Free Republic

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Three words are routinely invoked by opponents of gun control: the Second Amendment. So it was during the debate last week in the House. In reality, however, the amendment was never meant to ban virtually all efforts to regulate firearms. Indeed, the Founding Fathers viewed regulation as not only legal but also absolutely necessary, and colonial America enacted all sorts of regulatory legislation governing the storage of arms and gunpowder. The mythology of the Second Amendment, however, has turned history on its head. Herewith, the truth about the Second Amendment and its place in history: Myth : ...

Today was the day that Judge Peter Rogers of Common Pleas Court was to render his decision on whether to overrule Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham's decision not to prosecute Teamster boss Johnny Morris for the October 2nd beating of anti-Clinton protestor Don Adams. Her failure to prosecute Mr. Morris stems from her denial of a private criminal complaint against Mr. Morris filed by Don Adams on January 5th. Judge Rogers put off his decision today on the basis of new evidence provided to him by the District Attorney's office, and by his wish to have Mr. Ray Harley of ...

Can you tell me the difference between Arab Fundamentalist car bombs used to attack our embassies and the more than 50 American Cruise missiles used in retaliation? Of course, the car bombs were accurate and were delivered directly to their targets and they are cheap. Cruise missiles cost a million a pop and hit what they are aimed at about 30 percent of the time. The two car bombs killed 12 innocent Americans and 257 other innocent people. Despicable! The reports are not in yet on how many terrorists and how many innocent people were killed by the more than ...

ussia's military had a detailed plan to seize Kosovo's main airport days before 200 Russians drove there from Bosnia ahead of the NATO peacekeeping operation, according to Pentagon intelligence officials. "There was no confusion at all about this," said one official familiar with a recent report based on intercepted Russian communications. "The operational orders were worked out well in advance." The intelligence reports, according to officials familiar with them, further undermine both U.S. government and Moscow claims that the deployment ahead of NATO peacekeepers was the result of miscommunications among Russian civilian and military leaders. It raises new questions about ...

Don't know why, but the server hardware was down. We finally got it rebooted and back on-line!

Bank United of Houston, Texas has introduced America to the reality of the biblical "mark of beast" when it revealed the space-age technology of human-body barcoding in a commercial setting and opening the door to the use of barcoding in the consumer arena. Over the ages those who have studied this probably most read single verse of Scripture "...He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark..." have pondered over what ...

I have just heard a story about a ghost. Had the misfortune to learn about a spectre that once haunted the world but, I thought, had been put to death long ago, buried in some stinking hole of darkness. Of course, I knew the corpse grumbled occasionally and that a handful of zealots felt those tremors and danced to the vibrations. But no state would do such a thing, no government. The ghost I speak of is anti-Semitism, and the arrest of 13 innocent Jewish people in the Iranian towns of Isfahan and Shiraz. The alleged crime of these ...

Yugoslav PM Bulatovic demands sanctions end BELGRADE, June 24 (Reuters) - Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic on Thursday called for an end to all sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia and requested that the country be readmitted to the United Nations and other international organisations. In a speech to parliament before a vote on whether to lift a state of war, Bulatovic also demanded compensation for damage caused by 11 weeks of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. ``Our country is prepared for and open to full cooperation, and expects the European Union and the international community to treat Yugoslavia as an equal subject ...

June 18, 1999 Time Out! By DANIEL AKST Two-year-olds are the world's great refuseniks. My twin boys, having just reached that fearsome milestone, would make Bartleby the Scrivener look like a yes man. Getting such ornery devils to do what's required while keeping them from doing what's forbidden (e.g., wear socks but don't burn the house down) is a constant struggle. Thus, at our house, Father's Day will dawn this year on a large collection of child-rearing books. Like most fathers, I pay almost no attention to these, but my wife keeps bringing them home even though all their advice ...

Washington, June 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopter crews dispatched with great fanfare to Albania in mid- April for attacks on Serb armor and artillery units in Kosovo were under-trained and poorly equipped for their mission, according to a unit commander. The crews of Task Force Hawk were minimally qualified to use night vision goggles, had shortages of specialized radios necessary for low-level night attacks and lacked effective electronic warfare gear to defeat Serb air defenses, according to Army Brig. Gen. Richard Cody, a unit commander, in a June 16 memo to Army headquarters. The aviators and helicopters ...

Who says there is no bipartisanship in Congress? Rep. Dick Armey and Rep. Pete Stark agree on something, and anyone would be hard put to find such opposites in Congress. Furthermore, and fortunately, what they agree on is a way to help 43 million Americans. Like many politicians, they want to use the tax code to correct a problem. But at least they want to use it the correct way: as incentive rather than punishment. One major defect in the health care system is that it is financed largely through the business sector, for reasons fairly well known, through ...

The Voice of Reform, Issue 5, June 15, 1999 The Maryland Reform Party, Elizabeth Christman, Vice Chair By Russell Forte, member Excerpts from NO, MATT LAUER. IT ISN'T "PARANOID." The gun control issue is hot since the murders at the Colorado and Georgia high schools. Knowing he's opposed to gun registration, host Matt Lauer hoped to trap Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura of the Reform Party over gun registration two weeks ago on the "Today" show. This newsletter isn't an argument for or against gun registration. It's a warming that things CAN go seriously wrong in America. If you examine carefully ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush062499.htm PHILADELPHIA, June 23 - Texas Gov. George W. Bush said today that he would not use abortion as a litmus test in selecting a vice presidential running mate. "I rule nothing out," Bush told reporters campaign visit to Pennsylvania, where he was accompanied by Gov. Tom Ridge (R), an abortion rights supporter who is seen as a possible GOP running mate, especially if Bush is the nominee. Bush's declaration marked the second time in a week that he said his opposition to abortion would not be a principal factor in personnel decisions as president. Campaigning in New Hampshire a ...

Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has named first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as a possible witness in the upcoming trial of her former Arkansas law partner, Webster L. Hubbell, legal sources said yesterday. The independent counsel's office submitted Mrs. Clinton's name April 21 as one of 63 potential witnesses in the Hubbell case, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Hubbell's attorneys countered with a list of 17 possible defense witnesses May 25. The defense filed both lists under seal in federal court. The sources are outside of Mr. Starr's office. Starr spokeswoman Elizabeth Ray ...

American society needs core values to live by, but not the Ten Commandments, which Congress wants to post in the schools, a leader of the Ethical Society of St. Louis says. The group has its own set of ethical guidelines, which it calls the 12 Core Values. A sampling: Core Value No. 2: Every person is important. Core Value No. 3: Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly. Core Value No. 9: I am free to question. Such values should be developed without reference to national dogma or divinity, said Bob Greenwell, adjunct leader of the society, which ...

The growing evils of expanded legalized gambling have been in the news recently in connection with a report of the congressionally sanctioned National Gambling Impact Study Commission. But in addition to siphoning billions of dollars away from more constructive uses in family support, and apart from increasing the number of gambling addicts, gambling raises another issue. It's politics. Gambling promoters are trying to buy favor with members of Congress and state legislators. The already gross evils of political campaign finance are being magnified by money from gambling operators. Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family was one ...

June 24, 1999 The Law Disfigured The day doesn't pass that some representative of the United States isn't lecturing a foreign official somewhere--Russia, China, Serbia--that to join the civilized world they must establish a "rule of law." It's a wonder the rest of the world doesn't laugh in the American's face. Any nation whose political, legal and media establishment could allow something like the breast-implant litigation fraud to run for more than 10 years, with similar legal travesties following the same path, has just about forfeited its right to lecture anyone about the law's majesty. This week the National ...

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- For perhaps the first time since World War II, Canada's allies are clamouring to have our soldiers with them in a potential combat zone. It isn't that Canadian soldiers have suddenly become better. Although often hamstrung by ancient equipment, they have always maintained an excellent professional reputation. The difference is that for the first time in ages the Canadians have military gear which other armies covet. The piece of kit that has been generating unusual excitement is the Coyote armoured vehicle, which is manufactured in London, Ont., and driven by troopers with the Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona's ...

June 24, 1999 A Good Woman, a Bad Race By ALBERT R. HUNT An amusing sideshow to Hillary Clinton's Senate bid is the sight of her obsessed detractors, driven crazy by her candidacy. How dare an outsider run for the Senate in New York, complain some on the right, forgetting that that the seat now held by the esteemed Daniel Patrick Moynihan once belonged to James Buckley of the Connecticut Buckleys. Others charge she wants to use the Senate to run for president. Try counting on one hand members of that august body who don't see themselves as presidential ...

The latest Big Lie being spread by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore is that Republicans are to blame for the collapse of gun-control legislation in the House last week. That is totally ridiculous. What the collapse shows is that many liberal Democrats would rather have gun control as an issue in next year's campaign than to actually do anything about it. Several of them said as much after the vote! Actually, a compromise -- forged by conservative House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and the dean of House liberals, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. -- would have ...