Free Republic

Control mobility – free movement – and you have controlled the population. Their other rights are automatically cheapened into functional irrelevance if the right to come and go without permission and free from interference is denied.And so it has been.It took a couple of generations, but most Americans seem to implicitly accept the idea that travel  – even on foot – is a conditional privilege conferred (and legitimately regulated) by “the government.” Which of course is just an evasive euphemism for the busybodies and control freaks who have somehow acquired a legal monopoly on the use of force –...

The House voted 236-173 Friday to pass Democrats’ Equality Act, pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “This is not about tolerance,” Pelosi said in a video posted to Twitter. “This is about respect for our LGBTQ communities, this is about taking pride.” “We won the fight in the House today, and we will continue until we see these protections become law,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., tweeted moments after the bill passed. The bill, which is not expected to pass the Senate due to its Republican majority, adds sexual orientation and gender identity to characteristics—race, color, religion, sex, or...

What is happening in the UK is terrifying. No, I’m not talking about Brexit, the event that has gripped news media and turned it into a frenzy. I’m referring to far more important matters. Matters that, if left unchecked, will turn the UK into one of the most authoritarian countries in the world. Just one example of this authoritarian trend; soon everyone in the UK will require age verification or the purchase of a special pass from a local retailer or newsagent in order to view pornography online. I say soon since the British government have in the past been...

President Trump announced Friday that he would un-sign the global arms pact known as the Arms Trade Treaty in the latest illustration of his aversion to international pacts and world governance. “We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedom,” Trump said during a speech before the National Rifle Association in Indianapolis. “I’m officially announcing today that the United States will be revoking the effect of America’s signature from this badly misguided treaty.” The origins of the treaty, which sets out international rules for sales and transfers of everything from small arms to large planes and...

Both groups were surveyed on a host of factors, including their use of marijuana and other drugs. The study’s authors concluded that “people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times."

“This president is the first president in the modern history of our country who is trying to divide our people up based on the color of their skin, the country they were born in, their sexual orientation, their gender, their religion. And that is an outrage.” That was Bernie Sanders, a Democrat candidate for president in 2020, at a CNN town hall event in late February. And as the Vermont Socialist explained, “our job is to bring our people together, not to divide them up.” This was not a new theme for Democrats. In September of 2018 at the University...

Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris recently supported legalizing prostitution in an interview she gave to the Root: “But when you are talking about consenting adults, I think that you know, yes, we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed,” she said, meaning that she would still support laws that would punish human trafficking and exploitation of women. Surprisingly—or not—this idea has also been embraced by certain segments on the right, especially among libertarians. Elizabeth Nolan Brown, an associate editor at Reason Magazine and an advocate of the sex trade, said Harris...

The American republic is rife with conflicts, hostility, and incivility. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel. Our society's conflicts are rooted in two rival views of freedom, one embodied in "1776" and the ideals of the American Revolution, and the other in "1789" and the ideals of the French Revolution. Once again America has become a house divided, and Americans must make up...

Tomorrow is the day. The AR-15 will be unleashed to circulate on the Internet forever. When the day of home 3D metal printing arrives every free citizen of the world will be able to make one. This is the nightmare for oppressors - but a blessing for the liberty loving common man.

The law of civil forfeiture allows police and prosecutors to seize and keep cash, cars, homes, businesses and property of all kinds without ever criminally charging or convicting the owners. As originally conceived, it was to be a deterrent by which law enforcement would transfer the ill-gotten gains of crime to the public treasury. But, as so often happens with governmental power, it has transmuted over the years into a semi-criminal operation in and of itself. In 2014, Chris Sourovelis’ son was arrested for selling $40 worth of drugs. Three weeks later, the Philadelphia police forcibly evicted the entire Sourovelis...

Years ago, in 1941, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm published a book called “Escape from Freedom”. Amazon summarizes the book as follows: The pursuit of freedom has indelibly marked Western culture since Renaissance humanism and Protestantism began the fight for individualism and self-determination. This freedom, however, can make people feel unmoored, and is often accompanied by feelings of isolation, fear, and the loss of self, all leading to a desire for authoritarianism, conformity, or destructiveness. It is not only the question of freedom that makes Fromm’s debut book a timeless classic. In this examination of the roots of Nazism and fascism in...

IOWA CITY, Iowa - A federal judge has ruled that the University of Iowa was wrong to strip a Christian student group of its registered status after the organization barred a gay student from a leadership position. U.S. District Judge Stephanie M. Rose on Wednesday granted a permanent injunction banning the university from rejecting the status of the group, Business Leaders in Christ, The Des Moines Register reported. Rose found that the university had unevenly applied its human rights policy by allowing other groups to limit membership based on religious views, race, sex and other protected characteristics. "Particularly when free...

Durham, N.C. -- Is it taking a stand or disrespecting the flag? That's the question some are asking after a Durham 10 year old took a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance at Monday night's City Council meeting, reports CBS Raleigh affiliate WNCN-TV. Video of the meeting shows Liam Holmes drop down. The council invited Cub Scout Pack 451 to lead the pledge. Liam said he is a Cub Scout. "What I did was took a knee against racial discrimination, which is basically when people are mean to other people of different colors," said Liam. His dad, Scott Holmes, said...

Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., represents arguably the most gerrymandered congressional district in the country, and he wants to keep it that way. His latest piece of legislation, H.R. 1 “For the People Act,” would force taxpayers to fund congressional campaigns. Congress has a knack for naming legislation after its opposite intended effect. If you’ve spent more than a weekend in Washington, you know that a bill named “For the People” is likely a far cry from actually benefiting the public. The “Incumbent Protection Act” would be a more fitting name for this piece of legislation. Forcing citizens to fund political...

For a country to stay free, it must be dominated by people who want to be free. To want freedom, you have to NOT be afraid. If you’re afraid of life, and you lack confidence or initiative, freedom will not appeal to you. Being taken care of will appeal to you. America started as a vast wilderness, populated only with a few cities. People who came to America were not afraid. If they were, they would not have come here. And they certainly would not have stayed, or survived. It’s easy to see how and why America’s earlier generations yearned...

It is always instructive to find out what governments are up to when the populace is distracted. It is also disturbing to see how the state will attempt to sneak seemingly benign dollops of tyranny into its governance like a shrewd mother slipping vegetables into the children’s dinner. After all, how are diligent citizens supposed to keep an eye on their leaders when the establishment media’s theater and pageantry constantly distract them? … government software that would block pornographic content.  As the American public fixated on Black Hebrew Israelite racists, an alleged Native American valor thief, and a smiling teenager...

LINK ONLY: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/01/30/new-york-abortion-law-liberal-leaders-celebration-death-life-column/2670049002/

t’s not the intolerance of progressives that is so insulting. It is the denial of their intolerance that is so abusive. File photo – Todd Shepherd When I was growing up it was the liberals who more often held the moral high-ground. Those of us raised in the 1970’s heard it all the time — “the end doesn’t justify the means.” It was echoed in the media, in nearly every political battle, in entertainment and at water cooler conversations. By contrast it was intolerant conservatives who spouted, “America, love it or leave it.”The American Civil Liberties Union came to the...

The democrats say the states have a right to defy the federal government when it comes to NOT enforcing immigration laws they don't like. Does this mean the more conservative states have a right to defy the federal government in regards to enforcing laws they don't like? 'Legalized' abortion on demand or same-sex marriage, for example. How about gun control laws? Is there any federal law that states MUST enforce even if they don't like it? Can cities and states pass sanctuary one man, one woman marriage laws? Sanctuary pro-life laws? Sanctuary gun rights laws? Sanctuary free religion laws? Sanctuary...

Bill LuMaye: Tell me a little bit about President Bush and what he signed in regards to Agenda 21 and the UN. Greg Brannon: He signed the Rio Summit in 1992 that put all the CO2 climate control as law de facto. He needed the Senate to pass it. This is important. Treaties must be passed by US Senate. Okay? What they do is they change it to agreements or what since President- Bill LuMaye: Why did they change it to agreements? Greg Brannon: Because you don’t need the Senate to pass it. -------------------- Greg Brannon: “It has long been...