Free Republic

The world’s tallest church is slowly disintegrating at its base due to human urine. Officials responsible for upkeep of the Ulm Minster Church in Ulm, Germany, say the stone base of the tower is eroding due to salt and acids in urine from drunken revelers urinating on the base, CNN reports. The erosion has become such a problem that city officials doubled fines to 100 euros for anyone caught urinating. “I’ve been keeping an eye on it for half a year now and, once again, it’s coated with urine and vomit,” Michael Hilbert, the building’s head of maintenance, told Südwest...

Outsiders wonder if the U.N. Security Council will endorse Washington's goal of toppling Saddam Hussein. But policy insiders assume an American war and an American victory, followed by Iraq's rehabilitation. For insiders, the main issue is the extent of U.S. ambition in the Arabic-speaking countries after that's all done. This foreshadows the debate likely to dominate foreign-policy circles for decades: What should be America's role in the world? Let's eavesdrop. In the ambitious corner stands Middle East specialist Fouad Ajami, a Lebanese immigrant and professor at Johns Hopkins University. Writing in the liberal-leaning Foreign Affairs, he comments scathingly about the...