Free Republic

Drug users who want to avoid becoming another bloody casualty in Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte's war on narcotics have been making coffins as part of one local rehabilitation programme. Addicts in the city of Olongapo, three hours to the north of the capital Manila, are taught to make coffins after they hand themselves over to authorities. In the Philippines, where more than 3,600 people have been killed since Dutere's election in June, the process is known as 'surrendering'. The macabre irony of the programme is not lost on those who enrol in it. "I knew that if I don't change,...

Yeah, this will work: A federal court in Minnesota has created a program to assess the risks posed by terrorism defendants and come up with plans to deradicalize them so they don't engage in similar activities again. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who has handled recent terrorism cases in Minnesota, outlined the program Wednesday and called it the first of its kind in the country. It initially will be applied to four men who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State group, and Davis said it could be expanded to supervise other terror...

This week, millions of people around the world will no doubt experience rapid mimicry-an involuntary, split-second mirroring of another person's facial expressions-as they exchange smiles over gifts, good meals and holiday traditions. This phenomenon, observed in humans and many other primates, is considered a basic building block of our ability to feel empathy. "When your companion or friend smiles, you don't know why exactly, but you immediately react with the same smile to him or her," says Elisabetta Palagi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pisa in Italy. "It’s an extremely important phenomenon, because through this mimicry you can...

For decades liberals have lobbied against punishment and for rehabilitation. The argument was that a mugger or murderer was just a victim of his environment, someone caught in the crosshairs of bad nurturing and neighborhood. Accountability is unwarranted because the person bears no responsibility: he knew not what he did. And so successful was this movement that our penal system was largely reorganized based on the rehabilitation model. Why, I’ve even argued with people who insisted that “punishment doesn’t work” (apparently, they’d never heard of Singapore, caning and virtually zero crime). So, question: where are the calls for rehabilitation, as...

MOSCOW, April 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on rehabilitation of Crimean Tatars and other nationalities of Crimea, who were victims of Stalin-era repressions. “Taking advantage of an opportunity, I would like to inform colleagues that I have signed a decree on rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatars, the Armenian population, Germans, Greeks - all those who suffered from Stalin’s repressions,” Putin said. Other Crimean ethnic groups repressed by Stalin would also be rehabilitated, he said, listing Armenians, Germans and Greeks among them in a move reaching out to some 250,000 mainly Sunnite Tatars in a modern...

A former founding editor for a prominent homosexual magazine is celebrating his recent marriage to his wife, and is addressing the critics who have blasted him for turning his back on the homosexual lifestyle. Michael Glatze says that he left homosexuality six years ago by the prompting of the Lord after working as the editor of Young Gay America for over a decade. “Knowing no one who I could approach with my questions and my doubts, I turned to God,” he told WND after his conversion. “I’d developed a growing relationship with God..." Glatze eventually walked away from the magazine...

RIVERSIDE: RCC student body president is registered sex offender It was no April Fools’ joke. On Monday, April 1, anonymous black-and-white fliers were found pinned to billboards at Riverside City College saying the student body president is a registered sex offender. Students at first thought it was a cruel prank, but once it was confirmed, the revelation left them asking whether RCC administrators, who acknowledge they knew about it before the election, should have disclosed the information to the campus community. Doug Robert Figueroa, 40, of Riverside, was sentenced to five years in prison for admitting that in 2005 he...

"The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice." -- George Washington (1779) A Bronze Star Power Point? Actually, not ... Drive-by Journalism at Its Worst In keeping with our publishing deadlines, every Tuesday morning I send notice of my topic for Thursday's column to our editorial team. This week, I sent notice that I was writing about "military award inflation," and particularly a story from reputable news sources about an Air Force chaplain, Lt. Col. Jon Trainer, who received a Bronze Star for a PowerPoint. I first read this story under an inflammatory National...

It’s been 20 years since I sat across a conference table from the attorney representing Robert Alton Harris, a double-murderer who had spent 13 years on California’s Death Row. The attorney hoped to make the case that, despite his crimes, Harris should be spared his scheduled date with the executioner. He related that the convicted murderer was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. That he was neglected as a child. That he was abused as an adolescent. I’m sorry, I told the attorney. Your client killed two boys. He deserves to pay the forfeit for taking innocent lives. And not long...

Local child molester slain in L.A. prison An inmate serving a life sentence stemming from the sexual assault of a child in Oceanside was killed Tuesday in his prison cell in Los Angeles County. Francisco Javier Aguilar, 36, was found dead in his cell at the California State Prison in Lancaster after 1 a.m., authorities said. He had a cable wrapped around his neck, The Los Angeles Times reported. The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was set for Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. Aguilar’s cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, has been arrested in...

General Draza Mihailovich in the hills of Serbia, 1943 The famous bridge over the Drina River in Visegrad, Bosnia Note: The next Mihailovich Rehabilitation hearing is set for March 23, 2012 in Belgrade, Serbia. Aleksandra's note: As we await with great anticipation the official rehabilitation of General Draza Mihailovich we are reminded that on this day, March 13th, in 1946, the Yugoslav communist special security agents (OZNA) loyal to Marshal Josip Broz Tito finally captured the great General in the village of Drazevina near Visegrad in Bosnia. A short time later they publicly announced his capture and their intention to...

Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era scientists on Thursday for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets so that United States would not be the world's sole atomic power, in comments reflecting his vision of Russia as a counterweight to U.S. power. Spies with suitcases full of data helped the Soviet Union build its atomic bomb, he told military commanders. "You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels," Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass. "The were carrying the information away not on microfilm...

A Charles Manson follower has been ordered to remain in prison after parole board officials rejected her claim she was a changed woman. The two-member panel said the viciousness and notoriety of Patricia Krenwinkel's crimes outweighed her efforts at rehabilitation behind bars. Krenwinkel, now 63, wept and apologised during the hearing, but officials said the deaths of seven people in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders 'remained relevant'.

When Jack Kevorkian came to the nation’s attention in the 1990s, reporters at first depicted him — correctly — as a macabre and megalomaniacal promoter of death. But he was remade into a popular icon, becoming a pet guest on 60 Minutes, treated to uncharacteristically softball interviews by Mike Wallace and fawned over by Andy Rooney, and then declared by Time magazine to be one of the major “celebrities” of the 1990s. Time even invited him to their 75th anniversary gala as a star guest. You knew the world was spinning the wrong way when Tom Cruise rushed up

NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP) -- Britain's Prince Harry says the bonds between British and American military veterans are strong but can be even stronger. Harry spoke Friday on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City during a reception for U.S. and British veterans and their families. The third in line to the British throne said his country can learn from American advances in veterans' care and rehabilitation.....

VIRGINIA BEACH The Virginia Aquarium is releasing a dozen Kemp's ridley turtles rehabilitated in Virginia and Massachusetts to make space available for any turtles affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The aquarium says the endangered sea turtles will be released at 11 a.m. Tuesday off Cape Charles. The release is a joint effort by the Virginia Aquarium and the New England Aquarium. Ten turtles suffering from cold stunning were found in Massachusetts' Cape Cod Bay in November and December. Cold stunning occurs when sea turtles are exposed to extremely cold water. The two Virginia turtles also suffered from...

SNIPPET: "I’ll explain the whole reason I’m in Tripoli right now when I get back but it’s not coincidence that all this stuff is going on while I’m here. I’m part of a small group of invited guests from the Qaddaffi Foundation to study their rehabilitation and integration program. I’ve got reems of photos and primary source interviews with some senior former members of LIFG. I’m excited to come back and share with my readers."

Fly fishing is a sport that was made popular by the book and movie A River Runs Through It. Some people like it to catch fish, some just enjoy seeing the brightly colored line sweep through the air over the water. And now, fly fishing is also used for healing. "You get in touch with nature and forget about all your problems, it's just a natural way to heal yourself," said military veteran Kenny Stanford who did two tours of duty in Iraq. It's that idea that has led to Project Healing Waters -- a group dedicated to the physical...

SNIPPET: "Discussion: I first observed discussion of binary explosives on the al-Firdaws forum in January of 2007. In light of recent events I will post here my archive:" SNIPPET: "Implementation: On Christmas Day, 2009, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab boards a flight in Amsterdam, bound for Detroit, and on final descent he attempts to set off what was most likely a binary explosive. Thank goodness he either screwed up or had bad instructions, because the chemicals he was working with were evidently quite good."

This is a two-fold story about an adaptive sports rehabilitation program for severely disabled US soldiers who are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The first half focuses on a river rafting trip down the Salmon River in Idaho, the second focuses on the medical facility where these men have been rehabilitated. It is a story of how these men reach a point where they can embrace life again and feel a reason to go forward despite their permanent, often horrifying injuries. The three soldiers on the river trip are Major Anthony Smith, 39, an African American man who...