Free Republic

How Systems Get Tired by Richard Fernandez August 19, 2015 - 2:42 am One of the arguments for the impossibility of an event is lack of previous failure. “It never failed before and thus can never fail ever”. The Washington Post’s editorial board invokes a variant of this logic to refute Donald Trump’s border policy, arguing there are so many illegal immigrants it is too expensive to deport them all, leaving no alternative but to accept more. Besides, America is still standing so what can be the harm in admitting more? The same argument is used to justify other policies....

The old musket pictured above was retrieved from Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin two years ago.  It appears to be a "trade musket" that was manufactured about 200 years ago.   From boatingwinnebago.com: “It was around 11 a.m. on Sept. 4 and as soon as I saw the barrel I knew what it was,” he said. There — hooked on the end of his anchor — was a flintlock musket, rusted and weathered by the passage of time. “This is crazy. It’s like one of those tall fish tales,” he thought as he held the ancient musket in hand and turned...

The Orange County Public Administrator’s Office has dealt with its share of unusual inheritances. There was the protection they once had to arrange for a $500,000 ring. And there was the pet eel. But even for the agency that takes care of a decedent’s assets when no one else can act on that person’s behalf, the upcoming estate sale of Gerald Willits, a Buena Park man who died in August 2014 and left 69 cars in his yard, is “very unusual,” according to Elizabeth Henderson, chief deputy public administrator for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Iowa and New Hampshire are two states when it comes to politics that are to some degree are jaded to the star power of candidates. These are the states that have presidential candidates visiting in barber shops when you walk in for a haircut. These are the states where you are going to lunch at 12:00 (when the town horn sounds) with your parts manager from the John Deere dealership only to find a governor talking to a group in the back room of the local pizza restaurant. I had seen the reaction to Donald Trump when he came to...

Reflections on the Kirk campaign and the helper scandal… In the classic Kaufman & Hecht comedy “The Front Page” (and its wild remake, “His Girl Friday”), there is a moment when everything looks darkest for our heroes, as the governor and mayor are about to arrest the publisher and editor for harboring an escaped criminal… when all of a sudden a piece of evidence falls into their hands (proof of attempted bribery of one Mr. Pettibone by the governor and mayor), which gives them a second chance, an opportunity to escape punishment for their error and come back on top,...

WALLER COUNTY, Texas — A group of armed members of the New Black Panther Party marched on the Waller County Jail Wednesday afternoon chanting “The revolution is on… Off the pigs,” and “Oink Oink… Bang Bang!” The group of about fifteen Black Panthers exercised their First and Second Amendment rights. The group was met in Waller County by a large contingent of Harris County (Houston) Sheriff’s Office deputies. In order to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s disturbance where protesters invaded the Sheriff’s Office foyer and engaged in disruptive behavior, Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith called the Harris County...

On Facebook, James Melanson reported that he was assaulted, called “faggot,” and claims he was not taken seriously by a police officer at the scene. “If you’re queer,” he wrote, “Get a tazer. It’s the only protection you have here… Queer people are not safe in Portland. We’re not.” The following is sourced from Melanson’s origin message. He gave me permission to repost it here. So, long story short, but I was physically assaulted by a homophobe from Maryland today. I’m fine. My chest still hurts from where he punched me (also punched me in the face, but my face...

I love the Cardinals. My problem is that our vacation is next week, August 17 through 21, and Ferguson has erupted again. We are ready to drop some serious coin on good baseball tickets and a nice downtown hotel, but I'm not sure I want to do that, considering what happened (again) this weekend. All you St. Louis FReepers - what's it like near the stadium lately?

There is a Ferguson, Missouri, that most Americans know: The town where a police shooting triggered violent protests, a federal civil rights investigation and a national debate on law enforcement's treatment of minorities. But then there is the Ferguson that new arrivals see: cheap housing, a diverse population and vibrant community activism. That second vision is helping to keep the city's struggling real estate market alive. A year after Michael Brown's death tore Ferguson apart, homes are selling, but at a slower pace. Prices have dropped, but the $50,000 median price so far this year is on par with 2013,...

The Legal Cheek blog reported on Monday that a Staten Island lawyer named Richard Luthmann has invoked what he thinks is his right to a trial by combat to resolve a case in which he is accused of helping a client commit fraud. The case involved his advice to the client In question to transfer assets beyond the reach of a group of creditors who had won a previous judgement against said client. The creditors are seeking punitive damages against Luthmann for helping to facilitate the alleged fraud scheme.

A 12-METRE monolith, hacked out of limestone by stone-age humans some nine thousand years ago, has been found at the bottom of the Mediterranean. The enormous stone totem, now split in two and sitting in the Sicilian Channel between Tunisia and Sicily, was hewed from a rocky outcrop some 300m away when the Mediterranean Sea was still a dry basin. It’s now under 40m of water. The new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, says the area was submerged about 9350 years ago (give or take 200 years) when the last Ice Age retreated. Before that time the...

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) - Officials say nearly 300 Columbus jobs will be lost with the closing of the Apogee Retail call center. The Columbus Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/1Ikppdx ) that the company announced the closing on Tuesday, after workers were informed. The closing is planned for Oct. 4. Apogee is a subsidiary of Savers LLC and operates more than 330 thrift stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The Columbus operation employs 176 full-time and 120 part-time workers....

Former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who ignited a national firestorm when he shot and killed African-American man Michael Brown, opened up recently in an interview with The New Yorker. Wilson revealed that since the shooting, he has struggled to find work and has been denied employment in several police departments in the St. Louis area. After working for a shoe store for two weeks, he quit when reporters began calling. His wife, who is also a police officer, also quit her job for her own safety. Wilson also revealed the he actually sought out the Ferguson police department because...

Man killed in police shooting had lengthy criminal past Updated: 08/01/2015 10:19 PM | Created: 08/01/2015 10:09 PM By: Stephanie Claytor, KOB Eyewitness NEws 4 The alleged gunman shot down by Albuquerque police officers Friday was out on bond at the time of the incident. Rafael Molina Jr., 33, was a convicted drug dealer, drunk driver and someone who threatened people with weapons, according to court records. Officers were chasing Molina after a 911 caller told police he had kidnapped a woman. The chase ended on Edith near Garfield, on Bonnie Green's mother's doorstep. "By the time I actually got...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/07/31/gop-presidential-candidate-ted-cruz-celebrated-trump-controversial-immigration-comments-dad-says/30944153/

The dashcam video released to the public of the violent arrest of Sandra Bland was edited.Bland was a 28-year-old Black Lives Matter civil rights activist and vocal critic of police brutality who died in police custody after a Texas officer pulled her over for a traffic violation, ordered her out of her car when she refused to put out her cigarette, and aggressively arrested her. Police say Bland committed suicide, yet the Waller County prosecutor says Bland’s case is “being treated just as it would be a murder investigation.”The Texas Department of Public Safety uploaded dashcam police video of the...

IVERNESS, Fla. — A Florida gun store owner has announced that Muslims are now banned from his gun shop. Andy Hallinan, owner of Florida Gun Supply in Inverness, says that, effective immediately, his store is a “Muslim-free zone.” In a controversial video posted online, he speaks of the history of the Confederate flag and goes on to say, “Our leaders are telling you Islam is a peaceful religion full of tolerance and love and hope. Don’t believe their lies.” Hallinan stated that last week’s deadly shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the final straw for him....

Marines give off their own uniforms for a comrade.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Vince Maranto entered the Marine Corps during the Korean War in 1951, and for the rest of his life, he lived by the slogan "Once a Marine, always a Marine." And that's the way he wanted to be buried -- in full dress blues. When Maranto died June 30, son Tony remembered his dad's wish, but years removed from the war, Vince Maranto had held onto only his coat. Tony scrambled to assemble pieces of a complete Marine uniform in the days before the funeral, calling around to surplus stores with little...

Tony Hsieh could buy a private island if he wanted to. The Zappos CEO has a reported net worth of $840 million. But Hsieh chooses to live in a Las Vegas trailer park he owns, according to a recent profile in The New York Times. The trailer park is "crammed with shiny silver Airstreams that are rented out to visiting computer coders," according to David Gelles at The Times. Hsieh lives in a trailer in the community he calls "Llamapolis" with his pet alpaca. The trailer park is part of Hsieh's $350 million investment into making Las Vegas a metropolitan...