Free Republic

Fifty-five years after the Communist takeover in Cuba, residents there can now buy new and used cars without a government permit, but with the massive mark-up on new car prices by state-run retailers, most ordinary Cubans won’t benefit from the new rules, reported BBC News. A new Peugeot 508 model, for example, is selling for $262,000 in Havana at a dealership, and even used VWs are selling for more than $60,000. …

SEATTLE — People are used to liberals running things around here. But nobody reckoned with Kshama Sawant. Ms. Sawant, a 41-year-old economics teacher and immigrant from India, took a left at liberal and then kept on going — all the way to socialism. **SNIP** But Kshama Sawant (pronounced SHAH-mah sah-WANT) heartily embraces the label. Ask her about almost any problem facing America today, and her answer will probably include the “S” word as the best and most reasonable response. Socialism is the path to real democracy, she says. Socialism protects the environment. Socialism is the best hope for young people...

Greggs the baker is being forced to change the name of its best-selling Cornish pasty under new EU laws because the product contains peas and carrots. The new rules mean manufacturers must follow the traditional recipe of beef, potatoes, onions, swede and seasoning, if they wish to use the name. […] Cornish pasties were awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status in 2011 after a lengthy campaign by the Cornish Pasty Association to see their delicacy’s name protected. Protected Geographical Indication status prevents anything that is made outside the designated region from using the traditional name. …

President Raul Castro issued a stern warning to entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of Cuba’s economic reform, telling parliament on Saturday that “those pressuring us to move faster are moving us toward failure.” Castro has legalized small-scale, private businesses in nearly 200 fields since 2010, but has issued tighter regulations on businesses seen as going too far or competing excessively with state enterprises. In recent months, the government has banned the resale of imported hardware and clothing and cracked down on unlicensed private video game and movie salons. …

One of the oldest notions in the history of mankind is that some people are to give orders and others are to obey. The powerful elite believe that they have wisdom superior to the masses and that they've been ordained to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. Their agenda calls for an attack on the free market and what it implies — voluntary exchange. Tyrants do not trust that people acting voluntarily will do what the tyrant thinks they should do. Therefore, free markets are replaced with economic planning and regulation that is nothing less than the...

The European Commission should be slimmed down, with only a handful of commissioners handling the bloc’s main portfolios, according to a plan put forward by the Dutch foreign minister. Speaking with reporters after Monday’s (18 November) meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels, Frans Timmermans explained that governments should create a division of a and b-level boards for the EU executive. Eight “a-board” members would take the lead on Brussels’ biggest portfolios, such as the internal market, economic affairs and justice and home affairs. They would also be solely responsible for initiating new legislation. Meanwhile, the remaining “b-board members” would...

Under Obamacare -- as it is being implemented under a regulation issued by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) -- a middle-aged member of Congress who earns an annual salary of $174,000 from the taxpayers, and who has a wife and children, will get a $10,000 subsidy from the taxpayers (over and above his $174,000 salary) to buy a health insurance plan that a regular citizen making almost $80,000 less than the congressman will not get. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, included language mandating that members of Congress and their staff buy their now-mandated...

While European leaders are busy expressing public indignation over reports of American espionage operations in the European Union, the European Parliament is quietly considering a proposal that calls for the direct surveillance of any EU citizen suspected of being “intolerant.” Critics say the measure—which seeks to force the national governments of all 28 EU member states to establish “special administrative units” to monitor any individual or group expressing views that the self-appointed guardians of European multiculturalism deem to be “intolerant”—represents an unparalleled threat to free speech in a Europe where citizens are already regularly punished for expressing the “wrong” opinions,...

European Union lawmakers have pledged rapid approval of a draft EU law to regulate market benchmarks such as LIBOR, though they sparred over how comprehensive the new regime should be. Big fines for Barclays and other banks over the past 18 months for rigging interest rate benchmarks such as the London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR, prompted the European Union to propose the rules to supervise such indexes for the first time.The draft law proposes that an administrator is appointed to oversee how each major benchmark is compiled, ensuring there is a record of who contributed to it. …

A majority of member states are said to back a proposal for a European public prosecutor after they failed to meet a deadline to submit counterarguments. Member state national parliaments had until Monday (28 October) midnight to submit any complaints or concerns on setting up a EU-wide prosecutor tasked to tackle fraud committed against the EU budget. … A minimum of nine member states is needed to launch the office. Monday’s missed deadline means 17 have now demonstrated tacit support with only 11 member states opposed. …

The Department of Justice, on behalf of the National Security Administration (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has threatened to criminally prosecute a novelty store owner for selling mugs and t-shirts that say, among other things, “Department of Homeland Stupidity” and “The NSA: The only part of government that actually listens.” The novelty items are sold online at Zazzle.com, which is operated by merchant Dan McCall. The NSA and DHS sent “cease and desist” letters to Zazzle stating that the parody products violate statutes that protect their official seals from misuse. The NSA and DHS, through the Department...

The European Commission will adopt criteria next week on delivering an Ecolabel to toilets and urinals, EurActiv has learned. The decision comes after years of efforts by experts working for the European Commission’s environment directorate, as well as “stakeholders” studying “user behavior” and “best practices”. … Work on developing an EU standard for toilets has started in January 2011, according documents of the European Commission’s Joint Research Center, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. A first Ad-Hoc Working Group meeting was held in Brussels on October 2011, with the second such meeting held in the attractive city of Seville, Spain, in...

This year is the 96th anniversary of the Russian revolution, one of the most earthshaking events in human history. The terms "history" and "96th anniversary" are apt to cause the eyes of many if not most Americans to glaze over, but American life today is being molded directly by the ideas and events set in motion in Russia in 1917. Distilled down to the most important elements, the Russian revolution had three key ideological elements: first, the state as almighty, a replacement for God; secondly, a political elite to guide the "masses"; thirdly, the use of the state's police power...

David Cameron will this week demand the return of powers from Brussels amid new evidence of the massive cost of EU regulation to Britain. A report published today by the Open Europe think-tank claims that the top 100 EU regulations are costing the UK more than £27 billion a year, outweighing benefits in a quarter of cases. … Annual figures for the five costliest EU regulations are capital rules for banks at £4.5 billion; the Working Time Directive, £4.1 billion; the EU Climate and Energy Package, £3.4 billion; the Temporary Agency Workers Directive, £2 billion; and the Energy Performance of...

As more key powers are transferred to Brussels, it poses an existential question for central governments. … “In my opinion, national central governments will become less important and will lose more power. They will become more and more impotent,” says Franz Schausberger, founder of the Austria-based Institute of the Regions of Europe.To compensate, he notes, “regions have to become stronger, so that the citizens can strengthen their identity and participate in regional and local democracy.” …

Brilliant observation by WND’s David Kupelian – The ‘gay rights’ movement is a trojan horse for totalitarianism. He explores this in the October issue of Whistleblower available here. A “Trojan Horse” is “any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or space.” (Wiki) WND Story here. David Kupelian says, “this particular issue – this revolutionary sexual anarchy movement, which more than any other ideology, including Marxism, Islam or atheism, has the potential of permanently corrupting our nation’s core ‘operating system’ called the family – is the one issue that almost everybody...

"Technocracy is nothing new. It hasn’t just come up in the last two decades. It has been around for the last 400 years. Technocracy is a very strange animal, it has many different facets. It has a very colorful history. It’s very difficult to actually define it, however, the main idea behind Technocracy is that it is a political as well as an economic system. As a political system, it is a pure dictatorship, it is a pure totalitarian system. Those who rule in a technocracy are not democratically elected politicians, they are appointed in some way, or they appoint...

Pat Vaillancourt went on a trip last week that was intended to showcase some of America’s greatest treasures. Instead, the Salisbury resident said she and others on her tour bus witnessed an ugly spectacle that made her embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her country... The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited English skills thought they were under arrest.

David Cameron wants to remove the commitment to “ever closer union” from the EU treaty, as part of plans to reform Britain’s membership of the bloc. Speaking in a BBC interview Sunday (29 September), on the eve of his Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester, the UK prime minister said that the phrase was “not what the British people want and it’s not what I want.” Cameron also repeated his threat to withdraw Britain from the European Convention of Human Rights unless his government is allowed to quickly deport foreign nationals deemed to be a security threat. …

On Saturday 1 October 1949, the inauguration of the People's Republic, known in Chinese as Kaiguo dadian (开国大典), was proclaimed by Mao Zedong atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen Gate, not to be confused with the eponymous Square). For some reason, in most if not all Western reconstructions and recountings of the event, Mao is credited to have uttered at this occasion the words that "the Chinese people have stood up" - and in the various commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the PRC in 2009, this was any different.