Free Republic

Subject: A Novel Idea Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Vermont 's own Constitution very carefully, and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere. Maslack recently proposed a bill to register "non-gun-owners" and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun Maslack read the "militia" phrase of...

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No other stimulus provision will be as immediate and as effective,' says small business lobby Posted: December 14, 2008 10:51 pm Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily WASHINGTON – Big business bailouts and "economic stimulus packages" are all the rage in the Capitol these days. Most involve massive transfers of wealth from taxpayers to government-directed projects. But a new and very different bill, proposed by a heretofore little-known congressman from Texas, is gaining traction from Republicans – and even a few Democrats, according to the sponsor. It's called "the tax-holiday plan." And one version of it picked up support from the National...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of New York taxi owners is suing the city over a plan to turn the entire fleet of cabs "green" by 2012, saying the plan compromises safety and is unconstitutional. Under the plan, promoted as an environmental model for other large cities, every new taxi must get at least 30 miles per gallon, a target now met by hybrid and clean diesel cars. The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, an association of taxi owners accounting for about a quarter of the city's 13,000 yellow cabs, filed a complaint in Manhattan federal court late on...

You ever notice the annoying voices that owners use to speak to us? I can live with that but here’s a trend I’m happy they stopped dead in its tracks. (Jayna Hutchinson, a 33-year-old Vermont woman, was charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest after a police officer caught her staring at his dog in a “taunting/harassing manner.”) Dogs on the scene have reported to...

WASHINGTON - The government on Thursday warned owners of about 4.6 million recalled Ford vehicles to bring their cars and trucks immediately to dealerships to disconnect cruise control switch systems that have been linked to engine fires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued the consumer advisory to the owners of certain unrepaired Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, vans and passenger cars who have not yet responded to past recalls. The recalls have vexed the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, affecting its popular F-Series pickup trucks, prompting hundreds of complaints and dozens of lawsuits over engine fires. Three...

Judge orders shepherd destroyed after vicious attack Thursday, November 08, 2007 BY LINDA STEIN PRINCETON TOWNSHIP -- A family whose beloved German shepherd faces death for having led a dog attack on a landscaper is devastated by the news but vows to continue to fight to save him. ..."He's innocent. He did nothing more than protect my wife. He never bit anyone until she was grabbed and pulled to the ground," James said. Congo has been ruled vicious by a municipal judge and ordered put down. ...The landscaper, Giovanni Rivera, has won a $250,000 insurance settlement as a result of...

THIS IS THE OWNER OF OUR DEFEAT TO AL QAEDA IN IRAQ.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Over the past two and a half years, about 500 severely wounded servicemembers and their families have enjoyed 5,000 free dinners out on the town thanks to Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien. “Some of them have come to multiple dinners because some of them are here for years,” Koster said Aug. 18, as he looked over the 60 or so guests dining on the rooftop of The Exchange restaurant here. About 20 servicemembers, many in wheelchairs and prosthetics, family members and other guests dined overlooking a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington...

PATCH is not all the dog he used to be. After having two kilograms of fat sucked from his body, the 12-year-old kelpie cross is "like new", says his delighted owner, Irene Williams. Patch is believed to be the first dog in Australia to have undergone liposuction, an increasingly popular operation for overweight humans. His problem was not obesity, but fatty tumours. One, on his left hind leg, was so large it was threatening to cripple him within months. "To see him degenerate was tearing at my heartstrings," Ms Williams said. Advised that radical surgery was the only option, she...

Fruity headache for cafe ownersBy Samantha Williams and Karina Dunger 03jul06 Cafe workers ... Julie Hanssens and Jodie Lee / Troy Bendeich BAD weather is set to affect the price of oranges after already crippling Australia's banana industry. The worst frost in 24 years has destroyed 40,000 tonnes - about 25 per cent - of the citrus fruit produced in southern Australia. "They won't hit skyrocketing prices of bananas but there will be some price hike due to the reduction of fruit on the market," Riverina Citrus CEO Peter Morrish said. Oranges currently sell for $2.50kg, with experts predicting rises...

For sale: old, second-hand graves. £3,000 each, many careful owners By Stephanie Condron (Filed: 04/07/2006) A cemetery is offering second-hand graves, with "refurbished" monuments including headstones, obelisks and crosses, to be used again. Recycled burial plots, complete with the original memorials, still contain the remains of those who died at least 75 years ago - the names of the dead are simply scoured from the monuments to allow new inscriptions. The City of London cemetery is selling 1,000 such plots advertised as "traditional-style graves" to be "adopted" by families willing to pay £3,000 to lease them for 50 years. The...

Possenti Society Blasts Vatican UN Gun Grabbers for 4th of July Insult to American Gun Owners; Urges Church Collection ProtestsContact: John Snyder, 703-212-9863 ARLINGTON, Va., June 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- John Snyder, Founder/Chairman of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, issued the following statement today: As we approach next week’s 230th commemoration of the signing of our Nation’s Declaration of Independence, we face the reality of three institutional insults to our country’s Fourth of July celebration of freedom. The first insult comes from a United Nations group meeting in New York, taking place now through July 7, to undermine the traditional,...

"The concept of Network Neutrality has unfortunately been misunderstood by many conservatives, libertarians, and other champions of the free market. That's too bad, because the free market essence of the Internet is exactly what would be lost without Network Neutrality. The large telecoms, some politicians and a number of conservative pundits have characterized the push for Network Neutrality as a left-wing attempt to stifle innovation and put government bureaucrats in control of the Internet. Well, it’s not. Through my work with Gun Owners of America, I am demonstratively a lot further to the right than they are. It is true...

Endangered Species Act critic finds himself in crosshairs By ERICA WERNER Associated Press writer Sunday, March 26, 2006 TRACY, Calif. -- Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo likes animals, just as long as obscure species aren't dictating what happens to the land. Bidding for his 12th term in Congress, the cowboy-booted Pombo, a Californian who raises cattle on the family ranch, wants to rewrite the 1973 Endangered Species Act to dramatically expand the rights of property owners. And as chairman of the House Resources Committee, he is closing in on that longtime goal. That has made him a prime target for...

BOUNTIFUL - When Gregg Revell packed his bags for a trip to Pennsylvania last April, he had no idea how far he'd be traveling. Before the week was out, the 57-year-old suburban real estate agent and grandfather would be arrested, thrown into one of the country's most notorious jails, strip searched and inoculated against his will. The soft-spoken Utah native would be on his way to becoming a poster child for the National Rifle Association in a $3 million lawsuit. During a nearly five-day stay in a Newark, N.J., jail, he would meet a terrifying side of America that most...

Chicago dog owners who tether their pets for hours on end without food or water would be reined in -- with a two-hour limit -- under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the City Council's most powerful alderman. "If dogs are tethered in this way, it makes them more likely to bite humans and makes them mean," said Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th). "It's a question of cruelty to the animals. It's a question of responsible care of animals. If people own pets, they ought to treat them responsibly." The Burke-championed ordinance introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting would...

USDA ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION BOONDOGGLE REPORT Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., introduced two bills that would amend the Animal Health Protection Act to direct the Sec of Agriculture to establish an electronic livestock identification system. This is where a multi-billion dollar federal program started spreading it’s roots. Now over $70,000,000 has been doled during the past 30 months to promote, study, plan, and implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The original idea was to develop a 48 hour national computer method to locate the life time communication path of any critter that might test positive for the dreaded BSE. Once the...

News Release March 29, 2004 Study Reveals That Dogs Resemble Their Owners As a Result of Selection Do people really resemble their pets? A resemblance in a movie or on TV between a pet and its owner has occasionally tickled our funny bone. The results of a recent study suggest that a resemblance between owner and dog may be actually determined by the pet lover's selection. The research, by Michael M. Roy and Nicholas Christenfeld, both of the University of California, San Diego, found that when people pick a pet, they seek one that, at some level, resembles them. These...

FEMA GUN BAN YET ANOTHER SLAP FOR LOUISIANA GUN OWNERS Under pressure from NRA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is "reconsidering" a ban on the possession of firearms in the trailer parks providing homes for hundreds of families left homeless by hurricane Katrina. As the experience on the streets of New Orleans showed us, there is a demonstrable need to protect life and family after a disaster. Yet, according to an October 12, Associated Press article, FEMA has had a general policy for several years to prohibit guns at such parks anywhere in the country. The AP also reported...

Some people collect medieval torture devices. Others devote themselves to the study of plagues. Me, I just follow the Arizona Cardinals. Every year I circle the day on my calendar when the Cards open camp and really begin sucking in earnest. They have a Commitment to Wretchedness -- 58 years since they won an NFL title, one playoff win in that time and one winning season in the last 20. All that couldn't have happened without Bill and Michael Bidwill, a father-son ownership team that could mess up a one-float parade. Since then-Chicago Cardinals owner Charles Bidwill died in 1947,...

The New York Times welcomed the Supreme Court's recent endorsement of virtually unfettered eminent domain powers as "a setback to the 'property rights' movement." The fact that the Times not only celebrated a defeat for property rights but felt a need to put the phrase in scare quotes speaks volumes about the left-liberal misconceptions that have been brought to the fore by the Court's decision in Kelo v. New London. According to the Court, the Fifth Amendment, which allows the government to take property "for public use" provided it pays "just compensation," is a license to transfer any parcel of...

Land interventions in Cojedes State will continue next Wednesday. In this way, the decree issued by Cojedes Governor Johnny Yánez Rangel with regard to 16 estates will be enforced. Following the effective intervention of El Charcote farm last Saturday, regional authorities plan to seize several properties of the Boulton family in Cojedes, such as Gavinero, Yaguara, San José and La Flecha. Rafael Alemán, the Cojedes State Secretary-General, said under this schedule of interventions, Paraima and Piñero -both properties of the Branger family- will be intervened next January 13th and 14th, respectively.

Cloning kitty A California company is selling cloning technology to pet owners. But opponents say this technology holds false promises. By Michael B. Farrell | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Three years after scientists in a Texas laboratory successfully cloned the first house cat, a company in California is now selling that same technology to pet owners who want a carbon copy of their cat or dog. For $50,000 Genetics Savings & Clone can take a cat's DNA and create an exact genetic duplicate. They hope to do the same with a dog next year. So far they...

LINKA directory of cell phone numbers will be published soon. This opens the door to solicitors calling our cell phones using up our minutes. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a do not call list. You must call FROM the number you wish to register, or go to their website listed above to be included on the do not call list. The number is 1-888-382-1222 http://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408 http://www.gunowners.org Tuesday, November 9, 2004 You would have thought John Kerry had won an astounding Electoral College victory, rather than George W. Bush. But, within 24 hours after the presidential results were in, there was the Senate Judiciary Committee heir-apparent, Pennsylvania liberal Republican Arlen Specter, warning Bush not to make conservative nominations to the U.S. Supreme court. The “code words” used by Specter centered around abortion, but the message was clear: “No pro-gun conservatives need apply.” Said Specter: “That is my...

BOSTON -- Looking to share some of the magic that propelled the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years, President Bush enlisted a fan favorite to deliver his pitch while Democratic Sen. John Kerry recruited the team's front office. Curt Schilling, the Red Sox winning pitcher in Game 2 of the World Series, endorses Bush in automated recordings that will be used in three competitive states -- New Hampshire, Maine and Pennsylvania -- before Tuesday's voting.

The group Gun Owners of Vermont (GOV) has endorsed Hardy Machia's campaign for governor in that state. Machia is running on the Libertarian Party ticket. The GOV endorsed Republican James Douglas in 2002, but Douglas lost the support of the state's gun owners when he made a deal with the federal government to have Vermont's law enforcement agencies enforce the federal gun laws. Federal gun laws are much more stringent than Vermont's laws; Vermont has never required a permit for gun ownership or for carrying firearms. Some of the state's very few gun laws prohibit carrying a firearm to school...

Harare - The exodus of Zimbabwe's small and anguished white population is under way with record numbers leaving their homeland, mostly for Britain or Australia. Few have the R30 000($5000) they need in foreign currency to transport their goods to new countries, and most are starting new lives with 22kg of clothes and a few photographs. They say they have hung on during the past four tumultuous years hoping President Robert Mugabe's "hate" campaign against them would ease, but it did not, and two months ago when he shut down private schools for a week for raising fees, they lost...

WASHINGTON - For the first time, the typical American family has more vehicles in the garage than licensed drivers in the house. There are 107 million U.S. households, each with an average of 1.9 cars, trucks or sport utility vehicles and 1.8 drivers, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported. That equals 204 million vehicles and 191 million drivers. The last time the survey was conducted, in 1995, those numbers were equal. "This is the final realization of the entire American ethos," said Robert Lang, director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, which researches regional growth. "There's a real love of the...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) won't be meeting with a group of business owners who want him to change his position opposing repeal of the federal death tax. Daschle's Aberdeen, South Dakota staff refused to schedule a meeting for the senator with the group of business owners from across South Dakota during the August recess. Dick Patten, Executive Director of the American Family Business Institute was surprised by Daschle's unwillingness to even discuss the issue. He told Talon News, "Many of these people have supported Daschle in the past, but are now reconsidering." Patten pointed out that...

A zoo owner is being investigated over allegations he ate his own wild animals. It is suspected Joerg Schlechte may have used the zoo as his personal larder. He has already been fined for roasting pot-bellied pigs during a drunken barbeque. But now police in Germany are looking into the fate of a host of missing animals. They include a small buffalo, rabbits, donkeys, goats, racoons, parrots, a wild boar and even three Shetland ponies. The animals were found missing when the zoo in Meissen, eastern Germany, was taken over by new owners. Schlechte claims he gave the animals to...

Sacramento, California - Down through the centuries, relatively small groups of people have constantly stolen land from others - the Romans, Ghenghis Khan, Hitler and, in this country, the European settlers. As the 21st. century gathers steam, Americans can be forgiven for thinking that these historical atrocities are a thing of the past, at least in their own country. Modern day suburban America with its shopping malls and SUV studded housing tracts may, at first blush, appear to defy history - but a closer look reveals a very different picture. Across America, an estimated 55 million people live in homeowner...

Owners Planned To Sell Nightclub Fire Kills At Least 96 People WEST WARWICK, R.I. -- For nearly three years, The Station nightclub was owned by a New England television reporter and his brother. But plans were in the works recently to sell it and transfer its liquor license, according to a West Warwick official. Jeffrey Derderian and his brother, Michael, a businessman, were planning to transfer its liquor license to the prospective owners on Friday, Town Clerk David Clayton said. "They were going to come in Friday to obtain the documents to start the transfer process of the liquor license...

Strike 4The baseball deal will either make the game worse for fans or it'll be a sham that won't hold salaries down. The owners came close to wrecking the season for this? - - - - - - - - - - - -By Allen BarraAug. 30, 2002  | Let's start with the short form. The crisis was phony, the issues were a crock and the deal is a sham. Well, it's about 50-50 that it will turn out to be a sham. No matter what anyone says, it has yet to be proven that the basic agreement worked out between...

Friday, August 30, 2002 Strike out By By Tim Keown If we've learned anything over the last week, as baseball's strike countdown gradually claimed its own little corner of our television screens, it's this: There is perhaps no issue galvanizing our nation quite like the distasteful notion of young, able-bodied men making millions of dollars playing baseball. We have no problem, however, with old-guard patricians making millions of dollars owning baseball teams, maybe because we accept their status as the ultimate owners of everything, with baseball merely a logical extension. But these young guys -- the ones fans pay to...

Hawks make labor deal difficult By Ken Rosenthal - The Sporting News Ask any player if he wants a strike, and he would say no. Ask most owners, and their answer would be the same. But then there are the "hawks," the hard-line owners who would risk destroying Major League Baseball while claiming they're trying to save it. Padres owner John Moores spoke for the hawks when he said eight to 10 owners were prepared to shut down baseball for an entire season to get the labor agreement they wanted. But a moderate owner, speaking on the condition of...

On strike: Item halting baseball coverageBy Tom Waddill/Sports EditorItem readers have spoken. Asked to strike or not to strike, 82 percent of you said, "Let's strike."So, The Huntsville Item is going on a pro baseball strike.For the next week, there will be no pro baseball coverage in the Item. There will be no stories about the Astros or Rangers, no game reports, no boxscores and no Major League Baseball standings.If a settlement is reached, the Item will start providing coverage again. Last week, Item editors asked residents how they felt about the looming baseball strike, which could start Friday if...

Baseball's "Labour Trouble": Overdraft at the Memory Bank? by Jeff Kallman A rather splendid New York Yankee pitcher, Ed Lopat, grew up to become a rather splendid Minnesota Twins scout. It would have been rather more splendid if only his employer at the time hadn't been the bottom-feeding Kansas City Athletics. Scouting a wiry Cuban outfielder, Lopat was singularly unimpressed. "This kid," he reported to the Athletics, "will never hit in the big leagues."Until that kid's knees betrayed him about a decade later, a Rookie of the Year award, three American League batting championships, one American League pennant, and a...

<p>Baseball players from all 30 major-league teams will gather in Chicago today to discuss setting a strike date. If they move ahead with that strategy, the players could walk out late this month or sometime in September, and baseball would be shut down for the ninth time because of a labor dispute. At stake are the playoffs, World Series and customer relations.</p>

Baseball is America's national pastime for many reasons. It's the most intelligent major sport. It encourages personal achievement just as much as team play. When a pitcher and hitter square off, it's one on one, a showdown. But there's another reason baseball is America's sport: It's the most capitalist of all the major sports. Football has salary caps and complete parity. Basketball has salary caps for players and high taxes for owners exceeding a maximum payroll. Baseball has none of these. Some might say that this is baseball's problem. It's why baseball is the only major sport that has real...

This is not a huge issue and I can handle the situation, I'm just interested to see what FReepers think about it. I have recieved a letter from my HomeOwners Association about my 2 dogs and their "lack of safe confinement." This stems from 2 incidents where an older woman saw one of my dogs running loose ONCE and was fearful, and, another where, as my wife was walking one of the dogs, on a leash, past the other complainers' home. The complainers' dog was not on a leash, on his owner's property, and charged my wife and dog. Subsequently,...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds does not want to go on strike. However, Bonds says that if major league baseball players do walk off the field yet again this year -- the World Series was wiped out by a work stoppage in 1994 -- he expects the fans to come back. "If you have kids who might (grow up to) be major league baseball players, we're fighting for your kids, possibly," Bonds told The Washington Post before the Giants beat the Orioles on Friday night. "If I work for your newspaper and you're in the union fighting for your equality...

MORAIRA, Spain - A priest fed up with mobile phones ringing during Mass has installed an electronic jammer to keep his flock in tune with God. The Rev. Francisco Llopis, pastor of the Church of the Defenseless, said the beeps, tunes and other digital noise emitted by today's omnipresent cell phones are incompatible with quiet worship. Llopis' church in this southeast coastal town is the first in Spain to install such a device, which transmits low-power radio signals that sever communications between cellular handsets and cellular base-stations. Llopis said that when he flicks the switch, "I ensure that the...