Free Republic

January 27, 2013   Third Sunday in Ordinary Time   Reading 1 Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10 Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,which consisted of men, women,and those children old enough to understand.Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,he read out of the book from daybreak till midday,in the presence of the men, the women,and those children old enough to understand;and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the occasion.He opened the scrollso that...

California voters approved a $50 billion tax hike in November, bestowing the highest marginal income tax rate in the nation on California taxpayers — 13.3 percent. Now professional golfer Phil Mickelson is thinking of leaving the state. He’s fortunate. He can practice his chosen profession in any region where snow doesn’t cover the ground for too long, and if he moves to Texas or Florida, his state income tax will drop to zero. Mickelson won’t be the first pro golfer to leave California. Tiger Woods, who used to live in my old Orange County legislative district, moved to Florida in...

A reader, John, took the trouble to post the following comments, so I will take the trouble to post a reply. Johns comments are numbered and lettered. My reply will be below Johns comments and not numbered or lettered. John said... 1. Gun control does not mean gun bans. No one is coming to take your gun so please keep your paranoid fantasies out of this. One counterexample disproves this argument. I have several. Canada, May, 2010. The RCMP confiscated firearms that were formerly legal.California gun ban 1997.Australia, 1996. Owners of Semi-automatic rifles and shotguns are required to turn them...

This morning I watched yet another video of something that disturbs me greatly: the events leading up to the “legal” theft of several tons of cheese produced on a small family farm in Missouri. This, after the cheese had been embargoed for over 2 years and thus was no longer fit for consumption anyway. All of this was done in the name and at the expense of the taxpayers of Missouri, under the guise of “food safety.”

As an elected official and a sheriff, I have the great honor to take an oath of office. Very few occupations include the special pride that comes with the trust inherent in an oath of office, but mine does. In that oath, I swore to uphold the Constitution and laws that we live under in this great nation. Those words were my promise that I would not use my own personal interests to decide what is right and wrong. I swore to work within our system of law and justice to fairly enforce what you, through your elected representatives in...

President Barack Obama's campaign operation appeared to be getting off to a shakey start Friday, sending out an ill-timed email calling on millions of supporters to flood the Capitol Hill switchboard with calls supporting gun control. Call in campaigns can be a powerful tool in lobbying Congress: when done right, lawmakers' offices are inundated with thousands of constituents demanding to speak with the senator or congresswoman about a particular issue. Well-orchestrated campaigns can even result in the congressional switchboard going down for hours at a time, disrupting everyday life in the Capitol and giving everyone in the building a sense...

Here is a secret that isn't much of a secret. I have made it clear, both in my posts and in comments at other blogs, that I did not watch President Obama's second inaugural address. My reason is simple. I can not stand listening to someone whom I know is lying to me and the rest of America. I can easily glean what I need to know from reading the text of the speech and no, I haven't even been tempted to watch short clips of the speech on YouTube. From reading the speech and other commentaries, one thing is...

Attack On Family In Compton Latest Incident In Wave of Anti-Black Violence A Latino gang is intimidating blacks into leaving the city that was once an African American enclave. It's part of a violent trend seen in other parts of the L.A. area. The steeple of the Greater Holy Faith Baptist Church on 155th Street in Compton, a reminder of a time not long ago when African Americans predominated. By Sam Quinones, Richard Winton and Joe Mozingo January 25, 2013 The trouble began soon after they arrived. The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into a...

Writer and film director David Mamet has weighed in on the current gun control push, and what he sees as government overreach couched in an "assault weapons" ban that is actually "a political appeal to the ignorant." Mamet describes it as a "hoax"– a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, because "assault weapons" are used in few crimes, and the very designation "assault weapon" is based on a gun's cosmetics--i.e., does it look menacing? Going after such guns makes some people feel safer because they have slowly, and perhaps unknowingly, traded their independence for a "government knows best" mentality....

[snip] In addition to a groundswell of opposition to the 2,700-kilometer-long Keystone pipeline, 17 of his [James Hansen] fellow climate scientists joined him in signing a letter urging Pres. Barack Obama to reject the project last week. Simply put, building the pipeline—and enabling more tar sands production—runs "counter to both national and planetary interests," the researchers wrote. "The year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is." Obama seemed to agree in his second inaugural address this week, noting "we will respond to the threat of climate change,...

KONNA, Mali—French special forces edged up to the largest city in Mali's north, entering the airport outside Gao and setting the stage for a battle for a city al Qaeda-backed militants have fortified since April. French and Malian troops on Saturday took control of the airport, as well as the bridge over the Niger River that leads into town, France's Defense Ministry said. A small number of the French forces, said one French spokesman, is leading an attempt to reclaim the 800-year-old city of 90,000, seized last year by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the insurgency's local allies.

In a letter sent Friday to the CEOs of TD Bank and Bank of America, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel urged the banks to stop serving gun manufacturers unless they support gun control measures, CBS Chicago reported. According to CBS, Emmanuel wants the banks to "stop lines of credit, financing for acquisitions and expansions and financial advising" unless the manufacturers agree with him on issues like background checks and what he called “commonsense reforms." “In the past, the gun industry has stood in opposition to these safety measures. They opposed a ban on assault weapons on America’s streets, opposed a ban...

Hey, they’ve gotta have someone who can sell high-powered firearms to Mexican drug cartels, amirite? You’ve heard about the 158 weapons you’ll no longer be able to use. But what about the exemptions? "Not everyone will have to abide by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s gun control bill. If the proposed legislation becomes law, government officials and others will be exempt." “Mrs. Feinstein’s measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel,” the Washington Times reports.

A celebration of lethal flatware. A new set of deadly eating-irons added for your pleasure and delectation. The knife, fork and spoon shown in the picture all have built-in flintlock pistols. Note that the barrels point backwards, towards the user, so they're not designed for plugging your host if he makes impertinent remarks about your table manners. It is difficult to imagine a social gathering where it is appropriate to shoot off your own elbows. The fork follows the pattern of the time; it looks pretty lethal on its own account. These weapons carry the maker's mark F X RICHTER...

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.(Genesis 6:1-3)The signs of the day of Noah that we have discussed earlier; the population explosion, rapid progress in science, technology and the arts, the complete disregard...

Paul Ryan urges unity, prudence among conservative ranks at National Review conference Paul Ryan laid out his vision for the Republican Party’s next four years in a morning address to the National Review Institute Summit on the future of conservatism in America. Ryan argued that Republicans should lay out their plans with even more detail now that they are the entrenched opposition. Republicans will have to oppose “big government in practice” and not just in theory, he predicted. Obamacare is no longer just a 2,000 page bill, but 12,000 pages of regulations, he said to illustrate his point. “We will...

It's hardly a secret. After all, in a letter to a senior officer, no less than a young Bill Clinton openly admitted that many of his cohort to "loath[ed] the military." Still, it's stunning to hear a modern-day liberal make a similar admission. On her MSNBC show today, Melissa Harris-Perry stated that the U.S. military is "despised as an engine of war by many progressives." View the video here.

To the Editor: This letter was forwarded to Barack Obama, John Boehner, Chris Murphy, Dick Blumenthal, Elizabeth Esty, and Harry Reid I live in Sandy Hook, CT. My family and close friends weren't harmed on December 14. That day impacted 26 families with an indescribable, staggering pain and anguish. For most of Sandy Hook, it merely affected us with an inescapable intensity of sadness and grief. Gun control has long been a focus of many in this country. Though I'm not knowledgeable of all the nuances of the Second Amendment, based on the Founding Fathers' circumstances, it had far more...

Vice President Joe Biden says to buy Shotgun shells in order to stay safe in an earthquake on a google hangout on gun violence.

Sen. Ted Cruz says the GOP should focus on opportunity for lower classes Freshman Senator Ted Cruz challenged the Republican Party to return to championing growth and opportunity for the lower and working classes during a lunchtime address at the National Review Institute Conference Saturday afternoon. Speaking without a lectern or notes, Cruz moved easily around the stage as he presented his vision for the Republican Party’s future to the audience at the conference. “The policies of the Obama administration have fundamentally failed the communities struggling to climb the economic ladder,” Cruz said. Cruz contrasted the Republican vision of opportunity...