Free Republic

The people in the government who want to control our personal choices are the enemies of freedom. And the enemies of freedom can be very clever and seductive. Last week, these folks, manifesting their lust to keep us dependent upon the government by rejecting the natural right to self-defense, coined a clever phrase: "No fly, no buy." It sounds rational, yet it rejects core American values. The phrase was pounded home to average Americans during a one-sided 15-hour televised marathon on the floor of the Senate orchestrated by the gun control crowd. The essence of the argument was that stricter...

Market watch recently reported that Wells Fargo stock has plunged into its greatest losing streak in nearly nine years. This comes as little surprise given the fact that the company has experienced a takeover at the hands of radical leftists. Leftists may be experts in certain things like organic gardening, herbal healing, and folk music. But they are not known for their expertise in economics and personal finance. In case you have missed Wells Fargo’s recent radical political shift, here are some of the highlights:-GOP Convention Boycott. It is pretty difficult to imagine a bank boycotting a major political party...

After finally getting the endorsement of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Donald Trump frittered the goodwill away. Trump called a judge born in Indiana a "Mexican." Rather than apologize, Trump, at first, doubled and tripled down, until finally saying that he didn't mean that the judge's ethnicity equaled bias. That Trump fired his campaign manager shows that he's not oblivious to criticism. Reportedly, his children came to him and told him that now ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski must go. Trump's critics had called him immune to change, and Lewandowski's dismissal shows that they...

The painful lesson of the Orlando massacre is that no place in the world is immune to fanatical religious extremists willing to kill themselves to achieve heavenly salvation. The Western world is floundering in its pathetic efforts to confront the demonic global forces threatening to plunge it back into the Dark Ages. Its failure is largely due to the inability of democratic countries to face reality and devise a united strategy to vanquish these Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Instead, Western leaders bury their heads in the sand and cravenly resort to policies of appeasement, even though there is not a single...

Ron Fournier is a liar.On June 20, 2016, this mainstream media maven tweeted, “Guns don't kill people. The gun lobby does.”This is a lie.Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, is also a liar.On June 20, 2016, after voting against Sen. John Cornyn’s bill to bar persons on terrorist watch lists from buying weapons because it contained due process protections for such people, he said, “We’ve got to make this clear, constant case that Republicans have decided to sell weapons to ISIS.”This is also a lie.These men are liars. And liberals have chosen to celebrate their lies.Now, it is generally good...

Donald Trump marked the real start of his general-election campaign Wednesday with a full-bore attack on Hillary Clinton and a clear appeal to Americans across the spectrum. He slammed her, accurately, as a “world-class liar” who’s part of the “rigged system” that boosts “insiders” like her at the expense of the common good. And he vowed to end the inside game while reaching out even to Bernie Sanders supporters. He talked issues Americans of all political persuasions really care about, starting with, as he put it, “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Trump laid out how the “special-interest monopoly” has ruled Washington at...

The immediate consequences from the Orlando terror attack are obvious: dozens dead and maimed – families changed forever. The next layer of consequences, arriving soon, are not as obvious, but they are coming. Here they are: We are getting a divorce. First, a poll shows that Americans are pretty much divided on their opinions about the attack. Most of the Democrats see it as a gun control issue. Most Republicans see it as a terror attack. And there seems to be no sign of compromise (why can’t it be mostly “terror” and a little “guns?” asks the therapist, Dr. Gutfeld)...

In the year 64 AD, much of Rome was destroyed by a massive fire. An outraged populace blamed the Emperor Nero, who had wanted to rebuild the city his way. The historian Tacitus tells us what happened next: “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called ‘Christians’ by the populace. “Accordingly … an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths.” The Christians were especially hated for not bowing to...

In the mid to late 1930s and throughout the World War II years, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels helped the German National Socialist Party spread their message to the German people. Goebbels was a master of propaganda, helping create the environment in Germany that eventually led to the later crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi leadership. The German people were fed a steady stream of whatever message the Nazi Party wanted them to receive. During the war most Germans knew that the Jews and other “undesirables” were being abused, but the true horror of the death camps...

After Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX rifle in an attack on an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead, USA Today urged Congress to "ban assault weapons now." The paper's editorial board said such firearms must be prohibited because they are "accurate and quick, firing with just the twitch of a finger." Like most people who want to ban "assault weapons," including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, USA Today's editorialists do not know what they are. They assume the category is defined by features that make guns especially lethal in the hands of mass murderers. It isn't. On...

For most Americans, the battle in Mali with militant Islamist terrorists is as an obscure and peripheral sideshow in the Global War on Terror. However, the UN peacekeepers and French troops deployed there know the Mali sideshow is most deadly. StrategyPage.com recently reported that Mali is now the most physically dangerous UN peacekeeping mission, exceeding the risks UN peacekeepers confront in eastern Congo, South Sudan, Sudan's Darfur region and in Lebanon. Since 2013, 81 UN peacekeepers have been killed in Mali. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping mission operates next door to Syria's chaotic civil war, and some analysts...

Barack Obama is a dramatic failure. His economy has been a slow-motion train wreck. His domestic policy has driven racial antagonism to renewed heights and divided Americans from each other along lines of religion and sexual orientation. On foreign policy he has set the world aflame in the name of pretty, meaningless verbiage and a less hegemonic America. But there's good news: At least he controls the information flow. This week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Americans to believe her rather than their own lying eyes. First, she openly admitted that the FBI would censor the 911 phone call of...

To the typical liberal, nothing engenders greater panic and crippling fear than the sight of a firearm; especially the Mainstream Media’s self-defined posterchild for gun violence, the AR-15. The Left’s irrational reaction to the popular sporting rifle, enjoyed (safely and legally) by millions of recreational and competition shooters across America, is so potent the New York Daily News’ resident pansy, Gersh Kuntzman, claims to have suffered “temporary PTSD” from merely firing the rifle at a gun range. Yet, in spite of its obvious and repetitive ignorance on firearm information, the Left considers itself capable of engaging in an adult discussion...

Uber, the ride-hailing company, founded in 2009, began operations in San Francisco in 2011, and now has a presence in 449 cities worldwide. From its beginning with just a vision, the firm's market value, by recent estimates, now exceeds $60 billion dollars. Uber is just one of many new emerging businesses that are the result of applying new technology to the routine affairs of living. In this case, rather than needing to hail a cab or order one from a central office, you just connect with drivers through an app on your smartphone. When existing businesses find themselves threatened by...

Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen supported presumptive Democratic nominee for president Hillary Rodham Clinton because he opposed the presidential candidacy of presumptive GOP nominee Donald J. Trump. Mateen’s friend Mohammed Malik revealed Mateen’s support for Hillary Clinton in a Washington Post essay this week. Malik wrote: We talked about the presidential election and debated our views of the candidates that were running – he liked Hillary Clinton and I liked Bernie Sanders. This banter continued through texts and phone calls for several months. My last conversation with Omar was by phone in mid-May. He called me while he was at the...

In the swing of the Trump wrecking crane, President Obama's approval ratings have risen above 50 percent. The media see greater appreciation for his "competence" in office -- but, why? In the wake of the Orlando attack it's easy to ask, "How competent would the media have made President George W. Bush appear if an Islamic terrorist shot up a gay nightclub in Florida eight years ago?" It seemed like every piece of bad news during the Bush years was somehow Bush's fault -- and proof of his incompetence. The media's attitude toward Bush was summed up in Bill Maher's...

Has the shooter’s wife left the state of Florida?" a reporter asked Lynch during her press conference Tuesday. "Right now, I don’t know exactly the answer to that," Lynch candidly replied. "I believe she was going to travel but I do not know exactly her location now."

We've all heard former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's admonition that "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Yet the public debate about guns in America takes Moynihan's warning to the next level: Each side not only has its own facts, it has its own language. For instance, take the rush after the recent Orlando shootings to ban "assault" or "military-style" weapons like the AR-15 rifle. Gun control advocates immediately jumped to regulate sales of "automatic weapons" and "assault rifles" like the AR-15, which they deem too deadly for one individual to need. Scary stories about...

In 2008, Barack Obama promised a fundamental transformation of America. Where that promise has gone unfulfilled the most is in areas of sexual and racial discrimination. What's worse is the official sanction given to such discrimination. Let's look at some of it. Visit just about any California men's prison and you will see that one's race determines whom he cells with, the toilet and shower he uses, and what recreation areas he enjoys. Then there is sexual discrimination. Female correctional officers earn the same pay as their male counterparts. However, when it comes to extracting a dangerous inmate from his...

My inbox was filled with excited emails from fellow Republicans reveling in the rough patch that Donald Trump seemed to be experiencing. “He’s finally done!” one exclaimed. “We tried to warn you guys of the catastrophe of Trump” said another. And this gem: “I’m so glad I refused to board the Trump Train now that it has officially derailed.” Never mind that every poll has Trump within striking distance of Mrs. Clinton or the release of another survey showing that 25% of Americans are undecided. These guys are convinced - for the umpteenth time this year - that it’s all...