Free Republic

The ghastly murders in Newtown, Conn., reflect the horrify prevalence of suicide here and across the globe. Before we turn up the volume on the Second Amendment. Before we trot out data proving that more guns lead to more violence — or don't. Before we re-live every senseless mass murder and make children afraid to step into a movie theater, school or mall. Before all of this and worse — experts would be wise to examine a phenomena that has been the impetus behind so many recent attacks on innocent civilians: Long before the perpetrators reached for a weapon, they...

Gary Shilling Expects Great Disconnect to Cause Stock Market Crash 2013 Stock-Markets / Financial CrashJanuary 28, 2013 - 06:20 PM By: DailyWealth Steve Sjuggerud writes: Gary Shilling might have the best track record of any investor over the last 30 years... If you had invested $100,000 in Shilling's "big idea" 30 years ago, it would be worth over $6 million today. While most investors didn't pay attention to his big idea, Shilling was right. And he never gave up on his big idea. Here in 2013, Shilling has some new big ideas... and some bold predictions... particularly about what he...

On skeet shooting, put up or shut up, Barry That's the challenge from Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn who offered to go to Camp David and have a shoot off with the president. "If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn't he referenced this at any point in time?" Blackburn said Monday on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "I tell you what I do think," she later added. "I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I'll go skeet shooting with him and I bet I'll beat...

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the only Republican still left in President Barack Obama's first-term Cabinet, says he plans to leave the Obama administration. The former congressman from Illinois says in an interview with The Associated Press that he intends to remain at the department until his successor is confirmed.

Over the course of the last two years, Oracle's Java has been exploited time and again as hackers eviscerate the technology, seemingly at will.As each exploit emerges against Java, Oracle typically responds within a short period of time with a security update, only to have the update exploited within days. While Oracle has pledged with its successive releases that it is improving Java security, the company has not publicly spoken out about the string of exploitation that has crippled confidence in Java in recent months. That is until now."As many of you are keenly aware, there has been a...

Researchers say they may have the final clues needed to solve the mystery of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which never resurfaced after it became the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship, taking its eight-man crew to a watery grave.

Prime Minister Medvedev says Syrian president's chances of keeping power are getting "smaller and smaller" as war rages Russia's prime minister has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had made a "grave," and possibly "fatal" mistake by delaying political reforms and not speaking to members of the country's oppositon sooner. "[Assad] should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side," Dmitry Medvedev said according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by his office on Sunday. "This was his grave mistake, and possibly...

When the Journal News published a map showing the location of all households in their corner of New York, gun-rights activists vehemently criticized the decision as irresponsible, one that put the entire community in danger. As it turns out, they underestimated just how irresponsible the Journal News decision was. The map wildly overstated the number of active gun permits, and it turns out the newspaper didn’t bother to verify any of their information (via Instapundit): "The newspaper map of one New York county’s pistol permits was riddled with problems, thanks to inaccurate data in official records, acknowledges the paper that...

Much to the horror of various interest groups, it appears that there will be a “sequester” on March 1. This means an automatic reduction in spending authority for selected programs (interest payments are exempt, as are most entitlement outlays).Just about everybody in Washington is frantic about the sequester, which supposedly will mean “savage” and “draconian” budget cuts.If only. That would be like porn for libertarians.In reality, the sequester merely means a reduction in the growth of federal spending. Even if we have the sequester, the burden of government spending will still be about $2 trillion higher in 10 years.The other...

In the approaching twilight of the US war in Afghanistan, China is stepping up its involvement, attracted by the country’s trillion dollar worth of minerals. China, who has long been a bystander to the conflict in Afghanistan, could prove to be the ultimate winner in Afghanistan and that without a single shed of blood. They have already hit the jackpot by winning the billion dollar investment project in Logar’s copper mine. Afghanistan’s lithium, the key raw material for batteries to nuclear components, is the next potential target. But, do they seem to be going forward? Security remains a challenge to...

Military Pact With Niger Brings American Forces Closer to Conflict in Mali. The U.S. signed an agreement Monday with the West African country of Niger that clears the way for a stepped-up American military presence on the edges of the conflict in neighboring Mali. The U.S. and France are moving to create an intelligence hub in Niger that could include a base, near Mali's border, for American drones that could monitor al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali's vast desert north, U.S. officials said. The moves show the extent to which the U.S. and France are girding for what could be an...

It's about time for some bipartisan...skeet shooting? Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, joined a chorus of skeptics who questioned President Barack Obama's recent comments about his hobby of skeet shooting, a sport where participants fire shotguns to break airborne clay disks. "If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn't he referenced this at any point in time?" Blackburn said Monday on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "I tell you what I do think," she later added. "I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I'll go skeet...

Somewhere in our president's short inaugural address last week (it only seemed long), our newly re-elected chief executive paused to deliver a pious little sermon on the evils of name-calling -- and for good measure, the evils of delay, spectacle and absolutism, too. The Rev. Obama crammed all those sins into a couple of sentences that might have passed for a mini-homily from some less-gifted televangelist: "For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate." Well said, at least for an...

On Tuesday, January 29th, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will hold a Global Townterview at the Newseum in Washington, DC. This will be Secretary Clinton’s 59th town hall and an opportunity to engage with young people around the world in advance of her last day as Secretary of State on Friday, February 1st.

Alien abduction thriller...looks scary as h@ll.Video Link

RICHMOND, Va. A humble 5-cent coin with a storied past is headed to auction and bidding is expected to top $2 million a century after it was mysteriously minted. The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it's the coin's back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal. It all adds up to an expected sale of $2.5 million or more when it...

Should an Indiana couple go to jail for saving Bambi? That's the question surrounding the case of Jeff and Jennifer Counceller, who rescued an injured fawn and nursed it back to health at their Connersville, Ind., home. The couple now faces the possibility of jail time and fines after state officials charged them with a misdemeanor for harboring the animal.

CBS News and Professor Louis Michael Seidman have a lot of people in a panic. Rightfully so, because it's typical in our society to regard college professors as disinterested observers. College professors are not disinterested observers. While plenty of people are in a panic over the open attacks on the constitution, one question I have not heard anybody ask or even begin to take a look into, is where does this come from? Whether he knows it or not, Professor Seidman is speaking almost verbatim from one of the most important early 20th century progressives: Herbert Croly. Croly was profoundly...

David Cameron says UK will support French mission to drive Islamists out but insists forces will not engage in combat Britain is prepared to take the risk of sending a "sizeable amount" of troops to Mali and neighbouring West African countries as David Cameron offers strong support to France in its operation to drive Islamist militants from its former colony. As news emerged that insurgents retreating from Timbuktu had set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, Downing Street said the prime minister told François Hollande on Sunday night Britain was "keen" to provide further military assistance...

National Officers: Rex W. Tillerson Irving, Texas President Tico A. Perez Orlando, Florida National Commissioner Aubrey B. Harwell Jr. Nashville, Tennessee Treasurer R. Thomas Buffenbarger Upper Marlboro, Maryland Assistant Treasurer James S. Turley New York, New York International Commissioner Terrence P. Dunn Kansas City, Missouri Vice President— Council Operations Wayne M. Perry Bellevue, Washington President-Elect Randall L. Stephenson Dallas, Texas Vice President—Finance Lyle R. Knight Billings, Montana Vice President—Human Resources Nathan O. Rosenberg Laguna Beach, California Vice President—Marketing Jack D. Furst Dallas, Texas Vice President— Outdoor Adventures O. Temple Sloan Jr. Raleigh, North Carolina Vice President—Supply Earl G. Graves New...