Free Republic

RUSH: We got great audio sound bites from Calypso Louie coming up. Calypso Louie's -- what is this thing being called tomorrow? The Million More March. You know, tomorrow is a fascinating day, ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow is showdown Saturday. This is Open Line Friday. Tomorrow is a Saturday that will test aspirations. It will test hopes and dreams. Will they reject the past and look to building a better future? If you think I'm talking about the referendum in Iraq, you're only partially correct. I am talking about that. They're going to be voting on the constitution there tomorrow....

Sperm donor to pay child supportFrom correspondents in Stockholm, Sweden 13-10-2005 From: Agence France-Presse A SWEDISH man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple must pay child support for the three children he fathered, Sweden's Supreme Court ruled today. The man, now 39, donated his sperm to the couple in the early 1990s. Three sons were born during the years 1992-1996, according to Swedish news agency TT which reported the ruling. The man told the court that he and the women had agreed that he would play no role in the boys' child rearing and that the two women...

Supporters overshadow protest by radical group The message they brought was hate. The words they used meant to hurt. But the answer they got was 'we don't,' and 'not here.' A protest on Sunday by a group of religious extremist who used the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq as a platform for their vitriolic anti-homosexual and anti-military message, prompted a spontaneous counter-protest by Morgan County residents more: Three Westboro Church members were dragging U.S. flags on the ground, occasionally walking on them and rubbing them in the dirt. But the protestors were far outnumbered.

INDIANAPOLIS - A judge who ordered two Wicca believers to shield their son from their "non-mainstream" faith overstepped his authority, an appeals court said Wednesday in dismissing the order. The Indiana Court of Appeals said state law gave a custodial parent the authority to determine a child's upbringing, including religious training. A judge could find that certain limitations were needed to protect a child from physical or emotional harm. The parents' appeal, brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, claimed among other issues that the decree was unconstitutionally vague because it did not define mainstream religion. But the appeals court...

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...

As well as being extraordinarily popular, the [Harry Potter] books have encouraged millions of children to start reading for the first time.... For those who have a problem with the idea of fantasy and alternative universes alongside ours, we need to recognize that almost all children play imaginative games in their minds starting at a very young age and have no difficulty whatsoever in distinguishing between fantasy and reality.... Additionally, the Harry Potter books send a strong message about moral order. There are beautiful and enjoyable human relationships among the characters, and there is a depth of commitment and service...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

Christian right sets up shop ANALYSIS / Welcome to post-SSM trench warfare Gareth Kirkby / Capital Xtra / Thursday, July 14, 2005 Something changed in Canada during the national debate over same-sex marriage. We now live in a new period of religious anger. Of extremist rhetoric. Of evangelical absolutism. Our community needs to get ready for US-style trench warfare as a new generation of religious Canadians start to flex their still weak, but growing, muscles in the public square. A sleeping giant has been awoken by Canada's debate about same-sex civil marriage rights: the Christian right. Their engagement in the...

Environmental groups: Proposed winter shutdowns aren't enough Wind farm operators in the Altamont Pass are offering to shut down half of their electricity-producing windmills during the winter to reduce bird deaths and to replace them all with more modern machines within 13 years. But the proposal, which Alameda County officials will consider Thursday, comes with strings attached. The offer is good only if an environmental group drops its lawsuit over the deaths of thousands of birds. The Center for Biological Diversity says it won't drop the suit it filed against wind farm operators in November because their plan to reduce...

Washington, D.C.–In a letter to House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA), the American Policy Center (APC) and over 50 public policy groups called for an end to the federal government’s unconstitutional practice of taking land and property rights under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Chairman Pombo plans to make reauthorizing the ESA a priority of the current Congress. "There are some who claim that the Act needs to be ‘strengthened,’ ‘updated,’ or ‘modernized,’" said APC president Tom DeWeese. "How absurd. For three decades this law has done nothing but steal property, destroy economies, shatter livelihoods, cost billions of dollars,...

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for shooting whales. Get a bunch of tourists, put them on boat, send it out to the North Pacific and let them fire off some rounds for an hour or two. Of course the ammunition used would be Kodak and Fuji stock, but it's a lot more humane than blowing them up. And it doesn't make the water go all red. With the exception of some Japanese and Scandinavian fisherman, a few Japanese scientists and the Japanese government, in the minds of most people -- whale hunting ranks up there with clubbing baby seals...

June 05, 2005 American Left Remains On Fringe Of Society Joe Bell One of the most deeply held objectives of the American left is the overwhelming obsession to remove any vestige of God from American history. Earlier this year The Nation ran an article titled "Our Godless Constitution" by Brooke Allen, which made an intrepid, yet failed, effort to rewrite America's past. Bouncing from the Declaration of Independence to the Founding Fathers to the Constitution the writer battled gamely to prove America was "founded not on Christian principles, but on Enlightenment ones." The Enlightenment offered much in the advancement of...

Taken here in Columbia this afternoon..first time sign was seen. Sad, eh?

Thrown within 100 feet of Bush on stage. Pin was pulled. Georgian securiy got it. Thats all from NBC news.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration ended a 4-year-old ban on development in roadless areas of national forests Thursday. The move could pave the way for oil and gas drilling, logging, mining and road building in 34.3 million acres of untouched woods. The new rule gives governors of pro-development Western states greater say over forest management in their states, which environmental groups fear will lead to development that threatens fish and wildlife in pristine areas. The first intrusions into the forests will probably be by natural gas drilling rigs rather than chainsaws and timber mills because of market forces, according to...

WASHINGTON - The admission rate for those who seek treatment for marijuana use nearly tripled between 1992 and 2002, according to the latest data compiled by the federal government. The numbers released Friday reflect a growing use of marijuana in the 1990s and an increase in the potency of marijuana, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This report makes clear what people in the public health community have known for years, which is marijuana is a much more dangerous drug than many Americans realize," Riley said. "This report is a wake...

Cites concerns about Roman Catholics, other faiths KEN GARFIELD Staff Writer One of Charlotte's best-known churches has withdrawn support for a food pantry that serves the needy because the pantry works with Roman Catholics. Central Church of God explained its decision in a letter March 1 from minister of evangelism Shannon Burton to Loaves & Fishes in Charlotte: "As a Christian church, we feel it is our responsibility to follow closely the (principles) and commands of Scripture. To do this best, we feel we should abstain from any ministry that partners with or promotes Catholicism, or for that matter, any...

CANBERRA, Apr 6 (IPS) - A major oil producer ExxonMobil has sponsored a seminar featuring leading Australian and global sceptics disputing the science behind the Kyoto Treaty, ahead of two important international conferences this week backing the need for substantial reductions in greenhouse emissions. Richard Dennis, the Deputy Director of the Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute, dismissed the ExxonMobil-sponsored seminar in Parliament House on Monday as designed ''to muddy the waters'' over climate science in the eyes of key decision makers. ''The explicit strategic objective of these companies is not to win this debate but to postpone it ......

The International Climate Change Task Force, established by the liberal American Center for Progress, among others, to develop long-term solutions to global warming has warned that the planet could reach a "point of no return" in ten years, when ice around the North Pole completely melts away. But Scottish scientists working at the Norwegian Polar Institute say the melting sea ice is merely part of a natural global cycle and will soon be coming back. After researching 300 years worth of logbooks made by Arctic explorers, climatologist Chad Dick now believes the ice expands and contracts over regular periods of...

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jamie Licko, Downtown District executive director, isn’t ready to give in to the swarms of defecating crows that have been dirtying Greene Square Park for years. It’s not good enough, Licko says, to just take another round of disgusting photos, write another angry story, have downtown officials scream at City Hall again for help. ‘‘It’s been a constant issue, and it should be something that’s fixable,’’ she said Tuesday. ‘‘I don’t think it’s something we can keep talking about and not doing anything about.’’ Licko said the crow-dropping problem in and near the downtown park has been...

The Governor of Ohio, Bob Taft, and other prominent state officials, commute to their downtown Columbus offices on Broad Street. This is the so-called “Golden Finger,” the safe route through the majority black inner-city near east side. The Broad Street BP station, just east of downtown, is the place where affluent suburbanites from Bexley can stop, gas up, get their coffee and New York Times. Those in need of cash visit BP’s Diebold manufactured CashSource+ ATM machine which provides a paper receipt of the transaction to all customers upon request.

Sea creatures make chemicals similar to those spewed out by human factories. Noxious chemicals found in whale blubber may not be entirely artificial, research shows. Some of the compounds, which resemble the environmentally polluting chemicals we create as flame retardants, may be produced by sponges and other sea creatures. Scientists have known for years that certain artificial chemicals in the environment can accumulate in animals, especially in predators that eat other contaminated animals. Such tenacious molecules, called halogenated organic compounds, include the toxic pesticide DDT. Recently, a group of similar compounds was identified in marine animals, but its source was...

The New York Times has now reviewed Michael Crichton's latest novel State of Fear twice, both times scathingly. In the Sunday Book Review Section on January 29th, the reviewer, Bruce Barcott, an editor of Outside Magazine, pins the left's ultimate smear on the author - that his book resembles nothing so much as an Ann Coulter-style assault from the right on the accepted wisdom about man made climate change, namely global warming resulting from our emissions of “greenhouse “ gases. Crichton's book, despite the less than critical acclaim from reviewers, has moved to number 4 on the Times fiction best...

Now, I realize, ladies and gentlemen, for many of you this is a depressing day and in fact, it is the most depressing day of the year according to a psychologist in the UK. Doctor's name is Cliff Arnalls, and he has a formula that he uses to calculate misery, and he says that your misery will peak to-day. "He specializes in seasonal disorders at the University of Cardiff in Wales and he created a formula that takes into account numerous feelings to devise people's lowest point." Now, I'm not going to mess with leading you the formula but I'll...

For 16 months since Amie Huguenard and Timothy Treadwell died in the jaws of a bear at Kaflia Bay on the Katmai Coast, I have been waking up at night with thoughts of this 37-year-old Midwestern woman I never knew. I can't get free of the words in an e-mail from an old boyfriend, sent months after Huguenard's death. "Amie had a kind of naivete about her that added a real sweetness to her entire persona,'' Stephen Bunch wrote. "At times it was easy to convince her of things that were not entirely true. We would let her in on...

TITUSVILLE, Fla., Jan. 12 (UPI) -- An inch-long worm that lives in coral reefs is getting the blame for the erosion of beaches along the east coast of Florida. Two of the four hurricanes that hit Florida this year targeted the Atlantic Coast, badly damaging the beaches. The sabellariid worm is preventing previous and future beach rebuilding projects, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday. The federal government can't provide any funding for beach nourishment until a study of the worm's habitat is completed. That would mean no new sand until 2010. "That worm is not endangered. It can go anywhere," oceanside...

For most observers the South Asian tsunami disaster appears to be one of the most devastating tragedies in modern history. But some environmentalists are actually celebrating the tidal wave that killed nearly 200,000 people, saying it rid the coastal area of development and other forms of human contamination. "This whole area was littered with commercialism," regular visitor Greg Ferrando told the Associated Press on Friday as he surveyed the damage in Phuket, Thailand. "There were hundreds of beach chairs out here. I prefer the sand." "Everyone is talking about it. It looks much better now," he added. "This looks a...

Cattle Video Stirs Kosher Meat Debate Tue Dec 28, 7:55 AM ET Top Stories - Los Angeles Times By Stephanie Simon Times Staff Writer The beef is produced according to ancient Jewish law: A trained rabbi makes a swift cut across each animal's neck with a long, sharp knife. The blood drains quickly from the meat. Orthodox rabbis supervise the process and certify the beef as kosher. But when an animal rights activist went undercover at one of the nation's top kosher slaughterhouses, he found practices that had raised deep concerns among some observant Jews. The activist, from the group...

(Note: The subtitle is NATURALLY a negative spin; "Chilean Town bears brunt of radiation") PUNTA ARENAS, Chile - The worst of the ozone hole has pulled back once more to Ant-arctica this southern spring, leaving behind a shadow of uncertainty for the people living at the bottom of the Americas. How many will develop skin cancer in years to come? How many more decades must their children live with dangerous ultraviolet rays? Will the global treaty to save the ozone survive until then? The people of windblown Punta Arenas, like the local evergreens forever bent eastward from westerly gusts, are...

The following is the result of a biology class in human ecology that I took this past semester (Fall 2004) as a freshman in college. The assignment was to gather ten articles and write some commentaries about them, challenging the ideas, presenting alternative ideas, or offering original thoughts. It was entirely my idea to make the journal focus primarily on global warming, particularly as a result of the bio teacher, and how greenie “we’re killing the earth” type stuff she was believing in. (She wasn’t necessarily a sniveling liberal, or a fringe kook, I believe she sincerely believed what she...

Drudge has posted an article stating that 2004 was among the hottest summers on record.But as I've been telling fellow freepers for a while now, I just got through doing a bunch of research to locate articles debunking Global Warming, and once I get them all put together, I'll post them for everyone. But one of the articles I found stated that 2004 was one of the coolest summers on record, according to NOAA Weather's website.*Scratches head* I'm so confused! But then again, the UN is the one behind Kyoto, which IS based on faulty science.

Here they go again. This week, 5,400 delegates from 189 countries have gathered in Buenos Aires for what's called COP 10, the 10th annual conference of the parties to the United Nations agreement to combat climate change. That agreement spawned the Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed nations to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels like petroleum and coal) 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. I have been attending these extravaganzas for five years now, and they are an exercise, in the grandly self-important style of the U.N., in wheel-spinning and America-bashing....

ACCORDING to the Kyoto protocol proponents, Australia and the US are the rogue nations. But in the eyes of the absolute majority of the world, they are reasonable and smart. After all, Australia and the US -- along with nine developed countries and 167 other nations -- are refusing to undertake legal obligations in restricting their greenhouse gas emissions. The fact is the Kyoto protocol that will be a global treaty within months is based on fraudulent science. Assertions that global temperatures are higher today than any time in the past are completely false. Fluctuations in climate patterns have existed...

Michael Crichton's new novel "State Of Fear." (2005)

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A visit to church may be good for the soul but not so good for the lungs, a new study shows. Scientists from Maastricht University found that burning candles and incense in church can release dangerous levels of potentially carcinogenic particles, according to research published this week in the European Respiratory Journal. "After a day of candle burning we found about 20 times as much as by a busy road," Theo de Kok, the author of the study, told Reuters. "These levels were so unbelievably high we thought we should report it to the public." The air...

WATERLOO NY — They’re not in the belfry and may not even be along the proposed canal trail, but a few flying mammals have the Seneca County Board of Supervisors going a tad batty. Members agreed Tuesday, in a split decision, not to spend up to $5,000 for engineers to identify endangered Indiana bat habitats and wetlands as an unanticipated part of a contract with Clough Harbour & Associates engineering firm to design the trail from Geneva to the village of Waterloo. The trail, still in the beginning stages, would run along an old railroad bed on the south side...

Folks, these guys have lost it! Bush blew up the WTC! Listen for a few laughs!!!

"I will take a look at the exit polls and compare their accuracy in the various states. I will be very interested in any state where the exit polls vary greatly from the actual vote tally reported by our faith-based voting machines.. In the absence of actual paper ballots, this could be an indicator of malfunction or fraud."

Fri Oct 29, 1:12 PM ET Anti-Bush protesters chant and hold up signs at a campaign rally for President Bush (news - web sites) at Verizon Wireless Arena Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 in Manchester, N.H. The protesters where blaming Bush for the 386 tons of explosives missing in Iraq (news - web sites) while the U.S. has been in control. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

here are the 10 Most Read Articles on NYTimes.com over the last two weeks (as of 11 a.m. ET, Oct. 27). 1) Without a Doubt By RON SUSKIND Published: October 17, 2004 2) Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER Published: October 25, 2004 3) Editorial: John Kerry for President Published: October 17, 2004 4) The O'Reilly Factor for Lesbians By FRANK RICH 5) The Strategy to Secure Iraq Did Not Foresee a 2nd War By MICHAEL R. GORDON 6) Poll Shows Tie; Concerns Cited on Both Rivals...

Putin readies measure on global warming for a vote in parliament MOSCOW -- Key ministries of the Russian government began the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol yesterday, signaling that President Vladimir V. Putin is preparing to put the landmark global-warming treaty to a vote in parliament. After weeks of behind-the-scenes meetings aimed at weighing costs and benefits, including Russia's possible admission later this year into the World Trade Organization, Putin directed his Cabinet ministers to ''sign as soon as possible" the draft ratification documents, the first step toward allowing Russia to join the 1997 accord. The Ministry of Natural...

We are New Yorkers** adamantly opposed to the Republican's selection of our city to celebrate rising unemployment, their gutting of social services, tax cuts for the mega-rich, unlawful detention of immigrants, and their unrelenting exploitation of the 9/11 victims while standing on their ashes. more...

NEW YORK - One group intends to stage the "World's Largest Unemployment Line," with pink slips stretching from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden. Another plans to frame Ground Zero with bell-ringing activists, intent on shielding the space from what they see as Republican Party exploits. Advocates for abortion rights are expected to rally. So are labor unions. A group of librarians operating as "Radical Reference" will take crowd questions on all things protest-related. And then there is the more direct path to roiling the Republican National Convention advocated by some self-described anarchists and veteran political protesters: Sit-ins at delegate...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge on Wednesday denied anti-Bush protesters permission to rally in Central Park on the eve of the Republican National Convention, leaving open the question of where possibly hundreds of thousands of demonstrators will go after a march through midtown Manhattan. The decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann is the latest in a running legal battle between the protest group and the city. She sided with city officials, who say they fear the grass on the park's Great Lawn would be damaged and security could not be ensured for the huge crowd. The...

The Sierra Club this week attacked the President for supposedly showing "reckless disregard" by failing to warn the public of alleged health risks posed by "toxic" smoke from the World Trade Center rubble. "The desire to reopen Wall Street cannot justify placing civilian safety at risk," asserted the Sierra Club. Now there's no question that lower Manhattan residents were exposed to varying levels of smoke, dust and fumes — including asbestos, mineral fibers and a soup of chemicals — as a result of the WTC collapse on and after Sept. 11. There's also no question that some residents developed new,...

US Newswire WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 Contrary to popular myth the Earth is not warming significantly, according to new research published last month in Geophysical Research Letters by scientists with the universities of Rochester and Virginia. The reports note two important findings that run counter to the view that human activity is causing catastrophic global warming. "It's been known for some time that satellites and surface thermometers give different temperature trends," said one of the reports' co-authors Prof. S. Fred Singer, president of the Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP). "We now have independent confirmation that the satellite results are correct...

The mainstream media and their poster-child, George W. Bush, would have us believe that only "the fringe" believe that Bush is an illegitimate President. They present us as "the fringe" in order to marginalize us and attempt to silence us. Rather than arguing with this characterization, we have chosen to embrace it proudly. When a piece of fabric - or a government - begins to unravel, you get fringe. When it unravels completely, you're left with nothing but fringe. We the People are "the Fringe". We're NOT going to go away, and we're NOT going to shut up. Get used...

A top adviser to Britain's two most powerful animal rights protest groups caused outrage last night by claiming that the assassination of scientists working in biomedical research would save millions of animals' lives. To the fury of groups working with animals, Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and prominent figure in the anti-vivisection movement, told The Observer: 'I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that it will be effective.' Vlasak, who likens animal...

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The Saddam-9/11 Link Confirmed By Laurie Mylroie FrontPageMagazine.com | May 11, 2004 Important new information has come from Edward Jay Epstein about Mohammed Atta’s contacts with Iraqi intelligence. The Czechs have long maintained that Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States, met with Ahmed al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence official, posted to the Iraqi embassy in Prague. As Epstein now reports, Czech authorities have discovered that al-Ani’s appointment calendar shows a scheduled meeting on April 8, 2001 with a "Hamburg student." That is exactly what the Czechs had been saying since shortly after 9/11: Atta, a long-time student...