Free Republic

Chris McDaniel and I are good friends and have been since our days together in grade school. He read my book, The Last Jeffersonian, while it was still in manuscript form and gave it a great blurb. I trust his judgment 100 percent and, given a conversation we had a couple of years ago, I would like to think he trusts mine just as much. It was a day in early 2012 and we sat down to lunch at one of our favorite spots, Pasquale’s in Laurel. He wanted to discuss the possibility of challenging Thad Cochran for the US...

Jasmine Rand, the attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family in the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman trial, spoke at Lehigh on Thursday in a lecture called “Sexualizing Race, Gendering Sex.” Trayvon Martin was a young African-American man walking home from a 7-Eleven in Sanford, Fla., late at night while wearing a hoodie and holding a package of Skittles. George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for Martin’s gated community, shot him for “looking suspicious.” Throughout the trial that followed the incident, the phrase “I am Trayvon Martin” was used to generate support for the victim. “That phrase, it was born on...

Tuesday, September 09, 2014 Obama's "Iraqization" of America Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog When it comes to Iraq, Obama lectures the Sunnis and the Shiites on getting along and forming a government that won't exist for the sole benefit of a single group at the expense of the other. But in America he runs exactly that sort of government. Only 27% of whites see Obama as a "Uniter" compared to 78% of blacks. Those are Sunni-Shiite numbers. And numbers like that have consequences.  Iraqis are not stupid. They look at the news and they see Ferguson...

I watched all 77 videos on her new online TV channel and lived to tell the tale. In fact, I was actually kind of … moved.Sarah Palin still exists. I know. I was beginning to have my doubts, too. Once upon a time, Palin was everywhere. On Fox News. On reality TV. On the cover of Time. And Newsweek. And Time. And Newsweek. And Time, and Newsweek, and Newsweek again. Now Palin is none of those places. For most of us, she is but a receding image in the rearview mirror of human history — a bit of trivia to...

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organized a fast food protest, demanding that their prospective members all price themselves out of a job. So, understandably unable to resist a straight line while filling in as a talk show guest host, pundit Erick Erickson said that if you’re still earning minimum wage at 30, you’ve probably failed at life. It’s easy to blast Mr. Erickson for the tone-deafness of his comment. While certainly true of some, his quip is hardly true of most minimum wage employees. But is that fair? Is it reasonable, or helpful to the national economic and social...

Rory Kennedy, film-maker and daughter of the late Robert Kennedy, produced a film which debuted in theaters this week about the fall of Vietnam. I haven’t seen it yet and am debating whether I will. I'm half Vietnamese and have mixed feelings and for many years refused to watch coverage of the war and the pervasive inaccuracy in the media. It's too close to home. In 1995, 20 years after the withdrawal and debacle, reporters interviewed my father who was Vietnam's last cultural attaché. Perhaps they were trying to get the record straight. My father left Vietnam with Ambassador Martin...

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson Histories are generally written by academics. They, quite naturally, tend to focus on the main events: the wars and the struggles between leaders and their opponents (both external and internal). Whilst these are interesting stories to read, academics, by their very nature, often overlook the underlying causes for an empire’s decline. Today, as in any era, most people are primarily interested in the “news”—the daily information regarding the world’s political leaders...

With the 9th Circuit ruling in Peruta, Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands can no longer sustain heavy restrictions on the ownership and carry of handguns.   Guam has already reformed its law.  Hawaii has a ruling against it and is waiting to see what  happens with the Peruta decision.   Now the Northern Mariana Islands have had a lawsuit filed against them to repeal the total ban on the ownership and carry of handguns.   It is hard to see how such a ban can stand, given the decisions in Heller, McDonald, and Peruta.   The lawsuit has been filed by...

Perhaps Al-Sisi could sweeten the deal by shipping some Jews  to Sinai 1st so they have something to hate/kill when they get there: All you have to do is look at how this story came-out,  including the entirely negative Palestinian reaction: PLO chief and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told an audience of Fatah members that Egypt had offered to give the PA some 1600 km of land in Sinai adjacent to Gaza, thus quintupling the size of the Gaza Strip. Egypt even offered to allow all the so-called “Palestinian refugees” to settle in the expanded Gaza Strip. Then Abbas told...

The population of Gander —10,400 at the time — turned out en masse to care for 10,500 stranded travelers. On September 11, 2001, Delta Flight 15 received a terse directive: “All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination.” Far out over the Atlantic on a flight from Germany to America, the captain adjusted his heading to land at Gander, Newfoundland. Those aboard noticed that the airport was cluttered with commercial aircraft, and knew something was terribly wrong. Once on the ground, the captain told them that...

US Army anti-aircraft Hawk missiles deployed on Florida beach during the Cuban missile crisis, Key West - October 27, 1962 (pic Miami Archives) More at Reaganite Republican...

illustration/The Hill The politics of terrorism have returned with a vengeance for the midterm elections. National security dominated the first election cycles after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with Democrats fearful of being labeled unpatriotic if they criticized then-President George W. Bush. The Republican advantage eroded years later as public opinion soured against the Iraq War. By the time President Obama sought reelection in 2012, he was able to tout the killing of Osama bin Laden to portray Democrats as the party of strength in foreign policy. But now, with the 13th anniversary of 9/11 just days away, Obama...

.22 rimfire is starting to become more available, as tremendous demand is being met.   From around the country I am hearing reports of more .22 rimfire being available, though supplies are still not sufficient to keep stores stocked. My friend Jerry needed to purchase some shotgun ammunition for dove hunting, as I was taking his son and friend out as beginning hunters.   We drove to Wal Mart.   Shotgun ammunition has never been in short supply.   Wal Mart was out of dove loads!  Shooting dove with duck loads or buck shot is not a good idea.   I should explain that...

So L3 Communications, the makers of the PEQ-15, have made a civilian-legal Class 1 version, which they call the ATPIAL-C (“C” for “Commercial”). It’s basically the PEQ-15, made on the same production line out of most of the same parts, just without the high-energy mode. Even side by side they’re hard to tell apart. (Look at the laser safety label — the ATPIAL-C has a triangular warning icon, as befits its lower-energy laser, and the PEQ-2 the red starburst of an eye-unsafe laser). What you give up with the -C model is some range on the laser pointer, a lot...

Britain Developed the Foundation of Rights of Resistance Used by the Founders In this continuing study of the Right of Resistance against unjust authority, we now turn from the Continent, and the Lutheran and Huguenot stories, and examine the U.K.‘s additions. Given the times, and the fact that Europe arose and distinguished itself from Christian origins, it is unsurprising that the Right of Resistance would be justified by biblical arguments. Yet, all these arguments were buttressed by appeals to history, ancient societies, Roman law, and logical propositions.

The "I" word -- Islam -- shall not be used other than respectfully, as in "the religion of peace."Do the Islamic State (IS) and its terrorist cohorts practice an "extremist" version of Islam? Does Obama know enough about Islam to decide? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSSn_yRrT4] Video linkSecretary Kerry (consistently with Obama's position), said “The real face of Islam is a peaceful religion based on ‎the dignity of all human beings:” “America’s faith communities, including American Muslims, are sources of strength for all of us. They’re an ‎essential part of our national fabric, and we are committed to deepening our partnerships with them. We’re ‎making these efforts to...

Sunday, September 07, 2014 Poor Little Rich Liberals Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog No group has been hit harder by the Obama economy than American liberals. From Marin County, where bundlers have had to struggle to scrape together a few ten grand bills to attend Obama fundraisers, to Washington D.C. whose bedroom communities now have seven of the ten highest household incomes in the country, poverty is hitting poor rich little liberals really hard. In 2006, Alaska had the highest household income. But voters chose Obama over Palin and these days it's Maryland. Because six-figure consultants...

Tale of the six Annex Security Team: 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi “Five minutes, we’re ready. It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we’re ready to go.” Kris “Tanto” Paronto, member of the six man Annex Security Team in Benghazi on 9/11/12 After a delay of nearly 30 minutes, the security team headed to the besieged consulate without orders. They asked their CIA superiors to call for armed air support, which never came. Now, looking back, the security team said they believed that if they had not been delayed for nearly half an hour, or...

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Obama economic recovery is a complete sham! Barack the Barista, aided by his media muppets and trusty teleprompter, continues to tout the “common core” 6.1% unemployment rate while shouting “America is back” from the top of Mount Hypocrisy amidst adoring crowds of mindless Kool-Aid drinkers. As expected, our so-called President is excluding one teensy-weensy, minor detail: Over 92 MILLION Americans, more than a third of the country, are not working! Workforce participation is at an atrocious 62.8%, the lowest rate since Carter’s implosion in 1978, and food stamp recipients have...

Approval tanking, world in flames... Best of the week's conservative news/opinion/humor from  the new media right at Reaganite Republican...