Free Republic

ZIMBABWE: Uncertainty as deadline looms for farm acquisitions JOHANNESBURG, 20 Jun 2002 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's farm owners and farmworkers are in the grip of uncertainty as the government's deadline approaches for the country's mainly white commercial farmers to down tools and leave their land. From 25 June the first wave of farmers whose land has been earmarked for acquisition will, by law, have to stop farming. They will then have 45 days to wind up their affairs and leave the property. As the hours tick closer, farmers and farmworkers face an uncertain future in a country where up to six...

US Dollar is currently dropping on news of our trade deficit and a declining interest in American stocks. The euro currently stands at .9654 cents, and the pound at $1.50. Click here for current information: Oanda.com Click here for current futures contracts in real time: cme.com ------------------------------------------- Here is a story from the AP: Euro Hits 2-Year High Against Dollar Thu Jun 20,12:52 PM ET By DAVID McHUGH, AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - The euro rose to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years Thursday, climbing above 96 U.S. cents as traders dumped the...

WORLD NEWS FRIDAY, 21 JUNE 2002 W O R L D N E W S S T O R Y Argentina sends 'X-files' team to probe animal deaths 20 June 2002 BUENOS AIRES: Argentina is sending its own X-Files scientists to probe strange deaths of farm animals found dissected, mutilated and drained of blood on remote Pampa plains, killings some have blamed on aliens. At least 70 animals were reported killed in recent weeks, some with their genitals and tongues pulled out with surgical precision surrounded by charred grass with no signs of blood stains. One horse's hoof had a...

AOL: Stop Sending Wasteful Metal Junk Mail Center for a New American Dream America Online's aluminum junk mail is in a class all its own. The company's newest gimmick is to package its disks advertising free hours of online access in a metal box. This ''metal mail'' is a central part of the company's $3.8 billion annual ad budget and really takes a toll on our nation's energy security and on our environment. The boxes require an extremely energy-intensive manufacturing process that exacerbates climate change as well as our dependence on coal and oil. And, this junk mail is filling...

Though Atlanta Public Schools owns empty school buildings, it has broken ground on a $45 million central office. The construction comes at a time when the city of Atlanta is grappling with such severe financial crisis that the city this week fired 66 sanitation workers. When Johnny Brown takes over as DeKalb school superintendent in two weeks, he'll be joined by five employees from his previous post in Birmingham, including a secretary. Brown's own $225,000 base salary represents the highest in the state for a school superintendent. In most metro communities, school boards have managed to avoid much of the...

10,000 Flee Fighting in Brazzaville The Monitor (Kampala) June 19, 2002 Posted to the web June 19, 2002 At least 10,000 people have fled Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, following two days of fighting between government forces and Ninja militias that began on Friday, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office in the country reported. Brazzaville endured two sustained military attacks in the north-eastern outskirts of the town. The first was against the military based near the international airport at Maya Maya, and the second targeted a police school and a station of the gendarmerie in the neighbourhood of...

GOP Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Advances in HouseBy Christine Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 19, 2002 (CNSNews.com) - The House is expected to take up a Medicare prescription drug bill next week that would for the first time give drug coverage to seniors in addition to the hospital insurance they already enjoy. By a vote of 22 to 16, the House Ways and Means committee worked until the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday to pass the $305 billion GOP plan, despite the objections of Democrats, who believe the plan doesn't spend enough and leaves too much decision-making in...

I like the "new" Free Republic, and especially like having the message-being-replied-to readable on the reply page. But here's a additional suggestion: It would be quite feasible to add to this page a "Quote" button, which, when pressed by the user, would use javascript to automatically insert into the appropriate box: <i>[message being replied to]</i><p>[plus maybe a couple of return characters] The user could then simply cut out parts of the message he/she didn't want to quote. It would make it even easier & quicker for this forum to do what it does. What do others think?

Panel urges small teams of vaccinated smallpox responders (original title) ATLANTA (AP) - A government advisory panel rejected smallpox vaccinations for the general public Thursday, instead proposing that the shots be given to special teams of people in each state who would be designated the first to respond in case of a bioterrorism attack. The recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which sets U.S. vaccine policy, came after two days of hearings on the threat of a smallpox attack versus the dangerous side effects of the vaccine. The recommendation is subject to approval by the Centers for Disease...

Heard around 12:25 pm on Fox News Alert: the CDC, in a panel of twelve "experts", have announced that no widespread vaccinations of Americans will be conducted.

WASHINGTON, Jun 20, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The chairmen of a joint congressional committee investigating pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures said Thursday they have asked the attorney general to investigate possible leaks of classified information by the panel. "We will cooperate with the FBI in any way possible," while the Justice Department and the FBI investigate if or how such leaks occurred, said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Vice President Dick Cheney had complained to the two chairmen earlier Thursday about leaks that he believed led to the disclosure of the National Security Agency's...

H.L. Mencken on Abraham LincolnFrom "Five Men at Random," Prejudices: Third Series, 1922, pp. 171-76. First printed, in part, in the Smart Set, May, 1920, p. 141Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the United States—first, murder stories; secondly, novels in which the heroine is forcibly overcome by the hero; thirdly, volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap, and fourthly, books on Lincoln. But despite all the vast mass of Lincolniana and the constant discussion of old Abe in other ways, even so elemental a...

A Note on Footnotes When I was younger I hated the fuss and bother of adding proper footnotes to my papers. I never thought my teachers would read them, and I almost never used them in the books I was reading. Some genres, like the science fiction I used to consume in bulk, didn't even have them. And when I indulged my appetite for history books, where they were to be found, I never looked at them. All that has changed for me since I discovered the awful screed, The Real Lincoln, by Professor DiLorenzo. That book, which so completely...

Remarks Prepared for Delivery by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Philadelphia, PA, Thursday, June 20, 2002 (Check Against Delivery). Colonel [Charles] Holsworth, this has been quite a year for you. As ROA’s "elected national president," I understand you’ve been hobnobbing with other "elected national presidents"—including a former National Guardsman named George W. Bush. It’s just like the Reserve—always in the thick of the action.This is quite an audience, and it’s good to see you all here. I bring you greetings from Secretary Rumsfeld and from our Commander in Chief, President George W. Bush.A special thanks to Admiral Loy, who...

Check out this incredible PBS RADIO INTERVIEW(Real Player) with John Berger who runs the WhoIsJohnDoe2.Com website. Go about five minutes into the show to hear the beginning of this interview.

Elizabeth Ann and Mary Katherine Smart adore one another and, as any mother can tell you, that's no small accomplishment for sisters age 14 and 9. Maybe music binds them together: They love to play duets on the harp. Or maybe it's boys -- brothers, that is. In the Smart house, the girls are outnumbered two to one. Or maybe it's that Elizabeth is such a good role model. "Elizabeth is just a gentle personality and she loves having a little sister to hang around with," said family friend and neighbor Charlotte Hamblin. "And Mary Katherine wants to be just...

A Bethel School District teacher resigned last week after it was discovered that she had smoked marijuana with a 14-year-old student at her home. Terri Elizabeth McCracken, 34, of Springfield, had taught seventh grade at the district's Meadow View School for two years. The district is in northwest Eugene. Eugene police charged McCracken on June 11 with one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a minor. She was given a citation and released. When school district officials confronted her with the allegations, she resigned immediately, district spokesman Craig Hawkins said. McCracken did not return a message a reporter left...

A little-noticed news item from Argentina tells us that two major provinces in that crisis-ridden country may soon merge in order to manage their funds more efficiently. I wonder whether this wouldn't be a great idea for many countries that are maintaining costly -- and often overlapping -- provincial governments. Does it make sense for Argentina, a bankrupt country that had to suspend its foreign debt payments in January, to maintain -- in addition to its 10,000-employee federal Congress -- 24 provincial chambers of deputies and 24 provincial Senates that together employ tens of thousands of workers? Does it make...

LITURGY-JESUITS Jun-19-2002 (710 words) xxxi Liturgy not place for theatrics, say speakers at Jesuit conference By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service ROME (CNS) -- Liturgy is a communal form of prayer and not a showplace for the creativity or the piety of any participant, whether celebrant or member of the congregation, said speakers at an international conference in Rome. Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Mechelen-Brussels told the June 17-22 conference the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council rightfully emphasized the importance of the active participation of everyone at a liturgy. But many attempts to involve people and make the...

Woman guilty of abusing elderly husband By BILL BISHOP The Register-Guard Recommend this story to others. A jury on Wednesday convicted a 31-year-old Eugene woman for torturing her elderly, mentally ill husband with heated scissors and knives, beating and threatening him at their Santa Clara home. Dorothy Grace Jones, also known as Dorothy Grace Vega, faces up to 19 years in prison if given back-to-back prison terms for first-degree assault and two counts of second-degree assault, both Measure 11 crimes with mandatory sentences. The five-woman, seven-man jury deliberated for just more than two hours before convicting Jones on five charges,...