Free Republic

Some interesting Stats to think about. This is not new, but worth repeating now and again.=============== "If we could shrink the Earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this: There would be 56 Asians; 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South); and 8 Africans. 51 would be female; 49 would be male. 70 would be non-white; 30 white. 70 would be non-Christian; 30 Christian 50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people, and all 6 would ...

When I am saying Senator Kennedy's bill, by the CBO estimates, would take insurance away from 1.4 million people, and for the people who got to keep their insurance because they had enough income, it would cost them $57.2 million, don't think I am just talking about money. Don't think I am just talking about a piece of paper that says `Insurance Policy.' I am talking about breast examinations, mammograms, Pap tests, and prostate screenings. I am talking about lives. I am talking about families. I am talking about your mama. I am talking about people you care about. ...

Risk of Earlier Death Cut by Going to Religious Services WASHINGTON, June 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Want to stretch your life out by seven years? Attending religious services more than once a week raises the possibility of extending life at least that much, and adds a remarkable potential 14 more years to the lifespan of African Americans, according to a recent study in "Demography." Tracking a national sample of more than 21,000 U.S. adults, the study examined numerous social, economic and health and lifestyle factors, as well religious attendance, to see who was most likely to avoid death by any ...

NATO's Balkan War had been under way just a month, but Gen. Richard E. Hawley, head of Air Combat Command, already had conducted a damage assessment-on his own forces. "We are going to be in desperate need in my command for a significant retrenchment in commitments, for a significant period of time" after the war, he told reporters April 29. This stand-down would be needed "to restore the health of the units, allow them to get back to basic training, get their basic skills upgraded, [and] upgrade all the new people who have come out of the training pipeline during ...

Here’s a novel idea: Why doesn’t Veep Al Gore resign, cut a deal with Bill Bradley and spend from now until November of 2000 campaigning for the presidency with the former New Jersey senator as his runningmate, unbound from the chains of Clinton Corruption? It’s not so far-fetched, although I doubt Gore has the imagination and integrity to pull it off. Still, it was another disastrous week for the beleaguered Washingtonian: When a Democrat has to spend time in California, answering the sometimes hostile questions of gay and lesbian activists, something is very wrong with the campaign. He was ...

Ethnic Albanians returning to Kosovo towns and villages, where Serbian forces once murdered and marauded, are retaliating with their own vengeful campaign of reverse ethnic cleansing against Serbs. In recent days, sometimes in full view of NATO peacekeepers, ethnic Albanians have pillaged Serb neighborhoods, burned Serb houses and, occasionally, slaughtered Serb civilians. Since NATO forces took control two weeks ago, they have failed to put an end to a continuing backlash by ethnic Albanians. Granted, the peacekeeping forces, known as KFOR, do not yet number even half their target strength of 55,000 or more, and that's part of the problem. ...

Many security experts concluded that NATO's air war to liberate Kosovo exposed Europe's failure to keep up with U.S. military modernization (AW&ST Apr. 26, p. 28). A recent National Defense University study, "Mind the Gap," published just before the conflict erupted, examines the causes of Europe's slack pace, including slow acceptance of information. Most criticism of European defense efforts these days focuses too much on the size of allied defense budgets and not enough on how little military and security value the Europeans get for the money they spend. The heart of the problem is that the U.S. is under ...

The recent joint statement by the United States and Russia outlining plans to move ahead this summer with a START III agreement while pursuing modifications to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty does not signal the end of the stalled START II pact, according to a senior administration official. "Quite the contrary, the statement calls for early ratification" of START II, stated Robert Bell, special assistant to the president for defense policy and arms control. Both U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Bell noted, "tried to be very clear in the Cologne joint statement that they were not giving ...

Headlines and summaries from various sources: US ENERGY FIRMS ON TRACK TO TACKLE Y2K COMPUTER SNAGS There shouldn't be any major disruptions in U.S. energy supplies on New Year's Day, as nine out of 10 oil and natural gas companies plan to have their computers immune from the Year 2000 millennium bug by end of the third quarter, a new industry survey on Monday showed. - (Reuters, LENGTH=361 words) SCE IS Y2K-READY AHEAD OF SCHEDULE Southern California Edison is ready for the next millennium. SCE, the nation's second-largest electric utility, announced today it has met its goal to complete Year ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Springfield strip club where two dancers performed simulated oral sex with rolled-up dollar bills violated state liquor regulations barring lewd acts, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The court ruled 7-0 that the Division of Liquor Control's ban on simulated "oral copulation'' would be understood by "a person of common intelligence'' to mean oral sex. In 1993, the Supervisor of Liquor Control suspended the liquor license of the Mercedes Club for 10 days after two undercover police officers reported the violations. The club's owners took the state to court, and a judge in ...

First Lady Hillary Clinton is setting up a fancy Web site to launch her Senate race, and is using White House communications director Ann Lewis to write a "substantial amount" for her political campaign, an internal document shows. The secret June 25 memo says "a substantial amount of copy ('text') must be written by Ann [Lewis]" and media consultant Mandy Grunwald to get the Web site ready by July 6. That's the day Mrs. Clinton is to launch her Senate exploratory committee - the day before she starts an upstate campaign swing for the race that could pit her ...

Part 3 of a 3-part series If the armed services cannot quickly figure out how to find and keep more people, there will be no foxholes left for the nation's leaders to duck into. Should the Pentagon not succeed in reversing current trends or return to some form of mandatory service, the United States will face painful choices: Lower entrance standards. The downside is risking a return to the days of the erratic post-Vietnam military where racial problems, alcoholism and drug abuse were common. Shrink a force that many career officers believe is already too small to be a global ...

Just a few weeks ago, President Bill Clinton and associates were predicting a $79 billion budget "surplus" this fiscal year. That sounded good, although it was not honest. There was no real surplus because to reach that $79 billion figure, money collected for the going-broke Social Security system had to be diverted into general spending. But now Mr. Clinton says the projected surplus will be even bigger -- $99 billion, not just $79 billion. And he claims that over the next 15 years there will be such big surpluses that it will be possible to quit looting the Social Security ...

This the link to the washington times article. The United States was the odd man out yesterday as the European Union cut a deal with Latin America to create an ocean-spanning free-trade zone and oppose U.S. policies blocking the regulation of international markets. The 15-nation European Union and 33 Latin countries announced their intent this fall to start talks aimed at lowering barriers to trade between the two continents and at the same time pledged to push for stronger regulation of world markets to prevent the outbreak of another global economic crisis. Both goals are directly at odds with the ...

Even as the Pentagon is conducting a comprehensive educational campaign to convince American troops that mandatory anthrax vaccinations are safe, military documents indicate high-level acknowledgment of potential dangers. Documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune show that Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera agreed in September 1998 to accept the burden of potential liability claims made against the vaccine manufacturer by service members. The vaccine, according to a memo signed by Caldera, "involves unusually hazardous risks associated with the potential for adverse reactions in some recipients and the possibility that the desired immunological effect will not be obtained by all ...

Freedom and federalism Diversity is the catchword of our times. To favor it is to be on the side of the angels. But take notice: the diversity mavens have no use for pluralism in political jurisdiction. What they want is an almighty unitary state to enforce their view of diversity, one that prevents localized experimentation. That's one explanation for the liberal outcry against the Supreme Court's recent decisions on the relationship between the federal government and the states. The court is "rewriting the very structure of our government," claims Anthony Lewis in the New York Times, wrongly assuming that ...

A VOTE FOR BUSH, IS A VOTE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA.VOTE 3RD PARTY!! Story here Bush Moves Toward the Center on Immigration and Quotas By RICHARD L. BERKE LA JOLLA, Calif. -- George W. Bush plunged into the most populous state Tuesday for the first time as a presidential candidate and immediately cast himself as more temperate than most Republican leaders here and in Washington on two emotionally charged ballot measures that have roiled his party: immigration and affirmative action. Bush distanced himself from a proposition that passed in this state in 1994 that prohibits public services to illegal ...

Marianne M. Jennings That intellectually embarrassing Second Amendment http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- LISTENING TO OUR BOY PRESIDENT and his court jesters on guns is similar to hearing a teen describe I Know What You Did Last Summer. Guns wander aimlessly on the cul-de-sacs of upper middle class suburbs and mercilessly seize control of the minds of young people faster than Austin Powers. Gun show guns pack more power for conquering the will and reason than a gun purchased with a waiting period at, say, K-Mart. Mrs. Clinton warned children last month that if they visited a friend's house and saw guns, they ...

It's too bad that all the elitists and utopians could not have been present when a full-time mom and former schoolteacher spoke to the Senate Finance Committee last year. Susie Dutcher's words said more about public policy than a hundred pages in the Congressional Record. Her testimony, verbatim (thanks to the Family Research Council): ''Taxes are far and away the biggest portion of our family budget. There are many things I would like to do with my husband's earnings, but . . . you seem to believe you have the moral authority and the superior judgment to make those ...

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press: The Senate, breaking a deadlock, agreed Tuesday to take up ``patients' rights'' legislation that would set new controls on HMOs and other managed health care plans when lawmakers return from the July 4th holiday. Democrats, after holding a popular farm bill hostage to the patients rights measure for a week, relished their successful use of the Senate's parliamentary rules to win the agreement. ``This is a great victory for the 160 million Americans who are today demanding that Congress fix the problem in managed care,'' Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters. The issue ...