Free Republic

It's a perilous proposition to insist that a long-dead historical figure would share your politics. It's doubly so when your documentary evidence is thin and you are twisting the proper meaning of the words in that supposed evidence. Take the case of MSNBC.com's Nick Ramsey, who insists that Abraham Lincoln would strongly disagreed with Justice Antonin Scalia that the U.S. Constitution is a dead document rather than a living constitution that can evolve outside the constitutionally-provided mechanism for such evolution: the amendment processes described in Article VII. "This is an issue that constitutional experts have debated for years and years,...

IN 2012, REPUBLICANS ran against the massive cuts to defense that might occur in early 2013 under the congressionally mandated budget sequester. At an Oct. 23 presidential debate, President Obama responded that his opponent, Mitt Romney, was blowing the risk out of proportion: The cuts, he said, “will not happen.” Well, those cuts are now scheduled to take effect on March 1 — and, by the look of things, they will. The GOP has changed its tune; the Republican majority in the House seems content to let them happen. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama, whose defense secretary has warned in the direst...

ABC has greenlit a new game show in which parents make wagers on the actions of their toddlers. It's called "Bet on Your Baby." The actual show, mercifully, sounds far less "Hunger Games"-ish than the title might imply. Hosted by Melissa Peterman (ABC Family's "Baby Daddy," "Reba"), the show will feature five sets of parents and their children, aged 2 to 3 1/2, in each episode (so it's more "Bet on Your Toddler"). Each family plays a self-contained game in which the parents wager on the actions their kid will take next. In other words, there's no tot-vs.-tot competition. All...

FX is set to debut the first episode of its new Cold War-era spy drama, "The Americans," on Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star in the series as typical suburban parents living near Washington, D.C., towards the start of the Reagan administration. The catch? This seemingly-average couple happen to be a set of Russian spies. Reviews for the first several episodes of "The Americans" are in and have been, for the most part, fairly flattering towards the series. "The Americans" has been met with praise for balancing tense moments of espionage with the spy...

Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, Commander of the IAF, described the chaotic threat facing Israel from its neighbors Tuesday, just hours before jet fighters under his command reportedly hit a major weapons convoy between Syria and Lebanon. Video .....

Families who have their holidays ruined by long flight delays will at last be able to claim compensation. A landmark ruling has opened the floodgates for hundreds of thousands of claims, and could cost airlines millions. It demonstrated that Britons have the right to compensation of up to £480 ($758), plus expenses, for holdups longer than three hours. Last October, the European Court of Justice ruled that delays caused by airline failures, such as technical faults or a lack of flight crew, merited compensation. This week, a judge in Staffordshire implemented that decision for the first time. He awarded a...

Help Senator Marchione Repeal and Replace Restrictive New Gun Control that Weakens the Second Amendment Constitutional Rights of Law-Abiding New Yorkers! In a vote held in the state Legislature last night – Monday, January 14, 2013 – the Second Amendment Constitutional freedoms of New Yorkers were weakened with passage of restrictive new gun control. I strongly opposed this legislation that was rushed through both houses of our state Legislature without a single public hearing or the proper time to carefully review the bill.

On Monday, a post at Pundit Press reported that the "I hate it when I wake up and Sarah Palin is still alive" Facebook page has gathered over 3,300 members. But many conservatives say the social media giant, now with more than 900 million users, appears to be punishing them with warnings and bans for sharing links and posting comments, causing many to wonder if the site is employing a double standard on the content that is posted there. The page displays a cartoon caricature of Palin holding a pistol to her head while claiming that it does not advocate...

Hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee held Newtown-inspired gun control hearings, MSNBC's Morning Joe program brought on former Playboy chairwoman and CEO Christie Hefner to warn that warmer weather in Chicago has been a contributing factor in the number of gun deaths in the Windy City. "[W]e are having this climate change effect that is driving" young men in Chicago to commit 500 homicides in 2012 she insisted. For his part, quasi-conservative host Joe Scarborough made no attempt to press Hefner on this outrageous claim, although he did mildly mock it. In doing so, however, he dismissed conservative bloggers with...

She may be 65 years old, but outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not retiring. Instead, she's considering helping the foundation led by her husband and leaving the door open to a possible presidential run in 2016. "I have absolutely no plans to run," Clinton told CNN Tuesday -- political speak that does not rule out a change of plans -- as she prepared to hand over her State Department responsibilities to John Kerry. "I am out of politics right now."

Will the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) test another atomic bomb soon and will the test "target" the United States? It seems likely, but how might it be done? The world has been awaiting another North Korean nuclear test since its failed missile launch of April 12, 2012. It was then thought that she was ready for one. That seems not to have been accomplished yet, but another missile launch, also anticipated, took place on December 12, 2012 when North Korea successfully launched a three stage rocket to put a "satellite" into orbit. That launch was frowned upon and...

Zead Ramadan, head of the New York branch of Hamas-affiliated CAIR, to run against Jew for seat on New York City Council. ... Ramadan is a Palestinian Authority Arab who was born in Kuwait and immigrated to Washington Heights with his family, including seven siblings, as a kid and quickly assimilated, the report said. He is, among other things, the president of the board of directors of the New York Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric, accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating genocide and of being a terrorist state.

As a musician, a co-founder of a record label and a vintage poster dealer, New York-based artist Alfra Martini is a woman of many musical trades. But in her downtime, the cat owner uses kittens as her muse to recreate classic album covers, and the result is rather entertaining. She first came up with the idea for her website, The Kitten Covers, while she was at home sick in bed, looking at old, iconic album covers online with her cat. She noticed the graphic, exaggerated style of art in the album covers, and immediately had a vision of David Bowie...

AFP - The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say: the more housework married men do, the less sex they have, according to a new study published Wednesday. Husbands who spend more time doing traditionally female chores -- such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping -- reported having less sex than those who do more masculine tasks, said the study in the American Sociological Review.

Fury is brewing at Rocky Mountain High School, in Colorado, after a multicultural student group were encouraged to recite the Pledge of Allegiance over the loudspeaker in Arabic - replacing ´one nation under God´ with ´one nation under Allah´. Following Monday´s pledge, Principal Tom Lopez has been inundated with complaints from outraged parents concerned that saying the Pledge in any language other than English is unpatriotic. Standing by his controversial decision, Principal Lopez has said that despite the irate telephone calls and emails, he is not in any way or form trying to push an

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The Internal Revenue Service and Health and Human Services Department Wednesday issued regulations on the individual healthcare mandate.The mandate, which requires nearly all taxpayers without it to purchase health insurance next year, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a historic 2012 decision.The government Wednesday explained rules for exemptions to the mandate in regulations regarding IRS penalties for those who choose to remain uninsured after the 2009 Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, The Hill reported. Individuals eligible for exemptions include people with religious objections to traditional healthcare, people for whom healthcare is not...

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. - Fear of the unknown about what could happen with gun laws is driving people to gun shops nationwide. "It's just been crazy, absolutely crazy. If I had to guess I'd say between five and ten times the business some days," Frontiersman Gun Shop owner Kory Krause said Tuesday night. .... Krause says anytime shootings like that happen people come to his shop in droves. "In the last 30 days we did, we sold well over 1,000 guns," Krause said.

ARCADIA (CBSLA.com) — Police on Wednesday were investigating reported break-ins at two Arcadia church buildings over the last two weeks. The first incident occurred overnight Jan. 19-20 at the Church of the Good Shepherd at 400 West Duarte Road. The suspect(s) forced open a door to the church office, ransacked the interior, and threw clergy robes on the ground. A fire extinguisher was discharged in the office and the suspect(s) burned part of a portrait hanging on the office wall before making off with a guitar and other sound equipment. Shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the police department received...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Annette in Highland, Illinois. Glad you waited. Great to have you on the program, Annette. CALLER: Thank you. I just want to tell you, I'm so glad you're saying what you're saying today. I was a nervous wreck yesterday that we were gonna lose you as conservatives, and you're just right on today about the immigration thing. My family immigrated here legally in 1955, and some more of them immigrated here in 2007, and we are against any kind of amnesty. The Republicans didn't lose because of Hispanics. The Republicans lost because they're not conservative enough....

CHICAGO - The godfather of a 15-year-old girl who was killed when a gunman opened fire on a group of young people in Chicago says she was a terrific student who had dreams of becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Damon Stewart says Hadiya Pendleton had been so excited about a trip to Washington, D.C., where she performed as a majorette at some of President Barack Obama's inauguration events.