Free Republic

The evolution of technology is unrelentingly swift. Generations have witnessed state-of-the-art inventions become obsolete in the blink of an eye. The fax machine, the pager, and the landline, all once revolutionary, have earned their place in the annals of history. Yet email — born in 1971 when engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the very first “ping” — has remarkably endured. This persistent form of communication continues to redefine itself for the digital age, but one enigmatic email feature hasn’t changed for over 50 years: the “cc.” The “cc” field is a familiar sight perched within the recipient line of an email....

ransomnote: I posted Matt Taibbi's introduction to the article below. Follow the link for the core of the article.Susan Schmidt, Andrew Lowenthal, Tom Wyatt and 5 others provide a well organized overview to their extensive research. They describe 30 main players in the Censorship-Industrial Complex (CIC), and another 20 in the 'honorable mentions' catagory. I will put a hyperlinked table of contents in post #1. Illustration by mrmooremedia.comIntroduction by Matt TaibbiOn January 17, 1961, outgoing President and former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower gave one of the most consequential speeches in American history. Eisenhower for eight years had been...

Credit card delinquencies are on the rise, as research from the New York Federal Reserve shows nearly a fifth of borrowers are “maxed-out.” According the new report, issued by the bank’s Center for Microeconomic Data, household debt rose by 1.1 percent, or $184 billion, in the first quarter of the year, bringing the total to $17.69 trillion. “In the first quarter of 2024, credit card and auto loan transition rates into serious delinquency continued to rise across all age groups,” Joelle Scally, regional economic principal within the household and public policy research division at the bank, said in a statement....

A North Carolina cafe customer is out $2,000 as her go-to diner posted her entire credit card information online for the world to see. Rhonda Deaver paid her weekly visit to Smith’s Cafe in Kinston following her doctor’s appointment on April 30 and dined at the restaurant, approximately 80 miles southeast of Raleigh. During her drive home, Deaver received a call from her bank telling her she left her credit card at the cafe. When she returned to the diner, cafe staff told Deaver they had taken a picture of the front and back of the card and posted it...

"...While the banks might be fine, some cash-strapped and credit-abusing consumers clearly are not. The idea that JPM is building reserves to cushion themselves against bad loans amid rapidly increasing charge-offs tells you all you need to know. Similar story at Bank of America (BAC), who also increased reserves. Across the nation’s four biggest banks, consumer loan charge-offs increased 73% in Q1, as they wrote off $3.4 billion in bad debt during the first three months of the year. "

A new Spanish version of the Roman Catholic Bible is ditching the word "man" for "person." The Jerusalem Bible from publishing house Desclée de Brouwer updated the word used for "man" ("hombre") to "person" ("persona") in its latest Spanish edition. The move changes the iconic call of Jesus to His disciples to become "fishers of men" in Matthew 4:19 to the more gender-neutral "fishers of persons." In Greek, the word for "man" is "anthropos," which is used more than 500 times in the New Testament, including multiple instances where Jesus refers to Himself as the "Son of Man." Published in...

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoed legislation Thursday that would have removed the state’s requirement that law-abiding Pennsylvanians get a permit before carrying a gun for self-defense. On November 17, 2021, Breitbart News reported that legislation to make Pennsylvania the 22nd constitutional carry state was headed to Wolf’s desk. Wolf’s opposition to the legislation was well known, and NBC Philadelphia noted that he vetoed constitutional carry on Thursday. He called the bill “dangerous,” adding, “This legislation, which eliminates the requirement for individuals to obtain a license before carrying a concealed firearm, will only exacerbate gun violence and jeopardize the safety of...

The Supreme Court's questioning during oral arguments in a New York gun rights case showed that several justices have strong reservations about the state’s highly restrictive regulations for getting concealed carry permits. The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, is potentially the biggest gun rights case to go before the high court in more than a decade. New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood noted that, under current rules, the state has the discretion to evaluate a person’s reason for applying for a permit, as an applicant has to show "proper cause" for needing one. Underwood...

The former head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center has suggested that counterinsurgency tactics used by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan should be applied to ‘domestic extremists’ inside the US. NPR reports that Robert Grenier, who directed the CIA’s Counterterrorism program from 2004 to 2006, declared “We may be witnessing the dawn of a sustained wave of violent insurgency within our own country, perpetrated by our own countrymen.” In an op-ed for The New York Times last week, Grenier suggested that “extremists who seek a social apocalypse … are capable of producing endemic political violence of a sort not seen...

  Kristen Clarke of the NAACP LDF has no idea what she is talking about. In a CBS interview she states: "Kristen Clarke, Co-Director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Political Participation Group, said in an interview with Hotsheet that 'there doesn't seem to be a color blind approach to many of these so called ballot integrity efforts and poll watching initiatives that are underway.  The reports that we are hearing about are very troubling,' she said, suggesting that poll watchers are being 'largely assigned to monitor African American and Latino voters.'" This is false.  And she should no better.  Sadly,...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- At about 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, 6 August, at the intersection of Meridian Street and I-65, a group of agitators associated with Black Lives Matters were illegally blocking Meridian Street. A blue GM Sierra pick-up approaches.  There is plenty of room for the agitators to be off of the street. There are not many of them, somewhat less than a hundred by estimation. Instead of getting out of the lane to allow people to freely travel on the public right of way, they are spread out to block the street.Two agitators deliberately block the blue Sierra, pulling...

I'm seriously looking at this little five shot revolver and would appreciate any insight into its reputation. Thank you. Pic at link.

At the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Mary Habeck, an adjunct lecturer at John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies (known as SAIS), noted that terrorism has spiked since 2011. She said that today, "the terrorist threat against the U.S. has never been greater." She added, "You have to go back to the Algerian civil war to find" this number of terrorist attacks. Habeck said, "First of all, al-Qaeda and ISIS [known as the Islamic State, or ISIL] have a plan and they’re executing it." "They have created a whole series of campaign plans for each country," Habeck said, and "ISIS inherited...

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri became the latest state to allow residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit when lawmakers supported the change Wednesday. Tense debate during the legislature's annual veto override session encompassed themes of race and class as lawmakers clashed over whether to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of Senate Bill 656. In the days leading up to the session the debate drew national attention, with organizations on both sides of the issues working to influence lawmakers. Another controversial part of the bill is its "stand your ground" provision, which will allow residents to use deadly force...

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz warns as part of his stump speech that we are one Supreme Court Justice away from losing our Second Amendment Right to keep and bear arms. On Wednesday, President Obama nominated for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia just such an individual -- Judge Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbis, a Bill Clinton appointee.

Link

The editorial board of the New York Times has shredded the last vestiges of their remaining credibility today as they uncritically parroted the findings of a faked gun violence “study” created by inebriated rhesus monkeys and/or Violence Policy Center (VPC) interns. The report, “Concealed Carry Killers” is a recurrent propaganda report created by the Violence Policy Center, a small left-wing gun prohibitionist organization dedicated to undermining the basic human right to armed self-defense. The goal of the VPC is to turn Benjamin Franklin’s warning on its head, and trade essential liberty for the illusion of temporary security. “Concealed Carry Killers”...

That about says it all.

I'm interested in a 9mm or slightly smaller quality handgun that has a stock laser pointer. Comfortable carry and the laser are equally important.

Shooting the Kahr 9mm