Free Republic

This week, as lawmakers in Congress braced themselves for a protracted and impassioned debate over gun control, Democratic governors moved swiftly to push tough new gun laws in response to the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo easily shepherded legislation through a divided state legislature to produce the strictest gun laws in the country. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed similarly stringent measures, including a ban on assault weapons, while Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has called for universal background checks on all gun sales. And what do all three governors have in common (besides a strong...

The White House is closely following the elections in Israel, Channel 10 News reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the U.S. is particularly concerned over the growing strength of the Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) in the polls and over the fact that there is hardly talk about negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as part of the election campaign. The U.S. is concerned, according to Channel 10, that Bennett's strengthening will cause Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in turn, to strengthen the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. The report comes on the heels of the harsh criticism by President...

In reading up on Governor Cuomo's new gun legislation in New York, I came across a rather startling statement. Startling in it's pure and utter stupidity. And in what Cuomo termed "the Webster Provision" — a reference to the Dec. 24 killings of two firefighters fatally shot while responding to a call in a suburb of Rochester — the murder of a first responder will become a felony punishable by life in prison without parole. That's right, a future Presidential hopeful for 2016 is actually bragging about a provision in his gun law named specifically for one individual gun man,...

National Rifle Association President David Keene tells Newsmax that President Obama could be violating the Constitution if he circumvents Congress and imposes gun control by executive order — and his presidency will be “at risk” if he proceeds. Keene also says gun control advocates will ultimately fail in their efforts to ban assault weapons, despite Obama’s “rabid advisers” who will push the ban. And he asserts that the administration is asking the “wrong questions” in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings and is instead seeking to politicize the tragedy. Keene assumed the presidency of the NRA and its 4-million-plus...

Gangs need gun control, not the Law Abiding Gun Owners Gangs don't understand gun control or laws See all 4 photos Source: FBI My Goal For This Hub My goal is to shed some light on a area of violent crimes that is going unnoticed during the media coverage on gun control. That light should shine on the gangs and gang members operating their illegal businesses in the United States and across its borders. They use guns and violence in protecting and conducting these illegal businesses which are in the multiple billions of dollars a year. The statements shown...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Longtime TV host Huell Howser died of prostate cancer, according to an official death certificate obtained by TMZ. The entertainment news website reported that the certificate, which was filed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, also revealed Howser was cremated and his ashes were scattered off the coast of LA County. Howser, who hosted KCET’s “California’s Gold” for 19 years, passed away at the age of 67 on Jan. 6 at his Palm Springs home. Prior to his work at KCET, he was a reporter at KCBS (CBS2) and also worked as a...

BAMAKO, Mali — After a punishing bombing campaign failed to halt the advance of al-Qaida-linked fighters, France pledged Tuesday to triple the size of its force in Mali, sending in hundreds more troops as it prepared for a land assault to dislodge the militants occupying the northern half of the country. The move reversed France’s earlier insistence on providing only aerial and logistical support for a military intervention led by African ground troops. France plunged headfirst into the conflict in its former colony last week, bombarding the insurgents’ training camps, arms depots and safe houses in an effort to shatter...

Such a case came about in 2012. The scenario was as follows. We received a request from a US-based company asking for our help in understanding some anomalous activity that they were witnessing in their VPN logs. This organization had been slowly moving toward a more telecommuting oriented workforce, and they had therefore started to allow their developers to work from home on certain days. In order to accomplish this, they’d set up a fairly standard VPN concentrator approximately two years prior to our receiving their call. In early May 2012, after reading the 2012 DBIR, their IT security department...

What 'real' American voters think and feel about our current US debt malaise!

The battle over same-sex "marriage" in the Rhode Island Legislature begins today. Starting today (Tuesday) -- and over the next several weeks -- the same-sex "marriage" issue in the Rhode Island legislature will be boiling over. The state's major political leaders have vowed to push a "gay marriage" bill through the legislature as quickly as possible. The pro-family religious community, including the black and Hispanic churches, has vowed to stop it. Two years ago the Rhode Island legislature attempted to pass a similar "gay marriage" bill. But after huge pressure from the religious community, including a big State House rally...

UPDATE: Ben Shapiro will appear on Piers Morgan's show tonight. The CNN team has agreed to amend the format to included two segments of on-on-one debate between the host and the Breitbart News editor as well as a "town hall" forum. Though it is a primetime show, it is expected that Morgan will take a page out of the daytime TV playbook and make an emotional appeal to the audience by featuring victims of gun crimes and their families.

The 3D scan of a disabled baby's smile that convinced his mother not to abort him - and why she is grateful she was able to cuddle him with joy for a few precious hoursA mother was unable to abort her severely disabled son despite doctors' warnings after seeing her baby's smile in a 3D scan picture. Katyia Rowe was told her baby's brain had not formed properly and that he would never walk or talk and would need 24-hour care. But after seeing real-time moving scans of him smiling, blowing bubbles, kicking and waving his arms she made the...

You want to be a successful LOUSY FREEPER TROLL in DUmmieland? Then you need to build up your post count so as to avoid any suspicions. It is tough to do on the political threads where I generally just post fairly innocuous comments. However, sometimes there are DUmmie threads where I completely agree with the sentiment, such as F*ck Lance Armstrong.. where I was able to post my REAL opinion several times without fear of detection as an LFT. One fringe benefit was that WILLIAM RIVERS PITT joined the thread with a FALSE observation. I was tempted to ask...

President Obama wants tighter gun control laws, but he does appreciate that armed Secret Service agents protect his daughters every day on their way to school. "It might come in handy to have these super locks," Obama joked at Master Lock in Wisconsin, noting that he will soon have two teenage daughters. "For now, I'm just counting on the fact that when they go to school there are men with guns with them." The U.S. Secret Service has protected the presidential family since 1917.

BHN EXCLUSIVE - Big Hairy News owner and editor Scooter Van Neuter was questioned by DOJ investigators Monday about a bumper sticker design posted last week in the comments section of his popular online news site. "They wanted to know if we were calling for a revolution against the government of the United States involving the use of firearms," said Van Neuter. "That, of course is ridiculous. We're calling for normal people to revolt against rednecks using Barry's symbol as a target, that's all." Van Neuter called the questioning "nothing more than intimidation by a bunch of liberal retards," and...

Keep them, but pay dearlyYou can keep your guns alright, but you're going to pay dearly for the privilege, end up marked and have them confiscated later anyway. A lot of folks don't want to hear that, but gun owners are being manipulated into a corner. The powers that be who want us disarmed in order to control dissent want the guns, but must do so incrementally and make a large sum of money in the process. It's like being a smoker, you want 'em and they make you pay. He will issue executive orders, every one of which is...

In the four years since Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger safely crash-landed his jetliner on the Hudson River in New York City, ten babies have been born to the passengers aboard his plane. The anniversary of the 'Miracle on the Hudson' served as a reminder that the hero pilot did more than just save 155 lives on January 15, 2009. The captain of U.S. Airways flight 1549 today had a chance to meet some of those ten children who would not be in the world without him. Additionally, 20 passengers got to personally thank Sullenberger for his quick-thinking and bravery. Ten lives:...

US Postal Service Faces Ruin Without Rescue From Congress, Watchdog Warns Inspector general David Williams says cash-strapped service, saddled with debt and low revenues, is in 'very serious trouble' Heidi Moore 15 January 2013 The USPS lost over $16bn last year, and has lost about $41bn over the past five years, according to estimates. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters The chief postal watchdog has warned that the troubled US Postal Service will go out of business this year unless Congress acts to rescue it. David Williams, the inspector general of the USPS, says the service is in "very serious trouble", after five...

Last week Anderson Cooper took on some of the more ridiculous conspiracy theories about the tragic Sandy Hook shooting, one in particular claiming that the shooting simply never happened. But tonight, Cooper took on perhaps one of the most shocking theories of all: the whole shooting was a gigantic conspiracy to take away people’s guns. Cooper reminded viewers of the Florida professor who has been pushing the conspiracy theories, and revealed that said professor reacted to his initial report with a blog post attacking Cooper for “wanting to cause him harm.” Cooper said that the professor has his rights to...

WYOMING, MI -- Javonte Higgins, the 22-year-old suspect in the slayings of an elderly Kentwood couple, was seen trying to hawk items at a Wyoming bowling alley the same day the killings occurred, witnesses say. Higgins was seen about 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 5 at Spectrum Lanes at 5656 Clyde Park Ave. SW. Mike Marks, co-owner of the business, said he only learned later that Higgins was a person of interest in the killings of David and Vivian Bouwman. At the time, he did not even know Higgins' name. Police came into the bowling alley on Monday, Jan. 14,...