Free Republic

Australia is a "nation of victims" with citizens unable to properly protect themselves with weapons, pro-gun crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm has said. The Liberal Democrat said he wanted a calm, measured discussion about the right to "practical self-defence" in the wake of the deadly Sydney siege. "What happened in that cafe would have been most unlikely to have occurred in Florida, Texas, or Vermont, or Alaska in America, or perhaps even Switzerland as well," Senator Leyonhjelm told the ABC's AM program. "Statistically speaking" in those jurisdictions, "one or two of the victims" would have had a concealed gun, he said....

There are lots of hypocrisies surrounding the recently released executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program. But they pale in comparison to the current Democratic silence about President Barack Obama's policy of targeted drone assassinations. Since 2004, drones have killed an estimated 2,400 to 3,888 individuals in Pakistan alone, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. An estimated 345 to 553 individuals in Yemen have been killed in drone strikes over the same period. The BIJ reports that the Obama administration has "markedly stepped up the use of drones. Since...

California's health insurance exchange said 144,178 people have newly enrolled in Obamacare coverage during the first month of sign ups. Officials also reported that 216,423 people have joined Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income people, since Nov. 15. That's in addition to the 2.2 million who had already enrolled in 2014 as part of the health-law expansion.

"On Wednesday, Obama administration officials confirmed to The Post that Cuba has freed American citizen Alan Gross. Gross, who was detained in December 2009 while working as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, had been accused of espionage and sentenced to 15 years in prison by Cuba. His imprisonment was a major problem in relations between Washington and Havana. Gross was not freed by accident. According to ABC News, his release is the culmination of more than a year of "secret back-channel talks at the highest levels of both governments." And, importantly, his release comes at the...

After days of brow-furrowed, self-righteousness analysis from much of the national media over Senate Democrats' tendentious and dishonest "torture report," poll after poll has shown that the American people aren't eager to join the anti-CIA mob. The latest, from NBC/WSJ: Fewer than three in ten Americans are willing to second-guess the intelligence community's use of harsh techniques in questioning captured terrorists in the wake of 9/11's deadly attacks.  Most people's memories of the fear and chaos of that time are fresh enough to give the CIA the benefit of the doubt.  Plus, Dianne Feinstein's squad did themselves no favors by refusing to interview a single person...

The New York Times ran an interesting article a few days ago discussing the skyrocketing electricity prices residents of New England are being forced to pay even before the winter season begins. The article identifies a resident of New Hampshire named John York who paid $376 to power his small printing business this past October. With no change in the amount of his work or his thermostat, his electricity bill climbed to $788 in November – an increase of 110 percent in just one month. What the article reveals (perhaps unintentionally) are the likely consequences of heavy handed government policies...

Just hours after he announced his plan "actively explore" a 2016 presidential run on Monday, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he would have "no problems" pushing for comprehensive immigration reform in a GOP primary.

Liberals continuously need another crisis to fundamentally transform a country into a socialist “Brave New World.” And the more shocking and/or disturbing the better. People will not abandon their way of life unless convinced that the status quo is unacceptable. Lately, the left wing is frothing about a new crisis – a “rape culture.” There are many TV series showing how police will stop at nothing to put sex offenders behind bars. Mega-hit Law and Order created a spin-off television series S.V.U. devoted exclusively to prosecution of sex crimes. Yet activists insist that society is encouraging rape. Yet the Rolling...

The White House on Wednesday said President Obama would have no reservations about visiting Cuba following the resumption of diplomatic talks between his administration and the Castro regime. “It is not unprecedented for us to go places and interact with countries with whom we have a very fundamental difference of opinion about that country’s treatment of their citizens,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, highlighting Obama’s recent trip to the communist nation of China. “We engage those countries and we engage the leadership of those countries and we do so for a variety of reasons, and often it serves...

Black Crime: If President Obama had a son, he might look like 15-year-old Demario Bailey, one of three killed and 30 wounded in a typical Chicago weekend by thugs who wanted his Bulls jacket. As Bailey was being murdered while walking with his twin brother to a school basketball game, protestors of police brutality marched down Chicago's ritzy Michigan Avenue. They told high-end shoppers there that "black lives matter," held up their hands and said "don't shoot," and wore shirts that proclaimed "I can't breathe." The protest was part of a series of demonstrations also being held in Washington, New...

The National Children’s Study has been cancelled despite almost 10 years of work and $1.3 billion of funding after a National Institutes of Health working group concluded that the project was flawed and too expensive to continue. The ambitious study, commissioned through the passage of the Children’s Health Act in 2000, set out to follow 100,000 children from birth to age 21 and track the effects of a broad range of environmental and biological factors on their health. However, concerns about the study’s design, research methodology and management that led to increased cost projections and triggered questions about whether the...

California needs 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from its three-year drought, the US space agency said Tuesday after studying water resources by using satellite data. The first of its kind calculation of how much groundwater would end the drought was led by Jay Famiglietti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and based on observations from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites. California has experienced rainstorms in recent days but, while welcome, scientists warn that they are not enough to end the drought. "It takes years to get into a drought of this severity, and it...

A couple of months ago, the story of a couple at the brink of separation was published on this column and I asked readers the question above. Bisola and Akinola, blessed with three children, had been married for 17 years, living with each otherÂ’s excesses as most couples do. Then one day, Bisola stumbled on three travel documents, all bearing AkinolaÂ’s names. They belonged to a strange woman, a child and Akinola. A confrontation resulted in a heated argument between them and Akinola walked out of their home. His wife was free to take whatever decision she thought best for...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday afternoon conceded to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) after a race to become the next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Sessions, currently the panel’s ranking member, said he reached an agreement with his “good friend” Enzi. “We have talked and I am deferring to his seniority so that he can lead the Budget Committee as its Chairman beginning in 2015,” Sessions said in a statement. “Mike graciously deferred to me two years ago after he timed out on HELP as Ranking Member, and it has been my enormous privilege to serve as the panel’s...

Sen. Cruz Responds to the President’s new Cuba Policy WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today released the following statement regarding the President’s announcement to change U.S. policy with Cuba and lift economic embargos. “We rejoice that Alan Gross’ wrongful imprisonment by the brutal Castro regime has finally come to an end, and that he will be able to spend the holidays with his loved ones. But make no mistake, although we are glad Alan is now free, the agreement the Obama Administration has entered into with the Castro regime has done nothing to resolve the underlying problem. Indeed,...

California public employees now enjoy the highest benefits of any state in the nation. To pretend to fund this largess, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) is an “outlier” among public pension plans in using creative accounting to blur its grossly underfunded status. This has allowed its school district clients and unionized employees to short-check their annual payment for the nation’s most lucrative teachers' pension benefits. But pressure from Moody’s credit rating agency is causing CalSTRS clients and unionized teachers to make big increases in pension and benefit funding. The latest “hokey-pokey” drama is the California State Teachers’ Retirement System...

Breaking: Sony Pictures cancels 25 December release of North Korea film The Interview after cinemas decide not to screen it.

After schools such as Columbia University and Harvard started to grant students extensions on their exams due to the protests of the recent Grand Jury decisions in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, left-wing students from across the country feel they should be entitled to the same special treatment. So, at Oberlin College, which is perhaps the most liberal college in America, a student asked for exams to be delayed with a hilariously self-important email to her professor: Read more: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/professors-1-word-response-liberal-student-wanting-delay-exams-priceless-look/#ixzz3MCC60BRG

p>The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny Welcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811