Free Republic

Understanding left-Wing Fecal Spoons and Iraq The Left has been trying hard for years to interfere with the dissemination of any information that could help the American public understand Saddam's links to Al Qaeda or terrorism. By doing so, it has provided aid to our enemy. The most notorious example of this was when the NY Times actively acted to destroy the Docex Project. What is the Docex Project? The Docex Project consists of millions of captured pre-war documents that had resided deep within a warehouse. These documents have shed light on links between Saddam and Al Qaeda. They were...

Christian leaders have been lamenting the decline of discernment in the ranks of the church for decades, and if indeed even inside the fellowship of faith fuzzy thinking prevails, how much more so in the broader spectrum of Western society, that conglomeration of cultures bound together, it seems, by an insatiable desire to suppress the truth of God by every possible mechanism? It is hardly surprising that when attention is directed to Christian theology in the context of Western society today, ignorance and irrationality reign supreme. Throw in a secular media with all its quirkiness, place the resultant mixture in...

The keg parties that accompany the start of the school year could see more uninvited, uniformed guests if Ontario police get their way. Under the proposed registry, each keg would have an identification number. Customers would have to provide their address and phone number in order to take a keg home. The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police has been lobbying the province since June to start a beer keg registry that would give every keg an identification number and require customers to provide their addresses and phone numbers before taking one of the 59-litre containers home. "It's all about...

It’s bigger than Saddam’s palace and, with a cinema, gym and pool, is the safest and smartest place to live in Iraq... Baghdad is a city of ruins - of burnt-out homes, of shops wrecked by suicide bombs, of the crumbling shells of Saddam-era palaces and ministries destroyed by smart bombs in the US invasion of 2003. There is one notable exception. It is probably the only big new building project in the capital in the past four years. It is the new US Embassy on the west bank of the Tigris which the contractors will transfer to the US...

By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners trade in their vehicles. In its annual national auto survey, the magazine found 6,769 readers who had logged more than 200,000 miles on their cars. Their cars included a 1990 Lexus LS400 with 332,000 miles and a 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up that had gone 488,000 miles. Consumer Reports calls the Honda Civic a "Good bet"...

On the 13 September, there will be no spaghetti, fettucine, farfalle or rigatoni in Italy, as the country goes on its first-ever pasta strike. Mama Mia! There'll be no pasta in Italy on13 September Angry Italians are downing their forks in response to a 30 per cent price rise in the nation's favourite food, along with steep rises in the price of coffee, mozzarella, bread, biscuits and schoolbooks. A second strike over the increase in the price of a cup of coffee in a cafe, from 70 euro cents (50p) to one euro, has also been threatened. According to Italy's...

The Bible teaches us to expect mental jolts when we think about God. It teaches us that our familiar ways of seeing things may be replaced. For example, it says, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Romans 11:33). Or again, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). One of the reasons (not the only one) that some people reject the biblical teaching of unconditional election is that...

Fifteen months before the 2008 election, the Democrats are odds-on favorites to put one of their own into the White House. A solid majority of the country rejects the Bush administration and the war in Iraq he initiated. But psychologist Drew Westen says Democrats could lose yet again if they don't learn how to stand up for themselves and connect with voters emotionally. Westen is a clinical, personality and political psychologist and a professor in the departments of psychology and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. He's also a political consultant whose bestselling book, "The Political Brain:...

August 30, 2007 Washington Post FEC SENDS A MESSAGE ACT Fined $775,000 The Federal Election Commission yesterday issued the latest in a string of six-figure fines against partisan political groups -- this time, against America Coming Together, a group financed by George Soros and labor organizations that sunk more than $100 million into campaign activities intended to help Democrats in the 2004 elections. The decision to fine the group $775,000, the FEC's third-largest penalty in its three-decade history, was intended to send a stern message to independent groups. The FEC has said it will crack down on groups that raise...

Superbug kills war hero who survived three years as a PoWLast updated at 00:42am on 1st September 2007  The family of a distinguished war veteran have criticised the hospital where he was infected by a killer bug. Major Sam Weller - who survived three years as a prisoner of war - died after catching Clostridium Difficile following an operation on his hip. His relatives said he had been let down by the country he fought for. Major Weller, 88, had surgery at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital but he developed an infection and was given a course of antibiotics. Weeks later...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31 — A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court here ruled Friday that the Navy could use high-intensity sonar during military exercises in the Pacific, despite worries about its potentially lethal effect on whales and other marine mammals. The 2-to-1 decision, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, stays a temporary injunction on the sonar’s use that was handed down in early August by a federal district judge in Los Angeles. It is the latest turn in a lengthy seesaw battle between the military and environmental groups over this so-called midfrequency sonar,...

MONTREAL -- After serving nearly four years in an Israeli prison for crimes he says he didn’t commit, Jamal Akkal landed on Canadian soil Friday morning.The 27-year-old Canadian citizen, who was born in Gaza but lived in Windsor, Ont., pleaded guilty in 2004 to receiving paramilitary training and conspiracy to commit manslaughter, but maintains his innocence. He says his confession was attained under duress.Akkal was released to family members in Gaza on Wednesday. His Royal Jordanian flight from Amman, Jordan landed at Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport at 7:30 a.m. Friday, but he did not exit to the arrivals area.Several passengers,...

Outgoing Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin's recent trip to Burma to meet with top-level military figures in the ruling junta there was misguided at best, and wholly inappropriate at worst. Although Gen Sonthi retires from the military at the end of next month, there was no real need for him to go and "assure" the Burmese junta that Thailand's policies towards Burma would continue unchanged in his absence. Such high-level policy decisions are for the government to make, not an outgoing commander-in-chief of the Army. Gen Sonthi met with the chairman of Burma's State Peace and Development Council, Senior General...

f Senator Larry E. Craig resigns Saturday as expected amid accusations that he solicited sex in an airport restroom, his successor will be chosen by a fellow Republican who knows better than most what voters in this deeply conservative state will tolerate when it comes to the private behavior of public officials. .... Some top Republicans say that the relationship between Mr. Otter and Mr. Risch is frosty, that their styles are different and that Mr. Otter would prefer someone like Mr. Simpson, a conservative from eastern Idaho with whom he served in Congress. Mr. Simpson has made nuclear energy...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa clashed Thursday over the Maritime Self-Defense Force's mission to provide logistic support for the NATO-led antiterrorist campaign in Afghanistan, with Merkel urging Japan to extend the operation. Ozawa, head of the top opposition party, told Merkel he was against extending the mission, which lets Indian Ocean-deployed MSDF vessels provide fuel to ships from nations involved in the NATO effort, the party said. The mission expires Nov. 1. Merkel, however, said she hoped the mission is continued, it said. She said many countries should be involved in antiterrorism efforts...

People across the globe are increasingly turning to traditional Chinese medicine. They use it as an alternative, or to complement Western medical practices. Many Chinese medical practitioners see this as a golden opportunity to modernize the image of Chinese medicine and boost its global appeal. Traditional Chinese medicine dates back thousands of years. Practitioners offer a wide array of remedies including countless blends of plants, fungi and animals. But eastern doctors are looking for ways of modernizing their art of healing to give it an even wider appeal outside of Asia. Abraham Chan, President M.C.M.I.A. Ltd., said, "What we are...

The way things are going, the first votes in the 2008 Presidential election may yet be cast in 2007, more than 10 months before the national elections next November. This is not an improvement. In a little-noticed move this week, Wyoming Republicans moved their party conventions to January 5, beating out Michigan, which just moved its primaries to January 15. State laws in Iowa and New Hampshire require those states, in turn, to leapfrog Michigan and Wyoming, potentially pushing one or both elections into December. So voters in those two states might have to interrupt their holidays to participate in...

(Perplexed trousers owner gets back hundreds in cash and cashier's check with the help of good Samaritan) Waukesha, WI - The worst part wasn't that Mark Stahnke woke up Monday morning in the patio chair of some neighbor he didn't know. Or that his pants were missing. The worst part was the contents of his missing pants: a cashier's check for $41,093, which he meant to give to his son, and several hundred dollars in cash that he had gotten from the bank. Stahnke still doesn't know what happened between the time he left a bar Sunday night and the...

I'd like to ask praying FREEPers to mention and remember my 60-something mom--her initials are "B.J."--in the coming weeks. I've not mentioned this much on the board, but she has been fighting cancer for several months now. Her body is weak; she cannot swallow because when she tries the liquid goes into her lungs. One doctor says he sees little hope in continuing chemo (a general practictioner), but the oncologist says even though she'll always have the disease, she can get back to a normal life. Right now she is preparing to have a hospital bed at home and...

(Beijing) - Bus drivers and conductors in the capital city of Beijing now have to mind their manners as the city government introduced new regulations aimed at sprucing up public transport services ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. Under the new rules, drivers are forbidden to drink alcohol within eight hours before work, and are banned from "excessive" drinking at any time. Drivers in Beijing are prohibited from driving with a blood alcohol content of at least 100 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. It is estimated that three bottles of beer could put the average person over...