Free Republic

YOU BETTER STOP, HEY, WHAT'S THAT SOUND? EVERYBODY LOOK WHAT'S GOIN' DOWN... It can't happen here It can't happen here I'm telling you, my dear That it can't happen here Because I been checkin' it out, baby I checked it out a couple a times But I'm telling you It can't happen here Oh darling, it's important that you believe me (Bop bop bop bop) That it can't happen here Who could imagine that they would freak out somewhere in Kansas... (Kansas... Kansas... Kansas... Kansas...) (Kansas, Kansas, do-do-dun to-to Kansas, Kansas, la la la) (Kansas, Kansas, do-do-dun to-to Kansas, Kansas)...

The decision of the government in Cyprus to simply take money out of people's bank accounts there sent shock waves around the world. People far removed from that small island nation had to wonder: “Can this happen here?” The economic repercussions of having people feel that their money is not safe in banks can be catastrophic. Banks are not just warehouses where money can be stored. They are crucial institutions for gathering individually modest amounts of money from millions of people and transferring that money to strangers whom those people would not directly trust... [snip] One of the big differences...

Last year, the Social Security Administration put out a procurement request for 174,000 rounds of “.357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition,” prompting a few on the Internet to work themselves up into something of a frenzy. “It’s not outlandish,” claimed Paul Joseph Wilson, one of a team of professional paranoiacs on the Infowars website, “to suggest that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest.” “Something strange is going on,” harmonized Breitbart’s William Bigelow. Even Mark Levin was concerned. “I know why the government’s arming up,” he deduced....

Hello everyone, I'm working on a book about my passion (and, I think, yours): American exceptionalism through the eyes of immigrants who haven't always had the fortune of living in freedom. This book consists of first-person stories of Americans who lived under authoritarian regimes: Cuba, Eastern bloc countries (Poland, Russia/former USSR), Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Laos, and so on. Unfortunately, there are many, many such countries to choose from. The local talk station I listen to has broadcast calls from new Americans who came here for liberty, which they weren't accorded in their homeland. Every call I've ever heard from one of...

A Mexican drug addict who smuggled immigrants was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for triggering a hoax that prompted a national security alert, a coast-to-coast manhunt and fears that terrorists would detonate a nuclear bomb in Boston. José Ernesto Beltran Quiñonez, 34, apologized in San Diego federal court during the sentencing for falsely telling a 911 operator in January 2005 that two Iraqi men and four Chinese chemists were awaiting an atomic bomb.

One of the region's top cops has called for a ban on pointed blades so that they cannot be used as lethal weapons. The Chief Constable of Northumbria police Mike Craik said he would like to see implements like kitchen knives only being sold with rounded ends to make them safer. He explained: "You rarely get victims who are sliced to death . . . they are usually stabbed. "So, the problem is pointed knives. If you ask chefs how many times they need to use pointed knives they'll tell you they don't need them at all." Mr Craik spoke...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - June 1, 2006 - Several self-avowed pedophiles founded a political party in the Netherlands and plan to endorse broadcasting pornographic material on daytime television and allowing children as young as 12 to feature in porn films. The Charity, Freedom and Diversity party said Wednesday its central campaign platform will be lowering the age of consent in the Netherlands from 16 to 12. "Forbidding children from sex only makes them more curious," party president Martijn Uittenbogaard told The Associated Press. Uittenbogaard said his new party had supporters from "all corners of the country" but acknowledged Wednesday's launch...

A letter on the front of what used to be Revelli Tires in Oakland warns: "Eminent domain unfair. To learn all about the abuses of eminent domain, please go to www.castlecoaliton.org. Educate yourself. Pay attention. You could be next." John Revelli wrote the note after the city of Oakland evicted him on July 1 from his own property — and a business run by his family since 1949 — so that a private developer could build apartments on his land. It especially galls him, Revelli told me over the phone Tuesday, that while he has been forced away from his...