Free Republic

Great song.

Editor’s Note: On Sundays we usually try to focus on spiritual matters, but this column deals with such a direct and serious threat that we thought it urgent to bring it to you today. – Robert Royal    I was born in New York State and have lived here for more than 61 years. During that time I have paid plenty in state and local taxes and have served the public in a number of capacities including two terms as Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.I am also a Catholic and a member of...

The late great Alistaire Cooke describes the current predicament of the U.S. -- in 1973! Phenomenal.

MIAMI (AP) — Doctors in Florida are fighting a first-of-its-kind law requiring them to have a legitimate safety concern before they start asking a patient about guns. The physicians contend the new law is too broad and they should be free to ask patients and parents about firearms in the house to make sure people know how to keep them safely locked away. Doctors routinely offer similar advice about other household risks, from the dangers of tobacco use to swimming pools. Gun rights supporters who pushed for the new law believe questions about gun ownership are an invasion of privacy,...

Man convicted in murder of Delaware U. student from White PlainsWILMINGTON, Del. (AP) _ A man accused of raping and killing a University of Delaware student, whose body was discovered in her burning apartment, was found guilty Thursday and could face the death penalty. Defense attorneys had urged the jury to find James E. Cooke Jr. mentally ill. Cooke, 36, broke into the apartment of Lindsey M. Bonistall, of White Plains, N.Y., in May 2005, then raped and strangled the 20-year-old college sophomore before placing her body in a bathtub and setting the fire, prosecutors said. Cooke, however, denied killing...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The bones of the late British broadcaster Alistair Cooke were stolen by a crime ring that snatched body parts to sell for transplant procedures, according to reports in two New York newspapers Thursday. Citing sources close to an investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office, the Daily News said Cooke's bones were snatched before his cremation and sold for more than $7,000 to two tissue processing companies. It quoted Cooke's daughter, Susan, as saying she had learned of the theft last week and was shocked and saddened by it. A spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's...

HARDLY a day goes past without a new corporate scandal, each one bigger than the last. Last week we were just recovering from the news that Rite Aid had fraudelently overstated its earnings by $1.6 billion when we learned that WorldCom had performed the same trick to the tune of $3.8 billion. Even Martha Stewart, that goddess of the American hearth and home, stands accused of supping on a diet of corporate corruption. Professions like accountancy that were once regarded as the very embodiments of solid professionalism are becoming synonyms for corner-cutting -- or worse. Companies that were once celebrated...