Free Republic

When the U.N. Fails, We All Do 'In a sense things got better after the peacekeepers left,' Rusesabagina told me. 'People realized no one was going to help them'By Fareed Zakaria NewsweekDec. 13 issue - You have never heard of Paul Rusesabagina. But if you watch the stunning new movie "Hotel Rwanda," you will never forget him. The movie tells the true story of Rusesabagina, an "ordinary" Rwandan, a hotel manager, who was able to shelter and save more than 1,200 people—Tutsis and Hutus—in the midst of the Rwandan genocide. He is a Rwandan Schindler, who in a series of...

The Washington Post had a story on Monday that contained possibly the greatest hint to a sitting cabinet secretary to start looking for another job that has ever been printed. The article reported, "One senior administration official said Treasury Secretary John W. Snow can stay as long as he wants, provided it is not very long." Provided it is not very long! Yo, Mr. Secretary, I'd say someone in the White House wants you gone! If I were you, I wouldn't renew any leases for more than a month at a time - or buy any really green bananas for...

Scientists in South Korea are reporting today that they have created the world's first mature, cloned human embryos -- an advance that could speed the development of new therapies but also brings scientists a big step closer to being able to make cloned babies. Each embryo was grown from a cell taken from a woman, a form of reproduction -- or, more precisely, replication -- never before achieved in humans. There was no contribution from a father.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today warned the world could slide “into brute competition based on the laws of the jungle” and that the “War on Terrorism” declared by the United States in the wake of the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington could sharpen global tensions and endanger human rights and civil liberties. Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Annan also called for the abolition of agricultural subsidies in rich countries and urged business leaders to swing support behind efforts to meet the Millennium Goals he set in the year 2000 to conquer poverty...

Well, for those of you brave enough to still lay claim to the land of the “fruitier and nuttier” as home on the Left Coast—and not yet taken up residence in an undisclosed cave somewhere in upper-Montana—then, perhaps you have heard of the reckless abandon on the part of Gov. Davis for not only signing SB 60—“Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Immigrants”—into state law, but also of his latest attack on foster care families and the Golden State’s credibility (or, rather, what’s left of it)—by penning his authorization to a bill that would require all foster parents, and foster parents who...

We all know le problème: we are a nation of monoglots, linguistically challenged and so culturally inferior and economically constrained. Only one in four of us can claim to speak in foreign tongues, whereas our chic European chums babble away in a veritable Babel. European governments have lobbied, and the British Government has responded: from 2010 every primary school shall teach foreign. It’s a further good intention paving the road to ruin of our education system. We should shrug off our linguistic hang-ups, and instead of reinforcing language teaching, abolish it tout de suite. Ordering everyone to learn another language...

The US government is planning to demand a radical overhaul of the UN weapons inspections regime if Iraq today denies in a formal declaration that it possesses weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration will ask for the UN inspection teams to be reinforced with scores of new investigators who would be "refocused" on seizing documents and questioning Iraqi officials, spiriting some of them out of the country with their families for in-depth interviews, according to officials in Washington. However, Washington's demands are likely to bring to a head a simmering quarrel with the UN weapons inspectors over how they...

Hate Crimes Bill Passes Pa. House Goes to Governor for Signature or Veto After a 90-minute debate, HB 1493, which adds “sexual orientation,” “gender” and “gender” identity to Pennsylvania’s “ethnic intimidation” statute, passed the House by a vote of 118-79. Having already passed the State Senate last year, the measure now goes to Governor Mark Schweiker. He can either sign it, making it law in Pennsylvania, or veto it, which will kill the legislation. Please Call Governor Mark Schweiker at (717) 787-2500 or (800) 932-0784, and urge him to veto House Bill 1493, the “Hate Crimes Amendment." Reasons Why HB...