Free Republic

Health care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change. But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong? What if the highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion? What if most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt? There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer...

An educational foundation in the UK has announced plans to distribute to high schools a free book that highlights the scientific and cultural legacies of Muslim civilization. 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World is the creation of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization (FSTC), a Manchester-based organization set up to raise awareness of the contributions of the Muslim world to modern civilization. FSTC said the contribution that Muslim and other civilizations have made to the modern world has been widely overlooked and that its team of academics has focused on debunking the myth of the so-called "Dark Ages...

Well over thaarpcovertmbe past several weeks we have heard denials of all sorts from AARP concerning their support of OBAMACARE. Then in the mail came today - A FULL COLOR TESTAMENT of their targeted groupees. What better way to bring people to getter than to turn their AARP logo into a patriotic flag, and paste Bruce on the cover. AARP has been on and off the OBAMAcare Band Wagon so many times over the past month, it's plain sick.......

August is normally a quiet period for politics. A chance for Political Representatives to take a summer vacation, while news and talk radio padded for subject matter. That all changed when Obama’s Health Care Reform ‘went south’ and Town Hall meetings to prop them up occurred. They quickly became the forum to hurl concerns towards your local Congress or Senate member. They also showed, not a lot people liked what ‘Obamacare’ had to offer. More then anything else, Heath Care has been the rally cry the Right needed to unite the troops together. While certain outrage persists, Health Care Reform...

Can this happen anywhere in the United States?  Police come to your home and demand a breathalyzer test because they have reports that your were driving drunk?  Plus it looks to me like the coppers provoked a struggle in order to arrest her Wouldn't you be upset if police came to your door and accused you of driving drunk?  Article from UK Daily MailDuring the hearing, the court had heard how police arrived at her home on May 31 after receiving reports she smelled of alcohol at a garage near her home in south-west Wales. She refused to give a...

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) has accepted an offer by Iran to provide it with weapons produced by the Iranian defense industries, a newspaper in Lebanon reported on Wednesday. According to Al-Akhbar, the proposal was sent from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. In their response, LAF officers said the army was in need of anti-aircraft weaponry. Israeli officials have expressed concern that the existence of such weapons in Lebanon, whether in the hands of Hizbullah or the army, would constitute a change in the strategic balance between Israel and Lebanon.

First the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet cited freedom of the press as its justification for accusing IDF soldiers of harvesting Palestinian organs. Now the Spanish daily El Monde is using the same argument to defend including Holocaust denier David Irving among its list of experts to be interviewed this week to mark 70 years since the start of World War II. An interview with Irving, who served time in an Austrian prison for his Holocaust denial, is scheduled to appear in the paper on Saturday, a day after an interview with Yad Vashem's chairman Avner Shalev.

<p>BOSTON (Sept. 2) -- Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series, said Wednesday that he has "some interest'' in running for the seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Schilling, a registered independent and longtime Republican supporter, wrote on his blog that while his family and video gaming company, 38 Studios, are high priorities, "I do have some interest in the possibility.'" "That being said, to get to there, from where I am today, many, many things would have to align themselves for that to truly happen,'' he added. Any other comment "would be speculation on top of speculation,'' Schilling said, adding, "My hope is that whatever happens, and whomever it happens to, this state makes the decision and chooses the best person -- regardless of sex, race, religion or political affiliation -- to help get this state back to the place it deserves to be." Schilling refused to comment when his office was contacted by phone. The 42-year-old lives in suburban Medfield and campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2004 and Sen. John McCain in 2008. As a player, he won three World Series, in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2004 and 2007 with the Red Sox. He became a Sox legend when he won Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series while blood from an injured ankle seeped through his sock. He retired in March. He and his wife, Shonda, have four children ages 7 to 14.</p>

BOSTON (AP) - Sen. John Kerry is positioning himself as the political heir to Edward Kennedy, pledging to thousands of people attending his town hall meeting in Massachusetts that he would fight for the health care overhaul championed by his colleague. More than 2,000 people turned up Wednesday night for Kerry's first public meeting since Kennedy's Aug. 25 death from brain cancer.

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - A German court has ruled that a suspected terrorist can name his son Djehad, the German word for jihad or holy war. The upper regional court in Berlin upheld Tuesday the rulings of two lower courts allowing Egyptian-German Reda Seyam, 49, to name his four-year-old son Djehad on grounds that it is a common Arabic name for males. Germany's birth registration agency, which implements the country's strict naming law, contested the name in court arguing that the father intended it to be interpreted literally and could harmful to the child, who would be associated with terrorism....

(IsraelNN.com) Scientists at the Technion in Haifa have created a device that they hope will be able to detect cancer with a simple breath test. In an initial trial, the “breathalyzer” test was able to detect lung cancer with 86 percent accuracy. The new device was revealed this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Researchers hope the test will provide a simple, cost-effective and non-invasive method of detecting cancer. In addition, the test is capable of detecting cancers that are not yet large enough to show up on X-rays or CT scans, allowing for earlier diagnosis that could save lives.

Mayflies are, by scientific classification, not long for this world. They belong to the order Ephemeroptera which means, roughly, "short lived, winged creatures." In their adult form they live for a day. During that day, the Appalachian mayfly's primary function seems to be: Annoy hikers.They may soon serve a second, far more annoying function if President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has its way. Emboldened by Obama's campaign pledge to "bankrupt" coal, EPA regulators have been aggressive of late. Bug protection may well give them an excuse to wreck coal mining in Appalachia. Why? Because recent research suggests that discharge into...

In the midst of a rancorous health care debate and a sustained period of declining poll numbers, President Obama is seeking help from an unexpected constituency -- America's schoolchildren. And they better pay attention to his request: They may get graded on the assignment. The White House announced Wednesday that the president plans to tape a presidential address to public schoolchildren around the country to air at noon Tuesday. Along with advanced word of the speech, the U.S. Department of Education last week distributed a "menu of classroom activities" to teachers that aims to turn the speech into one of...

Riding the wave of change can be fun, but as Obama and his crew are finding out, when the wave doesn't do what you want it to or contain what you think is in it, it ain't much fun.

After the federal government put up hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street, the largest labor union in America wants those firms to return the favor. The AFL-CIO reportedly is promoting a proposal to tax every single stock transaction, and it's gained some support among Democrats. According to The Hill, the tiny tax would be about a tenth of a percent -- but it could mean a lot of money for companies, like Goldman Sachs, that are making billions and conducting a high volume of trades. Union policy director Thea Lee told the newspaper that the tax...

AP) BOSTON — Massachusetts officials are considering adding Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's name to public buildings and landmarks just a week after his death.

snip And what sin, what transgression did the British commit to bring on armed conflict? They had come for their guns. Their own government had come to disarm them. The first battles of the Revolutionary War were fought over...gun control. It is, I believe, the first and only revolution in history borne of a government's attempt to remove weapons from its citizenry. There is one nagging question, though: History has long asked how the colonists knew the British were coming. There was good intelligence that let us know they were on their way and what they were coming for, and...

ST. PETERSBURG -- Former right-hander Curt Schilling -- who has always had an interest in politics -- confirmed Wednesday that he has been contacted about running for the seat vacated by late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died last week after a prolonged bout with brain cancer. While acknowledging how busy he is in his post-playing career, Schilling did not rule out the possibility of making a run at the Senate. Schilling retired from baseball in March and currently runs an online game-development company called 38 Studios. "While my family is obviously the priority, and 38 Studios is a priority,...

For a great many rural folk, big game hunting season is a high point—often the annual high point—of their involvement with firearms. In some locales, the big game in question may be a moose or an elk, or even a bear, though the latter is certainly not the favored meat for the larder. In most of America, though, big game hunting means deer season! It might be a big Western mule deer. It might be one of those cute little Texas blacktails. For most of my own life, and still, the likeliest quarry was the Eastern whitetail. They all taste...

He's acting like it. This is what the Education Department is sending out to all schools: President Barack Obama to Make Historic Speech to America’s Students...The Department of Education offers educators a menu of classroom activities...So what exactly is on the Education Department's web site "menu of classroom activities"? Under Character Education, it's all about service to the state and ACORN type organizations:...It advises parents: Find information about community service organizations and share it with your child. You can begin by going to the Web site for the newly created Freedom Corps— www.usafreedomcorps.gov/—and looking for possibilities for volunteering and community...