Free Republic

A federal appeals court's dismissal of a lawsuit by parents outraged that a school district surveyed their elementary school-age children about sex is "frightening," says family advocate James Dobson. "I think that's one of the most frightening examples of judicial tyranny that has come down," said Dobson, founder and head of Focus on the Family, on his daily radio broadcast. Dobson called the 9th Circuit "the most out-of-control, imperious, unelected, unaccountable court in the country." The court determined there is "no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children." "What parents...

Jakarta (dpa) - Three Christian students were beheaded and three others wounded in the eastern Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi Saturday, following a new violence in the region torn by sectarian conflict. The bodies of the Christian students, who lived at the same village in Poso district town, were found at different places, with their heads taken as far as 25 kilometres away, the state-run Antara news agency reported. The three students were killed while they were on their way to school, about nine kilometres from their homes. Another three students had suffered serious stab wounds in the attack, Antara...

NEW DELHI, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Pakistan is unlikely to take up India on its offer to help tens of thousands of people hit by the massive weekend earthquake despite a new warmth in ties, officials and analysts say. The hitch is Kashmir, the divided Himalayan territory claimed in full by the neighbours and now the scene of devastation after an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude. Accepting Indian help would mean giving Indian troops -- experts in disaster relief -- access to Pakistani Kashmir, the area worst affected by Saturday's earthquake. That would be a public relations disaster for Islamabad as...

Ten members of two hindu families were killed by a group of militants in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir early today, police said. The militants first entered the residence of one Munshi Ram in Kandi village of Budhal tehsil, had food and then killed the inmates, including a woman, by slitting their throats, they said. Two of the dead have been identified as Munshi Ram and his son Kala Chand, they said. After escaping from the scene, the militants went to Mohra Gabbar village in the same tehsil, barged into the house of one Kartar Singh and killed five...

Bushmen accuse Mbeki of treating them as 'unpure bastards' By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg (Filed: 07/10/2005) The ancient Khoi-San people, commonly known as the Bushmen, have accused South Africa's government of implying that they are not African at all but mixed race "bastards". Chief Elwin White said the refusal by President Thabo Mbeki's government to grant his 5,000-strong community official status as the country's earliest inhabitants was insulting. He said the government treated them as "highly-stressed coloureds [mixed race people] who are without a sense of belonging, with any creative spirit, confused, anxious and mostly drunk". "The government officially and...

A knife-wielding Palestinian youth tried to stab Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint today before being shot and wounded by troops. The 13-year-old Palestinian ran toward the soldiers brandishing a knife and shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is greatest,” witnesses said. The soldiers fired at the youth, lightly wounding him, the witnesses said. The soldier was not wounded in the incident, the army said. Yesterday, a Palestinian was shot and killed after he stabbed a female soldier

ITHACA NY--Marriage may be next behind the dodo bird in the line of extinction. Government policies over the last decade have addressed growing numbers of out-of-wedlock mothers, leading a Cornell professor to study the issue. Prof. David Lichter, policy analysis and management, has done numerous studies focusing on the issue of out-of-wedlock childbearing. “Marriage is a smoke screen to deflect public attention of governmental obligations such as providing jobs and fair wages,” he said. He added that he felt there was a trend for Republicans to view marriage as a solution rather than a problem of economic and emotional dependence....

Gang cashing stolen checks nets $80,000 State police today were alerting banks about a gang of check forgers who are operating in the state. The gang of apparently Hispanic men has netted at least $80,000 by cashing forged or stolen payroll checks from businesses in Westmoreland and Somerset counties in recent weeks. The scam apparently began in the Norristown area in eastern Pennsylvania. State police today said the suspects are believed to be Mexican immigrant workers who use fake drivers licenses, mostly from Ohio and Kentucky, as identification. Last week,the gang cashed $18,643 in checks stolen from a South Huntingdon...

``We set out to establish a democracy, but we're slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic,'' said another US official familiar with policymaking from the beginning.

Members of the Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., are picketing military funerals, KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported Friday. The group has made national headlines for traveling throughout the country to picket gay churches, gay weddings, and the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered in Wyoming in 1998. Friday, about 15 members of the group -- some of them children -- picketed the funeral of a St. Joseph soldier who was killed in Iraq. Mahoney reported that the group stood across the road from the Grace Evangelical Church during the funeral of 21-year-old...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The outsourcing-happy folks who run The Wall Street Journal opinion pages have forgotten one of the pillars of opinion-journalism ethics: truth in advertising. The article they ran July 14 by Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Henry M. Paulson, Jr., titled "CAFTA is the American Way," was simply the usual pro-treaty drivel with one critical exception. Paulson never mentioned, and the Journal never disclosed, that the Goldman Sachs chief is a de facto paid agent of the Chinese government. After all, Goldman is advising the Chinese government-owned and controlled China National Offshore...

DMV manager charged with selling licenses to illegitmate applicants 07/12/2005 By MATTHEW BARAKAT  / Associated Press The manager of the Department of Motor Vehicles office at Springfield Mall was charged Tuesday with selling driver's licenses to illegitimate applicants. Frank Martinez, 57, of Stafford, was manager at the Springfield location since 2001 and issued more than 40 authentic licenses since January 2004 to people who could not obtain a license legally — mostly illegal immigrants and people with suspended licenses, authorities said. His clients paid between $2,000 and $3,500 for the licenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, which...

Ten years ago, Ed and Priscilla Salokar reluctantly moved from their 310-acre farm near Wyoming, Minn., to make way for a sewage-treatment plant for the growing area in Chisago County. The city of Wyoming, which condemned the land for a public purpose, paid the Salokars $816,500 after a two-year court battle. The Salokars started a new life on a farm near Taylors Falls, but they longed for the rolling hills of Wyoming. "It was devastating to us, to our family, to have to move," recalled Karen Salokar, a daughter-in-law. That painful parting came back this spring when the Salokars learned...

Consider this hypothetical situation: First, I ask you to sell me your car. You like the car and even though I've offered a fair price, you wish to keep it and so you decline. In response, I put a gun to your head and take your car. Does it matter that I also stuffed a check into your pocket for the fair market value of your car? If you didn't want to sell it, it's still theft. The fact that I paid you for the car is completely irrelevant. The sole determining factor is your unwillingness to sell.

Editorial The Limits of Property Rights Published: June 24, 2005 The Supreme Court's ruling yesterday that the economically troubled city of New London, Conn., can use its power of eminent domain to spur development was a welcome vindication of cities' ability to act in the public interest. It also is a setback to the "property rights" movement, which is trying to block government from imposing reasonable zoning and environmental regulations. Still, the dissenters provided a useful reminder that eminent domain must not be used for purely private gain.

Last night's local Fox News ran a story that our local government is looking at using this precedent to force downtown landowners out to make room for a new sports stadium. This was followed by a story announcing a new plan for a rapid transit system which will require the displacement of tens of thousands of homes and businesses. it's as if the government here has been planning and waiting for this decision to be handed down, and can't wait to start seizing property under this travesty of justice. No one is safe, not anywhere in the country. Any state...

U.S. Supreme Court says cities have broad powers to take property.

Even American consul general Archer Blood couldn't take his administration's position any more. In an act of open rebellion, he sent a telegram through the "dissent channel", condemning his country for failing "to denounce the suppression of democracy"; "to denounce atrocities", and for "bending over backwards to placate the West Pakistan-dominated government". "We, as professional public servants express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected in order to salvage our position as a moral leader of the world," the telegram read. Nixon's answer: "Don't squeeze...

http://www.atimes.com 'Indians are bastards anyway' By Debasish Roy Chowdhury HUA HIN, Thailand - Indians are "a slippery, treacherous people", said president Richard Nixon. "The Indians are bastards anyway. They are the most aggressive goddamn people around," echoed his assistant for national security affairs, Henry Kissinger. The setting: a White House meeting on July 16, 1971, during the run-up to the India-Pakistan war which ultimately led to the birth of Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan. The US State Department recently declassified some of the Nixon White House tapes and secret documents that bring to light the way in which the Nixon administration...

HUA HIN, Thailand - Indians are "a slippery, treacherous people", said president Richard Nixon. "The Indians are bastards anyway. They are the most aggressive goddamn people around," echoed his assistant for national security affairs, Henry Kissinger. The setting: a White House meeting on July 16, 1971, during the run-up to the India-Pakistan war which ultimately led to the birth of Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan. The US State Department recently declassified some of the Nixon White House tapes and secret documents that bring to light the way in which the Nixon administration went about the Bangladesh saga, reflecting the potential of...