Free Republic

In the down-is-up world of American biofuels, success carries enormous costs. The latest evidence of these costs is an amendment tucked into the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill: As Mexican granular sugar flows into the U.S. in 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will oversee a supply-balancing program where the extra sugar can be purchased, at government-subsidized prices, by American ethanol makers. Sweet, eh? Moreover, if you think American corn growers are angered by seeing part of their fast-growing ethanol market legislatively handed to imported sugar, think again. Ethanol, after all, is the rabbit hole that swallowed logic...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry, in a rare and uncharacteristic move Thursday, spared the life of condemned prisoner Kenneth Foster, hours before he was to be executed for his role in a San Antonio robbery-shooting. The halt to Thursday's execution marked only the second time since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982 that the parole board voted to stop an execution this close to punishment time. And in that case, in 2004, Perry rejected the board's recommendation and the prisoner was executed. But this time, Perry agreed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles' equally unusual recommendation...

The attacks of September 11 and the resulting war against terrorism have brought to the front once again the question of the Christian view of war. The question is particularly complex because it is hard to see how war can be consistent with the biblical emphasis upon forgiveness and forebearance and love. This emphasis is perhaps most pointed in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says: You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you...

Hillary has herself. Barack has Oprah. John Edwards has his wife, Elizabeth. And what secret weapon do Republican presidential candidates have to curry the all-important "women's vote"? (Cue silence.) Expect to hear a lot about lady voters over the next few months, though most of it from Democrats. Women make up 60% of the left's primary electorate, and the frontrunners are already going to the mat for their vote. It's why Ms. Clinton has six full-time staffers for women's outreach; why Mr. Obama sports a women's "policy committee"; and why Bill Richardson recently told a cheering mob that "women are...

A low percentage of qualified signatures in Los Angeles County is threatening to derail a lawmaker-driven initiative that would change term limits and extend the tenure of Democratic leaders. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack on Thursday said the percentage of signatures verified for the "Limits on Legislators' Terms in Office" constitutional amendment hovered at 63.85 percent in a random-sample count of the state's most populous county. Initiative backers needed at least 66 percent verification from all outstanding signatures Thursday afternoon in order to meet a Sept. 27 deadline to qualify for the February primary. And because Los Angeles accounted...

Scientists at the University of Rochester and the J. Craig Venter Institute have discovered a copy of the genome of a bacterial parasite residing inside the genome of its host species. The research, reported in today's Science, also shows that lateral gene transfer—the movement of genes between unrelated species—may happen much more frequently between bacteria and multicellular organisms than scientists previously believed, posing dramatic implications for evolution. Such large-scale heritable gene transfers may allow species to acquire new genes and functions extremely quickly, says Jack Werren, a principal investigator of the study. If such genes provide new abilities in species...

The Second Vatican Council is said to have ushered in the age of the laity, and the post-conciliar period has certainly seen an increase in lay ministry in the Church. However, critics have suggested that so far the age of the laity has resulted mainly in the clericalization of the laity, and even the feminization of the laity. How are we to sort this out? Lay Ecclesial Ministry Earlier this month, the USCCB’s Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women and Youth co-sponsored a national symposium on lay ecclesial ministry at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. There were eighteen co-sponsoring organizations...

I'm absolutely furious. Last night, I went to the 7-day Store here on base. As I was pulling up, Evening Colors was sounded. As any Marines out there know, when colors sounds, you either stand and face the flag, or you stop your vehicle if you are driving. So, I stopped my car, because I was JUST in front of the store, and all the Marines coming out of the store were stopped and at attention, and other civilian workers stopped walking, and there is this guy..... He was sitting on a bench outside. He didn't stand, he didn't stop...

He wasn't dressed for a swim, but Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale plunged into a slimy brook Thursday to help arrest a man who allegedly stole a police car and dragged a detective with it. At 4:36 pm, two plainclothes detectives from the Sheriff's Department's warrant unit noticed a stopped Jeep Cherokee...........One detective recognized the driver as having outstanding arrest warrants, according to department spokesman Bill Maer, and they pulled their unmarked Ford Explorer in front of his vehicle. When detectives asked the driver for his identification, he handed them a Peruvian passport that appeared fake. Realizing he was about...

George Bush is not a very popular fellow. Witness the enraged reaction last week from critics to his suggestion that leaving Iraq now could have the same dire consequences as our withdrawal from Vietnam did. "It just boggles my mind, the distortions I feel are perpetrated here by the president," cried historian Robert Dallek. "Misleading rhetoric," chimed in Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. What is it about Bush that evokes such furor? Let's start with the hard left, whether in Hollywood or the blogosphere, or among the academic elite. They hate George Bush. To them, his tax cuts, alliance with the...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – Marines from Regimental Combat Team 6 observed and engaged an armed group of al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists killing 12 and destroying two vehicles near the town of Karmah Aug. 29. A group of three men was seen loading objects into a bongo truck from a nearby growth of weeds 11 kilometers northeast of Fallujah, in an area known to be a historical weapons cache site. A second group of four men arrived in another bongo truck, followed by a third group of six men on foot through the reeds. A team of Marines was dispatched...

Washington - -- In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks if they did not breast-feed. It featured striking photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples. Plans to run these blunt ads infuriated the politically powerful infant-formula industry, which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political appointees toned down...

VANCOUVER, August 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thoughts related to God cultivate cooperative behaviour and generosity, according to University of British Columbia psychology researchers. In a study to be published in the September issue of Psychological Science journal, researchers investigated how thinking about God and notions of a higher power influenced positive social behaviour, specifically cooperation with others and generosity to strangers. UBC PhD graduate Azim Shariff and UBC Assoc. Prof. Ara Norenzayan found that priming people with 'god concepts' - by activating subconscious thoughts through word games - promoted altruism. In addition, the researchers found that this effect was consistent...

A San Francisco police officer who has been the target of several complaints from people who say he used excessive force was among five law enforcement officers sued Thursday by a medical student, who says he was told to "stop acting like such a girl" and zapped with a stun gun during a North Beach sweep. Mehrdad Alemozaffar, 27, who is to begin a medical residency at Harvard University this fall, said Officer Jesse Serna was among the police officers and sheriff's deputies who tackled him to the ground near Broadway and Montgomery Street at about 2 a.m. Dec. 17....

000 WONT41 KNHC 311310 DSAAT SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 910 AM AST FRI AUG 31 2007 SATELLITE IMAGES AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS INDICATE THAT THE TROPICAL WAVE AND ASSOCIATED LOW PRESSURE AREA LOCATED ABOUT 250 MILES EAST OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS COULD BE DEVELOPING INTO A TROPICAL DEPRESSION. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER WILL INVESTIGATE THE SYSTEM EARLY THIS AFTERNOON TO CONFIRM IF A DEPRESSION HAS FORMED. WATCHES AND WARNINGS MAY BE REQUIRED FOR PORTIONS OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS...AND ALL INTERESTS IN THAT AREA SHOULD BE READY TO TAKE QUICK ACTION...IF NECESSARY. REGARDLESS...

Was it plagiarism or mearly repackaging Kudlow's original work without proper attribution? We report, you decide. Larry Kudlow column from 8/30/2007, 'The Big Easy's Billion Dollar Boondoggle': "Perhaps all this money should've been directly deposited in the bank accounts of the 300,000 people living in New Orleans. All divvied up, that $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person! After thanking Uncle Sam for their sudden windfall, residents could head to Southern California and buy homes that are now on sale thanks to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and bid up the sagging house prices in the state." Link: http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/LawrenceKudlow/2007/08/30/the_big_easys_billion_dollar_boondoggle Richmond...

Has anyone read it?? I have some gift certicates from Amazon and I was wondering if the book was worth reading.

LOS ANGELES — Then president-elect John F. Kennedy, summarizing the challenge of announcing that he had selected his brother to be Attorney General, famously suggested that perhaps he could go out and just whisper “It’s Bobby,” and no one would pay attention. It’s hard to imagine any U.S. president today being allowed, by the Senate or the media, the privilege of appointing his or her brother (or sister) to the top law enforcement job in the nation. The reason family relations aren’t appropriate is the same reason a president would want a relative in the job. As a friend said...

This is hilarious. Best if you are on cable or DSL because the file is 2.6MB. Click here.

August 31, 2007                                     Friday of the Twenty-first Week                                     in Ordinary Time Psalm: Friday 31       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 11 Thes 4:1-8 Brothers and sisters,we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,as you received from ushow you should conduct yourselves to please God– and as you are conducting yourselves– you do so even more.For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, your holiness:that you refrain from immorality,that...