Free Republic

Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), commonly referred to as "red flag laws," have been at the forefront of the gun control debate. The idea is simple: if a person is deemed mentally unstable, and a risk to themselves or others, he or she can be stripped of their firearms. Typically, family members, doctors and law enforcement have the power to petition a judge to deem the gun owner mentally unfit to own a firearm, at least for the time being. Some states, like Florida, have already implemented these laws. While they sound great on paper, they have a number of...

Pope Francis mourns melted Iceland glacier… the nation which aborts almost 100% of babies with Down syndrome ICELAND, August 19, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Iceland, which aborts nearly 100 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome, has held a funeral for a glacier. The glacier, known as Okjökull or “Ok,” covered 6.2 square miles in 1890. However, by 2012, it had shrunk to less than 0.3 miles, and in 2014 Icelandic scientists decided it was no longer moving. An Icelandic geologist, Oddur Sigurðsson, told Agence France-Presse that “...We made the decision that this was no longer a living glacier, it was...

From Cincinnati, the Associated Press reported that 24-year-old Connor Betts [the young man responsible for the mass shooting] “opened fire with an assault-style rifle.” (See: “The Latest: Dayton Shooters’ Friend Will Stay In Jail,” apnews.com, Aug. 15.) My question is: “So freaking what?” Would it have made a difference if he had cut loose with baked-bean farts and rotten eggs that resulted in the asphyxiation of the nine murdered and 27 wounded? Would it have made a difference if he had used a six-shot revolver that fired .22 bullets? I don’t know who wrote the Associated Press piece, but it’s...

A federal judge has ordered the FBI to search for and produce all documents related to the bureau’s one-time asset, former British spy Christopher Steele, who produced the long-discredited “Russia dossier” fired FBI Director James Comey and others used to obtain surveillance warrants against the 2016 Trump campaign. U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, in issuing his ruling, said that the public’s interest outweighed Steele’s privacy rights and ordered the FBI to complete the search within 60 days. Steele, who was dismissed by the bureau for unauthorized contact with the media, nevertheless produced the infamous dossier that was central to...

One of the annoying things correlating with an ever-faster Internet is an increase in the number of websites that deem it okay to autoplay videos (often with sound!) as soon as you land on their homepage. Sometimes the videos quietly tick away in the corner of the screen, other times they’re obnoxiously in your face, but the point is you should be able to control whether you see them or not. Both Chrome and Firefox are pretty liberal with their autoplay policies by default, so you may need to do a little tweaking to disable them. We’ll show you how...

Breaking news from Russia's frozen Northwest, where a total of four nuclear-monitoring stations have been silenced. The Wall Street Journal says that's twice as many as last week, "heightening concerns among observers that Russia is trying to hide evidence from an explosion at a missile-test site this month." Some background. Russia has been developing a nuclear-powered cruise missile, the 9M730 Burevestnik or "Petrel" missile. To be clear, that's a missile powered by nuclear fission, not a missile "merely" carrying a nuclear warhead. On August 8, it's believed that a Petrel exploded during testing, killing five employees of Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned...

Last month, the satire site The Babylon Bee lawyered up after liberal fact-checker Snopes tried to deplatform it by calling it "fake news" and suggesting the Babylon Bee did not rise to the level of satire. The Babylon Bee's lawyer sent a demand letter, and Snopes altered the offending article. But last week, Snopes unloaded two more attacks on the Bee, and the Bee vowed to keep fighting back."Snopes is at it again. We had hoped that a demand letter from our attorneys would prompt changes. And it seemed to. Snopes did go back and edit their defamatory fact-check, revising...

A couple of men on the far right held an “End Domestic Terrorism” rally in Portland, Oregon, Saturday. As expected, the violent left-wing group antifa showed up to counter-protest. By the time the right-leaning attendees started to leave, police had arrested at least 13 people. One protester arrested was bleeding from the head. The arrests during these types of rallies have disproportionately been of those on the right, even though they’ve primarily been in defensive mode and don’t threaten the police like antifa does. One police officer was injured and taken to the hospital. Antifa hurled ethnic slurs at the...

You probably saw the viral video of people throwing buckets of water on police in New York City when they were in the process of making an arrest. The police responded curiously by… not responding at all. This appeared to embolden the locals, who have taken to mocking and throwing things at cops in multiple neighborhoods. This led to a mob in Brooklyn literally pelting police with objects thrown from rooftops and shots being fired, leaving three officers with (thankfully) minor injuries. The response from Mayor de Blasio was lethargic at best and now the cops appear to have...

“A synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live’” (Matthew 9:18). The accounts of this incident by Mark (5:22) and Luke (8:41) identify the synagogue official as Jairus. And everything he did in this encounter with Jesus demonstrated his humility and sincerity. His request of the Lord was a selfless one for something humanly impossible, and by making it he respected Christ’s power, compassion, and grace. Seemingly unworried about the reaction of his fellow religious leaders, he knew that only Jesus...

Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), founding members of the U.S. Congress's Muslim Sisterhood, recently planned a trip to Israel, a trip that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed was to be funded by Miftah, a radically anti-Semitic organization with ties to Palestinian terrorism.  According to The Washington Examiner, the group has promoted "Neo-Nazi material and the doctrine of 'blood libel,' which claims that Jews used Christian blood in the Jewish Passover."  The group has also "proudly praised female suicide bombers."  Omar and Tlaib have previously defended Palestinian terror attacks on Israel. The Dogmatic Duo's request to enter Israel was...

The fact that President Trump even thought about purchasing Greenland for America has liberals climbing up the walls. On Monday, 45 addressed the rumors. President Trump on reports he discussed the US potentially buying Greenland: “Strategically it’s interesting and we’d be interested, but we’ll talk to them a little bit. It’s not number one on the burner, I can tell you that.”

Over the weekend, The New York Times launched "The 1619 Project," an attempt to reframe American history around the idea that the United States was truly founded in 1619 when the first black slaves came to America, rather than in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The project reframes many aspects of American life as rooted in slavery and oppression, including capitalism, the consumption of sugar, and the U.S.'s rejection of 100 percent government-funded health care. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the candidate of radical identity politics in the 2020 Democratic primary race, praised the project as "a masterpiece."...

Rep. Pete King is the first Republican to sign on to the assault weapons ban WASHINGTON — An assault weapons ban that Democratic leaders have been reluctant to advance despite strong support among their rank-and-file members in the House just got its first Republican backer — Long Island Rep. Pete King. “They are weapons of mass slaughter,” King said shortly after his backing became public on Congress’ website Monday. “I don’t see any need for them in everyday society,” King said. The Assault Weapons Ban of 2019 was rolled out in February by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), with 190 other...

People living in Palestinian territory are being denied rights and Tlaib was similarly denied the ability to visit her grandmother, Rivera claimed Monday on "The Story." "I also think it is absolutely outrageous that two sitting members of the Congress of the United States of America... were denied entry into the country. I'm shocked that the ambassador did not mention 52 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories." Prior to Rivera's remarks, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon discussed the situation with host Martha MacCallum. In his interview, Rivera explained why he found it wrong for Israel...

So I have been shopping the Northstyle Catalog for a few months. They have reasonable and interesting designs for a few events I have attended recently. They sent me their sister catalog CATALOG FAVORITES. In it are these products: The President Dammit Doll https://www.catalogfavorites.com/itemdy00.aspx?T1=V73153&GASearchTerm=v73153&srchcat=SearchBox and Trumpzilla Wind up toy https://www.catalogfavorites.com/itemdy00.aspx?T1=V95143&GASearchTerm=v95143&srchcat=SearchBox I am fed up with having this stuff pushed into my face. I called and told them how fed up I was, and that insulting half the voting population was a poor business decision. Yeah, I know it is a little thing, but it sets the tone, like the Broken...

Last week, two events of smallish note occurred. On August 13 and 14, the stock market suffered its biggest losses of the year. Also, an “inverted-yield curve” formed. The yield on the 10-year bond briefly slipped below the yield on the two-year note. By day’s end, the interest rates had righted themselves. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the combination of these events foretold the end of the Trump economy. By the next day, the news was everywhere. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman announced “Trump Boom to Trump Gloom” and added that “…an inverted-yield curve… predicted...

Elizabeth Warren apologized today for her persistent and false claim that she’s part Indian. An apology was due, in fact it was overdue. However, this was a simpering, cloying performance, both in manner and in substance. Warren apologized for her “mistake” and for the “harm she has caused.” What harm is that? Who was injured because Warren lied about being part Indian? No one, except perhaps a few law professors who may have lost out on jobs because certain law schools wanted to say they had an Indian prof on board. Warren said her claim of Indian status caused “confusion”...

Joe Biden has expanded his edge over the Democratic field in a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with 29% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters saying they back the former vice president. That's up 7 points compared with a late June CNN survey. No other candidate has made meaningful gains over that time.

Last week, two events of smallish note occurred. On August 13 and 14, the stock market suffered its biggest losses of the year. Also, an “inverted-yield curve” formed. The yield on the 10-year bond briefly slipped below the yield on the two-year note. By day’s end, the interest rates had righted themselves. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the combination of these events foretold the end of the Trump economy. By the next day, the news was everywhere. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman announced “Trump Boom to Trump Gloom” and added that “…an inverted-yield curve… predicted six...