Free Republic

Christian registrars will not be able to opt out of performing gay marriages if they object on grounds of belief, the Government’s human rights watchdog has said.In guidance to MPs, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said marriage registrars were public officials and so should expect to be “required” to carry out the ceremonies. The document makes clear that employees, including teachers and chaplains working in the public sector, should be free to express their views on marriage without being disciplined. But it says that religious protection is “a qualified right” which “the state can interfere with” in some...

CONCORD, N.H. - Police chiefs in New Hampshire wanted more money for a youth training program. A youth hockey team in North Dakota needed ice time. Both saw giving away guns as the answer. From car dealerships to political parties to hockey teams to, yes, even police chiefs, gun giveaways are an attractive way to make money or draw in customers. But in the wake of the deadly Connecticut school shootings, such raffles are drawing criticism as the ease of obtaining firearms fuels gun-control debates nationwide.

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- Several firearm-related bills are scheduled for a hearing in the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Thursday, February 21 in Representative Hall. The following anti-gun bills will be considered: HB 290-FN, introduced by state Representative Delmar Burridge (D- Cheshire 16), would prohibit individuals without a carry permit from openly carrying a pistol or revolver in a public building. This legislation imposes unnecessary restrictions on your Right to Keep and Bear Arms and provides no benefit to public safety. This hearing will take place at 10:00 a.m. HB 396, introduced by Representative Cynthia Sweeney (D-Sullivan 8),...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned home to Venezuela early Monday after more than two months of medical treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery.Chavez’s return was announced in a series of message on his Twitter account, saying “we will continue our treatment here.”“We’ve arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!!” the first of the three messages said.

Americans will never surrender their lust for guns. Written by Lewis W. Diuguid For a lot of people, one is never enough and bigger is always better. That includes magazines that hold more rounds. The .22-caliber, bolt-action rifle that I learned to shoot at age 11 as a Boy Scout is insufficient. The revolvers my grandfather carried every day to his job as a railroad brakeman and that my dad inherited are so 19th century. Today’s firearms have to give law-abiding gun owners a bigger advantage over “bad guys.” That lust for guns is why President Obama will find it...

Editor's note: This column contains satire. This fact is noted for all the liberals that may be reading. That is all.President Obama’s aggressive agenda for his second term might have been controversial, if it weren’t for his spectacular first term successes. The president’s expansive vision of federally driven, universal government education of children too young for grade school, his complex plan for a network of federal “hubs” to resuscitate American manufacturing, his aggressive action plan against polluting industries to correct earth’s climate, all could have provoked strong opposition, perhaps even media skepticism. He also courageously signaled that Congress’s bad faith...

The Arkansas public school district may be able to teach Bible elective courses if the new bill passes Arkansas State Education Committee approval. Arkansas State Representative Danny Altus has proposed a new bill that would allow the teaching of elective courses for academic study purposes. The new bill also states that the State Board of Education shall allow for an elective academic study of the Bible courses that consist of "a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture, and politics to be offered to students in public school districts, if the academic...

This animated video of a US Northwestern rough legged hawk and it’s cry, brook fish, farm pig, Galapagos tortoise and bullfrogs singing the chorus to the hymn, "Revive Us Again", are to inspire faith in Jesus our Lord. The voices of this video are myself and grandchildren; Elijah, Megan, Taylor and Jamee.

Moscow, February 18, Interfax - The inaugural congress of the Russian Ten Commandments Party took place in Moscow. The total of 134 delegates from 45 Russian subjects, including Christians of different confessions, Muslims, and Jews, participated in the inaugural congress on February 17. The political council, the decision making body of the party, was headed by Sergey Mezentsev, Ph.D. "I hope that your activity will help to restore moral values, God's Ten Commandments in the everyday political life, in the life of our society. I hope that you will stay faithful to these God's Commandments, that you'll be able to...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Da ily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000...

For older Japanese-Americans, the discrimination and attacks on Muslims and Sikhs are opening afresh an old wound that never healed. To show support for Arab-Americans, the South Bay's Japanese-American community held a somber candlelight ceremony and procession at San Jose Buddhist Church on Sunday evening, linking diverse faiths through similar fears. The "Day of Remembrance" is an annual commemoration of Feb. 19, 1942, a day that changed the lives of Japanese-Americans forever. Citing concerns about wartime sabotage and espionage, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order that led to the internment of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry at...

You are a reality star. You might think no one sees you in your fenced-in backyard grilling hamburgers in your boxer shorts. But government drones equipped with HD cameras are filming a new reality show starring you: “Drone Dynasty.” In popular reality shows like “Duck Dynasty” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” we essentially stalk people as they make fools of themselves on camera. In general, stalking is becoming culturally acceptable as our ability to spy, share and sensationalize life extends beyond reality television. I use social media just like everyone else; I think sites like Twitter can be...

A year ago, the shutdown of several refineries serving the Northeast and the possibility they would not reopen threatened to boost New England’s already­ high gasoline prices by as much as 15 cents a gallon. But an influxof cheaper crude oil extracted from shale rock formations in the United States has helped save most of those facilities and stabilized gas ­prices. The revival of the East Coast refineries is another example of how the controversial drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is changing the energy equation for the region, nation, and world. Just as fracking opened vast reserves...

Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber? Despite our advancements over the last tens or even hundreds of years, some ‘experts’ believe that humans are losing cognitive capabilities and becoming more emotionally unstable. One Stanford University researcher and geneticist, Dr. Gerald Crabtree, believes that our intellectual decline as a race has much to do with adverse genetic mutations. But there is more to it than that.

Alarm bells are going off for labor unions around the country. Four years after electing the most pro-labor president of the last half-decade, it looks like the scheme has backfired. In 2008 and 2012 labor unions used everything, including a little body English, ballot stuffing and voter intimidation to elect a president who would bring the prestige of presidential backing to recruitment efforts for labor unions.   Since then not only have labor unions taken historic defeats in former union strongholds, like Wisconsin and Michigan, labor union membership is declining at a rate that will make them a footnote in the...

Barack Obama has kept the press well away this President’s Day (Washington's Birthday) weekend (hat tip: Drudge Report) as he golfs with Tiger Woods in Florida. As Politico’s Dylan Byers writes: Ed Henry, the Fox News correspondent and president of the White House Correspondents Association, released a statement Sunday evening in which he said the press corps had been given no access to the president, who was joined on his outing by star golfer Tiger Woods, and that the WHCA would fight for greater transparency in the days ahead. "Speaking on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I can...

The English version of the code name chosen for the operations surrounding the upcoming visit to Israel by U.S. President Barack Obama, scheduled for March 20, is "Unbreakable Alliance." The Hebrew name is "Brit Amim," which means, literally, "an alliance between nations." According to Maariv/NRG, the names were chosen carefully by the National Public Information Staff, which is wary of upsetting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Like stray dogs drawn to an open sewer, after a bitter election, the Democrats and Republicans have found themselves drawn together to illegal alien amnesty. Amnesty has an obvious appeal for both Democrats and Republicans. It's a means of putting a lot of cheap votes on the table. The Democrats have been using immigrants as cheap votes before the invention of the telephone. And the Republicans think that they can begin scoring 39 percent of the Hispanic vote in all their elections again without considering what 11 percent of 11 million will do to their margins in even the reddest...

Happy birthday Yoko Ono. Mrs Lennon is 80-years old today. Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933. She met John Lennon at an art exhibition in 1965. They married in 1969. It was the second marriage for John and third for Yoko. Towards the end of The Beatles, John and Yoko formed the Plastic Ono Band. The first album was ‘Live Peace In Toronto 1969’ on The Beatles Apple label. The first single was ‘Give Peace A Chance’ The original line-up for Plastic Ono Band featured John, Yoko and Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass...

'Actor Richard Briers, best known for his role in TV's The Good Life, has died at the age of 79, his agent has said. The star, who was also an accomplished stage actor, had been battling a serious lung condition for several years. Briers died "peacefully" at his London home on Sunday, his agent said. Briers recently said years of smoking had been to blame for his emphysema. Famed for his role as the hapless Tom Good in the 1970s BBC sitcom The Good Life, Briers also starred in shows such as Ever Decreasing Circles, Monarch Of The Glen and...