Free Republic

"Property is theft."  Proudhon's classic anarchist paradox is more than a catchy slogan for international leftism.  It encapsulates a complete and comprehensively absurd view of humanity -- one which finds its contemporary apotheosis in President Obama's more prosaic rendition, "You didn't build that."  In other words, "You didn't build that" is just "Property is theft" without the irony.

For most of this decade, the most contentious gun issue in Wisconsin has been that of concealed carry, or the legal sanction to carry a firearm in public in a hidden manner, either on the body or in close proximity. But this year that affair may take a backseat to a rapidly intensifying debate about the legality of open carry, or the act of publicly carrying a firearm in plain view. Ostensibly, Wisconsin is an open-carry state, meaning there is no law against a law-abiding citizen openly carrying a legal firearm. Theoretically, at least, one could strap on a holster...

The Democrat-loving mainstream media is missing the boat on Warren Buffet’s take of America’s economic meltdown as …”a sort of economic Pearl Harbor we’re going through.” That being the case, then surely the first question should be: “Who is attacking the U.S.?” The billionaire’s $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at the same time he’s touting the Treasury’s $700 billion bank rescue plan, should be the tipoff. With so many banksters and fraudsters openly treating the U.S. treasury as their private piggybank, one ponders what‘s really going on. Is wholesale market manipulation the new al Qaeda? Unfortunately that’s...

BLUE MOUND, Texas (AP) - When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice. The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital. "I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms. Although the intruders told her to keep quiet, she...

A number of Chippewa County residents are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to a sand mine. As we first reported two weeks ago, a Canadian company is looking to build a sand processing plant in the Town of Howard. If a permit is approved, the sand mine will operate for 40 years. During that time, it's estimated 60 to 90 trucks will haul 16 hours a day in the summer and ten hours a day in the winter. That's why a committee has been formed to stop construction. Kasey Schindler, the Stop Mine Committee spokesperson says,...

SOMERVILLE, Mass., June 29 (UPI) -- Residents say that Somerville, a city in the Boston area, has been overrun by rats. "It's devastating for us as neighbors right now," Teresa Cardoso told the Boston Herald. "We can't sit outside." Robert McKim, another resident, said that he has trapped 14 rats in his yard and his neighbor's. Somervillians told the Herald the rodents have chewed up grapevines and even clawed and gnawed their way through concrete to make new ratholes. Officials blame absentee landlords and the practice of putting trash out on the curb in plastic bags. Rats can easily chew...

Nebraskans will have the right to bear arms under their coats, in their pockets and wherever else they can think of, thanks to a bill passed Thursday by the Legislature. Governor Dave Heineman previously said he would sign the so-called “concealed carry” measure. It won 32-12 final approval from lawmakers. The measure nevertheless allows cities to adopt ordinances banning the carrying of concealed handguns. Lincoln Mayor Colleen Seng and Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey opposed the bill, giving some indication that local bans could be sought in the state’s two largest cities. The bill sets out requirements for obtaining a five-year...

MADISON, Wis. -- The controversial concealed carry bill is in the crosshairs of the state Assembly on Tuesday. Lawmakers are expected to consider whether to follow the state Senate and override Gov. Jim Doyle's veto of the bill. The override would end a 133-year ban on allowing Wisconsinites to carry concealed weapons. The Senate voted to override the veto last week. A two-thirds majority vote is required to override the governor's veto, so the focus of many Capitol watchers will be on just a few Assembly members whose votes will decide the bill's fate. The bill's author, Dave Zien, said...

Madison - 01.26.06 After a very short debate, the state Senate voted to override Governor Doyle's veto of the Personal Protection Act. The vote was 23 to 10, one more than was needed.The only Republican voting to sustain Doyle's veto was Senator Luther Olsen.Democrats voting to override the veto were Senators Julie Lassa, Russ Decker, Bob Wirch, Jeff Plale and Roger Breske.Please take a few minutes to call these brave Democratic legislators to thank them for their vote. Their contact information is:Senator Russ Decker  (608) 266-2502sen.decker@legis.state.wi.us Senator Julie Lassa (608) 266-3123sen.lassa@legis.state.wi.usSenator Bob Wirch  (888) 769-4724sen.wirch@legis.state.wi.usSenator Roger Breske (800) 334-8773sen.breske@legis.state.wi.usSenator Jeff...

Tom Cruise will personally mingle with some of the firefighters who battled the horrific scene during 9/11 tonight. The actor and his fiance, Katie Holmes, host a fundraising benefit in New York City tonight, amid blistering criticism.  Cruise has been criticized by fire-fighters injured in the 9/ll attacks - for suggesting they use Scientology to heal themselves and abandon alternative methods.The actor has reportedly urged people suffering the effects of smoke inhalation from the terrorist attacks to quit using their medication and inhalers - and start drinking cooking oil.The 'purification' program also reportedly advises people to take large doses of...

Prosecutors say they want Chai Vang to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole when he's sentenced in Sawyer County Court today. Thirty-seven-year-old Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul was convicted on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in the killings last November on private hunting land south of Hayward. The hunters were shot on the second day of the gun deer season. Four of the victims were shot in the back and all but one were unarmed. Vang claims he heard racial taunts from the hunters prior...

IT was the question on everybody’s lips, even those of a shy, nine-year-old schoolgirl in the heart of Alabama. Was Condoleezza Rice going to run for president? “I don’t want to,” the American secretary of state said gently. “I like what I am doing and I don’t want to run for office.” Rice must have been wondering lately how many ways there are to say no, but speculation that she would not refuse an offer from her party to serve her country, at least as vice-president, continues to grow. In Birmingham this weekend on a three-day visit to the Deep...

September 29, 2005 GUNDERSON, ZIEN INTRODUCE PERSONAL PROTECTION ACT MADISON…Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) and Sen. Dave Zien (R-Wheaton) announced today they will reintroduce legislation that would give Wisconsin citizens the same rights as citizens in 46 other states by allowing law-abiding citizens the ability to protect themselves and their families by becoming licensed to carry a concealed weapon after undergoing a criminal background check and safety training. The Personal Protection Act (PPA) passed both houses of the Legislature last session and was vetoed by the Governor. The Senate overrode the veto, but the Assembly failed in its override attempt by...

MADISON — The foreman of a jury that found a Hmong immigrant guilty of killing six white deer hunters said Saturday the man’s testimony that he acted in self-defense was not credible. Chai Soua Vang testified last week that he feared for his life after being threatened and called racial slurs and fired only after someone else shot at him first. Jury foreman William Bremer said in a telephone interview that Vang could have walked away after the hunters angrily confronted him for trespassing on their land in some isolated northwestern Wisconsin woods. After about 32 [sic] hours of deliberations...

The end to 111 years of stamp production by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) came without any public ceremony in the same 14th Street building where many of the nation's most famous stamps have been printed. Workers pulled a final roll of 37-cent flag stamps from an aging, four-color Andreotti press on the fourth floor. That simple act terminated a once-thriving business that the Treasury Department agency had monopolized for decades.

The man accused of killing six hunters in the woods of Sawyer County last November was in court Wednesday for a motions hearing on a number of issues that have been brought to the table from both sides. After hearing testimony for about seven hours, Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel ruled the confession that Chai Vang allegedly made on the day after the incident can be used in the September trial. Judge Yackel said that Vang's statements were made voluntarily and none of his rights were violated. The judge has also decided to keep the trial in Sawyer County,...

Chai S. Vang, the St. Paul man charged with killing six deer hunters and wounding two others last fall, can get a fair trial in Sawyer County, Wis., the Wisconsin attorney general's office argued in documents filed Wednesday. The state's attorney argued against motions filed earlier by Vang's attorneys, who said that heavy publicity and negative attitudes toward nonwhites in the county would make it difficult to select an impartial jury for Vang's trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 12. "The mere fact that a case has been covered extensively in the media is not a sufficient basis to justify a...

HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) - Attorneys for a man accused of shooting six deer hunters to death and wounding two others in northwestern Wisconsin plan to file motions by Tuesday's deadline. One of Chai Soua Vang's attorneys, Steven Kohn, would not say what the motions will be or how many will be filed, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported in Sunday's editions.Legal experts have said likely defense motions could include reduced bail, a change of venue from Sawyer County and suppression of statements Vang made to investigators without an attorney present.Vang, of St. Paul, Minn., pleaded not guilty Dec. 29 to...

Northern Wisconsin ’s about to get some national exposure, but it’s for something that many people would probably rather forget. N-B-C’s Law and Order will be airing an episode next week called “License to Kill”. The show is loosely based on events surrounding the Sawyer County Massacre. It reportedly shows a scene with blaze-orange clad bodies lying on the ground in a wooded area. To see the trailer for the episode, log on to NBC.com.