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It seems that US Vice President Dick Cheney caused a scene during his recent visit to Azerbaijan when his hosts declined to follow his script.Over the past few days, details have leaked out that indicate that Cheney’s September 3 visit to Baku was a spectacular diplomatic failure.

In The True Believer, Eric Hoffer, that extraordinary student of human nature, writes: “…no one can be honorable unless he honors mankind.” From this maxim it logically follows that no devout Muslim is honorable! Is it not the case that throughout Islamic history Muslims have despised non-Muslims or infidels, especially Jews, whom Islamic texts portray as “pigs and dogs”? No wonder Muslims are the world’s leading terrorists. No wonder they use human bombs to reduce Jews, and now Americans, to body parts! There is a cruel irony here. Honor is of supreme value in Arab-Islamic culture. And yet, no Arab...

A family member in has died, as she had wished, at home in Faribault, MN. MaryAnn fought a long, brave fight with cancer which finally took her today. I know it would mean so much to her husband, Lloyd, that others were praying for her. She loved baseball and the Twins. Lord, receive MaryAnn's soul this day, where she might see every game and know every team won, and that the true and eternal win of being with You is now hers. Thank you so much. God Bless You, All.

The Creator of Dark Shadows, The Winds Of War and others has died.

Deenis Prager on now discussing his own impending divorce....

Please pray for our family friend, Jeff, hospitalized with necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating Strptoccocus bacteria) from a small cut to one of his fingers.Very touch and go. Better yesterday. Setback today.He's taking it well. But this is very dangerous.Clean and cover all open wounds, no matter how seemingly insignificant.Thanks, All.

The mother of one of my wife’s co-workers has died after a brief illness.Her name was Julia.She was a warm and wonderful woman who always tried to make you feel at home, and was a wonderful cook.She was always “working the beads” (Rosary) for anyone undergoing tribulation, even when minor.I know her family would be very grateful to know that even unknown others were praying for her, as we’re all children of God.Her grandson is currently undergoing indoctrination at college, and so might gain some insight as to how humbly conservatives actually walk in the presence of God and through...

Does anyone have ideas or suggestions about how to get a possibly bipolar disordered woman to take her medication?Her brother has evidently left her, and her family lives in Florida.She has been leaving many of her most valuable items on our porch for about a month now, including car keys and current credit cardsAsking her if she's taken her medicine elicits ambiguous answers, and it's readilly apparent that she's not..My wife and I are afraid someone is going to take advantage of her, as she communicates in and out like a child.

HANOI — It took more than half a century of bloodshed and exile, but Nguyen Cao Ky, the ardent anticommunist and former ruler of South Vietnam, has finally come home to this communist capital. A former air force pilot who flew bombing raids over North Vietnam, Ky arrived Friday in Hanoi on government-owned Vietnam Airlines. At 73, he has made peace with his former enemies and says he wants to help his homeland prosper. He hints that he may even move back. "My heart is very clear," the former premier said. "What I am doing now, I am doing for...

About 500 conservative Jews attended The Jewish Policy Center's Liberal Roots, Conservative Solutions forum yesterday, at Los Angeles' Westin Bonaventure Hotel.The panel were recent Institute For Peace appointee Daniel Pipes, pundit/columnist John Podhoretz and actor/comedian Larry Miller, with radio host Michael Medved as moderator.I was struck by how Judaism's enamored embrace of socialism in mid-ninteenth century Europe, sort of haunted the large, chilly room, since it can be argued that it was Europeon socialism which led Jews a good part of the way to the gas chambers to begin, end and continue with, anyway.It was a good roundabout of support...

NAJAF, Iraq--Toppling a statue is easier than killing a dictator. Not the man himself, but the idea of his despotism, the legacy of his torture and the fear of his return. This kind of reconstruction takes time.Just ask the 20-some members of the new city council in this holy city of Shiite Islam. Their chairs are arrayed in a circle to hear from Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, who invites questions. The first man to speak wants to know two things: There's a U.S. election next year, and if President Bush loses will the Americans go home? And...

After more than a decade of sharply restricted sales because of health concerns, silicone gel breast implants are poised for an unusual return to the market. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing an application to approve the controversial devices, and close observers believe it will rule on the subject this year.The National Organization for Women and the consumer group Public Citizen fear that the FDA is moving too fast, and will call today for the agency to slow considerably its review process. They say that the long-term studies needed to determine whether there is a health risk from silicone...

Religion, not romance, drove Alon and Einat Bilu to get married in a quaint little town in the Italian countryside.Although they are Israeli Jews, the couple objected to the only sanctioned wedding rite open to them in their homeland, an Orthodox ceremony in which Einat would be presented to Alon as his rightfully purchased property. So instead of a rabbi, they put themselves in the hands of a travel agent.

Although quick to tout himself as a learned and pioneering "journalist", Scheer evidently has no sources besides other media.Heck, even I could do that.

President George W. Bush often speaks about the "goodness" of America and about the "evil" of various world tyrannies. Is this language meaningful -- or is it, as many critics both at home and abroad contend, empty and sanctimonious rhetoric?

To: onedoug The Gospels are profound, but a little more problematic for me in terms of Jesus as Messiah. How so? That would be a more interesting discussion... 21 posted on 03/24/2003 3:38 PM PST by Alex Murphy [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies | Report Abuse ] And so, since you evinced an interest in response, and I’d promised to keep it short, I thought to make this into its own thread in the hope we all might learn some more, as FreeRepublic has so often helped me to learn since I signed...

The world's future is being decided at this time.Such moments are extremely rare in history. And when they have occurred, they have between two, not three, competing ideologies.But there are now three ideologies competing to shape the future of mankind. They are militant Islam, Western European secularism and socialism, and American Judeo-Christianity and capitalism. The first is being spread both peacefully and violently, the second is being spread peacefully, and the third is not being spread.

Al Sharpton is a world-class bullshitter. In a devastating 1996 review in these pages, Jim Sleeper noted that Sharpton's first autobiography, Go and Tell Pharaoh, included lies about his age (36 at the time, not 38), his residence (Englewood, New Jersey, not Brooklyn, New York), and even his motivation for writing the book (Sharpton attributed it to his 1991 stabbing; Sleeper showed that Sharpton hatched the idea months before that). When Newsday alleged in 1988 that Sharpton had been an FBI informant, the reverend insisted that he had tapped his own phone in an independent effort to gather information on...

...First because existence organizes. Nothing tends inertially "toward" disorganization. Even chaos at the quantum level must sum to coherent states for anything to exist. Even illusion. As with Einstein's famous dictum: "The incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible."This organizational tendency of the "known" universe extends to the human mind, which - being in, and as much a part of the universe as anything else - derives "meaning" from "information" that it abstracts from its environment: "Let us make man in our image...." as if Genesis were a pact?Organization and its antithesis. Good and evil.That the laws of...

Whenever the question of Islam and violence, specifically terror, is raised, we are repeatedly told that "the vast majority of Muslims in the world are peaceful people" who never engage in terror. This is entirely accurate.And entirely irrelevant. CLICK-ON "Source" for more

Anyone have a streaming audio link to Dennis Prager other than his home station of KRLA, Los Angeles. They have decided to halt their SA for 60 days while they "re-evaluate and update" their system.I work in a building where AM radio waves don't penetrate well. His 9-Noon (PST) show has become so routine and centered for me, that I hate the idea of facing its absence cold-turkey.Can anyone help?Thanks.

It's that time again...tho re-fight the Vietnam War. This time via the online poll for the program The History Channel cablecast this evening on the subject.I voted yes, despite the politics that led us there, because I refuse to believe that so many brave Americans lost their lives their needlesly.I yet feel our involvemnt there was a great enterprise from which, as was the case with the fall of the Soviet Union, we will yet emerge victorious.I'm curious what Freepers...expecially my fellow Vietnam veterancs, may think.

WASHINGTON - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told representatives of the fast-food industry Tuesday that they should offer and aggressively advertise more fruits and vegetables, re-examine their "supersize" portions and generally offer more healthful food. Link to article

God is the pure Good, to which we contribute in image and his hope in us to its aspiration.

Ann Coulter alert. Bruce Hershenson, who was subbing for the vacationing Dennis Prager, said Ann Coulter would have the mike tomorrow, THURS 17 JULY. Uh homina-homina....

This film has (Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan (1996) has been airing on AMC recently. But I think it's good - I would say, Great - enough to have led me back to an unedited VHS copied a few years ago from HBO.Between the imagery and the music, there are aspects of it that have even helped me to out put away some issues which had been bugging me since Vietnam, and I was just curious to know what Freepers - particularly veterans - might think of it, either similarly or dissmilarly.And thanks for having indulged me once more.

Jewish World Review May 22, 2002/ 11 Sivan, 5762 Kathleen Parkerhttp://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | August 8, 2001 Posted: 10:59 AM EDT Congress seeks to oust Bush following racial profiling fiasco, police state maneuversWASHINGTON (XYZ Wire Service) - Congressional leaders are scrambling to begin impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush following several unprecedented federal security measures that critics say constitute an unconscionable assault on American civil liberties.Wall Street, meanwhile, is reeling from a seismic downturn while the airline industry is predicted to topple.The Bush administration's sudden imposition of several new - some say "terrifying" - policies came on the heels of an...

Ronald Reagan had suggested(?) that the first Thursay in May be National Prayer Day for All Americans who might.(I'd'a thought some earlier Freepers would have beaten me to this, even in my inebriation.)Somebody's getting old.

IN 1948, when the armies of five surrounding Arab dictatorships invaded tiny, newborn Israel--in what the secretary general of the Arab League announced was a "war of extermination" against "the Jews"--the United Nations sat on its a--. And did not send a fact-finding mission.But, oh, how the U.N. has been making up for that oversight ever since. For more than 50 years now, the Jews have been its favorite subject.Among the nearly 200 nations represented at the U.N., only Israel has ever been assigned special--reduced--membership privileges, its ambassadors formally barred, for 53 straight years ending only recently, from election to...

My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun --In Corners -- till a DayThe Owner passed -- identified -- And carried Me away --And now We roam in Sovreign Woods --And now We hunt the Doe --And every time I speak for Him --The Mountains straight reply --And do I smile, such cordial lightUpon the Valley glow --It is as a Vesuvian faceHad let it's pleasure through -- And when at Night -- Our good Day done --I guard My Master's Head --'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's Deep Pillow -- to have shared --To foe of His -- I'm deadly...

Israel's 54th Independence Day will be celebrated in Woodley Park in Van Nuys, this Sunday, APR 21.Sorryt about the link. Couldn't seem to HTML it. Their website has the info.

(D)Trevor Nunn. 1996.Okay. One might likely know Shakespeare better, if liked this film. As I'll admit:I LOVE IT!Can't get enough of it. Action. Setting. Music...both tonal, and in language!"What should I do in Illyria?" Olivia asks.How about, Live? I would thou coulds't.From Rendazzo to Mistrea.Or is't rather like Orsino's, "And what's her history?" To Viola's..."A blank, my lord...."?

I think I may accompany my daughter to see We Were Soldiers, this weekend. Though a search didn't reveal any Freeper feedback on this film, despite all that preceded it. I'm very surprised. Anyone?...Thanks.

"You got me plum-hypnotized," Elmer Gantry says to Sister Sharon Falconer in that film/novel.Is that the case with me over Joyce Meyer?She seems pretty good at down-home preachin'. And while not a classic beauty, she yet ministers out a fair amount sex appeal, along with the word.(I think, ultimately, it's those Texas/Missouri eyes.)I post this to philosophy since, as I know she has a fair amount of, at least internet detractors, it yet seems that her ability to project the Word, is as anchored in the integrity of faith as any other TV preacher I can recall....Except perhaps the late ...

Recently when it rained, I pulled out some videos that had been gathering dust. One of them held the film, Captain From Castile, (1947) dir: Henry King, with Tyrone Power and a host of others.Particularly memorable is Caesar Romero as Hernan Cortés, conquistador de Mexico. Affable enough, though made of steel…which the Aztecs have not discovered. Nor had they the means to cross oceans, so to conquer other lands, as here the Spanish did.I see us - ALL - here, in the west, and more today by this film…or this notion, as the multiplicative product which such a command presence ...

Am I the only one who saw this post disappear?Was it pulled?Can that be justified?

Get off work Friday at 6. Get take-out for the the wife, her mom and myself. Dennis Prager's Happiness Hour on the drive home (20-30 min) begins the weekend for me.Prager says he's missed doing the Happiness Hour on Fridays maybe twice in the last five years. And being in the middle of a war is now one of the best times to think about what being happy really means. Though it's more than what being happy can just bring you, he insists. But that people who tend to be happy do simply more good things within society merely by ...

Pentagon says Filipino separatists have links to al-QaidaThe second front in Washington's war on terrorism may soon be opened up in the far east, where the US believes there are several groups that have links to the al-Qaida network.Officials at the state department and the Pentagon are known to be especially alarmed about the situation in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country. Suggestions that covert operations would soon - or may already - be under way there, as well as in the Philippines and possibly also Malaysia, were given some credence by sources close to the administration yesterday. There has ...

LONG before "Survivor" and "Chains of Love," there was "Queen for a Day," the original reality show. The concept was this: Sad-sack housewives would regale a studio audience with their pathetic tales of woe, and a finely tuned clap-o-meter would measure audience reaction. The housewife who got the most applause for her sob story would win a household appliance or vacation."Queen for a Day" was a runaway hit on radio and TV. The stories were often truly hideous and were always told with real feeling to wring a few more claps out of the audience.This barbaric spectacle has now been ...

Here’s a Sunday mornin’ rant for y’all:Just for speculation’s sake, suppose that when an organism dies it simply blanks out. Ceases to exist, from the standpoint of consciousness: no past, no future. No time. No space. Simply nothing. The mathematical empty set.Zero.Void.What’s interesting to me, is that this non-existence is posited in some cosmological theory to have given rise to the creation event by a quantum fluctuation in the vacuum (i.e., re the Heisenberg uncertainty principle) initiating the so-called “big bang” and inflationary scenarios for the birth of the universe.This might provide for a sort of “recycling” effect whereby the ...

Wednesday, August 8 6:53 PM SGT HANOI, Aug 8 (AFP) - Vietnam's communist authorities expressed sadness Wednesday at the death of the man who finally conceded defeat to them in the Vietnam War -- the US-backed Saigon regime's last president, Duong Van Minh.Minh, who died in hospital in Pasadena, California Tuesday, had actually been granted permission to return to Vietnam to die, although his failing health had prevented him, the foreign ministry revealed."Recently he expressed his desire to come back to spend his last days in Vietnam, to which the government agreed," ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said."Unfortunately, due to ...

"A bit of empathy, please, for a leader who is so painfully and publicly struggling with an extremely steep learning curve.Click "source" for the rest of this communistic genius'latest missive.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department, finding itself stretched to perform honors at 1,200 military funerals a day as the World War Two generation dies, is starting a program this summer to encourage volunteers from its retired ranks to participate.At a minimum, two uniformed members of the armed forces, one from the same service as the person who died, must be present at each funeral, which includes the folding and presentation of an American flag to the family, and the playing of "Taps." There were 16 million military personnel during World War Two compared with 1.3 million active-duty military personnel ...

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - A task force searching for Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War will temporarily stop using helicopters because of the April crash that killed all 16 people on board, a U.S. military official said Tuesday.Because of safety concerns, the MIA task force has scaled back operations for its current mission, which began Monday and runs through Aug. 7, spokesman Capt. Marc Lago said."We have taken on cases and investigations that mean less risk for team members out in the field," Lago said.Helicopters will only be used for medical evacuations, he said.On April 7, seven Americans ...

An earlier post today slid a bit off-topic when the question came up, “Did Jesus ever sin?”I’ve been thinking about it since.Mark 5 :1-20 poses a seemingly contradictory dilemma…literarily similar to Hamlet’s wondering if there’s an afterlife in “To be, or not to be,” while earlier having sworn to his father’s very ghost to avenge his murder.Christ seems to have “appropriated” a herd of swine, then facilitated the transference of the“many” demons afflicting Legion to the souls of the pigs, who then, “rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned….”I’ve always been perplexed and troubled by this ...

1) Twelfth Night, 19962) Best Years Of Our Lives, 19463) Birth Of A Nation, 1915 4) Greed, 1923-255) Amadeus, 1984

Los Angeles based conservative redio host Hugh Hewett was encouraging discussion on his local morning drive-time program yesterday about an LA Times article on the military promotions system.Shortly after arriving at the office, I had a conversation about this with an acquaintance who recently left the Army as CPT O-3.I was very interested in his assertion that at least the Army officer corps is very heavily influenced by Freemasonry, particularly among Blacks.Having myself been in the Army '67-71, I had never heard this. I was surprised too, since Freemasonry never seemed - to me at least - an organization with ...

It may not feel too good but the Black electorate and Black leaders need to perform some genuine soul-searching about what happened in last year's Florida election. We were pleased to see that Donna Brazile, former campaign manager for Al Gore, is doing just that, according to the Hartford Courant. Unfortunately, she is in the minority and as a result, a discussion that by now should have evolved into a debate over literacy problems and criminal justice issues within the Black community and the lack of responsiveness demonstrated by the Democratic Party and Justice Department toward Black voters, is still ...

El club español. La única regla, ningún inglés. Ninguna duda allí se quejará, pero ésa es vida, cuál el fall alguna gente a entender es que este país consiste en extranjeros.No tengo ningún argumento con ser inglés el número uno, sino en el mismo hallazgo del tiempo nada mal con la oportunidad de hablar otros lenguajes. Cada otro país en el mundo.Entonces ¡hablemos¡

General MacArthur's Thayer Award Speech -- Duty, Honor, Country (1962)The address by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy in accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award on 12 May 1962 is a memorable tribute to the ideals that inspired that great American soldier. For as long as other Americans serve their country as courageously and honorably as he did, General MacArthur's words will live on.General MacArthur's service to his country spanned the years from 1903, when he was graduated from the Military Academy, to 5 April 1964 , when he died in Washington, D.C., ...