Free Republic

Left-wing scholars, particularly in academe, make lots of attention getting assertions. Regrettably, they usually offer little in the way of illuminating evidence. "In the midst of almost unimaginable horror in Puerto Rico, a bright light has shone on one of America's most unjustifiable and economically backward laws, the previously obscure Jones Act," Brink Lindsay and Steven Teles wrote on October 2, 2017 for Washington Monthly. "First created in the aftermath of World War I to buffer the impact of post-war demobilization, the Jones Act requires that all ships that carry cargo within the United States be built in America, with...

Behind the Headlines by Justin RaimondoAntiwar.com April 8, 2002 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA POSTREL?Post-9/11: Who speaks for libertarianism – the Old Right or the Neocon Clones? A note from the author: I apologize, in advance, for the sheer length of this column, but since it addresses the sell-out of basic libertarian principles by people and institutions who purport to speak in its name, I thought it important to address these questions thoroughly, with extensive quotations from those I name. Too bad, in attacking Antiwar.com, these pathetic losers didn't do the same – but then what can one expect from craven...

I think I must have been ill that day. At some point, no one can say precisely when, libertarians apparently swore a feudal oath of fealty to the Republican Party. In response to an American Prospect article on libertarian disenchantment with the Bush administration, Reason's own former editor in chief Virginia Postrel explained that "real Dean voters don't like Jeff Flake. (I do.)" On the Crossfire view of politics, this makes sense: You pick your team and root for it, come hell or high water. The Platonic Real Dean Voter can't possibly hold any affection for a member of the...

US Muslims are tolerant, peaceful, and integrated into American society. Donald Trump has proposed profiling Muslim Americans and shutting down mosques. He claims that Muslim “hatred is beyond comprehension.” But the truth is that Muslim Americans are not only integrating into U.S. society, but are actually more opposed to violence and more tolerant than many other Americans. Muslim Americans Hold Mainstream Religious and Political Views US Muslims score higher than most on Gallup’s religious tolerance index. Muslims are similar to other religious Americans. Pew’s major survey of Muslims in 2011 found that religion was equally important to Christian and Muslim...

Conservative climate champions are often laughed off or ignored. But what’s happening within the American political right could change everything, and fast.Each year since 1989, the JFK Library bestows its Profile in Courage award to a public servant who takes a principled but unpopular position. This year,the award went to Bob Inglis, a former congressman from South Carolina who’s turned into America’s best hope for near-term climate action. Oh, he’s also a Republican.As you might expect, Inglis wasn’t always a climate campaigner. In his acceptance speech last week at the JFK Library in Boston,he described how and why he changed...

Jerry Taylor believes he can change the minds of conservative climate skeptics. After all, he helped plant the doubts for many in the first place. He’s president of the Niskanen Center, a libertarian-leaning Washington, DC, think tank he founded in 2014. He and his colleagues there are trying to build support for the passage of an aggressive federal carbon tax, through discussions with Washington insiders, with a particular focus on Republican legislators and their staff. Lesson one: Pick the right targets Political scientists consistently find that mass opinion doesn’t drive the policy debate, so much as the other way around....

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Former Mexican President Vicente Fox proposed on Wednesday the legalization of opium poppy production as a way to help end bloody turf battles fought by drug cartels in various parts of the country. Fox served as president from 2000-2006 with the center-right National Action Party but has since distanced himself from the party. In the past, he has also advocated for the legalization of marijuana. “The plants themselves are not harmful, we make them harmful, (especially) the criminals who use them for evil purposes,” Fox said at a pro-marijuana event in the capital. He also implored...

The Houston school district is under fire after a student without legal status ended up in immigration detention following his arrest by a school police officer for an altercation with a female student. A lawyer for Dennis Rivera Sarmiento, 19, said his client was bullied by the 15-year-old girl and retaliated only after she taunted him with racial slurs, threw a full bottle of Gatorade at him and confronted him. "He's very fearful of being deported to Honduras," said Rivera's attorney, Brandon Roché. On Wednesday, students at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston staged a lunch hour walkout to...

The hippies of the 70s are old. Time is merciless and none of us get out of here alive. My dad is a baby boomer born in 1944. He enjoyed his time as a 20 and 30 something in the '60s and '70s of America. It was a crazy time marked by free-love, tie-dyed shirts, pot-smoking, a free-wheeling youth, and the chaos of Vietnam. That was a long time ago. Until a year ago, my dad, now in his early 70s, was diagnosed with ParkinsonÂ’s Disease. My dad was a strong man who worked construction much of his life. His...

Gov. Phil Scott has signed Vermont's marijuana legalization bill into law. A Scott administration official tells WCAX the governor signed the bill shortly before 2 p.m. Monday. Scott is now the first governor in the country to sign marijuana legalization into law. Eight other states legalized marijuana through public referendums. In a letter to lawmakers, Scott said he signed the bill, H.511, with "mixed emotions." The bill allows Vermonters over the age of 21 to have an ounce of weed and to grow a few plants. Once signed, the new law goes into effect July 1.

Ashley was a toddler in December 2008, when she was diagnosed with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Her doctors gave the little girl several rounds of chemotherapy and spinal injections to fight the cancer. The treatment sent her cancer into remission, but one of the spinal injections triggered seizures. She’s been plagued by debilitating seizures since the age of 2, and remained on a number of medications with several serious side effects.... ... To the Surins, the patch and the oil seemed simple and straight forward. Ashley gets what looks like a small bandage on her foot twice a day. They rub...

Pennsylvania is struggling with the legalization of medical marijuana and the Federal prohibition of marijuana use.The state police have quoted federal law as prohibiting people who legally use marijuana under state law, from purchasing firearms under federal law. Medical marijuana users may be denied a Pennsylvania license to carry firearms. From the Pennsylvania State Police website: If you are holder of a Medical Marijuana Card, it is important that you know: It is unlawful for you to attempt to purchase a firearm under Federal law and you will be denied during your Pennsylvania State Police background check, due to...

It’s a new year and medical marijuana is finding its way into the Keystone State. That’s not particularly remarkable since it’s a trend which has taken root in plenty of states around the nation. But Pennsylvania gun owners are now facing the same conundrum threatening to plague their fellow Second Amendment enthusiasts in other states where either medical or recreational pot has been legalized. The Pennsylvania State Police are telling everyone with both a firearm and a medical marijuana card to prepare to find a way to “dispose” of their guns. (CBS Pittsburgh)

Congress is ending the year with battles over tax reform and how to fund the government into next year. Another battle being fought is over the future of medical marijuana in America.The Justice Department is working overtime to remove a restriction in current law that prevents the federal government from prosecuting medical marijuana businesses in states where it has been made legal. The problem is that if the Department of Justice is successful, it would undermine a number of promises that President Donald J. Trump made on the campaign trail.A coalition of federalist-minded conservatives and libertarians have voiced strong support...

One of the most popular ground cannabis vapourizers - though definitely not the most affordable - has received a serious upgrade, one that's well worth a view. And if the Arizer's too rich for you, Vie has unleashed a much different and less expensive model it thinks should be, well, high on your shopping list. It's always nice to have choices! With medical marijuana all the rage and legal marijuana on the Canadian horizon, it seems that it's more a matter of "when" the stuff will become mainstream, rather than "if." But there are still the issues of smoke, second...

The war on drugs has been going on since 1971, and we have a winner: marijuana. Back then, possession of pot carried heavy penalties in many states -- even life imprisonment. Today, 29 states sanction medical use of cannabis, and eight allow recreational use. Legal weed has become about as controversial as Powerball. One sign of the shift came in Wednesday's debate among the Democrats running for governor of Illinois. The state didn't get its first medical marijuana dispensary until 2015, and it decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot only last year. But most of the candidates endorsed legalization...

Let's talk about marijuana. Specifically, let's talk about how and why I came to be one of the countless parents across America (and around the world) who have let their chronically ill children try it. A groundbreaking new study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine reported on the health benefits of cannabidiol for children with epilepsy. The randomized, double-blind, controlled study found that among children with Dravet syndrome taking cannabidiol, the decrease in the frequency of convulsive seizures was 23 percentage points greater than the decrease in seizures among children taking a placebo. Cannabidiol is one...

Vials of cannabis-laced sprays, lotions and tinctures line display shelves a few steps from handbags specially designed to tote marijuana products.-snip. A stylish kitchenette and table is on the opposite side of this ... medical marijuana showroom, space used to host educational sessions on the merits of the drug — something legal only under very strict circumstances in Florida until Amendment 2 took effect last week. This ... storefront ... looks more like a day spa lobby or high-end salon. Nothing about it evokes images of the seedy bong-filled pot shops of popular imagination. -snip- More than 60 Florida communities...

When my mother struggled with cancer, her appetite dropped to nothing. In my state, medical marijuana is legal, so the doctor prescribed it to help her appetite. To say it worked would be an understatement. Within a couple of days she was eating normal amounts and felt hunger for the first time in a week. With the drug, she was able to maintain her weight and strength. She stayed with me during her treatment but went home to dad some as well. On one of her trips home to dad, she ran out of the medical marijuana and went to...

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Tuesday banned the Justice Department from prosecuting medical marijuana cases if no state laws were broken. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the federal agency to show that 10 pending cases in California and Washington state violated medical marijuana laws in those states before continuing with prosecutions.