Free Republic

Less than a week after leaving the Republican Party, Glenn Beck had something to say about how Ted Cruz should approach the primaries. Leave Scott Walker and Rand Paul alone. Otherwise, Beck warned, “we’re just going to end up with Jeb Bush.” (Bill O’Reilly was skeptical about Beck’s whole GOP-leaving business.) Cruz professed his admiration for Paul and Cruz, but didn’t quite commit to refrain from criticizing them. That’s because he can’t. The Republican presidential race can be split into the conservative primary and the establishment primary. Beck isn’t wrong that a divided conservative vote could benefit Bush, but there...

When California Bishop Marc Andrus wants to engage people in a conversation about climate change he doesn’t throw statistics at them, rather he begins with a question like: When was the last time you had an experience of wonder in the natural world? “If we can connect people back to it, or open them up for a fresh experience with wonder, it’s a great starting place for recovering a sense of why [climate change] is a moral issue,” said Andrus. Throughout history, the church has partnered with social movements on equal rights and justice issues. By beginning the conversation now...

This weekend Kirsten Powers and Jonathan Merritt stirred up controversy by writing in the Daily Beast that Christians have no biblical basis for claiming that religious belief should allow them to refuse to serve a same-sex wedding:Before considering legal rights, Christians wrestling with this issue must first resolve the primary issue of whether the Bible calls Christians to deny services to people who are engaging in behavior they believe violates the teachings of Christianity regarding marriage. The answer is, it does not. Nor does the Bible teach that providing such a service should be construed as participation or affirmation. Yet...

Jamie Foxx hosted the IHeartRadio Music Awards Sunday night and has spent much of the next morning taking heat on Twitter for a joke he made at Bruce Jenner’s expense. “We have some groundbreaking performances here too tonight,” Foxx said in his monologue. “Bruce Jenner will be here doing some musical performances. He’s doing a his and her duet all by himself.” “Look, I’m just busting your balls while I still can,” he added to a mixture of groans and applause from the audience, which included Kylie Jenner, the Olympian-turned-reality star’s teenage daughter. The tweet that seems to have set...

When Sen. Rand Paul makes his first visit to Iowa as an official presidential candidate next month, he will head to the campus of the University of Iowa. The location—one of the state's biggest liberal strongholds—seems unusual for a Republican, but Paul is headed there in the hopes of appealing to a different constituency. As Paul prepares to formally enter the 2016 arena, younger conservatives are emerging as a backbone of his campaign strategy: a source not only of volunteers and energy but votes. A youth-fueled campaign, his team hopes, will also help brand him as a fresh face for...

Late last summer, with midterms consuming the attention of the political class, a group of GOP activists spent two days in Des Moines trying to convince their fellow Republicans that change was coming to their party. With eyes on 2016, they attended the Iowa State Fair, talked with newspaper editorial boards, and even ventured onto conservative talk radio. To cap it off, on the last evening, supporters gathered at 801 Chophouse, the upscale watering hole of the city's political elite, as if to announce their movement had gone mainstream. That it couldn't be dismissed as fringe any longer. Their issue,...

Acceptance of gay marriage has long been a matter of when, rather than if -- in large part thanks to younger generations being overwhelmingly in favor.But just how quickly are views of homosexuality changing from generation to generation? A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute has some insights.The poll tested how millennials (ages 18 to 34) view various sexual behaviors, including homosexuality. And about equal numbers say homosexuality is morally wrong (38 percent) and morally acceptable (42 percent). Another 13 percent say it depends on the situation, while 7 percent declined to answer.What's most interesting, though, is when...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) fired at Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), among others, calling their ideas “fiscally irresponsible and dangerous to the country” and “just as bad as the Democrats” after they voted to raise defense spending on Thursday without offsetting that with spending cuts to discretionary federal programs. Paul had introduced an amendment that would have raised defense spending, but offset that increase with cuts elsewhere, such as the Departments of Education, Energy and Commerce. That amendment competed with an amendment from Rubio that would have increased defense spending with no offsetting spending cuts—just a blanket...

At the Starbucks annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, CEO Howard Schultz sent a clear message to anyone who supports traditional marriage over gay marriage: we don't want your business. After saying Starbucks wants to "embrace diversity of all kinds," he told a shareholder who supports traditional marriage that he should sell his shares and invest in some other company. According to a report by Forbes, Schultz seemed a bit intolerant of any Starbucks shareholders who opposed gay marriage for moral or religious reasons. During the meeting, shareholder Tom Strobhar (who founded the Corporate Morality Action Center) pointed out that after...

Colorado's legal marijuana is three times stronger than it was a generation ago and is often contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, fungus and bacteria, a startling chemical analysis of 600 samples has found. Additionally, modern pot has very low levels of cannabidiol, or CBD, the compound that medical marijuana advocates say gives the drug its healing properties. In most samples, the CBD levels were so small they were undetectable. The findings come from Andy LaFrate, a Ph.D. chemist and the founder of Colorado testing firm Charas Scientific. LaFrate will present the results of his research today at the national meeting...

Conservatives often find themselves at odds with the libertarian crowd. However, is that anger really warranted? As President Reagan once said, “If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” True conservatives and libertarians, let’s not pretend there aren’t fakers on both side, all agree on the fundamentals: limited government, personal responsibility, and economic freedom. Neither group wants the government interfering in our daily lives and telling us what we can and cannot do. Now there may be slight disagreements on how that plays out in the policy arena, but we should not allow...

Monsanto Co said on Wednesday it reached a settlement with U.S. wheat farmers who sued the seed company over market disruption after unapproved genetically engineered wheat was discovered growing without oversight in Oregon. Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" wheat, which was never approved by U.S. regulators and which the company said it stopped testing a decade ago, was found growing in an Oregon farmer's field in 2013. The company had said all the experimental grain was destroyed or stored away. South Korea and Japan temporarily halted purchases of U.S. wheat after the announcement on fears the unapproved wheat, engineered to withstand Roundup...

Southern Oregon marijuana growers want to ban industrial hemp production from the region out of fear that hemp may pollinate their crops and render them worthless. Some outdoor marijuana growers want industrial hemp cultivation to be limited to eastern Oregon - far from their lucrative marijuana crops. At the very least, they don't want hemp in Josephine, Jackson and Douglas counties. Compared to Oregon's marijuana legalization movement, the effort to launch an industrial hemp industry in Oregon has been an understated one propelled by a small but passionate group of advocates. When one of them, Edgar Winters, of Eagle Point,...

States across the land have legalized marijuana for medical – and, in some cases, recreational – use, but conflicts with strict federal anti-drug laws have left patients, other users, doctors, marijuana businesses and the banks and landlords with commercial relationships to those businesses vulnerable to federal raids and prosecution. A new bill introduced by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would solve this problem by simply respecting states’ rights. Medical marijuana has been legalized in 23 states and the District of Columbia, but that has not stopped federal agencies from aggressively – and inconsistently –...

<p>CARSON CITY, Nev. — Pets might soon be able to use pot under a bill introduced Tuesday in the Nevada Legislature.</p>

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued for criminal justice reform at a historically black college in Maryland on Friday, in what has become a staple of his message to young voters and minorities ahead of a potential presidential run in 2016. Paul, who has frequently nodded to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s idea that there are “two Americas,” said in his speech at Bowie State University there’s one America where citizens are free to pursue their lives freely, and one where the federal government piles on with unnecessary laws, burdensome fines and regulations, and overly strict sentencing guidelines that contribute to keeping...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul joined Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand Tuesday to propose legislation to legalize medical marijuana on the federal level. The bill, termed the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act, would move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II, allow access for veterans and put a final stop to federal raids on dispensaries, among other things. This is the first time a medical marijuana bill has been introduced in the Senate, whereas the House has seen 15 pieces of legislation on marijuana reform in the last session of Congress, according to Marijuana.com. The move...

Parents of the second Oklahoma University student filmed conducting his Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers along to a racist chant on a bus have outed their 'disgusting' son - but insist he isn't a racist. Brody and Susan Pettit, from Dallas, issued an apology on behalf of 20-year-old Levi on Tuesday night - three days after he was filmed singing 'There will never be a N**** in SAE' in a sickening video that has shocked the nation. He, along with Parker Rice, a 19-year-old privately-educated former Catholic schoolboy, were immediately expelled by the university president who also booted the disgraced chapter...

Oh my goodness, the 2014 election victories didn’t end the war! You mean the progressives are still out there dreaming of a future full of hugs and goosestepping? You mean the GOP Establishment hasn’t just given up its power and knelt before us, begging to be forgiven for its craven crony corporatism? You mean the fight’s not over? ... Kurt Schlichter was personally recruited to write conservative commentary by Andrew Breitbart. He is a successful Los Angeles trial lawyer, a veteran with a masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a former stand-up comic.

Scott Walker wants you to know he now opposes “amnesty” — even as he says he supports a policy that amounts to “amnesty.”