Free Republic

There's an awfully special fish for you: The endangered sucker of Upper Klamath Lake, down in southern Oregon. To be precise Upper Klamath is the unique habitat of the short-nose sucker and the Lost River sucker, distinct species "collectively referred to as 'suckers,'" as a memo from the Fish and Wildlife Service helpfully notes. What's so special? That's what men, women, and children on 1,200 Klamath-area farms, whose livelihoods depend on receiving irrigation water from Upper Klamath, would like to know. You won't find suckers on any sushi menu. Though the Klamath and Modoc Indians have been known to consume ...

<p>The Bush Administration appears determined to continue the war on drugs that has been actively pursued by all U.S. governments since the Nixon Administration. I believe this is a serious mistake because that approach has failed badly. Legalizing marijuana, and even some hard drugs, may be a more effective alternative.</p>

The debate over whether California should require a state license for the purchase of a handgun is over, at least for this year. Licensing lost. It has been amended out of pending handgun legislation in the Assembly and Senate, deleted by the bills' sponsors because it lacked the support needed to become law. Licensing lost despite the Democrats' 2-1 majorities in the Assembly and Senate for almost any gun control measure. It lost despite a Democrat governor, Gray Davis, who has signed some of the most restrictive gun laws of any state in the nation. It lost despite the usual ...

SEP 10, 2001 Jailers Who Thrive on Silence By LI SHAOMIN HONG KONG -- When I visited China in February this year, I was arrested and detained for five months by the Chinese secret police. My "crimes" were my critical views of China's political system, my visits to Taiwan, my use of Taiwanese funds to conduct research on politically sensitive issues, and my data collection for research in China. All of these are basic academic freedoms that are expected in democratic countries. But such freedoms are regarded as highly subversive in authoritarian societies. Friends from all over the world and ...

NOW backpedals on Yates defense By Julia Duin THE WASHINGTON TIMES The National Organization for Women has backed down from an earlier announcement that it would raise money for confessed child killer Andrea Yates. In a statement posted yesterday on NOW's Web site (www.now.org ) NOW President Kim Gandy says her group is not raising money for Mrs. Yates, nor did it ever create a defense fund. "The Houston chapter directed people to a fund set up by her lawyers," Mrs. Gandy said. The statement — and other comments by Mrs. Gandy — were released about the same time NOW ...

<p>Young women terrified of a serial rapist in the college city of Fort Collins, Colo., have taken their safety and protection into their own hands ? arming themselves with handguns and joining the ranks of gun rights advocates.</p> <p>"I don't want to live in fear, I don't want to be afraid about going out at night. I just want him to know not everyone is going to be submissive," a 23-year-old college student said Friday as she announced she had obtained a .38-caliber special revolver.</p>

Study: 300,000 U.S. kids in sex trade ‘Nation’s least recognized epidemic,’ researcher claims MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS Sept. 10 — Between 300,000 and 400,000 U.S. children are victims of the sex trade each year, from juvenile pornography and street prostitution to selling sex at school, according to a university study released Monday that tracked children in 17 major U.S. cities. ‘We never, at the beginning of the study, thought we would encounter so many children in this predicament.’ — RICHARD ESTES, University of Pennsylvania “CHILD SEXUAL exploitation is the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and ...

SEATTLE - Seattle Mayor Paul Schell will announce a hiring freeze and spending cuts to respond to an economic downtown. (AP's slip - should be "downturn") The mayor's office says he'll announce an aggressive spending control plan at a news conference this morning. The mayor will present next year's budget to the city council on September 24th.

HOUSTON -- Many people have worked minimum wage jobs, but few have actually gone out specifically to get one. That is precisely what author Barbara Ehrenreich set out to do one her two-year study of minimum wage work. Her findings can be found in her new book entitled "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America." Over the two years, she worked many "unskilled" labor jobs and stayed in the cheapest lodgings possible to see if a person can really live on a minimum wage salary. Ehrenreich read from her book and took questions from an audience last night ...

<p>The National Academy of Sciences' recent report on climate change finds that current understanding of the causes of global warming is filled with gaps and uncertainties. Such research should be solidified before it is used as a basis for public policy.</p>

New stick for compulsory education By Joseph Farah &copy; 2000 WorldNetDaily.com--> ©&nbsp;2001&nbsp;WorldNetDaily.com The New Haven, Conn., school board approved a plan last week designed to bring "groundbreaking accountability" to government education and stick its head further into what goes on in the homes of students. Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo announced he is immediately setting up an Office of Accountability to carry out the plan. Under the plan, employees who fail to meet standards could be placed on probation and moved to another job or fired if they fail to improve. But it also raises expectations on parents, who are ...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of &quot;word for the day.&quot; Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the &quot;word of the day&quot; in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on.... vitiate \VISH-ee-ayt\, transitive verb:Listen Herevitiable (vsh--bl); adjectivevitiation; nounvitiator; nounvitiatedvitiating 1. To make faulty, or imperfect; to render defective; to impair; as, exaggeration vitiates a style of writing.2. To corrupt morally.3. To debase in ...

ARKANSAS CITY, AR, USA (EAP)A Little Rock woman was killed yesterday after leaping through her moving car's sun roof during an incident best described as "a mistaken rapture" by dozens of eye witnesses. Thirteen other people were injured after a twenty-car pile up resulted from people trying to avoid hitting the woman who was apparently convinced that the 'rapture' was occurring when she saw twelve people floating up into the air, and then passed a man on the side of the road who she claimed was Jesus."She started screaming "He's back, He's back" and climbed right out of the sunroof ...

Some of the major television networks have announced that they are going to compete in a race from the gutter to the sewer this fall season. Decency regulations do exist, but three of the main players have already indicated that they intend to violate the rules. As The New York Times and NewsMax recently reported, G.E.’s NBC is planning to introduce a character that will use the Lord's name in vain, according to Aaron Sorkin, executive producer of “The West Wing.” Such a position has customarily been considered taboo for network TV. Viacom, Inc.’s CBS stated that its new ...

Behind the Headlines by Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com September 10, 2001 WAR BY PROXY US and EU in a tug of war over Macedonia? I wrote a column subtitled, "How do we know what's going on in Macedonia?," which concluded that I would have to go there myself to find out. But that is really far too general a question for just one short visit, so I'll have to narrow it a bit, and get down to the essential question: who or what is behind the destabilization of the country, and to what end? Clearly, the UCK-KLA-ANA is the instrument, but ...

National Sportscaster Jim Rome has taken it upon himself to engage in a lot of (President) Bush bashing today for Bush's NFL opening coin toss yesterday. He says that all America is e-mailing him their agreement. Please drop him a quick e-mail to let him know what sports loving Americans with brains think. For example, I queried, "Do you really prefer the constant hijink of the prior White House occupant who would have, instead, been taking the time to constantly play with himself in the oval office, or "finishing himself" (as explained by 'that woman', Ms. Lewinsky) in the little ...

Airstrip One by Emmanuel Goldstein Antiwar.com September 10, 2001 You've been Schengened The Making of a Political Sting It was quite a turnaround. A problem that had been brewing for months, with sly references in the media to fines for lorry drivers and asylum-seekers in the undercarriages of trains, has suddenly exploded on our TV screens. And how! TV has been nightly showing pictures of, well, attempted invasion. The pictures are graphic, large numbers of young foreign men grouping together to get into the Channel Tunnel, throwing rocks and threatening anyone in their path. If I weren't so trusting, it ...

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism I'm sorry... By Gregory J. Hand According to a September 8th BBC news story, &quot;European countries agreed to apologise for slavery as a 'crime against humanity.'&quot; While &quot;a package of economic assistance to Africa was reportedly also agreed,&quot; which lends credence to the postulation that liberals tend to enjoy tossing other peoples money down a black hole to pretend to solve a problem or to alleviate their guilt, this was all predicated on one notion: According to European Union spokesman Koen Vervaeke, &quot;In the way it's drafted now, there can't be ...

Unemployment figures Lower than Clinton Figures and Stock Market 177% of Clinton 1996 figures The lead article in every paper and on every TV network this morning seems to be all about a Bush "Recession." "Fear of Recession Ignites Discussion of More Tax Cuts" says the New York Times. CNN talks about our "downtrodden economy." "Wall Street Grows Depressed" the Washington Post warns. "Global Gloom Grows" CBS tells us. Is it really all that bad? And, if it is, how come we didn't notice it during the Clinton Administration, say back in 1996 when unemployment was 7,235,000, or 5.4% of ...

Politics grows more moderate in the suburbs Poll: Party labels carry less weight &nbsp; &nbsp; Also available E-mail this story Printer-friendly format By Susan Kuczka Tribune staff reporter Published September 10, 2001 By a sizable majority suburban Chicago residents favor tougher gun control laws while less than one-third support more restrictions on abortion, according to a Tribune/WGN-TV poll that gauged public sentiment on two of the era's most politically charged issues. A whopping 63 percent said they would like to see more restrictions on gun ownership, and more than half either support current laws on abortion or want them ...