Free Republic

Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all. Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb. "This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large...

24% Are Both Fiscal and Socially Conservative, 9% Fiscally and Socially Liberal Saturday, November 24, 2007 Forty-one percent (41%) of American voters say they are conservative when it comes to “fiscal issues such as taxes, government spending, and business regulation.” A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 43% consider themselves fiscally moderate and 12% say liberal. At the same time, 37% say they are conservative when it comes to “social issues like abortion, public prayer, and church-state topics.” On such social issues, 30% say they are moderate while 30% say liberal. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Republicans consider themselves fiscal...

Despite the massive show of force authorities displayed last week when they seized the West Lebanon property of convicted tax evaders Edward and Elaine Brown, the avoidance of confrontation with the couple at their Plainfield home suggests law enforcement agencies have learned from mistakes made during earlier federal standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge, an expert who tracks militia and radical right-wing movements said. U.S. marshals in New Hampshire appear to be pursuing tactics similar to those used in Montana in 1996, when federal agents successfully negotiated the peaceful surrender of the Montana Freeman after an 81-day standoff, said Mark...

ON APRIL 2, this newspaper reported that the Los Angeles Police Department had asked Philip Morris USA for a $50,000 donation to help fund its investigation into counterfeit cigarettes. That makes a lot of sense: If TV cop shows have commercials, why shouldn't real police work have corporate sponsors too (you know, aside from the obvious reasons of favoritism, bias and perverse incentives)? For that matter, what's wrong with wealthy families in La Cañada Flintridge, San Marino and other communities holding constant fundraisers to pay for the unfunded needs of their local public schools — drama societies and marching bands...

Maybe the era of big government isn't over, after all. As Americans finish their annual tax-filing flurry to meet a Tuesday deadline, it is true that tax rates are lower than they were a few years ago. But according to a different yardstick, the federal government's reach is expanding. Slightly over half of all Americans – 52.6 percent – now receive significant income from government programs, according to an analysis by Gary Shilling, an economist in Springfield, N.J. That's up from 49.4 percent in 2000 and far above the 28.3 percent of Americans in 1950. If the trend continues, the...

The most interesting moment on the remarkable and historic first day of the 110th Congress was the eloquent, gracious and insightful speech of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). For those who missed it, go back and watch the video. Here are some excerpts: Resident Scholar Norman J. Ornstein “Twelve years ago, some of us stood proudly in this chamber as our former colleague, [then-newly minted Minority Leader] Dick Gephardt (D) of Missouri, handed the gavel to the new Republican Speaker, Newt Gingrich of Georgia. . . . There were some great achievements during the 12 years that followed, but...

A student at a Catholic university in Pittsburgh is protesting the school's decision to punish him for opposing the formation of a homosexual student group on campus. Duquesne University recently charged sophomore Ryan Miner with discrimination based on sexual orientation. Miner says he was punished for comments he made on a private website called Facebook.com after creating a group called "Against the Gay-Straight Alliance." Miner explains what happened. "I had written a blog, and I used not the most prudent of words but words that I felt coincided within my faith in the Catholic Church," the student shares. "I said,...

Catholic University Threatening to Expel Student for Calling Homosexual Acts 'Subhuman' PITTSBURGH, PA, October 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Duquesne University, which describes itself as "one of the top ten Catholic universities in the nation," has punished a 19-year-old sophomore for statements made on a website which had no connection to the school.  While the mainstream media has frequently repeated that political science and pre-law student Ryan Miner is being sanctioned for calling gays and lesbians 'subhuman', Miner told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview he used the word 'subhuman' to describe homosexual acts, not homosexuals themselves.The University was considering a request to...

This Land Is Not Your Land by Laurence M. Vance Vance Publications This land is your land, this land is my land, From California, to the New York Island, From the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, This land was made for you and me. ~ Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land" My fellow Americans – this land is not your land. This land belongs to the federal government. And what it doesn’t own it can take through its power of eminent domain. The FY2004 Federal Real Property Profile has now been released. In it we see that...

Kennett Square, Pa. July 7, 2004 — The next time residents in Kennett Square pick up a can of paint for an at home paint job, they'd better pick up a permit too. Al Willard/KENNETT SQUARE, PA.: "I actually couldn't believe that it was true. It would seem too bizarre." That's the reaction from homeowners about a controversial vote in Borough Council this month, one that has put Mayor Leon Spencer in the hot seat. He broke a 3 to 3 tie over plans to enforce an 8 year old law that requires permits for paint jobs, wallpapering, carpet installation...

The new constitution is another step in the process that robs us of our rights NEVER say that Tony Blair doesn’t have a sense of history. While the treaty that establishes a new constitution for Europe was being signed, the Prime Minister’s spin-doctors were pointing out that this deal had been concluded on the 189th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. The implication was supposed to be clear. Tony Blair was a latter-day Wellington, once again beating off the French on Belgian soil, and thereby safeguarding British independence. In the words of Abba’s own anthem commemorating that battle, “the history...

Last fall, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, a federally funded agency chartered to spread liberty around the world, President George W. Bush delivered a speech holding out some "essential principles" as "common to every successful society in every culture." The first of these, the President declared, is that "successful societies limit the power of the state and the power of the military so that governments respond to the will of the people and not the will of the elite." That was what America had learned in its 200-year "journey" on the road...

[I do not contend that Lott believes what follows, and neither do I contend that by saying it, he would somehow save is neck. I offer it only as a mental experiment in truth telling. LHR] My critics say that my comments-regretting the presidential loss of the Dixiecrats in 1948-reflect a racial bias against blacks, because the States' Rights Party endorsed the rights of states to preserve segregation at the state level. In fact, the real issue is not race; it is freedom and federalism, concepts which apparently aren't understood by the national press or by my critics left and...

Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools. - Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651. ACTION Men's actions are derived from the opinions they of the good or evil, which from those actions rebound unto themselves. - Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651. AMBITION All men that are ambitious of military command, are inclined to continue the causes of war; and to stir up trouble and sedition: for there is no honor military but by war; nor any such hope to mind an ill game, as by causing a new shuffle. - Thomas...