Free Republic

Perhaps because he wants to divert attention from the slow-motion train wreck of Obamacare, the President is signalling that he will renew his efforts to throw more people into the unemployment line. Needless to say, that’s not how the White House would describe the President’s proposal to increase the minimum wage, but that’s one of the main results when the government criminalizes certain employment contracts between consenting adults. To be blunt, if a worker happens to have poor work skills, a less-than-impressive employment record, or some other indicator of low productivity that makes them worth, say, $7.50 per hour, then...

One morning when I was making breakfast before school, my second-grade daughter, fresh off her school’s diversity unit on homosexuality, decided it was time I had a lesson in gay rights. First, she said, you should never use the word “gay” in a negative way, as in “That’s so gay!” Very interesting, I said, plotting to push a little deeper into this intriguing topic. So what is “gay,” I asked? Gay is when two boys like each other, and lesbian is when two girls like each other, she explained. Did she know anyone who was gay or lesbian, I asked?...

Three years early, Gov. Mark Dayton is taking a stand for his 2016 presidential pick. The DFL governor joined Ready for Hillary, the political action committee supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton's potential run for president, the group said Thursday and Dayton's staff confirmed. "Everyday, Minnesotans from all over our state and from all walks of life tell me that they want to see Hillary Clinton run for president in 2016," Dayton said in a release. "Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to be the next president of the United States."

Insurance cancellations are fueling a political backlash against President Barack Obama and Democrats supporting his health care overhaul, but they may be a silver lining for the law itself. It's Economics 101, a little-noticed consequence of a controversial policy decision. And there are winners and losers. Millions of people who currently buy their own health insurance coverage are losing it next year because their plans don't meet requirements of the health care law. Experts say the resulting shift of those people into the new health insurance markets under Obama's law would bring in customers already known to insurers, reducing the...

A lot of people are pronouncing the tea party movement dead after Tuesday’s election results. Goodbye and good riddance. The tea party movement was fun for a while. But before long it was taken over by know-it-alls and knuckleheads. If you doubt that, consider all of those partiers who like to say that the "tea" in "tea party" stands for "Taxed Enough Already." This is what is known as a "backronym." A backronym is formed when someone takes a perfectly good English word and tries to treat it as if it were an acronym. Every time I mention the slang...

Here's the First 3-D Printed Pistol Made From Metal But you probably can’t afford it It was only six months ago when Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed produced a fully 3-D printed gun that’s since been duplicated by hobbyists around the world. But the plastic gun was fragile, prone to explode and gave 3-D printing a bad rep. It’s also why one major 3-D printing firm just announced a gun of its own. And it’s made entirely out of metal. The gun isn't an original design. It’s a printed duplicate of the 1911 pistol, the popular handgun that dates to...

[Florida] State Attorney Angela Corey said Wednesday she draws a line on gun crimes when it comes to her office’s decisions to charge juveniles as adults. “Some of these kids … are bigger than any person in this room and some of them are meaner than anybody you’ve ever come across,” [Corey] said.

Last week, the RNC launched GOP.com/TellUs, where those impacted by ObamaCare can share their stories and even upload pictures of letters canceling their coverage, pink slips from employers, or screenshots of healthcare.gov glitches. Responses have come pouring in from people who have been hurt by ObamaCare and by the president’s lies. Here’s some of what they’re saying. Lisa A. of Maryland writes, “I loved my primary care provider, but they could no longer afford to stay in business due to Obamacare and had to sell out to a corporate entity. They are now only keeping 450 of their former patients,...

The Senate passed historic gay rights legislation Thursday to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace, another victory for the gay rights movement that has been gaining favor in the courts and electoral politics. Senators voted 64 to 32 to approve the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The vote marked the first time lawmakers had approved legislation to advance gay rights since repealing the military’s ban on gay men and lesbians in uniform in late 2010 and came two days after Illinois became the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Just four months ago the U.S. Supreme...

"...Ben Sasse is the rare candidate who can clearly and forcefully prosecute the case against ObamaCare, not only because it’s an unconstitutional assault on our liberty, but also because he’s read every word of it.” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola...

“The Wind Rises” is the type of art film that typically speeds into the Oscar race. Critics at film festivals have swooned over its nuance. It delivers messages about turbulent modern times by examining traumatic events of the past. The film’s 72-year-old director and writer, Hayao Miyazaki, a cinematic giant, has said the ambitious animated picture will be his last, a final bow. ...................................................... One explanation for the sensitivity? Although “The Wind Rises” has a strong pacifist message, it is essentially a biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, an aeronautical engineer whose contribution to the world was a killing machine. His designs...

A South Korean man is behind bars in the Rio Grande Valley after being arrested in a failed to plot to smuggle Asian immigrants. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 53-year-old Gwang Jun Han in Brownsville on Sunday evening. Federal court records show Han was involved in a disturbance with two men. Brownsville police detained three illegal immigrants from China and another one from South Korea at the scene. Border Patrol agents learned that one man at the scene had paid Han to smuggle two of his adult children from China. Han appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan in Brownsville...

Back in the spring, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (RINO) proposed banning .50 caliber rifles as part of his plan to "curb gun violence." The fact that he could not point to any "gun violence" committed with .50 caliber rifles apparently did not concern him. His about-face veto in August of a bill that would do precisely that is a far greater indicator of his political ambitions beyond largely anti-gun New Jersey than of any Second Amendment epiphany on his part (he has clearly had none).At the time Christie was pushing such a ban, this column noted a peculiar phenomenon:...

Last August before a closed meeting of Republican leaders in Boston, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey said, "We are not a debating society. We are a political operation that needs to win." Tuesday night, Christie won. Big time. In one of the nation's bluest states, Christie got 60.5 percent of the vote. His Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono, claims she lost because "Democratic political bosses" made a deal with Christie "despite him representing almost everything they're against. ... They did it to help themselves politically and financially." In other words, they voted out of self-interest. Imagine that. Self-interest in politics....

The FGCU student accused of sexually battering two female students and attacking another is saying, "I'm sorry" with a pen and paper. WINK News just obtained letters Joshua Sekulic wrote to two of his alleged victims: a woman he's accused of raping on October 24th and another woman who said he forced her into oral sex just six days later. The similar one-page letters included these words: "You invited me over, I took that as a sign that you wanted to have sex." "I did not think that you wanted me to stop and I kept going." "What transpired that...

Albert Camus, who would be 100 years old Thursday, is ageless. The French Algerian's life and work reflect the long tragedy of the 20th century, marked by disquiet, genocide and violence, but his diagnosis of our absurd condition, and his effort to find not a cure (there is none) but the proper response, tie him just as firmly to the new millennium. Camus lived on intimate terms with the absurd. He lost his father, whom he never knew, in the war to end all wars that emphatically failed in that regard. He was a French intellectual from working-class Algiers, a...

In a new twist on lawsuits against Obama-Care, TN attorney Van Irion filed a national class action in Federal court. The suit challenges "ObamaCare" on the basis that Congress is not authorized by the Constitution to regulate health care. Mr. Irion is asking the courts to re-evaluate the Commerce clause precedent, arguing that current precedent in effect destroys the intent of the Constitution and specifically the 10th Amendment.

An essay comparing the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 73 years ago today, to the near future collapse of the American civil society, from a blogger with the FR Seal of Approval. -- I. TACOMA NARROWS 73 years ago today, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapsed. The way in which it collapsed was brought on by a positive-feedback situation, where the destructive force was only bounded by the structural integrity of the bridge itself. There are some serious lessons in this collapse for the future of American society. First, let's get a basic understanding of why the...

A local doctor is at the center of a heist at a Collier County hospital. Detectives tell WINK News Dr. Douglas Paone used his own key card to get through locked doors at NCH in downtown Naples. He was then caught on camera, sneaking a photograph past security under his lab coat. Dr. Paone isn't an employee at NCH, but he is affiliated with the downtown Naples hospital. He has patients there and therefore has access to get in. "He had to use a pass card to get into this area and then there were surveillance cameras that captured the...