Free Republic

The US House of Representatives passed a spending bill last week that contains provisions establishing a national ID card, and the Senate is poised to approve the measure in the next few days. This week marks the American public’s last chance to convince their Senators they don’t want to live in a nation that demands papers from its citizens as they go about their lives. Absent a political miracle in the Senate, within two years every American will need a conforming national ID card to participate in ordinary activities. This REAL ID Act establishes a massive, centrally-coordinated database of highly...

Google Maps recently introduced satellite images to its map database.Occasionally I put a damper on a column. What I mean is, sometimes I pick a topic because I think I’ll have fun writing about it, but then I write about it and turn it into a sermon with a compulsive need to mention “the government.” I hate when I do this. I found it hard to make fun of last year’s election, for instance, without thinking: “Oh, if only this were a laughing matter.” The problem is, I’m supposed to make a point every time I write an article. And...

I resent the term Vigilanteism in recent coverage of the Arizona Minuteman Project. As another American Liberty Enthusiast, I recall some of my United States History. During the Civil War, as the battle began to turn to the abolition of slavery, roving bands of armed thugs sought to discourage resistance to that movement by hunting down and delivering summary killing to the abolitionists. These murderers operating outside the law of due process were The Vigilantes. In 2005, there is no vigilanteism, and there is no such thing as vigilante justice, cynically or otherwise; it would be an oxymoron. Throughout the...

The Supreme Court is hearing a case that will affect the property rights of us all. The city of New London, Connecticut wants to condemn some private property so that private developers can build an office facility. The city claims it has the right to take property under eminent domain for the sole purpose of increasing tax revenue. Justice O’Connor asked the city attorney, “If a city wanted to size property in order to turn a Motel 6 intro a Ritz-Carlton, would that be OK?” The city’s response, “Yes, it would be.” Believe it or not, there are 10,000 cases...

AKRON, Ohio -- A Springfield Township mother broke down in tears as she was sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with the death of her 13-month-old daughter. Vanessa McGlumphy, 25, and the baby's father made statements to the court Wednesday, NewsChannel5 reported. McGlumphy, pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter and child endangering for not protecting her daughter. The toddler died last October. She suffered a broken neck, a severed liver and 12 broken ribs. She also had been struck 40 times with a needle on the bottom of both feet and the side of her head, the...

Five people are in hospital today after hundreds were crushed as the opening of England's biggest Ikea store turned into a riot. Nine ambulances were sent to the outlet in north London after reports that up to 20 people had suffered heat exhaustion when the opening at midnight descended into chaos. Staff closed the doors after half an hour amid fears the stampede could become a Hillsborough-style crush. Security guards said they were put "under siege" by customers who attacked them, leaving one guard with a dislocated jaw. The store remains closed and a cleanup operation is under way. Ikea...

WASHINGTON – Franklin Raines, who was forced out as Fannie Mae's chief executive after five years, is due to receive a pension of $1.3 million a year for life, according to an agreement with the mortgage lending giant. In documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie Mae also revealed that Raines has deferred compensation of $8.7 million to be paid out through 2020 and owns more than $5.5 million in the company's stock. But the deal is not done. Federal regulators have asked Fannie Mae to hold off paying any compensation to Raines until they have time...

Jayna Davis was among the first at the scene of the most brutal and bloody attack on the American homeland in the Twentieth century, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, on April 19, 1995. She was among the first at the scene of the most brutal and bloody attack on the American homeland in the Twentieth century, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, on April 19, 1995. Jayna Davis’s story of what, really, happened that day has resulted in a well written, necessary, but sad book, The Third Terrorist: The Middle East...

America's pharmaceutical industry is under attack. Critics have pejoratively nicknamed the industry "Big Pharma" (to conjure up an image of it being in a line-up next to "Big Tobacco") and characterize it as uncaring, duplicitous, profit-hungry and manipulative. The resentment of the industry is palpable -- whether in my own conversations with relatives and friends (particularly elderly and/or infirm ones) or in Congress, where advocates are demanding the legalization of drug importation from Canada and elsewhere in a desperate (and in the long run, futile) attempt to bring prices down. Perhaps nowhere does the strident criticism of the industry come...

PRINCE Charles's latest pronouncement on British society - that its schools are imbued with a culture of "social utopianism" responsible for people getting ideas above their station - was laid bare at an employment tribunal yesterday. In a scathing memo, written to a third party in response to a request from a former Clarence House secretary for more training at work, Charles complained that young people nowadays think they can be pop stars, high court judges or even heads of state without putting in the work or having the "natural ability". The secretary in question, Elaine Day, was described in...

When it comes to the Constitution and the role of government, it’s when Democrats and Republicans subtly tell you what they really think. Although this year’s presidential race has seen the two major foreign-policy crises of our time -- the war in Iraq and the ascent of global terrorism -- crowd other subjects out of the public debate, many of the issues that have been election-year staples for decades remain salient. Chief among these hardy perennials is the composition of the federal courts. On the surface, what kind of judges a president would appoint and what legal philosophies they are...

Earlier this year, the federal government discovered yet another crisis of catastrophic proportions -- we’re too fat. Bowing to incessant media coverage spurred on by those who continually insist that the "sky is falling," the U.S. government officially recognized that America is weighed-down in an "obesity crisis." And, what’s more, we can’t save ourselves, at least not without the help of those in Washington, or so they say. Thus, through what seemed to be an innocuous observation, the federal government promised an ominous intrusion into all our lives. By recognizing obesity as a disease, the Feds took their first definitive...

Democrats should face it: they are incompetent and Bush will be reelected. With less than two months to go before the election, John Kerry is yet to address a single important issue. William Rivers Pitt, who runs the liberal web site, "Truthout," vented his frustration by declaring the election the dumbest ever (Sept. 10). The entire election, thus far, Pitt says, has been about Republican and Democratic TV ads. Pitt lists the real issues that remain unaddressed before the electorate: a war based on intelligence manipulation and deception, the loss of jobs, health care’s rising cost and declining coverage, the...

Wealthy Democrats are heavily represented in the legal and communications industries, and the US Senate. Which political party really is the party of the rich -- Democrats or Republicans? According to the Democrats and the mainstream media the Republicans are. Democrats are the party of the common folk. Yet, of the ten richest United States Senators, eight are members of the soi disant people’s party -- the Democratic Party. They are in order of their wealth: 1- John Kerry, Massachusetts (net worth, $620 million) 2- Herbert Kohl, Wisconsin ($300 million) 3- Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia ($200 million) 4- Jon Corzine,...

An ugly tug of war is raging over the fate of a 6-year-old boy being raised by a gay couple who won custody of the child in a landmark decision in 2000.

According to the UN, the management of the internet should be multilateral, transparent, and democratic, and "ensure an equitable distribution of resources." The phantom of government-controlled Internet has raised its menacing head again; this time on the global level. “Even the definition of what we mean by Internet governance is a subject of debate. But the world has a common interest in ensuring the security and dependability of this new medium,” said Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the opening of a March 25-26 United Nations Global Forum on Internet Governance. “The medium must be made accessible and responsive to the needs...

PINE RIDGE, S.D. – Bruce Whalen is trying to persuade people around the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to do something they just don't do: vote Republican. The task may seem daunting if not impossible in a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 11-to-1. But Republicans believe the Indian vote could play a decisive role in this year's closely watched Senate race between Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and former GOP Rep. John Thune. They say Daschle has failed to use his clout in Washington to solve rampant problems on the reservation, where people live in almost Third World conditions. Unemployment...

Much has been said about the Bush administration’s handling of sensitive issues to conservatives like illegal immigration and entitlement spending. The criticism is both broad and intense, coming from traditional allies and longtime foes. Though the criticism coming from opponents is severely hypocritical, it scars no less. Conservatives are consistent in their disparagement of excessive government spending and amnesty programs for illegal immigrants. This, however, leaves no one to thoroughly explain Bush’s policy strategy because his adversaries stringently attack for the sake of power regardless of policy. Though I don’t personally condone the liberal approach of the current administration’s handling...

A teenage self-described environmental guerrilla led a group of peers in vandalizing almost 50 sport utility vehicles in Houston, police charge. According to the Houston Chronicle, local law-enforcement authorities say the group, led by Randall W. Heinrichs, 18, smashed windows and slashed tires on SUVs in north Harris County, Texas, from October through December. Capt. Rick Brass says Heinrichs "talks about how [SUVs] are environmentally unfriendly [and] decadent," the paper reported. The officer says the teenager has a "personal hatred" for sport utility vehicles. Heinrichs is on probation for felony arson in a flag-burning case. While Heinrichs was nabbed Jan....

It's not an unusual sight. And it's not a pretty sight. Plastic jugs filled with urine are becoming a common sight along the highways, particularly at freeway interchanges. "You wonder what's happening in our society," said Karen Cagle, who supervises highway cleanup crews in Eastern Washington. From March 4 to Nov. 27, 2002, one Adams County highway cleanup crew picked up 2,666 jugs of urine and 67 bags with human excrement in them. That's just one crew out of about 40 crews working in Adams County, and Cagle hasn't yet tallied the results for 2003. But the problem isn't limited...