Free Republic

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) laid out the conditions of her proposed assault weapons ban Thursday, saying it would prohibit 158 specifically named military-style firearms. “The purpose is to dry up the supply of these weapons over time,” Feinstein said. “Therefore, there is no sunset on this bill.” Feinstein said the bill prohibits the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices that can accept more than ten rounds, but said it would not affect hunting or sporting firearms. “Instead, the bill protects hunters and sportsmen by protecting 2,200 specifically-named weapons used for hunting...

On the first thread on this subject, MestaMachine challenged me with: "All Nobel Prize nominees are not exactly trustworthy. " I had the same concern -- so I checked out his Facebook postings. Jim Garrow appears to be as right-wing, pro-Constitution, pro 2nd Amendment as a good FReeper. In fact, Garrow just posted a link to a video that is far better than the article I posted. In it, he is interviewed, (for some 20 minutes) and it is 100% ANTI-0bama. And, on many subjects, he "rips Øbozo a new one"! Obama to Top Brass: Will you fire on American...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has friended New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan will host a fundraiser next month in California for the Republican’s reelection campaign, a Christie official and Facebook confirmed. BuzzFeed first reported the fundraiser, noting that Christie met Zuckerberg three years ago when the Facebook founder gave $100 million to Newark public schools. The two appeared on Oprah with Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who was expected to challenge Christie this year until deciding to campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2014. At the time, Zuckerberg was facing negative press associated with the then-upcoming...

LONDON — The UN's envoy on counter-terrorism and human rights launched an investigation on Thursday into the impact of drone strikes on civilians, aimed at securing accountability when attacks have gone "badly wrong". Ben Emmerson, a British lawyer and United Nations special rapporteur, said the huge expansion in the technology behind unmanned planes, and consequently their increasing use, required a new legal framework. "The plain fact is that this technology is here to stay, and its use in theatres of conflict is a reality with which the world must contend," he told reporters in London. "It is therefore imperative that...

... is not the economy, which as we pointed out earlier just crossed into "worst recovery ever" territory, or even actual layoff events. The reason is, as always when there is a massive "beat" in any US economic data, the same tried and true estimation magic out of the BLS appearing so conveniently at appropriate times, which estimated the claims numbers of 3 states, among which those of the most populous: California.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — One of the biggest surprises in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address this week was the prominence given to climate change, marking it as a signature issue for his second term. The president spoke of the need to preserve the planet for future generations. But he also couched climate change in more immediate economic terms, with leadership on the issue as a necessary component for the U.S. to maintain its economic preeminence. Reuters Demonstrators call for the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline during a rally in front of the White House in November 2011. The fate...

A CATHOLIC adoption agency has been warned it will lose its charitable status unless it changes its policy towards gay couples. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (Oscr) investigated the practices of St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society in Glasgow, after a complaint from the National Secular Society, and found the charity was operating in breach of the Equality Act 2010. The society gives priority to prospective adoptive parents who have been married for at least two years and wish to adopt within the framework of the Catholic faith. The Oscr ­report stated that: “[Because] marriage is not...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday will celebrate the launch of a newly rebranded organization called the “100,000 Strong Foundation,” which aims to have 100,000 American students studying in China by 2014. Thursday's event will "underscore the importance of study abroad in China and the benefits to our strategic relationship with China as well as the personal benefits individuals receive through these exciting experiences," the news release said. Until now, the 100,000 Strong Initiative—announced by President Obama on his trip to China in 2009—has operated inside the State Department. Thursday's 1 p.m. ceremony marks its transition to a non-profit,...

The Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show was expected to bring $44 million in direct spending to the region, according to the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau. Now that the show has been postponed -- with no reschedule date set, and none imminent -- many hotels and restaurants could be in for a difficult winter. "This is a hard time of the year to fill hotels," said Rick Dunlap, a spokesman for the bureau. "A lot of these hoteliers relied on this show to make their budget for the early part of the year." The $44 million in direct spending the...

Social media need to promote more logic, kindness and Christian witness than bluster, star-status and division, Pope Benedict XVI has said. Given that the online world exposes people to a wider range of opinions and beliefs, people need to accept the existence of these other cultures, “be enriched by it” and offer others what “they possess that is good, true and beautiful”, the Pope said. Christians are called to bring truth and values to the whole world – online and off – remembering that it is ultimately the power of God’s word that touches hearts, not sheer human effort, he...

A massive boycott sparked by the NRA and other gun-rights groups outraged that the nation's largest outdoors show banned the exhibition of assault weapons has caused the show's organizers to abruptly cancel the week-long event in Harrisburg, Pa. The successful boycott was the biggest demonstration of support by the outdoors industry yet against gun control efforts being pushed in Washington and in several states. "Reed Exhibitions has decided to postpone, for now, the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show given the controversy surrounding its decision to limit the sale or display of modern sporting rifles (also called ARs) at the event....

Political commentary at its most irreverent! Tiz fearlessly floods the online airwaves telling it like it is – unafraid to speak her mind… daring to unearth truths and voice that which is foremost on the minds of … Americans today. Popular guest of hot talk radio and quoted by Coulter, Dobbs and the like… when you want relief from the lame stream media, tune in to the Tizzinator for shocking and revealing political analysis at its best! Libs love to hate her, conservatives rely on her honest appraisal of the political landscape… tune in for a wild ride with the...

A new paper The US Deficit Debt Problem:A Longer Term Perspective by Daniel Thornton, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, contains some useful graphs on the causes of our debt crisis. The first graph below illustrates the rise of spending relative to government revenue; the second shows that the lion’s share of increased spending has been on social services, Medicare and Medicaid in particular: Source: Thornton (2012) Source: Thornton (2012) The graphs demonstrate, the words of James Hamilton that “Americans want an increasing government contribution to health care, but don’t want to pay for it.” It...

“ObamaCare Survival Guide” has now sold more than 100,000 copies and today ranks No. 4 on Barnes & Noble’s list of the Top 100 best-selling books. “ObamaCare Survival Guide: The Affordable Care Act and What It Means for You and Your Healthcare” is the first comprehensive but easy-to-understand road map of the 2,700-page law officially called the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The book also ranks No. 4 on Amazon.com’s list of the best-selling books in the Politics & Government category, and No. 1 in the Health Policy category. …

Fox is reporting Mitch Mcconnell is working on a deal with Harry Reid on the filibuster.... If this is true I may give up the R next to my name. It means nothing anymore...

Michael Nutter (yeah, he is one), mayor of Philadelphia was just on TV calling my AR-15 a "weapon of mass destruction". Now, that there is rich, friends, coming from "The City that Bombed Itself."

Military-readiness advocate Elaine Donnelly warns that the Obama administration’s decision to put women in ground-combat roles amounts to “social engineering to achieve a political end in the name of diversity.” She adds that the policy shift means “lives could be lost unnecessarily, not just women, but men.” Donnelly’s organization, the Center for Military Readiness, released a 42-page report earlier this week exploring the unintended consequences of putting women on the front lines. “It will do great harm to women in the military, especially those who will find themselves in the infantry—something there’s no indication they wanted,” Donnelly said Wednesday in...

Sen. John McCain supports allowing women in combat, but says it remains critical for the military to uphold the same high standards that made it the strongest in the world. On Wednesday, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that women will be permitted in combat, potentially opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and elite Special Forces jobs to women as well as men. … “I respect and support Secretary Panetta’s decision to lift the ban on women serving in combat,” McCain said. “The fact is that American women are already serving in harm’s way today all over the world...

We need to make them wear this for what it is:A Declaration of Treason against the United States and her free citizens."For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of automatic & semi-automatic assault weapons brandished by our standing paramilitary police armies, we mutually pledge to each other the lives of our enforcers, the tax dollars of the peasants, our traitorous dishonor and the violation of our very oaths of office."

(CNSNews.com) - In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, five State Department Diplomatic Security agents who were in Benghazi that day and survived the attack were evacuated from the country and taken to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. All five had suffered from smoke inhalation, and one was seriously wounded. Under questioning from Sen. Ron Johnson (R.-Wis.) in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed that she has spoken to only one of the American survivors who was evacuated from Libya after the...