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U.S. MARINE CORPS FORCES, PACIFIC, CAMP H. M. SMITH, Hawaii (01-03-2006) -- If you are tired of trying to make Meal-Ready-to-Eat menus more palatable, then your search may be over. The field rations have progressed a long way from the C-rats of the past, and they continue to change even to this day. Four of the current 24 MREs have been removed and are being replaced by new and improved menus, according to the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, located in Natick, Mass. Usually the ASSC only replaces two MREs a year, but this year they wanted to give the...

KABUL, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Jan. 3, 2006) – One year can change the face of a nation. Afghanistan made significant advancements in 2005 toward autonomy and security. The changes started in the first few days of the new year. January The Ghazni Province held a women’s shura, or council, with the help of the Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team. The shura proposed to give the women of Ghazni more of a voice in government and was supported by the governor of Ghazni, Asadullah Khalid. February Afghanistan’s 120 cadets took their place in history when they reported for duty at the...

Disasters: Searching for Lessons From a Bad Year John Bohannon No doubt about it, the 12 months since the last Breakthrough of the Year issue have been an annus horribilis. Three major natural disasters--the 2004 "Christmas tsunami" in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the Pakistan earthquake--left nearly 300,000 dead and millions homeless. In Pakistan, the disaster is still unfolding as winter engulfs the devastated communities. Insurance companies classify such events as "acts of God": misfortunes for which no one is at fault. But in their aftermath, many scientists are pointing out that natural disasters...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, 2006 – President Bush visited Brooke Army Medical Center, at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, today to wish wounded troops undergoing treatment there a happy new year, thank them for their sacrifice, and present nine Purple Heart Medals. "I can't think of a better way to start 2006 than here at this fantastic hospital," Bush told reporters during a stop at the San Antonio post, where he met with 51 soldiers and Marines, most of them injured in Iraq. "This hospital is full of healers and compassionate people who care deeply about our men and women in uniform,"...

NEW YORK -- There was more to celebrate than the ball dropping in Times Square for Dick Clark _ the personality who's been ringing in the New Year for decades made his first television appearance since a stroke in late 2004. Clark, sitting behind a desk with the street scene in the background, sounded hoarse and occasionally was hard to understand, but he said, "I wouldn't have missed this for the world." "Last year I had a stroke," he explained. "It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a...

'tax cuts for the rich'... blah,blah Iraq quagmire,blah,blah, worst economy since Hoover. blah,blah, hurting the middle class, blah, medicaire cuts,,blah, education cuts ,blah,blah cut cuts, blah,blah no exit strategy, blah,blah, endangered caribou blah, Halliburton, gas prices,evil corporations, blah,blah, middle class,blah,blah,poor, heating costs, energy assistance programs cuts poor, blah,blah, cuts,cuts, blah, spying on middle class Americans, blah, leaks, blah,blah, middle class, liveable wage, blah,blah, Bush's fault. the end.

Ancients Rang In New Year with Dance, Beer By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Dec. 30, 2005 — Many ancient Egyptians marked the first month of the New Year by singing, dancing and drinking red beer until they passed out, according to archaeologists who have unearthed new evidence of a ritual known as the Festival of Drunkenness. During ongoing excavations at a temple precinct in Luxor that is dedicated to the goddess Mut, the archaeologists recently found a sandstone column drum dating to 1470-1460 B.C. with writing that mentions the festival. The discovery suggests how some Egyptians over 3,000 years ago...

Gasoline tax slated to rise on New Year's Day Lawmakers scramble to freeze nearly 3-cents hike From staff reports Macon County motorists are bracing for a state gasoline tax hike that will greet them at the pump on New Year's Day. On Sunday, the state tax on gasoline will jump by nearly 3 cents to a total of 29.9 cents per gallon. The increase will boost the tax to its highest level in state history. And North Carolina's gas tax will become the highest per gallon in the Southeast and the sixth highest in the U.S. The automatic tax also...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 27, 2005) -- A little more than one year ago, the Iraqi people faced a fierce insurgency in Fallujah, and the Marines were called in to correct it. The battle which caused its population to be displaced also caused damage to the city’s infrastructure. Now, Marines and coalition forces assist in rebuilding the city. Before the fight to clear the insurgent stronghold, Fallujah had a population of about 300,000 people, according to John K. Weston, U.S. State Department spokesman. By the time the attack was launched, the vast majority of the population left the area. After...

Germany to reopen 6,800-year-old mystery circle 20 December 2005 BERLIN - At the winter solstice this week, Germany is to open a replica of a mysterious wooden circle that is believed to be a temple of the sun built by a lost culture 6,800 years ago. The circle of posts, in a flat river plain at Goseck south of Berlin, has mystified scientists since its discovery in 1991 by an archaeologist studying the landscape from the air. An excavation found post holes and what may be the remains of ritual fires. Goseck has been dubbed the German Stonehenge, though it...

Greenwood, IN - An Indiana man is behind bars for intentionally leaving his girlfriend's children in a car in the frigid cold. On Sunday, police say Gary Willhoite left a six-year-old, a four-year-old, and a two-month old at a Greenwood gas station just south of Indianapolis. Authorities say he was angry with his girlfriend, so he left her kids in a car for six hours. By the time the children were found, police say ice had formed inside the car. Lt. Bob Dine with the Greenwood Police Department says, "The baby was in the car seat, had a wet diaper,...

2,800-year-old treasures brought to light Great archaeological progress has been made in the excavation of the large-scale ruins and the tombs of noble lords of the Zhou Dynasty (771-221 BC) in Liangdai Village of Hancheng, Shaanxi Province as learned from the Shaanxi Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on Sunday in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, reports the overseas edition of People's Daily on December 19. Great quantities of various treasures with a history of more than 2,800 years have been discovered through the initial excavation of the three large graves and one chariot and horse pit. They include...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 15, 2005) -- Buildings and structures still stand riddled with bullets, evidence of last year’s encounter in Fallujah where Marines battled insurgents. However, the marketplace was thriving as locals turned out for the National Election today. Two months after the constitutional referendum, the people from the city of 80 mosques supported democracy in a peaceful manner once again for the second time this year. “The Fallujahans support democracy and want peace,” said Mayor Dhari Youssef al Arsah. “They want unity for Iraq and a government that represents all of Iraq.” An estimated 108,000 Fallujah residents voted during...

Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California - Berkeley Alleged 40,000-year-old human footprints in Mexico much, much older than thought Berkeley -- Alleged footprints of early Americans found in volcanic rock in Mexico are either extremely old - more than 1 million years older than other evidence of human presence in the Western Hemisphere - or not footprints at all, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature. The study was conducted by geologists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and the University of California, Berkeley, as part of an investigative team of geologists and anthropologists from the...

Hurricane season finally ending, but next year could be bad, too By JOHN PAIN Associated Press Writer November 29. 2005 4:27PM The busiest and costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record officially - and mercifully - draws to a close Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of Americans still dealing with the devastation wrought by Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Despite the end of the June 1-to-Nov. 30 season, hurricanes could still form over the next few months. In fact, a tropical storm took shape in the Atlantic on Tuesday. But no hurricane has been known to hit the United States between December...

Two people die in horrendous car accident Posted: 11/23/2005 10:27 pm It is not yet known if weather was the cause of the accident Niles, MI - A deadly crash occurred Wednesday night near the Indiana/Michigan state line, on south 11th Street in Niles, just north of State Road 933. Two people died in a violent crash that left the cars completely mangled. At least three other people were hurt. One car ended up in a building, another smashed up like an accordion. One witness we spoke to was amazed that anyone was able to walk away. Linda Miller says,...

Archaeologists find 4,500-year-old fortune-telling instruments www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-23 19:09:12 BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A Chinese archaeologist said Wednesday that a 4,500-year-old jade tortoise and an oblong jade article discovered in east China's Anhui Province were China's earliest fortune-telling instruments found so far. The two jade objects were discovered in an ancient tomb in Lingjiatan Village, Hanshan County, Anhui Province. Gu Fang, an expert with the jadeware research committee under the China Society of Cultural Relics, told Xinhua that the jade tortoise is made up of a back shell and a belly shell. Several holes can be found on the jade...

1,700-year-old 'Roman Glass' Discovered in East China Glass remains over 1,700 years old, possibly imported from ancient Rome, have been discovered in an ancient tomb located in east China's Anhui Province, local cultural relic department said on Sunday. The tomb was found during the latest road project in Zhulong Village of Dangtu County in Anhui. Archaeologists believed the tomb was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420). Covered with white mantlerock, the glass remains seem to have ancient Roman shapes and craftwork. According to the local cultural relic department, the owner of the tomb was possibly from an...

2,000-year-old periwig unearthed in Sichuan www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-09 17:18:32 CHENGDU, Nov. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese might have learned to adorn themselves with periwigs more than 2,000 years ago, said archeologists who unearthed a skeleton wearing a hairpiece from an ancient tombs in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The wig, found on the lower part of the skull, was made of hemprope, says Zhang Rong, a heritage repairs technician with a local museum in Liangshan prefecture, where the finding was reported. Zhang said she had consulted several seasoned hemp knitters in the prefecture before she came to the conclusion. The wig dates...

Tehran: 19:39 , 2005/10/30 3000-year-old warrior still fighting at Gohar-Tappeh TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (MNA) -- A team of archaeologists working at the 3000-year-old site of Gohar-Tappeh in Iran’s northern province of Mazandaran have recently unearthed a skeleton of a warrior buried in an attacking pose with a dagger in his hands, the Persian service of the Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency reported on Saturday. “He is holding a 26-centimeter dagger and appears to be making a forward thrust. The evidence shows that he was originally buried in this pose,” the director of the team, Ali Mahforuzi, said. This is the...

Scientists are over the moon at the W.M. Keck Observatory and the California Institute of Technology over a new discovery of a satellite orbiting the Solar System's 10th planet (2003 UB313). The newly discovered moon orbits the farthest object ever seen in the Solar System. The existence of the moon will help astronomers resolve the question of whether 2003 UB313, temporarily nicknamed "Xena," is more massive than Pluto and hence the 10th planet. A paper describing the discovery was submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters on October 3, 2005. "We were surprised because this is a completely different type of...

Today we had to take my middle boy for surgery. Seems my 4 y/o decided to stuff a lego up his left nostril. I could not fish it out, our peditrician couldn't fish it out, so surgery was the only option. I guess it only is fair, as a 4 y/o I managed to plug my left ear with a piece of popcorn, that once swelled looked like a tumor.

The Nov. 8 special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains a mystery to many California voters. Public opinion polls show they don't understand its urgency and are turned off by its $50 million price tag. But to Schwarzenegger, it's an essential next step to the recall election that swept him into office in 2003. And he says its cost is a bargain when compared to the fiscal and political changes it will bring if he's successful. The movie star-turned-governor sees the special election as simply the middle chapter of a three-part series that is needed to turn around California's...

Charles Harmon Director of University Relations Sementha Mathews Manager of Public Information and Media Relations 5,000-year-old treasure rediscovered in library storage room Dr. Melanie Byrd, professor and coordinator of planning and program review in the History Department, holds a piece of the treasure in the palm of her hand. Valdosta State University Odum Library has uncovered an ancient treasure that excites even the mildest Indiana Jones wanna-be. The treasure is a collection of 5,000-year-old Babylonian cuneiform clay tablets, dating back from 2300 BC to 500 BC. Cuneiform is one of several writing systems of the ancient East, in which wedge-shaped...

Bird flu 'will kill 50,000 people, but not this year' By David Derbyshire (Filed: 17/10/2005) A bird flu pandemic would kill about 50,000 people in Britain but will not necessarily strike this winter, the Government's chief medical officer said yesterday. Sir Liam Donaldson said that it was a question of "when, not if" the disease infecting birds in Asia and the fringes of eastern Europe mutated into a deadly form of human influenza. Sir Liam: deaths could be higher than 50,000 The number of deaths in Britain could reach 750,000 if the human strain were particularly serious, although a lower...

A 6,000-year Dales story of ritual and cannibalism... Bone finds in Yorkshire caves finally throw light on stone age life after breakthrough in radio-carbon dating. Sally CopeFarmer Tom Lord pictured at the entrance to the caves in Giggleswick THEY roamed the earth almost 6,000 years ago, performing rituals on animal remains and devouring human body parts. But these are not the strange creatures of film or fiction – they were farmers in the Yorkshire Dales. New research on bones discovered in six Dales caves has revealed that farming in the area dates back thousands of years – and with it...

Walker discovers 5,000-year-old log path on moorFind to shed new light on Neolithic man Emma Dunlop FOR 5,000 years one of the world's oldest ever footpaths has remained a hidden secret, locked deep beneath the earth in South Yorkshire. That was until walker Mick Oliver quite literally stumbled across it while one day traipsing across Hatfield Moor, near Doncaster, shortly after it was re-opened to walkers in October last year. "I looked down and I could see a straight line. I thought, that's unusual, maybe it's a bog oak – a fossilised tree – so I'll go and have a...

Reuters - Fri Sep 23,11:08 AM ET A more than 27,000 year-old grave with the bodies of two babies is pictured near Krems in Lower Austria September 23, 2005. Archaeologists of the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Scienses (OeAW) excavated the bodies which were covered with an omoplate of a mammoth. This is the oldest grave ever found in Austria. REUTERS/HO/OeAW Praehistorische Kommission

Dig unearths 1,500 year old 'Tarbat Man' HUMAN remains have been discovered at Portmahomack - but police will not be called in as the skeleton is thought to be around 1,500 years old and likely to be that of a Pictish monk. The discovery was made by archaeologists from the University of York who come to the Port each season to dig in the grounds of the Tarbat Old Church, one of the most important Pictish sites in Scotland. They are excited by the find came in the last week of the archaeological dig and means that the team will...

'DOCS IN SOCKS' BERGER RAPPED By DEBORAH ORIN September 7, 2005 WASHINGTON — The feds yesterday recommended that former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger get at least a year's probation and do community service — but no jail time — for stealing top-secret memos and lying about it. Berger pleaded guilty last April to taking the documents — and reportedly hiding them in his pants and socks — from the National Archives while vetting them to refresh his memory before testifying before the 9/11 commission. He's to be sentenced tomorrow. The memos were versions of a report that Berger...

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – An Iranian student activist was sentenced to one year in prison for organising anti-government demonstrations, the head of a student organisation said on Monday. Amir-Hossein Balali, a former student activist in Amir-Kabir University of Technology, had also been accused of inciting public anger against the state during the years 1998-2001, Yashar Qajar said. He also faced charges of insulting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Balali had previously been arrested in the summer 2001 and held in solitary confinement for one month on similar charges. According to Qajar, Balali has been active in setting up...

War prisoner believes atomic bomb saved his life By DAVID LEVINSKY Burlington County Times Thomas Calderone believes the atomic bomb saved his life. Sixty years ago today, the Pemberton Township man was in a Japanese prisoner of war camp wondering how he would survive a fourth year of daily work and few rations when word was received that Japanese forces had surrendered. Calderone's lasting memory of the day - dubbed V-J Day for "victory over Japan" - was simply the Japanese guards telling the prisoners, "no more work." "We didn't understand why," Calderone said last week. "We didn't understand a...

600-year-old ancient warship found in Shandong www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-12 10:50:02 �@BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Archaeologists have recently founda well-preserved ancient warship dated back to some 600 years ago, at a relics site in the ancient Dengzhou Harbor in Penglai, east China's Shandong Province. This is the first discovery of a large ancient ship in China in over two decades. The wooden ancient vessel, more than 20 meters long, is believed to be a warship from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), said You Shaoping, director of the Shandong Cultural Heritage Bureau, on Thursday. The value of the ancient warship is yet to...

ARCHEOLOGY: 8000 YEAR-OLD PIROGUE FOUND IN LAKE BRACCIANO (AGI) - Rome, Italy, Aug 1 - An 8,000 year-old pirogue was found in Lake Bracciano, in the area of the neolithic village La Marmotta. "It's an exceptional example of ancient ship engineering, which proves the advanced knowledge of the peoples who lived here in 6000 BC" say the archaeologists who made the discovery, of the Prehistoric Museum 'Luigi Pigorini' in ROme. More than 10m long, made out of a single oak trunk, the pirogue was still being made when it was abandoned for reasons we still don't know. It was found...

FAIRFAX, Va. -- The mother who allegedly abandoned her toddler on the Capital Beltway then hit him with the car as he tried to get back in was ordered held without bond Friday. Channoah Alece Green, 22, of Newport News, will stand trial Aug. 26 on felony child endangerment charges. Authorities said that on Tuesday night, Green got angry with her 4-year-old son and left him on the side of the highway near the Lee Highway overpass in Falls Church. She was arrested hours later in Hanover County, about 90 miles south, following a traffic accident there, Virginia State Police...

What happened to Schwarzenegger's original slate of ballot initiatives. By JOHN GITTELSOHN and HANH KIM QUACH The Orange County Register Q. What has happened to the governor's "Year for Reform"? A. Tough opposition and poor execution have driven it off course, supporters and critics of the governor say. Unions for teachers, public-safety workers and other state employees have spent tens of millions of dollars attacking him in TV ads. Protesters – parents, students and nurses – have dogged his public appearances. A Public Policy Institute of California survey released this week found Schwarzenegger's approval rating had fallen to 34 percent,...

U.S. border governors stay away from Mexico meeting By Eduardo Quiros Fri Jul 15, 7:08 PM ET The governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger (C) holds his hand to his chest as he stands between the governor of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, Enrique Martinez (L) and Jose Natividad Gonzalez (R) the governor of Nuevo Leon, at a meeting of U.S.- Mexico border governors in the northern Mexican city of Torreon July 14, 2005. This is Schwarzenegger's first official trip to Mexico as governor of California. (Stringer/Mexico/Reuters) TORREON, Mexico (Reuters) - A meeting in Mexico to address a vicious drugs...

Archaeologists unearth part of 3, 500 year-old gold mask SOFIA (bnn)- Archaeologists in Southern Bulgaria, exploring what they believe to be the tomb of Orpheus, discovered fragments of a golden mask dating from the Trojan War, state TV reported. The expedition found the gold in a 3, 500 year-old temple that has survived untouched by treasure hunters. Archaeological team leader Nikolay Ovcharov said the mask was older than a 690-gram (24.3-ounce) Thracian gold mask that was unearthed a year ago in central Bulgaria. The Thracians were Bronze Age people, who lived in the Balkans between 4,000 B.C. and the seventh...

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas Medical tests today showed that cancer has returned to a 12-year-old girl whose parents were in court to fight radiation treatment because they believed her illness was in remission. The new tests were revealed by state attorneys during a hearing that was supposed to determine whether treatment for Katie Wernecke was necessary in the days leading up to a custody hearing next Wednesday. Texas Child Protective Services removed the girl and her siblings from the home of Michele and Edward Wernecke last week after doctors said discontinued treatment could be life-threatening. Katie was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease...

400,000-year-old stone tools discovered in Mazandaran TEHRAN, June 8 (MNA) -- Recent discoveries by a team of archaeologists indicate that the coast of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran Province was home to the earliest hominid habitation in that region. Archaeologist Ali Mahforuzi said on Wednesday that 400,000-year-old stone tools discovered in the valleys of Shuresh near the Rostam Kola, Huto, and Kamarband caves are the oldest ever found in the area. The previous studies had dated human settlement in the region to have begun about 50,000 years ago. “The recent studies conducted by a joint team of archaeologists from the...

ELKHART -- A 23-year-old man facing jail time for a probation violation assaulted a 74-year-old bailiff before escaping from the Elkhart County Courts Building on Wednesday, according to authorities. Aaron Macon appeared Wednesday afternoon in Superior Court 6 regarding a probation violation on a felony charge of marijuana possession. Judge David Bonfiglio found Macon had violated his probation by failing a drug test and told the defendant to sit and wait for a court security officer to take him into custody, Bonfiglio said. "We always make them sit in the jury box until the officer comes up," he said. Macon...

South Bend, IN - A four-year-old South Bend boy was rushed to the hospital Thursday after suffering an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Shortly before 5 PM, police responded to the 800 block of North Sherman in South Bend. When they arrived, they found a four-year-old boy suffering from a gunshot wound. According to Captain John Williams of the South Bend Police Department, the gunshot wound was to the boy's chest. Reports from the scene say the four-year-old was alone in an upstairs bedroom when the mother heard a gunshot and ran upstairs where she found her injured son. According to...

CINCINNATI Two officers accused of handcuffing a 5-year-old boy after a fight on a school bus have been suspended with pay from police duties while the city investigates the allegations, authorities said. Chief Tom Streicher assigned officers Douglas Snider and Kaneshia Howell to desk work Tuesday and took away their guns, police officials said. Mekel Finch, the boy's mother, sued the police department, the bus company and the driver in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on Friday. She is asking for more than $50,000. The lawsuit claims the driver improperly detained the boy after he was struck by another child...

Bill Hallin continues to be a straight shooter -- even at the age of 97. When he can get a ride from his Roseburg apartment out to the Roseburg Rod and Gun Club in Winchester, he shoots his Thompson Center Encore 6 mm benchrest pistol. At 100 yards, his three-shot grouping is usually one-quarter inch. When he shoots five times, he admits there might be one shot out to one-half inch. "I still shoot well enough," Hallin said with a smile. "Other people think I'm a good shot." Fred Dayton, a past president of the Rod and Gun Club who...

Today is the 21st of March. The first day of the most beautiful season of the year, spring, and we celebrate our new year along with the start of this season. Today is also the first day of Norooz. Persian new year starts on 21st of March every year. And I just wanted to take advantage of being on Freerepublic.com to share my happinness with you and wish you all the best. And I am hoping for a change in my country. I am wishing to have freedom in this coming year. And I wish prosperity for my people who...

Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death The Infamous "Year Without A Summer" Of the cold summers in the period 1811 to 1817, the year 1816 has gone down in the annals of New England history as "The Year There Was No Summer," the "Poverty Year" and "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death." The year began with a moderate but dry winter. Spring was tardy and continued very dry. The growing season from late spring to early fall, however, was punctuated by a series of devastating cold waves that did major damage to the crops and greatly reduced the food supply....

Tuesday 8 March 2005 12:40 Maritime And Coastguard Agency (National) DEVON DIVERS FIND 3,000 YEAR OLD BRONZE AGE ARTEFACTS ON SHIPWRECK SITE A group of divers have discovered a submerged hoard of Bronze Age artefacts off Salcombe, Devon. The find includes swords and rapiers, palstave axe heads, an adze, a cauldron handle, and a gold bracelet. The artefacts have been reported to English Heritage and declared to the Receiver of Wreck at the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, as it is believed that these relics come from an ancient shipwreck. The artefacts are currently being studied at the British Museum, which...

Discovery of 3000-year-old Artist in Espidej Tehran, Mar. 7 (CHN) – The skeleton of a 3000-year-old artist buried alongside the tools used for his metalwork has been found in Espidej of Sistan-Baluchistan. Excavations in the 3000-year-old site of Espidej led the archaeologists to the discovery of a tomb belonging to an artist, buried with his tools which include an awl, a bronze scoop, a grindstone, and a water container used for freezing copper and bronze. The tools are evidence that metal arts were blooming in the area, and even sent from Espidej to other regions inside and outside Iran. The...

Ryan Mauro of WorldThreats.com was asked to present his own State of the Union address for his high school American Government class. Here it is: Congressmen and fellow citizens: The state of our union is strong, confident and determined. Despite everything the "Blame America First" crowd said, freedom is expanding around the world and the War on Terrorism continues. Our successes in the past year are likely to change the world. For over a decade, the United States ignored growing threats, and preferred to believe that groups like Al-Qaeda acted alone. With every attack it becomes clearer and clearer that...

4072 Year of the Rooster