may never have fired a gun but he is turning out to be one of the best firearms salesmen in American history. I've sold probably four times as much in the last six months as I have in 20 years combined," said Cliff Hunter, owner of Tommy Bronson Sporting Goods in Memphis. "Hand guns and the tactical weapons, they're absolutely off the charts." Most of his gun sales used to be for hunting, or personal protection in a city riddled with crime. But just before the November election, anxiety that Mr Obama would win and enact a...

No matter how you approach it, summer grilling is a lose-lose situation for Mother Nature. Are you cookin’ veggie burgers over natural, low-impact lump charcoal that you fired up with a chimney starter? You’re still also cookin' up an ample amount of air pollution. Are you serving local veggie kabobs expertly grilled over a gas-powered flame? You’re generating less sooty particles but that gas, as you’re probably aware, is a nonrenewable resource. What about that free-range chicken cooked over an electric grill? If it's plugged in, you're generating greenhouse gases there, too. If you gotta grill, you gotta grill (but...

Recently I had a long lunch with an old friend. He sits on the board of one of the largest and most successful publicly traded regional banks in America. He got his seat when that regional bank acquired the very successful community bank he built from the ground up. I will not name him or this bank, but I will pass on a few things he said to me. He said, “Our bank’s leadership team and others I know at the local or regional level feel paralyzed and intimidated by the climate of fear created by the Obama administration. We...