Free Republic

“One issue that always boggles my mind is that the idea that a gun is a defensive weapon, that is a myth. A gun is not a defensive weapon. A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power. Police officers don’t carry a gun as a defensive weapon to defend themselves or their other officers

President blamed conservative “media preferred by Republican constituencies” as part of gridlock in Washington. Texas Insider Report: Washington, D.C. – “I think there are a lot of Republicans at this point, that feel that given how much energy has been devoted in some of the media that’s preferred by Republican constituencies, to demonize me. It doesn’t look real good socializing with me,” Obama said in a press conference Monday. The preferred media was presumably talk radio and Fox News. After the press conference, Rush Limbaugh said of Obama on his radio show, “What he does is position his political opponents...

"The £16 plastic figure is one of a range from a toy maker showing American statesmen as horror figures.... Yes We Fang! Here is US President Barack Obama dolled up as a vampire,is portrayed with cape and pointy gnashers, like horror film bloodsucker Nosferatu... The Presidential Monsters series includes George W Bush as an undead called Zom-Bush and Bill Clinton as a sax-playing werewolf....

TCM is continuing its weekend of great movies by following their present airing on "Ben-Hur" with MGM's other big hit of 1959: Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest"- One of my 2 favorite Hitchcock films("Vertigo" is the other) and my favorite of his 4 with Mr. Grant.

John Sandford is the pen name of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Camp. He is the author many crime thrillers, including the Lucas Davenport "Prey" series, the Virgil Flowers series, and the Kidd series. Today, I spotted a post by John Sandford on his Facebook page. He talks about a twist for his latest in-work Virgil Flowers novel. He also has comments about movies he's seen, especially, "Zero-Dark-Thirty." He concludes with a recommendation for a novel by another writer. If you like John Sandford, you can read his comments here, and if you're a Facebook member, you can also post...

Egypt's Coptic Christian population has often had a difficult relationship with the country's Muslim majority, and human rights groups estimate that several thousand Copts may have left the country since the 2011 revolution. Video at link.

Explanation: For now, Comet Lemmon (C/2012 F6a), and Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) are sweeping through southern skies. Lemmon's lime green coma and thin tail are near the left edge of this telephoto scene, a single frame from a timelapse video (vimeo here) recorded on February 12, tracking its motion against the background stars. Comet Lemmon's path brought it close to the line-of-sight to prominent southern sky treasures the Small Magellanic Cloud and globular cluster 47 Tucanae (right). Sporting a broader, whitish tail, Comet PanSTARRS appears in later video frames moving through the faint constellation Microscopium. Visible in binoculars and small...

Students at University of Missouri don't need to cram for exams that fall on Wiccan and Pagan holidays, now that the school has put them on par with Christmas, Thanksgiving and Hanukah. The university’s latest “Guide to Religions: Major Holidays and Suggested Accommodations” — designed to help faculty know when and when not to schedule exams and other student activities — lists eight Wiccan and Pagan holidays and events right alongside more mainstream occasions. It's all part of the school's effort to include everyone's beliefs, although some critics say listing every holiday associated with fringe belief systems is a bit...

What Happens To A Financial System When Its Two Biggest Pillars Collapse? Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt CrisisFebruary 16, 2013 - 10:32 PM GMT By: Graham Summers Those EU leaders who have yet to be implicated in scandals are not faring much better than their more corrupt counterparts. In France, socialist Prime Minister Francois Hollande, has proven yet again that socialism doesn’t work by chasing after the wealthy and trying to grow France’s public sector… when the public sector already accounts for 56% of French employment. France was already suffering from a lack of competitiveness. Now that wealthy businesspeople are fleeing...

(CNSNews.com) – A group of House Democrats labeling themselves the Safe Climate Caucus held a press conference today to warn that if Congress does not address global warming, the country could face dire consequences, including detrimental effects to California wines and an end to Vermont skiing. One Democratic representative even worried that global warming could destroy the state of Maryland. “If we do nothing about what is happening, it will destroy our economy, it will destroy our state, and it will have a broad impact not just here in this country but around the world,” Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.)...

I have closely followed the gun control debate in the US from the outside and, as a European, I am trying to make sense of it because I know that at stake is not just the gun legislation but also the American Constitution, with what it represents as the most historically important declaration of human rights and liberties to be safeguarded against the power of the state; the thorny issues of broken families and of how to treat the mentally ill; and even the always controversial question of race and gang violence. I have never seen a gun in my...

Governor, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, President of the United States. These have all been titles held by Bill or Hillary Clinton, a political power couple who have been in the game for almost 40 years. And with Hillary Clinton just finishing her time as Secretary of State and likely eyeing a 2016 Presidential run, it doesn't look like the pair are heading into retirement any time soon. It's been a long road for both, starting with Bill's 1974 congressional run and culminating in his inauguration as President in 1992. After leaving office in 2000, Hillary picked up the political...

A majority of Americans voted for President Barack Obama, despite having to stand in lines for hours in many locations. The president’s agenda, agreed to by most of America, is to limit ammo clips to 10 rounds, eliminate the further sale of assault weapons and require background checks on gun purchases, whether at a gun show or a sporting goods store — a simple concept, agreed on by most Americans, gun owners or not. What the NRA, the star salesman for the weapons manufacturers, hears is that we want to take away everybody’s guns and leave them defenseless. This is...

Here Are The Seven Senate Races To Watch In 2014 Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times | Feb. 16, 2013, 2:00 PM Just as the memory of the last bruising battle for control of the Senate begins to fade, political handicappers are casting their gaze to the 2014 campaign when Republicans once again will try to overcome the Democratic majority. Just as the Republicans began the 2012 campaign cycle in strong shape to reclaim the Senate, the GOP has a clear edge heading into the next face off. While some of the most intriguing political speculation today centers on whether actress...

America will only achieve the ambitious climate change goals outlined by President Barack Obama last week by encouraging wide-scale fracking for natural gas over the next few years. That is the advice of one of the nation's senior scientists, Professor William Press, a member of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Fracking – known officially as hydraulic fracturing – involves pumping high-pressure water through underground rocks to release natural gas trapped deep underground. It is believed that there are vast reserves of these subterranean gas fields across the US. Thousands of wells have already been drilled in...

A proposed federal rule to cap profit margins for certain health insurance plans and prescription drug benefit programs is now available for review. The latest in a raft of rules required by President Obama’s landmark healthcare law, the proposed rule was drafted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and sent to Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday. The White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is moving quickly to issue the proposal, which will hit the Federal Register on Tuesday. That begins a 60-day comment period. CMS will consider all comments before finalizing the rule. The 116-page...

More than 20,000 protestors from around 160 organizations will swarm the National Mall Sunday in hopes of intensifying the pressure on President Obama over climate policy. The president has not yet detailed the specifics of how he will address the issue, aside from a pledge made in the State of the Union address to take executive action on climate if Congress fails to make progress. Demonstrators are likely to offer plenty of loud suggestions in what green groups are branding the largest ever United States climate rally. “We’re really past the point of playing games with any of this stuff,”...

Maryland Upsets #1 Duke 83-81 Maryland/Duke has been one of the best rivalries in college basketball. (Even if the Dookies don't want to admit it) For many in Maryland, forget the superbowl just won by the Ravens...this is a win over Duke. Ranked #1 by USA Today, Duke traveled for possibly the last time to play basketball in Maryland as the Terps will be moving on to the Big Ten. College officials, anticipating the burning couches and riots that can occur after Duke games, create their own "official" fire on campus to draw the students away from town.

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – A teenager is shot to death and his friend is charged with murder, even though he didn’t pull the trigger. The circuit attorney’s office issued warrants for second degree murder and attempted burglary against 17-year-old Michael Bryant. Police say Bryant and 15-year-old Demetrius Murphy were trying to break into a home on Tennessee early Friday morning. Investigators say the 33-year-old homeowner heard them, went outside, and confronted the suspects. The homeowner then shot and killed Murphy. The homeowner was questioned, but not arrested. Under Missouri law, if someone is killed while a felony is being...

<p>Robbie Rogers, a former midfielder for the United States national team who most recently played in England, had revealed in a blog post that he was gay, too.</p> <p>Robbie Rogers, a midfielder for the Columbus Crew from 2007-2011, revealed Friday that he is gay. He wrote: “My secret is gone, I am a free man, I can move on and live my life as my creator intended.”</p>