Free Republic

You don't need to have a gun; the police will protect you." "If people carry guns, there will be murders over parking spaces and neighborhood basketball games." "I'm a pacifist. Enlightened, spiritually aware people shouldn't own guns." "I'd rather be raped than have some redneck militia type try to rescue me." How often have you heard these statements from misguided advocates of victim disarmament, or even woefully uninformed relatives and neighbors? Why do people cling so tightly to these beliefs, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong? Why do they get so furiously angry when gun owners...

Real Men Moisturize." So begins an article on "Sharp Dressed Men" that appeared in a State Department funded magazine aimed at youth in the Arab world. The magazine, called "Hi" is published in Arabic and English. A State Department website explains that Hi is published "with the hope of building bridges of greater understanding among our cultures." The article continues: "In fact, some of them, like Michael Gustman, a 25-year-old public relations account executive from Boca Raton, Fla., even have separate moisturizers for the face and body. Facial pores can clog with too heavy a salve, it seems. Not long...

My column two weeks ago took Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to task for misinterpreting the Second Amendment right to bear arms. In retrospect, I realize I owe her an apology. From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to Secretary Rice – for being too light on her. For those who missed it, Rice appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live May 11 and talked about her father and his friends arming themselves against nightriders in Birmingham, Ala. in 1962 and 1963. She said, “…We have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that our Founding Fathers thought...

The California State Assembly has just approved AB996. It will now go to the Senate. This bill, dubbed "Safe Ammunition Storage Legislation" would require retailers to lock up their ammunition in the same manner that firearms are required to be locked up at California firearm retail locations. The Democratic Caucus claims "It is estimated that 8-10 billion bullets were sold in the United States in 2002. Many of those bullets were purchased by those who acquired their guns illegally using straw buyers, those who stole guns, and those who purchased on the secondary market." Of course we don't really know...

The liberal Interfaith Alliance is backing a hate-crimes bill that adds "sexual orientation" to its list of protected list. The legislation, reintroduced by two Democrats and two Republicans in Congress, would expand federal jurisdiction to cover violent hate crimes committed "because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender or disability" of the victim.

On Tuesday, May 10, 2005, America became a true police state. Your U.S. senators voted -- unanimously, with no discussion, and without even reading the bill -- to create a national ID card. The Real ID Act blackmails state governments into turning their drivers licenses into a draconian tool of the federal homeland security apparatus. If states refuse, their citizens lose such "privileges" as being allowed to board an airplane, enter a federal building, or apply for social security. President Bush is expected to sign the bill eagerly on Thursday. In three years -- by May 2008 -- this Stalin-style...

I guess I started off with a built-in prejudice against the AK-47 since I first encountered it while running ambushes in Southeast Asia. If we saw the distinctive AK upper and banana clip silhouetted, we assumed we were facing the VC, NVA, or Pathet Lao. That's why only special ops troops in "Indian Country" ever carried AKs. Using one in most parts of Vietnam was an invitation to get shot since the distinctive look and sound generally drew fire. And, the distinctive "click clack" sound of an AK-47 safety was guaranteed to draw fire from any U.S. troops close enough...

Federal officials are reviewing a skit broadcast on the liberal Air America network that featured an apparent gunshot warning to President Bush. The audio production came during the opening minutes of "The Randi Rhodes Show" Monday night, according to the Drudge Report. The announcer said: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of four gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."

Don't worry about answering this question unless you're in law enforcement or know a lot about getting hired at a police department. Oh yeah, and I may have pissed off some folks here in the past who were cops so this might not go too well. My apologies to them in advance.

Twenty masked special and plain clothes police raided an evening seminar at a church in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia autonomous republic in Russia. According to the Forum 18 News Service, police forced about 70 people outside the Work of Faith church April 14, calling them "sectarians" and "prostitutes," while they searched the building. Nearly 50 church members were held for five hours at the police station and fingerprinted. Udmurtia's interior ministry claimed the Pentecostals had "distorted" details of the raid.

The ACLU's support of a legal precedent used to gain recognition of a student homosexual group has reversed now that the ruling is being used to back the rights of a Christian club on campus, claims a public-interest law firm. The Associated Student Body at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash., has rejected the Truth Bible Club because it required all members to adhere to a code of Christian conduct and voting members to sign a statement of faith. Also, the name of the club was deemed "offensive" and "proselytizes."

Volunteers with the Minuteman Project in Arizona say "legal observers" sent by the ACLU to monitor the citizen border patrol have been seen smoking marijuana in violation of the law. Photographs were posted on the website of the South East Arizona Republican Club after Minuteman participants reported they saw, and smelled, the ACLU workers smoking pot. ACLU "legal observers" allegedly smoking marijuana while observing Minuteman volunteers (Photo: South East Arizona Republican Club) Volunteers with the Minuteman Project in Arizona say "legal observers" sent by the ACLU to monitor the citizen border patrol have been seen smoking marijuana in violation of...

The largest local union of Border Patrol agents in the country has declared its support for the Minuteman Project in Arizona, while at the same time slamming both the American Civil Liberties Union and President Bush. According to its website, the U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544, which covers the Tucson sector of the agency, the volunteers involved in the border-monitoring Minuteman Project have been nothing but supportive. "We want to make it clear – because we've had a lot of questions about this – we have not had one single complaint from a rank-and-file agent in this sector about the...

What would John Wayne do? After almost every column or blogpost I've written about the various idiosyncracies of women, some woman writes to complain that I never criticize men. Of course, there's not exactly a shortage of male-bashing in the mainstream media today, to say nothing of chick rags like Cosmopolitan, Ms., Self and other variants on the Me, Myself and I theme so popular with women. And while there is something about the modern American man that is absolutely worthy of criticism, I don't think it's exactly what these feminists had in mind. For you see, the main problem...

According to a recent Washington Times report, American women are pig sick of the oversold and dandy metrosexual male imago. It seems as if the ladies are tired of dating, mating and watching these candy asses and, once again, are looking for a man whose masculinity is not in question. Believe it or not, the girls are now lining up for men who … • Are rough and ready vs. rouged and giddy, • Are rugged and callused vs. reflexive and coifed, • Are selfless and protective vs. fashionable and feckless, and • Are into beer, sports and gadgets vs....

After hearing of an anti-war "die in" protest at his university, a Marine serving in Iraq responded with a letter published in a student newspaper, inviting fellow students to exchange the comfort of their coffee houses for the hardships and dangers troops endure to preserve America's freedom and security. "It's a shame that I'm here in Iraq with the Marines right now and not back at Ohio University completing my senior year and joining in blissful ignorance with the enlightened, war-seasoned protesters who participated in the recent 'die-in' at College Gate," wrote Marc Fencil, a major in political science, criminology...

Keg proposals alarm Chapel Hill Chapel Hill had sought controls By MATT DEES, Staff Writer CHAPEL HILL -- Bills filed in the General Assembly that would require beer keg buyers to register with the state could invade lawful citizens' privacy and have unintended consequences, Town Council members said Monday. While still voicing support for keg registration as a tool to discourage underage drinking, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to send their concerns to local lawmakers as the bills await committee hearings. Council member Cam Hill said the laws proposed are more stringent than what the council envisioned when...

Spain is about to pass a law forcing men to do housework. The draft approved by the Spanish parliament's justice commission says men must "share domestic responsibilities and the care and attention" of children and elderly family members, the London Guardian reported...

NACO, ARIZ. The Garner family on Purdy Lane doesn't know exactly how many chickens, roosters, Guinea hens, or geese they own on their 5-acre farm in this dusty town on the US-Mexico border. But they know the number is smaller than the number of illegal immigrants who can be seen daily in groups of three, 10, 40, 60, and more on their property. They are often huddled in centipede form (hands on the hips of the person in front), kneeling under windows, crouched behind trees, and sleeping in their egg house. Mr. Garner, a carpenter, his wife, and three daughters...

The only difference between .50-caliber targets of opportunity and any other rifle is a matter of a mere fraction of an inch. If such a restriction becomes law, that will be the beginning of gun ownership "reduction" based on bore size. This .458 Lott is a mere four-one-hundredths of an inch smaller in bore diameter than a .50. With the stage set and direction provided by the radical Violence Policy Center (VPC), CBS`s "60 Minutes" used its Jan. 9, 2005, show to vilify .50-caliber rifles. The CBS/VPC story line was that these guns are "too dangerous to be in the...