Free Republic

Charles Krauthammer July 30, 2001 Cloning and stem-cell research WASHINGTON--Hadn't we all agreed--we supporters of stem cell research--that it was morally OK to destroy a tiny human embryo for its possibly curative stem cells because these embryos from fertility clinics were going to be discarded anyway? Hadn't we also agreed that human embryos should not be created solely for the purpose of being dismembered and then destroyed for the benefit of others? Indeed, when Sen. Bill Frist made that brilliant presentation on the floor of the Senate supporting stem cell research, he included among his conditions a total ban on ...

I wrote a very strong poem some 27 years ago about a "son I never had". At the time my wife was pregnant with our first child and the Roe vs Wade and just come to its conclusion. I was going to be a father and was very excited. Just the thought of someone getting an abortion was beyond my comprehension! The poem was found about 20 years later in the piano bench and my youngest son wrote a song to it. He sang it several times in church and you could hear a pin drop when he was finished. ...

[Partial translation; original in German follows.] ===================== DER SPIEGEL (Hamburg) July 30, 2001 MACEDONIA: THE DOUBLE GAME OF THE AMERICANS by Renate Flottau, Olaf Ihlau, Susanne Koelbl and Alexander Szandar There is growing irritation among the Europeans over Washington's dubious actions in the Balkans: As godfather of the UCK it shares responsibility for the worsening conflict between Albanians and Macedonian Slavs. [3 paragraphs omitted in translation] Europe looks at its southeastern back yard with dismay. Once again the fuse of an ethnic explosion is smoldering. After the decade of the Yugoslav succession wars that cost the lives of almost 300,000 ...

Summary Macedonian lawmakers are rejecting NATO's terms for peace with ethnic Albanian insurgents. In an unusual turn of events, Macedonian officials accuse NATO of trying to divide the country along ethnic lines by throwing its weight behind ethnic Albanian militants. Civil war is now imminent. Analysis Ethnic Albanian militants, who on July 21 violated a weeks-old cease-fire with the Macedonian government, have begun withdrawing from strategic positions in the north. This follows days of violence and anti-Western riots that threaten to hurl the country into civil war. Tensions remained high as officials from NATO and the European Union attempted to ...

Immigration: Mexican deportee sentenced to probation instead of prison for illegally reentering the country. "Good luck to you," a Los Angeles federal judge told Tony Alvarado on Monday as he sentenced the gang member turned model citizen to two years probation for illegally reentering the United States. U.S. District Judge George H. King's award of straight probation came as something of a surprise. The 30-year-old San Fernando man had expected to be sentenced to six months in prison under a plea agreement earlier this year in which his offense was downgraded from a felony to a non-deportable misdemeanor. "I'm very ...

WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH took office last January, supporters of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft feared that the new administration would seek an easy settlement. But legal experts on both sides of the fight said Monday that they see little difference so far between the current administration and the Clinton administration that initiated the historic lawsuit.The Justice Department "has determined to press ahead in a very vigorous way," said Kenneth Starr, a former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, which heard the case, and the prosecutor who led the Whitewater probe that ultimately uncovered President Clinton's affair with ...

The five-to-20-year power contracts signed in a panic by the Davis administration have saddled California with billions of dollars of "stranded costs" that will burden our economy and state budget for years to come. Now, Gov. Gray Davis' spin doctors want us to believe that these $43-billion long-term contracts were both necessary and the impetus for a moderating energy market. Here's the real story: (The rest of the article)

FEARS grew in Macedonia last night that senior ministers were determined to scupper Western-brokered peace talks and provoke full-scale civil war. Macedonian prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 11 guerrilla leaders yesterday as talks on a draft peace plan faltered, edging forward "millimetre by millimetre", according to Franois Leotard, the European Union negotiator. The move against the guerrillas was initiated by the Interior Ministry, headed by a hardline nationalist, Ljube Boskovski. With the nationalist Prime Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, he is holding out against granting key concessions to the ethnic Albanian population, including the recognition of Albanian as an official language. There ...

Alliance With CBS, ABC Helps Fox News Get Video, Gain Ratings Ground on CNN By Sally Beatty, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Fox News Channel is closing a gap in the cable-news race against CNN -- with help from two competitors. Since its inception nearly five years ago, News Corp.'s Fox News has had sharp ratings gains but has struggled to compete against CNN's ability to secure video footage from just about any place in the country. CNN, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., has a network of local television-station affiliates that gives it unrivaled access to ...

On Wednesday, July 25, 2001, the Washington State Legislature adjourned the second-longest legislative session in state history without reaching agreement on a multibillion-dollar traffic-relief package. In a joint news release issued that same day, King County Executive Ron ["Tax to the Max"] Sims, Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel and Pierce County Executive John Ladenberg said the State Legislature's adjournment without taking action on transportation relief leaves the Central Puget Sound region with traffic-clogged roads that will "put a chilling effect" on the region's mobility, economy and quality of life.

I know. I can hear the yelling and gnashing of teeth now. How can he say that, you scream? I have witnessed the incredulity here in my own home. But you must understand, I'm the kind of guy when I go to the grocery and buy a can of beans, I expect there to be beans in the can when I open it. I like surprises for my birthday, but don't really care for it in my politicians! I listened intently as George W. talked of bringing integrity back to the White House. I listened to the conservative pundits boast ...

Kiev (dpa) - A hippopotamus severely injured an 18-year-old Ukrainian woman who tried to beat the heat by bathing in the animal's pool at a zoo, news agencies reported Tuesday. The incident occured at the Kharkiv city zoo in east Ukraine. The woman, named in reports only as Ekaterina, apparently decided to cool off from temperatures in the high 30s by taking a quick dip in the pool of the hippo enclosure, eyewitnesses said. The dominant female in the pen, a hippo named Masha, attacked the woman almost immediately. A team of zoo keepers and onlookers managed to save ...

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, July 31 (AFP) - Turkish security forces have evacuated two villages in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast by force and banned free movement in three others, Turkey's main human rights watchdog said Tuesday. The Turkish Human Rights Assocation (IHD) said in a statement that the Asat and Ortakli villages in Sirnak province were evacuated last Thursday after nearly two months of harassment by the local paramilitary police. "Some 250 people, all residents of the evacuated villages, are now waiting helplessly in (nearby) Beytussebap," which lies close to the Iraqi border, the IHD statement said. Authorities had also banned ...

Alan Dershowitz: The Nutty Law Professor By Nathan Porter For the past few weeks I’ve been soliciting nominations for a reader’s choice Who Sucks column. I want to thank all of you who sent me your choices. Nominations included everyone from Tom Daschle to the Suckerfish, but in the end, one person raised the ire of most readers and for good reason. Hunker down, this will take a while. Given the fact that most average, channel-clicking Americans think the entire profession is represented by the likes of Alan Dershowitz, it's no wonder attorneys have such a bad reputation. Though he’ll ...

HOROWITZ EXPOSES MORE THAN JUST BIASBY: Thomas S. GarlinghouseAs the dust finally settles over the controversy sparked by radical-turned-conservative David Horowitz and his provocative ad, Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea-and Racist Too, any lingering doubts about the stranglehold political correctness has on America's universities should be put safely to rest. No longer can liberal pundits and academicians blithely maintain the fallacy that "right-wingers" are simply rehashing a "few isolated incidents" of political correctness run amok. Of course, with all due respect to Horowitz, the existence of bias in academia is nothing new. Anyone who has ...

As a senior adviser to President Clinton last year, I pushed hard to put gun control front and center for the president and the Democratic Party. We engaged the National Rifle Association directly in a bruising battle. I personally stayed up half the night on a presidential trip to India for the chance to trade insults with NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre on "Meet the Press." I did this because I believed in the issue and thought it was good politics. Put simply, I got it wrong. At my urging, the White House allowed the NRA to shift the debate ...

MEDIUM RARE By Jim Rarey July 31, 2001 CHANDRA’S DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE This writer has been challenged by several subscribers to provide more information on which the scenario was based in the Medium Rare article of July 26th (Condit’s Rock and a Hard Place). In that article it was postulated that Chandra Levi may have come into possession of information that made her dangerous to powerful people, not necessarily Gary Condit, that required her “elimination.” Consequently, please bear with us while we “build the case.” It appears obvious that Chandra is (was) a bright inquisitive girl and young woman with a ...

Clinton Begins Anew Controversies Cool, More Public Role Becomes Appealing Former president Bill Clinton, still adjusting to life outside the White House, plans to become more involved in domestic politics while addressing several social issues important to him. (Douglas Engle - AP) Full Sory at www.washingtonpost.com By John F. Harris Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 29, 2001; Page A01 Shippet 1 Six months after his exit from the White House turned into a personal and political debacle, Bill Clinton this week will begin a second attempt at launching his ex-presidency. Shippet 2 Clinton's usual buoyancy, these confidants said, ...

Toward the end of a high-profile drug trial in Miami, jurors suggested that one of their colleagues write a book about the case. "That got me thinking about it," recalls juror Jerry Blanton. "I thought to myself, 'Gee, you're a writer. This would be a tale worth telling.' " During jury deliberations, the community-college English instructor pushed for convicting two prominent lawyers on charges of conspiring with the Cali drug cartel to import drugs and launder money. Mr. Blanton, several jurors recall, pressured the lone holdout to vote his way. "He was presenting the prosecution's case," juror Thomas Butler says. ...

The ADL pushes ''tolerance"? Why I'm leaving after 25 years By Carl Pearlston http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- MY love affair with the ADL began almost 25 years ago. It has just ended with a curt note from the Board President advising me that I haven't shown a sufficient "demonstration of commitment to the ADL" to warrant retention on the Executive Committee or the Regional Board." How did it come to this? I had been nominated to the Board by a judge with whom I had worked during the heady civil rights years, and then to the Executive Committee by the head ...