Free Republic

ONCE UPON a time, the term "rights" meant something very different than it means today. When the New Hampshire and federal constitutions were enacted, it was considered self-evident that all men had certain unalienable rights, which came from our Creator, and that the purpose of government was to secure these rights, which included life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is safe to say that today "rights" connotes something altogether different than at the end of the 18th century. Government, not our Creator, is considered to be the source of our rights. Additionally, rights no longer are freedom ...

LET THE WATER FLOW! "The rights of man come not from the generosity of the statebut from the hand of God." President John F. Kennedy--Inaugural Address Free Republic has a rich history of activism -- we pull together when the going gets rough, and we're making headway! On behalf of Jim Robinson, who has so kindly consented to authorize this thread for the Breaking News category, I would like to invite you all to take five minutes from your very busy lives and make a phone call, send a fax or write an e-mail. If you would like to ...

There are certain phrases and questions you hear only in houses where there are kids. Words, sentiments or expressions that would be unique to within the walls where families live and children grow -- and nowhere else. According to Mrs. P, some of these phrases could very well be heard where only husbands live too, but I resemble that remark. Anyway, here are a few favorites: Can I please peel your banana for you before you eat it? Whose socks are in the microwave? Please don't climb on the cat. I'LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL GET IT! Get off the phone right now! Where ...

KAMPALA, Sept 10 (AFP) - Ugandan church leaders have urged the government to charge former dictator Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada should he decide to return to Uganda, reports said here Monday. Amin, who has been living in Saudi Arabia since his overthrow by a combined force of Ugandan exiles and Tanzanian troops 22 years ago, is said to be homesick and has been sending signals indicating he wanted to return home. The reports, persistently published here, say that Amin is longing for a chance to return home and live with his family like other former Ugandan presidents, who ...

CHANDRA LEVY'S family is demanding that police search remote caves and a national forest for the missing intern after Congressman Gary Condit was linked to a secret, late-night trip to the area outside Washington, D.C. During interviews with Condit's ex-lover, flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, the FBI uncovered a startling clue. On May 17, Condit called Smith from a pay phone in Luray, Va., 80 miles from the nation's capital, says a source. The ominous call, which was verified by phone records, was placed at midnight -- approximately two weeks after Chandra first disappeared -- on a day Condit was ...

THE HAGUE, Sept 10 (AFP) - Two Bosnian Croat war crimes suspects went on trial here Monday for allegedly leading a campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1993 and 1994 against Muslims in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar. Mladen Naletilic, 54, known as Tuta, and Vinko Martinovic, 37, or Stela, were "the leading perpetrators" of the campaign in which Bosnian Muslim civilians were "waiting to be killed at each moment," prosecutor Kenneth Scott said. "The Bosnian Muslim population was victim of a systematic campaign of violence, ethnic cleansing and persecution," Scott said as the trial opened. The two defendants showed ...

ARLINGTON, Texas -- It should not be seen as a success by anyone, including anti-globalization activists, that Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, decided not to allow Rome to host the United Nations' World Food Summit. Nor is it admirable that other activists have refused to disavow violence in their protests at the upcoming World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings Sept. 29 and 30 in Washington. Violent protests have been part of nearly every major international conference since the well-publicized demonstrations in Seattle during the World Trade Organizations conference there. Thousands of protesters have descended on cities such as Montreal, ...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. DENVER -- Qwest Communications International said Monday it is cutting 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, and lowered its financial forecast for the fiscal year, citing deteriorating economic conditions. The Denver-based telecommunications company said it expected 2001 revenue of approximately $20.5 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $8 billion. Qwest had forecast revenue of $21.3 billion to $21.7 billion for 2001. The comparable earnings number from the previous year was $7.36 billion, officials said. Qwest had a net profit for fiscal 2000, of ...

Rumsfeld moves to slash U.S. military bureaucracy By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday announced a major new drive to slash the U.S. military's bloated bureaucracy and save billions of wasted dollars for weapons and operations. In a Pentagon speech, Rumsfeld made it clear that jobs are likely to be cut among the Defense Department's 660,000 civilian workers worldwide and that military headquarters' staffs will be reduced by 15 percent within a year. "Today, we declare war on bureaucracy," he said in the latest of a long line of efforts by defense ...

THE REGION: Arafatian victories By Barry Rubin September, 09 2001 (September 9) The beginning of wisdom today is to know that no negotiated "solution" is possible for a very long time. It seems as if much of the world has not yet caught on to this rather obvious point yet. But, after all, our anticipations have fallen from the expectation of a comprehensive, conflict-ending deal a year ago, then down to some interim arrangement, and then down to a real cease-fire. Now it would seem a miracle if the highest-level, most intense efforts could even succeed in producing a ...

Tom Daschle proved that he knows nothing about economics last week! This is a magnificent opportunity to point out that the leading Democrat member of the U.S. Senate, who is ultimately in charge of Senate fiscal policy right now, doesn't know the first thing about our country's financial markets. Take this opportunity to tweak Daschle by sending him a copy of BONDS FOR DUMMIES, and be sure to email me (svlogic@decentdesigns.com) and let me know you did. I will be making a list of all the people who have sent Daschle a copy of this book in case anyone ever ...

<p>WASHINGTON -- An estimated 325,000 U.S. children age 17 or under are prostitutes, perform in pornographic videos or have otherwise fallen victim to "commercial sexual exploitation," University of Pennsylvania researchers reported today.</p> <p>Their three-year, $400,000 study is based on research in 17 cities. The work includes interviews with 200 child victims, most already in the legal system, and more than 800 state, federal and local officials. Experts on juvenile law say it is the deepest investigation yet into the extent of the problem. There are 72 million children age 17 or under in the United States.</p>

Clinton&#146;s labor board is still wreaking havoc. By John Tate, vice president, National Right to Work Committee. September 10, 2001 8:30 a.m. During last year's presidential campaign, George W. Bush repeatedly told the American people that &quot;help is on the way.&quot; Unfortunately, for millions of Americans laboring under federally imposed forced unionism, help has yet to arrive. That's because, after almost eight months, the White House hasn't even taken the obvious step of replacing the Clinton-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with a board that is interested in protecting workers against union tyranny. This reality was highlighted just last ...

September 7, 2001 Global Warming As Political Science Hot Air is Bad for Us By Alexander Cockburn The current uproar over the posture of the Bush administration on global warming and, most recently, on power plant emissions vividly illustrate the political hypocrisy and opportunism imbuing debates on environmental issues. Take first global warming. The charge that the current phase of global warming can be attributed to greenhouse gases generated by humans and their livestock is an article of faith among liberals as sturdy as is missile defense among the conservative crowd. The Democrats have seized on the issue of ...

THE BALKANS: Sending a Message to Albanians September 6, 2001; Greece announced its armed forces will conduct a training exercise near the northern Macedonian border from September 10 to 14. The exercise is named “Philippos 2001.” The Greek defense ministry announcement indicated the exercise would be a large-scale combined arms exercise. Is there a message? Of course. The Greeks fear spill-over trouble from Macedonia. There are also Albanian minorities in northern Greece. On the flip side, there are ethnic Greeks living in southern Albania.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said China has invited him to visit Tibet and make recommendations on how to resolve differences between Beijing and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Carter made the comments in an interview with the Sunday Morning Post newspaper while passing through Hong Kong after a visit to mainland China last week to observe village-level elections. Carter said the invitation came after he raised U.S. concerns with Chinese President Jiang Zemin over Tibet and the requirement for Christian congregations and other religious groups to register with authorities. "Those are the two concerns about human rights ...

Meet Mark Sidran. By Jeremy Lott, senior editor of Spintech Magazine. September 10, 2001 9:35 a.m. "I guess I'm a Democrat with my head screwed on straight,&quot; says three term Seattle city attorney and current mayoral candidate Mark Sidran. Asked to handicap this year's race, Sidran downplays the ideological differences between the candidates: &quot;The real issue is going to be, Who's most likely to be able to deliver results?&quot; But the &quot;results&quot; mantra is more practical than strictly true. Sidran takes a much more hard-bitten approach to politics than his very gummy Democratic opponents in this one-party town. Stump ...

China's top Taiwan policy official, Vice Premier Qian Qichen, on Monday detailed freedoms the island would enjoy if it reunified with the mainland under a formula applied in former European colonies Hong Kong and Macau. But a Taiwan official again rejected the "one country, two systems" proposal on the grounds Beijing still regarded the wealthy democratic island as a renegade province, not a de facto sovereign state. Under "one country, two systems", Taiwan would keep its own currency, military, customs status and government structure, and Beijing would neither levy taxes or appoint mainland officials on the island, Qian told a ...

Some notes on installing Linux 2.2.14-15 (using the Mandrake 7.0 distribution) on a DELL Latitude CPi-R series laptop. I've also installed Mandrake 8.0 (Linux 2.4.3), but ran into problems with the sound card not being recognized for the NeoMagic AV (nm256av) card. Otherwise, it was actually easier to install and configure than the Mandrake 7.0 distribution. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- What to do: Installing Linux: 1).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Partition the hard drive (see "Setting up for a Dual-Boot system"). 2).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Install Linux (see "Installing Linux"). 3).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Configure Linux (see "Configuring the Laptop"). 4).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Test the Modem (see "Modem Testing"). 5).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Configure startup options (see "Messing ...

Casual dress? Oh, please Trend to dressing down in workplace becoming a nightmare for many By Barbara Bowes Working World WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Let's be right up front. I'm annoyed and fed up with the business casual dress trend. It has simply gotten out of hand. While the trend has been around since the early 1990s, particularly in the high-tech firms, more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon. In fact, a 1992 study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management showed 63 per cent of businesses in the United States are now offering casual business dress code. ...