Free Republic

It’s not quite 40 million guns. The number is even higher. The FBI released its annual report of all recorded firearm transactions (not individual firearms sold) and the final tally stands at a whopping 39,695,315. That last lil’ tidbit is important: These data only represent the number of inquiries submitted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check system (NICS). Each time a Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL) sells a firearm to any individual, the buyer’s background gets checked through this database to confirm he or she can, in fact, legally possess a firearm. NICS only records the buyer and not the...

The Orange Fairy Book, Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912) https://ia800708.us.archive.org/34/items/orange_fairy_book_1005_librivox/orangefairybook_07_lang.mp3Narrated by Scotswoman, Cate Mackenzie(Right-click to open the audio podcast in a new window, then return here for help to wade through Cate's brogue.) Long ago a king and queen ruled over the islands of the west, and they had one son, whom they loved dearly. The boy grew up to be tall and strong and handsome, and he could run and shoot, and swim and dive better than any lad of his own age in the country. Besides, he knew how to sail about, and sing songs to the harp,...

<p>A Canadian casino mogul and his actress wife were accused of posing as motel workers in order to receive COVID-19 vaccines meant for Indigenous residents of a remote Yukon community.</p><p>Rodney Baker, 55, and his 32-year-old wife, Ekaterina Baker, allegedly chartered a private plane to Beaver Creek on Jan. 21 to get doses of the Moderna shot, the CBC reported.</p>

As President Joe Biden assumes the Oval Office, The Federalist will continue its rigorous coverage of the new White House, keeping the administration accountable with substantive fact-checking throughout Biden’s tenure.Biden Trashed Trump’s Early China Travel Ban As Xenophobic Before Signing His OwnWhen Trump implemented a travel ban on China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, then-candidate Joe Biden railed against the executive action as “xenophobic” claiming such restrictions do not work.Less than a year later, Biden has implemented his own travel bans on South Africa, Brazil, Great Britain, and 26 other European countries in the second week of...

Evangelist and church planter Francis Chan revealed that after he planted three churches in Hong Kong, authorities denied his visa, forcing him to leave the country and return to the U.S. According to China Aid, the bestselling author and former California megachurch pastor shared the news in a video sent to friends and fellow pastors on Jan. 5. “Last week, after Hong Kong officials rejected our visas, we (sons-in-law Justin and Peter and I) had to leave the country. We are now back in the U.S. and appealing the decision, however. We want to be in Hong Kong and hopefully,...

The Supreme Court handed a victory to advocates of abortion rights Monday, wiping off the books lower court rulings that had upheld a Texas order banning nearly all abortions in the state during the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a halt to nonessential medical procedures in late March to conserve hospital resources and personal protective equipment. Attorney General Ken Paxton then said the order applied to "any type of abortions," including medication abortions that do not involve surgery.

The radical Chicago Teacher’s Union is defying the school board that has ordered teachers to return to in-person instruction. But the teachers claim the schools aren’t safe to work in, and on Sunday, they voted overwhelmingly to continue to teach remotely.This isn’t sitting well with many parents — especially minority parents — in the 355,000-student school district. They aren’t stupid. They know their kids are falling farther and farther behind white suburban kids because there just isn’t any substitute for in-person learning.But teachers are resisting because the plans and procedures to keep teachers safe — the same plans and procedures...

Twitter unveiled a feature called Birdwatch on Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets. Not content with their silencing and censoring the views and opinions of people like Donald Trump, Twitter now turns to the Twitterverse to enlist them to do their dirty work for them. Censorship will become a group effort, where no opinion will be allowed except for the opinion of the group. This is exactly what George Orwell warned would happen one day in America, that day is now...

In secretly recorded talks with informer Stefan Halper, Carter Page dispelled key Russia collusion allegations before FISA warrant was even approved. Four days before the FBI secured a surveillance warrant against him in fall 2016, Trump campaign adviser Carter Page repeatedly knocked down the key allegations at the heart of the Russia collusion investigation while talking to a government informant who was wearing a wire. Page's unwitting statements of innocence to informer Stefan Halper were never shared with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before it approved four warrants authorizing a full year of surveillance of Page's communications. Page's exculpatory statements...

On his first day in office, Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline. This controversial move was condemned by the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA). “In revoking this permit, the Biden Administration has chosen to listen to the voices of fringe activists instead of union members and the American consumer on Day 1,” Mark McManus, president of the UA, said on Monday. “Let me be very clear: When built with union labor by the men and women of the United Association, pipelines like Keystone XL remain the safest and most efficient modes of energy transportation in the...

An opinion writer who frequently contributed op-eds to the New York Times has admitted to being paid well by the Iranian mission to the United Nations but insists that this did not make him an agent of the Iranian government or influence his writing. Kaveh Afrasiabi is currently under arrest, accused of violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). For its part, the New York Times, which still claims to publish "all the news that's fit to print," is dummying up, keeping its readers in the dark on the subject, and offering no comment.Ira Stoll of The Algemeiner has the...

The Seattle City Council will renew its push to fire white officers within the Seattle Police Department. The move comes after a nearly 20% cut to the budget and a loss of nearly 200 officers from the department. The SPD has the lowest deployable rate of officers since 1990, as the city experiences a surge in violent crime, including a 26-year-high murder rate. We shouldn’t be firing anyone. Legal issues aside, the only practical way the council can fire white officers is to negotiate the right in the next contract. They’ll get their chance to in 2021. The Seattle Police...

<p>Most of the time, Americans pay scant attention to the rules that the House and Senate choose to govern themselves. We laugh when the House decides to go for gender-neutral language, but none of us thinks that makes any real difference. However, in the Senate, "China" Mitch McConnell has paved the way for a rule change that will allow the Democrats to alter forever America's longstanding structure and enable them to become a permanent governing class.</p>

Veterinarians have since closely monitored the gorillas to make sure they have been eating and drinking enough to recover on their own. The park north of San Diego has been closed to the public as part of California’s lockdown efforts to curb coronavirus cases. Peterson said one of the gorillas, a 49-year-old silverback named Winston, had pneumonia, likely caused by the virus, as well as heart disease. She said Winston was put on antibiotics and heart medication, and received an antibody treatment — a therapy to block the virus from infecting cells. Peterson said some of the gorillas will get...

Big Tech has been working hard to manicure the public perception of Joe Biden, and one such strategy seems to be inflating followers on social media, a new analysis has suggested. Twitter now appears to be creating fake accounts for Biden to give him better optics in terms of popularity. Twitter user Bre Wylde wrote:

Now that Joe Biden is in the White House, Democrats are once again on the march, this time to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. They don’t actually know very much about Harriet Tubman, but she was Black, and Democrats desperately want to put somebody Black on our money. So here she comes. I say they don’t know very much about Ms. Tubman because Democrats announced this on the same day that Democrats sent a procession of House Managers over to the Senate to deliver an Article of Impeachment against former President Trump. They are charging him with...

We conservatives are pretty pissed off at John Roberts, Chief Justice. We remember the cartoon of a week or so ago when the United States Supreme Court was represented as three donkeys, four chickens, and, on the end of the row, two Americans: Justice Alito and Justice Thomas. But now our Democratic friends want to have a trial of Citizen Trump in the Senate. So I looked up the text of the Constitution online. It saysThe Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the...

A faction of Republican senators aim to defuse former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial before it even starts. The plan was presented by Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, in a short tweet thread Monday evening after the House impeachment managers delivered to the Senate an article charging Trump with inciting an insurrection in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. "I will work with other like-minded Republican senators to challenge the constitutionality of this vindictive #impeachment trial before it begins," Johnson said. "On January 6 we collectively acknowledged it was not wise for Congress to overrule...

recently received an e-mail from a reader of Live Not By Lies who said that the book was saying exactly what needed to be said right now, in this extraordinary moment for traditional Christians and political conservatives. I would have normally thanked him, and let that be that, but this was no ordinary reader. This was from an experienced military intelligence officer, now retired. Lieutenant Colonel (USA, Ret) Alexander Braszko served the country for 22 years as a Military Intelligence and Space Operations officer. He has extensive experience integrating space, cyberspace and information operations capabilities into Army and Joint operations....

Former British spy Christopher Steele told a British court that he shared his infamous dossier in 2016 with an associate expecting that it would be provided to State Department officials, including Antony Blinken, who is considered a top contender for secretary of state in a Joe Biden administration. According to a judge’s decision handed down last week in a dossier-related lawsuit, Steele told the court that he provided a copy of the dossier in early November 2016 to Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state who then served as the president of the Brookings Institution. Steele also said he...