Free Republic

Excerpt: SEOUL - South Korean police said Friday they have arrested members of a major drug-trafficking ring with suspected links to Afghanistan's Taleban insurgents. ‘Police have rounded up a drug-trafficking ring involving Afghans andPakistanis who are suspected of being linked with the Taleban,’ a National Police Agency spokesman told AFP. ‘They are suspected to trying to smuggle raw materials for heroin production into Afghanistan,’ he said. Police said two Afghans, three Pakistanis and four Koreans tried to use South Korea as a shipping point for several tons of acetic anhydride destined for southern Afghanistan. The chemical is heated with morphine,...

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

NEW DELHI: It's a simple act, yet most of us neglect it. We tend to take it lightly, sometimes dismissing it as unnecessary, little realising its importance. Yet, grandma’s advice about washing hands still holds true. Every time we scrub our hands clean, killer germs get washed away. Though various studies have established that washing hands with soap reduces the risk of normal diarrhoea by nearly half and life-threatening diarrhoea by more than half, very few people take this seriously. In fact, a study conducted in West Bengal and Tripura last year found that only 49% washed their hands after...

there is money to be made in the business of "fighting crime"From nailing seat belt offenders to grabbing druggies to arresting thugs there is money to be made in the buisinessand selling protection in every from insurance to anti-virus software feeds off the mal-activity in our societyso let's don't put a lot of good folks out of business by reducing or eliminating mal-activity. good jobs are scarce these days

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reported last month that a teenager who has been depressed in the past year was more than twice as likely to have used marijuana than teenagers who have not reported being depressed (25 percent compared with 12 percent). The study said marijuana use increased the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent. So much for the "harmless" nature of pot. There are more worrisome statistics still. The 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that among Americans age 12 and older there were 14.8 million current users of...

OAKLAND -- The fact that fireworks are illegal and potentially dangerous did not prevent many Oakland residents from setting them off on Friday night. KTVU's Amber Lee found adults and children playing with fireworks on 100th Avenue. "I spent a hundred dollars for my kids, for the Fourth of July", said Vitalino Acabal of Oakland. He insisted it was just part of summer vacation fun. A few blocks away, a four year old girl and her 12 year old brother were setting off bottle rockets. Their 15 year old sister said their parents weren't home, but it's part of her...

FOR five gruelling months, Carol Kanga suffered through treatment for a life-threatening case of throat cancer linked to an unlikely source: a sexually transmitted viral infection. Unable to swallow food or water during chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Kanga was fed through a stomach tube. "The radiation basically burns the skin off the outside and inside of your throat," said Kanga, 52. "It's like there's a fire inside your neck." Kanga's treatment was successful, but the virus that struck her is causing increasing concern among some researchers who think it is causing a small-scale epidemic of throat cancer. That virus, scientists...

Austin, TX (AHN) - Watermelon rinds could be the new natural aphrodisiac, new research has shown. Researchers from Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center say the fruit's rind can have a Viagra-like effect.The flesh and rind of watermelons contain citrulline, which reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed in large quantities. The compound is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems. Just like the popular Viagra and other drugs meant to treat erectile dysfunction (ED), it also helps relax and dilate blood vessels. Researchers are now working on breeding watermelons...

Just for purposes of curiosity: Do you plan to travel for the July 4th weekend? and why or wny not? Pesonally, i wasn't planning on it, but that's par for the course. It's been years and years since i sought to go anywhere but to the local fireworks celebration, and I think this has saved me much grief. But, if I were one to go to big amusement parks, or going to visit relatives, I still would likely not go this year, not because of panic, or being so short of funds that I could not literally buy the gas...

Stay tuned to Townhall.com Thursday morning as Townhall Magazine contributor Fred Thompson addresses the National Right to Life conference live online at Townhall.com. Fred Thompson's speech is scheduled for 10:20am.

* MISTRESS: I GOT HIRED JUST FOR SEX If Christie Brinkley wanted to utterly humiliate her two-timing husband, she sure as hell got her wish yesterday. In a gasp-inducing first day of their divorce trial, the supermodel's lawyers exposed her wayward husband, Peter Cook, as a sex-crazed, porn-obsessed pervert who hired an 18-year-old girl at his architectural firm just to get her into bed. The normally staid Suffolk County courthouse in Central Islip turned into an adults-only peep show when the 49-year-old cad admitted under oath that he habitually ogles online pornography, (gratifies himself) in front of strangers via a...

Hollywood goes with what works and, let's face it, there are a few things audiences like to see again and again in their movies. The underdog wins big, the loser gets his dream girl, Batman is awesome, etc. But there are some themes that are either so wrong, stupid or harmful that they need to be retired once and for all. Such as ...

Consider the following quotation: "In Mecklenburg at this time a very primitive type of Feudalism existed, known as "Inherited Serfdom". The land owners controlled the economy and ruled their estates with absolute authority. The peasants were dependant entirely on the nobles who could even buy and sell them with or without their property, and the tax rate had to be reviewed every two to three years, and was usually increased at that time. They could not acquire any more land than they already had. Their Landlords produced crops for export from their vast estates by using the labour of these...

This is a powerful piece on what politicians have been saying about energy for 30 years! This is a fantastic video of a montage of politicians and their promises about energy and energy independence. Wow... nothing has change except the price of oil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWZ_4EXeyaA

"Congrats, newly minted NBA rookie! Now you've been drafted. Next comes the delicious multimillion-dollar contract. And that's when you must do what most NBA players do: start going through cash like Jack Black through the Keebler factory." "All kinds of athletes wind up with nothing but lint in their pockets. And if everyone from Johnny Unitas to Sheryl Swoopes to Lawrence Taylor can do it, so can you! With my How to Go Bankrupt* DVD series, it's a layup to go belly-up!" "Ten essentials, just to get you started:" "2). Buy a house the size of Delaware. Evander Holyfield was...

Forty-two-year-old Janelle Batkins of Harrison Township pleaded Thursday to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Macomb County Circuit Court. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is treated as such for sentencing.

GUILDERLAND -- Hundreds of people packed a Guilderland school board meeting Tuesday evening to protest the controversial reassignment of two popular teachers. Dozens of current and former students of Matt Nelligan and Anne Marie McManus spoke against the move even though board members walked out and refused to hear the messages of support in a public forum. There were howls from the crowd and calls to vote board members out of office after President Richard Weisz referred to the involuntary transfer of the teachers to Farnsworth Middle School as a personnel matter that could not be discussed. Nelligan and McManus,...

When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer, according to an old ad campaign. And, as Milwaukee-area beer lovers are discovering, a lot of places are out of Schlitz, at least in the bottled form. Within days of the Schlitz 1960s formula being brought back to Milwaukee, the beer was largely sold out - snapped up by both older guys who remember the beer from back in the day, and younger drinkers curious about the fuss. A new shipment is coming to liquor stores and taverns beginning Wednesday, but it will be relatively small, said Mike Merriman, president of...

The shamefaced soon-to-be ex-husband of Christie Brinkley burst into tears in Long Island divorce court today ....

　　　　　　 　　　　World Journal, Posted: Jun 30, 2008 　　　　 　　　　BEIJING – One person was killed, 150 injured and 200 arrested when the Guizhou Province government cracked down on rioters in Weng’an County June 28, the World Journal reports. Over 500 high school students and local people started the insurrection because a 16-year-old girl had been raped and killed, and local government and police turned a blind eye on it. According to the World Journal, it all began when the victim refused to help one of her female classmates cheat on a test. Later, the girl was raped and killed by three...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/01/lynching.investigation/index.html

All of us will die some day. We think we'll start every article with that from now on, just to set the right tone. But death isn't all bad. Because in addition to ungrateful kids and a foul smell, you get to leave behind bat**** insane requests that people pretty much have to honor.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who built a national reputation pushing cutting-edge -- and controversial -- policies on same-sex marriage, healthcare and other issues, today launched an exploratory bid for governor. His move placed the 40-year-old, two-term mayor out in front of a large Democratic field eyeing the race to succeed Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is barred by term limits from running again in 2010. Newsom said he expected to decide by year's end whether to proceed with a full-fledged candidacy.

Have a look at this original video of a 2 year old girl being brainwashed right into Islam's hateful beliefs. The remarks on Jews and Christians alone is enough to send chills down your spine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3m3t87-dk

"No beauty products, No sissy male models, No wimpy articles - Just pure raw masculine information and ideas for real men"

How Same-Sex 'Marriage' Will Harm Christians It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else. That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church. As my friend Jennifer Roback Morse notes in the National Catholic Register, “Legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ is not a stand-alone policy . . . Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce...

Fleeing from St. Charles Parish authorities, a River Ridge man drove a stolen Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office squad car into the Mississippi River early Sunday, according to both law enforcement agencies. David Mitchell Jr., 22, of River Ridge managed to get out of the car as it started to sink about 30 yards from the river bank, said Capt. Patrick Yoes of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. A towboat operator dragged Mitchell aboard after he struggled in the current for some time. The incident started in Metairie at about 6:10 a.m., when a Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputy, after investigating...

Fishing in the stream of consciousness, researchers now can detect our intentions and predict our choices before we are aware of them ourselves. The brain, they have found, appears to make up its mind 10 seconds before we become conscious of a decision -- an eternity at the speed of thought.Their findings challenge conventional notions of choice. "We think our decisions are conscious," said neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, who is pioneering this research. "But these data show that consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg. This doesn't rule out free...

I beg commentary on this article as I am wholly unable to bring myself to do so. Seeking guidance and common sense.

Police have named the female suspect wanted for a double shooting in Newark that killed an 18-year-old girl celebrating her high school graduation. Sujeidi Ocasio and another teen were shot at a graduation party outside 196 Lincoln Avenue just after 12:15 a.m. Ocasio was rushed to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Authorities say the single bullet, allegedly fired by 18-year-old Nicole Guyette, went through Ocasio's neck and struck 15-year-old Jasmine Perez. Perez was treated and released from University Hospital in Newark, officials say. "She got shot for no reason," Perez said. "So the bullet went through her and...

VIDEO: Watch Fox 5's coverageA man being sought for shooting and killing his estranged wife to death while she watched one of their children swim at a Montclair YMCA had been ordered in October to have no contact with her. Kenneth A. Duckett was under a restraining order that specified no contact with Monica Paul, but allowed him to have visitation rights with their two children, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.  "Basically, it was like a curbside drop-off," Loriquet said. The couple had separated in August, but it was unclear when they had...

I have never posted a vanity, so I hope I did this correctly - I'd like to propost that every year, June 26 be recognized by lovers of freedom everywhere as "Heller Day." We could all gather our loved ones for a day of target practice and have a barbecue or something. Let's all remember the day that the Supreme Court declared the obvious: we have an individual right to bear arms.

A few years ago, when the tyrant of Zimbabwe was moving from being wicked to being downright evil, I wrote that we should invade Harare, depose him, and supervise free elections. Invited to appear on a BBC programme to defend this stance, I was assailed by an "Africa expert" who told me that diplomatic pressure on Mugabe was bound to work, that the idea of sending the Parachute Regiment in to sort the monster out was offensively colonialist, and that I was wrong. Miliband: getting the message at last White liberals like him are as much to blame for the...

Okay, I'm waiting for Republicans to go on the attack here. If Democrats hold up drilling, aren't we then, in theory, using up more of the world's existing supplies? When is the GOP going to get clever here? This is such an easy position to take. By not drilling, we are using more of our foreign neighbor's supplies, an argument the Dems have used against us for decades. Also, ethanol taps into our food supply. If we use our food to make fuel, then we have less food to feed the poor. That's downright "evil"! Another dacades old Dem argument....

London, UK (AHN) - The resident of a small island off the coast of Scotland has declared its independence from the United Kingdom. Stuart Hill, the owner of the island, wants it to be a crown dependency, similar to the Channel Islands. According to a statement on his Web site, Hill, who owns Forvik, a 2.5-acre island in the Shetland Islands, declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the British government or the European Union. Hill, 65, landed on the small island in 2001 when his boat capsized there during an attempt to circumnavigate Britain. As the island's...

WALL-E: A Gloom-E Satire June 27, 2008 - by Kyle Smith WALL-E is a cornucopia of filth, dust, rust and roaches, but if I wanted all of that I’d go back to my first New York City apartment. Compared to other kid flicks (or adult flicks, or even Ingmar Bergman flicks), this is one Gloom-E piece of work. WALL-E is the last (sort of) living creature on earth, a bedraggled and lonesome robot who spends his days in a befouled metropolis that makes the one in I Am Legend look like Oz. The earth has been made uninhabitable by junk...

A pair of former Ware Shoals High School students have filed lawsuits against Ware Shoals School District 51 and its board of trustees in relation to the district’s employment of ex-cheerleading coach and guidance clerk Jill Moore. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of the two WSHS graduates -- one a former cheerleader, the other a former Hornets’ football player -- by Charleston attorney Lionel Lofton. “This is a civil lawsuit being brought by two former Ware Shoals High School students,” Lofton said Wednesday. Each lawsuit levies four causes of action against the district and its board, including gross negligence,...

When you look at someone's tattoo, all you really know about that person is that they have low self esteem and at least enough money to purchase a tattoo. That's pretty much it. Well, we told you to show us what tattoos would look like if they were honest, and you did. If more people got tattoos like these, it'd be quite a time saver.

Do you agree with the U.S. Supreme Court's handgun ban decision?

Just a thought to honor charlton heston. wish he were here to see the supremes uphold gun ownership as a right,

'I'm not trying to get attention. I'm here standing up for liberty'Declaring that she is standing up for individual liberty on Independence Day, near-nude rollerblader Jen Moss says she will go topless wearing a G-string and the crown of Lady Liberty at Ashland's Fourth of July parade, but will stay on sidewalks and other areas where she isn't banned. The Ashland Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the annual parade, has received overwhelming support for its decision not to approve Moss' application to participate, said chamber spokeswoman Katharine Flanagan. The chamber's parade permit gives it control of Main Street, Siskiyou Boulevard...

I have not read much beyond that the SC struck this down but my first question is - can I now drive through DC with a hand-gun?

Ladies and gentlemen, as you now know, the DC gun ban is struck down. I'm a DC resident looking to take full advantage of my restored Rights! I've used guns in the past and fired a handgun before, and I'm looking to pick up a good arm. Right now I'm thinking a Glock as this is what law enforcement uses and in case of an incident it's better than the 'unsafe' perception of a single action. Does anyone know a good, reputable dealer in the DC Metro area? Particularly in NOVA?

A 60-year-old Palm Bay teacher was arrested late Wednesday on suspicion of having sex with one of her 17-year-old students, police said. The boy's mother complained that Adrienne Laflamme, who taught science at the Brevard County Juvenile Detention Center, picked her son up at home and had a four-week relationship with him, investigators said. The two had sex at least 15 times, police said, including one time that also involved another teenage boy. Laflamme, of Palm Bay, lent her car to the boy while she was on vacation but reported it stolen after a co-worker told her she was being...

Sorry for the vanity. I was doing some research this morning, went to Google Maps and noticed the "street view" option isn't on the menu. Has it been deleted? I know there have been some privacy issues and some communities have asked that street view not be used but has google caved and scrapped the whole thing? FWIW I think the privacy issues are mostly unfounded. If it's a public street and anyone can take a picture then google should be able to make street view available. If Google has pulled it, there could be wide ranging effects. What about...

An impromptu daily Savage thread.

I was listening to Hannity yesterday and he actually said something that I never thought about but - looking back - I should. Why does it take ten years to get oil out of the ground? Can someone provide an answer and is there an official site that can easily explain it to an idiot such as myself. Thank you.

Recent photos of an "uncontacted tribe" of Indians near the Brazil-Peru border have sparked media reports of a hoax, but the organization that released the images defends its claims and actions. The photographs, which showed men painted red and black and aiming arrows skyward, were released in late May by Survival International, a London-based organization that advocates for tribal people worldwide. The release stated that "members of one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been spotted and photographed from the air," and quoted the Brazilian government photographer saying, "there are some who doubt [the tribe's] existence" as justification for...

Cell-phone-driving ban takes effect July 1 in Washington On July 1, the new law takes effect in Washington that bans driving while using a hand-held cell phone.   OLYMPIA, Wash. — On July 1, the new law takes effect in Washington that bans driving while using a hand-held cell phone.Drivers caught holding a mobile phone to their ear risk a $124 ticket. To talk on a phone drivers should use a handsfree headset or speaker phone. But, the law allows exceptions for people reporting an emergency or crime.The violation is a so-called secondary offense. That means an officer must...

14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me. Make sure to click "watch in high quality" right underneath the video.