Free Republic

The Feral Cortex Kip Lange June 27th, 2002 Take This Pledge and Shove It Just when I think it’s safe to sit around and do nothing but watch softcore porn on Cinemax, the liberals rise from their dreary coffins and wander around, attempting to eat the brain of American society and culture. What’s the target this time? The Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance has been declared unconstitutional by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, or rather two members of it, although I rather suspect that underneath the human masks they wear, they are, in fact, very, very...

The Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune recently ran a 4,400-word, 2 1/2-page spread on Republican congressional candidate Katherine Harris. And when one reader complained that Democratic candidates were getting short shrift, Managing Editor Rosemary Armao responded with a remarkably candid e-mail -- one that wound up costing her her job."Katherine Harris is an international figure, like her or not," Armao wrote of the woman who became a central player in the presidential recount in Florida. "She's going to be the next congresswoman from this area, like it or not. . . . I have no intentions of covering each of the Democratic...

<p>In early June, Attorney General John Ashcroft came up with an intelligent plan to fingerprint and photograph some 100,000 Middle Eastern visa holders a year to be better able to track them while here in the United States. The idea was particularly sound since of the 19 hijackers on September 11 all but one had come here legally through the State Department visa system, and 12 were still legally here at the moment of devastation.</p>

<p>Republicans say a federal appeals court ruling that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional highlights the importance of ending Senate Democrats' blockade of President Bush's judicial nominees.</p> <p>"Today's ruling makes clear the need to confirm swiftly President Bush's nominations," Republican National Chairman Marc Racicot said in a press release issued shortly after the ruling by a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "I hope the Senate will act quickly on confirmations and today's decision is appealed and overturned."</p>

<p>President Bush exhorted business executives yesterday to be honest with investors as the administration sought to quell the crisis of confidence on Wall Street with swift action to punish WorldCom Inc.</p> <p>In an orchestrated campaign aimed at putting to rest criticism by some in Congress that regulators were asleep at the switch, administration officials called for jail terms for errant executives. Also, the Securities and Exchange Commission went to the courts and froze WorldCom's assets within a day of its admission that it made the largest accounting misstatement in the nation's history.</p>

Woman Sentenced For Cane Beating Death Anderson Will Serve 18-Plus Years Jun 27, 2002 5:28 pm US/Central (WCCO)-(Minneapolis)-A Minneapolis woman who beat a man to death with his own cane in April was sentenced Thursday to more than 18 years in prison. Robin Mary Anderson, 41, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder for the death of William Avance, 77, of Brooklyn Center, Minn. Hennepin County District Judge Beryl Nord sentenced Anderson Thursday to 18 years and nine months in prison, which was six years and three months more than the sentence specified in state sentencing guidelines. Nord added to...

Essam Al-Ridi says his life is "ruined" because he agreed to testify for the Justice Department against al Qaeda members. — Airline pilot Essam Al-Ridi admits helping Osama bin Laden buy a plane to transport Stinger missiles 10 years ago. But he says he did the right thing as a U.S. citizen by testifying and helping to put four al Qaeda members behind bars. The 1992 deal was years before bin Laden emerged as a terrorist leader, and Al-Ridi has never been accused of belonging to bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. Al-Ridi, 43, was born in Egypt but came...

<p>The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Constitution permits parents to pay parochial-school tuition with government vouchers, effectively legalizing the "school choice" concept.</p> <p>"Vouchers provide choices to poor families who otherwise had no option," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said as he announced the final decision of the court term, a 5-4 ruling that resolved a decade of legal bickering over whether such aid supports religion in a manner prohibited by the First Amendment.</p>

<p>There's plenty about which one could nitpick in President Bush's proposal for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. On balance, though, his speech on Monday was about as protective of Israel's interests as one could expect from a divided administration.</p> <p>The onus is clearly on the Palestinians to demonstrate whether they truly want a peacefully co-existing state with democratic values and will commit to ending terror. Good luck. With the exception of Israel, no other nation in the Middle East has a history of democracy or is about to accept a Western model of government.</p>

We used to salute the flag every morning before class started when I was in elementary school, and doing so gave us a sense of unity despite the fact that Jim Crow used to bolt the doors to facilities funded with my parents' tax dollars. And when the civil-rights movement heated up during the 1960s, the words "liberty and justice for all" were certainly not mere words in a recitation to a flag that waved the same in segregated school houses in Washington as it did on the battleships in Norfolk and elsewhere.       The movement and the pledge...

<p>In the face of nationwide, near-unanimous outrage, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday postponed enforcement of its ruling that public school students may not recite the Pledge of Allegiance.</p> <p>The ruling on Wednesday by a three-judge panel in San Francisco said having children recite the Pledge in public schools violates the Constitution because the Pledge refers to "one nation under God."</p>

February 16-28 , 2002 / Balkans-Bosnia-Kosovo Muslimedia.com is the internet edition of Crescent International, newsmagazine of the Islamic Movement. Muslim workers and organizations in Balkans latest to be targeted by US By Helena Bestakova in Prague, Czech Republic An American-style crackdown on Muslim activists and aid-workers throughout the Balkans has been under way since September 11. The Bosnian government’s surrender of six Algerians, suspected of having links with al-Qaeda, to the US military on January 18 was the latest significant incident of this crackdown, under the rubric of the US’s "war on terrorism." The six men, who had been arrested...

Ah, San Francisco. You'll be tickled to learn that the town that spawned judges who think uttering "one nation, under God" in a government-run school is an unconstitutional vulgarity, from which every delicate child must be shielded, is the same town that just hatched government-sponsored ads featuring a smiling cartoon penis with syphilis sores. I am not making this up. The city used $50,000 in taxpayer funds to create a "whimsical" public awareness project called "Healthy Penis 2002." (Motto: "Making every penis a healthy penis.") Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, the city's director of sexually transmitted disease control, told the San...

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL I would much prefer to do today’s show without any reference at all to the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday. That decision involves religion. In fact, that decision is seen by many (if not most) Americans as an attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. I’ve been doing this talk radio stuff for one-third of a century. During that time I have learned one thing for an absolute certainty: Most Americans are psychologically and emotionally incapable of engaging in conversations about religion in a logical, calm and open matter....

Please keep adding 6/28/02 Elizabeth Smart dated updates to this thread... Remember to keep checking back to this thread today for today's developing news on the Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping. Some people may consider today to actually be day 24, but I count 1 day for each 24 hours that have passed since Elizabeth was kidnapped. Elizabeth was taken from her home at about 1:30am on the morning of June 5th, 2002. Brigette's Ping List - (How To Join & How It Works)If you would like on my Elizabeth Smart Ping List, Please send me a "Private Reply" with your request......

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk (D) led state Attorney General JohnCornyn (R) in a survey sponsored by the Democratic SenatorialCampaignCommittee in the race to replace retiring Sen. Phil Gramm (R). Kirk received 46 percent to 42 percent for Cornyn and also held a narrow name identification advantage over Cornyn. Sixty-three percent of voters recognized Kirk; 52 percent knew of Cornyn. In the pricey Dallas media market, where Kirk served as mayor for six and a half years, the Democrat enjoyed a much greater name-identification advantage - 87 percent to 55 percent. The poll was conducted by Bennett PettsBlumenthal from June...

Police Chief Considering Alcohol Ordinance June 27, 2002 By Nicole Koglin IDAHO FALLS - Idaho Falls Police Chief J. Kent Livsey is working with city officials on a new ordinance that would make carrying open containers of alcohol on city streets illegal, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. Sgt. Steve Hunt of the Idaho Falls Police Department said that Chief Livsey has been considering enacting an ordinance like this for sometime, but after the events that resulted at Street Fest 2002, the need for more control over alcohol on the street is even more evident.

Atheism is stupid---and has no foundation in science "The only atheism is the denial of truth." Arthur Lynch If one were to listen to the media, science and religion cannot go hand in hand. Science inevitably proves God cannot exist. Darwin and his crowd showed how life evolved from a simple organism into a complex series of rational animals which were able to organize themselves and think beyond anything else in the universe. But atheist’s and their elite allies have it all backwards: Science does not refute God, it proves God. Atheism is the stupid, unthinking and illogical way. God...

Western Press Review: EU Immigration Policy And Al-Qaeda's Balkan Connection By Khatya Chhor Prague, 1 November 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Commentary and analysis in the Western press today looks at British Prime Minister Tony Blair's current shuttle-diplomacy efforts in the Middle East; the upcoming World Trade Organization conference in Doha, Qatar; the future of immigration and labor policy in Europe; and avoiding the mistakes of Kosovo in the Afghanistan campaign. Other issues include Al-Qaeda's Balkan links and how the antiterrorism campaign sheds a spotlight on class inequalities. FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: A commentary in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" by columnist Wolfgang Gunter...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 28 Lunar Module at Taurus-Littrow Credit: Daniel D. Durda (SwRI), Space Imagery Center, LPL, Apollo 17 Explanation: Can the Hubble Space Telescope take a picture that shows the Apollo lunar modules on the Moon? With its 2.4 meter diameter mirror, the smallest object that the Hubble can resolve at the Moon's distance of around 400,000 kilometers is about 80 meters across. So, from low Earth orbit...