Free Republic

Media Briefings By Amy Burg June 12, 1999-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pick the Log Out of Your Own Eye First, Peter From the Columbine High School tragedy in Littleton, CO, to now, media members and politicians have created an infinite web of outstretched arms pointing fingers of blame in every direction. From violent video games, graphic television, and sadistic music, to irresponsible parents, and all-too-lenient gun dealers, everything seems to have been cornered as the core of the problem. Now, a new fish has been thrown into the never-ending sea of wrongdoing surrounding the entire tragedy. Peter Jennings innocently informed viewers on April ...

With our nation and its people having been ravaged by a widespread abandonment of moral values -- and, indeed, by concerted attacks against moral values -- many Americans believe this is a time for our people to reassert standards they believe would constructively influence our people and our society for good. In response to that view, the United States House of Representatives has passed permissive -- not imperative -- legislation, simply to allow, not require, the posting of the Ten Commandments in school classrooms and other public buildings and places. The House bill was approved by a vote of ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — They speak of frazzled parents stuck in rush-hour traffic, grandparents shunted off to the old folks home, children adrift in an amoral sea. Politicians of both parties are in full cry about the state of the family. ``Polls show that a majority of Americans think that getting kids off to the right start should be our No. 1 national priority,'' said Democrat Bill Bradley, who like almost everyone else running for president has raised family values forcefully. ``Politicians like to talk about children,'' he says. ``Just throw in a mention of children and you get an applause ...

First of all, the improvements made over the past weeks to the "Free Republic" are fabulous! However, I have one gripe...opening a "new window" to read an article doesn't seem to offer any benefits or convenience. While some people may like the new function, others may be having difficulty depending on their computer/browser...It may even confuse novice users. Is it too bold for me to suggest that we petition Jim to create a "preferences" option to allow us to choose our format? Before we were forced to open a new window, we could always right-mouse click and open a ...

Vice President Al Gore interrupted a question-and-answer session with high school students on Friday to embrace a lesbian teen who broke into tears as she described verbal abuse hurled at her by former classmates. A crowd of several hundred students at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles broke into applause as Gore, two days after he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, crossed a gymnasium to embrace sobbing senior Jessie Funes. Funes, 17, had been describing the taunts she endured at another school because she is a lesbian and started crying as she told Gore her belief ...

The House of Representatives did the right thing in deciding to kill its gun control bill Friday, reversing two days of frenzied debate and voting. If Congress wants to close loopholes in the Brady Law's requirement that would-be gun buyers undergo background checks, the House bill was not the way to do it. The House did succeed in passing a separate juvenile justice bill Thursday after a marathon of amendments, including the creation of some new federal crimes and a testimonial to the Ten Commandments. Since the Senate has already passed a juvenile-justice/gun-control omnibus bill, the two chambers can ...

Someone just called claiming that, following the recent House votes on gun control, he decided to join the NRA and did join it this morning. Following the call, the brain-challenged host asked the guest about the political fallout of the House debate, other than... NRA INCREASING ITS MEMBERSHIP BY ONE. Now, Brian Lamb actually pays this little cretin for saying things for 2 hours on Saturday morning... Can it get any stupider? Or was it a professional attempt at humor?

"Cohen was one of about 200 demonstrators who massed at Liberty Square..." Gee....Free Republic 'massed' 5000+ people from all over the world at the Washington Monument and the media hardly noticed. Put a handful of commie protesters in NYC and its carried as a top news story. Go figure... Saturday June 19 12:55 AM ET Police Arrest 20 In New York Anti-Capitalist Event By Eric WahlgrenNEW YORK (Reuters) - About 20 protesters were arrested during a rowdy, anti-capitalism street demonstration that wove through New York's financial center Friday, briefly halting traffic on Wall Street.The event in New York, like ...

Editor, The Chronicle I have about reached my limit of hearing why the children of today are so violent, why they can't be controlled, and why society is so disturbed by all of the senseless shootings that are occurring. I am tired of hearing that it's because of guns, or the children are watching too much TV, or they are abused, or they don't have enough access to the Internet, or the school system is not doing enough, or government needs to be more involved. These are excuses to avoid the real problem that is destroying this nation, just ...

As President Clinton returned to Washington after a brief Memorial Day vacation, he made some comments that struck terror into the hearts of many Americans. Clinton said he would miss being in public office and that he would be interested in amending the Constitution to allow a two-term president to serve again after a hiatus. After Franklin Roosevelt served three terms as president, the Constitution was amended to the current two-term limit. Clinton is barred from serving a third term, but he said, ''If I could run again, I would." Clinton has been wishy-washy about his position on term limits, ...

During the nearly 70-year reign of the Soviet Union's evil empire, Communist propagandists would rewrite history to fit their rulers' ideological predilections. Of course, it was said nothing like that could ever happen in our nation with its commitment to historical truth and academic accuracy. Well, think again. It's happening right now as ``President-in-Waiting'' Al Gore ``distances'' himself from his sponsor and mentor, Bill Clinton. Could it be simply a coincidence that the very day Gore officially kicked off his 2000 White House campaign that the elite liberal media swamped the country with news stories, and one book, purporting ...

Wealthiest nations agree to billions in debt relief for poorest nations By ROGER COHEN ©1999 N.Y. Times News Service COLOGNE, Germany -- Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthiest nations agreed Friday to cut the debt burden of the world's poorest countries in what they described as a decisive push to alleviate poverty. President Jacques Chirac of France said the relief for mainly African countries could total about $65 billion. But Gene Sperling, the national economic adviser to President Clinton, said the amount could approach $90 billion if other creditors join the initiative. Some loans would be canceled outright, ...

A recent article said President Clinton ''has prevailed in Kosovo, his most daunting foreign policy challenge.'' It isn't clear why it was daunting for the combined NATO alliance to partition Yugoslavia, with 114,000 in uniform and absolutely no air defense. Nor is it clear what prevailed means, in this case. U.S. bombs drove Yugoslav soldiers from their Kosovo province, and the conquerors now are taking control. But the president didn't bother to address Moscow's role in the occupation force. In a pre-emptive strike, Russian troops took the province's main airport. The standoff was dangerous because Russia, unlike Yugoslavia, is ...

A Congresswoman Is Defiant in Defeat, and the G.O.P. Is Anxious By FRANCIS X. CLINES WASHINGTON -- "Let me go home," came the weary plea to the House from Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., as she watched her gun-control measure go down to defeat in the middle of the night, beyond the waking notice of most Americans. "Let me go home," she repeated, teary-eyed in early Friday morning, transfixing the House in her moment of exasperation at the bare-knuckled political machinations that befell her cause. Far from quitting, the second-term congresswoman was vowing to work at her new career until some ...

Former radical activist Kathleen Ann Soliah will remain in the Ramsey County jail without bail while California authorities seek to extradite the woman they claim tried to kill two police officers more than two decades ago. Ramsey County District Judge Kathleen Gearin on Friday affirmed her earlier tentative order denying bail, even as Gov. Jesse Ventura pledged that he will sign the papers necessary to return the 52-year-old St. Paul resident and mother of three children to California. Soliah, known to friends and relatives in the Twin Cities as Sara Jane Olson, is accused of conspiring to kill police ...

GNJILANE, Yugoslavia -- As a seething mob of several hundred Albanians looked on, nine guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army in battle dress were ordered out of their cars at gunpoint yesterday and spread-eagled against a wall by U.S. Marines in the middle of town. This was one of many "in-your-face" weapons searches carried out this week by the Marines' 26th Expeditionary Force in the American sector in southeastern Kosovo. Many of the confrontations produced results. Hundreds of assault rifles, belt-fed machineguns and grenades, as well as a few rocket-propelled grenade launchers were confiscated. Brits, French go gently The ...

Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has unveiled a rejiggered plan to improve air quality in the Northeastern United States. This will benefit residents in places like New York and New Jersey, which have long suffered from dirty air blowing in from the South and Midwest. It also sends a strong message that the Administration is not yet prepared to let two conservative Federal judges rewrite its clean air strategy. The judges are Douglas Ginsburg and David Williams, Reagan appointees who dominated two court rulings last month by separate three-judge panels of the United States Court of Appeals ...

Asian excellence, American mediocrity http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- THE MAY 14 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ran a story by Robin Wilson titled "Ph.D. Programs Face a Paucity of Americans." Wilson says that if you visited just about any physics laboratory at U.S. research universities, you'd find as many foreigners as Americans. The American Institute of Physics estimates that this year, for the first time, the majority of first-year doctoral students in physics at our universities is foreign. In the academic year 1997 to 1998, China alone supplied 20 percent of all international physics students. At Penn State University, as is typical ...

The Rational Destruction of Yugoslavia The Rational Destruction of Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti The U.S. national security state--which has been involved throughout the world in subversion, sabotage, terrorism, torture, drug trafficking, and death squads--has launched round-the-clock aerial attacks against Yugoslavia out of humanitarian concern for Albanians in Kosovo. Or so we are asked to believe. President Clinton has bombed four countries in recent months: Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq repeatedly, and Yugoslavia massively. The U.S. is also involved in proxy wars in Angola, Colombia, and various other places. U.S. forces are deployed on every continent and ocean, with 300 major overseas ...

Gun Control in Negotiators' Hands By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - With the death of the House's gun-control bill, Congress' response to a rash of school shootings now rests with a small panel of lawmakers whose talks will start with the stricter Senate measure that had been opposed by the National Rifle Association. Even as they left behind the marathon proceedings Friday, lawmakers of both parties were girding for battle. They immediately began blaming each other for the 280-147 defeat of a gun-control bill only two months after bloody school shootings in Colorado and Georgia. President Clinton ...