Free Republic

The technology sector has been a hot topic for both bulls and bears, with the former seeing the sky as the limit for company valuations and the latter seeing a bubble set for a 2000-like bust. Following the infamous dot-com crash, the Nasdaq composite index fell from a peak of just over 5,000 to nearly 1,000 in about two years. It never exceeded 3,000 during the time leading up to the Great Recession. In early 2009, the Nasdaq began a relatively steady run to today, when it is again testing 5,000. So, whoÂ’s right, the bulls or the bears?...

It’s an interesting question.Something like a million permanent legal residents come each year. If these numbers are right, then Muslims now make up something like 10 percent of immigrants to the US. Between 2010 and 2013, the Obama administration imported almost 300,000 new immigrants from Muslim nations — more immigrants than the U.S. let in from Central America and Mexico combined over that period. Some of these immigrants may be Christians, but the number won’t be significant. Furthermore it doesn’t account for Muslims coming from Europe or from Israel and Russia. We’ve gotten a number of terrorists that way. Some...

Kansas appears on the verge of becoming among the most welcoming states to people who want to pack heat. A bill promising Kansans the ability to carry concealed firearms — without taking safety training or weathering the background checks required in most of the country — won initial approval in the state Senate on Wednesday. The change, expected to pass Thursday to a likely receptive House, would make Kansas a “constitutional carry” state. That would mean citizens would not need a permit to carry a hidden gun. The bill would maintain the current permit process for people who want to...

The President continued his amnesty tour this week with a stop in Florida. His remarks, both to the crowd during his speech and during an interview with MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart, were rife with the usual “blame the GOP” rhetoric and defenses of the amnesty actions he himself declared beyond his constitutional authority. But he was asked by audience members and his media interviewer as well about why some people were still being deported. His answer was revealing. MR. DIAZ-BALART: But what are the consequences? Because how do you ensure that ICE agents or Border Patrol won’t be deporting people...

"In all criminal prosecutions," reads the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial." In its dangling of George Zimmerman over the pit of judicial hell for the last three years, the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) violated the spirit of that amendment for no better reason than to pacify the Democrats' increasingly bloodthirsty base. Finally, on Tuesday of this week, the DOJ announced that it had found insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. A White House so seemingly appalled by torture had no qualms...

To the disappointment of immigration-enforcement advocates, Judge Andrew S. Hanen last week rejected a key argument that Texas raised in its attempt to establish legal standing. Texas tried to show that Obama’s amnesty policies would lead to an increase of illegal aliens in the state and would strain state coffers as a consequence. To most Americans, amnesty leading to more illegal immigration is simple cause-and-effect logic (much like “increasing the labor supply leads to lower wages”). Our court system, however, doesn’t treat so-called speculative harms very well, no matter how inevitable they seem. Still, the open-borders lobby no doubt breathed...

......unfortunately, global warming isn't real, and we can't help them. Liberals would have you believe that the coastline is unchanged from the day the Earth was created until the first man-made CO2 emissions were burned, but we know that over many years there have been radical changes to the continents and coastlines, and what is happening in Alaska is probably just a part of that natural process. If the article wanted to be thorough, it could have looked at the evolution of the Alaskan coastline over the past few hundred years to show how change occurs on its own. But...

Even though the shooter who gunned down Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin won’t face federal hate crime charges, the teenager’s parents vowed to keep his memory alive Wednesday through the foundation set up in his namesake. “I will continue to fight for my son, for your son,’’ said Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother. “We here in the United States are under a crisis when our young people cannot walk the street, cannot play their music, cannot stand in front of stores or go to the store without being threatened, without being followed, chased, pursued, profiled or murdered. I just feel we...

Illegal immigrants who are able to obtain Social Security Numbers and work permits as a result of President Obama’s executive amnesty could claim tens of thousands of dollars in back tax benefits, a new Congressional Research Service memo obtained first by Breitbart News reveals. The report comes following the Internal Revenue Service’s confirmation that once illegal immigrants are granted Social Security Numbers — as a result of Obama’s executive actions — they will be able to file back tax returns and obtain up to four years of tax benefits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax...

A surgeon says full-body transplants could become a reality in just two years. Sergio Canavero, a doctor in Turin, Italy, has drawn up plans to graft a living person’s head on to a donor body and claims the procedures needed to carry out the operation are not far off. Canavero hopes to assemble a team to explore the radical surgery in a project he is due to launch at a meeting for neurological surgeons in Maryland this June. He has claimed for years that medical science has advanced to the point that a full body transplant is plausible, but the...

Right now over 80 percent of the Great Lakes have frozen over for the second year in a row. Literally hundreds of record low temperatures have been recorded this winter. And as I write this little Uncle Ted Gonzo weather update, all meteorological indicators are that it is not over yet. Boston remains buried in the second snowiest season on record. As I type away warmed by a glowing fireplace on my iced-over Texas ranch, roughly 80 percent of the country is in the same deep freeze as I am. Forty percent of the country currently has a wind chill...

BAGHDAD - Islamic State militants in northern Iraq have destroyed a collection of statues and sculptures dating back thousands of years, according to a video published online in the name of the radical Islamist group. The video showed the statues, some identified as antiquities from Iraq's 7th century BC Assyrian era, being toppled, smashed and broken up by sledgehammer. A man shown in the video said they were being destroyed because they promoted idolatry. "The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him," the unidentified man...

A couple of things came into the realm of public discussion over the last week that were almost providential in their timing: statements by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani addressing President Barack Obama’s sentiments toward America and a series of assertions referencing Islam made by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Last week during a private GOP dinner event, Giuliani reportedly stated that he didn’t believe President Obama loves America. This resulted in criticism of the former mayor and, of course, a few charges of racism, but it also initiated a wide discussion of what Obama’s sentiments toward this...

MIDDLETOWN >> They were studying to be doctors and scientists, but police say four Wesleyan University students arrested this week also are known on campus as drug dealers. The four are charged in connection with the distribution of a bad batch of the party drug known as Molly. Authorities said 11 people, including 10 Wesleyan students, some of whom had attended a rave music show Saturday night, went to hospitals for medical attention last weekend. ... Witnesses said several of the victims were hanging out with Kramer during the rave Saturday night at the Eclectic Society, a co-ed social fraternity....

California Democrats are trying to reverse a decades-old state law that bars families from getting extra welfare money for having an additional child, describing the law as "sexist" and "classist" -- despite concerns that repealing it could compound the state's money woes. The so-called "welfare queen" law was passed two decades ago during the heyday of welfare reform. At the time, Democrats were in charge of the state legislature and Republican Pete Wilson was governor. Today, Democrats are still in charge, but the base of support for the law is fading.

Talk radio host and author of “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin argued that there is “a new governing model” “elections only matter when Democrats win” on Wednesday.

As part of aid - food, warm clothing, building materials, hospital beds, mattresses, blankets and cleaning supplies. Lugansk region received humanitarian aid In Severodonetsk Luhansk region arrived 20 tons of humanitarian aid collected Evangelical Church of Zhytomyr, Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne and Volyn regions. This was said on the website of the head of Lugansk Regional State Administration Gennady Moskal. As part of aid - food, warm clothing, building materials, hospital beds, mattresses, blankets and cleaning supplies. Humanitarian aid to be distributed among the residents of Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and a landmark, and was taken to hospital these settlements. Bishop of Zhytomyr...

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) alleged that the Tea Party wants to bring back segregation and make women “secondary citizens” at an event that on Saturday.

What if the current massive spying on Americans began with an innocent secret executive order signed by President Reagan in 1986? What if Reagan contemplated that he was only authorizing American spies to spy on foreign spies unlawfully present in the U.S.? What if Reagan knew and respected the history of the Fourth Amendment? What if the essence of that history is the colonial revulsion at the British use of general warrants? What if general warrants were issued by a secret court in London and authorized British agents in America to search wherever they wished and to seize whatever they...

When actress Patricia Arquette won an Oscar, she pled for "wage equality" for women: "To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen in this nation: We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America." Days later, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said, "I think we all cheered at Patricia Arquette's speech at the Oscars, because she's right -- it's time to have wage equality." Back in April 2014, Hillary Clinton sent out this tweet: "20...