Free Republic

REAL AMERICA So when's the revolution? Exclusive: Patrice Lewis asks of government, 'Do they want us to snap?' The horrifying headlines were coming so thick and fast this month it was hard to keep up: •“Feds want your mental health records” •“Judge says ordinary tools are actually weapons” •“Hundred of thousands of New Yorkers refuse to register so-called ‘assault weapons’ ahead of April 15 deadline” •“Treasury now seizing tax refunds from adult children to pay parents’ decades-old Social Security debts” •“EPA SWAT team raids gold miners in Alaska” •“Harry Reid defends ‘domestic terrorists’ comments” •“FBI visiting gun shops to investigate...

Intro: “You can’t handle the truth!” Jack Nicholson shouted at Tom Cruise during the climactic court-martial scene in the movie “A Few Good Men.” Caught in a lie that exposed his “above-the-law” mentality, Nicholson’s character, Col. Nathan Jessup, justifies his lawlessness by declaring, “I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it!” It’s a riveting scene, pitting security against the rule of law. But before agreeing with Jessup that lawfulness conflicts...

When the government owns the land and natural resources and controls production from same, it's called communism. The Founders intended Americans to enjoy their God-given liberty. The constitution was written to severely restrict government power and ensure freedom. The founders never intended for an all powerful central government to own the land or to control the means of production. They limited the central government to about 18 enumerated powers and left all others to the people and the states to decide locally. The United States was intended to be a free Republic governed at various levels by elected representatives, working...

Sounds like the very definition of elitism. The elites in Washington DC, most of whom have never set foot in Nevada (outside a casino), controlling what the local citizens can or cannot do on the land within their state boundaries? This is not the way America was intended to be governed. Ever heard of local control? Self-government? States rights? To many of us out here in the West, pursuit of happiness means ranching, farming, logging, mining, drilling, hunting, fishing, or just living in and enjoying God's great outdoors. It's un-American and unconstitutional for unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington DC to...

While much of the world has focused on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, opposition forces in Venezuela continue to battle the brutal regime of Nicolas Maduro. While opposition forces battle for their basic human rights, the world, and in particular the government of the United States has remained largely silent. In February of this year, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was arrested by government officials on charges of "inciting unrest" for leading, at the time, peaceful protests against the policies of Nicolas Maduro and his ruling United Socialist Party. Despite the overriding belief that he was being held illegally, few world...

Regarding the Boston Bombing and the Bundy Ranch invasion: The nation is getting a wake-up call. Bombs and gun battles in the streets. Heavily armed federal police forces declaring martial law and locking down neighborhoods and huge swaths of land in desert communities. Heavily armed federal land "management" and forest "service" agencies using military grade weapons and tactics to collect civil "debts" and threatening to "shoot" innocent men, women and children who get in their way. And then corrupt U.S. mob senators who are in on the take and who are perpetrating the destruction of America have the audacity to...

Folks, with Harry Reid calling the Bunkerville patriots "Domestic Terrorists" who are endangering children by putting them "out front", and with April 19th approaching I thought I would open this thread.With Jim's permission I ask all Nevada Freepers (potentially SoCal too) to report gathering Federales and unusual Military movements in the area. Keep a particular eye around Nellis AFB and especially Creech AFB (Predator Drones). If you see something, say something. Asking for tolerance and indulgence from the admins to put this on the Front Page News bar.

BUNKERVILLE — Cliven Bundy’s fight with the Bureau of Land Management over the federal agency’s roundup of his cattle attracted a diverse group of foot soldiers: fellow ranchers, Las Vegans and militia and patriot groups were among them. Their battle cry is the U.S. Constitution and liberty. They fear the federal government overstepping its bounds at every turn. This concern, in their view, applies to those from all walks of life, be it a rural Southern Nevada rancher or a militia member from northern Montana. Ultimately, the Bundy protest — which was defused Saturday when federal land officials agreed to...

Shouldn’t college students know as much about American civics as they do about pop culture? Media Research Center TV went to American University last month to find out, discovering few who could name a single U.S. senator or the number of senators from each state. But most knew the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go.” Equally surprising are polls showing only one-quarter of Americans can identify Joe Biden as the vice president or name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (religion, speech, press, assembly, petition). Just under a quarter of Americans could name all five...

Bundy Ranch Standoff: Meet the BLM thug who tackled a 57-year old woman. (See my post entitled, “Margaret Bundy Houston Tells Town Board of Being Tackled by BLM: Feds Take Cattle Watering System.”) His name is Michael Roop. Roop is a State Staff Ranger for BLM, Oregon and to put it mildly, on the internet, this punk with a gun, badge, pepper spray and a K-9 is trending.

Nevada Standoff: April 12th - A historic day when the people rose up and forced tyrants to retreat.by Gina Cassini | Top Right News The media's version of the end of the Bundy Ranch siege is that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) simply "left" the ranch and "returned" the cattle out of the goodness of their hearts. CBS News even outrageously reported that the BLM "released the cattle to help restore order and avoid violence"! This despite widely-seen video of BLM thugs tasing Bundy's son and shoving a pregnant woman to the ground. And the protesters never threatened violence in any way...

Breathe Deep, America, While Liberty Is in the Air   By Arthur P. Hall, IIMr. Hall is director of research, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Washington, D. C "By liberty, I understand the power which every man has over his own actions, and his right to enjoy the fruit of his labor, art, and industry, as far as by it he hurts not the society, or any member of it, by taking from any member, or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys. The fruits of a man's honest industry are the just rewards of it, ascertained to...

Liberty University, in response to a heated Internet firestorm over the Benny Hinn Ministries' Liberty University Institute of Biblical Studies (LHBI), issued a statement regarding its firm lack of association with the Pentecostal televangelist:

Dodgers outfielder's antics are those of one young man's first taste of freedom Before you pile on atop irresponsible diva-punk-jerk Yasiel Puig, absorb a few random stories about the difficulties in his kind of transition: • Luis Castillo once set off a fire alarm in an American hotel, thinking it was a shampoo dispenser... • Rene Arocha felt his knees give -- actually felt faint and almost passed out -- the first time he walked into a grocery store and saw so many aisles of food...

Is it too farfetched to connect the dots between a brilliant Wall Street Journal op-ed by Charles Koch, the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, and the continued sluggish recovery in jobs, business investment, and the overall economy? I don’t think so. In his piece, Mr. Koch seems to make a plea for a big dose of free-market capitalism. He argues, “The central belief and fatal conceit of the current administration is that you are incapable of running your own life, but those in power are capable of running it for you. This is the essence of big government and...

Quite a find yesterday by Michigan Capitol Confidential, which is a publication of the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy. In Ferndale, Michigan, which is directly north of Detroit, the contract between the school district and the teachers union contains a clause that gives hiring preference to members of certain groups - mostly ethnic minorities. But the Ferndale school officials and their union have an interesting way of defining a minority, and if you're a Christian, you might want to look elsewhere for a teaching job: Should there be two (2) or more of these applicants with equal qualifications for...

As gun sales skyrocket across the country, an Oceanside shop that let’s you build your own guns says its business is booming too. Ares Armor offers gun enthusiasts a novel way to exercise their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. “Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, an individual can make a weapon for personal use, but not for sale or distribution,” said Ares Armor owner Dimitrios Karras. It’s legal and his business is through the roof. “We are flooded with orders right now,” he said. Ares Armor allows customers to buy all the parts needed to build a weapon....

This is simply a gem of a movie based on Howard Fast's excellent 1962 novel,( which I still have), of the first day of hostilities between colonists and Britain. There may have been bigger blockbusters made about the American Revolution (The Patriot, Revolution etc) but to me this under- rated 1988 film is a true classic, capturing the quintessential decency of American colonial village life in Lexington and the developing tensions and conflict on that fateful day of 19th April 1775. I agree with the 2 previous reviewers that this film is a great teaching tool. It shows many things:...

As one of the first to chronicle and applaud its rise, I am not ready to pronounce the death of the tea party movement. But there are plenty of reasons to believe that what was a concerted and focused force in politics is becoming more that of a less focused and more diffused effort. Some who have created their political fortunes under the tea party mantel, particularly its "leaders" in various parts of the nation, refuse to accept that what remains a great overall philosophy is no longer a "party" with which vast numbers want to identify. That has been...

The constitutions or laws of many nations provide for what is called “religious liberty.” In practice, this liberty is under severe restrictions in numerous countries, if it exists at all. The fact is that no one can really talk about religious freedom without examining what the “religion” holds. Grace builds on nature but does not contradict it. No religion, without further discussion, can simply believe anything at all. Some minimum criterion of order and right is presupposed to this freedom to follow religion’s teachings or one’s conscience. Concern about “fanaticism” is legitimate, even when such fanaticism is rooted in...