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Syria's opposition fighters have been gaining strength and becoming more organised while government forces seem to be slowly withdrawing under the pressure. Last week, opposition fighters said they took control of the al-Jarrah military air base in Aleppo province. It was the latest in a string of military air bases to be captured by anti-government fighters. And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the rebels have, for the first time, seized a fleet of air force planes that includes MiG fighters. The capture of the airfield happened a day after fighters seized the country's largest hydro-electric dam, located in...

BENSALEM, Pa. - A gun buyback program in Bensalem Township was met with some competition. People lined up to turn in their unwanted weapons Wednesday night. Township officials offered between $50 and $200 for each weapon. They say they hope the buyback will reduce gun violence in the township. Outside, a group of gun advocates set up a table offering a better price to people carrying high-quality weapons.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein began her war on allergy and cold sufferers in 2005. In an effort to prevent small-time dealers from buying allergy and cold drugs and cooking them into methamphetamine, she pushed through legislation requiring consumers to show identification before purchasing products with pseudoephedrine -- otherwise known as the good allergy drugs, known only to those who know enough to ask for them. Now Feinstein wants to make you get a prescription from a doctor before you buy these drugs. In 2005, I thought Feinstein's Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act wrongly punished law-abiding citizens by limiting their access to over-the-counter...

ABC News reporter David Wright chose an odd metaphor to describe criticism of the possible timing of the selection of Pope Benedict XVI's successor. Wright, speaking live from the Vatican on today's Good Morning America, reported that yesterday the Vatican spokesman had floated a trial balloon suggesting that the conclave to choose a new Pope could be moved up from its originally established date of March 15th. Continued Wright: "but in other quarters of the Church, that trial balloon is being shot down faster than an old-school nun might rap you on the knuckles." View the video here.

<p>Mod note: the source has changed the title and the body of this article after this was posted.</p> <p>Forget police drones flying over your house. How about police coming inside, once a year, to have a look around? As Orwellian as that sounds, it isn’t hypothetical. The notion of police home inspections was introduced in a bill last week in Olympia.</p>

NEWTOWN -- Investigators have succeeded in recovering some data from one of the damaged hard drives in a computer used by Adam Lanza and have subpoenaed computers of people they believe were in contact with the Sandy Hook mass murderer, a law enforcement source said Friday. Another smashed hard drive is still being reconstructed by technicians with the U.S. Department of Defense, the source said. Authorities are particularly interested in what relationships Lanza had within the online and video game community, hoping there may be clues about what provoked him to shoot his mother to death, then kill 20 first-graders...

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - An estimated 1,000 people took to the streets of Idaho Falls in support of 2nd Amendment rights on Saturday. The group's organizers say the massive demonstration isn't exclusively about guns -- it's about freedom. “Are all of you Americans?” shouted organizer Chad Christensen, to a resounding response from the crowd. The large crowd crossed the Broadway Bridge in downtown Idaho Falls in a trek from the Bonneville County courthouse to the Shilo Inn. “This isn't about guns, I believe,” said Christensen. “It's about our freedom and our liberty and our childrens’ future.” Through city streets, marchers...

Nothing really stuns me anymore about the Left and their lunacy. That was until this week when soulless Columbia professor Mark Lamont Hill appeared on CNN and got giddy about cop killer Chris Dorner. Hill said Dorner’s murderous revenge spree was “exciting,” and was like Jamie Foxx’s character in Tarantino’s latest flick, D’jango Unchained. Hill doubled down on his stupidity during the same interview by stating Chris’ homicidal orgy was akin to the exploits of a “super hero.” I was speechless when I heard such vomit roll off that quack’s tongue. In contrast to numb nuts, Dorner's mother, Nancy Dorner,...

Fairfax, Va. - For the leader of what may be the most polarizing interest group in America, National Rifle Association chief David Keene is a genial hard-liner. He loves guns. He loves politics. He loves talking - even with journalists, who are viewed in gun circles as overwhelmingly hostile to their cause. The son of pro-labor Wisconsin Democrats, Keene grew into one of Washington, D.C.'s ultimate conservative insiders, a Goldwater-Nixon-Agnew-Reagan-Dole Republican, a lobbyist, strategist and lifelong political player. He enjoys the fray, and now he's in a big one. Keene jokes about getting death threats from people who can't shoot,...

The Germany-based skincare company surreptitiously snapped photos of people waiting at the airport, then instantly created fake newspapers with their faces labeled as fugitives — which actors casually made sure they got a good look at. Next, an announcement came over the intercom giving the targets’ physical descriptions and saying they were wanted by police. Finally, TVs blared “breaking news” that warned they were “dangerous and unpredictable.”(video)

President Barack Obama spoke about his new gun control initiatives during a quick visit to his hometown of Chicago Friday, but the violence in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States did not abate. The Politico relates: Four separate shootings took place in the span of 90 minutes Friday evening in Chicago, the first coming less than an hour after Air Force One departed O’Hare Airport after President Obama spoke on the culture of gun violence and economic decay that plagues many cities, including his hometown. [...] An hour earlier, Obama wrapped up a personal speech at...

He's gutted their healthcare, plans to cut their pay and apparently, doesn't trust them either. David Codrea over at Gun Rights Examiner points out that Marines marching in President Obama's second inaugural parade recently were caring rifles without bolts, meaning they were removed.

A Michigan man with a lengthy criminal rap sheet decided to treat his video arraignment like an audition by freestyling his responses to charges of threatening to kill his girlfriend

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Here we go again. In 2002, Sen. Robert Torricelli quit his re-election campaign after he was caught accepting minor gifts from a shady donor. A promising career crashed in flames. Now, Sen. Robert Menendez, is on the hot seat for accepting gifts from his own shady donor. Wasn’t he paying attention in 2002? Why would he play such a sloppy game? “We have to ask this question repeatedly: How can smart people be so stupid?” says Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress with the American Enterprise Institute. “It happens over and over, so why don’t they see what the consequences...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Sandwiched between two doctors’ offices at a roadside plaza here is the headquarters of a small team of veteran Republican investigators, operating almost as a private detective squad, who since late last year have had a determined goal: bringing down Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. “We’ve never sent a Democrat to jail,” said Ken Boehm, the chairman of the group, the National Legal and Policy Center, as he looked up from a table filled with his Menendez files and engaged in what was to him a bit of wishful thinking. To Mr. Menendez and...

Democrats hammered Republicans for voting to go into recess Friday and accused them of willfully avoiding coming up with a plan to avert the sequester. “The Democrats tried to stop the Republicans from leaving, but 220 Republicans voted to adjourn, that means we have four legislative days left to avoid the across the board cuts,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “They manufacture a crisis and then instead of trying to avert that crisis they go on a nine day recess. Why?" **SNIP** “The Republicans are poised to shut down government, the Republicans are poised to let sequestration go forward,...

The University of Missouri is going to recognize Wiccan and pagan holidays--"so no one feels left out." But, whatever you do, DON'T SAY "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

... Over the past decade, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands have paid more than $130 million to terrorist groups, mostly through mediators, to free European hostages. European leaders were understandably desperate to save the lives of their citizens. But their efforts have backfired because the paying of ransoms has merely turned their citizens into a lucrative commodity for cash-hungry jihadis. Groups like Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa have grown accustomed to ransom payments and reacted by seeking to capture as many Europeans — from...

In the 1940’s and 50’s, famed Author George Orwell surmised that both the English language and civilized society were in decline. After a press conference held last week by Emeryville, California Police Chief Ken James, it’s easy to see a decline in both language and critical thinking skills in our country. And as Orwell thought, indeed civilized society may very well be in jeopardy. It happened on February 14th. Taking to the microphones and cameras in his suburban San Francisco community, Chief James stood at a podium with the requisite group of serious-looking, professionally dressed, pouty-faced people standing behind...