Free Republic

The Obama administration released new limits on methane emissions from oil and gas wells that are even tougher than the industry expected - $530 million more per year than the already high costs. 25 percent more. The government, meanwhile, claims their new regulations will make money because this will stop storms, floods and other consequences of climate change. Yes, a government regulation on methane will change the weather. It is going to stink for poor people. Consumers always pay the costs for government ideology, because virtual money never seems to match the claims of politicians, as seen recently with the...

For those with eyes to see, the culture war we’ve been fighting for over half a century — the war of Christianity vs. Marxism — has entered a new phase. The Marxists have for all practical purposes defeated the American church, the last major barrier to global government, and the battlefield has shifted and broadened to the international community of the developed western world. There, as here, the Marxist elites have already successfully implemented LGBT cultural supremacy and granted favored status to Islam, to neutralize Christian political influence (in all but a few pockets of resistance, such as the countries...

S: One of the current debates is over "cultural appropriation" ... that white people should not appropriate the culture of ethnic and racial minorities. ... Have you followed this conversation? DH: Are you trying to say that I don't own the style of music that I grew up with and sing? I grew up with this music. It is not about being black or white. That is the most naïve attitude I've ever heard in my life. That is so far in the past, I hope, for everyone's sake. It isn't even an issue to discuss. The music that you...

Katie Couric’s gun control documentary “Under the Gun” was released May 15 without any portion of a four-hour interview conducted with John Lott, Jr. Lott is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and a known gun scholar whose seminal work is More Guns, Less Crime. On May 6, Lott tweeted that he had been “interviewed for 4 hours” for Couric’s film and he “bet” that four hours would be reduced to a “select few minutes” of actual screen time. The reduction happened alright. But instead of using those select few minutes, Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig cut Lott’s interview...

Since the Supreme Court decision on marriage, the government has put many religious universities on the "shame list" if they seek waivers that allow them to teach traditional values of marriage and sexuality without being stripped of grants or funding. "It is sad to think how far things have come where religious institutions are now being targeted for disfavor from the government because of their views on marriage," religious liberty attorney Roger Severino said at the Heritage Foundation on April 13, 2016. Dr. Derek Halvorson, the President of Covenant College, on the panel with Severino, said "Christian colleges and universities...

“The police are a tool of capitalism to control people in the state they are—staying in slavery, staying in poverty wages, staying in ridiculous working conditions,” one protester exclaimed at a rally after the die-in. “We are fighting against racism, we are fighting against capitalism, and we are fighting against patriarchy,” another protester neatly summarized. One student, in the course of haranguing PSU Public Safety, criticized officers for their alleged mishandling of sexual assault cases, and even accused them of being rapists. “Police are notorious for mishandling sexual assault cases. We all know that. They are often also rapists themselves,”...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved quickly to announce some sort of gun control proposal after it was reported that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was more than disappointed with the liberal senator’s lack of gusto on the issue of gun control (via the Hill): "He made a promise to a room full of advocates, leaders, and gun violence victims last fall in New York to bring an expanded background check bill to the floor this year,” said Brady spokesman Brendan Kelly. "With the first quarter down, he hasn't done it.” Brady is one of the largest gun control...

Those who view college as little more than expensive day-care just got some new evidence. "Even some of Brown's coddling administrators had to shake their heads at the student response to a debate between leftist feminist Jessica Valenti and libertarian Wendy McElroy," David French writes in the May 23, 2016 issue of National Review. "A campus debate is usually a tame-enough event, but this debate would deal with the alleged campus-rape crisis, and McElroy was expected to depart from the college orthodoxy and dissent from the myth that women at American universities are uniquely in danger of being raped." "To...

President Barack Obama probably needed his gown to keep him warm as he delivered a commencement speech at Rutgers University amid historically cold temperatures in New Jersey. But as he touted global warming, Obama denied that colder than usual temperatures meant that climate change didn’t exist. “Now, I recognize it doesn’t feel like the planet is warmer right now. I understand,” he said, acknowledging that there was hail when he landed on Air Force One in Newark. But Obama insisted that it was still a reality, citing “overwhelming consensus” from the scientific community to back his claim. He also mocked...

Did you know that Hillary supporter Barney Frank “was booed and shouted at as a "sellout" who should "go back to Massachusetts" by Sanders supporters at the Maine State Democratic Convention on Saturday? Somehow, the mainstream media managed to overlook this sign of the divisive passions rending the Democratic Party as its establishment strong-arms Hillary Clinton. Along with the incredible story of the Nevada State Convention where DNC officials fled, violence erupted and John Law had to be called in, signs are that the party is falling apart.

If people want to worship nature, that is their right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. But it is illegitimate to disguise nature worship as science. The informational media are scientifically illiterate and easily victimized by junk science. The media should adopt a more skeptical attitude toward crackpot science and hire a few scientifically literate analysts. The media should aim to provide vetted information and filter out or expose crackpot ideas.

Police say actor Wendell Pierce has been arrested at an Atlanta hotel where he was a guest. Atlanta Police Department spokesman Donald Hannah says in a statement that Pierce was arrested early Saturday morning at the Loews Atlanta Hotel. New Orleans native Pierce is known for his television roles as Detective William "Bunk" Moreland on The Wire and Antoine Batiste on Treme. TMZ earlier reported that Pierce allegedly got into a physical altercation with a man and woman, reportedly a couple, at the hotel after a political dispute. Citing hotel sources, TMZ reports that Pierce, an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter,...

But poverty-stricken seamstresses making some of the clothes in the MAS Holdings ­factory in Sri Lanka earn just £4.30 a day. It would cost them more than a month’s wages to buy a pair of Beyonce’s £100 leggings. The workers, mostly young women from poor rural villages, can only afford to live in boarding houses and work more than 60 hours a week to make ends meet. Most are reluctant to speak out for fear of losing their jobs. Campaigners insist the women are being exploited and treated like slaves. " We have to share the shower block with the...

Add one more investment to the list of CalPERS’ controversial investments: a privately run state highway. The retirement fund recently purchased 10 percent of Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. The firm runs a 157-mile stretch of highway that runs across northern Indiana from Illinois to Ohio. California’s state engineers’ union says it’s a horrible investment that sinks government employees’ money into a project that, ironically, is hostile to government employees. The toll-road company is the first of what fund managers anticipate will be more investments in infrastructure and transportation projects as the $291 billion system broadens its reach into those...

A band of exasperated Republicans — including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia — is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House. These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources­ and courting potential contenders, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republicans involved in the discussions. The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified significantly in the 10 days since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination. Those involved concede that an independent...

Despite all his rage, Billy Corgan is still just rattling the cage of American politics—much to the infinite sadness of Gen X-ers still holding onto their Siamese dreams of mid-’90s alt-rock Smashing Pumpkins greatness. On Thursday, he slammed “socialist” presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and accused liberal activists of infringing on free speech. “The tactics in the social justice warrior movement are to stifle and shut down free speech,” the singer said Thursday during an appearance on Infowars, the online network run by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

On May 12, The Washington Post’s editorial board contended that the shooting spree carried out by federal police officer Eulalio Tordil on May 5 and 6 highlights the need for a national gun registry. Ironically, the WaPo points to Maryland as one of the few states that already has a registry in place. Yet Tordil allegedly carried out his heinous attacks in Maryland. He is alleged to have shot and killed his estranged wife in Prince George County on May 5, then shot and killed a random male and female in Montgomery County on May 6.

If nations could have biographies, Venezuela's would read something like this: After a rocky adolescence, Vennie got his life straightened out, got an education, a good job, and lived a fairly comfortable life. However, in his dotage, he was suckered by a succession of con artists and blew through all his savings, ending his days penniless and bitter. That, in a nutshell, is pretty much what Hugo Chavez and his socialist caudillo successors have done to the country. By Latin American standards, Venezuela used to a prosperous and stable nation. Venezuela possesses one of the largest petroleum reserves in the...

The next great cause, now popular in academia, is legalizing prostitution. The author of "Friendship as a Way of Life: Foucault, AIDS, and the Politics of Shared Estrangement," [Dr. Tom] Roach based much of his presentation [at the University of Maryland recently] on the work of Michel Foucault (1926–1984), a French philosopher who died of AIDS and was accused of deliberately infecting his partners with the deadly disease. "In the mid-1970’s," says the LGBT History website, "Foucault taught at the University of California, Berkeley. He became enamored with San Francisco and its liberated gay sexuality—especially the bathhouses." Foucault declared, "I...

On Tuesday at the Hudson Institute, Senator Marco Rubio reported about his recent trip to Qatar, Iraq, and Turkey to discuss the importance of American engagement in the Middle East and the consequences America would encounter if it pulled out: "If we are not engaged in the world, the price we pay will be much higher in the long run than the price we pay to be engaged." Senator Rubio explained why America has a serious interest in what happens in the Middle East: "Whenever there are vacuums of instability... that vacuum is filled with radicals... We do not want...