Free Republic

Mr. Monk said this during his Hall of Fame speech. “One thing I want to make very clear, is that my identity and my security is found in the Lord” “What defines me is the word of God.” Art Monk was a beautifully gifted athlete, it was a true pleasure and honor for me as a young boy to have watched him play the game of pro football.

A poor farmer from northern Bangladesh was crowned the country's rat killing champion on Thursday with a final score of 39,650 dead rodents after a year-long hunt. Binoy Kumar Karmakar, 40, used traps, poison and flooding to kill his quarry, and collected their tails to prove his success rate and claim a prize from the government. Karmakar collected a 14-inch Sony colour television for winning the competition for 2008, which was part of a nationwide drive to stop food supplies being eaten up by rats. "During the year, our farmers killed around 25 million rats," agriculture department spokesman Abdul Halim...

LAGOS (AFP) - Police in the northwest Nigerian state of Kebbi, home to the Argungu fishing festival, have released on bail this year's champion, arrested last week for allegedly smuggling his winning monster catch already dead into the river, a police chief said Sunday. The fishing champion, somewhat confusingly called Bello Argungu, was arrested Friday on suspicions of having smuggled a dead 65 kilogram (140 pound) fish into the river before the start of the picturesque festival. He then pulled his "catch", which drew gasps of admiration, out of the river and walked off with prizes that included a car...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland ( — Bobby Fischer, the brilliant, troubled former chess champion, has died, a spokesman said Friday. He was 64. Fischer spokesman Gardar Sverrisson said Fischer died in a Reykjavik hospital on Thursday. There was no immediate word on cause of death. U.S.-born Fischer, a fierce critic of his homeland who renounced his U.S. citizenship, moved to Iceland in 2005. He was world famous for defeating the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in 1972. The Chicago-born, Brooklyn, N.Y.-reared Fischer was wanted in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Cold War rival Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of...

Parade magazine this past week conducted an online poll, asking the question, "Who would you rate as the toughest martial-arts star ever on the big screen?" America was given five choices: the late Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and me. The results can be read online. Of course, movies are quite different than real life. Fighting in the ring is definitely much more difficult than brawling in front of the camera. I always preferred the opened cuts and broken bones on film! The Parade survey prompted a close associate to ask me, "Chuck, so who is...

Iran's female racing champion barred from defending title Robert Tait in Tehran Wednesday October 4, 2006 The Guardian (UK) She was the speed queen of the racetrack who became a feminist icon after triumphing over an all-male field to become Iran's national car rally champion. But now the high-octane driving career of Laleh Seddigh has juddered to a halt, with a ban from participating at a race by the country's motor racing authorities. Seddigh, 29, was walking towards her 1600cc Peugeot 206 at Tehran's Azadi stadium when stewards blocked her way, citing "security problems". The snub followed days of wrangling...

TURIN, Italy Epochs pass, governments fall, but Russians still win figure skating medals. And Evgeni Plushenko is a thorough Russian. Russians skate like they own the ice, and others skate like they're afraid of falling on it. The difference between the Olympic gold medalist and everybody else in the world was this simple: He was Russian, and they weren't. The martial, cymbal-clashing Russian anthem boomed through the Palavela, just as it does at every Winter Games. Skaters from the former Soviet Union have now won five straight men's gold medals, and no one will challenge them in this sport any...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Michaela Hutchison became the first girl in the nation to win a state high school wrestling title while competing against boys. Hutchison won the final of the 103-pound weight class during Alaska's big school wrestling championships. The Skyview High sophomore entered the state tournament ranked No. 1 in her weight class. Amid chants of "C'mon, Michaela" and "Girl power," Hutchison earned a 1-0 victory Saturday over Colony High School's Aaron Boss. She scored an escape with 16 seconds left to beat Boss for the second time in two weeks. Family and friends mobbed Hutchison as she walked...

NEW YORK - Bode Miller knows he puts his life at risk when he skis drunk, but the outspoken Olympic favorite admits he may try the dangerous activity again. "Talk about a hard challenge right there. ... If you ever tried to ski when you're wasted, it's not easy," Miller told "60 Minutes" for a segment that will air Sunday. "Try and ski a slalom when ... you hit a gate less than every one second, so it's risky. You're putting your life at risk. ... It's like driving drunk, only there are no rules about it in ski racing."...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Nikolai Valuev won the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight title with a controversial majority decision over American John Ruiz on Saturday to become the first Russian champion in boxing's most glamorous division. Ruiz's bitterly disappointed manager, Norman Stone, grabbed the title belt away from Valuev after the fight and ran around the ring holding it over his head until five ring bodyguards forcibly took it back. Two of the judges put Valuev ahead of the defending champion at the end of the 12-round fight, scoring it 116-114 and 116-113 for the Russian who is known as the...

On any given Sunday, 100 million households from Australia, Europe, and across the USA will tune in to view Joel Osteen broadcasting from the 30,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Rated as the #1 inspirational television program by Nielson Media Research, Joel Osteen is preaching a message that certainly seems to be touching home with people all over America. In his much respected best selling book, Your Best Life Now-7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, Osteen outlines a seven-step process for effecting profound change in your life. He speaks in terms of the positive in everyday life. Expect...

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Black Caucus have become seemingly desensitized to racial slurs. The Caucus did not even blink when the extreme Left’s new champion, Howard Dean, made prejudiced statements right before their very eyes. From Dean’s comments, it seems he believes that a Black person’s place is to be cleaning toilets at a hotel in which whites stay. According to the Washington Times, On Feb. 11, the day before he was elected party chief, Mr. Dean asked, at a meeting of the DNC Black Caucus, "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people...

Do the cameras tell us lies? Italian policemen, magistrates and soccer officials are examining images to determine whether Paolo Di Canio should face criminal charges for stirring old fascist leanings with his celebration of a victory for SS Lazio over AS Roma in the febrile Roman "derby" contest last Thursday. The so-called Roman salute - stiff right arm and flat palm - that this appears to be was not, according to Di Canio and his agents, at all a political gesture, and certainly not intended as incitement to the known neo-fascist faction of hard-core Lazio fanatics in the north stand...

Who is Daize Shaynes publicist? I saw a girl tonight almost afraid to admit she is a republican. She will be singing at the GOP Convention and she is unsure if she is Republican? She sounds more to me like she isnt quite sure about her beliefs, or her publicist is telling her not to be too overtly political (kind of a bit late considering she is commited to the GOP convention already. Sorry I am just irked that either we would invite somebody who is unsure of their own beliefs and commitments or something else

WIMBLEDON, England, July 4 - Maria Sharapova's coach, Robert Lansdorp, has been around tennis parents long enough to have some concerns that her remarkable victory at Wimbledon could start a trend. "Now everybody will go to Siberia and have their child born there," Lansdorp said, laughing. "You know how crazy some tennis people are." But according to Lansdorp, the secret to the success of Sharapova, his longtime pupil, does not lie in her Siberian birthplace or the hardships she experienced after her father, Yuri, decided to take her from Russia to the United States when she was 7. "I'm not...

American Radio with Dave Champion. Guest today is Ward Dean, a former US Army Airborne Ranger, a former member of the US Army's elite Delta Team, and a medical doctor. Tax issues. http://www.americanradioshow.us/dave.jpg Listen Live

Hamilton finishes second; now 4th on GCThe anticipated Tour de France clash between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich came to a soggy conclusion in Saturday's 49-kilometer 19th stage from Pornic to Nantes. Armstrong all but sewed up his fifth overall title while Ullrich will settle for second a fifth time. Armstrong widened his margin to Ullrich to 1 minute, 16 seconds in the Tour's penultimate stage and only has to avoid disaster Sunday before becoming the fifth man to win the Tour five times. Armstrong admitted this was the hardest Tour victory since his courageous cancer comeback in 1999. The...