Free Republic

The FDA is stockpiling military weapons — and it’s not alone AMERICA’S GUN CULTURE has been a subject of intense interest and controversy for years, with concerns frequently raised about shadowy militias, paramilitary extremists, and unstable zealots in possession of alarming quantities of explosives and firearms. Amid the current din over assault weapons and body armor, consider one domestic organization’s fearsome arsenal of military-style equipment. In the space of eight years, the group amassed a stockpile of pistols, shotguns, and semiautomatic rifles, along with ample supplies of ammunition, liquid explosives, gun scopes, and suppressors. In its cache as well are...

Ask a hundred U.S. citizens what the country needs more than anything and you’re likely to get a hundred answers. An end to poverty, an end to racism, an end to terrorism, free college, an end to liberals, an end to conservatives, an end to climate change, a balanced budget, and on and on. Most responses would be likely be well-meaning, pie-in-the-sky fantasies with little forethought as nearly all of us are inclined to do now and again. Including me. I know it’s hard to believe that the Artful Dilettante himself engages in such flights of fancy, with outcomes devoid...

An upset last night in the Democrat primary for governor of Nevada was almost as stunning as the Brat win in VA-7. "None of the Above" won with 29.96% of the vote. Nevada was the first state to institute a “none of the above” line to its ballot in 1975, as a way for voters to protest weak, unqualified candidates.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, to be moved to the adult lung transplant list. That gives her a better chance of receiving a potentially lifesaving transplant. Sarah Murnaghan's fate should force us to examine our organ transplant policy. There are more than 88,000 Americans on the organ transplant waiting list. Roughly 10 percent of them will die before receiving an organ. These lost lives are not so much an act of God as they are an act of Congress because of...

Connecticut's contest between incumbent Senator Joseph Lieberman and challenger Ned Lamont has been described as a battle for the “heart of the Democratic Party.” More than that, though, the race underscores the fundamental problem of American politics: the disproportionate power of the political parties. The proof is in the primary. Independents constitute the plurality (44%) of registered Connecticut voters, but because they cannot vote in the party primaries, they have merely residual power in the election of representatives. Come November, the independents have to play the hand they’re dealt by the 10% of Connecticut’s voting age citizens who vote in the...

Fighting the good fight ONE HAS TO ADMIRE the sheer gumption and staying power of Wayne Parker, the candidate for Congress in the 11th District who is 99.9 percent sure not to be on the ballot and whom most folks probably wouldn't vote for anyway. His fight is the people's fight, whether they know it or not. Parker, who is from Carroll County, is the treasurer of the state Libertarian Party. He's been beating his head out for months collecting signatures and fighting court battles against stacked odds (stacked by Georgia's two traditional major parties) trying to give voters a...