Free Republic

I own a S&W 357 (Long, freakin' barreled handgun) that can not be carried around at all, it's too long. I got it from my grandfather, when he passed! I own a Walther PPK, I sold my P99 recently. But I decided to go in to a dealer today, just to see something new with some more stopping power than the PPK. They tried to sell me on a Glock 19 (which I liked alot actually). I went and shot it, in the shooting range, and I would like to get your honest opinion on that gun! I want something...

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled today that a controversial article about Islam in Maclean's magazine did not violate the province's hate speech law. In acquitting the magazine, the Tribunal ruled that the article, an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book America Alone in which he describes the demographic and ideological dangers posed by a growing Muslim population in the West, was not likely to expose Muslims to hatred or contempt.

At the dawn of our Republic, Samuel Adams stated, "If you love wealth more than liberty, and the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us..." Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death." The United States of America was founded upon the belief that an all powerful government, even a benevolent one, was by its very nature a tyrannical one. One of our guiding principles has always been that a dependent people cannot be a free people.

Did anyone here the word Freedom last night, or Liberty, in the contexts of the Economy, Health Care, National Defense, or anything?

Stop Worrying about the Election Daily Article by Isaac M. Morehouse As the presidential election nears, I hear more people voicing their fear over the prospect of the other candidate winning. People from both major parties express genuine trepidation at the thought of a world without their candidate as commander in chief. Both sides believe we will lose our freedom if the wrong party wins. Perhaps surprisingly, I think there's a lesson to be learned in all this from Hollywood. The 1994 movie Shawshank Redemption is the fictional story of Andy Dufresne, a prisoner at the infamous Shawshank Penitentiary. One...

Video from NRA by a US Soldier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hvhZgUhpCE

The mindless and brazen attacks against Christians are not new. The difference is in the dimension. Today, at any excuse, Hindu fundamentalist organisations let loose their goons on the community with the police acting as mute spectators. In most cases, the reaction of the church and the community is nothing more than to provide the victims with aid and prayers. When I visited Father Edward Sequeira of Orissa in the Holy Spirit Hospital, I also met Bishop Cheenath, in whose diocese the worst atrocities were committed last Christmas and were repeated this year. When I told him that the All...

So... do you think that Barack Obama's change is a good thing? What about change that resembles Adolph Hitler's SS? The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to an elite force that served as the Führer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force with as much political influence as the regular German armed forces. Built upon the Nazi racial ideology, the SS, under Heinrich Himmler's command, was primarily responsible for the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis during the Second World War. (Read more about the SS here.) In a speech by Barack Obama given...

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., introduced a bill to the House of Representatives that seeks to prevent Islamic law from gaining a foothold in the U.S. legal system, as it has in other countries. Tancredo introduced HR 6975, the Jihad Prevention Act, last week. If made into law, the bill would allow American authorities to prevent advocates of Islamic law, or Shariah, from entering the country, revoke the visa of any foreigners that champion it and revoke naturalization for citizens that seek to implement it in the U.S. The radical form of Shariah includes several statutes objectionable to Western minds, including...

Right now millions of Americans are standing around the water cooler, talking at the gym, grabbing a fast bite to eat or a coffee and talking with someone else about how bad the economy is, how stupid and worthless congress is, how greed perverts people at the top of many corporations and whether or not either of the two Presidential nominees has the ability to take on the economy, health care, American energy independence or this nations defense in January. Well folks, it’s time that we... that is you, me, I, us, take a stand and realize that WE are...

BAGHDAD — At first, I didn’t recognize the place. On Karada Mariam, a street that runs over the Tigris River toward the Green Zone, the Serwan and the Zamboor, two kebab places blown up by suicide bombers in 2006, were crammed with customers. Farther up the street was Pizza Napoli, the Italian place shut down in 2006; it, too, was open for business. And I’d forgotten altogether about Abu Nashwan’s Wine Shop, boarded up when the black-suited militiamen of the Mahdi Army had threatened to kill its owners. There it was, flung open to the world. Two years ago, when...

In a rut? Need to shake up your life? Come join the INFIDELS for the MICHAEL SAVAGE SHOW!

Vindication of fundamental civil rights is not an "injury," and asking that the government be held liable for the cost of enforcing our civil rights laws is no "insult" ["Holding Up Taxpayers," editorial, Sept. 6]. --------cut-------------- Awarding successful civil rights lawyers below-market rates for taking such enormous risks would send the bar a terrible message: Ignore injustice, unless you can afford to fight it. Our requested rates are based on documented market realities, not on the government's wishes about what it would like to pay. I was shocked at The Post's suggestion that civil rights lawyers are somehow the lesser...

The so-called Gang of 10 (now 20) deal and similar energy bills being floated by Democrats on the House side are designed to give liberal members of Congress cover on the most explosive issue of the election season. The basic deal they pretend to offer is if you give us higher taxes on energy production, we’ll give you more access to offshore oil and gas. But the reality is these deals don’t offer more access to offshore oil and gas at all; they offer less, indeed substantially less than will be available under current law when the calendar turns from...

This powerful video incorporates a portion of Ronald Reagan's speech made October 27, 1964, "A Time for Choosing - Rendezvous with Destiny" - A nationwide televised program sponsored by Goldwater-Miller on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for the presidency whom Ronald Reagan actively supported.

15 September 2008 Belgrade _ A Belgrade publisher says a novel described by the Islamic Community in Serbia as ‘offensive’ will appear in bookshops, reversing an earlier decision to withdraw it. Aleksandar Jasic, the director of the Beobuk publishing house, said that The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones will be available as of Monday and that public reaction has generally been positive. Jasic added that the book, which details the life of Aisha, “one of Prophet Mohammad’s wives,� who he married when she was 11, can be bought on street stands and at some book fairs for double the...

I bet each person living in New York City on September 11, 2001 can recall where they were and what they were doing when the terrorist attacks occurred. These assaults ruthlessly murdered close to 3,000 people within hours. If you weren’t directly affected, you knew someone who was. Our sense of security was severely damaged, so we stayed home glued to the television set. Many were in a state of shock, others outraged. We saw the posters, pictures and flyers of the “missing”. We suffered for weeks following, hoping for one survivor, out of the rubble that once was the...

"When you call the Iraq War a mistake, you disrespect the service and the sacrifice of everyone who has died promoting freedom". I haven't seen this posted on FR before, but even if it has been, it is such a powerful and moving message it's worth re-posting. It will bring tears in your eyes and a lump in your throat, guaranteed.

Here's a song that I wrote last summer, in thinking to the people who lost their life on this day but in thinking to the heroes of this day : the firemen of Ny, the mayor of NY and the president Bush Two Towersenvoyé par davethesith

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Voters who show up at the polls wearing campaign buttons or T-shirts should be allowed to cast ballots, the Pennsylvania Department of State has told county elections officials. State elections Commissioner Chet Harhut said that, as long as a voter does not try to campaign in the polling place, his or her attire should not matter. Harhut's position was outlined in a memo sent last week to county elections officials. "Of primary concern is that no duly registered person be turned away at the polls," Harhut said. "If the conduct and apparel of a voter is determined...

On Monday, Georgia came to a halt or, rather, it came to life.  A massive human chain gripped the avenues of Tbilisi, the streets of Russian-besieged Poti, the squares of every city, the lanes of every village and the country roads that connect them.  Maybe Russian Czar Vladimir Putin watched on television the human chain that will defeat his tanks.  This is no maudlin deviation from this column's traditional realist analysis.  It is a sober argument that Georgia's human chain represents the march of history from which Putin has kept his country. The sky above Tbilisi threatened rain but loosed...

We are NOT in a recession. I'm not running for anything, I can afford the luxury of acknowledging we're not a nation of Tom Joads. But I will say there's cause for concern going forward. Concern, as in, we're firmly in control of our economic future and we should concern ourselves with making wise economic- and political decisions to ensure continued prosperity for future generations of Americans. We'd better get things right in November. Consider what President Obama and the MoveOn.org Congress would mean for workers and investors on three key issues:

You need to go read the original post first. Here's the link: America, the new serfdom.Are you one of the few Americans who knows your American rights, knows the value of them, and knows how to defend them? Let's find out. 1) Explain the connection between rights and freedom. 2) Explain in legal terms how a right creates freedom. 3) Explain why a courtroom is the best place to claim and assert your rights. 4) List 10 of your fundamental American rights. There are way more than 10. I'm just asking for 10. 5) Cite the legal authority for those...

Even though my country, Sweden, isn't a NATO-member, I'm beginning to feel somewhat annoyed over the behavior the Russian Air Force displays towards my dear neighbor country Norway. I think the Nordic countries, as well as the whole of "Democratic" Europe will have to fight Russian Expansionism within a generation. Russia will lose. Russia stands no chance against a united Western Europe - and if Russia does not wish to realize this, we will make them highly aware of their inferiority in terms of population size, technological know-how, production capacity and overall management skills. Compared to governments like those of...

WHERE IS THE SPONTANEITY TODAY? What is taking its place…and why? by John W. Cassell How long has it been? I mean the last time a political convention really did its job…chose who was to be the party’s nominee for president and vice-president? Maybe some of you can correct me, but the last I remember anxiously keeping score as the individual state delegations cast their ballots was the Democrat Convention in 1960, where Kennedy beat Johnson. From the history books come much more intense struggles. The 1948 Republican Convention was a hog fight between Governor Dewey and Senator Taft. If...

Nearly five years have passed since the Free State Project adopted New Hampshire as its home base and began the task of convincing 20,000 activists to commit to uprooting their lives and moving here. They would come in droves, the plan went, overwhelming the sparsely populated state and ultimately changing the way big government works by limiting its power through free-market solutions. There would be tax reductions; regulations such as being required to have a driver’s license to get behind the wheel of your own car would be relaxed or scrapped; power would be restored to the people and the...

What do you think of Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate? Total Votes = 8863 Great choice 27.77 % Good choice 7.187 % Too soon to tell 15.97 % Poor choice 12.94 % Terrible choice 29.13 % Don't care 6.984 %

Freedom through Regulation Those of us sitting on our hands with tape over our mouths trying not to distract attention from the Democratic Convention in Denver are in awe of the obvious. Catholics take exception to the abortion policies of the Dems. Soldiers don’t like the cut and run ethic that has only recently been watered down by the Democratic Party. Businesses don’t want to hear any more of the taxation policies being proposed. The NRA is against the over-regulation of firearms that has become a tenet of faith to the Dems. Christians have had it with the pro-homosexual policies...

Liberal without even Trying From the times of the Great Depression through the 1950’s, some people were known as those who were just “passing through” town. During that time, one could pass through a town anonymously. Those days are gone. With fingerprint, information, a certifiable form of identification, a social security number, a speck of DNA or a face recognition photograph authorities have the ability to know everything there is to know about an individual. That individual had better have their legal ducks in a row before passing anywhere. This is but a tiny fragment of an example of those...

Governments tend toward tyranny. Governments are comprised of selfish humans with personal desires for money, job security, and increased authority over fellow citizens. A citizen working for a government has opportunities to rule over and oppress fellow citizens, they would never have outside their government position. Therefore, government becomes a magnet for selfish power-seeking individuals. By their sheer size and superior firepower, governments tend to overrun and ignore personal rights. The machine capriciously devours it's victims. The Declaration of Independence declares that governments exist to protect the rights of citizens. The Constitution for the United States of America further states...

I am just delving into Andy McCarthy’s book Willful Blindness, but already his scholarship confirms what those of us unpersuaded by pro-Muslim, Western intellectual apologists perceive about Islam. Islam is not one of the world’s great faith traditions, sibling to Judaism and Christianity in its monotheism and its celebration of the unique relationship between God and His creation—most especially that between God and man. Islam is, in fact, the antithesis of Judaism and Christianity, the latter two sharing so much more than merely a belief in one God. Torah means “law;” gospel comes from koine Greek for “good news.” Both...

We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion. What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – Listeners who log on to listen to Stardust Radio’s “Talking with Heroes” program on Aug. 17 will learn how they can honor veterans past and present and commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The show’s host, Bob Calvert, will welcome Roxie Merritt, spokeswoman for the Defense Department’s America Supports You program and director of New Media and Community Relations for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Merritt’s community relations staff is responsible for organizing this year’s fourth annual National America Supports You Freedom Walk here while hundreds of others...

Behind the attempt to regulate the Internet is an attempt at destroying our God given constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and an attempt to suppress the spread of opinions, news, and ideas. For the Multi-national corporations and it's leftist CEOs there is a need for greed and to limit our choices they way they do with Television. The chance to monopolize the Internet and the video games industry is met with the support of none other than RINOS as well as the far left. Hillary Clinton, John Mccain and to some extent even Obama have expressed support for regulating...

For Immediate Release Office of the Press SecretaryMay 10, 2005 President Addresses and Thanks Citizens in Tbilisi, Georgia Freedom Square Tbilisi, Georgia 1:27 P.M. (Local) PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for that introduction. Citizens of a free Georgia, Laura and I were in the neighborhood -- we thought we'd swing by and say gamarjoba. (Applause.) I am proud to stand beside a President who has shown such spirit, determination, and leadership in the cause of freedom. (Applause.) And Laura and I are proud to stand with the courageous people of Georgia, in this place that has earned a...

As House Republicans spend their fourth day protesting a lack of action on energy prices, Freedom's Watch is taking aim at incumbent Democrats Nancy Boyda of Kansas; Don Cazayoux from Louisiana; Texan Nick Lampson; Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire; and Chris Carney of Pennsylvania. Ads against the five endangered members will try to tie them to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and drilling bans on the Outer-Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Freedom's Watch is doing what it can to protect some Republican incumbents too, targeting four Democratic challengers who look strong at the moment. Challengers to Reps. Bill Sali,...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)-If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects. The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight....

If you're in Beijing for the Olympics kick starting this weekend, don't be spilling any beans (state secrets or otherwise) in your cab back to the hotel, because you're being listened to. As the WSJ is reporting, on your taxi's dash is a microphone that can be activated remotely, at any time and without the driver's knowledge, for a live listen into any one of Beijing's estimated 70,000 cabs. And then, if the folks on the other end don't like what they hear, they can take things even further.The GPS-equipped devices also allow for remote disabling by "cutting off...

You might have thought the demented Americans with Disabilities Act — a bonanza for lawyers that requires any public facility to be designed with handicappers in mind or be sued out of existence — would be the last word in otherly-abled totalitarianism. Not so. Visitability is a concept that makes the ADA downright libertarian by comparison. The initial objective of Visitability proponents is to impose on every home a zero-step entrance, interior doors at least 32" wide, and at least one wheelchair-accessible bathroom on the ground floor. Once they've managed to have this mandated, we'll see where they go from...

While Google may claim that there is no such thing as privacy anymore, I can't see this unnamed Google executive being too happy about the NLPC using Google's own technology against him. It's the sort of thing that might cause him to place a bit more value the privacy of himself and others.

Washington, DC – Today, Google is under fire for issuing contradictory statements on privacy. In California, Google responded to California State Assemblyman Joel Anderson’s (R-San Diego) concerns about Google’s privacy policies yesterday by stating that “Google takes privacy very seriously.” However, in Pennsylvania court documents released the same day, Google stated, “privacy does not exist.” Google’s privacy statements yesterday came on the heels of comments by Google “Evangelist” Vint Cerf to the Washington Technology Alliance’s annual luncheon in May where he explained that “nothing you do ever goes away, and nothing you do ever escapes notice… There isn’t any privacy,...

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is dead, says Robert A. Pastor, the American University professor who for more than a decade has been a major proponent of building a North American Community. "The new president will probably discard the SPP,"

A pro-Second Amendment group is taking the unusual step of asking for financial help for the family of a gun owner caught up in a bizarre prosecution for a malfunctioning firearm. David Olofson is a U.S. Army veteran, Army Reservist and a gun enthusiast who loaned his personal 20-year-old AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to a neighbor who had expressed an interest in learning to shoot. A semi-automatic weapon fires one bullet each time the trigger is pulled. But – as Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, explains – when the neighbor took the gun to a range, it...

In God We Trust, a national political inter-faith advocacy group, has called on Sen. Barack Obama to condemn the message on a billboard in Denver, the site of next month’s Democratic National Convention. The billboard, alluding to a song by the late John Lennon of the Beatles, bears the message “Imagine No Religion” imprinted over what appears to be stained glass. It was paid for by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which describes itself as a membership association of atheists and agnostics. According to a report in the Denver Post, the billboard will only stand through July and will...

I was talking to a friend yesterday afternoon (yes, people can still have a private conversation after church) about the political situation here in Illinois; told her that there were more registered Republicans than Democrats in the state. "Then why do they keep winning all the elections? she asked. "Because not enough Republicans get up on election day with a burning desire to make a dash to the polls to vote." The late Richard J. Daley said probably the only thing I ever agreed with him: some reporter asked him why so and so hadn't gotten elected. "Simple," said Daley....

Steve Shippert, of ThreatsWatch.org just sent this email out on a small email ring of bloggers. It is simply and truly incredibly important, and eloquent. I beseech every blogger to post it on their blog. If all do, it will redound widely, and be widely heard, as it must be, if we care for our nation, our children's future, everything we value in life and liberty. This must get out. It can really shape the debate in this country, and sway many. In every election, there is a moment when it happens, and Shippert's message is that moment. PLEASE, everybody...

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence. On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba and a few months later I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress. I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and...

Heritage Lecture #1094 Delivered June 27, 2008The Heritage Foundation founded the Index of Economic Freedom in 1995 as a way for countries to measure progress and compare themselves in what we believe is an essential ingredient of prosperity— namely, economic freedom. The Index is now in its 14th edition, and it is co-published with the Wall Street Journal.[1]Over the years, it has been interesting to see how competitive some countries have become regarding their own scores in the Index. In fact, sometimes gov­ernments actually try to persuade us to give them a better score. We steadfastly refuse to be lobbied...

This edition features mentoring Iraqi Policeman and an Iraqi Army exercise.

Former Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown is waging war on California suburbs because of global warming, says Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. Brown is concerned about the alleged environmental damage caused by the suburbs. He wants to compel residents to move to city centers or to high-density developments clustered near mass transit lines: • Brown has threatened to file suit against municipalities that shun high-density housing in favor of building new suburban single-family homes, on the grounds that they will pollute the environment. • He is also backing controversial legislation -- Senate bill 375 --...