Free Republic

The initiation of the draft on Saturday in the Ninth Congressional District was characterized by so much order and good feeling as to well-nigh dispel the forebodings of tumult and violence which many entertained in connection with the enforcement of the conscription in this City. Very few, then, were prepared for the riotous demonstrations which yesterday, from 10 in the morning until late at night, prevailed almost unchecked in our streets. The authorities had counted upon more or less resistance to this measure of the Government after the draft was completed, and the conscripts were repaired to take their place...

This week’s indictment of 18 reputed gang members not only solved the infamous slaying of a 1-year-old Brooklyn boy, it nailed those responsible for three more murders and a slew of other shootings, authorities say. Members of the Hoolies gang allegedly murdered a total of four victims and left nine more wounded while unleashing mayhem across Bedford-Stuyvesant amid a deadly turf war with the rival 900 gang. Seven people — the majority of the 13 shot — were innocent bystanders caught up in the violence that the remorseless Hoolies allegedly perpetrated — and later celebrated in posts on Facebook and...

A Long Island teen was fatally stabbed at a strip mall near his high school as dozens of other students pulled out their cellphones to record the melee rather than to help him, police said. Khaseen Morris, a 16-year-old senior at Oceanside High School, was stabbed once in the chest Monday afternoon during an apparent dispute over a girl. He later died at a hospital after many of the 50 to 70 teens who gathered nearby recorded the bloody attack and made no attempt to stop it, Nassau County police said at a news conference Tuesday. “Kids stood there and...

President Obama refused to endorse same-sex marriage this week but left no doubt about what he truly believes. At Wednesday press’s conference, he ticked off his efforts on behalf of gay rights: expanding the federal hate-crimes law; repealing the “don’t-ask-don’t-tell’’ restriction on openly gay soldiers; refusing to enforce the federal law denying recognition of same-sex marriages. He went on to praise the recent vote legalizing gay marriage in New York: “What you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins,...

I’m off on politics for a while I’ve decided that if I’m going to keep blogging, I’m going to have to leave off writing or reading about politics for a little while, because it’s all making me sick. But as I put the subject away, I just have to ask all of you people - on every side - who have decided that immigration is one man’s burden, and that every good thing President Bush has done is to be negated because he hasn’t snapped his fingers and done what YOU think is the solution to the immigration problem…what did...

WASHINGTON — Nearly half of the nation's children under 5 are racial or ethnic minorities, and the percentage is increasing mainly because the Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, according to a census report released today. Hispanics are the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group...And the increase in young children is largely a Hispanic story, driving 70 percent of the growth in children younger than 5. Forty-five percent of U.S. children younger than 5 are minorities. The new numbers offer a preview of demographic shifts to come...In some parts of the country, the transformation is more visible than in others....