Free Republic

Doesn’t it sometimes seem like almost every sanctimonious jerk in politics and the left-wing media has some kind of connection to Massachusetts? The commonwealth has become a magnet for a hugely disproportionate number of America’s most obnoxious know-it-alls — they’re not all natives, but so many of the nation’s most insufferable idiots have spent time here, and they all have one thing in common: They’re smarter, more moral and just generally better than the rest of us, and they want to inform us of their superiority 24/7, whether we want to hear about it or not. This state has turned...

Here’s a tweet from yesterday that I bet Gov. Charlie Baker would like to have back: “The accusations brought against Judge Kavanaugh are sickening and deserve an independent investigation. There should be no vote in the Senate.” I know, he’s a RINO, absolutely shameless. If they ever name a street after Tall Deval, it’ll have to be one-way. But unlike the other gutless RINO governors throwing Kavanaugh under the bus over uncorroborated groping charges (think the son of a mailman), Tall Deval has a son, A.J. Baker, who is credibly accused of exactly what the judge is not credibly accused...

Health-care-related bankruptcies, touted as a key justification for passing Obamacare in 2010, are not nearly as prevalent as reform proponents such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren have claimed, researchers say. Findings of an exhaustive report published in the American Economic Review this year have sparked a lively debate as the Trump administration rolls back key portions of the health care law. Matthew Notowidigdo, an associate professor of economics at Northwestern University, and fellow researchers looked at the rate of first-time health emergencies and resulting debt levels for patients. The result: About 4 percent of insured patients and 6 percent of uninsured...

Close to a decade after the peak of a worldwide economic recession, local real estate agent Michelle Rivera still sees the effects lingering. Rivera’s business is doing well, but she has doubts about the optimism hinted by the steadily declining unemployment rate. Several of her clients are selling homes in distress, and a few are now working two jobs. A group of 10 renters she knows will soon be displaced because they cannot find a suitable price. Homes that could be acquired two years ago for $200,000, she said, could not be purchased now for $225,000. “Unemployment rates appear to...

Plymouth, state and Wareham police are continuing their search this morning for a veteran cop’s loaded service revolver that went missing from a courthouse bathroom yesterday after Plymouth Police Capt. John Rogers Jr. inadvertently left it behind during a rest stop. Plymouth Police Chief Michael Botieri said the investigation includes a review of defendants who had cases before Wareham District Court yesterday, where Rogers, a 26-year veteran and head of his department’s operations division, went to testify.

The generous mortgage-interest tax deduction that homeowners have long enjoyed could be diminished or eliminated as part of efforts to reduce the federal deficit, disproportionately hurting Massachusetts and other regions where real estate is especially costly. Proposals to change the deduction include limiting it to the 28 percent tax bracket and lower; converting the deduction to a less generous tax credit; reducing the maximum allowed mortgage balance from $1.1 million to $500,000; and eliminating the benefit for second homes and equity loans, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan think tank.

HAVERHILL — Shortly after police charged Richard Chase with selling illegal drugs, they said they searched his apartment and found $15,000 in cash, hundreds of Oxycodone pills, a police scanner and a list of area police scanner frequencies. Before he was arrested, Chase used his government-provided EBT card to buy food at a convenience store, police said. When he was arrested, police found the Electronic Benefits Transfer card — otherwise known as food stamps — on him along with a receipt for his purchases. Chase told police “you got me” and said he’s been unable to find a job.

Barack Obama’s association with radical Critical Race Theory professor Derrick Bell did not end after Harvard Law School--and certainly not at the April 24, 1990 rally at which Obama embraced Bell, literally and figuratively. Breitbart News has discovered a letter sent by Obama to Bell in February 1995 in which Obama asks Bell to review--and to blurb--an early version of Obama’s autobiography, then entitled Dreams of My Father.

I, William Munroe, of Lexington, on oath do testify, that I acted as orderly sergeant in the company commanded by Capt. John Parker, on the 19th of April, 1775; that, early in the evening of the 18th of the same April, I was informed by Solomon Brown, who had just returned from Boston, that he had seen nine British officers on the road, travelling leisurely, sometimes before and sometimes behind him; that he had discovered, by the occasional blowing aside of their top coats, that they were armed. On learning this, I supposed they had some design upon [John] Hancock...

CHICAGO—Smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn't harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn't do the kind of damage tobacco does. The results, from one of the largest and longest studies on the health effects of marijuana, are hazier for heavy users -- those who smoke two or more joints daily for several years. The data suggest that using marijuana that often might cause a decline in lung function, but there weren't enough heavy users among the 5,000 young adults in the study to draw firm conclusions. Still, the...

Hours after Mitt Romney eked out a win in the Iowa caucuses over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Gov. Deval Patrick called the victory for the former Bay State governor a win for the Tea Party. Appearing on the CBS Early Show on Wednesday, Patrick defended President Barack Obama and called the Republican cast of challengers “interchangeable.” “It’s a win last night for the Tea Party agenda. That was really the big winner. I mean the candidates in many respects are interchangeable because they’re all offering exactly the same plan, and that’s a plan that says that everybody in America...

Ah, I'm just joshing with you. Great game. Tebow can actually throw the ball. Granted, the Pats' secondary is among the worst ever to play pro football, but there you go.

On Wednesday a member of the Suffolk Law School staff sent out an email soliciting “much needed supplies to put in care packages to be sent to deployed troops.” You know, stuff like beef jerky, instant coffee, trail mix, etc? Scout troops do stuff like this all the time. In fact, the email specifically mentioned that one Suffolk Law student deployed to Afghanistan would be a recipient. Pretty basic, patriotic stuff, right? Well, read this response from one of the Suffolk Law professors who received it, a (ahem) “gentleman” named Michael Avery: I think it is shameful that it is...

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports, a popular, whimsical, sports-based media brand here in Boston (and NYC, and Phila), recently visited Occupy Boston and mocked the living hell out of them. Watch

A jury in federal court in Boston today found former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi guilty of conspiring to exploit one of the most powerful offices in Massachusetts by helping a software company win multimillion-dollar state contracts in exchange for kickbacks. DiMasi was found guilty on seven of nine counts against him, including conspiracy to defraud citizens of his honest services and extortion.

The mighty Naval Academy shall destroy the hapless woops of the West Point Home for Semi-Literate Bumbling Buffoons tomorrow. Down with Army. They stink. GO NAVY!

Instead of boycotting the airlines, holiday travelers should suck it up and stop whining about X-rated body scans and groping pat-downs, according to terrorism experts and passengers at Logan International Airport who say deep frisk searches are just a fact of flying life during the war on terror. “You just have to bite the bullet,” said Andrew Thomas, a University of Akron professor and an airline security expert. “The bad guys are just watching this unfold.”

Senator John McCain described the Red Sox as his "sentimental favorite" to win the World Series, shunning playoff teams in the crucial swing states of Wisconsin, Florida, and Pennsylvania. "I still kinda like the Red Sox," McCain said in an interview this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when asked about the Major League Baseball playoffs. "I have a sentimental favorite, look, I think they're going to do well now that my Diamondbacks have blown it." McCain added that the Los Angeles Dodgers should also go deep into October because they "have some pretty strong pitching." "I think it's very possible...

DEDHAM – The haggard-looking former Hull High School principal who was set to do a stint this summer as a camp swim instructor was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail this morning after authorities say they found thousands of images of child pornography on his computer. Russell Goyette, 61, a longtime teacher who retired as Hull High principal in 2005, pleaded not guilty this morning to 16 counts of possession of child pornography. Prosecutors say a search of Goyette’s personal computer netted more than 4,500 images of children engaged in sex acts with adults and other children. He was indicted...

According to multiple clubhouse sources, the Red Sox [team stats] will be holding a players-only meeting later this morning concerning the issue regarding the coaches potentially not being paid the $40,000 allocated the players. The sources indicated that the players will be issuing a mandate to Major League Baseball that if the coaches aren’t paid, then the team will not be getting on the plane later today for Japan.