Free Republic

Men Should Be More Considerate Toward Their Wives (especially as they grow older) By Mike McNair I almost didn't write this article for two reasons. First, I am concerned that some may interpret this account as bragging on my part. Nothing could be further from the truth. I treat the little lady the way I do because I believe that wives deserve every bit of consideration and respect that we can spare. Secondly, I am concerned that some men may become upset with me when they see how I go out of my way to be nice to my wife...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said there were several plots to assassinate or overthrow him but vowed that increased security and intelligence gathering following a short-lived coup would thwart any such conspiracies. Chavez, looking relaxed, told reporters Friday that he has scaled down his public appearances for security reasons since he was ousted for less than 48 hours in mid-April. He said that his government had uncovered an assassination plot involving "mercenary groups" in Latin America and that anti-aircraft batteries were installed near the presidential palace after agents learned of an "audacious" plan to attack it. Since the...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez denied having received illegal campaign funding from a Spanish bank during his 1998 bid for the presidency. "I have absolutely nothing to fear," Chavez told a group of foreign correspondents in Miraflores Presidential Palace late Friday. The case in Venezuela was prompted by an investigation launched by Spain's central bank, which discovered that the Spanish bank BBVA deposited secret funds outside the country for 13 years. Venezuela's Attorney General's Office and National Electoral Council both opened investigations this week into allegations that Chavez, or members of his ruling party, accepted illegal campaign donations from...

Thanks to a leak to The New York Times, we now know that the U.S. bomb dropped on the Princess Pats during a nighttime training exercise in Afghanistan that killed four Canadians and wounded eight others, was because the pilot "didn't follow proper procedure." You mean we didn't know that before? Defence Minister John McCallum says he's now "moving heaven and Earth"(?) to hasten the release of the investigation done by retired Gen. Maurice Baril which, if it differs in essence from the U.S. inquiry, would justify yet another inquiry as to "why." What a waste of effort it all...

Receipts during the Reagan years increased by $310 billion and by $870.8 billion under Mr. Clinton. This chart show a sharp and steady increase in revenue under Mr. Clinton which may have helped him return us to fiscal responsibility. Two conservative myths bite the dust in this category. First, tax increases do NOT decrease revenue and tax cuts do not increase revenue more than tax increases. Conservatives also argue Mr. Reagan doubled revenue. This is NOT correct.

As battalions of heavily-armed police and combat soldiers load up with tear gas to welcome the world to this week's planned street riots and other festivities of the G8 summit meeting in Alberta, ordinary slow-thinkers like me are bound to wonder if this two-day political gabfest could possibly be worth all the danger, hassle and expense. The short answer is, no. The long answer is, you must be joking. For two days this week, U.S. President George Bush, Tony Blair of the U.K., and the other leaders of the eight most powerful western countries on earth will gather at the...

<p>Cars from Japan, wine from France, clothing from China -- for years, the United States has been running up its credit card balance, buying far more from the rest of the world than it sells.</p> <p>In April, America's trade gap with the rest of the world climbed to $35.9 billion, the highest on record, the Commerce Department reported last week.</p>

The YES satellite cable network denied reports it would consider cutting off CNN and BBC broadcasts, media reports say. YES directors said their job is not to be a national censor, Israel Radio reports. The reports came as Communications Minister Reuvlin Rivlin was to meet today with CNN's chief news executive to discuss allegations that the network engages in one-sided coverage of events in the country and tends to be biased against Israel.

<p>Embattled Martha Stewart looked like the diva of disaster yesterday when she went antiquing in the Hamptons. Trying to put her stock scandal on the back burner, the diva of domesticity paid a visit to the annual Mulford Farms Antique Show and Sale in East Hampton.</p>

DOWA, Malawi - In February, when the food ran out, Ezlina Chambukira started selling her precious possessions one by one. First, her goat. Then an old umbrella. Then two metal plates and a battered pail. When she had nothing left, she started praying for a miracle. For the first time in a decade, severe hunger is sweeping across southern Africa. The United Nations says that two years of erratic weather - alternating droughts and floods - coupled with mismanagement of food supplies have left seven million people in six countries at risk of starvation. Here in this dusty village of...

Email Header was cut off by me for this post From: MOUSTAPHA ABACHA Satellite Telephone: 00 871 762 919 XXX Satellite Facsimile: 00 871 762 919 XXX Dear Sir, I am Moustapha Abacha, the second surviving son of the late General Sani Abacha. We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your mail to my mother with thanks, May Allah reward you greatly for your decision to assist us in this mutually beneficial transaction; My mother has insisted that I deal with you directly at this crucial stage in this issue rather than the family lawyer. As my mother has rightly informed...

<p>As Martha Stewart-bashing bested the World Cup as the favorite spectator sport in America this week, I was tempted to cut poor Martha a break. Although Federal investigators are investigating charges that Martha Stewart dumped almost 4,000 shares of ImClone late last year - when she just happens to be friends with ImClone's CEO - Martha stood by her story that the timing of the sale was just a coincidence and that she had no insider information.</p>

Bishops Begin Enforcing Abuse Plan By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer America's Roman Catholic bishops spent the past week meeting with priests, recruiting parishioners for review boards and taking sex abusers off the job as they started implementing their ambitious policy to end the church's molestation crisis. Yet even as Catholic leaders began to clean house, outside pressure from law enforcement authorities was building. Some bishops returned home from the Dallas summit where the policy was approved and promptly went beyond the action plan, which requires bishops to remove abusive priests from public ministry. The 10 bishops of Minnesota and...

<p>With a colorful silk scarf draped over her head, 15-year-old Hala Saadeh, a student from Fitchburg High School, said it felt good to finally be among her Islamic friends yesterday. After all, she is the only Muslim in her school of 1,286 students.</p>

TEHRAN, Iran The most striking thing about Iran today is the honesty you can find in the newspapers. Some mornings, they take your breath away. Consider the mainstream paper Entekhab, which ran a long piece the other day, headlined "Skyrocketing Figures," that ticked off the following statistics: There are now 84,000 prostitutes operating on the streets of Tehran and 250 brothels, including some linked to high officials. There are 60 new runaway girls hitting Tehran's streets every day — a 12 percent increase over last year. Forty percent of all drug-addicted women in Iranian prisons have AIDS. Two sisters, ages...

In her TV appearances this week, Martha Stewart plans to chat about how to whip up red, white and blue cupcakes for the kids and prepare a "striking" arrangement of rhododendrons. The home decorating czarina has even vowed to go live on "The Early Show" on CBS Tuesday — a promise that in normal times would hardly be considered news. Domestic diva Stewart takes stock of the latest scandal. But this will be no normal week for Stewart. With a growing insider trading scandal threatening to intrude on her carefully manicured world, this may very well be the week from...

<p>In his halting English, Elvia Marin's husband struggled to tell the nurses and doctor that the pain in his wife's stomach and back was so intense, it was worse for her than giving birth.</p> <p>But the words that would have helped pinpoint her ailment urinary tract stones eluded him and doctors in the Oakland, Calif., emergency room couldn't identify the problem by her discomfort alone. A few hours later, the pain subsided and she left without treatment.</p>

"Big tent" politics has come to Georgia, and it has a distinctly Latin look. Two Hispanic candidates from Gwinnett County --- one from each major political party --- will likely take seats in the state House next January, as no one filed to run against either of them. State officials believe they will be Georgia's first Latino state legislators. And a Norcross lawyer became what Republicans say is the first Hispanic statewide candidate for elected office when she signed up Friday to run for secretary of state. Even before candidate qualifying closed Friday, state party chairman Ralph Reed was declaring...

June 18, 2002 Call It Dodgers Lite, but Brooklyn Loves ItBy IRA BERKOW WO freshly minted Brooklyn Cyclones, members of this Class A baseball team that is more or less a wisp — less would be the key word here — of the late, loved and lamented Dodgers, were in this kaleidoscopic part of the universe for the first time yesterday, and feeling their way. One, a 22-year-old pitcher named Eric Templet, is from Gonzalez, La. The other, Kevin Deaton, a 20-year-old, also a right-handed pitcher, is from Cocoa Beach, Fla. They were sitting in a dugout at KeySpan...

One of the largest hotel chains with hotels all around the world, the Marriott Hotel Chain, recently wrote a letter to the chairman of Erez Travel and Tourism, Uzi Yalon, in which his address was listed as: "Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Area" - not Jerusalem, Israel. The Marriott Hotel chain is based in Washington, and its hotels have served as popular convention sites for many Jewish organizations, including the Conference of Jewish Presidents, and many Israeli delegations to Washington have stayed at the hotel. Mr. Yalon was outraged. He wrote back a letter to the hotel chain's board, "I was born...