Free Republic

The Justice Department says it's backing off the prosecution of people who smoke pot or sell it in compliance with state laws that permit "medical marijuana." Attorney General Eric Holder says "it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers." Party hardy! I mean -- let the healing begin! I don't think the federal government should be spending a whole lot of time on small-time druggies, and I'm undecided about legalizing pot, which enjoys 44 percent support among the general public, according to a recent poll. Recreational use is not...

The Libertarian Party’s chairman said that the Republican Party’s hero “was not serious about cutting the size of government.” I receive the Libertarian Party’s “Monday message” each week, as a byproduct of the brief period before the 2008 election when I wasn’t sure if I could bring myself to vote for John McCain…until I realized that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” (That must be what McCain meant when he began every other sentence with “My friends…”) I couldn’t let Virginia turn blue and asphyxiate (though of course, it did anyway,) so I gave up on the Libertarians...

If the city authorities have their way, the widely sold tourist T-shirt proclaiming that "Good boys go to heaven and bad boys go to Amsterdam" will become a relic. Indeed, those bad boys may soon struggle to find their way to the city's fabled red-light district of "storefront" prostitution. Last week one of the main entrepreneurs in the city's perfectly legal sex industry cashed in, selling his properties in the district. The buyer, for $35 million, was a not-for-profit organization backed by the city of Amsterdam. The plan is to convert the buildings in which prostitutes pose in the windows...

IN 1995, the U.S. Su preme Court over turned a federal law that banned gun possession near schools. For the first time since the New Deal, the court ruled that Congress had exceeded its constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. A year later, Congress passed the same law again, this time specifying that a defendant can be found guilty of carrying a gun in a school zone only if the weapon "has moved in" or "otherwise affects" interstate or foreign commerce. While 72 of his fellow senators pretended to believe this requirement rendered the law constitutional, Fred Thompson voted against...

If I may, I'd like to ask for an informal 'poll' of FReepers: There are 2 'Conservative' movements in this country. Social Conservatives -- concerned about moral and social issues like gay marriage, teaching of Darwinism, etc. Political Conservatives -- 'conservative' meant as in, "Conservative with my money". Careful. Careful with spending, with defense, careful not to jump to conclusions, careful not to put "solutions" in place that will make the problem worse. All I would like to know is, what % of us are which? Please respond and say which, or both.

Essay one addressed Modern Liberalism as the religion, albeit the false religion, that it is. Next, enter stage right, Libertarianism. Libertarianism, or at least that mainstream brand of Libertarianism which zealously waves that oxymoronic political banner "Political Conservative, Social Liberal," has its own pint-sized political party, but more importantly the faith of Libertarianism has a Titanic-sized impact upon the religious inclinations of the leadership ranks of the Republican Party, and upon many of the prestigious think-tanks which preach republicans their gospel. Libertarianism's central claim to fame from a political standpoint is that it represents an anti-statist, limited government answer to...