Free Republic

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) is strategizing to use the enforcement mechanism of a recently enacted Texas abortion law, which the Supreme Court allowed to survive on Friday, to curb the sale and circulation of “assault weapons” in the state. On Saturday, Newsom said in a press release that the governor’s office would work with the legislature and attorney general to create a bill that would empower private citizens to sue for at least $10,000 “anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in the State of California.” “If the most efficient way...

Cornell University has introduced an astronomy course to explore the connection between the term black holes and “racial blackness” — proof, say critics, that even the hard sciences aren’t immune to universal “racial hysteria.” The course, titled “Black Holes: Race and the Cosmos,” uses work from black studies theorists, artists and fiction writers to challenge “conventional wisdom” about the role that race plays in astronomy. “Conventional wisdom would have it that the ‘black’ in black holes has nothing to do with race. Surely there can be no connection between the cosmos and the idea of racial blackness. Can there?” reads...

Oregon State and Oregon announced Friday that they no longer will use the term “Civil War” in connection with their sports rivalry games. The annual football game between the Ducks and Beavers has been referred to as the Civil War for nearly 90 years. More recently, games in other sports involving the two schools also have been called the same term. In a statement released by OSU, president Ed Ray said the universities agreed to drop the name as it has a connection to a war fought to preserve slavery. ............ (N)umerous athletes, alums and boosters have questioned the term...

California’s $75 million Disaster Relief Fund will support undocumented Californians impacted by COVID-19 who are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits and disaster relief, including the CARES Act, due to their immigration status. Approximately 150,000 undocumented adult Californians will receive a one-time cash benefit of $500 per adult with a cap of $1,000 per household to deal with the specific needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals can apply for support beginning next month. The state’s Disaster Relief Fund will be dispersed through a community-based model of regional nonprofits with expertise and experience serving undocumented communities. In addition to the $75...

New York City restaurants are eliminating jobs, reducing employee hours and raising prices due to the higher costs of the $15/hour minimum wage. A once-growing industry is contracting, according to an online survey conducted by the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an association representing restaurants in the city. Last year, “full-service restaurants recorded a 1.6 percent job loss, which is the first recorded annual loss in two decades,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the trade group. The survey also said about a third of respondents will eliminate jobs and most will raise prices this year because of the new...

RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced a bill Tuesday seeking to crack down on gun dealers selling firearms to criminals. Kaine's Responsible Transfer of Firearms Act would make federally licensed and private gun dealers liable for selling firearms to individuals who are prohibited from owning them. In a statement, Kaine said gun laws enforced by the federal government have done little to stem unnecessary violence. He said gun dealers should take reasonable steps to make sure they are not selling to an inadequate customer, but did not specify what those steps would be. Kaine's...

XLNT GUN FREE ZONE SKIT

RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number 26 first, Mike. I didn't know we'd get to this this early. I asked Cookie to put together a little montage here of all the stuttering around that Obama did in his press conference today and I want you to hear this because -- and we didn't repeat anything here. It goes 46 seconds, and we're doing this because we hear constantly, "What a great orator and a great communicator! Ohhhh, this man is smooth!" Just listen. This is a great illustration here of what happened when you take the teleprompter and your prepared...

Yesterday morning, I marveled at the p.c. idiocy of Dallas County (TX) commissioner John Wiley Price, who protested when his colleague Kenneth Mayfield used the term “black hole” to refer to lost paperwork. The local Fox station in Dallas-Fort Worth has the video of the exchange. The ignorance and sanctimony of John Wiley Price are something to behold.

After leaving office, he could tend graves of fallen soldiers In a recent column I speculated on President Bush's post-White House plans. What should he do with himself? Alice Collins of Oak Lawn has an idea. "Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, in the wind and snow of winter and the heat and humidity of summer, let him tend to the graves of the almost 4,000 men and women who have given their lives in the debacle of Iraq. They honored their oaths, obeyed their commander-in-chief and sacrificed their lives of promise to a lying, unprincipled warmonger. "He can...

At least 33 people were killed today on the campus of Virginia Tech in what appears to be the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, according to federal law-enforcement officials. Many of the victims were students shot in a dorm and a classroom building

AN OFFICIAL REPORT DEALING WITH religious expression in French schools has become a must read for anyone interested in the Islamization of France. Written under the auspices of the top national education official, Jean-Pierre Obin, the report was not initially released by the Ministry of Education. But it was leaked on the Internet in March and now can be found in its entirety at www.proche-orient.info and other websites. The 37-page report is the product of a study carried out between October 2003 and May 2004 by a team of 10 inspectors, including Obin. In addition to examining the recent literature...

The high school cheerleader who allegedly hid the stolen handgun used to kill actress Nicole duFresne never should have covered up for the murderer, the actress' heartbroken fiancé said yesterday. "She didn't have to flee the state, hide the gun and take on another person's crime in the way that she did," 29-year-old Jeffrey Sparks said of Ashley Evans, who went to her father's Maryland home after the crime. "She could have come forward. She didn't have to hide out," Sparks said before a memorial ceremony on the lower East Side to honor the woman he had planned to marry...

On Monday, CBS News fired four senior officials in the wake of an independent report related to the airing of a “60 Minutes” piece in September about President George W. Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service. This is a good, necessary and appropriate step in ensuring that the news the public receives from unbiased news sources is just that — fair and unbiased. The sad part is that this administration cannot seem to take similar steps to root out the causes of misinformation and immorality. In September, CBS got a tip that Bush had gotten into the National Guard only because...

After Being On Freerepublic.com for lil over 2 years now...ive realized that posting on here is an exercise thats best kept as a habit that you shouldnt indulge in too often..so for once i have elected to use this privledge... I for one..have had it with the lies/half truths and unfinished points spewed by our leftist brethern (mostly meaning those we know at home/friends and the like) yesterday i seen a friend that i havent seen in over a year..it was nice to see that he was indeed alive and well, i don't remember how politics were brought up last...

I just watched the repeat of a Dennis Miller show from earlier this week. DM interviewed Rudy Giuliani and did his usual commentary. Giuliani made the point about the Patriot Act being a worthwhile tool for a country at war. But what has really motivated me to post, before I go to bed was the "Varsity" chat time Dennis had with three guests. The guests were former San Fran mayor Willie Brown, Al Gore fashion consultant Naomi Wolf (called a 'social critic'), and conservative author David Horowitz. After a discussion of the New Hampshire primary, the discussion turned to the...