Free Republic

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   New York: Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education Inc. (S.A.F.E.) 2009 Firearm Civil Rights Conference   Thursday, September 03, 2009   Please join the Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education Inc. (S.A.F.E.) for its 2009 Firearm Civil Rights Conference. Sunday, September 13, 2009, 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. (doors open at 12:00 noon) Sheraton Long Island Hotel110 Vanderbilt Motor ParkwaySmithtown, NY (631) 231-1100(on Motor Parkway on the North side of LIE between exits 53 & 55)Special guests include Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President; Ron Schmeits, NRA President; Chris Cox, Executive Director of the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2009 – The increased troop levels in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province has expanded the security envelope to roughly 80 percent of the people there, the former commander of Task Force Uruzgan in southern Afghanistan said today. Security has taken years to establish, but is allowing development to begin in one of the poorest areas of the country, Dutch army Brig. Gen. T.A. Middendorp told members of the Pentagon press corps during a teleconference from Kandahar, Afghanistan. “If you walk through that province, it is like walking through the Old Testament,” the general said. Uruzgan province is centrally located...

For four decades, the 1-ton safe sat in the back of a family shoe store, and as the years rolled past, its secrets were seemingly forgotten. When the family closed up shop, renting the building to a shoe repairman, the safe stayed put. No one remembered the combination. No one knew what to do with it. Now, everyone is rushing to stake a claim. Dumped in a vacant lot in neighboring Lawrence last November as an obsolete, oversize nuisance, the old-fashioned vault was discovered to hold a small fortune - $178,496 in crisp currency. The money was packed in blue...

How Safe is Sin? Consider today’s message: "It is all right to sin as long as you practice SAFE SIN. Drunkenness is OK as long as someone sober drives you home. Narcotics are OK as long as you use clean needles. Sexual deviation is OK since it exists and so it should be approved. Promiscuity is OK as long as you take safe precautions. It is all right to sin, but please, play it SAFE!" The Bible gives the true perspective: "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death ....

OC Family Grateful Editor: Saturday, April 25, 2009 was a beautiful day, and it was made even more wonderful by the outpouring of affection expressed toward Captain Robert S. Craig at his Beach Memorial Service. The Craig children and family appreciate all that was done to honor our “Pop,” a man so many in Ocean City have known and loved for so many years. The Beach Memorial was truly memorable and more special than we could have possibly imagined. We have many people to thank for their efforts in making it happen. We learned very quickly that organizing such an...

(At right) Flanked by friends and family members, a wreath is carried down the beach to be released into the ocean in memory of Craig, "founding father" of the Beach Patrol. Carrying the wreath is the current head of the organization, Capt. Butch Arbin, who is flanked by Craig's son, Robert Craig, and grandson, Christopher Craig. (Above) Sean Williams pushes a surf board, carrying the wreath and the ashes of Capt. Craig, toward a Coast Guard boat, which released the wreath farther from the shore.

News Release: April 8, 2009 Memorial Service planned to honor Captain Robert S. Craig Ocean City, MD – A memorial service for Captain Robert (Bob) S. Craig will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, April 25 on the beach at North Division Street. Captain Craig passed away on Saturday, March 28 at the age of 90. Captain Craig joined the Ocean City Beach Patrol in 1935 and served as its captain from 1946 until retiring in 1987. Captain Craig is credited with building the Ocean City Beach Patrol into the professional organization it is known as today. When Captain Craig turned...

(April 3, 2009) The man who not only epitomized the Ocean City Beach Patrol, but also built it into a serious and professional organization, passed away Saturday. When Capt. Robert (Bob) S. Craig turned 90 last July, a competition, dinner and slide show honored him for his 52 years as a town employee and member of the Beach Patrol. Thousands knew Craig from his years guiding the Beach Patrol and taking it from a small, relatively unskilled group of young men to a large group of highly skilled young men and women. Capt. Butch Arbin, the current head of the...

OCEAN CITY – Ocean City lost a treasured icon this week when Captain Robert S. Craig, who shepherded the Beach Patrol through decades of change and inspired his young charges for half a century passed away at the age of 90. Captain Craig, as he was known for decades not only by the thousands of lifeguards who worked with him and for him but also by the countless millions of local residents and visitors to the resort area, passed away last Saturday at the Coastal Hospice in Salisbury at the age of 90. A former schoolteacher and coach, Captain Craig...

An Iraqi engineer takes a drink of purified water from a Coalition-funded, solar-powered water filter in Lutifiyah, Feb. 28. Photo by Jamie Vernon, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs. LUTIFIYAH — Local shaykhs, villagers and U.S. Soldiers celebrated the installation of a Coalition-funded, solar-powered water filter for this village, Feb. 28.The $5,300 project was funded by the Commander’s Emergency Relief Program.The water purifier was delivered and set up adjacent to a water canal on a farm, as some villagers gathered to view a demonstration on how the purifier works.“This is an important contribution that means a lot to the Iraqi people....

Investing? Here's the Safe Option By EUGENE SILVER Updated 11:12 AM CST, Thu, Mar 5, 2009 Safes are becoming popular again, due to unpredictable financial markets. Afraid that cash isn't secure even behind the thick walls of banks, more people are turning to something that has protected money since the days of Jesse James and Bonnie and Clyde: safes. Enlarge Photo Safes are becoming popular again, due to unpredictable financial markets. Safes are Flying Off the Shelves Watch Video Safes are becoming popular, again. The metal vaults are so popular in some part of the country that shopper are depleting...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2009 – Though some of them contain peanut butter, the 660,000 packaged military meals the Defense Logistics Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency are shipping to Kentucky and Arkansas storm victims are safe, officials here said. The meals -- known as “Meals, Ready to Eat,” or “MREs” -- will replace the commercial meal kits that have been distributed to the storm victims. DLA’s Defense Distribution Center in New Cumberland, Pa., is arranging shipment of the meals, scheduled for delivery today. A recent Food and Drug Administration recall of some products containing peanut butter has prompted the Defense...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2009 – Soldiers should have full confidence in the quality of a particular series of Army-issued body armor plates that has come under recent scrutiny, Army officials said. Scores of Army tests and an independent evaluation have determined the effectiveness of three types of ceramic plates manufactured by Armor Works of Chandler, Ariz., said Army Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, one of the officers who oversees equipment as part of the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier. “Those plates being worn on the backs and fronts of soldiers all around the world are quality product,” Fuller said in...

Red, white and blue will be waving today in the passenger terminal at Tucson International Airport as members of a local National Guard unit are welcomed home from war. Twenty-eight members of the Arizona Air National Guard's 162nd Fighter Wing are expected to arrive around midday on commercial aircraft, returning from deployments to Balad Air Base in Iraq. The Tucson-based guardsmen, all pilots and aircraft maintainers for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, have been overseas for one to eight months. While away, they assisted members of a Minnesota-based Guard unit in supporting F-16 operations in Iraq.

After years of struggling to get their wages up, the nation’s workers are trying to find jobs that will simply last, least through the deep recession. Fearing layoffs, investment bankers at Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley are joining small Wall Street firms for less pay but with signed employment guarantees. Academics are migrating to community colleges, which are adding teachers as enrollment rises. In Eastern Wisconsin, workers furloughed from paper mill they fear will not reopen are training as truck drivers and welders. “Looking online and in newspapers and talking to my instructors, I’ve decided that trucking and welding stand...

China forex watchdog burnt by WaMu collapse Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:08am GMT By George Chen, Asia Private Equity Correspondent HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange watchdog, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, will cut back on overseas equity buys next year after suffering major losses on the collapse of U.S. lender Washington Mutual, according to sources. Earlier this year, SAFE, which controls around $2 trillion of China's foreign reserves, agreed to invest up to $2.5 billion in fund of U.S. private equity giant TPG TPG.UL -- its first foray into a foreign private equity fund, people close to...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2008 – About 100 U.S. European Command soldiers, airmen and Marines deployed to Israel to help set up an early warning radar system reported no close encounters with air strikes or retaliatory attacks along the Gaza Strip, a Eucom spokesman said. The Palestinian militant group Hamas refused to renew a ceasefire agreement with Israel when it expired Dec. 19, and began stepping up rocket attacks on civilian targets in Israel. Israel, in turn, began launching airstrikes against Gaza Strip targets Dec. 27 in an effort to eliminate Hamas’ ability to fire rockets into Israeli territory. Air...

CARLISLE, Pa. – President George W. Bush, ever focused on his legacy, said Wednesday "there can be no debate" about his record of preventing another terrorist attack. Evoking harrowing memories of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush said virtually no one could have predicted back then that the country would not be hit again for the rest of his presidency. "It's not a matter of luck," Bush said, defending his security policies.

BEIJING (AFP) – China's top envoy to high-level economic talks with the United States urged Washington Thursday to make sure Chinese investments in the US economy were safe. "We hope the US side will adopt every necessary measure to stabilise its economy and financial markets and ensure the safety of China's assets and investment in the United States," Vice Premier Wang Qishan said. He made the remark in prepared comments at the start of two days of Sino-US economy talks in Beijing that he is co-chairing with US Treasury chief Henry Paulson. At the end of September, China officially became...

The World in Crisis: Where are the Safe Havens? Axel Merk, October 7, 2008 Merk Insights provide the Merk Perspective on currencies, global imbalances, the trade deficit, the socio-economic impact of the U.S. administration's policies and more. We have been warning for some time that “there is no such thing as a safe asset anymore, you have to take a diversified approach to something as mundane as cash.” Unfortunately, the current crisis shows that we may be right. Physical gold is attractive to many investors because of its lack of counter party risk. The only counter party risk with gold...