Free Republic

An Iranian gang who tried to sell young female virgins to wealthy Arabs charging up to £150,000 a girl, was jailed for sex trafficking and prostitution today. The gang claimed to have 12 girls in the UK, available for sex in London hotels, including one aged 14 whom they regarded as "bait". They plotted to rake in huge sums through a party where young women could accept cash to sleep with wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen. The gang – named as Mahrookh Jamali, 41, Sara Bordbar, 43, both of north London, and Fatima Hagnegat, 24, along with the latter's husband, Rasoul...

Neil Young will reunite with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay for a pair of performances as Buffalo Springfield for Young’s annual Bridge School benefit concerts in Northern California, with lineups that also include Pearl Jam, Elton John and Leon Russell, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams and several other acts. The reunion of the influential country-rock band born in 1966 in Los Angeles will feature Young, Stills and Furay as an acoustic trio, given the Bridge School’s history of unplugged performances by all participants. The group's other two original members, bassist Bruce Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin, died in 2004 and 2009,...

A gynaecologist is being sued for branding his patient's name on to her removed uterus. Dr Red Alinsod claims the unusual act, using a laser burning tool, was simply a 'friendly gesture' because the female patient was a 'good friend'. However, Ingrid Paulicivic, a 47-year-old hairdresser from California, was not so impressed. She alleges the branding was done for 'no medically necessary purpose or reason' and that she somehow suffered burns on her legs while the uterus was being marked, according to her complaint. Her lawyer Devan Mullins called the branding 'inexcusably bizarre behaviour', adding that the 50-year-old Dr Alinsod...

Reporting from Los Angeles — A challenge by an untraditional Republican outsider has turned the U.S. Senate race in Connecticut, one of the bluest of blue states, surprisingly close, according to the latest poll released Tuesday. Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat, leads former wrestling executive Linda McMahon by 51% to 45%, according to the Quinnipiac University poll. Three percent said they were undecided. From September 8 – 12, Quinnipiac University surveyed 875 likely voters The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. “This is now a six-point race among likely voters. With seven weeks to go...

Jerry Brown answers a reporter's question.Jerry Brown is running for the 2010 California governorship, but he's spent much of the last week reliving the politics of the 1990s. And Brown's unfortunate lurch into the past culminated Monday with an apology to former President Bill Clinton for taking shots at Clinton's conduct during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "Bill Clinton was an excellent president," Brown, the state attorney general, said Monday at a news conference. "It was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago, and I'm sorry." Brown's 1990s mystery tour began early last week when his...

Police evacuated the Eiffel Tower and the park surrounding the Paris landmark on Tuesday after a bomb alert, an AFP journalist said. A police officer said about 25,000 people were in the area at the time of the alert but added that they left calmly shortly before 9:00 pm (1900 GMT). The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alert was sounded either after a threat was phoned in or following the discovery of a suspicious package. The people evacuated, mostly French and foreign tourists, were asked to stay on the nearby Seine river banks, and the tower area...

Words are supposed to convey thoughts, but they can also obliterate thoughts and shut down thinking. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, a catchword can "delay further analysis for fifty years." Holmes also said, "think things, not words." When you are satisfied to accept words, without thinking beyond those words to the things— the tangible realities of the world— you are confirming what philosopher Thomas Hobbes said in the 17th century, that words are wise men's counters but they are the money of fools. Even in matters of life and death, too many people accept words instead of thinking, leaving...

Among the many words that don't mean what they say, but which too many of us accept as if they did, are those staples of political discussion, "liberals" and "conservatives." Most liberals are not liberal and most conservatives are not conservative. We might be better off just calling them X and Y, instead of imagining that we are really describing their philosophies. Moreover, like most confusion, it has consequences. The late liberal Professor Tony Judt of New York University gave this definition of liberals: "A liberal is someone who opposes interference in the affairs of others: who is tolerant of...

One of the many words that sound so attractive, to people who do not think beyond the word, is "disarmament." Wouldn't it be better to live in a world where countries were not armed to the teeth, especially when they are armed with nuclear weapons? Of course it would. But the only country we can disarm is our own. The only countries we might be able to persuade to disarm are countries that intend no harm in the first place. Those countries that do intend to harm others— and we know all too well that they exist— would be delighted...

Character Actor Harold Gould Has Died Mary Tyler Moore Show actor Harold Gould, the prolific character actor who played Valerie Harper's father on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, has died. He was 86.

Announcement: Melissa Haluszczak is a Conservative running to defeat Democrat Mike Doyle for PA-14. Doyle was instrumental in convincing the Stupak Pro-lifers to abandon their principles and vote for the abortion provisions in the Obama Healthcare bill. Melissa is a lovely, energetic woman who supports our Conservative ideals 100%. Check her website for positions on the issues. Melissa will be holding a townhall meeting Wednesday evening, Sept 15 at Baldwin Borough (click the web link above for details). Doyle is hiding. He's afraid to hold his own Town Hall meeting. He's afraid to face his constituents. But Melissa is after...

A frightening report from the first day of school in Detroit describes how two students were shot on their way home from Mumford High School. Thankfully, both appear to be OK. Also disturbing is the contrast between this event and the broader assessment made by a school district spokesperson contained in the same news story, published in TheDetroit News: "Overall, this has been one of the most successful opening days in recent history." There's no doubt the official meant well, but one nevertheless hopes that this isn't the definition of success in the Detroit Public Schools. The Detroit Free Press...

I’m not sure which is more unsettling — the fact that a Supreme Court justice can get the First Amendment so wrong, or that it is so unclear that George Stephanopoulos thought to ask the question. Until now, I perhaps naïvely thought that everyone understood that the provocateurial pastor in Florida had the right to burn Korans, or any other book he legitimately owned, but that it was a really bad idea for many reasons, most of which Allahpundit argued in his excellent posts on the subject. Silly me: Last week we saw a Florida Pastor – with 30 members...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A brain autopsy of a University of Pennsylvania football player who killed himself in April has revealed the same trauma-induced disease found in more than 20 deceased National Football League players, raising questions of how young football players may be at risk for the disease. Owen Thomas, a popular 6-foot-2, 240-pound junior lineman for Penn with no previous history of depression, hanged himself in his off-campus apartment after what friends and family have described as a sudden and uncharacteristic emotional collapse. Doctors at Boston University subsequently received permission from the family to examine Thomas’s brain tissue and...

ROME (Reuters) – Italy Tuesday seized Mafia-linked assets worth $1.9 billion -- the biggest mob haul ever -- in an operation revealing that the crime group was trying to "go green" by laundering money through alternative energy companies. Investigators said the assets included more than 40 companies, hundreds of parcels of land, buildings, factories, bank accounts, stocks, fast cars and luxury yachts. Most of the seized assets were located in Sicily, home of the Cosa Nostra, and in southern Calabria, home of its sister crime organization, the 'Ndrangheta. At the center of the investigation was Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri, 54,...

The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin by Stephen Mansfield and David A. Holland (Sep 21, 2010) Saw this in the book store today...went to Amazon and found this.. Sarah takes on Big Oil: The compelling story of Governor Sarah Palin's battle with Alaska's 'Big 3' oil companies, as told by the state's top oil and gas editors, Kay Cashman and Kristen Nelson by Kay Cashman, Kristen Nelson, Tim Kikta, and Mariajose Echeverria-Stewart (Oct 17, 2008)

A Florida judge said on Tuesday he would hear arguments on December 16 on a lawsuit by 20 U.S. states seeking to block President Barack Obama's overhaul of the healthcare system. District Judge Roger Vinson, who is weighing a motion by the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit, set the followup hearing on the lawsuit led by Florida and involving 19 other states, which was originally filed in March by mostly Republican state attorneys general. Vinson said he would formally rule on the dismissal motion by October 14, but Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said the judge had already strongly...

DOVER, Del.— Greeting voters here outside the Dover High School polling station in the state capital of Delaware, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says her critics are wrong to suggest she can’t win in November if victorious in today’s primary. “They’re the same people who said I couldn’t win here,” an affable O’Donnell, dressed in a red jacket and black pants, told The Daily Caller this afternoon. “I mean, look where we are in the polls. They said I’d never get beyond a few percentage points.” The narrative heading into O’Donnell’s primary fight today with the more liberal Republican...

Carlton "King" Coleman, a pioneer in American rhythm and blues, died Saturday morning from heart failure at a Miami hospice, his son said. He was 78. Coleman was known for providing the lead vocals on the 1959 hit "(Do The) Mashed Potatoes," recorded with James Brown's band. According to a 2003 Miami New Times article, Brown had initially planned to do the vocals himself, but a dispute with his record label made that impossible. To avoid any lawsuits from Brown's label, a Miami producer had Coleman sing on the mostly instrumental track, while the group officially credited with the song...

NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold prices popped Tuesday as investors turned to the metal as a safe-haven asset and momentum buying pushed prices to new all-time peaks. Gold for December delivery settled $24.60 higher at $1,271.70 an ounce -- a record closing high -- at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price hit a record intra-day high of $1,276.50 an ounce, $10 higher than its previous high set in June. The U.S. dollar index was losing 0.91% to $81.11 while the euro was gaining 1.01% to $1.30 vs. the dollar. The spot gold price...