Free Republic

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)After a grand jury decided in November not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, many shifted their attention to a federal investigation into the killing. But on Wednesday, officials told CNN that federal investigators didn't find enough evidence and that Justice Department prosecutors won't recommend civil rights charges against Wilson. Attorney General Eric Holder, who has the final say in the matter, has said he will announce his decision before he leaves office, which is expected to be by the spring. The news that emerged Wednesday is likely to upset those...

For many people who didn’t grow up in or around New York City, there are a few things that come to mind when they hear the name “Brooklyn.” Many automatically think of hipsters and indie rock concerts. Some think of artsy lofts and farmers markets. Others think of “brownstone Brooklyn,” where one can potentially afford a cute home and raise a middle-class family without the distance and suburban-like qualities of Queens. What people typically don’t think about are the underprivileged communities that exist here, many of which have become home to people priced out of their old homes in brownstone...

W orking professionals across sectors might not have much to cheer this year as salary increases likely to see a “marginal” rise compared with last year’s pay hikes in India. According to a study released today by global management consultancy Hay Group, employees across job roles can expect an average of 11.3 percent wage hike in 2015 led by FMCG and chemical industry. Last year, the actual average salary increase was recorded at 10.9 percent across industries, the report noted. “The study that we have conducted predicts that the pay raise in 2015 will remain in double digits. At this...

There’s no denying it. Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” has struck a chord with the American people, and did so by tapping into the deepest civic values we have as Americans – duty, honor, fidelity, courage, love for country…and a love for others. However, no war movie can live on the big screen without a spew of liberal backlash, and this film is no different. Criticism has come quickly from Michael Moore, Seth Rogen, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and other Hollywood leftists. Thankfully, some things speak louder than cowardly tweets—like the more than $200 million in ticket sales the movie...

It sounds like something from a science fiction plot: so-called three-dimensional printers are being used to fashion prosthetic arms and hands, jaw bones, spinal-cord implants -- and one day perhaps even living human body parts. While the parts printed for humans so far have been fashioned from plastic, metal and other inorganic materials, researchers in California and elsewhere also have begun printing living tissue, with the goal of eventually employing these "bioprinters" to create customized kidneys, livers and other organs for people needing transplants. What's particularly attractive about the technology, according to its proponents, is that 3D printers can produce...

Michigan’s prevailing wage law sets an arbitrary mandate for what public entities (like schools) have to pay for construction projects. Top Republicans in Lansing rightly want to eliminate these mandates, as the Mackinac Center has recommended for years. This is estimated to save taxpayers more than $200 million per year. Democrats disagree with the proposed changes. "It's extremely disappointing that the first priority of Republicans is to lower wages and have people work for less," said House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills. "It's just another example of Republicans' relentless push for cheap labor." But if government can set an...

I was too sick to grapple with the recently revealed fact that the Supreme Court is going to decide some foundational issues with respect to marriage equality this spring and summer. And maybe because I’ve spent so long worrying about a premature decision that I cannot quite believe that the Fourteenth Amendment will find one more minority to protect. The power of the language and arguments in the Windsor decision would be very hard to take back, and with 36 states now offering marriage equality, the ruling would not be another Roe (there’s already a budding national majority for equal...

When Paul Martin was paying down our debt & creating surpluses in Canada, Bush was giving the US a war debt. #CdnPolipic.twitter.com/BvA5JrrDus — Meanwhile in Canada (@MeanwhileinCana) January 19, 2015 Mo Brooks: Republicans Back NSA Spying, Only Voted Against It To Avoid Campaign Attacks Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told constituents on Tuesday that many Republicans in fact supported the National Security Agency's domestic spying programs, and had only recently opposed a measure to scale back the agency's broad data surveillance in order to avoid attracting primary challengers and attacks. Speaking at a town hall in Morgan County, Brooks -- who...

Raising the capital gains rate will put a stranglehold on risk taking and available capital President Obama just told the country during his State of the Union address that he is going to increase the capital gains rate again in order to raise revenue for new spending programs. Given that Obama already knows that raising the capital gains rate actually REDUCES revenue, we are left with a President who believes that we can pay for increased spending by reducing revenue. He acknowledged this in 2008 during a televised debate against Hillary Clinton, but went on to state that rates should...

Rajan: "Today, debt is making it difficult for developed countries to resume pre-2008 growth rates" http://t.co/hi4QoAqSA8 — Project Syndicate (@ProSyn) January 18, 2015 Today, debt is making it difficult for developed countries to resume pre-2008 growth rates, let alone restore the levels of GDP that would have been attained if the subsequent Great Recession had not happened. Meanwhile, industrial countries’ overall debt/GDP ratios are continuing to grow. In emerging markets, slow growth in the advanced economies has shut down a traditional development path: export-led growth. As a result, emerging markets have had to rely once again on domestic demand. This...

Matt Lewis has a column today over at the Daily Beast headlined, "You Betcha I Was Wrong About Sarah Palin: It’s time to admit that, whatever their motivation was at the time, the Alaska governor’s critics always had a point." I don't really disagree with much of what Matt says when it comes to noting that Palin's speaker-circuit pandering and Hee-Haw witticisms have become cringe-worthy—speaking as a Christian, I was pretty dissappointed last year when Palin referred to waterboarding as baptism for terrorists. As usual, Matt makes some very good points so I encourage you to read his column. However,...

Properly installed arm brace at Sig Sauer booth at the Shot show. On 16 January, just before the Shot Show, the BATF published an open letter on the subject of "The Redesign of "Stabilizing Braces". The letter was supposed to "clarify" the increasingly muddy, irrational, and stupid law. A combination of the thwarted original intent of the legislation, combined with continued bureaucratic desires to "grow the rice bowl*" and the irrational belief of disarmists that any additional regulation is good, not matter what, has resulted in our arrival at this point. The National Firearms act regulation of short barreled...

WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa — When former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee walked into Walnut Creek Church here on Sunday night, fresh off his gleaming navy-blue bus, he was greeted by the crowd of suburban evangelicals as a visiting celebrity rather than a 2016 presidential candidate. Waiting in line to get their copies of the Republican’s latest book signed, a handful of the attendees shared recollections of Huckabee’s spunky 2008 bid for the White House, when he won the Iowa caucuses and seven more states before bowing out. But most of the conversations focused on Fox News, where Huckabee had been perched...

Last year Austria's largest bank, Erste Bank, sent shudders of Credit Anstalt through the European Banking System. This year it is Austria's 3rd largest bank that is scaring investors senseless. On the heels of the Swiss National Bank's decision to un-peg from the Euro, Raiffeisen Bank's Swiss-Franc-Denominated mortgage worries have resurfaced (along with Russian/Ukraine writedowns) and nowhere is that more evident than the total collapse of the bank's bonds (from over 95c to 65c today). Even after the ECB Q€ (and some apparent intervention to weaken the Swissy) bonds kept free-falling. Perhaps, The Freedom Party's demands for a bailout will...

The University of Pennyslvania is now offering a “Wasting Time on the Internet” class that will earn students credit. The class, literally named “Wasting Time on the Internet,” is being taught by Professor Kenneth Goldsmith this Spring 2015 semester. In 2010, Professor Goldsmith also taught “Uncreative Writing: Robotic Erotica/Erotic Robotics: Scribing a Non-Expresssive [sic] Sexuality.” Goldsmith writes for his new class that “students will be required to stare at the screen for three hours, only interacting through chat rooms, bots, social media and listservs. “Distraction, multi-tasking, and aimless drifting is mandatory,” the description adds.

"Since Slovakia is a Christian country, we cannot tolerate an influx of 300,000-400,000 Muslim immigrants who would like to start building mosques all over our land and trying to change the nature, culture and values ​​of the state," said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Slovakia is the country that had its commemorative Euro coin depicting two Christian saints, Cyril and Methodius, at first rejected by the European Commission, which told Bratislava it would need to re-design the coins and remove Christian symbols, including halos and a cross-adorned stole. Eventually the Slovakia Euro was issued with halos and crosses. This...

The American public should encourage Obama to take up a new occupation as a voiceover artist What does it take to be a great narrator for documentaries? The ability to read a teleprompter with conviction. While the majority of Americans may not believe that President Obama has the last quality in hand, most will agree that the first is his best attribute. He is a teleprompter reader par excellence. Though it may be a useful skill, it doesn’t take the place of being a leader, even a poor one. The latest attempt by the president to convince citizens that climate...

Medical retainer agreements between physicians and patients will not be considered “insurance” in Michigan under a recently passed bill signed into law on Jan. 15 by Gov. Rick Snyder. The idea is to ensure that this innovative way for families to obtain routine medical services at lower costs will not be stifled by the extensive state regulatory structure currently imposed on conventional health insurance policies that cover expensive non-routine care. The rationale for this alternative is that while insurance coverage may be advisable for catastrophic illnesses and injuries, it makes less sense as a way to pay for routine primary...

A tsunami struck the country this morning. A tsumani of stupid. I wasn't sure what to do with it all, so here are some of the best bits. Politico makes an issue of Huckabee complaining that women at Fox News swear while at work, apparently referring to them as "trashy." “My gosh, this is worse than locker-room talk,” Huckabee continued. “As we would say in the South, that’s just trashy.” Neither Huckabee nor Politico seems to have met Hillary, who is said to swear "like a sailor." Sara Nelson writes about the book in Tuesday's New York Post, revealing the...

In the dramatic video from inside the New Hope, Minnesota city council chambers, one of the council members reacts to the sound of gunfire outside of the doors by drawing his own weapon and preparing to defend his colleagues.  Link to video: It is clear that the council member on the left of the screen has considered this sort of scenario, and is mentally prepared.   Immediately after the shots are fired, you hear a voice saying, "Get down!, Get down!".  As the video progresses, and shows the councilman with the handgun on the left, it is clear that he...