Free Republic

Intro: “You can’t handle the truth!” Jack Nicholson shouted at Tom Cruise during the climactic court-martial scene in the movie “A Few Good Men.” Caught in a lie that exposed his “above-the-law” mentality, Nicholson’s character, Col. Nathan Jessup, justifies his lawlessness by declaring, “I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it!” It’s a riveting scene, pitting security against the rule of law. But before agreeing with Jessup that lawfulness conflicts...

A country and a people can be measured in its breath and its depth. A government can either choose breadth of control or depth of control—but it cannot have both. Breadth of control allows for governing a large area, but with only limited control and influence over those who live there. Depth of control allows for extensive control over the lives of a population, but such control requires government infrastructure of equal depth that is difficult to sustain or project over a large territory. One is a mile wide and an inch deep. The other is a mile deep and...

The Environmental Protection Agency is about to impose regulations and taxes on carbon emissions by execu tive fiat in the name of stopping global climate change. Yet the United States has already dramatically cut its emissions and probably has already complied with the Kyoto/Copenhagen goals for reduced emissions. And we've done it without taxes, regulations or government intervention. In 2007, the US emitted 6.12 billion metric tons of carbon. In 2008, the total fell to 5.92 billion tons. In 2009, while President Obama was promising that the country would cut its emissions to 5 billion tons by 2015, the US...

Suppose that the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it would deal with the obesity crisis and improve the health and welfare of the American people -- by mandating that every American eat three helpings of vegetables and three helpings of fruit every day. Anyone caught failing to eat the required food would be subject to a fine or tax. Would such a law be constitutional? Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) put that question to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan this week. Kagan, the US solicitor general, couldn't answer. In fact, she implied that under the court's "expansive" view...

L.A. gets temporary victory in sludge fight Ruling lets city, Orange County continue trucking waste to Kern LOS ANGELES -- The city of Los Angeles and Orange County can continue spreading their treated sewage sludge on Kern County farmland under a tentative ruling issued Monday in U.S. District Court. The ruling overturns, at least for now, the Measure E sludge ban passed by Kern County voters in June. Judge Gary Feess said he believes state laws that push for recycling of all solid waste -- including sewage sludge -- take precedence over the Kern County ordinance that bans spreading treated...

Florida's Riviera Beach is a poor, predominantly black, coastal community that intends to revitalize its economy by using eminent domain, if necessary, to displace about 6,000 local residents and build a billion-dollar waterfront yachting and housing complex. "This is a community that's in dire need of jobs, which has a median income of less than $19,000 a year," said Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown. He defends the use of eminent domain by saying the city is "using tools that have been available to governments for years to bring communities like ours out of the economic doldrums and the trauma centers."...

LIBERAL SOCIALIST LAWYERS IN BLACK ROBES ATTACK AMERICA... with Democrat Support.GOVERNMENT EXPANDS BY TAKING FREEDOM AND LIBERTY FROM THE GOVERNED…One of the principle tenets of Socialism is the expansion of government power and the crushing of all opposition to that expansion. The recent attack on the Fifth Amendment's eminent domain provisions simply expands government power. Worst of all, WE the American People fail to understand that this "edict" was created out of thin air by arrogant, liberal socialist LAWYERS who wear black robes. Let us look a little closer at the basic purpose of the decision and what it...

Against the flower police For those worried that tests around the country are systematically being watered down in a backlash against standards and accountability, there is good news and bad news out of Louisiana. The good news is that the Bayou State is maintaining the strictest possible standards and routinely handing out failing marks. The bad news is that it is doing so on a state-mandated floral exam that is so absurd it's like something out of "Monty Python's Flying Circus." You can't become a florist in Louisiana without passing a ridiculously difficult and subjective state-licensing exam, which is a...

Controversial U.K. spy agency could serve as model for U.S. MI-5 long accused of abusing power, but it has lost some of secrecy 12/26/2002 By GREGORY KATZ / The Dallas Morning News LONDON - Britain's controversial domestic spy unit, MI-5, is emerging as a model for a possible U.S. agency that may be created to take over the FBI's role in the expanding fight against terrorism. U.S. lawmakers look to MI-5 - once so secret that even its director's identity was kept from the public - as proof that an internal spy unit can exist in a democracy without...

Jose Padilla, a.k.a. Abdullah al-Muhajir, supposedly plotted to build and detonate a radiological "dirty bomb." He is a U.S. citizen. Yet he's being detained by the military — indefinitely, without seeing an attorney, even though he hasn't been charged with any crime. Yaser Esam Hamdi is also a U.S. citizen. He, too, is being detained by the military — indefinitely, without seeing an attorney, even though he hasn't been charged with any crime. Meanwhile, Zacarias Moussaoui, purportedly the 20th hijacker, is not a U.S. citizen. Neither is Richard Reid, the alleged shoe bomber. Both have attorneys. Both have been...