Free Republic

Right now establishment Republicans and their short-term allies in the media think they won and conservatives lost when Capitol Hill Republicans abandoned the fight to defund ObamaCare and obtain real spending reform as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. In fact history shows us that the exact opposite is true. While the long knives of the establishment may be out for Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, and their cohorts in the House, from a strategic perspective this apparent defeat was a win for conservatives, and here’s why. Millions of Tea Party and limited government constitutional conservatives,...

The 1994 federal law banning "assault weapons" was a high point of the gun control movement and Bill Clinton's presidency. Signing the bill, he said it was the beginning of "our effort to restore safety and security to the people of this country." But something happened that he and his allies had not predicted: nothing. Duke University scholars Philip Cook and Kristin Goss, who are sympathetic to gun control efforts, assessed the ban in a book published this year and concluded, "There is no compelling evidence that it saved lives." A 2004 study led by Christopher Koper of the University...

A spokesperson for the Treasury Department told the Washington Free Beacon that survival kits being ordered for government workers at every major bank in the United States are for “emergency preparedness.” .......“The solicitation is to replace aging kits and provide kits at additional location out of a preponderance of caution,” Collins added. Once the government finds a bidder, each of OCC’s 3,814 employees will receive a survival kit, which will come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with “decongestant tablets,” a variety of bandages, and medicines. The...

Can you name the president in the post-World War II era who presided over the largest five-year reduction in the burden of government spending, measured as a share of economic output? Or how about the president who was in office when nominal federal spending shrank for two consecutive years and had no growth over a five-year period? Here's another question: Can you also name the president who signed a 10-year tax cut of nearly $4 trillion? Last but not least, can you name the president who signed the law enabling an automatic 10-year budget cut of more than $1 trillion?...

The head of Mitsui & Co., a big energy investor, said he thinks the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are working together to keep oil prices down in an effort to hurt Islamic State and Russia. Masami Iijima, chief executive of the Japanese trading company, spoke in an interview as crude oil was trading near its lowest level since May 2009. He said the recent decision by the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep production at current levels, which triggered the oil-price plunge, would particularly hurt Islamic State, the militant group that has seized parts of Iraq and...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Abraham and Sarah New International Version (NIV) 21 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac[a] to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two North Kansas City parents are outraged after they say their blind son’s cane was taken away from him at school by a bus driver. Eight-year-old Dakota Nafzinger attends Gracemor Elementary School. Rachel Nafzinger said school staff took away her son’s cane as punishment for bad behavior on the bus and then gave him a swimming pool noodle to use as a substitute. The school wouldn’t go on camera, but North Kansas City School District Spokeswoman Michelle Cronk confirmed taking away Dakota’s cane, calling it school property that was given to him when he enrolled. They...

Col. Don Christensen, the chief prosecutor of the United States Air Force, sat in economy class on a flight to Venice and studied the folder of the sexual-assault case that would ultimately end his career. It was August 2012, and he was en route to Aviano Air Base to try a court-martial. Looking over the case, he could see why the judge advocate general, or JAG, at the base had requested him. Christensen had prosecuted more sexual-assault courts-martial than any other lawyer in the Air Force, and this case called for someone with experience. There would most likely be generals...

President Obama declared yesterday the United States would begin a new chapter with Cuba. Obama already began negotiating with Cuba regarding a prisoner swap among with other issues. For years Obama has told Congress he would keep them in the loop regarding Cuba. Predictably Congress had no idea the Obama administration was negotiating with the Communist dictatorship. Yesterday’s announcement came as a surprise to everyone. As with every other negotiation with a hostile foreign power, Obama got completely taken by the Cuban Communists. Obama negotiates from a position of American weakness because he doesn’t believe in American strength. Obama’s flirtations...

Saudi Arabia may not be aiming at the US in its hands-off policy toward falling oil prices. At a panel discussion Wednesday hosted by the Overseas Press Club and Control Risks (the latter a global risk consultancy), the speakers seemed skeptical of the idea that Saudi Arabia was refusing to prop up oil prices because it wanted to force American producers out of the market. (US shale basins are among the most expensive sources of oil to tap.) There may be better political reasons for this move, with a reduction in American shale supply on the market just being the...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Stand Firm New International Version (NIV) Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

On Wednesday Barack Obama thanked Pope Francis for playing a key role finalizing a deal between the US and Cuba.Pope Francis is now set on closing Gitmo.World Net Daily reported: Having helped broker the agreement to normalize relations between the United States and communist Cuba, Pope Francis plans next to turn his attention to closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a goal he shares with President Obama.In a meeting last week at the Vatican with Secretary of State John Kerry, the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, second in authority to the pope, offered to assist U.S. efforts to...

When the government is waving at us with its right hand, so to speak, it is the government's left hand that we should be watching. Just as a magician draws your attention to what he wants you to see so you will not observe how his trick is performed, last week presented a textbook example of public disputes masking hidden deceptions. Here is what happened. Last week was dominated by two huge news stories. One was the revelation by the Senate Intelligence Committee of torture committed by CIA agents and contractors on 119 detainees in the post-9/11 era -- 26...

Has the West Lost the Will to Live?Posted By Mark Tapson On December 18, 2014 @ 12:38 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments When it became too obvious to deny that the hostage crisis in Sydney, Australia was an act of Islamic terrorism, Prime Minister Tony Abbott asked Aussie citizens for calm, saying, “The whole point of politically motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves. Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society – nothing should ever change that. And that’s why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual.” That’s...

Obama’s Bailout for Communist DictatorsPosted By Daniel Greenfield On December 18, 2014 @ 12:44 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 7 Comments The Soviet Union did not have to fall. If Carter had won a second term and Mondale had succeeded him, the Communist dictatorship might have received the outside help it needed to survive.And we would still be living under the shadow of the Cold War.Carter couldn’t save the Soviet Union, but he did his best to save Castro, visiting Fidel and Raul in Cuba where the second worst president in American history described his meeting with Castro as a...

Authorities were searching for a gunman after a TV meteorologist was shot multiple times during an altercation Wednesday in a Central Texas TV station's parking lot. The Texas Department of Public Safety says the shooting occurred around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday outside KCEN-TV's rural studio on Interstate 35 near Bruceville-Eddy, 75 miles north of Austin. The station website reports the suspect exchanged words with the victim, on-air meteorologist Patrick Crawford, before pulling out a handgun and shooting several times. Crawford backed his car away from the shooter and drove up to a highway construction crew that called 911. Jim Hice, the...

Sen. Mark Begich can still return to the Senate.Even though lawmakers who will not be returning to Congress in January might feel downtrodden, they can find solace in the fact that they retain some congressional perks. Those perks, ranging from floor access to permanent identification cards, were outlined in the Congressional Research Service’s Dec. 5 report titled “Selected Privileges and Courtesies Extended to Former Members of Congress.” CRS American National Government specialist R. Eric Peterson wrote in the report, “Some [privileges] are derived from law and chamber rules, but others are courtesies that have been extended as a matter of...

“Your numbers must have a bust!” exclaimed my disbelieving friend who produces oil for a living. “I don’t think so,” I said as I led him through some rough calculations. “If the price of a barrel of U.S. light oil averages $60 in 2015, the hit to the Canadian industry will be worse than in 2009.” I noted that at $80 (U.S.) a barrel, there was some immunity to the shock, but a sustained price below $60 will cause the industry to lose most of its white blood cells. “Thanks,” he muttered with a wince, like a kid that had...

The Democrats? I’d rate the chances of the party reining in its extremes at below zero.

A woman kneels down as she lays flowers in a makeshift memorial near the site where a gunman held hostages for 16 hours at a popular Sydney cafe, Australia (PA) Father Brendan Purcell is based at St Mary's Cathedral, close to where Monday's siege took placeAn Irish priest based in Sydney said he was struck by how people turned to prayer when a gunman took hostages at a cafe.Father Brendan Purcell is based at St Mary’s Cathedral, just a five-minute walk from the nearby Lindt Cafe, where Iranian-born gunman Man Haron Monis took dozens of hostages on Monday morning.Father...