Free Republic

The Real Estate Adviser on Bankrate.com has answered an important question from a reader: Does a registered sex offender living in your neighborhood affect your home's value? The unfortunate answer is "yes." One study found that a sex offender within one-tenth of a mile of your home makes your house sell for about 17% less than comparable homes without a sex offender in the neighborhood. If a sex offender is within two-tenths or three-tenths of a mile from your home, expect a 9% to 10% lower sales price. A separate study found that homes within one-tenth of a mile of...

Located in the Iranian desert, the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility has been shrouded in secrecy. Many of the buildings there, visible in the aerial image from September 2002 on the far left, are now out of sight, buried underground, near left. The site is also protected by anti-aircraft guns and barbed wire. ...

My mother-in-law, a Roman Catholic, was at it again. Just before Christmas, I was informed that the Church of England was started by Henry VIII because he wanted a divorce, and that the reason that the Episcopal Church has its homosexual problem is all due to married clergy. Thank God for monogamy, because one mother-in-law is quite enough. The saddest man in the Bible had to have been King Solomon with about a thousand of them to deal with. It should have been enough to put a king off of sex, since each bride probably had a mother. But, enough...

HARLAN - The Shelby County Board of Supervisors is asking the Iowa Legislature to repeal the 2,000-foot residency requirement for sex offenders. he board unanimously passed a resolution urging repeal of Iowa Code Section 692A.2A, which requires convicted sex offenders to live at least 2,000 feet from schools and day care facilities. "Our county attorney (Marcus Gross Jr.) requested we do this," Supervisor Richard Ferry said. "He said it is a difficult law to enforce. People are living in abandoned houses and cars. It's hard for law enforcement to find them. It's not right." The supervisors joined the Iowa County...

Fed up with the Mexican illegals and their supporters, many of whom are Mexicans also (those who didn't support the illegals were rather quiet)? Boycott Cinco de Mayo. Stay away from everything Mexican on May 5th. Don't buy Mexican beers.

PORTLAND, Maine — Convicted sex offenders often expect to be harassed and ostracized for their actions. Until now, many didn't expect to be attacked. After Sunday's fatal shootings of two sex offenders listed on the state's Internet sex offender registry, many of those convicted of sex crimes say they are afraid. "It's really scary," said Raymond Roberts, a sex offender who is listed on the registry and lives near the victims. He asked that his hometown not be identified. "I live alone. I live way out in the country and basically I could be here for days, a dead body,...

The homicides of two Bellingham sex offenders in August did not provoke much sympathy. But they did prompt alarm from police and corrections officials, because Hank Eisses and Victor Vazquez apparently were killed by a vigilante. Within weeks, a felon named Michael A. Mullen, 35, turned himself in and confessed to, indeed, being a vigilante. "I am sorry that I felt the need to kill two people in order to have my message heard," he wrote to The Seattle Times from jail in September. "Yet on the flip side of that coin, if my actions saves just one child, then...

SALEM - Tapping into a national fear of sex offenders that was stoked by a high-profile kidnapping case in Florida, a trio of activists launched a bid Friday to triple Oregon's criminal sentences for adults who rape or molest young children. Under Oregon's mandatory sentence laws today, adults convicted of molesting children younger than 12 spend at least eight years behind bars. ...

Bands of angels strive to save reviled outcasts With the help of a support and accountability group, sex offender John Gallienne has been living without incident in the community for a decade. Don Butler looks at how a Canadian initiative to make the streets safer from sexual predators is gaining international accolades. Don Butler The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, May 22, 2004 Susan Love, front, is Ottawa co-ordinator for the circles of support and accountability. The volunteers work with high-risk sex offenders who have completed their prison terms. From left other volunteers are: Bill Senn, Stacey Hannem-Kish, Michael Petrunik, Pat Love,...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A man died after four Bakersfield police officers shot him to death, KERO reported. Gabriel Garcia was shot and killed while standing at the doorstep of a registered sex offender who lived just down the street from him.

One of the more enduring Internet hoaxes is the chain letter claiming that the government has an e-mail tax in the works. Well, if Congress doesn't extend the Internet tax moratorium before it expires at the end of this week, the e-mail tax could soon cease to be an urban legend. The current moratorium known as the Internet Tax Freedom Act, prevents taxes on Internet access, double taxation of Web purchases and discriminatory taxes that treat online sales differently from offline sales. In effect since 1998, these bans are working just as the bill's original authors, GOP Congressman Chris Cox...

CAPE CORAL, May 9, 2003- A Cape Coral man is trying to clear his name after bogus fliers were circulated in his neighborhood accusing him of being a child molester. For Michael Wheeler, it's a living nightmare. *** Imagine what it would feel like to find out your neighbors think you're a sex offender. Read the flier (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - free download) "The first thought that went through my head is how could I be accused of something I think is the worst crime anybody could commit," said Wheeler. Wheeler is living in a nightmare. "None of the...

Whereas there is little to no oversight over Washington state's legislators, there is no accountability nor penalty for filing bills that benefit special interests at the expense of others, that punish taxpayers further, that wastes the taxpayers' hard-earned money, and that far too often are simply ill-considered and even counter-productive to the ends for which they are filed, Be it resolved that The Washington State Legislators' Hall of Shame is hereby established.

The Twelve Days of Christmas are probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th).

October Imprimis Views on Islam Benazir Bhutto, David Forte and Will Morrisey On September 15-20, 2002, Hillsdale College held a seminar on the topic, “How to Think About Islam.” Nine guest speakers, both Islamic and non-Islamic, and several faculty members offered divergent views on several questions: Does the radical form of Islam behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, represent true Islam? or is it an aberration? Is Islamic doctrine compatible with religious pluralism and constitutional democracy? How are we to think of Islam in the context of the war against terrorism? The following remarks are excerpted or adapted...

Buried in the rejoicing over the election returns last night was this solemn warning. Freepers, Republicans and conservatives should take note. As noted on this FR thread, a "Dedicated User" of another discussion forum wrote last night: "Nov-05-02, 11:18 PM (ET)I need a drink and a political party with some balls. F--- it!! I give up, We lost it all. I know it's soon but the repugs have not lost one Senate seat and already took the house. Let them run the country for an eternity or at least until the American people can't stand the pain any longer, America...