Free Republic

Like it or not, marijuana use has increased exponentially since President Nixon declared a war no drugs in 1971. Today, marijuana — or weed, pot, cannabis, Mary Jane — is the third most popular recreational drug in the United States, behind only alcohol and tobacco. Upward of 24 million people have used it, based on the latest estimates, with 14 million using it regularly. But despite a growing warmth toward the drug, and two states (Washington and Colorado) legalizing its recreational use, there are still some people on the fence about its safety and usefulness. So, to educate you nonbelievers...

Ron Paul: Don’t Palestinians Have a Right to Defend Themselves Too? Ron Paul Institute August 5, 2014 Speaking on Voices of Liberty, RPI Chairman and Founder Ron Paul explains that, while he agrees with the often repeated in the media declaration that “Israel has a right to defend herself,” he wonders why more people in the media don’t voice support for Palestinians’ right to defend themselves too. Paul elaborates: And [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu says 'Don’t second-guess me, don’t push a peace treaty on me because I’m gonna defend this country.' I think Israel absolutely has a right to...

Rasmussen Reports — a polling firm with close ties to Karl Rove and the Bush political organization – has released their “latest” polling on the North Carolina US Senate race. It purports to show Republican Thom Tillis at 45 percent, Kay Hagan at 40 percent, 6 percent for “Other” and 9 percent “Undecided.” (SNIP) The only polls I’ve seen showing Tillis ahead are these Rasmussen surveys, and one from Civitas right after the May primary. Just two days ago, Civitas releases a poll showing Hagan leading Tillis by TWO. Tillis is also woefully behind Hagan in fundraising. And the DC...

More than ten thousand people have been killed in Kiev’s punitive operation in southeastern Ukraine since April, said a Ukrainian parliamentary group. The MPs addressed the president urging to declassify information on citizens killed. The Ukrainian parliamentary group “For peace and stability” said on Friday that the figure was given by volunteer groups working in the east of the country, ITAR-TASS reported. “We have estimated that just in the first two weeks of July nearly 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the area of the ‘anti-terrorist operation’,” the group said in a statement in the Verhovnaya Rada (Ukraine’s parliament). “The...

This week Major Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving Veteran of the Enola Gay that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan, joined the rest of his comrades. His passing is a reminder of why using the atomic bomb was the right thing. In August 1945 the Allied Powers, led by the United States, were at war with Imperial Japan in the latter days of World War II. Japan would not give up. For every ten thousand Japanese soldiers that were killed by the Allies only a minuscule amount gave up; usually in the single digits. We were at...

The Obama administration pushed back strongly Monday at a torrent of Israeli criticism over Secretary of State John Kerry's latest bid to secure a cease-fire with Hamas, accusing some in Israel of launching a "misinformation campaign" against the top American diplomat. "It's simply not the way partners and allies treat each other," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Her comments were echoed by the White House, where National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the U.S. was "dismayed" by mischaracterizations of Kerry's efforts. Israeli media reports have cast Kerry as seeking a cease-fire that is more favorable to Hamas and being...

Republican lobbyists are working to persuade GOP lawmakers to change their position on same-sex marriage and revise the party's official position that "traditional marriage" is between a man and a woman. Gay marriage advocates say their efforts are paying off as an increasing number of members of the congressional delegation are diverging from the party line, The Hill reported. "The issue is losing its toxicity, from a Republican perspective," Kathryn Lehman, a top GOP lobbyist and partner at Holland & Knight, who helped write the Defense of Marriage Act, told The Hill. She has been visiting dozens of Republican offices...

Making controversial statements is nothing new for me. Neither is the reaction that usually follows. But perhaps no other issue causes as much discussion, debate, and condemnation from others than when I present my position on the issue of homosexuality. As a known Christian, I have been told that I MUST think a certain way and that I MUST believe a certain way regarding not only people who are gay, but regarding their entire lifestyle as well.

But I Voted For Obama For "Free Stuff",And I Am Entitled!.So how do these 65.9 Americans feel now that they are indirectly responsible for the horrific events of the last 2 or 3 weeks?,Was the free-stuff worth watching thousands of children suffering and dying trying to cross the border?,Was voting for a liberal worth what happened in the Ukraine along with god knows how many innocent people have died in the mid-east?And now here we are 5.5 years into the Obama Administration and thanks to these 65 Million"Selfish/Greedy" Americans, we are beyond a Nation In Fear!And to think we were...

Zdziarksi is certain that these mechanisms, whatever their purpose, are no accident. He has seen them become more complex, and they seem to get as much maintenance and attention as iOS' advertised features. Even as Apple adds new security features, the company may be adding ways to circumvent them.

Not so long ago the federal deficit was projected to destroy the country, our children’s future and just about everything else. Budget battles shut down the entire government for a couple weeks. How times change. A count by our colleague Alice Crites illustrates how the issue gained media traction – - especially after the Bush/Obama stimulus packages to mitigate Bush’s Great Recession – and how much it’s faded from the front pages. So what happened? Simple answer, of course, is that the deficit is way down and, for now, no longer a big problem.

Hi, Norm Matloff here. I’m a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, and formerly was a statistics professor at that university, but I also write about social issues. As the saying goes, “My life is an open book”–you can read the details of my background in my online bio. I’ve written op-eds for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg View, CNN and so on. Bloomberg gathers together its op-eds grouped by author; click here to see mine, and thus get an idea of my interests and views. (SNIP) In this blog, my topics will...

Israel trying to incite Palestinians against Hamas with sweeping raidsIsraeli occupation forces distributed huge quantities of matchboxes at the entrances of mosques and houses in the West Bank city of Nablus in an effort to intimidate residents. Written on the matchbox is a warning: “Hamas is putting the West Bank in flames”. Israel has been on a rampage in the West Bank in recent weeks, supposedly in an effort to look for three kidnapped Israelis. However, observers believe occupation forces are clearly using the kidnappings as an excuse to incite Palestinians against Hamas. Meanwhile, an elderly woman was declared dead...

When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient’s life by some painless means if the patient and his or her family request it? At first blush, the idea that a euthanasia should be allowed seems to follow a logic. If a person is suffering and wishes to end that suffering then who has the right to tell them no? It is their life, right? Only some troglodyte Bible thumper could possibly deny a person the simple mercy of ending their suffering. In this way it...

KIEV, Ukraine, Jan. 16 - As protests here against a rigged presidential election overwhelmed the capital last fall, an alarm sounded at Interior Ministry bases outside the city. It was just after 10 p.m. on Nov. 28. More than 10,000 troops scrambled toward trucks. Most had helmets, shields and clubs. Three thousand carried guns. Many wore black masks. Within 45 minutes, according to their commander, Lt. Gen. Sergei Popkov, they had distributed ammunition and tear gas and were rushing out the gates. Kiev was tilting toward a terrible clash, a Soviet-style crackdown that could have brought civil war. And then,...

Israel Police spokesman denies claim, says, "The police are working around the clock on this issue."

As the Ukrainian crisis has unfolded over the past few weeks, it’s hard for Americans not to see Vladimir Putin as the big villain. But the history of the region is a history of competing villains vying against one another; and one school of villains—the Nazis—have a long history of engagement with the United States, mostly below the radar, but occasionally exposed, as they were by Russ Bellant in his book Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party (South End Press, 1991). Bellant's exposure of émigré Nazi leaders from Germany's World War II allies in the 1988 Bush presidential campaign...

The Times led its print edition Monday with an article based in part on photographs that the State Department said were evidence of Russian military presence in popular uprisings in Ukraine. The headline read: "Photos link masked men in East Ukraine to Russia." ... The Times has published a second article backing off from the original [link at URL] and airing questions about what the photographs are said to depict, but hardly addressing how the newspaper may have been misled. ...

<p>The Right Sector played a leading role in January's violent anti-Yanukovych protests in Kiev.</p> <p>The Right Sector is the most radical wing of Ukraine's Maidan protest movement that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February.</p> <p>Activists claiming to be Right Sector members were involved in Kiev's Maidan protests [link at URL] from late November but the group did not attract much attention until violent clashes with police in central Kiev on 19 January, in which it played a leading role.</p>

Self-defence forces have managed to repel an attack on a checkpoint in Soledar city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region after unknown assailants landed in a helicopter and attacked in a blitz operation. Over a dozen of gunmen descended from the helicopter and launched an attack on a defense squad guarding a checkpoint near Soledar. As the unknown men attacked, the militia, most of them reportedly unarmed, was forced to retreat. Following the shootout, the attackers have retreated as well, taking one of the defenders hostage, the local self-defense force told RT’s correspondent Paula Slier who is at the scene. There...