Free Republic

A controversial drug testing proposal will remain in the state budget. The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday approved requiring those receiving public benefits to submit to drug testing. Those who fail would get taxpayer funded treatment, which Joint Finance Committee co-chair John Nygren (R-Marinette) said will help them break the cycle of addiction and become employed. The Marinette Republican said “it’s a better alternative than our corrections department. It’s a better alternative than ending up on welfare for God knows how long.” Democrats spent over an hour criticizing the proposal, noting that Wisconsin is unlikely to receive the waiver...

On Tuesday, clubbed the City of Stockholm through a strategy against extremism. The goal is to prevent terrorist travel, but also to deal with returning the IS-fighters using different types of support. But the strategy may be severely criticized by the opposition.

Much has been made of the recent Pew poll that highlights America’s religious landscape. What has drawn the most attention is the apparent decline of Christianity in the U.S. “The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining,” began the piece. Many liberals took gleeful notice. The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Mark Tooley noted, “Secularists and their fellow travelers are ecstatic. The secular utopia about which John Lennon crooned is impending. Christianity is finally dying!” Of course, this is far from the case, as Tooley later reveals. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the...

These days, it wouldn’t be a presidential appearance without some gratuitous Christian-bashing. And at yesterday’s roundtable on poverty, President Obama didn’t disappoint. During the panel discussion at Georgetown University, President Obama took the common goal of helping the poor and used it to drive an even deeper wedge between his administration and people of faith. In between swipes at Fox News, the President scolded the church for being too preoccupied with the culture war to help the needy. “I think it would be powerful for our faith-based organizations to speak out on this in a more forceful fashion. This may...

I see a future of sky-high taxes and very tall ceilings. Of a chicken in every pot and a pot plant in every planter. Fat cats would be incarcerated en masse for the criminal possession of money. And thugs who shoot, maim and steal would be reclassified as victims of wage inequality, in need of high-paying jobs, welfare benefits, affordable housing, therapy, hugs or deep-tissue massages. Cops would replace their badges and aggressive blue uniforms with soothing earth-tone windbreakers and espadrilles, and trade in their guns for thick-skinned yellow fruit. Bananas donÂ’t kill people. People kill people. And with burger-flippers...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) warned financial institutions that they could be prosecuted if they deny home loans to persons subsisting on welfare benefits. CFPB Director Richard Cordray asserted that "placing ability to repay ahead of need is contrary to federal regulations. Just because a person cannot support himself or herself doesn't mean he or she should be excluded from the benefits of home ownership. Every person has an inalienable right to own a home. Lenders have a moral obligation to help people achieve this right." "For banks to argue that the risks of default and foreclosure should preclude...

President Obama said today that the incidents with police in Baltimore and Ferguson, along with “a growing awareness of inequality in our society,” can turn attention back to poverty in America and bridge “ideological divides that have prevented us from making progress.” At the Georgetown University panel on poverty, Obama name-dropped Ayn Rand and acknowledged he may speak differently to a black audience. Panelists joining the president were American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor Robert Putnam, and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. “The stereotype is that you’ve got folks on the left who just want to pour more...

When African-Americans marched on Washington to hear the historic ‘I have a dream’ speech by Martin Luther King, they were pressing for a society that looked very much like that in which they already lived – a society built on freedom; a society that protected life, liberty and the pursuits of happiness among its citizens. Many of those freedoms and protections had not been extended to African Americans of course. And so they came to Washington to ‘cash a check’ (to paraphrase King) that would cover the remainder of their birthright as American citizens. What blacks got when they cashed...

California’s Pacific Educational Group (PEG) denounced educational standards that require students to study and work hard in order to graduate as “discrimination against Black students.” PEG co-chair Kenneth K. Knowlton asserted that “Blacks are less likely to respond to fundamental ideas like working hard to achieve success, or being on time for school or work. The notion that such attitudes ought to be instilled in every student is a racist endeavor that seeks to submerge this vital subculture.” “What’s more, the contention that hard work is a key to success is belied by reality,” Knowlton maintained. “A significant segment of...

The former Arkansas governor understands something important about GOP voters: They aren’t opposed to welfare spending as long as it’s for them.For his opening pitch to Republican voters, Mike Huckabee channeled a little of Elizabeth Warren’s fiery populism. Washington, he said in his video announcement, “has done enough lying and stealing. I’ll never rob seniors of what our government has promised them and even forced them to pay for.” He hit this note again in his first campaign speech, with a few shots at his GOP competitors for good measure. “There are some who propose that to save the safety...

Despite his socially-conservative bona fides, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has officially lost the support of Iowa’s influential talk radio host Steve Deace — a dramatic shift from their supportive relationship in the 2008 Republican Party primaries. Deace has been described as a “hitmaker” and “one of the most powerful Republicans you’ve never heard of” because his stumping for Huckabee was seen as a substantial contributor to the former governor’s 2008 Iowa caucus victory. But, in 2016, Deace is not thrilled with Huckabee’s support for entitlement programs. As MMfA first reported, during the May 6 edition of the Steve Deace...

PATERSON — The man who was believed to have fathered twin girls in Passaic County actually only fathered one of them, according to a precedent-setting ruling by a Superior Court judge. It's the first paternity case in New Jersey and only the third nationwide to feature two different fathers for a set of twins. Judge Sohail Mohammed ruled that a man identified only as "A.S." was off the hook for child support payments to one of the twins after DNA testing determined he fathered one with 99.9 percent certainty but could not have been the father of the other.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin lawmakers advanced a set of bills Wednesday that would require food stamp users to buy healthy food and mandate drug screening for state job training program applicants and some unemployment benefit claimants. An Assembly committee on public benefit reform approved the bills almost on party lines Wednesday, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats against. Rep. Adam Neylon, a Pewaukee Republican, also voted against the measures. The approval clears the way for the full Assembly to vote on the measures next week. But prospects for the bill that would restrict food options for food stamp...

These incredible photos show the damage caused by a bird strike to a passenger plane. The Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Nevehir in Turkey was on approach to land when it was involved in a severe hit with a unlucky bird. There were 125 passengers on board the Boeing 737-800, and there were not believed to be any injuries suffered on the landing on Tuesday.

In this final part of Taking Our Country Back, I ask what we can do to change the direction in which our country is headed. There are steps that can be taken involving both the individual and our culture. But nothing will change unless the American people understand that ignoring problems or pretending they will be resolved somehow at some point in the future are not options at this point. Low information voters must be made to get involved by understanding the dire consequences of remaining on the present path; that the ongoing, seemingly endless gravy train will soon end....

It is laughable that the District of Columbia, the most powerful City state in the world, puts the phrase, “Taxation without Representation” on its automobile license plates. Their whining is ridiculous. The government of the District of Columbia is the federal government of the United States of America and because of this the District of Columbia is omnipotent. It is we, the people of the United States who suffer Taxation without Representation. Supposedly acting in our name, because it funds almost everything to one extent or another, the federal government puts its hand into our lives multiple times a day;...

Baltimore Is Not About Race Government-induced dependency is the problem—and it’s one with a long history. By William McGurn May 4, 2015 For those who see the rioting in Baltimore as primarily about race, two broad reactions dominate. One group sees rampaging young men fouling their own neighborhoods and concludes nothing can be done because the social pathologies are so overwhelming. In some cities, this view manifests itself in the unspoken but cynical policing that effectively cedes whole neighborhoods to the thugs. Opinion Journal Video Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Jason Riley on what prompted the violence and what comes next....

Schools that do everything parents should are not schools. They're orphanages. The city fathers of Buffalo, New York are considering what they call “public boarding schools,” “where students as young as first or second grade would be assured proper meals, uniforms, after-school tutoring and activities.” “We have teachers and union leaders telling us, ‘The problem is with the homes; these kids are in dysfunctional homes,'” Buffalo school board member Carl Paladino told the Huffington Post. The “Buffalo Institute of Growth would supplement a college-style academic schedule with life skills and social activities that would keep students on campus seven days...

MADISON—Under Republican Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin has seen a nearly 12-fold increase in the number of people suspended annually from the state’s food stamp program for fraud.The suspensions for “intentionally violating program rules” are part of a larger get-tough approach to people receiving federally funded nutrition assistance, called FoodShare in Wisconsin. Walker has also introduced new work rules for some FoodShare recipients, and proposes to seek a federal waiver to begin requiring all adult participants of the program to undergo drug testing.In 2011, Walker’s first year as governor, 102 people were suspended from the FoodShare program for violating program rules,...

Under Governor Scott Walker's leadership, Wisconsin will join eleven other states as the newest state to require welfare recipients to pass a drug test before they can receive state welfare funds. While some liberals and liberal-minded religious groups have called out Walker for "targeting" the poor and those with addictions, Walker's response has been spot on: if they're receiving funds from the state, the state should be able to make rules for these people to live by before they can receive a dime. But Walker's drug test isn't simply a play to restrict the number of people who will be...