Free Republic

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials testified during a Wednesday House hearing that the department would not comply with proposed legislation barring it from sending certain information about U.S. military veterans to the federal government’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The VA reasons that reliance on a fiduciary indicates a beneficiary is mentally incompetent. Federal law states firearms dealers receive a “deny message” if a NICS check for a potential buyer determines the buyer has been adjudicated as a mental defective. … Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) challenged the VA witnesses later on in the hearing to explain their...

The Australian states and territories have agreed to make a continuous, ongoing amnesty for people to turn in and register guns that have previously not been registered. The continuous amnesty is expected to start in the second half of 2020. From pressreader.com: Gun owners will be able to hand in their weapons, no questions asked, from next year, when Australia launches a national continuous gun amnesty.  All states and territories agreed to the first-ever continuous amnesty yesterday at a meeting of police and emergency services ministers in Adelaide. Details of how the amnesty would proceed are still to be worked...

Trump’s attacks on the mainstream media were a cornerstone of his campaign and last week he called BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage,” but forcing reporters to undergo random drug tests would provoke a media meltdown.

A police officer was reportedly shot in Randolph County on Saturday. Helfin police confirmed on social media that a police officer was shot Saturday and a person was taken hostage by the suspect. The department didn't disclose what agency the officer works for and the severity of the injuries. Lake Wedowee Life Magazine posted to its Facebook page that there is a reported hostage situation in the Swagg Cove Area of Lake Wedowee. County Road 121 is blocked at County Road 431, according to the report. The Heflin Police Department posted this to its Facebook page Saturday afternoon: Please be...

I came in from work this morning and put on "Pretzel Logic" by Steely Dan. When "Barrytown" came up, I thought about our current White House resident. Then as I listened to the words, I realized that the song echoed my feelings toward our modern-day "Barrytown"; (BHO & friends) Here are the lyrics, and click the link to hear it on you tube. I'm not one to look behind I know that times must change But over there in Barrytown they do things very strange And though you're not my enemy I like things like they used to be And...

“'Spirituality' wrongly understood or pursued is a major source of human misery and rebellion against God.” --Dallas Willard. Most of us want to be changed, to become more like Christ. But is it happening? According to a Gallup poll, nine of ten Americans say they pray daily, and 84 million Americans almost a third of the population say they have made a personal commitment to Christ as Savior. But as William Iverson writes, "A pound of meat would surely be affected by a quarter pound of salt. If this is real Christianity, the 'salt of the earth,' where is the...

Understanding America Owen HarriesCIS Lecture presented at ABN AMRO, Sydney, April 3, 2002We all know America, don’t we? While we may confess to ignorance about Japan or Russia, or even France—all those impossibly difficult languages apart from anything else—we are confident that we know America. It is, as they say, everyone’s second country.We have seen perhaps a thousand American movies, from Clark Gable to Gwyneth Paltrow. We have seen hundreds of American sit-coms. We know the words of dozens of American popular songs, most of the better ones written, incidentally, by first or second generation immigrants from eastern Europe....