Free Republic

Here is a longish video where multiple "man in the street" interviews are conducted with black teens and adults who explain the "rules" of the "knockout game". WARNING: Includes graphic violence. LINK The report also has video of several violent assaults of this type, at least one of which was deadly. Arrests have been made.

WASHINGTON (WJLA) - Phoebe Connolly says she had no idea what was coming when she biked through a group of teens in Columbia Heights. "My whole head went flying to the side," she explains. "It was a hard punch. One kid came from the side and pretty much cut me off. "He just like threw a hook with his left hand, and just got me right in the face," she continues. "And he said 'wa-pow' as he hit me in the face." Phoebe says she was able to pedal away, but was left sore and with a bloody nose. Otherwise,...

An essay comparing the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 73 years ago today, to the near future collapse of the American civil society, from a blogger with the FR Seal of Approval. -- I. TACOMA NARROWS 73 years ago today, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapsed. The way in which it collapsed was brought on by a positive-feedback situation, where the destructive force was only bounded by the structural integrity of the bridge itself. There are some serious lessons in this collapse for the future of American society. First, let's get a basic understanding of why the...

Eleven of the state’s 64 counties placed a measure on their Election Day ballots for voters to decide whether to pursue secession. In six counties, the measure passed by mostly wide margins, the The Denver Post reported. The push is unlikely to succeed. In order for the new state to be created, the Colorado electorate or legislature would have to approve and so would the U.S. Congress. Read more: http://thehill.com//thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/other-races/189411-6-of-11-counties-in-colorado-vote-to-secede#ixzz2juqEI7Q8 Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

Has the greatest mind of the last 30 years finally lost his marbles? Worse, did it happen because he read my book, “White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore it”? That is what I wondered immediately after reading one of Thomas Sowell’s latest columns that questioned whether are in the midst of a race war. He cited “White Girl Bleed a Lot” as proof positive of an epidemic of unacknowledged racial violence across the country: more than 500 examples in more than 100 cities. All documented. Many on video. The...

A former top general and current executive at the Family Research Council says members of the military have considered staging a coup d'état against President, but will not because of civilian control of the military. "People I've spoken to would like to see the military 'fulfill their constitutional duty and take out the president,' " retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin told World Net Daily, a website best known for pushing Obama "birther" conspiracy theories. "Our Constitution puts a civilian in charge of the military and as a result a coup would not be constitutional. You're not going to see...

In early October, I posted a blog entitled "Dear Texas: Please Secede" that advocated kicking Texas as well as Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and perhaps other Southern states out of the USA because they have an inferior culture and their stupidity and greed has had a negative effect on the nation from Day One. Since then, I have read even more articles about two kinds of secession -- Southern states leaving the USA and rural conservatives in liberal states seeking to form their own state. It's clear that the partisan divide in Washington, D.C., and in numerous states has become so...

I was speaking with Mrs. Hoagy62 this morning about some of the threads I was seeing here on FR. There is a LOT of things being said about defense in the face of tyranny, tactics to be used when going up against tyrannical forces, and general commentary about what one does in certain situations. One of the things that I found a little disturbing is the thought that one should target families of those who may be in the employ of the government/military/police forces on the opposite side of a possible CWII conflict. I refer to the comment on the...

It was a spasm of violence that stunned residents: some 200 black youths raising hell - what police called a full-blown riot - in Austin, Texas. Angry black youths inexplicably converged by the Highland Mall, near an iconic haunted house attraction, and walked atop parked cars, fought among themselves, and hurled rocks at some 30 arriving police officers. Several people, including one officer, suffered minor injuries. Later, police said so many squad cars were need that the department was unable to provide adequate 911 emergency coverage to the rest of Austin. There were no reports of black-on-white violence, to be...

Cowen says it will be tougher to get ahead in the future, for three reasons familiar to anybody who’s been paying attention to the shifting fortunes of U.S. workers. First, companies are much more careful these days about taking on workers and committing to the cost of labor, benefits, and the problems sometimes caused by humans on the payroll. Second, globalization means there’s more international competition for jobs at all levels. Third, automation allows many companies to replace people with technology. “The old America we knew, where everyone’s living standard doubled each generation, will probably be a thing of the...

Food stamp recipients face a massive benefit cut set to kick in when stimulus funds expire Friday. The nationwide cut “is equivalent to about 16 meals a month for a family of three,” according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis using the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan.” CBPP called the roughly $5 billion annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “unprecedented” in “depth and breadth.” “If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food,” Margarette Purvis, the president and CEO of the Food Bank..

Ask a cop. Any cop: Racial violence is worse than you know. Worse than I know even after writing the book on it, White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore it. That is why so many cops — active and retired — send me so many stories from around the country. They want more people to know about the epic levels of racial violence happening in almost every part of the country almost every night. Here are a few from this weekend, courtesy of my cops. Let’s start with a...

There's a big race right now to become the 51st state. Forget traditional contenders like Puerto Rico. In several existing states, residents of less populous areas are hoping to create new states of their own. Citizens in 11 northeastern Colorado counties are among them. They'll vote on Nov. 5 whether to break off and form their own state. Many are unhappy about liberal state legislation they believe reflects the values of the Denver-Boulder corridor, but not their part of the world. "We're rarely listened to when it comes to legislation," says Butch White, the mayor of Ault. "I'm sure the...

It goes without saying that Modoc and Siskiyou counties aren’t going to secede from California. Their county supervisors have passed resolutions expressing the desire to form a new State of Jefferson, and by some reports, Shasta, Lassen and Redding counties are considering similar measures. But actual secession would require approval from the state Legislature and Congress, and that’s not a realistic possibility—fortunately for the secessionists. Like many of the state’s remote rural areas, Modoc and Siskiyou have aging populations, high poverty rates and few jobs. They get far more money in state services than they pay in taxes. The government...

Simple statement: The Healthcare Act is going to fail from sheer incompetence of implementation OR we're going to have revolution if they get it working and force it on the American people. Once people see how much it is REALLY going to cost, you will not be able to make them accept it. More than likely it will fail and Congress will wisely repeal it.

Democrats have only one goal to accomplish between now and the 2014 elections: To paint Republicans as the bad guys. In doing so, they'll win the 2014 elections, gain control of the House of Representatives, and as President Reagan once said, the rest of us will be spending "our sunset years telling our children...what it once was like in America when men were free." Democrats are off to a good start; great, really. They, along with their willing accomplices in the media, propagated a lie by suggesting Republicans are responsible for the partial government shutdown. So far, it has worked...

The frustration, say immigration advocates, is reaching a fever pitch. That is why, many say, recent weeks have seen activists use chains and pipes to tie themselves to the tires of buses that carry immigrants slated for deportation to court, block traffic on Capitol Hill and get arrested, surround Tucson police when they targeted two immigrants during a traffic stop, and chain themselves and block the entrance of a federal detention center. More such actions, they vow, are coming.

Governor Rick Perry was once alleged to have stated that Texas could secede in the future. But he now states he opposes succession: http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2012/11/13/rick-perry-texas-secession-petition/1702359/ If the different states were to become different nations, the federal government would cease to exist. That means that the federal debt would be reduced to Zero. But the price that Americans would pay, would be the loss of super power status. Would Americans be better off or worse off, if the states were to become different countries?

Day 4 of shutdown: Vets are going to need wire cutters to visit WWII memorial.The fences/barricades were not wired shut when I was here on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, seven National Park Service employees were seen erecting and tending to a barricade around the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. One NPS employee was operating a forklift. There usually aren't any NPS employees working at the World War II memorial. A couple hours later, when an Honor Flight of World War II veterans arrived, accompanied by Democratic and Republican members of Congress, the fences blocking the memorial were easily moved away, allowing the veterans to enter. But the barriers are still at the memorial, and they've been reinforced. This morning, I walked by the memorial and...