Free Republic

<p>Some were wondering how Obama would spin the surge in violence between police and minorities into yet another push for gun control.</p>

It could never happen here, right? Boston – National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a Para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw. Speaking after the clash, the Massachusetts Governor declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. The Governor blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the...

Americans love their guns, as any good historian will tell you. Following the recent Orlando, Florida murders, in which some 50 patrons of the Pulse Bar were shot dead by a rifle-toting assailant, United States news outlets described the tragedy as "the largest mass shooting in American history". That was true, but only if you counted its most recent predecessors - at Virginia Tech University (32 dead), at Sandy Hook Elementary School (27 dead, including 20 children), in San Bernardino (14 dead), Charleston (nine dead), and at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, in which two teenagers massacred 12...

But what hit me smack between the eyes and in the deepest recesses of my heart was this: There’s something all Americans have in common. When I heard the attack described as a “hate crime,” I could not deny it. When anyone murders in cold blood 50 or more Americans, it is so obviously a crime of hate that it scarcely requires uttering those words. Was the Pulse nightclub attacked because it was a gathering place of homosexuals? I don’t doubt it for a minute. Is that the only reason? Not at all. It was attacked in the month of...

EU to Poland: We Pay You, So We Control Your InstitutionsThe European Commission has formally notified Poland that it is violating accepted norms with changes it has made to its highest court. If Poland fails to fall into line, it may face a variety of sanctions from Brussels. The following appearance on a German television program by a Polish journalist named Aleksandra Rybińska was first aired last February. It provides some additional background on the current confrontation between Poland and the Imperial Center. Many thanks to Egri Nök for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling: video...

The Witherspoon Institute - Public Discourse, "A De-Sexed Society is a De-Humanized Society"The transgender movement has never been about “gender.” It’s all about sex. Sex is the real target. “Gender” is merely the politicized linguistic vehicle that facilitates a legal ban on sex distinctions. There aren’t a whole lot of dots to connect to uncover the logic of where this leads: if you abolish sex distinctions in law, you can abolish state recognition of biological family ties, and the state can regulate personal relationships and consolidate power as never before.

It’s something climate skeptics have long suspected: Government involvement in science has skewed data to reflect the government’s agenda. “Many have suspected that U.S. political intervention in climate science has corrupted the outcome,” notes Ron Arnold in an essay posted on CFact.org. “The new emergence of an old 1995 document from the U.S. State Department to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms those suspicions, or at least gives the allegation credence enough to ask questions.” Though a FOIA request for the 1995 document came up empty (“No such correspondence in our files”), the pdf is available online....

Stereotypes asserting Jews "control the banks and the media" do not constitute anti-Semitism, a member of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Senate claimed this week. During a hearing on renewing a resolution banning anti-Semitism, Stanford senior Gabriel Knight insisted that a clause defining negative Jewish stereotypes is "irresponsibly foraying into another politically contentious conversation." "Questioning these potential power dynamics, I think, is not anti-semitism," he said. "I think it’s a very valid discussion." He also maintained that the bill should include “some language to acknowledge Palestinians’ rights to self-determination." Knight backtracked twenty minutes later, the Stanford Review reported...

Sweden seemed to be at the forefront of the newest globalist scheme digital money v. cash, advocating a cashless global economy with a one-world currency. A CBS World News article reported in 2012 that a small number of businesses in Sweden accepted only credit cards, including some churches, even though elderly people prefer cash, especially in rural areas. Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former rocker, stated that cash encourages theft, citing his own son who was the victim of armed robbery three times. Cheating and cash theft may have declined in Sweden but cybercrime around the world is indisputably on the rise....

On the surface - and for all you shallow thinkers out there who are besotted with the idea of "fairness" - the proposal makes sense. Those who use the highways more should pay more, right? Um, no not really. The idea that the government should be able to monitor your driving is antithetical to the idea of liberty. And does anyone believe that the monitoring would stop there? There would be calls to install breathalyzers in every car, governors to prevent you from exceeding the speed limit. Perhaps they'd figure out a way to charge you for excess emissions.

A major step was taken Thursday in the U.S. government's plan to hand off oversight of the Internet domain name system. A nonprofit international group approved a plan and forwarded it to the Obama administration Thursday for review and approval. The group, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has historically been contracted out to manage the behind-the-scenes workings of the Internet that pair up numerical IP addresses with their familiar Web addresses. A few years ago, the group was tasked with transitioning fully from U.S. government oversight to an international multistakeholder model. The Commerce Department will have...

Who thinks Hillary wants to do this because she thinks they’ll be gun-loving Republicans? Harold Hutchison, consulting senior editor for “Soldier of Fortune” magazine, opposes the recall of Grover Norquist from the NRA Board of Directors. That’s surprising, but speaks well for the magazine’s publisher encouraging independent thought, as Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, himself an NRA Director, recently came out for the recall. In making his case, Hutchison challenges some claims I’ve made regarding why I believe Norquist’s immigration position and a “pathway to citizenship” for MILLIONS of foreign nationals will overwhelmingly favor Democrats and anti-gunners. (SNIP) PewHispanic.org: “82%...

The Mark of The Beast Explained: MV = PQ, With Totalitarian Control of V(elocity) And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13: 16-17 I think this may be the most important economics piece I ever write. This came to me at Mass as I was thinking about Monetary Theory and how to explain...

After my attack on activist and environmental journalist Mark Lynas, I thought I’d test the waters with Tom Chivers who is a science editor at Buzzfeed. Chivers has been a nemesis of mine since my days at the Telegraph. A likeable, good natured nemesis – but an irritant nonetheless. It's bloody annoying when you're a seasoned hack breaking stories like Climategate showing alarmists to be a bunch of lying charlatans and you’ve got some dogged progressive fresh out of 'uni' in the neighbouring pages, brandishing his science degree like it automatically trumps your Oxford arts degree, explaining patiently, goodnaturedly, passively...

A video has emerged to settle the back-and-forth dispute between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)79% as to how the Florida senator voted on a gun-control proposal in 1999. On Feb. 27, Ted Cruz said Rubio voted to “ban guns from city parks” while a commissioner in West Miami City.

Washington, D.C., public schools consistently underperform relative to the rest of the country, while having the highest per-pupil revenue in the nation. D.C. revenue exceeds $29,000 per pupil every year, while graduation rates hover at about 64 percent and only one-third of its fourth-graders read at a proficient level. Clearly the "spend more" model has not been working for the families of Washington, D.C.

February 8, 2016FBI Makes It Official: Hillary Rodham Clinton Is Under Investigation by Michael Walsh Just the thing to propel her into the New Hampshire primary tomorrow: In a letter disclosed Monday in a federal court filing, the FBI confirms one of the world's worst-kept secrets: It is looking into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. Why say this at all, since it was widely known to be true? Because in August in response to a judge's direction, the State Department asked the FBI for information about what it was up to. Sorry, the FBI said at the...

A new Massachusetts gun permit essay rule has Second Amendment supporters seeing red. Gun owners in the state must now write an essay which will be “graded” for approval by the police chief before a carry permit can be issued. A hefty firearms training price tag up to $1,100 will also be levied against those attempting to exercise their right to bear arms in the city of Lowell. Lowell, Massachusetts, is located about 35 miles north of Boston and is home to some 110,000 people. The gun essay law was the brainchild of Police Chief William Taylor and approved by...

<p>It's inevitable when my husband and I visit family these days that the subject of violence in Baltimore comes up. Often, I'm the one who raises it. But when it came up last week on a trip to see my parents in Georgia, I got my back up. I thought of the 11-hour drive south and the billboards we passed along I-81 boasting guns for sale ("A Glock for Christmas"!), and of the story my brother-in-law, who lives in Florida, told of a neighbor stopping by to shoot the breeze in his suburban driveway, a handgun holstered at the man's waist as their kids played nearby.</p>

A new federal report reveals that 70% of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities between 2009 and 2014 originated in the United States. In addition, the report shows that the majority of those U.S.-originated guns were bought in California, Arizona, and Texas, southwest states that border Mexico.