Free Republic

Hello everyone, I'm working on a book about my passion (and, I think, yours): American exceptionalism through the eyes of immigrants who haven't always had the fortune of living in freedom. This book consists of first-person stories of Americans who lived under authoritarian regimes: Cuba, Eastern bloc countries (Poland, Russia/former USSR), Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Laos, and so on. Unfortunately, there are many, many such countries to choose from. The local talk station I listen to has broadcast calls from new Americans who came here for liberty, which they weren't accorded in their homeland. Every call I've ever heard from one of...

A Mexican drug addict who smuggled immigrants was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for triggering a hoax that prompted a national security alert, a coast-to-coast manhunt and fears that terrorists would detonate a nuclear bomb in Boston. José Ernesto Beltran Quiñonez, 34, apologized in San Diego federal court during the sentencing for falsely telling a 911 operator in January 2005 that two Iraqi men and four Chinese chemists were awaiting an atomic bomb.

One of the region's top cops has called for a ban on pointed blades so that they cannot be used as lethal weapons. The Chief Constable of Northumbria police Mike Craik said he would like to see implements like kitchen knives only being sold with rounded ends to make them safer. He explained: "You rarely get victims who are sliced to death . . . they are usually stabbed. "So, the problem is pointed knives. If you ask chefs how many times they need to use pointed knives they'll tell you they don't need them at all." Mr Craik spoke...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - June 1, 2006 - Several self-avowed pedophiles founded a political party in the Netherlands and plan to endorse broadcasting pornographic material on daytime television and allowing children as young as 12 to feature in porn films. The Charity, Freedom and Diversity party said Wednesday its central campaign platform will be lowering the age of consent in the Netherlands from 16 to 12. "Forbidding children from sex only makes them more curious," party president Martijn Uittenbogaard told The Associated Press. Uittenbogaard said his new party had supporters from "all corners of the country" but acknowledged Wednesday's launch...

A letter on the front of what used to be Revelli Tires in Oakland warns: "Eminent domain unfair. To learn all about the abuses of eminent domain, please go to www.castlecoaliton.org. Educate yourself. Pay attention. You could be next." John Revelli wrote the note after the city of Oakland evicted him on July 1 from his own property — and a business run by his family since 1949 — so that a private developer could build apartments on his land. It especially galls him, Revelli told me over the phone Tuesday, that while he has been forced away from his...