Free Republic

Back in February, a Buffalo, N.Y. community activist who pushed for a highly restrictive 2013 gun control law was arrested for — wait for it — carrying a gun illegally at a public elementary school. The wheels of criminal justice have now slowly, slowly churned to completion. And wouldn’t you know it? The judge in the case has now found it in his heart to give the heat-packing activist, Dwayne Ferguson, a generously light sentence. On Monday, Judge John L. Michalek sentenced Ferguson to 100 hours of community service and a conditional discharge, according

When the RNC paid for a wardrobe for VP nominee Sarah Palin, the media screamed. When Debbie Wasserman Schultz tries to get the DNC to pay for her wardrobe, the same media yawns. While the major networks and print media extensively covered the Palin wardrobe controversy in 2008 and beyond, the media has been nearly silent on the DWS effort to score some decent threads from the DNC or Obama campaign. Flashback to 2008 when Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was tapped to be GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate, just five months after giving birth to...

The very ABC News that’s owned by the same corporation that owns the very same ESPN that quickly latched onto the anti-violence-against-women media crusade, came out with a segment that aired on “Primetime” in 2006. It would appear none of the sanctimonious in the media remember the segment, if they saw it at all.

You know what I admire about bigots? I’m referring to the real wackos, the warped, scary, neo-Nazi, open Klansman, proudly sign-their-name haters. You know what’s kinda great about them? At least they’re candid.

Environmentalists have switched their assault on the world economy to a new frontier, previously unaffected by their agenda – peaks, Mount Everest to be more specific, located between China and Nepal in the Himalayas. The 29,029 feet mountain is in danger. What is the crisis? According to the National Geographic team, the mountain is “overcrowded with inexperienced climbers and polluted with waste.” The nature of the pollution includes human corpses, human excrement, garbage leaking from glaciers, abandoned equipment, and overcrowding. How crowded could it be? Mark Jenkins described at 26,000 feet the dangerous inconvenience of more than 100 climbers moving...

The school teachers lounge is a respite from more than just bratty kids. It’s a safe zone from the long arm of Michelle Obama’s food police. Students are already revolting against the newly-implemented school snack regulations that affect what is sold in vending machines. They will probably be equally upset to learn the vending machine just across the hall – in the teachers lounge – is exempt from the regulations.

Scotland's second largest health board, NHS Lothian, will not be giving further treatment to smokers for non-urgent cases, with referrals from GPs being refused. Dr. Zahid Raza said: "In Edinburgh, we will not see patients at the clinic that are still smoking. Evidence shows that they would not do well with the treatment." He also went onto say: "We try to avoid intervention and, in around 80 percent of cases, a smoker’s condition will improve just simply by stopping smoking and smoking other lifestyle changes."Dr Jean Turner of the Scotland Patients Association said that she was "extremely disappointed", adding: "I'm...

Democrats want to talk about "personhood" and reproductive freedom. They want to tell voters about a stubborn pay gap and women hurt by a low minimum wage. But what they don't want to do is talk about a "war on women." Indeed, the party that so effectively deployed the "war" rhetoric to help defeat Mitt Romney in 2012 has now sworn off its catch phrase, dropping it almost completely from a campaign strategy that, in so many other ways, is still very much about women's issues. "[Saying] 'Republicans are waging a war on women' actually doesn't test very well," said...

Madness has gripped our border. I am not talking about the migrant children fleeing from crime and violence in their home countries in Central America and looking for the opportunity to live a better life. I am talking about the misguided protesters—and the right-wing public officials that egg them on, railing against anything they think even might be an immigrant. Republicans need to get hold of themselves, understand facts and keep their anti-immigrant extremist voices in check. If they don't do it for the country's future, they should at least do it for their own political survival. Republicans cannot afford...

People who say they are concerned about climate change use more electricity than those who say the issue is 'too far away to worry about', government-commissioned study finds

People who claim to worry about climate change use more electricity than those who do not, a Government study has found. Those who say they are concerned about the prospect of climate change consume more energy than those who say it is “too far into the future to worry about,” the study commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change found. That is in part due to age, as people over 65 are more frugal with electricity but much less concerned about global warming. However, even when pensioners are discounted, there is only a “weak trend” to show that...

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., announced Monday that 16 former Virginia Republican elected officials have endorsed his re-election bid, including 14 former state legislators as well as former U.S. Sen. John W. Warner and former Gov. Linwood Holton. (snip) The list of Republican Warner supporters includes former Delegates Vincent F. Callahan Jr. of McLean, a former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee; Katherine Waddell of Richmond; L. Preston Bryant Jr. of Richmond, who served as secretary of Natural Resources in Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's Cabinet; Robert S. Bloxom Sr. of Mappsville, who served as secretary of Agriculture and Forestry under...

To the Editor: Is this the kind of country we want to be — where our children are sacrificed so that a small minority of Americans can have any kind of gun they want? Your child or my child could be collateral damage just so a small minority of Americans can have the pleasure of owning a grenade launcher if they want. Pick which child you want to sacrifice. How about your oldest so that the younger ones might still have a chance at life? Or should it be the youngest since you have invested a lot of time and...

How’s this for irony … V. Stiviano said a bunch of racist stuff about black people — and TMZ Sports has the footage. Among the lowlights … – “I don’t understand black people. You give them a little bit of money, they don’t know what to do with it.”

Even though, as a general rule, the leadership of national episcopal conferences is elected by member bishops (c. 452), in Italy (long story made short) the pope personally appoints conference leaders. Pope Francis appointed Bp. Nunzio Galantino as Secretary General of Italian bishop’s conference a couple months ago. Galantino is calling for a “taboo-free discussion” of priestly celibacy, administration of holy Communion to divorced-and-remarried Catholics, and homosexuality (sic: homosexual acts?). His call for a ‘taboo-free discussion’ of these topics suggests, of course, that, till now, their discussion has been hindered by taboos, or at least, that Galantino thinks they have...

The New York Times, which has actively helped Democrats and the White House perpetuate the phony "war on women" campaign against Republicans, reportedly fired its female executive editor because she complained about pay inequality at the so-called "paper of record." On Wednesday, the Times announced that Dean Baquet, the managing editor, would replace Jill Abramson, becoming the paper's first black executive editor. Abramson was promoted to executive editor with much fanfare in 2011. "Several weeks ago," according to The New Yorker, "Abramson discovered that her pay and her pension benefits as both executive editor and, before that, as managing editor...

Meet the well-funded advocacy network of liberal groups that orchestrated the successful ouster of the Benham Brothers from HGTV. Until last week, David and Jason Benham were set to host a new home-renovation show on the Home and Garden Television network, called “Flip It Forward.” But all that changed after an obscure website called Right Wing Watch drew negative attention to the Benham’s conservative views on abortion and gay marriage. The website vilified the hosts with the headline, “HGTV Picks Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice Extremist For New Reality TV Show.” The story shed light on how the hosts’ father, Flip Benham, is...

‘Two, four, six, eight. Stop the violence. Stop the rape.” So chanted a group of Ohio University students calling themselves “f***rapeculture” at a protest a couple of years ago. Rape-culture activists have become a fixture on campuses throughout the country, and now, 55 colleges — including Harvard, Princeton, and Berkeley — are under federal investigation for mishandling sexual-assault complaints. Some of my conservative/libertarian sisters have pointed out that the statistics on sexual assault are wildly inflated. Christina Hoff Sommers notes that the “one in five women are victims of rape” statistic that the Centers for Disease Control popularized (and that...

David and Jason Benham said Thursday they were disappointed that HGTV pulled the plug on "Flip it Forward," due to debut in October. After the network announced the show was upcoming, the lobbying group Right Wing Watch labeled David Benham an "anti-gay extremist" and reported on statements he made against homosexuality and gay marriage.

...The songwriter who penned Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” was charged with assault Wednesday after cops said he attacked his pregnant girlfriend in 2012 and threatened to “kill her like O.J.” Terius Nash, a 36-year-old music producer known as The-Dream, surrendered to cops Wednesday — two years after cops say he punched and choked eight-months pregnant gal pal Lydia Nam.