Free Republic

Specifications for a Man By Thomas Van Alstyne a graduate of Cornell University To respect my country, my profession, and myself. To be honest and fair with my fellowmen as I expect them to be honest and square with me. To be a loyal citizen of the United States of America. To speak of it with praise and act always as a trustworthy custodian of its good name. To be a man whose name carries prestige wherever it goes. To base my expectations of a reward on a solid foundation of service rendered. To be willing to pay the price ...

Discrimination rears its head in the guise of limiting guns The federal government, under a supposedly liberal administration, is going to sue gun makers for allowing poor people to buy guns, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is trying to stop gun makers from selling to people of color ["U.S. plans lawsuit vs. firearms makers," News, Dec. 8]. The federal agency making this announcement was the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A few years ago this same agency tried to adopt a rule requiring all occupants of federally subsidized public housing projects to surrender their ...

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (AFP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright canceled planed to attend Tuesday's ceremony marking the handover of the US-administered Panama canal because of the progress in Middle East talks, a state department official said Friday. "A pivotal breakthrough in the Middle East peace process resulting from the secretary's trip there this week and the subsequent meeting of Middle East leaders in Washington next week made it impossible for the secretary to go to Panama," the official said. "The secretary regrets not being able to attend the historic ceremony." The cancellation of Albright's trip to Panama, announced ...

The Essay Of The Week winner this week is: Rebel and a Patriot. Greg Swann, TheHeterodoxConservative, SamAdams76, AuntB are given honorable mention as first, second, third and fourth runners up. Common Tator takes the honors for Quote Of The Week. Don't miss our Bonus Bytes from: Uncle George, PoisedWoman, Doug from Upland, Common Tator, Lady Hoosier, CounterCounterCulture, Buzz Brockway, Reschev, alisasny, giotto, ken from kalamazoo, nsmart, MainStreetMom, Paine's Ghost, RLK, Publius, KC_Conspirator, Gecko, Nick Danger, ParrotsUp. Freeper's Choice: Norman Liebmann Let me know what you think and please help keep our thread bumped so those given recognition will have the ...

Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York is the last of the New Deal liberal Democrats, so we must sit up and pay sharp attention when Moynihan says that New Deal-type government has become a bad deal for New York. The numbers are clear: In 1998, New York sent $15 billion more in tax money to Washington than it got in federal services. The money could be better spent at home on raising the second-highest poverty rate in the country, repairing crumbling schools and roads and investing in an upstate region that is mired in chronic recession. "It's time to get ...

RICHMOND, VA, DEC 9 (ZENIT) - A Federal Appeals Court has overturned the local law that prevented a Virginia woman from erecting a manger scene outside a Fairfax County government center. Rita Warren is not a resident of Fairfax County, and the law prohibited non-residents from making political or religious displays on county property. Warren's four-year battle ended with a 9-3 vote in the appellate court. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote, "Speech in America cannot be that parochial.... Surely a speaker is entitled to spread the faith or the political gospel beyond the community in which she lives." ...

The Strait Scoop by Bevin Chu Antiwar.com December 10, 1999 International Trade and National Security: Back to Basics WTO? JUST SAY NO! The federal government of these United States of America should withdraw from and refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Why? THE WTO VIOLATES AMERICANS' RIGHT TO ENGAGE IN FREE TRADE Because as Austrian economist Llewellyn Rockwell of the Ludwig von Mises Institute has underscored recently, supranational entities such as the WTO, World Bank, and IMF, at least as they are configured in today's world, are ...

Agents hunt for accomplice in Russian spy case WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. investigators are pursuing the possibility Russian spies had inside help planting a bug inside the State Department because it took more than one visit to install, a government official said. It took months to find the sophisticated eavesdropping device - even after an alert FBI surveillance team on a different assignment noticed a Russian diplomat regularly visiting the streets outside the U.S. diplomatic headquarters early last summer. Methodical observation of his weekly visits then revealed he was positioning his car as though receiving an electronic signal. U.S. investigators ...

Behind the Headlines by Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com December 10, 1999 THE PANAMA CANAL AND THE LEGACY OF U.S. GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY It was, of course, to be expected that many conservatives would be outraged by the imminent reversion of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians: for years, they have been screaming about it, warning that if we didn't hold on to that relic of Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick" belligerence all would be lost. In the wake of the end of the cold war, however, it was easy to ignore them: after all, with the Soviets gone, who or what could ...

Presidential Candidate Howard Phillips (Constitution Party) will travel to Panama on Dec 14 for News conference as the Chinese take over control of the Panama canal. Along with Mr. Phillips will be Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch. For the next half-century Panama has granted Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. the rights to control the 50 mile long canal.

The Essay Of The Week winner this week is: Rebel and a Patriot. Greg Swann, TheHeterodoxConservative, SamAdams76, AuntB are given honorable mention as first, second, third and fourth runners up. Common Tator takes the honors for Quote Of The Week. Don't miss our Bonus Bytes from: Uncle George, PoisedWoman, Doug from Upland, Common Tator, Lady Hoosier, CounterCounterCulture, Buzz Brockway, Reschev, alisasny, giotto, ken from kalamazoo, nsmart, MainStreetMom, Paine's Ghost, RLK, Publius, KC_Conspirator, Gecko, Nick Danger, ParrotsUp. Freeper's Choice: Norman Liebmann Let me know what you think and please help keep our thread bumped so those given recognition will have the ...

The Jeffersonian Perspective Commentary on Today's Social and Political Issues Based on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson The Founders' Vision & Today's Issues Most of the issues that we face in America today, are ones which Thomas Jefferson did not address directly. This is not surprising. Jefferson addressed himself to the basic, fundamental questions of government and society, mainly because that is what really concerned the Founding Fathers, those who were "present at the creation." Getting the new nation started on the right path was their chief concern. "[To establish republican government, it is necessary to] effect a constitution in ...

The United States failed to detect plans for India's sudden spate of underground nuclear tests last year because it inadvertently revealed satellite flyover schedules, according to an intelligence source. Underground nuclear tests normally have a good chance of being spotted by overhead photography. Activity picks up at the site as trucks bring in equipment to insert the warhead down a subterranean shaft. In fact, the intelligence source said, sometime before the five blasts in May 1998, the United States did detect unusual activity at the Pokhran site and presented New Delhi with a demarche demanding the test be halted. When ...

Again, since the President takes an oath to defend the COnstitution and uphold the laws based on the same, determining for one's self which candidate is most apt to do that is a valid and pertinent question in the Presidential race. Here is a poll that asks this question of 3rd Party Candidates. Which 3rd Party Candidate is the most Constitutional? Like the poll on the GOP candidates, this poll will be advertised around the web for the next week, with daily updates. If you are so inclined, please vote. The poll regarding the leading GOP candidates resulted in Alan ...

Y2K Global Overview Y2K Global Overview It's somewhat ironic to be writing this essay on Pearl Harbor Day; however, the global situation is probably as grim as it can get without actual, declared war. In the United States this will be the strangest Christmas season since December 1941. As you walk around everything appears normal physically, but the people seem absent. The Neutron Christmas of 1999 is what I'll call it. Just like one of those neutron atom bombs that leaves the buildings standing but kills the people, so everyone tries to act normal as reality frays around them. ...

(BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC) There’s a carpetbagger coming here intent on fooling you She will say or do most anything she thinks she has to do Of the needs of our great state you know she doesn’t have a clue Tell her to go back home We will vote for Giuliani We will vote for Giuliani We will vote for Giuliani New Yorker tried and true

NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 World Wide Web: www.LP.org For release: December 9, 1999 For additional information: George Getz, Press Secretary Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222 E-Mail: 76214.3676@Compuserve.com Your medical privacy is under attack by politicians' Unique Health Identifier WASHINGTON, DC -- There's less than a month left to block a federal regulation that will permit thousands of businesses and government agencies -- including banks, the FBI, and even the Environmental Protection Agency -- to examine your private medical records without your consent, the Libertarian Party warned today. And equally ominous: ...

The expected Senate race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudolph W. Giuliani has revived media interest in homelessness. The expected Senate race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudolph W. Giuliani has revived media interest in homelessness, an issue that had almost disappeared since a Republican last occupied the White House nearly seven years ago. Television reports about homeless people were big news during the Reagan and Bush administrations, but the issue nearly vanished from the screen after President Clinton’s election in 1992. One study showed major news networks, which ran 71 stories about homelessness in 1990, have recently averaged only ...

There is no end to Bill Clinton's chicanery. You'd think that after all this time, Clinton would occasionally lapse into forthrightness -- for variety's sake, if nothing else. No such luck. The president's aversion to the truth -- and his audacity in disseminating deception -- is constant and consuming. It should not have come as a surprise, then, when Clinton looked America straight in its collective eye Wednesday and declared himself "profoundly disappointed" that nothing was done this year to secure the long-term viability of Social Security. He said this as if the preservation of Social Security were an ...

The latest school shooter has been described in all the usual ways, meaning that he was thought to be an upstanding lad who would never pull out a gun and start firing at his classmates. This was the school shooting in Fort Gibson, Okla., the other day. The 13-year-old arrested for the attack fired at least 15 times and miraculously didn't seriously injure anybody. Just as miraculously, that meant CNN stayed in Fort Gibson for only about 10 minutes. Not only his classmates but school authorities thought this kid was a perfectly adjusted young teen. He loved games, sports and ...