Free Republic

Here we go again. Summer is still upon us, and Hollywood keeps slinging one costly number after another into our local multiplexes. This weekend brings us something of a new spin on that golden oldie "Planet of the Apes," 28 years after its first release. Most of this summer's audiences were yet to be born, so slipping in Charlton Heston, star of the original film, as a dying chimpanzee is a joke that largely passes right over the heads of the kids in the movie houses this time around. Of course, done up in Rick Baker's splendid primate makeup, ...

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Boy Scouts of America – as a private organization that recruits like-minded members – can determine their own employee standards. A Scout named James Dale lost his challenge of the Boy Scout policy that prohibits homosexuals from serving – he was rejected as an adult scoutmaster after he became publicly involved in a college homosexual organization. Following that High Court decision, homosexual-rights organizations in our nation have been on a relentless year-long campaign to define the Scouts as an organization of hate and intolerance. Subsequently, some school districts and communities ...

The vast majority of Americans believe doctors should have shortened workweeks in order to reduce fatigue and possibly avoid medical mistakes, according to a survey released by Portrait of America. The survey, released in June and conducted in conjunction with Docrates – a physician-operated website that helps guide medical students and residents, said that fully 85 percent of respondents believe doctors should work no more than 60 hours a week. "Residents (training doctors) often work well over 100 hours in a week. As grueling as the schedule can be for doctors, it is seen as a fixture within their ...

Representatives of a group seeking a billboard response to an Oregon sign proclaiming, "The pope is the Antichrist," are blasting a perceived double standard, saying they are being ignored by the company whose billboard displays the message. In the wake of WorldNetDaily's story about the controversial advertisement, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says it's been trying to contact Outdoor Media Dimensions to post a rebuttal, but has yet to receive a call back. "The Catholic League is prepared to pay for a billboard along Interstate 5 near Medford that reads, 'Outdoor Media Dimensions Sponsors Anti-Catholicism,'" writes ...

From Foggy Bottom to the Pentagon to Ft. Meade, rumors of rebellion fill the air. The cancer of corruption that swept out of Arkansas and into D.C. in January 1993 soon permeated America's intelligence agencies. During the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush quietly promised the intelligence cadre this malignant tumor would be excised if he was elected, according to WorldNetDaily sources. Now, seven months into the new administration, the Bush surgeon looks and sounds remarkably like Rodney "can't we all get along?" King. The malignant tumor within intelligence feigns remission. No need to expend political capital here, the ...

JOHN HORSTMAN ARRESTED - GUN RIGHTS HERO By John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc., PO BOX 4597, Oak Brook, IL 60523-2708 Tel: 630 986-8550 PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FELLOW GUN RIGHTS SUPPORTERS! John Horstman did not set out to be a hero on Tuesday July 25th when he went bike riding in unincorporated DuPage County. Details are sketchy and indefinite at this point, but evidently someone called the DuPage Sheriff to report a man exposing themselves on the trail. Along comes Mr. Horstman on his bike and the DuPage Sheriff stops him because "He could be the person ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The governor of Okinawa on Friday urged Washington and central government in Tokyo to ease the island's burden as host of the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan by reducing the size of the military presence there. ``The emotions of the Okinawa people are like magma ... on the brink of eruption due to crimes committed by U.S. servicemen,'' Keiichi Inamine told a news conference in Tokyo. ``We have been pressing for a reduction of U.S. military bases as well as cuts in personnel.'' The tropical island, less than one percent of Japan's land area, houses about ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - In an about-face, Israel has accepted a U.N. offer to view two videotapes and seven bloodstained items taken from two vehicles believed to have been used in the October abduction of three Israeli soldiers. Last month, Israel turned down an opportunity to see one of the tapes with the faces of Hezbollah guerrillas possibly involved in the kidnapping obscured. It demanded to see the unedited film. But Israel changed its mind after Friday's release of a U.N. report revealing the existence of not just one, but three videotapes, as well as 53 items taken by U.N. ...

EDITORIAL • August 4, 2001 Nobles and Knaves      Noble: Her majesty, England's Queen Mother, for her astonishing display of long-lived nobility.      The Queen Mother turns 101 years old today, and while it's rather difficult to make a noble out of a current member of the gentry, the nation's favorite grandmother surely deserves the effort.       The ninth of 10 children, she was born a commoner, so much so that her father actually failed to register her birth for six weeks. It didn't take long for her nobility to rise however. As a teen-ager she helped write letters and run ...

Former President Bill Clinton's whirlwind tour of Little Rock didn't last 24 hours, but from start to finish, he made the most of it. THURSDAY 4 p.m.: As Clinton's small entourage waits for his arrival at Midcoast at the Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, two politicos twiddle their proverbial thumbs and speculate about the Democratic Party's next presidential nominee. Their conclusion: It doesn't look good for the former vice president. "Who's got a chance in the next presidential election?" one asks. The other man leans back in a leather couch and smiles. "Not Gore," he says with a ...

EDITORIAL • August 4, 2001 What for?      In 1925, 18-year-old Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer who had captured three medals in the 1924 Paris Olympics, embarked upon a titanic battle against the unforgiving ravages of nature. Ederle sought to do what no other woman had accomplished: Swim the 21-mile English Channel. Indeed, only five men, among hundreds of documented attempts, had achieved the feat. Ederle failed her 1925 attempt. In doing so, she elicited catcalls from the international press, which gloated over the accuracy of its consensus prediction that no woman could ever swim the channel.      Undaunted, the widely ...

Traits of home schooled are similar The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Traits of home schooled are similar THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/4/01      ASSOCIATED PRESS      A detailed government profile of home-schooled children reveals that most live in cities and have well-educated parents who are rearing a handful of children on one income.      About 850,000 of the nation's 50 million schoolchildren are being taught at home rather than in schools, according to a study released this week by the Education Department. It calculates that 1.7 percent of American children were home-schooled in 1999, resulting in a total estimate higher than in the ...

EDITORIAL • August 4, 2001 Energize America's future      After strong lobbying by the Teamsters, the House on Thursday passed the bulk of President Bush's comprehensive energy plan, the first such legislation in nearly a decade.      The bill needed all the friendly help it could get, because, in addition to calling for a variety of energy conservation and efficiency measures, it also calls for limited drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).       A mosquito-infested swamp that is shrouded in frozen darkness for nearly half the year, ANWR could contain a vein of up to ...

August 4, 2001 House GOP vows fiscal restraint By John Godfrey THE WASHINGTON TIMES      Republicans, in a letter to the White House yesterday, promised to stick to their commitment to fiscal discipline. Top Stories • Bush cautions against stalling agenda • Senate Democrats relent on farm bill • Here's looking at you, speeders • Falsely accused pair win judgment • Traits of home schooled are similar • Israel disputes U.N. abduction account • Girls' answer to baseball cards?      "Since we agree that spending needs to be controlled, we, the undersigned, encourage you to exercise your constitutional power to veto appropriations bill that you believe are inconsistent ...

Powell interview hits Web intact The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Powell interview hits Web intact Nicholas Kralev THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/4/01      Reacting to sharp U.S. criticism, China yesterday made public the full text of a previously censored interview with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, given to Chinese television during his visit to Beijing last week.      The Chinese newspaper People's Daily posted the interview on its Web site after Washington raised the issue repeatedly with the Chinese government. Mr. Powell's comments on Taiwan and human rights had been cut when the interview was first broadcast on Sunday on the ...

August 4, 2001 Here's looking at you, speeders By John Drake THE WASHINGTON TIMES      Beginning at 6 a.m. Monday, the Metropolitan Police Department will start a campaign to catch speeding drivers by firing a radar gun at them, taking pictures of their vehicles and mailing tickets to the cars' owners. Top Stories • Bush cautions against stalling agenda • Senate Democrats relent on farm bill • Falsely accused pair win judgment • Traits of home schooled are similar • Israel disputes U.N. abduction account • Girls' answer to baseball cards?      Motorists won't know what hit them. They won't even know that anything hit them -- ...

Israel disputes U.N. abduction account The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Israel disputes U.N. abduction account Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/4/01      NEW YORK -- U.N. officials said yesterday that vehicles used by Hezbollah guerrillas in the October kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers showed significant blood stains, indicating that the soldiers may have been killed or badly injured in the assault.      Israel's ambassador, however, said his government believes the soldiers kidnapped in an Oct. 7 raid from southern Lebanon are still alive.      The United Nations has long downplayed the importance of amateur videos related to the kidnapping, one of which ...

August 4, 2001 Lott pushes for Gall; White House says not right now By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES      Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott said he would support President Bush to make Mary Sheila Gall a recess appointment to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but the White House said it had no such plans now. Top Stories • Bush cautions against stalling agenda • Senate Democrats relent on farm bill • Here's looking at you, speeders • Falsely accused pair win judgment • Traits of home schooled are similar • Israel disputes U.N. abduction account • Girls' answer to baseball cards?      The White House has the ...

Employment drops, bordering on recession The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Employment drops, bordering on recession Patrice Hill THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/4/01      Employers cut another 42,000 jobs last month, amid an overall contraction in business activity, in the latest sign that the private economy may have slipped into recession.     The job losses reported by the Labor Department and the contraction in nonmanufacturing business reported by the National Association of Purchasing Management yesterday both were the third such declines in the past four months.     Despite the job cuts reported by businesses, which have totaled 260,000 since March, the unemployment rate as measured in ...

August 4, 2001 Falsely accused pair win judgment By Valerie Richardson THE WASHINGTON TIMES      Six years after a police child-sex-ring investigation spread terror through the rural apple-picking community of Wenatchee, Wash., those wrongly accused of holding satanic rituals involving rape and molestation are finally starting to see the money. Top Stories • Bush cautions against stalling agenda • Senate Democrats relent on farm bill • Here's looking at you, speeders • Traits of home schooled are similar • Israel disputes U.N. abduction account • Girls' answer to baseball cards?      On Tuesday, a Spokane County jury awarded $3 million to a Wenatchee couple, Honnah and Jonathan Sims, ...