Free Republic

FINALLY it’s official. The French DO smell. After generations of jibes about hygiene over the Channel, a study yesterday revealed nine out of ten French people do NOT wash regularly. That means that out of a population of 60.5million, more than 54million risk being whiffy. Shockingly, 2.5million NEVER shower or bath while 1.8million NEVER brush their teeth. The French do spend between 48 and 56 minutes in the bathroom each day — but much of that is applying cosmetics. Nine out of ten French women and half of the men regularly apply perfume and cosmetics. A third spend time in...

After the story by April Witt on Sunday, it appears that things have not changed. Conspiracy at the Washington Post Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has been accused of "conspiracy theorism" over the death of the White House aide, Vincent Foster. Keeping silent, he says, is even worse. FROM: The Electronic Telegraph [TM] Mon. 10 July 1995 MY STRAITJACKET is buckled tight. The foam is wiped off my mouth. A bottle of sedatives sits at hand. I am cool, calm and ready to answer on behalf of all "conspiracy theorists". And I say to the powers of the Washington Post: "J'accuse."Last week...

NEW ORLEANS — The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina rose with such force that water flowed underneath levees near Lake Pontchartrain, pushing them in and cracking massive concrete flood walls, according to preliminary evidence gathered by investigators. Sinkholes and tipped concrete walls could shed new light on how the earthen structures broke during the flooding of New Orleans. Why they broke is not resolved. The next step for the investigation is to determine whether the levees were adequately designed and properly built, or if the ferocity of the storm caused them to fail. The Army Corps of Engineers initially suspected...

Just finished watching last night's episode of West Wing while on the treadmill..Yes, I admit..I'm a fan of the show most Freepers love to loathe...I got hooked a few seasons back when they had a character who was based on Ann Coulter...but last night the show really clobbered John Kerry....

Compared to other measures on the November special election ballot, Prop. 73 hasn’t attracted much in the way of financial support or opposition. Also (and this is no surprise), Planned Parenthood is the largest donor to date contributing more than $1.1 million to keep parents from being knowing that their minor children are being subjected to an abortion,, an invasive medical procedure. Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

Sovereignty or subjugation: Tacking on an international tax By Paul M. Weyrich The United States government is sovereignty. Thus, we Americans legislate, administer and adjudicate our own laws. Challenges to our sovereignty are emanating from the United Nations, the bureaucrats of which are interested in promoting a transfer of income and resources from the Developed World to the Third World. Difficult as it may be for Americans to imagine, unless our politicians have the courage to defend our national sovereignty, we may be shelling out tax money to satiate Big Blue's voracious appetite for revenue. Imagine paying an "international" tax...

Ten days have passed since a 21-year-old University of Oklahoma engineering student was killed when a bomb he was carrying exploded 100 yards from the stadium where Oklahoma and Kansas State were playing football before a crowd of 84,000 – and there are still more questions than answers to exactly What? and Why? As The Oklahoman said in its October 9 edition, the explosion “left Oklahomans wondering whether it was an individual suicide or if it was intended to be an act of terrorism targeting football fans October 1.” There is evidence the student, Joel Hinrichs III of Colorado, was...

“233 Years following the “Pine Tree Riot” By: Keith R. Lacasse, Vice-Chair of the Committee for the Protection of Natural Rights. October 7, 2005 We the people of Weare have a proud history of taking action to defend our rights. Back in April 1772 a group of 20 or so saw mill owners led by Ebenezer Mudgett took drastic actions to protect their private property rights, (white pine trees in this case). Back then it was made illegal to cut down or mill any white pine trees (even on your own property) without government permission and expensive permits. In one...

Since we can't post from The Journal News - you can click on the link for the story Pirro Assembling Team

Max Hardcore Offices Raided by FBI; Servers, Tapes Seized By Gretchen Gallen Wednesday, October 5, 2005 ALTA DENA, Calif. – The offices of Max Hardcore’s Max World Entertainment were raided Wednesday under the authority of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department. The FBI seized five video titles, Hardcore’s attorney Jeffrey Douglas told XBiz, including (ed. movie titles ommitted)Additionally, the FBI seized all servers belonging to Hardcore with the purpose of copying and returning them, Douglas said. It is not yet known what other office items have been taken as the investigation is ongoing. By Thursday afternoon,...

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to take an occasional shot at the California Legislature for spending too much time on what he has suggested are frivolous issues. His actions speak otherwise. As of Friday, the deadline for him to take action on bills from the session, the governor's office reported that Schwarzenegger had signed 729 bills and vetoed just 232. It seems that either legislators are producing bill of matters of significance or the governor is joining in the frivolity. In fact, the end-of-week flurry of signs and vetoes was fairly representative of Schwarzenegger's approach to governing. He is decidedly sympathetic...

The e-mails are deeply divided and vehement on both sides. Anti-anti-Miers people want me to christen the Coaltion of Robert the Bruce and start naming names, call for the cancellation of various subscriptions, and gather Octavious Lepidus and Anthony for a list-making. The anti-Miers people want the same thing, just with different names attached. The nomination of Miers is one of three things: a brilliant move by the president; a blunder like Reagan's nominations of Justice O'Connor and Kennedy or the first Bush's of Souter; or a betrayal of the sort that occasions taking leave of the whole project. Other...

October 3, 2005 Harriet Miers, Conservative At the risk of drawing the undying enmity of The Herd, I'm going to state categorically that conservatism is sitting pretty at this hour. That's because Harry Reid has just been hosed – and he doesn't even know it. The navel gazers are nabobing about another Souter. That's silly. The Court will almost certainly move to the right as a result of the nomination and confirmation of Harriet Miers. And here's why. It's true. Little is known about the views of Harriet Miers. But what is known, through official and unofficial channels, paints a...

JUL. 4, 2005: DARK HORSE ... ... in the Supreme Court sweepstakes: Keep an eye on Harriet Miers, White House counsel. Miers was the first woman president of the Texas Bar Association, a co-managing partner of a 400-lawyer firm in Texas, a one-time Dallas city councilor, and by the by, the personal lawyer to one George W. Bush. She joined his staff as governor, served as staff secretary (Richard Darman's old job) in the first administration, and now oversees the White House's legal work. She is quiet, discreet, intensely loyal to Bush personally, and - though not ideologically conservative -...

IF you are reading these words, it means you are one of the millions of readers of The New York Times whose desires and dislikes are never far from the minds of the paper's editors and reporters. How they envision you and your fellow readers can have a significant effect on how well they manage to inform, serve and entertain you. So I thought I would give you an opportunity to assess - if only in some rough sense - the news staff's perception of you, its readers, and what you want and need from the newspaper. Through e-mail, I...

It looks like a spaceship that has landed on the wrong planet. It is Afghanistan's very first shopping mall, gleaming with shops while on the dusty road outside people pump water and grim soldiers drive by in armoured vehicles. The mall, which opened here this month, offers a lesson in contrast. It also boasts another first for Afghanistan, an escalator, which customers can use to reach upper floors - if they dare. "People are afraid of the escalator. They are amazed to see something moving by itself," says Anwar Hussein, manager of the hotel that shares a nine-storey building with...

Authorities say four bullet-ridden bodies have been discovered at a ranch 30 miles southeast of the northern Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo. Meanwhile, four more shooting deaths in two attacks also were reported over the weekend in Nuevo Laredo, across the U.S. border from Laredo. The four bodies found at a ranch in the rural town of Anahuac included a 13-year-old boy. Jorge Cantu, a spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office, says the victims had been dead about 36 hours before police found them Sunday. Cantu says prosecutors were investigating whether killings were related to smuggling...

Two lobbying groups, chosen by Louisiana to collect emergency requests from hospitals and nursing homes during Hurricane Katrina, found themselves instead scrambling to arrange private rescues when government teams became preoccupied with plucking citizens off rooftops. The inability to quickly direct National Guard and other government rescue teams to health care facilities had deadly consequences. Dozens of fragile patients died in sweltering heat and other taxing conditions that lasted for days. A Catholic nun reported trying for four days to get rescuers to her nursing home, only to watch them pass by in the street. Another home administrator, trapped amid...

EAST HARTFORD -- These days there are two empty places at Elisa Amaro's dinner table. Her husband, Luis Amaro, and his son Joshua are having their meals at boot camp in Fort Benning, Ga., while Elisa Amaro and the remaining five children stay in East Hartford. Joshua, 18, left first, followed by his father. "It is certainly extremely unusual," said Col. Gary Tocchet, associate professor of history at West Point. While there are a number of fathers and sons in the service together, the Amaros' sequence could be the first time a father has followed his son into military service....

On Sunday, October 16, a truly unique political event will take place. Teaming up with the legendary rock group U2 for a one-night only appearance will be Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.). The thousand-dollar-a-seat concert has been put together by Sean and Ana Wolfington and will take place at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia in support of Santorum’s reelection, reports NewsMax's James Hirsen. U2 front man Bono is no stranger to Washington, D.C. He has come often to the nation’s capital to network with politicians on behalf of his many causes. Santorum met Bono earlier this year having been introduced by...