Free Republic

Before Vice President Joe Biden introduced a set of ideas to help reduce gun violence, he kicked off a national conversation. He wanted to make sure that he heard from people from every perspective about the steps we need to take to protect kids and make our communities safer. And that dialogue isn't over. Today, in a hangout hosted by Google and moderated by Hari Sreenivasan from PBS NewsHour, Vice President Biden will speak with a group of Google+ users about the White House policy recommendations and answer their questions. And we want you to join us. What: Google+ Hangout...

Prenatal screening won't tell us anything about what each individual will do with the life God has given them. That is up to each individual. It's time for American to trust in the power of our potential. It's time for America to trust in the power of life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuPtaAu96XI

Updated - January 22, 2013 by Freeper Capt. Tom Since 2009, the Massachusetts Div. Marine Fisheries, has tagged 34 white sharks at Chatham, Mass. Presently the State is out of tags and tag money for white sharks. It's expensive. The tags are about $4,500, plus you need to hire a boat, and a spotter plane. The State has used different types of tags, which yield data after months have passed. The State hasn't been using spot tags. Chris Fischer on the "Ocearch" platform boat, came up here to Chatham Mass., the end of last summer and tagged 2 white sharks...

Most people think living under a rock is something to avoid. But for one Mexican family, it's a dream come true. Farmer Benito Hernandez knew since the age of eight that he wanted to make a 131-foot rock formation in Coahuila, Mexico, his home. It took him 20 years to buy the land but as soon as he was able, Hernandez and his wife Santa Martha constructed a sun-dried brick house beneath the awe-inspiring formation. Located about 50 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border near the remote community of San Jose de Piedras, the home is small. But it was...

BECKLEY, W.Va. — Talk of stricter gun control has stirred up a lot of unease here, a place where hunters vie for top prize (a 26-inch LED television) in the Big Buck Photo Contest, and ads for a gun-simulator game ask, “Feel like shooting something today?” Businessmen and community leaders in Beckley, W.Va., met with Senator Joe Manchin III last week to discuss gun control. But before Senator Joe Manchin III invited a group of 15 businessmen and community leaders to lunch last week to discuss the topic, he had only a vague idea of how anxious many of his...

I'm beginning to detect a theme running throughout the Democrat Party's proposals. Actually, the theme is about as subtle as a icepick in Sicily, so I'm quite surprised that I haven't noticed it before. OK, I HAVE noticed it before, I just haven't noticed it EVERYWHERE two or more liberal proposals are gathered in Pelosi's name. So anywho, as I was saying: After much stoic reflection, I've determined that Democrats believe that the key to creating the liberal heaven-on-earth is in getting us all to die. Yep. Dead as hell; that's what they want. And I don't just mean the...

Democratic lawmakers plan to formally reintroduce a bill Thursday that would ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, the most ambitious — and politically risky — element of proposals unveiled by President Obama to limit gun violence. The “Assault Weapons Ban of 2013″ is similar to one passed in 1994 that expired with little protest in 2004. The measure will be unveiled Thursday morning by a slate of Democratic co-sponsors, led by longtime gun control advocates Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.), who have pushed for the ban before in part because of their personal histories...

I was hoping someone was familiar with the Colt Delta Elite 10mm and could tell me if this is a decent investment or not. I am thinking of buying my neighbors that he was going to put on the market asking $750 for, it comes with about 400 rounds of Hornady ammo also. It looks to be in really nice condition, he told me he bought it new and hadn't put 100 rounds through it. My biggest question is how does the 10mm stand up against the .45, and is that a ridiculous price or not? I really love the...

ROME, Jan. 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI says Catholic agencies must sometimes refuse partnerships that would even indirectly support activities opposed to the Christian view of the human person. “We must exercise a critical vigilance and at times refuse funding and collaborations that, directly or indirectly, favour actions or projects that are at odds with Christian anthropology,” the Pope stressed in a Jan. 19th address to the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and its president, Cardinal Robert Sarah, in excerpts released by the Vatican Information Service. The remarks come only a month after the Pope’s surprise release of a...

BOISE – With Idaho state lawmakers fired up to protect gun rights, more attention is being focused on an Idaho law that’s been on the books since 1990 permitting any elected official in the state, including legislators, to carry a hidden firearm without a concealed weapons permit. A 2011 survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures showed no other state with such an exemption; most states exempt only peace officers, retired peace officers, military members, and in some cases, judges and prosecutors. Earlier this week, a three-hour evening training class offered in the state Capitol on carrying a concealed...

It's no secret that Vice President Joe Biden has made more than a few gaffes during his political career. His latest: a hard-to-prove comment about a brush with the 2006 school shooting at Nickel Mines. Speaking last week to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., Biden made the surprising revelation that he was golfing within earshot of the one-room schoolhouse when a troubled truck driver shot 10 Amish girls, killing five and wounding five. Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/806823_Vice-President-Biden-says-he-heard-gunshots-from-Nickel-Mines-shooting.html#ixzz2Iu9PLaux

Reacting to reports that outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is lifting the Pentagon’s long-standing ban on women serving in combat, former DOD Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz tells Newsmax that he believes the decision will lead to a “degradation of good order and discipline” and may even be unconstitutional. Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war. “Introducing mixed gender combat units in my experience and judgment will inevitably lead...

I was unavailable to watch most of the farcical testimony given today by Mrs. Clinton, but I did catch the exchange with Sen. Rand Paul near the end, and it is fascinating, not only for the content of the exchange, but primarily for the look on her face her tone of voice as she reacts to the question: Sen. Paul:  Is the U. S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling, anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?Mrs. Clinton:  To Turkey?  I will have to take that question for the record.  Nobody has ever...

FONTANA, Calif. – The school police force in this Southern California city has acquired 14 high-powered semiautomatic rifles for officers to bring to campuses. Fontana Unified School District police purchased 14 of the Colt LE6940 rifles last fall, and they were delivered the first week of December, a week before a gunman killed 26 students and educators at a Connecticut elementary school. "I think it just further solidified the need to give our officers the tools they need to respond to an active shooter on campus," schools Police Chief Billy Green said Wednesday about the tragedy.

House Republicans appear to have gotten some of their mojo back. GOP leaders say they will insist that automatic spending cuts (the “sequester”) scheduled to begin on March 1 will be made and that the House will adopt a budget resolution that would lead to a balanced budget within ten years without raising any more taxes. Just a few months ago, they were singing a different, less fiscally tough tune. On Wednesday, the House suspended the limit on the nation’s debt ceiling. That gives Republican lawmakers nearly four months to sort out what they will demand in exchange for raising...

During her congressional testimony today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly defended her failure to see key cables dealing with Benghazi by noting how many cables the State Department receives. She explained there are 1.4 million cables to the department a year, all addressed to her as secretary. That’s wrong — and this poor excuse is worth examining. In fact, every cable sent from the department is signed “Clinton” as long as she is in Washington. If not, each cable bears the name of the acting secretary — usually deputy secretary Bill Burns. But it’s obvious that these cables are...

Commentators both left and right agree that Barack Obama's second inaugural speech Monday was highly partisan, with shout outs to his constituencies on the left and defiance of his critics on the right. Obama quoted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and made brief reference to Abraham Lincoln's sublime Second Inaugural ("blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword"). But there was not much in the way of "with malice toward none, with charity for all." There were more references than in many inaugural speeches to specific programs and policies. One interesting question is what the practical effect...

Can we at least agree that reports of al-Qaeda’s death have been greatly exaggerated? You’ll recall that Peter Bergen, a director at the New America Foundation and the national-security analyst for CNN, began pronouncing AQ dead last summer. At the Aspen Institute, he even gave a speech titled “Time to Declare Victory: Al Qaeda Is Defeated.” He defended this thesis repeatedly, including in a debate with me on Wolf Blitzer’s show on CNN. President Obama has not gone quite that far. Prior to the election, in stump speeches round the country, he said al-Qaeda had been “decimated.” And even in...

Tom Foreman is a CNN "reporter" who few have heard of. Maybe no one's noticed him because he's been writing letters to President Barack Obama. Often. Every single day, in fact. For four years. That's 1,460 letters... What precisely was in the letters, on top of the sheer number of them, is particularly disturbing. The joy that this exercise gave Foreman at times is all the more unnerving. Mr. Foreman often ended letters asking the President to "call when you can," because he knows he's busy. He told him about "a guy [who] started giving [him] a hard time" in...

We have apparently arrived at the Golden Age, free from strife and the threat of foreign enemies. Little else can explain so gratuitous a decision as to place women in combat units. The downsides to such a policy are legion and obvious; the only reason to pursue it is to placate feminism’s insatiable and narcissistic drive for absolute official equality between the sexes. Any claim that our fighting forces are not reaching their maximum potential because females are not included is absurd. The number of women who are the equal to reasonably well-developed men in upper-body strength and who have...