Free Republic

Hello. I mostly lurk, and I visit infrequently unless elections are heating up. I apologize if my post is inappropriate, I know vanity posts are discouraged. If I'm out of line, please report my thread, delete it, smack me down as appropriate. I work on computers for a living, and have been really disgusted with the number and frequency of annoying pop up ads on Drudge. They get past IE's integrated blocker. They get past the Google toolbar. I don't want to install another browser or take heroic measures to browse in peace. If Mr. Drudge asked me to support...

Stopping Malaria In the wake of the tsunami, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases may be the next tragedy to hit Southeast Asia. DDT can prevent this tragedy. The massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Southeast Asia unleashed a terrifying tsunami that has already claimed more than 200,000 lives. But as the rainy season approaches, a new disaster may be in the offing. Standing water left by the tsunami and turned brackish with the onset of monsoon rains may attract swarms of disease-bearing mosquitoes. These mosquitoes may infect thousands upon thousands, maybe even millions, of tsunami survivors with malaria. According to the Associated...

NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Twenty-four-year-old Kelly Pearson says the $580,000 ranch-style house she bought near downtown San Diego last August is a dream come true. It is nice: 1,450 square feet, four bedrooms, two baths, crown molding, a big kitchen with an island and -- quick! duck! -- a 737 jet descending upon her roof with what feels like 10 feet to spare. With no savings, and a college loan to repay, Pearson took out a mortgage for 100 percent of the price of the house. Closing costs were paid for by a $10,000 gift from her parents (money...

Your Momma Is the King of Pop Could Michael Jackson be both father and “mother”? By Joyce Milton For connoisseurs of the bizarre, Michael Jackson’s life story has been an embarrassment of riches. Jackson’s serial plastic surgeries, his habit of inviting young boys for sleepovers, and his more public parental malfunctions — as when he dangled his infant son over the railing of a sixth-floor hotel balcony — give us plenty to talk about. But the most arresting fact in Michael Jackson’s biography has occasioned surprisingly little comment: He is the first male celebrity to have a child who has...

This is a dumb question, but it's driving me crazy, so I thought I'd ask anyway: does anybody remember a dance song from the early '60s called "High Boots"? It's sung by a guy in falsetto and goes like this: High Boots! High-yi-yi-yi High boots, oh yeah They call her High Boots High-yi-yi-yi high boots, oh yeah Just watch her Work She do the Dog She do the Swim But not for him Because she's My boots My-yi-yi-yi High boots, oh yeah High boots High-yi-yi-yi high boots, oh yeah Please tell me who performed this masterpiece if you know. My...

Israeli rock/folk singer Ariel Zilber, who moved to the Gaza Coast in solidarity with the Jews of Gush Katif, was a guest on Israel National Radio’s "The Beat with Ben Bresky" today. Zilber had just returned from his weekend home in Elei Sinai, a Jewish community, home to residents with a wide range of Jewish observance. “On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I live in Natat, in the Galilee,” said Zilber - “near the Hizbullah. And on Thursday I travel to Elei Sinai to spend the weekend with the people of Gush Katif.” The veteran Israeli pop-music icon is known...

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia school officials approved a policy banning the sale of carbonated soft drinks in all city schools. Starting in July, only milk, water, fruit juice and the occasional sports drink will be available from most of the district's 740 vending machines and in its cafeterias, according to rules passed Wednesday by the School Reform Commission. The 214,000-student district took the action following a January recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that soft drinks be eliminated from schools as a way of fighting an obesity epidemic among young people.

It's Snapple or nothing for thousands of thirsty students who attend Brooklyn high schools where a new policy bans kids from carrying outside beverages into school. "It's wrong," said Shabana Mohumad, a freshman at Clara Barton High School who saw her sealed water bottle confiscated last week. "It was insulting." Barton students said they are being bullied into drinking Snapple - the only soft drink available in city schools - but education bosses insist that was not their intention. "It didn't even cross my mind," said Gloria Buckery, superintendent for Region 6 in Brooklyn. The policy was meant to reduce...

In many ways the soft drink industry is better prepared than most others to capitalize on America's perpetual diet. "There's no such thing as a no-calorie hamburger. There's no such thing as a no-calorie doughnut," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest. "But the soft drink industry already has these huge powerful brands" of diet drinks. Last year, regular soda accounted for nearly 73 percent of sales, but that was down nearly 2 percent from the year before, Sicher said. Meanwhile, diet was up more than 6 percent from 2002. Sicher thinks that trend will continue and even accelerate enough...

Yesterday was declared "National No Soda Day" by an activist organization called the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) -- presently unaffiliated with the American Medical Association. The group argued that people should cut soda "out of their diets," and urged medical students around the nation to drop their cans and preach to the rest of us. The only problem for AMSA: its anti-soda statements, and the research that supposedly backs them up, are nothing more than fizz. In a "frequently asked questions" section of AMSA's website, the group notes that soda is just the first step in its anti-food-choice crusade....

A panel of U.S. public health experts says the country's epidemic of childhood obesity threatens to set back the medical advances that have decreased child mortality and extended life spans in the past century. The panel recommends that every sector of the nation work to reverse the rapid rise in youth obesity as ambitiously as anti-smoking efforts. The expert recommendations come in response to a request from Congress, which is seeking ways to reverse the overweight epidemic lest it become an unrelenting health burden to the country. Since the 1970s, the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled among U.S....

      From Cole Cross                                                                                       FORWARD this Postcard to friends and loved ones.         This song is _______ Dedicated to our Troops Support this Artist by Visiting www.ColeCross.com   Cole Cross is a rising Country Music star who has written more than 500 songs             From Cole...

"Why don't we just give them ours?" Jay Leno asked last summer as the Bush administration was helping Iraq develop a constitution. After all, Leno noted: "It's served us well for over two hundred years, and besides, we're not using it anymore." The joke is both funny and sad — because it's somewhat true. The U.S. Constitution was designed to safeguard American freedoms, but in modern times it has increasingly been disregarded and creatively reinterpreted. Congress is currently working on legislation that takes constitutional disregard to a new level. At issue is how to implement future changes to a...

I got an e-mail from a publicist recently with the heading "Gay Music Goes Mainstream," and after that the little adage, "It's good to be gay." In the past, I've written about the contributions gay folks have made to pop music, mentioning artists such as R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Fred Schneider of the B-52's, K.D. Lang, Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, Boy George, Johnny Mathis, Bob Mould and Grant Hart of Husker Du, Melissa Etheridge, Elton John - heck, everyone from Cole Porter to Rob Halford of Judas Priest. So, I'm not so sure it's just now that gay music has gone mainstream....

Laura Brannigan dead of brain aneurysm at age 47.

TORONTO - William Hung butchered "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch of Sunday's matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, much to the delight of 22,225 at SkyDome. The American Idol reject best known for his hyperactive, tone-deaf rendition of Ricky Martin (news)'s "She Bangs," shrugged off a brief smattering of boos and belted out the baseball classic off-key while fans egged him on. Some even joined in. Hung's presence brought a gaggle of media usually indifferent to baseball to the game, including staff from Rolling Stone magazine. A team official said more...

After the news of Britney Spears's 55-hour marriage to her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander, I got an e-mail from one of my many homosexual correspondents (you'd be surprised), one with whom I had previously had some friendly exchanges about same-sex marriage. The gist of it was: "This is the institution you are trying to save?" I take his point. I don't say I feel any better-disposed towards homosexual marriage than I was pre-Britney, but there is no denying the guy has a debating point. If a couple of likkered-up glitterati airheads can stumble into a wedding chapel, tie the...

They used to say "home taping" was killing music, now it's meant to be internet downloaders. But the real pirates these days are crime bosses - and the rewards are plentiful. The net has given rise to many novel ways of doing business but the methods of the Recording Industry Association of America has got every twisted e-commerce scheme beaten. Last month, the association began suing hundreds of its customers. For the RIAA - which represents the major US recording companies - this makes perfect sense. The people being sued are sharing music with millions of others via peer-to-peer networks...

Midriff baring songbird Shania Twain is singing a shocking tune: She doesn't care if she ever performs again.The 37 year old country singer's new album 'Up' has soared to Number 1 on the U.S. charts, but Twain hinted to Time Magazine that she will soon stop performing.'I never burned to perform and I don't care if I ever do again,' Twain said. Twain-whose 1997 album 'Come on Over' sold an astounding 19 million copies and is the best selling album by a female singer in U.S. history-has been called 'the world's highest-paid lap dancer' by country rebel Steve Earle.She has...

Michael Jackson says he doesn't like pop and would much rather listen to classical music. He was asked why he had bought two classical rather than pop CDs whilst out shopping in Berlin last week. Jackson, the self-styled King of Pop, told German magazine Bunte: "I don't like pop music." The singer, whose album Thriller remains the world's biggest-seller, was in Berlin to receive the Millennium Bambi award in recognition of his status as the world's "greatest living pop icon". Jackson, who went shopping for the CDs without his usual bodyguards, said: "I'd like to go shopping for CDs in...

Atlantis-like island may pop up for a visit November 25 2002 at 06:41PM Rome - A volcanic island submerged off the coast of Sicily for the last 170 years could re-appear in the coming weeks if furious seismic rumblings continue, Italy's chief seismologist said on Monday. "We've seen Etna erupting, seismic activity to the north and east of Sicily and gas activity around the Aeolian Islands," Enzo Boschi, head of Italy's Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, told Reuters. "The island could come back to the surface, but we'll have to wait and see... It could be a few weeks or...

Irking Coca-Cola with what could become a national trend, Los Angeles school board members plan to vote this week on whether to ban sales of soft drinks throughout the nation's second largest school district. Backed by board members Genethia Hudley Hayes and Julie Korenstein, Marlene Canter has led the groundbreaking and controversial campaign to create an un-Pepsi generation. Instead of soda, kids would be offered water, milk and drinks that have at least 50 percent juice and no added sweeteners. "(Soft drinks) have no nutritional value. They are full of sugar and caffeine," said Canter, who represents the Westside. "There...

UK pop star Adam Ant admits "cowboy" incident LONDON, (Reuters) - Former British pop star Adam Ant on Tuesday admitted threatening pub customers who laughed at his cowboy attire and mocked him by humming the theme tune to spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."The musician pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey criminal court to the charge of affray. Sentencing was deferred until October 2 to allow time for psychiatric reports to be prepared.Three other charges relating to the incident in January of this year -- criminal damage, assault and possession of an imitation firearm -- were dropped.During...

Sonora Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, who was a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. After Sonora became an adult she realized the selflessness her fatherhad shown in raising his children as...