Free Republic

When attempting to determine the statistical lethality of gunshot wounds, an important variable is often overlooked.  That is the intention of the shooter. It is not an easy variable to measure, but it is an overwhelming part of the dynamics of shooting situations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting data on firearms injuries and fatalities for since 2001.  The individual years data have warnings that the numbers may be too small to be reliable, but there are significant advantages to the data set when looking at the aggregate numbers for the fourteen year period.  All...

Just as their precursors the SA did in the 20s, today's Democratic liberals attack anyone they don't agree with. The left attacks and kills those who oppose them. The song is Stormlied the official anthem of the Sturmabetelung. CAUTION: CONTAINS VIOLENT IMAGES VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

Republican candidate’s stand on visas, immigration leaves thousands of students in Hyderabad anxious. Hyderabad: US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s recent statement indicating that H-IB visas would be restricted, and his administration, if elected, would revisit the Optional Practical Training programme authorisation for F-1 visa holders, has created apprehensions among engineering graduates who are dreaming of higher education in the the United States. Although Mr Trump seems to have softened his stand since then, students and parents are closely watching as to who, Mr Trump or Ms Hillary Clinton, would become the US President after November 18 polls. Incidents of...

At least one professor in America does not feel the Bern. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Professor Jack Stauder says his political and ideological conversion away from socialism and Marxism occurred when he actually witnessed these systems in action. After traveling to more than 110 countries to pursue various forms of research, notably cultural anthropology, Stauder described his conversion from Marxism as a process of disillusionment. “I gradually became disenchanted with Marxism by visiting many of the countries that had tried to shape their societies to conform to its doctrines. I was disillusioned by the realities I saw in … socialist...

An awesome documentary on the Vendee uprising and the massacre of catholics in France in the French Revolution The Vendee is a taboo in France. It is nearly forgotten but thankfully isn't. In 1793, after the execution of Louis XVI, Catholic Farmers in the Vendee region of France revolted against the newly formed godless republic headed by Robbspierre. The response by the newly created republic was monstrous. Over Half a milllion people, men women children and elderly were put to death by the government for opposing it and for promoting Catholic faith. Very few acknowledged its existence, John Paul II...

From Campus Reform: A Students for Trump event at Portland State University was greeted with hostility Saturday when campus police officers tried to kick Trump’s supporters to the curb while protesters reacted hysterically to chants of “USA! USA!” Students for Trump began the event by erecting a wall on campus but campus security attempted to force the students to leave on the grounds that the wall was a “structure” rather than a “sign,” and thus violated university policies. However, the students were ultimately allowed to remain on campus but were harshly ridiculed by their peers, who called them “pathetic,” “idiot,”...

Of all the displays of political myopia and intolerance in the American academy over the past several years, this story may be the most astonishing: Students and faculty at Northwestern University have forced Karl Eikenberry—a retired three-star general and fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies—to withdraw his appointment as head of a new global affairs institute on the Evanston campus on the grounds that he is a “career military officer.” The Washington Post‘s report on the story contains a truly remarkable, and telling, quote from one student involved in the crusade against the general (who has...

In supporting a $617 million bailout of the insolvent Detroit school district last week, Michigan House Republicans defied fierce political opposition by refusing to create a mayoral commission that could have restricted new charter schools in the city. Before the vote, there were allegations that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan tried a power play to pressure charter school operators within the city to sign on to the Detroit Education Commission or become irrelevant. After House Bill 5384 was passed by a 55-53 vote, Detroit Free Press Editorial Page Editor Stephen Henderson accused House Republicans of taking money for their vote. Henderson...

A lecturers’ union is refusing to let its officers take part in debates at an equality summit if they are white, straight, able-bodied men. The equality conference of the University and College Union said that members must declare their ‘protected characteristic’ – whether they are gay, disabled, female or from an ethnic minority – when applying to attend. Activists say that it means representatives who do not qualify cannot participate in all of the discussions – even though they have been elected by their union branch. They would be barred from ‘break-out’ sessions that organisers claim are a ‘safe space’...

Michigan public school districts received bad financial news recently when the latest audit for the school employee pension plan showed that unfunded liabilities had increased again, this time by $200 million in 2015. The statewide pension plan known as the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) saw its unfunded liabilities increase from $26.5 billion in 2014 to $26.7 billion in 2015. The unfunded liabilities were just $12.0 billion in 2009 but have more than doubled over the past six years. The state has spent about $1 billion more on pension payments over the past six years, but it hasn't...

Time and again I hear the term, predatory capitalism. All the liberals love to whine about it, in their conversations they talk of how the little guy is being devoured and chewed up by the rich and the high and mighty and how those nasty republicans, (that's us!) are responsible in taking from the poor and giving it away to rich mostly white folks. They compare us to Hitler and say he was a capitalist, they say things are bad now all because of the GOP and not for Obama and the left. Meanwhile, these same leftists and nit pickers...

On the Portland School Board's decision to ax certain textbooks for their position on climate change, The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board recently wrote, "The board's climate-change resolution is not intended to teach students to think critically, which is what schools should do. It's designed, instead, to produce acolytes." The first responsibility of any school is to teach what is known. Man's influence on climate is by now well-established, as the board notes. Climate contrarians, despite all their bluster, have never put forth an alternate scientific explanation for modern warming that explains what we see. If I were a Portland public school...

LANSING — Due to their nature as independent, self-supporting institutions, private schools do not disclose data about themselves in a standardized format, which sometimes clouds the public's understanding of them. A new report, though, sheds some light on the private school landscape in Michigan. Rachel White, a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University, gave a presentation on Thursday about her new study of the private education sector. White spoke at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Issues and Ideas Forum. While 601 private schools serving 113,000 students operate in Michigan, little research has been done to understand these institutions. When...

Should you follow your passion, wherever it may take you? Should you do only what you love...or learn to love what you do? How can you identify which path to take? How about which paths to avoid? TV personality Mike Rowe, star of "Dirty Jobs" and "Somebody's Gotta Do It," shares the dirty truth in PragerU's 2016 commencement address.

Former President Bill Clinton told a New Jersey crowd Wednesday that non-college educated whites “need to be brought along to the future.” Mr. Clinton campaigned for his wife in Crandford by tearing into Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s comments on illegal immigration. He then implied that Mr. Trump’s supporters cling to a vision for America that is better left in the past. “We have been told over and over again in this election we ought to build a wall against Mexico, we ought to stop the Muslims from coming in, we want to do all this stuff,” Mr. Clinton said,...

Whether we've got the time, or not, we have to educate, and we have to implement the battle tactics of a republic - not that of a democracy. Otherwise, the period through which we reside in bondage may be fiercer, and longer in time “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”—Benjamin Franklin “A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”—James Madison At a meeting of patriots I attended, where the attendees were the kind of people who desire to either reclaim the republic, or survive...

For the last few years, stories about an alleged Detroit Public Schools teacher shortage have appeared in Michigan news outlets, implying that understaffing is due to low morale and poor working conditions, and has led to classroom overcrowding. But data submitted by DPS to the state of Michigan show the district’s teacher-to-student ratio is lower than the state average and has been so for several years, with a lower teacher-to-student ratio than found in many more-affluent communities. As of December 2015, DPS had one teacher for every 14.53 students, compared to the state average of one teacher for every 16.13...

Legislators may be nearing a final deal on a Detroit Public School bailout package, with a vote possible this week. The sticking point is a proposed Detroit Education Commission appointed by the Detroit mayor that is designed to restrict the expansion of charter schools in the city. The state Senate passed a bill that creates a DEC, but the House left it out of its version. Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter is adamant that a DPS bailout cannot include a clampdown on school choice for Detroit parents. DPS and its allies — including Mayor Mike Duggan — have rallied...

Greeting Everyone. It is time once again for some more thought provoking ideas & discussion. I've been getting some FReep mail about some ideas for this thread. One of which covers, if you & your family do have to "bug-out" where do you go to & how are you guys going to get there. There are several lines of thought on this, depending on the disaster you are prepping for. Are you [like me] looking at a total grid down [via either natural or man made] or are you worried about Yellowstone super volcano going off, or is it an...

Those anticipating the release of Michigan’s education adequacy study learned this week that, once again, they will have to wait a little longer. While the precise detailed findings are unknown, the embargoed report’s general conclusions should not remain a matter of mystery. Last September the state granted Colorado-based Augenblick Palaich & Associates a $399,000 contract to determine how much money Michigan needs to spend in order to provide “adequate” services to students. Our state currently ranks 21st in per-pupil spending but 43rd in math and reading achievement on the nation’s report card. Michigan has been spending more than the national...