Free Republic

April 29 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it is proposing a ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes in the United States. The announcement begins a long regulatory process, resulting in menthol cigarettes being available for about two more years even if the ban is eventually adopted. The tobacco industry is expected to challenge the decision. The FDA decision would also ban all flavored cigars. The agency did not include menthol-flavored electronic cigarettes. Menthol is the last allowable flavor for cigarettes. The proposed ban was prompted by a citizen petition that allows the public to...

What actions should an individual conservative take to push back against today’s onslaught of cancel culture, loss of freedom, and the Left’s destruction of America? What if you work full-time, protests aren’t your cup of tea, you don’t plan to run for political office, and you don’t have plans to become a conservative journalist anytime soon?Action and defiance and has a storied history in America: Patrick Henry, Frederick Douglas, Susan B Anthony, Rosa Parks, and MLK. But what if you are not destined for the pages of the history books? You can still make your voice heard and your actions...

High school-educated, working-class parents aren’t capable of overseeing their own child’s education, a state lawmaker said last week. New Hampshire state Sen. Jeanne Dietsch, D-Peterborough, made the comment at a committee hearing last Tuesday while promoting a bill that would stop the state Board of Education from creating a new way of allocating high school graduation credits. “This idea of parental choice, that’s great if the parent is well-educated. There are some families that’s perfect for. But to make it available to everyone? No. I think you’re asking for a huge amount of trouble,” Dietsch said. Dietsch’s remarks represent a...

During the coronavirus hoax and the George Floyd riots, most people kept their comments and criticisms to private conversations and internet postings. They didn’t respond to forced lockdowns or violence in the streets with violence of their own, although many of them have the ability and capacity to do so. Their restraint has been the primary force keeping whatever remains of the peace in this country. The restraint stems from respect for that peace, their stake in maintaining it, and a fading hope that things will eventually get back to normal. People who run businesses, have jobs, own property, and...

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Regardless of where the Eastern Panhandle stands with COVID-19 this fall, Jefferson County students will have a choice of how they attend school. During Monday night’s regular meeting, Superintendent Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson said the school system is continuously updating its technological infrastructure. Students will have the option of full virtual learning.

We didn't expect President Trump to use his annual State of the Union address to spread misleading smears about Governor Wolf. But then again, Trump will mislead the American people any way he can, in the hope that it will help his re-election campaign — and Pennsylvania is key to his victory. There's no doubt in our minds that we're getting under Trump's skin, . We are proving that no matter what he does to undermine and undo our hard-fought progress — we won't roll over. Our fight to invest in public schools and ensure our children have a bright...

In modern America, February 2 is best known as Groundhog Day. But it also marks the birth of one of the most praised and criticized thinkers of the past century – Ayn Rand. Rand sold more than 30 million books. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked behind only the Bible as an influence on readers’ lives. She has also been stridently attacked for issues such as her militant atheism. But perhaps least understood has been her full-bore rejection of altruism. On her birthday, it is worth reconsideration. Altruism has commonly been held up as the standard for moral behavior. But Rand...

The Department of Energy announced this week that it’s withdrawing the Obama administration’s energy-rationing mandate for certain lightbulbs. Opponents criticized the rule change, arguing that the move would be bad for consumers and the climate. The reality, however, is that families and businesses will be better off, and the change will have a negligible impact on the environment. The Energy Department’s decision to withdraw energy-efficiency standards for candle-shaped, globe-shaped, three-way and reflector lightbulbs is a victory for consumer choice. Whether it’s buying a lightbulb or a new car, families have different preferences and needs. They consider the various trade-offs in...

LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) - A prosecutor says a 33-year-old Mississippi man killed his 21-year-old pregnant girlfriend after finding out she was not going to give the baby up for adoption. [ Boyfriend charged with murdering 21-year-old pregnant woman gets case bound over to grand jury ] A judge ruled Friday there was enough evidence to keep murder and kidnapping charges against Terence Sample and hold him in jail while awaiting a trial even though Sample's lawyer said the state crime lab hasn't determined the cause of death for McKayla Winston. Winston was found dead in early July on a road...

Judges said the circumstances were 'unique' but they would issue a full explanation at a later date A controversial UK court decision to force a disabled woman to have an abortion has been overturned on appeal. In a decision reportedly reached June 24, the English Court of Appeal, consisting of Lord Justice McCombe, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Peter Jackson, overturned the previous ruling of the Court of Protection. According to Press Association reports, the judges said they would issue a full explanation of their decision at a later date, but that the circumstances of the case were “unique.”...

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ participation in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day events last month at Piney Grove Boys Academy was a blessing for our small K-12 private school in Lauderdale Lakes. His call to expand educational choice opportunities for families showed that somebody is listening and understands our plight. Combined, we spent nearly a half-century as educators in Broward County public schools. When First Baptist Church Piney Grove Pastor, Rev. Derrick J. Hughes, asked us to set up the boys academy, we knew little of school choice.

There is this sudden multi-state push for late-term abortion (aka infanticide, aka murder). While I harbor no doubts that these people truly want this horrendous ability to murder firmly enshrined, the timing makes me very curious -- it seems to have come out of nowhere. I am wondering if this is some enormous diversionary tactic by the Left -- because they know there are few topics that get conservatives enraged like late-term abortion. Could this be a feint, to turn our attention away from something that they REALLY don't want us to see?

Catholics for Choice decried Pope Francis as a “villain” in an open letter signed by 50 abortion providers over his comparison of abortion to contract killing. Catholics for Choice published the letter Wednesday in response to an address Francis delivered in St. Peter’s Square on October 10 in which he said abortion was as unfair as hiring “a hitman to solve a problem.” The group expressed shock that the leader of the Catholic Church, who has compared abortion to Nazi eugenics, would disparage abortion, and called his comments “a disappointment to abortion providers.” “The villains here are not those who...

A proposal to repeal Obamacare entitlements and replace them with grants to states would reduce premiums for individual coverage by as much as 32 percent, according to an analysis by the Center for Health and Economy.The Health Care Choices Proposal also would modestly reduce the deficit, increase the number of people with private health insurance, and cut Medicaid spending, according to Center for Health and Economy.The proposal, the product of national and state think tanks, policy analysts, and others in the conservative community, embarks on a new path to empower consumers and return authority to the states to provide people...

NEW ORLEANS—Sterling Burnett doesn’t always want to sit next to someone he doesn’t know on a train, plane, or bus. But he’s willing to fight for the freedom of those same strangers when it comes time for them to purchase a motor vehicle. “What I care about is … your freedom to choose the vehicle of your choice,” Burnett, an environmental policy expert for the Heartland Institute, said during a panel discussion at the free-market think tank’s America First Energy Conference that took a critical look at fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. “I don’t think government should be in...

As Facebook shapes our access to information, Twitter dictates public opinion and Tinder influences our dating decisions, the algorithms we’ve developed to help us navigate choice are now actively driving every aspect of our lives. But as we increasingly rely on them for everything from how we seek out news to how we relate to the people around us, have we automated the way we behave? Is human thinking beginning to mimic algorithmic processes? And is the Cambridge Analytica debacle a warning sign of what’s to come — and of happens when algorithms hack into our collective thoughts? It wasn’t...

I use the word “courtesans” advisedly. The numerous young women whom Harvey Weinstein allegedly bedded are generally painted as unfortunate and unwilling victims of a sexual predator, but this is hardly the case. These women were over the age of consent. They were not mentally incapacitated. The man they decided to sleep with was not their a professor in their college course, nor a priest in their parish church, nor a judge before whom they appeared in court. They were free agents, and he was a man who was in a position to provide something that they earnestly desired. Mr....

This week President Trump made some administrative revisions to the Affordable Care Act health insurance program. Using latitude granted to the president in the original legislation, Trump issued an executive action that allows individuals more choices in how to insure themselves. This expansion of choice was denounced by key Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) called Trump's move "a stab in the back. Allowing people more choices is the exact opposite of what is needed if the changes made by Obamacare are to be made permanent. People will choose selfishly. They will only buy coverage they think they need....

We're living through a time when there seems to be something new and alarming in the news every day. Our media cycle is dominated by the dramatic, and one consequence of this is that alarming events can unfold on the state and local level going unnoticed despite their ultimately national consequences. One such example is before Oregon's state legislature. First introduced in January, an alarming bill, SB 494, would radically change the meaning of healthcare in that state, with the potential for national ripple effects. SB 494 would put countless medically vulnerable persons at risk of a premature and untimely...