Free Republic

Who could have predicted back in 1928 that Al Smith's successor as governor of New York would be explaining his advancement of legislation by his "solidarity" with the pope?  Back then, poor Governor Smith was defeated in his run for president in part by anti-Catholic fears that he represented a "Romish Peril," not least by way of a transatlantic tunnel between Washington and the Vatican.  A vote for Al Smith would put America under the dictatorship of the pope. So when Governor Andrew Cuomo, literally on the same day Pope Francis declared that the death penalty is "inadmissible" in all cases, introduced...

ALBANY, N.Y. — At an event in the Adirondacks last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recounted a treasured memory of the time his family retrieved an eagle feather from Saranac Lake and kept it after one of the beautiful birds swooped near his canoe. In telling the story, the New York Democrat was unknowingly confessing a crime. A federal law prohibits non-Native Americans from possessing bald eagle parts, including feathers. The law has been on the books for nearly 80 years, but most Americans, Cuomo included, probably don’t know about it. Cuomo, a lawyer and former federal official, revealed his legal...