Free Republic

Jokin de Irala | Wednesday, 22 August 2007 Abstinence education: are we asking the right questions? Research findings seem to show that abstinence only education "doesn't work". Surely that means we have to make it better, not just give up. Teenagers can tend to live dangerously and society today gives them plenty of opportunities to do so. As a result, we are seeing epidemics of youthful drunkenness, drug-induced mental illness and sexually transmitted diseases, to mention only three of the excesses young people seem prone to. This week in Britain there are calls for the legal drinking age to be...

Who's looking out for you?I don't care much for Bill O'Reilly, but I have to give him credit: he's a bulldog on some issues where we need one, and he has a great ear for phrases. And one of his catchphrases, one he used for one of his books, is "who's looking out for you?"It's an important question, one that we should very, very carefully consider -- especially in light of the Virginia Tech massacre.First up, also in the "credit where credit is due" department, I have to give praise to Dafydd ab Hugh. His piece on the shooting...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Security "pat-downs" of fans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games are unconstitutional and unreasonable, a federal judge ruled Friday, throwing into question the practice at NFL games nationwide. U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore issued an order siding with a Bucs season-ticket holder who had sued to stop the fan searches that began last season after the NFL implemented enhanced security measures. High school civics teacher Gordon Johnson sued the Tampa Sports Authority, which operates the stadium, to stop officials from conducting the "suspicionless" searches. A state judge agreed with Johnston that the searches are likely unconstitutional and...

Pre- 9/11 Intelligence : The “Flat-Footed” Watchmen I looked at a news story from Australia this week : police entered a burglarized store,and found the burglar – snoozing contentedly – on a pile of carpets. The sound of his snoring gave him away. Catching burglars “asleep on the job” is rare enough to be uncommon – but catching the night watchman “flatfooted” is so common as to be unremarkable. Let’s pretend – for a moment or two – the United States was a big candy factory, prior to 9/11. Candy is kind of tempting, so there were a lot of...

Palm Beach International Airport security workers would be racking up heaps of overtime pay dealing with more than fifty false positives daily if their bosses were to install Visionics' terror-busting face recognition gear, the airport administrators have concluded. The kit had been installed free of charge for a trial run during which the airport, not surprisingly, decided to test it on volunteers who work there over four weeks' time. Using fifteen volunteers and a data base of 250 snapshots, Palm Beach County administrators enjoyed a success rate of less than fifty per cent. That is, more than half the people...