Free Republic

AGENCY LOBBYING HARD FOR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE South Carolina’s corrupt transportation “leaders” still desperately want to foist Interstate 73 on dirt poor Palmetto State taxpayers … even as government’s embarrassing inability to do basic maintenance continues to be on display all over the state.How desperate are our powerful “roads czars” to get this Interstate built? Let’s recap …First, they’ve spent more than $100 million on an interchange for the highway (even though it’s not clear if it will ever be built).Next they’ve proposed spending millions more on wetlands mitigation related to the road (again, even though it’s not clear if...

On August 22, the 20th anniversary of welfare reform being signed into law, my new paper, “Poverty After Welfare Reform,” was released. It sprawled into a 45,000-word opus that ate my summer. Due to its length, the report has benefitted from a “Piketty Effect” in that criticism has been slow to come simply because it takes too much time to get through it. But Slate Moneybox columnist Jordan Weissmann made it through, and he is not buying my claim that child hardship is lower or no higher than in 1996. Unlike many liberal commentators, Weissmann concedes that it is “basically...

In an article posted on August 19th titled "Donald Trump and Islamists," I stated that I do not use the term "moderate" when referring to Muslims because it is so grossly misused as to have become meaningless. Nevertheless, one commenter stated, "It’s dangerous to perpetuate the myth of moderate Islam," which I had neither intended to do nor done. This post elaborates on the word "moderate" as it applies to Islam.The term "moderate" Muslim is often applied to those who do not want to kill for Allah, but who want other Muslims to do it for them and for Allah....

Islam is a deadly totalitarian political system masquerading as a religion. Few in the West know this and/or are willing to admit it. Being honest about this doesn't mean hating Muslims. It means understanding the religion and why it is dangerous to the rights and freedoms and way of life in the West, and why that danger probably isn't going to go away. The last Pope seems to have understood this. At Asia Times, Spengler writes:

U.S. Postal Service executives are looking into what is known as blockchain technology, and, after a cursory examination conducted with the help of a consultant, they have decided to look further.Blockchain’s main function is to serve as a way to transfer value … or pay for things. It would support bitcoin, the new super currency that could come in handy with global wire transfers, a substantial side business for the Postal Service.But it also could be used to block identity theft, verify and sign small contracts and assist with inventory management and other business functions. A recent inspector general’s report...

Amid controversy over new protections President Barack Obama has extended to transgender people, a number of Jewish groups have welcomed them. A statement Friday from the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center praised the guidance issued the same day by the Justice and Education departments requiring that schools receiving federal funds end discrimination based on sexual identification. […] The National Council for Jewish Women said the guidance “provides needed clarity and best practices for public school districts and institutions of higher learning.” Also praising the guidance was Rabbi Jack Moline, who directs Interfaith Alliance, a coalition that includes major Jewish national...

Some great news in asset forfeiture reform is coming out of Florida. S.B. 1044, approved by the legislature earlier in the month, was signed into law today by Gov. Rick Scott. The big deal with this particular reform is that, in most cases, Florida police will actually have to arrest and charge a person with a crime before attempting to seize and keep their money and property under the state's asset forfeiture laws. One of the major ways asset forfeiture gets abused is that it is frequently a "civil", not criminal, process where police and prosecutors are able to take...

Newt Gingrich laid it out perfectly on Sunday. The forced ouster of Mozilla co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich this week was a sign of the "new fascism" of liberalism that's sweeping American life. "People need to realize, if you're a young faculty member, in a lot of places if you're a young member of a news department and you have the wrong views – meaning conservative – you have no career," Gingrich said on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "This is just the most open and blatant example of the new fascism, which says, 'if you don't agree with us...

Since March of 2010, the American people have had to suffer under the incredible economic burden of the Affordable Care Act—Obamacare. This legislation, passed by totally partisan votes in the House and Senate and signed into law by the most divisive and partisan President in American history, has tragically but predictably resulted in runaway costs, websites that don’t work, greater rationing of care, higher premiums, less competition and fewer choices. Obamacare has raised the economic uncertainty of every single person residing in this country. As it appears Obamacare is certain to collapse of its own weight, the damage done by...

Rep. Rick Saccone stands on the House floor to urge for support of an amendment to a property tax bill that contains the language of HB 76, the Property Tax Independence Act.

It's far too early to say what will or won't make it to the final draft of Sen. Tom Carper's legislation to reform the U.S. Postal Service. But it is a safe bet the Postal Service's huge and growing deficit in funding for employee pensions and medical benefits will be addressed. Ask any casual observer of the Postal Service's increasingly dire fiscal situation, and they will say the "prefunding requirements" are a big part of the problem. This may be true, but removing this obligation would not come close to addressing the Postal Service's need for reform and cannot be...

One of the three winners of the record-breaking Powerball lottery jackpot in the United States became wealthy overnight thanks to the generosity of her boss, one of the American Jewish community’s leading philanthropists. Shlomo Rechnitz, a health care magnate who owns 80 assisted living facilities throughout California, purchased nearly 18,000 lottery tickets for all of his employees, one of which happened to contain the winning numbers. The unprecedented $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot will be divided among three winning tickets purchased in Tennessee, California and Florida. Each ticket is worth $528.8 million, lottery officials said in California, one of 44 states...

This is Part One of a two-part series. A new curriculum for Reform Hebrew schools in the United States, already being used by more than 10 such schools, is threatening to alienate young Jews further from Israel than they already are. Produced by Reform Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman, the new Kindergarten-12th grade course of study is entitled "Reframing Israel." Assuming that the default approach to Israel among Jews is positive and sympathetic, the title does not bode well for supporters of Israel. And in fact, the stated goal of the new curriculum is “teaching Jewish kids to think critically about the...

Judeo-Christian civilization has nothing in common with, and nothing to gain from, Islamic civilization as it now exists. They have been clashing for centuries. Now, Islamic civilization appears to be winning in much of the European Union and, to a lesser degree, in America. Can anything be done to slow and then to halt the spread of fundamentalist Islam? Ayan Hirsi Ali hopes there is and that Muslims will do it. I also hope they will, but am quite dubious that it will happen in the foreseeable future. We need to take other steps promptly.Preliminary disclosureAs I wrote here in 2012, I am...

Fantasy Islam: A game in which an audience of non-Muslims wish with all their hearts that Islam was a "Religion of Peace," and a Muslim strives to fulfill that wish by presenting a personal version of Islam that has little foundation in Islamic Doctrine. In December 2015, a small group of "Muslim reformers" met in Washington DC to discuss the reform of Islam.  They stated they were "Muslims who live in the 21st century" who were "in a battle for the soul of Islam."  They proclaimed that they stood for "a respectful, merciful and inclusive interpretation of Islam."  They...

Were one to watch the iconic segment from the 1976 Schoolhouse Rock! television program about a bill becoming a law, the process might seem like a meticulous, but noble, undertaking; a simple idea from citizens is passed along to their elected official and, after much debate and several votes, finally transformed into public policy. Anyone even vaguely familiar with how things operate in our nation's capital, however, knows that the process is far more complex and time-consuming than any fictional depiction. Many have compared the process to watching sausage being made; an analogy that is unfair to sausage makers, who...

Part 294 of 292 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. — More than two weeks after the Assembly finalized passage of a bill that would dismantle the state’s rogue political speech regulator, Gov. Scott Walker has yet to sign the legislation into law. And it’s not clear when he will do so. “I don’t have an update beyond what I have previously provided, which is that he will review this legislation and supports overall reform of the Government Accountability Board to provide a replacement that is fair, transparent, and accountable to Wisconsinites,” Walker press secretary Laurel Patrick told...

Suffering, perhaps temporarily, the setback of an injunction against executive amnesty; the administration is moving full speed ahead with its plans for refugees. Who knows what the actual intake will be before this is all done but missing from the equation is the untold number that will also arrive, subsequently, as derivative beneficiaries of those granted status (see here: http://www.uscis.gov/i-730). Unlike the folks entering across the southern border, refugees, once they’ve been admitted into the country and have stayed for a year, automatically qualify to adjust status to become permanent residents. From this point on, they are on a glide...

Both the Republican Party Leadership and the Democrat Party Leadership have one thing in common when it comes to tax reform. They both want to keep alive the socialist and failed experiment of allowing Congress to lay and collect taxes calculated from profits, gains, salaries, wages, tips, and other lawfully earned incomes. Of course, I'm sure a thinking person such as Carly Fiorina knows that our Congress critters love this particular tax because it not only allows our Washington Establishment to engage in all sorts of nefarious and corruptible schemes to fatten the fortunes of friends and donors, but also...

AP - The largest movement of Judaism in the U.S. passed the most far-reaching resolution in support of transgender rights of any major religious organization, saying Thursday that it's a continuation of a tradition of inclusion in the Reform Jewish movement.