Free Republic

Apr 15, 2014 4:03PM ET / Politics Your Photo Could Be Included in the FBI’s New Facial Recognition Database Lucy Westcott If you're applying for a job in the near future, there's a chance you could end up on the FBI's imminent new facial recognition database alongside criminals, whether you like it or not. According to information obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the database, known as Next Generation Identification (NGI), will for the first time combine criminal and noncriminal fingerprint databases, along with records of palm prints, iris scans, and mugshots. The NGI, which sounds like Facebook mixed with...

More at Reaganite Republican...

First, let’s be clear that this is about perceptions. The BLM vs. Cliven Bundy story isn’t about who’s in the right or who’s in control; it’s about who appears  to be in the right and about who appears to be in control.A little background first. Cliven Bundy is a rancher who lives outside of Mesquite, Nevada. His family has been ranching on that land since before Nevada became a State. The Bureau of Land Management, BLM, claims control of the land the Bundys graze their cattle on. Bundy’s position, in a nutshell, is “I was here first”. But like I said, the right or...

Chicago resident Nahshon Shelton was arrested over the weekend for allegedly pulling out a 22-caliber pistol gun and threatening a convenience store clerk and fellow customers in his anger over a 22-cent “sin” tax on the 2-liter Pepsi he was purchasing Saturday afternoon. Chicago police reported that Shelton was adamant that his outburst was justified, as they quoted him as saying “This is my neighborhood, I’m tax exempt! Man, you know what, I’ll keep it real. I had to put them in their place.” While I do not condone Shelton’s action, I cannot help but empathize with his frustrations. The...

Yesterday Brandeis University decided to withdraw an honorary degree they were to confer upon me next month during their Commencement exercises. I wish to dissociate myself from the university’s statement, which implies that I was in any way consulted about this decision. On the contrary, I was completely shocked when President Frederick Lawrence called me—just a few hours before issuing a public statement—to say that such a decision had been made. When Brandeis approached me with the offer of an honorary degree, I accepted partly because of the institution’s distinguished history; it was founded in 1948, in the wake of...

Call them “breast-obsessed” if you like, but more than 3500 years ago, Egyptian physicians documented breast cancer on papyri that survive to this day. Some authorities claim that these documents could date back much earlier than that. A key entry describes “bulging tumors of the breast that have no cure.” From Hippocrates on, causes of the disease were proffered by the leading minds of the day. These would include excess of black bile; lack of sexual activity; overly vigorous sexual activity; depression; childlessness, and sedentary lifestyle. Famed French physician Henri Le Dran was among the first to advocate surgical removal...

Other than hitting the perfect tee shot, nothing is more gratifying than the sight of liberals hoisted on a petard fashioned by their own corruption. In May of 2011, anti-gun lunatic Garry McCarthy was named Chicago Police Superintendent by mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Though making all of the usual promises about reducing the city’s crime rate, during his first full year–2012–Chicago recorded 507 murders, the most since 2008 and more than in any year since 2003. Of course, more important than 507 dead was the fact that Emanuel’s approval rate seemed to decline another notch...

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife And two small children. Suddenly, a terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges at you...  You are carrying a SIG Sauer 9mm, and you're an expert shot.  You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.   What do you do?  Democrat's Answer:  · Well, that's not enough information to answer the question! · Does the man look poor or oppressed? · Is he really a terrorist? Am I guilty of profiling? · Have I ever...

Changes to this year's census will make it difficult to assess how many people gained health insurance as a result of ObamaCare's first year of open enrollment, according to a report. The reported overhaul of census questions on health insurance arrives as politicians, journalists and researchers await official data on how many people gained and lost coverage in the last year. The changes are reportedly intended to improve the survey's accuracy. They will likely mark a "break in trend" for census health insurance data, making it hard to compared the 2014 report to past reports. The revisions and their potential...

Listen to an audio version of this column In my columns, I don't normally address the "concerns" of liberals in response to anything I write, but today I will. Last week I wrote a column condemning Brandeis University for its shameful withdrawal of an honorary degree it was to bestow on human rights activist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Brandeis' capitulation was in response to a slanderous open letter about Ms. Hirsi Ali written to Brandeis by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The slanderous nature of the open letter was in CAIR's description of Ms. Hirsi Ali as a "notorious Islamophobe"...

Winston Salem had its second gun turn in event this year (2014).   They spent over $25,000 in the two events, collecting over 475 firearms, 364 on March 15th, and 111 yesterday, the 12th of April.  Both events quickly ran out of money.   On the 15th, the City issued IOUs, yesterday they stopped giving out gift cards when the money ran out.    Long lines were reported when the money ran out, about 5 minutes before the official start time of 9 am.  Ordinarily, this is an ideal opportunity for private buyers to purchase guns from people who do not want...

The Bureau of Land Management is the primary "property manager" for the United States. It obtains its authority directly from the Constitution, and in fact, prior to that, the Articles of Confederation. There has been an unbroken chain of Federal management of public lands since the founding of our country, first by the Treasury Department, then the War Department, followed by the General Land Office, and more recently, the BLM. In the case of Bundy, the odds and the law are most definitely stacked against him. What we must consider, as policy, is how the Federal government manages its considerable...

Federal officials appear to be waiting out Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters. Two days after a dispute over grazing rights, cattle and $1 million in fees and fines threatened to spin into a Wild West shootout, officials with the Bureau of Land Management promised they weren’t finished with Bundy. “The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially,” BLM Director Neil Kornze said in a statement that followed the Bureau’s decision to release nearly 400 head of Bundy’s cattle that had been seized as part of a fight over grazing fees. Spokesman Craig Leff...

More at Reaganite Republican...

Recent weeks have led to a fairly significant drop in stock valuations, with many expert analysts struggling to figure out exactly why it’s happening. You’ll hear them cite the weather, or market overreaction, or any number of reasons for why stocks have seen their share prices reduced and why they’ll be rebounding in the near-term. What they won’t show you on mainstream financial channels is what’s really happening behind the scenes. Forget about all the minute-by-minute noise for a moment and take a look at the following chart. It gives a very simple overview of earnings growth trends for stocks...

According to Mack, the so-called retreat was nothing more than theatrics. “It was a ploy to get people to back off, to get people out of the way. They weren’t expecting us to get this amount of people here. They were surprised by the numbers and so they wanted a way to get us out of here. This was a ploy to get us out of here and then they’re going after the Bundys.” Mack said that when he was at the Bundy ranch on Saturday there were an estimated 600 to 800 protesters present when federal agents were releasing...

An entire new feedback loop of accreditation is necessary in the economy we have, and fortunately that feedback is within our individual control.To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, we work in the economy we have, not the economy we might want or wish to have at a later time. And what characterizes the economy we have?It's bewildering because nothing works like it's supposed to. For example, getting a college degree was supposed to guarantee a good job and an 80% lifetime wage premium over people without college degrees.But in the economy we have, getting a college degree no longer guarantees a good job, or indeed, a job of any...

Attorney General Eric Holder said he was careful not to allude to a racial component when criticizing Congress’s treatment of him last week. "I didn't say there was a racial component. I was very careful not to say that," Holder told The Huffington Post on Monday. Last week, Holder told a civil rights group he and President Obama’s administration have been subject to "unprecedented" and "ugly" attacks. He asked what attorney general or president in history had to deal with the same. Instead of race, Holder said he was alluding to the "breakdown in civility" and the ability to cultivate...

For the past few years we have watched Barack Obama try to put guns in the hands of government officials who would willingly turn them on other Americans. Many of us worried that he had succeeded. Saturday we learned that so far he has failed in this effort. On Saturday, freedom won a great victory over the oppressive machine the American government has become. Standing shoulder to shoulder a determined band of American patriots turned on the heavily armed thugs of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and shouted “No!” When the noise subsided and the dust settled the BLM...

'The problem is worse than we've ever seen' -Ret. Lt Gen Jerry Boykin (fmr Under Secretary of Defense) Commanding Generals fired: · General John R. Allen-U.S. Marines Commander International Security Assistance Force [ISAF] (Nov 2012) · Major General Ralph Baker (2 Star)-U.S. Army Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn in Africa (April 2013) · Major General Michael Carey (2 Star)-U.S. Air Force Commander of the 20th US Air Force in charge of 9,600 people and 450 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (Oct 2013) · Colonel James Christmas-U.S. Marines Commander 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit & Commander Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force...