Free Republic

A prominent Russian opposition leader was discharged from a Moscow hospital Monday and sent back to jail, despite claims by his doctor that he may have been poisoned by an unknown chemical agent while in custody. Navalny was arrested several days before an opposition demonstration held on Saturday and is currently serving a 30-day sentence. More than 1,300 people were detained after protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from Moscow's city council elections. In 2017, he suffered a partial loss of vision after being assaulted and doused with a green antiseptic. His sight was restored after he sought treatment abroad.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Local and national political leaders, prominent clergy and ordinary Washingtonians who got their first jobs as a result of Marion Barry's programs were among the thousands who gathered Saturday to say goodbye to the man dubbed "Mayor for Life." Barry died Nov. 23 at age 78. He served four terms as mayor and leaves a legacy as the most famous, the most beloved and the most divisive local leader in four decades of District of Columbia self-rule.

GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich might be abandoning his self-imposed positive-only campaign strategy. After failing to prevent others from highlighting his unflattering past by calling for an end to "negative campaigning", Mr. Gingrich has at least dipped a toe in political reality and tried to contrast one of his rival's ideas with his own. But he wasn't able to do that without taking a shot at that rival's supporters - voters he will eventually need to win over if he expects to be the GOP nominee and, eventually, the president. Recent polls show Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) leading in the...

Before last week's South Carolina Republican debate, Ron Paul supporters complained that their candidate was not getting the first-tier attention his polling and fundraising should bring. It is true that Paul has often been overlooked and dismissed, as one might treat a slightly dotty uncle. But perhaps some first-tier scrutiny is deserved. Paul was the only candidate at the debate to make news, calling for the repeal of laws against prostitution, cocaine and heroin. The freedom to use drugs, he argued, is equivalent to the freedom of people to “practice their religion and say their prayers.” Liberty must be defended...

[...] Regardless of when he officially announces his candidacy – the “libertarian in disguise” was thrown a curve ball last week when Republican congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul announced he was considering a 2012 bid. Johnson, who would be a natural to tap into Paul’s base, shrugged off any concerns over sharing the limelight with Paul, saying the congressman “still has his heyday today.” “First of all, having a couple people talk about the same thing, I think, is really powerful. I mean, that’s a good thing!” he told TheDC. When asked if he is in regular communication...

How A Dark-Horse Can Win The Nomination By Thomas F. Roeser - The Wanderer PressCHICAGO — Two weeks ago I played political strategist for Ron Paul. In the old days of my mis­spent youth, when I was a hired gun political strategist working for the Minnesota Republican Party, nobody asked whom I was for. They didn’t care. My boss just showed me a candidate and or­dered me to devise a strategy for him/ her at lowest possible cost. And because I liked to continue eating, I did it.It didn’t work out too badly. Af­ter a few of us got the...

Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals. The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party said on its Web site it would be officially registered Wednesday, proclaiming: "We are going to shake The Hague awake!" The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether. "A ban just makes children curious," Ad van den Berg, one of the party's founders, told the Algemeen Dagblad...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Texas death row inmate avoided execution when the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his lethal injection that had been scheduled for Wednesday evening. Troy Kunkle, 38, was set to die for fatally shooting a Corpus Christi man during a robbery nearly 20 years ago when Kunkle was an 18-year-old high school student in San Antonio. The court, in a brief order delivered Wednesday morning, halted the punishment indefinitely. The reprieve came early enough in the day so Kunkle never was moved from death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit near Livingston. Executions...

The conservative - not libertarian - argument for legalizing marijuana.Thoughtful conservatives have long agonized over the issue of the legalization of marijuana. For libertarians the issue has always been rather easy. Their position is that any adult individual has the right to ingest any drug provided that the user is fully informed of the nature of the substance and that only criminal behavior per se should be punished. Conservatives have a harder time being as cavalier about the issue for a number of sound reasons. Conservatives have always maintained that there is a symbolic value to the law that, while...

Liberty and the Self-Empowering State Measuring Freedom and Social Control by Kevin Ellul Bonici In pursuit of freedom humans have developed social control, and in pursuit of social control they have attained a measure of security and freedom. That's one perspective. In pursuit of freedom humans have enacted laws, and in pursuit of laws they have eroded freedom. That's another way of seeing it. In pursuit of social control, monarchs and governments have sought empowerment, and in pursuit of empowerment they have brought misery and oppression on their people, causing their own demise in the process. That's an extended version...