Free Republic

For years the American Civil Liberties Union has pushed its agenda in terms of what the Constitution “really says,” and what freedom “really means” through judicial extortion. In 1978, the Supreme Court exempted the ACLU from the “ambulance chasing” prohibitions that apply to nearly every other lawyer in the country. Over the years this has enabled the ACLU’s legions of pro bono attorneys to target various organizations they feel are vulnerable to their lawsuits, to dredge the ranks of the “offended” until they can find someone who will agree to let the ACLU stick their name at the top of...

Long ago, I read that to live in the country you must have the soul of a poet, the dedication of a saint, and a good station wagon. Today I suppose you’d have to update the station wagon to an SUV, but the fact remains: To live successfully anywhere outside the mainstream of life you must have an unconventional spirit coupled with down-to-earth practicality—a combo that can be hard to find and harder still to balance. I live in the country, but my latest life choices have also involved living in miniature spaces—which presents an additional set of challenges,...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Gas costs so much. I cant afford it. Why want Bush do something? Don't say he can't. His daddy or his handlers could be on the phone in 2 minutes with the Rothchilds and by 1 week, oil prices would be under $20 and gas would be 1 dollar a gallon. You know it and I know it. Why want he? Do you know? Is there sombody we can call? Plaese advice.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - There's little doubt that after 16 months in office, California's action hero-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has begun to shrink to human size. But so far, that's done little to elevate Democrats, who still seem a bit puny by comparison. By proposing a controversial set of reform proposals - merit pay for teachers, overhauling the state's public pension system, creating a mechanism to automatically cut state spending and redrawing legislative districts - Schwarzenegger's aura of invincibility has taken a substantial hit. Everywhere he goes, he's trailed by a growing number of protesters - teachers, police and fire fighters...

MINNEAPOLIS — Lots of newspapers lose lawsuits. But the $625,000 jury verdict against a small suburban newspaper has gotten the attention of media-watchers. The Chanhassen Villager was hauled into court over an editorial about an elected official — the sort of thing where newspapers usually have wide latitude. “This would probably bankrupt two-thirds of the newspapers in the state of Minnesota,” said Mark Anfinson, attorney for the chain of small papers sto which the Villager belongs and for many other smaller papers. Attorneys for the Villager aren’t claiming that the Villager itself is in jeopardy. Media attorney Paul Hannah, who...

Republicans have given up the pretense that their party is the party of small government. “One of the most misunderstood parts of Hoosier culture is that Hoosiers are reluctant of change of any kind,” State Rep. Luke Messer told Brian Howey, publisher of Indianapolis Eye News, in an article that identifies an undercurrent in Indiana to have a constitutional convention. “If we have a strong leader, Hoosiers are willing to step up and make big changes. Bob Knight and Larry Bird were pretty big figures in Hoosier culture and they have been willing to make big changes. What we want...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

In a letter of 1911 to his special lady friend, Mary Peck, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) confessed that in his childhood he had “lived a dream life (almost too exclusively, perhaps).” Both his father and his mother had helped to enrich that life by regularly reading aloud to him from the works of Charles Dickens and Walter Scott, the collected essays of Charles Lamb, and James Fenimore Cooper’s Leather­stocking Tales. The boy adored those books, yet he was unable to identify all the letters of the alphabet until he was nine years old, and he was 12 before he learned to...

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. (AP) - A downtown property owner protesting President Bush's re-election raised a furor in this small Northern California town when he placed an upside down American flag on his two-story building. Ford Greene has stirred anger previously with controversial signs, including one before Tuesday's election that read "Take the thug out," an apparent reference to defeating Bush. After the election, he replaced it with an upside down American flag, prompting more than a dozen angry telephone calls to San Anselmo Town Hall and the police department. "It's a First Amendment right, but he feels the U.S. is...

As a realtor, I've been able to see firsthand the effect of the tax cuts initiated by President Bush. In the last year, we've seen record numbers of first time homebuyers. In talking to these homebuyers, the most prevalent reason for their buying is having the money for the downpayment. Most rely on savings or gifts from family in order to have a downpayment but not anymore. I was astonished by those that were able to use their tax checks to move into their first home. Another thing the tax cuts accomplished was getting small businesses energized to enhance the...

One Small Voice: Dan Rather's two-faced journalism Jimmy Yeh September 24, 2004 Amongst the storied figures that have shaped the media today, Dan Rather stands out as a pioneer in television news reporting. He has always fielded the tough questions that other reporters were scared to ask. When charges of sexual harassment cropped up as then-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for governor of California, Rather asked pointed questions like, “If your wife came to you and said that some man had groped and grabbed her, and she used words like ‘disgusted,’ ‘afraid,’ ‘humiliated’ to describe how she felt, as a...

When Keith Taylor was barely making ends meet as a financially struggling college student, he could always count on the generosity of his friends and family to help him get through the tough times. The memory of those lean days — and the small loans that helped him get by — stayed with him for more than a decade, eventually inspiring him in March 2002 to found Modest Needs, an innovative philanthropic organization that uses small donations to help people facing short-term financial problems. Now a professor of medieval British literature at Middle Tennessee State University (search), Taylor said it...

If you're flying Scenic Airlines from tiny North Las Vegas Airport to Merced, Calif., you won't be delayed by security procedures. The airport has no metal detectors, no screeners and no X-ray machines for luggage. Scenic flies 19-seat planes to other small western cities and plans to begin service soon to Palmdale, Calif., putting its turboprops within 60 miles of Los Angeles. Swift boarding at the North Las Vegas airport -- in contrast to the slow going at nearby McCarran International Airport -- is a selling point that Scenic highlights in its marketing pitches to travel agents, airports and passengers....

At one time, I had a successful IT consulting business as the sole proprietor and employee. Like many other IT folks, business dropped off a cliff. While trying to find either consulting or full-time work, I drew enough salary to keep my house and feed my family. Over that period of 1.5 years, I accumulated a lot of business debt, about $40,000, most of which is at a 6% rate as a line-of-credit, the rest in a business credit card. On top of that, I also racked up quite a bit of personal debt. I've had a full-time job for...

Hope this hasn't been posted before...I just can't think of a thing..;-)

Small US hospital makes big impact on Iran James Astill in Bam Friday January 2, 2004 The Guardian (UK) There was nothing grand about the opening of an American field hospital in devastated Bam yesterday, except the symbolism. The hospital was small, arrived late and according to many observers was surplus to requirements. But if little pebbles make big ripples, US-Iranian relations are headed for a thaw. Often blinking back tears, the 81-strong American team got to work with vigorous goodwill, openly appalled by the agonies inflicted by an earthquake inside a regime that George Bush has branded "evil". And...

After having fun with Taughannock Falls in New York a couple of weeks ago, here's a similar (and actually more famous) waterfall. Shouldn't be too hard to figure this one out. There are much better pictures of this waterfall on the Web, but they were labeled and gave away the location.

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 03 POX 186: Not So Long Ago Credit: Michael Corbin (CSC/STScI), William Vacca (MPE), NASA Explanation: Not so long ago and not so far, far away, a galaxy was born. Seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image, the island universe of stars, gas, and dust cataloged as POX 186 is a mere 68 million light-years distant toward an uncrowded region in the constellation Virgo. POX 186...