Free Republic

The Church of Man, a self-proclaimed agnostic religious institution, has issued a position backing Catholic and Christian parents opposing local Boards of Education over sex-ed programs in their schools. "The Church of Man ... is concerned when it comes to the rights of individuals to practice their religious freedom - including the right to hold moral opinions for which they are not answerable to any government representative or body," stated a post on the Church of Man's website, www.churchofman.org.The Church of Man cited Thomas Jefferson's famous exchange with the Danbury Baptist Association in which the phrase "wall of separation between...

Hillary Clinton Expresses Surprise at Big Money Donor's Wanted Status Thursday , August 30, 2007 Sen. Hillary Clinton distanced herself Thursday from a leading contributor to her presidential campaign after learning that the donor is a fugitive from the law. Clinton, appearing at a child care event with New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, said she was as shocked as anyone to learn that Norman Hsu is wanted in California for not showing up to a 1991 sentencing hearing relating to a grand theft plea deal. "I wish Mr. Hsu well in dealing with the problems he's confronting," Clinton told reporters....

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. - A U.S. Border Patrol agent charged in state court with second-degree murder for the shooting death of an illegal immigrant has succeeded in having his case shifted to federal court, records show. Attorneys for agent Nicholas Corbett filed notice in U.S. District Court in Tucson asking that the federal courts take jurisdiction over the case, and on Tuesday filed a notice in Cochise County Superior Court removing the case to federal court. Documents filed in federal court by Corbett's lawyers claim his actions were necessary and proper to perform his duties as a federal law enforcement...

Is someone trying to run the president of Collierville's NAACP branch out of his home in Almadale Farms? Collierville officers reported seeing the ashes of a burned paper sack after Charles A. "Chuck" Campbell called police to his home on Aug. 18. Police also reported finding what appeared to be feces inside the sack as . . .

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will. "It causes a lot of conflict on the playground," said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school. Running games are still allowed as long as students don't chase each other, she said. Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban but most parents and children didn't object. In 2005, two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in favor of alternatives with...

Pakistan: Trouble Brewing over Latest Prophet Mohammed Cartoon August 30, 2007 16 20 GMT Pakistan's Foreign Ministry lodged a complaint with the Swedish Embassy in Islamabad on Aug. 30 over a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in a Swedish daily. The cartoon could ignite violent protests in Muslim countries and among Europe's Muslim population. The cartoon, which depicts the Prophet Mohammed's head on the body of a dog, was published Aug. 19 in the Swedish daily Nerikes Allehanda.

Liberal journalist Nina Burleigh, famous for her 1998 statement that she'd happily fellate President Clinton for "keeping abortion legal," complained in an August 30 Huffington Post blog entry that conservative Republicans are sexually repressed, homophobic, and intolerant. The rockier the rib, the more likely you'll find pink lingerie under the trousers or a bullwhip and manacles in the bedside drawer. You can bet those Beltway dominatrices, madams and escorts (gay and straight) have been able to buy second homes -- maybe even in Sun Valley! -- with their haul during W's reign. Oh, it gets better. According to Burleigh, gay-baiting...

Hillary Clinton and other Democrats scrambled to distance themselves from a big-name party fundraiser who was exposed Wednesday as a fugitive who disappeared 15 years ago after pleading no contest to felony grand theft in the Bay Area. Norman Hsu, a 56-year-old New York resident, also has been linked to a Daly City family that has become a major Democratic donor. The family has given money to many of the same candidates and party causes as Hsu, their longtime friend and business partner. Some Democrats also were scrutinizing contributions from members of the Daly City family, the Paws, who could...

Howie Carr show live thread

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is under intense pressure to signal a rate cut when he takes center stage Friday at a gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Dennis Cook / AP Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In recent days, CEOs, investors and politicians have been clamoring for the Fed chief to move quickly to ease the current credit crunch and keep the economy from sliding into a recession. Although the Fed helped calm the markets on Aug. 17 with a surprise cut in the discount rate, the call now is for a cut in the more...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department said Thursday it is investigating whether resigning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied or otherwise mislead Congress last month in sworn testimony about the Bush administration's domestic terrorist spying program. The inquiry, confirmed by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, comes three days after Gonzales abruptly announced he was stepping down despite months of vowing he would remain on the job. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who two weeks ago asked for the inquiry, Fine said his investigators believe they "will be able to assess most of the issues that...

SAN DIEGO – A Mexican businessman testified Tuesday that his Mexican captors boasted they were unafraid to kidnap people in the United States as they tortured him in a suburban home. Eduardo Gonzalez Tostado, 32, haltingly recounted his captors' threats and demands for money in the first hours after a woman lured him to a home in a quiet cul-de-sac the night of June 8 with the promise of sex. Instead, he was jumped, beaten and shot with a stun gun by at least four men who blindfolded and bound him. The leader of the group, a Mexican man, said...

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife)— In a move expected to increase pressure on millions of Christians preaching Christ as "the Way, the Truth and the Life" the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) wants to join an ecumenical effort, backed by the Vatican, to "guide activities seeking converts to Christianity," BosNewsLife learned. WEA General Secretary Geoff Tunnicliffe "gave his full approval" to a "code of conduct" for preachers and evangelists developed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican, said Thomas Schirrmacher, the head of WEA’s International Institute for Religious Freedom, in remarks distributed by the WCC. The WEA is an association...

EDMONTON — As students across Canada head back to classrooms in this high-tech Information Age, there's a question in the front row that demands to be heard: Why, in the Information Age, are students heading back to classrooms? Researchers say students weaned on collaborative learning with high-tech devices are suffering in classrooms ruled by defenders of lecture-based orthodoxy wielding overhead projectors and reciting from dog-eared history textbooks that climax with Paul Martin's run for 24 Sussex Drive. "It's not about using technology for technology's sake. It's allowing students to access the right information because of the information explosion," says Mohamed...

Mass Plague Graves Found on Venice "Quarantine" Island Maria Cristina Valsecchi for National Geographic News August 29, 2007 Ancient mass graves containing more than 1,500 victims of the bubonic plague have been discovered on a small island in Italy's Venetian Lagoon. Workers came across the skeletons while digging the foundation for a new museum on Lazzaretto Vecchio, a small island in the lagoon's south, located a couple of miles from Venice's famed Piazza San Marco (see a map of the Venetian Lagoon). The island is believed to be the world's first lazaret—a quarantine colony intended to help prevent the spread...

The earth is round, but the world is full of seductive edges and remote corners where man wrestles the odds of nature to carve a niche for himself, on distant seaside islands steeped in privacy, where his true visionary genius may come to repose. Chadsworth, a cottage on the extreme north end of Figure Eight Island, on a site which, the owner says, was at one time heavily treed with live oaks ravaged by hurricanes, is one of those rare private villas where a world traveler retreats behind the facade of an anglicized Palladian mansion embedded into the fragile barrier...

My latest His Side with Glenn Sacks [http://www.hisside.com/] radio commentary for KLAA AM 830 in Los Angeles criticizes the Florida child welfare system for its handling of the “Elian Gonzalez II” case in Miami. To listen to the commentary, go here: www.glennsacks.com/hsrc/mp3/hsrc-cuba.mp3. In my commentary, I explained: "There’s been a lot of media attention focused on the 'Elian Gonzalez II' case in Miami. The battle over a 4-year-old Cuban immigrant girl pits her Cuban father, Rafael Izquierdo, against a wealthy Cuban-American foster family. Just as Elian's father Juan Gonzalez faced numerous unfair hurdles to get his son back, Izquierdo is...

Source: Geological Society of America Date: August 30, 2007 Migration of Early Humans From Africa Aided By Wet Weather Science Daily — The African origin of early modern humans 200,000--150,000 years ago is now well documented, with archaeological data suggesting that a major migration from tropical east Africa to the Levant took place between 130,000 and 100,000 years ago via the presently hyper-arid Saharan-Arabian desert. This migration was dependent on the occurrence of wetter climate in the region. Whereas there is good evidence that the southern and central Saharan-Arabian desert experienced increased monsoon precipitation during this period, no unequivocal evidence...

1.5 tons of ancient coins discovered in north China + - 21:20, August 30, 2007 A cellar containing 1.5 tons of ancient coins, including some 2,000-year-old ones, have been discovered by a villager in Changzi County, north China's Shanxi Province. The man in Qianwanhu village discovered the cellar with some 10,000 coins, ranging from 3 cm to 1 cm in diameter, on Aug. 23 when he was digging a channel to place pipes for tap water, said Li Lin, an official of the Changzi Center of Cultural Heritage and Tourism. The "money cellar" was 1.5 meters under the earth, with...

Remember years and years ago, when you were in school? Remember having to wear your itchy ‘Good’ clothes, gather with your similarly dressed classmates, stand in front of your beaming parents, and sing Christmas carols? Remember when you were allowed to sing Christmas carols? My eyes opened a few years ago when I attended my daughters’ school Christmas concert. This event occurs at public schools throughout the free world, and has done unimpeded for decades. Not that time.