Free Republic

The man behind the world's biggest online Michael Jackson fan club has said heartbroken followers of the star have committed suicide because of his death. Gary Taylor, president and owner of MJJcommunity.com, said he understood the tragedies had mostly taken place outside of the UK but he believed one may have been British.

The country's shambolic immigration laws were under the spotlight yesterday after the High Court ordered the release of a prolific criminal who has been fighting deportation for three years. A judge ruled that the 'undesirable' immigrant, who 'embarked on a criminal career' in the UK and still poses a threat of further offending, must be freed from detention. The High Court was told Ahmed Daq, 32, must be released on bail because the Home Office has already held him for three years to facilitate his removal from the UK but there is still no prospect of deportation.

Talk about a lack of piety. Long Island cops say they've caught a woman robbing congregants during church. Patricia Adams saw an opportunity during services at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church – and it wasn't for worship. While a devout parishioner knelt down in prayer, the 46-year-old leaned over a church pew and stole cash from her purse, police said. An usher saw her do it and called the cops. Cops arrested Adams as she left the church yesterday morning. They recovered the stolen goods and returned them to the unsuspecting victim. This wasn't the first time Adams lifted...

For the first time in years, there is good news for college students who borrow to pay for their education. Starting Wednesday, the federal Education Department will begin offering a repayment plan that lets graduates reduce their loan payments, based on their income. “We know today’s borrowers are concerned about their ability to repay student loans in the current economic environment,” Arne Duncan, the education secretary, said in a statement. “This new plan addresses the issue head-on by giving them the option of a reduced monthly payment tied to their annual income.” Also on Wednesday, the interest rate on new...

Remember when Democrats screamed that they weren't going to stand to be called unpatriotic just because they dissented from then President Bush's policies. Here is John Kerry on the subject. I have come here today to reaffirm that it was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong. And to affirm that it is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a President who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a war in Iraq that weakens the nation.

In my last column, I joked that with public spending out of control and the piling on of the international bailout bill, economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress. It is getting harder to joke about such a thing however, as the non-partisan General Accounting Office (GAO) has estimated that the administration's health care plan would actually cost over a trillion dollars. This reality check may have given us a temporary reprieve on this particular disastrous policy, however an equally disastrous energy policy reared its ugly head on Capitol Hill last week.

A 61-year-old Oregon woman who was convicted of feeding wild bears at her home, even after neighbors reportedly warned her not to do so, has been sentenced to stay away from her own home for three years. As a special condition of her three-year probation for chasing and harassing wildlife, Karen Noyes must stay away from a 7-mile stretch of road that includes her own home, reports the Oregonian in an article that includes a photo of Noyes handing a bunch of grapes into the gaping jaws of a hungry bear. Noyes says she plans to appeal the conviction and...

The list below are the names of the students within the respective universities who were taken into custody and posted: University of Tehran - Ahmad Ahmadian, Eskandari, Amin Afzali, Vahid Anari, Mohamad Belourdi, Hossien Hamedi, Mohsen Habibi Mazaheri, Navid Haghdaadi, Mohamad Reza Hakami, Kazem Rahimi, Morteza Rezakhaani, Meissam Zeraai, Amin Sami'i, Bahram Shabani, Alireza Sheikhi, Ebrahim Azizi, Siavash Fiaz, Seyed Hossein Mirzadeh, Hossein Nobakht, Javad Yazdanfar, Habib khadangi, Sohrab Ahdian Reza Arkavazi, Karim Emami, Mohamad Hossein Emami, Elaheh Imanian, Roohollah bagheri, Farhad Binazadeh, Iman Pourtahmasseb, Ezat Tarbati, Simeh Tohidlou, Yasser Jaffari, Milad Chegini, Mohamad Reza Had abadi, Seyed Javad Hosseini,...

White Prisoners Forced to Eat Islamic Diet AMSTERDAM, 30/06/09 - The justice ministry considers that whites should after all have the option of eating pork, a spokesman has stated in reaction to a report in De Telegraaf. According to the newspaper, many Dutch prisons currently only serve Islamic food. The ministry has concluded contracts in which the suppliers only provide halal food. Having two different menus was found too expensive. Prisoners are as a result no longer given any pork and only ritually-slaughtered beef or lamb, according to De Telegraaf. The matter came to light in a court case brought...

He may have faded from the national political scene a year ago, after his dark-horse presidential run came to naught, but Rep. Ron Paul ’s influence is still being felt in campaigns and policy debates across the country. Indeed, the latest legislative priority of the libertarian Texas Republican — auditing the Federal Reserve — has gained support in unlikely quarters.

Border Patrol agents to spot tunnels with advanced ground-penetrating radarCriminals of all kinds are digging tunnels along the U.S. border at a fast and furious pace. Of every tunnel ever discovered by U.S. border patrol agents, 60 percent have been found in the last three years. Agents spot a new one every month. "All of them have been found by accident or human intelligence," said Ed Turner, a project manager with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). "None by technology." To battle these secret burrows in the 21st century, S&T thinks this will have...

SYDNEY (AFP) — A surfer was attacked by a shark off a deserted Australian beach on Saturday, prompting calls for patrols during the winter season. The man suffered a small laceration to his leg and was taken to hospital with shock after being bitten during a morning surf at Seven Mile Beach, south of Sydney, emergency officials said.

New York, NY, June 29, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, in which the court held that white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut were unfairly denied promotions because of their race. ADL submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, urging the court to require the strictest of reasons for the city's race-conscious decision. The League argued the city's decision to ignore the results because it feared being sued had to be supported by a "strong basis in evidence." These arguments were adopted by the court. Glen S. Lewy, ADL...

Welcome to American Life League's BabySteps DVD page! We're so glad you've found us. Please view the English-language narrated version of the video below and link to it often from your organization's web site. Help others see the miracle of life develop throughout a baby's 16 stages of growth. If you would like to view this video with audio narrations in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese) or Spanish— just click on the appropriate flag to load the video in the corresponding language.

THE BARAK-8 is the next-generation long-range surface-to-air missile that India and Israel are currently developing as part of a co-development contract signed in 2007. The new generation Barak-8 Air and Missile Defense weapon system currently provides a complete solution to every type of airborne threat, whether that threat be from aircraft, tactical missiles, helicopters, or unmanned aerial vehicles. The system has two versions - maritime and land-based - each relying on an advanced, phased-array radar integrated with an advanced launch system containing “smart” missile interceptors, and a state-of-the-art command and control (C2) system, altogether providing full 360° coverage. Barak-8 is...

The occasion, recently, of Mrs. Bernard Madoff's using the subway, and being ridiculed for doing so by the New York Post, is the inspiration for this little bit of rhetorical virtuosity. Let's begin by putting things in perspective, something the for-profit media seemingly cannot do. Because Bernard Madoff's crime is, according to the headlines at least, running a "$65 billion Ponzi Scheme," a review of what a "Ponzi Scheme" is would be a good start.Charles Ponzi, of Boston, recruited investors by, as all investment recruiters do, offering attractive returns. When he was unable or unwilling to actually produce those returns...

Eight years ago today, a famous American philosopher died who had lived as a Catholic the last year of his life. Not so long ago, his name -- Mortimer J. Adler -- was synonymous with the "great books" approach to education he had pioneered with Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. His edition of The Great Books of the Western World is still often seen if you survey the bookshelves of the homes and offices you visit.   Adler's pedagogy, like his Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy, was rejected by the academy he left in mid-career....

Welcome To The Sean Hannity Show Thread! All Posters And Lurkers Are WELCOME! The Show Thread Between EL Rushbo And TGO’S Lounge. Be The First To Post And Win A Sean Hannity Show Thread High Power Blender. Listen To Sean Do Comentary, Talk To Guests And Take Calls From YOU!

Angry protesters today burned tires and chanted support for Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya, as leaders of the Western Hemisphere debated ways to peacefully end Latin America's first military coup in 16 years. Zelaya, yanked from his home early Sunday and deported to Costa Rica, appeared at a summit of regional heads of state in Managua, Nicaragua. "I want to return to my country," he said. "I am president of Honduras." Despite nearly unanimous international condemnation of the coup, the man whom the Honduran Congress named to replace Zelaya remained defiant....

DHAKA: A 40-year-old widow was whipped 202 times along with a man, following an edict issued by a local religious leader for her alleged involvement in "anti-social activities" in southeastern Bangladesh, prompting police to arrest six persons. Piara Begum, a mother of five, was whipped 202 times while 25-year-old Mamun Miah was executed 101 lashes before hundreds of people in Comilla on Saturday. The woman, who fell unconscious after the lashings, was admitted to a local hospital, where her condition was said to be critical, the Daily Star said. The two were also fined Tk 30,000 each for their involvement...