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A drunken freshman at the University of Kansas thwarts the school's smoking ban by crawling out on the ledge outside of his dormitory, where he lights up, takes a drag and falls seven stories to his death. As much as most people would see this as a cleansing of the gene pool, the trial lawyers see this as another opportunity to exploit tragedy for personal enrichment. The teenager's family has sued the school, claiming it should have done more to protect their son from his own stupidity. The lawsuit naturally doesn't detail what precautionary steps should have been taken, nor...

A Blueprint for Success By Ed Feulner CNSNews.com Commentary October 10, 2005 If there's one thing Washington, D.C., is famous for, it's words. Here, we boast the greatest speech-per-capita ratio in the country, if not the world. But occasionally, a speech stands out and stands the test of time. That's not necessarily because of the speaker's eloquence or verbosity. George Washington never publicly read aloud his Farewell Address, and Abraham Lincoln finished his 272-word Gettysburg Address so quickly the photographer didn't even have a chance to take his picture. No, great speeches provide listeners with a compass they can use...

From a "homily" given at St. Bede the Venerable Church in the affluent community of La Cañada. I'm gonna give you a little bit of a trade secret here that we don't often mention from the pulpit. And that's something about Church law itself which says that Church law is to be applied more strictly the more generally it's applied and it's to be applied more loosely the more particularly, specifically, it's applied. What that means is if I am standing up here and we have a discussion going, let's say, on birth control. As a Catholic priest I'm sort...

Thaksin sees no need for talks with KL Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has shut the door on Malaysia's suggestion that bilateral talks be held to settle the controversy over the sheltering of 131 Thai-Muslim villagers in Trengganu state. The talks were unnecessary, Mr Thaksin said yesterday before leaving for a visit to the European Union. The circumstances were not so pressing as to warrant a meeting. It was all a matter of procedure. Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Saturday dialogue would clear the air. Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur should keep talking until the issue was resolved. The...

Ditch the rice cereal and mashed peas, and make way for enchiladas, curry and -- gasp! -- hot peppers. It's time to discard everything you think you know about feeding babies. It turns out most advice parents get about weaning infants onto solid foods -- even from pediatricians -- is more myth than science. That's right, rice cereal may not be the best first food. Peanut butter doesn't have to wait until after the first birthday. Offering fruits before vegetables won't breed a sweet tooth. And strong spices? Bring 'em on. "There's a bunch of mythology out there about this,"...

Meirs, immigration, Clintons... you name it.

HOUSTON -- He was a country boy who grew up on a wheat farm, she a city girl who played on her high school tennis team. The lives of Nathan Hecht and Harriet Miers began to inter-twine in the early 1970s, shortly after they finished law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Soon, they were rising stars at the same law firm, and their lives seemed to converge in every way. They were earnest, ambitious and increasingly affectionate with one another. Friends thought they would get married. Instead, for 30 years, Hecht and Miers--President Bush's Supreme Court nominee--have nurtured...

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SUN-SENTINEL INVESTIGATION FEMA does little to recover funds given to undeserving applicants By Megan O'Matz, Sally Kestin and Jon Burstein Staff Writers October 9, 2005 Federal officials, charged with disbursing billions of dollars in relief after one of the nation's worst natural disasters -- Hurricane Katrina -- are vowing to crack down on fraud by assigning about 350 auditors, investigators and inspectors to catch people and companies who try to cheat the government. But in a continuing investigation of disaster spending by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has found that the agency has rarely pursued individual...

"I was kidnapped by terrorists. It's not like I'm numb to this and think it can't happen. But get real!" Hearst admonished. "There's so much weeping and wailing and memorializing, my feeling is it'd be a lot healthier if people didn't externalize so much and kind of bucked up a little bit." The 51-year-old media heiress was famously abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, then served 21 months in prison for bank robbery and was pardoned by Bill Clinton. "What good is our government if they can't keep our level of fear at a point where we can...

During the Beltway Sniper crisis, back in the fall of 2002, a series of articles in The Washington Times described John Allen Muhammad’s conversion to Islam, and his later break with the Nation of Islam (the articles are no longer available, but extracts have been preserved here). Apparently the NOI was not militant enough for Mr. Muhammad, and he left it to become involved with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra (Arabic for “community of the impoverished”), a terrorist organization founded by a notorious Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. What drew my eye in the article was the mention of...

TIME Magazine has an unusually insightful article this week on Harriet Miers. The piece, The two knocks on Miers, notes that the two strongest attacks on Miers -- questions on her experience and reliability -- have come from the political right. "'No more Souters' was the right's rallying cry, so when [Bush] said he knew her well, knew her heart, knew she wouldn't change, he thought conservatives would be delighted." President Bush highly values several traits in those who serve him: But Bush found in her many of the qualities he prizes: loyalty, toughness, an allergy to the limelight, a fierce work...

Pyongyang, October 9 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, was awarded honorary doctorate in law of Far-Eastern State University of Russia. An awarding ceremony took place on Sunday. Kim Jong Il was present there. Also present was Kang Sok Ju, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. On hand were Konstantin Borisovich Pulikovski, presidential envoy to the Far East Region of the Russian Federation, and his party and Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the Russian embassy here. Vladimir Ivanovich Kurilov, president...

Thousands of detainees in Iraqi jails should be able to vote in the constitutional referendum this week -- including former president Saddam Hussein, the country's Electoral Commission said. Though details on Monday were scant, it raised the unlikely prospect of Saddam and his aides marking "Yes" or "No" to a constitution that specifically bans the "Saddamist Baath party." Commission officials said ballot boxes would be sent to the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison and other camps where about 10,000 mainly Sunni prisoners are held, often without charge, on suspicion of joining a revolt. Sunni leaders have called for a "No" vote...

PHOENIX - Citing millions of lost dollars because vehicles aren't properly registered, the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division is cracking down on out-of-state plates. And it's not just looking for violators on the road. Authorities are targeting job sites, shopping malls and even school districts. On Thursday, MVD officers greeted dozens of employees outside an exit at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The officers handed out 111 citations to 82 employees, mostly for out-of-state plates. Josh Laurandeau of Montana, an electrical engineer brought in on a project, was among those snagged. "I'm a resident of another state, but we come...

Heavy cannabis use could be a cause of Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate, groundbreaking research suggests. Many Maori from children to kaumatua use cannabis in "epidemic proportions", says a study by Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington. But cannabis might not be as safe as the proponents of its legalisation say. A paper by Professor Beasley on the health effects of cannabis was among the research that prompted Wellington coroner Garry Evans to urge last week that government policy on illicit drugs be changed from "harm minimisation" to campaigning against drug use. The paper...

Hoping to give their bland, cookie cutter ballpark a bit of flare before the playoffs begin, the Houston Astros installed a 40-by-190-foot pond in the outfield of Minute Maid Park on Monday. “Sure, our left field fence is only Little League distance from home plate. And sure, we have a pointless, manmade hill with a flagpole stuck in it in centerfield. And sure, we have a giant choo-choo train drives around the perimeter of the field, but the novelty of that stuff has worn off since we opened the stadium six years ago,” said Houston general manager Tim Purpura. “It...

'Do-it-yourself' euthanasia clinic to open in Britain A controversial Swiss clinic which has helped nearly 40 British people commit suicide is to open an office in the UK because of growing demand, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Britney Spears Cancels Auction of Bra Monday, October 10, 2005 Britney Spears' (search) jewel-encrusted bra has been taken down from eBay (search), but this time, it's Spears who made the decision. The bra was one of several items Spears had donated for an auction to raise money to help hurricane victims.

A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven - 72 beautiful virgins. The show's message: terrorism is giving Islam a bad name, and Muslims are suffering because of the actions of a few. The programs, which began last Tuesday on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, have come under a blistering attack on the Internet in Arabic language chat rooms. The critics are...