Free Republic

Many people feel strongly about not shopping on Thanksgiving. Well, I have a cause of my own. Not doing business with any company that offshores its call centers. After dealing with some script-reading cretin out in God-Knows-Where because Old Navy's online credit card payment isn't working, I've decided that enough is enough. With so many Americans out of work, businesses should set up call centers here in the USA, not in some Third World slum half a world away. This may not be PC, but we all know it's true.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A new paper from the R Street Institute, a national research group, aggressively defends e-cigarettes.Dr. Joel Nitzkin’s analysis broadly counters attacks on e-cigarettes, which have mounted in recent months. Time will tell if the study’s conclusions offset or ameliorate the impact of those attacks.Nitzkin calls the e-cigs a tool in tobacco-harm reduction and pointed criticism at some of the most often-referenced events or studies assailing the safety of “vapor” devices.Release of Nitzkin’s analysis for R Street Institute comes in the midst of discussion here in Oklahoma of e-cigarette bans in public settings, including parks. Such ordinances have...

The future of state laws that regulate everything from the size of a hen’s cage to the safe consumption of Gulf oysters may be at stake as farm bill negotiators work to resolve a long-simmering fight between agriculture and animal welfare interests. The House Agriculture Committee added language to its version of the farm bill earlier this year that says a state cannot impose certain production standards on agricultural products sold in interstate commerce. The provision, authored by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is aimed at a California law that will require all eggs sold in the state to come from...

It isn't much, but at least it's something. Senate Bill 612, sponsored by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, would "reduce from 2,000 hours to the 1,800 hours the number of hours of instruction at a ‘licensed barber college’ that an individual must accumulate before he or she is allowed by the state to earn a living at this trade." The state requires 2,000 hours of education in a "barber college" to work, compared to only 1,200 hours of education to be a lawyer. According to the Institute for Justice (IJ), which monitors licensing in every state, Michigan’s mandate is among the...

At the risk of sounding like a fortune-teller or a braggart, WE TOLD YOU THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! We see something new every day out of Obamacare. Many of us tried to warn the rest of America that Obamacare was not going to be good for our country. We were shouted down and accused of racism. We were told we were against providing a basic right, ie. health care, to Americans who had no health care insurance. When we tried to point out some of the things contained in the Affordable Care Act, we were called liars. President Obama...

There are a couple of things I look for in a barber, but the fact they are required to have more hours in the classroom training than a lawyer is not one of them. That’s right, as Michigan Capitol Confidential has chronicled, if you want to cut hair in this state you need to spend 2,000 hours training before you can use the shears on strangers. But if you want to put out your shingle in defense of justice, 1,200 hours will do. Hopes were raised briefly last week when a bill was introduced by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, that...

I’d like to see a show of hands from people who believe that Barack Obama and his administration don’t use their regulatory power to punish enemies and reward their friends. Thought so. I don’t think that Obama’s administration is much different than other administrations in this regard, except varying in the intensity of their pursuit and the volume of regulations they have at their disposal. This abuse by all politicians, is, in a nut shell, the reason why our Republic, based upon limited government, is supposed to, you know, limit the powers of the government. Because Obama—and others-- have taken...

Earlier this year, the American Legislative Exchange Council released a report titled The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assault of State Sovereignty that documents the EPA’s ongoing attempts to seize more and more environmental regulatory authority from the states. One trend that the report highlights is the rise of so-called EPA “sue and settle” agreements. As it currently stands, the EPA has more mandates that it can handle due to limited resources and manpower. With sue and settle, the EPA has figured out a way to cut states out of the process and instead negotiate the agency’s priorities with environmental special...

When CNSNews.com asked Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) if he had read all of the 10,535 pages of final regulations published by the administration to implement Obamacare in the Federal Register, he said he had not and described them as “incomprehensible.” “Well, of course, I voted against [Obamacare], and I have not read all the rules and regulations,” Fleming told CNSNews.com earlier this month at the Capitol. “They’re extremely complex. An average person even with a law degree or a medical degree like me can’t understand them,” Fleming said. “They’re incomprehensible.” When asked if he was surprised by the large number...

Bureaucracies in the Obama Administration have thus far published approximately 11,588,500 words of final Obamacare regulations, while there are only 381,517 words in the Obamacare law itself. That means unelected federal officials have now written 30 words of regulations for each word in the law. …

I’ve taken a lot of flak from establishment media types and angry federal employees for my contention that the hullabaloo over the so-called government “shutdown” is excessive. The fact is most government activities have not stopped and most government employees continue to work. However, one activity that has stopped – and, man, this is personal – is the approval of new beer labels and recipes. From USA Today (tip of the hat to my dad): All new beers that get bottled or canned to be sold across state lines must be approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade...

<p>The city is launching a new offensive to monitor tanning salons and warn customers of the dangers of skin cancer from overexposure to UV radiation, The Post has learned.</p> <p>In what could be the Bloomberg’s Administration’s final health crusade, the anti-tanorexic plan will be submitted to the Board of Health on Tuesday,. The board — all appointees of Mayor Bloomberg — is expected to adopt the new rules, which would take effect in the spring following public hearings.</p>

Proposed South Dakota raw milk regulations will make it difficult for smaller operations to continue selling the substance in the state.  Department of Agriculture officials finished a third public hearing on the issue on Wednesday, saying the rules are necessary to ensure safety.  A legislative committee last August had rejected the rules until it had more information on their financial impact for farmers. The State of South Dakota currently allows the sale of raw milk, though not from retail stores.  Farms are allowed to sell the popular substance directly to consumers. Raw milk must also be clearly labeled as raw, but no...

When asked by CNSNews.com whether he has read all 10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations published so far in the Federal Register, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would not answer. … CNSNews.com later sent several emails to Reid’s communications director repeating the question of whether Reid had read the 10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations that the administration has thus far published. He did not respond. According to the voice mail recording at Reid’s office, Reid’s staff is not checking voice mails or emails. …

Regulators should boost oversight of the largest real-estate investment trusts that use borrowed money to invest in mortgage-backed securities because rising interest rates may push the firms into asset sales that destabilize markets, the International Monetary Fund said. A version of that scenario occurred during the rise in rates that began in May, the IMF said. Repercussions might roil the REITs’ lenders, disrupt the $5.3 trillion market in which they invest and damage the broader U.S. economy, according to its Global Financial Stability Report released today. Here is the report. Mortgage REITs have suffered since the May 1 surge in...

When asked by CNSNews.com whether he had read all 10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations that have so far been published in the Federal Register, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asked in return whether it was “important” the he read them, dismissed the inquiry as a “propaganda question,” and ultimately did not answer. … Those regulations add up to 10,535 pages in the Federal Register. That is more than eight times as many pages as there are in the Gutenberg Bible, which has 642 two-sided leaves or 1,286 pages. …

When Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) was asked on Wednesday whether he has read all 10,535 pages of final Obamacare that the administration has so for published in the Federal Register, he first gave a response that did not address the question. When Warner was asked the question a second time, he walked away without answering. …

<p>Top U.S. law enforcement officials urged the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to promptly issue a promised set of rules governing the sale of e-cigarettes, adding to a growing body of legal and public health officials demanding action.</p> <p>In 2009, the FDA was given authority to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco, although not pipe tobacco, cigars or e-cigarettes. The law allows the FDA to expand its authority over all tobacco products, but it must first issue new regulations. The FDA has said they are in development.</p>

<p>Monday’s deadly shooting at the Washington Navy Yard has renewed interest in why most military personnel are forbidden from carrying firearms on military bases. In the aftermath, some have pointed fingers at former President Bill Clinton, but is he really to blame?</p> <p>Not according to what we found.</p>

Virtually every major project under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s oversight is behind schedule and over budget—the result, watchdogs and government auditors say, of years of lax accountability and nearly automatic annual budget increases for the agency responsible for maintaining the nation’s nuclear stockpile. The NNSA has racked up $16 billion in cost overruns on 10 major projects that are a combined 38 years behind schedule, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reports. Other projects have been canceled or suspended, despite hundreds of millions of dollars already spent, because they grew too bloated. …