Free Republic

Highly paid tech workers are often blamed for the city’s housing crisis. Now, three supervisors want to levy a tax on technology companies in an effort to make them pay for the city’s two biggest woes: the high cost of housing and homelessness.

One of life's enduring mysteries is why the left -- against overwhelming evidence to the contrary -- insists on more taxation, more government spending and more government control over the private sector. Europe's socialism has, over the last several decades, generated few private sector jobs and lags in growth when compared to the United States with its comparatively lighter hand of government. What does it take to show that, good intentions aside, government bureaucrats cannot spend money as efficiently and as effectively as the people who produce the money? The most recent example is Venezuela. Hugo Chavez's handpicked successor now...

While Attorney General Loretta Lynch holds firm to her claim that the motive of Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen may never be known, the FBI is instructing Florida agencies that responded to the attack that night to deny requests for public records pertaining to the case. Mateen called police several times during the three hour ordeal to declare his allegiance to ISIS, yet only a fraction of his discussions with authorities that night have been released to the public — first an edited version, than an unedited one. In response to a lawsuit by local media seeking the release of the...

Twenty years ago, California became the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana use — and it took a referendum to pass the law. Since then, California has fallen behind the curve a bit, as other Western states like Colorado, Oregon, and Washington have legalized recreational use as well. Given California’s somewhat lax requirements for medicinal referrals, taking that final step might be more formal than substantive — but voters will get the chance to take it in November nonetheless, and they will have a Facebook executive to thank for it:

Ontario is introducing gender-neutral driver's licences and health cards. Beginning in early 2017, drivers will be able to select X, instead of an M for male or F for female for their licences. And this month, the province started issuing health cards that no longer display information about a person's sex on the front of the card. People who want a new health card without the sex identifier before their regular renewal date can obtain one immediately through ServiceOntario at no cost. The Liberal government says it is making these changes "to ensure the fair, ethical and equitable treatment of...

A massive brawl erupted inside a Mexican restaurant in Dallas over the weekend and video of the melee has gone viral.According to Eater.com, the brawl was sparked over a dispute about chips and salsa at Dallas’ El Paisano Mexican Restaurant.A video of the fight was posted on Facebook by Isael Rojas, of Dallas. In the video, you can see fists and chairs flying in the restaurant as the chaos ensued. The video has more than 1.5 million views.Rojas told Eater the fight started a basket of $5 tortilla chips and a choice of salsa – red or green.No arrests were...

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream” is dying. It’s not dying of old age or fading away because we’ve moved past it. It’s being choked to death slowly with plans to dump it in the bay. The Klan would love to claim responsibility, but it can’t. It is self-declared “social justice warriors” who are tightening their grip. The level of stupidity of the American progressive left knows no bounds. The sloppiest drunks will hit bottom and pick themselves up, but social justice warriors defy physics by continually sinking lower. On Sunday, Black Entertainment Television held its annual awards show, during which...

As America reels from yet another mass shooting, inevitable questions resurface about guns laws and the nation's pervasive firearm culture. Here is a look at per capita weapons data, based on the ATF's National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, and 2013 data from the U.S. Census... ...it does not include categories like pistols, which make up a large percentage of the guns in the U.S.

There was a troubling item tucked deep inside the House Republican’s Benghazi report on Tuesday. It involves Terry Jones -- the Florida preacher who has an affinity for burning the Koran. According to the report -- the White House directed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to call Preacher Jones. There were also discussions that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might “issue another statement to distance the United States from the Pastor Jones video.” It was one of several action items involving the Obama administration’s efforts to blame the attack on a...

Following the Brexit, Europe may witness even more plebiscites against the undemocratic European Union throughout the continent. The furor of ignored Europeans against their union is not just directed against rich and powerful government elites per se, or against the flood of mostly young male migrants from the war-torn Middle East. The rage also arises from the hypocrisy of a governing elite that never seems to be subject to the ramifications of its own top-down policies. The bureaucratic class that runs Europe from Brussels and Strasbourg too often lectures European voters on climate change, immigration, politically correct attitudes about diversity,...

As a conservative criminologist, I get a lot of questions about gun ownership. People often ask me how to go about building a good firearm collection just in case things start to go south quickly. I usually respond by telling them to follow the Wal-Mart rule. It is probably the best way to make sure you are prepared when the republic finally disintegrates into utter lawlessness. The Wal-Mart rule involves three basic steps.The first step is accomplished by taking a trip to Wal-Mart to find out what kinds of ammunition they normally stock. I went to the local Wal-Mart in...

I don’t understand it! We super smart folks responsible for making the modern world a wonderland of peace, love, and flowers have told regular people, again and again:  “You’re stupid and you’re racist and you need to sit silently and do what we, your superiors in every way, command.” Yet they totally haven’t listened.What the hell is wrong with these people? You just can’t reason with these slack-jawed, Jesus-loving morons in the rational, dispassionate way people like us prefer! They are impervious to logical, evidence-based arguments regarding their utter unfitness to determine the course of their own lives and to...

At the recent New York City LGBT Pride parade, marchers carried a rainbow flag imprinted with black letters, “Republican Hate Kills!” That same day, Islamist Turkey dispersed an attempt at a gay pride parade in Istanbul with tear gas and rubber bullets. Turkish cops in gas masks wearing black converged on a few hundred protesters, seized their rainbow flags and detained a number of prominent figures.

Here’s how Hillary Clinton plans to beat Donald Trump: She will replay the very successful 1964 campaign against Barry Goldwater. That is, she will scare the bejeezus out of Americans by describing Trump as a “loose cannon,” someone who cannot be trusted with America’s nuclear arsenal. At the same time, she will convince Republicans, alarmed at the prospect of a Goldwater-scale defeat, that backing her is the sensible choice. Her surrogates in the media are already spreading this narrative, which may prove as empty as Clinton’s record as secretary of state. Goldwater was the conservative presidential candidate who went down...

I try to minimize election predictions—especially long before the voting on election day—but I consider this prediction one of the easiest I have ever made. Hillary Clinton will win by a landslide against Donald Trump. I expect her to win 46 states, and if I am wrong, it is equally likely she will win more than 46 states in November, rather than less. FBI Director James Comey will announce that he is not recommending a criminal prosecution in the Clinton email case, which will give her a tremendous boost. To understand the full magnitude of Clinton’s coming victory consider the...

I was curious as to all the polls that show a tight race between Trump and Hillary Clinton. To this end, I googled the Reagan-Carter election. Especially pertaining to the June 1980 polling data. It seems that at that time, the election was also "close" with Jimmy Carter expected to have another four year term. From Wikipedia; "Weeks before the election, Reagan trailed Carter in most polls. In the Gallup poll on October 26, Jimmy Carter was at 47 percent and Ronald Reagan at 39 percent. Following his sole debate with President Carter on October 28, Reagan overcame the largest...

Alvin Toffler, the far-seeing futurist who predicted humanity's rising anxiety with digital and technological progress in his hugely influential 1970 book "Future Shock," has died at the age of 87, his consulting company confirmed Wednesday. Toffler — who is also credited with having coined the term "information overload" to describe people's struggle to keep up with exponentially expanding data — died Monday night at his home in Los Angeles, Toffler Associates said in a statement it released at the request of Toffler's widow, Heidi Toffler. No cause of death was given. Alvin Toffler during a talk at the Astrobiology Roadmap...

With Congress lined up for a battle over whether women should be required to register for the draft, there’s one group that is solidly against the idea, a new poll suggests: women themselves. Women are much less likely than men to say women should be required to register for Selective Service when they turn 18, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by The Economist/YouGov. Thirty-nine percent of women supported registration for women, compared to 61 percent of men.

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union could inspire other disaffected nations to consider a way out unless the bloc responds to anxiety across the continent over jobs, immigration, and globalization.While experts say an all-out breakup of the European Union is far-fetched, countries both successful (like Sweden) and struggling (such as Greece) may view the British experience as a model to change their own lots in life.“There is a serious risk that Britain’s decision to withdraw from the European Union could set off similar demands on other member states,” said Michael Leigh, a senior fellow at The German Marshall Fund...

..targeted by group of motorcyclists, Islamic group says The Fort Pierce-area mosque once attended by Orlando shooter Omar Mateen is receiving threats and members are being intimidated, according to an Islamic group representing the mosque. Since Mateen killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub June 12, the mosque has received threatening voice messages and was visited by a motorcycle group Sunday that circled the building yelling at congregants, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "They called it a 'patriotic rally,'" said Wilfredo Ruiz, communications director for the council's Florida chapter. The messages left at the Fort Pierce Islamic Center...