Free Republic

Political Correctness Rings Hunchback Death Knell Fri Jun 28, 9:22 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - A British theater company has dropped the word hunchback from its stage adaptation of the classic novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to avoid offending disabled people, newspapers reported Friday. Oddsocks Productions has renamed its touring production "The Bellringer of Notre Dame" after discussions with a disability adviser raised the possibility of offending people with spina bifida or the disfiguring scoliosis of the spine. "We have not changed the novel in any way, we simply felt changing the title would cause less offence of people,"...

July 8 issue — Does the United States have the skull of one of Osama bin Laden’s lieutenants, or even bin Laden himself? If not, why the mystery about what we have found? In early May, Canadian troops came across a grave site at the Afghan village of Ali Khel near Tora Bora on the border with Pakistan. The cluster of graves was festooned with flags and banners, and lit at night. Villagers said the graves held the remains of Qaeda fighters killed in December in the battle for Tora Bora. Bin Laden and his top aides were in the...

Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, has expressed pessimism over prospects for change in Zimbabwe, which his group recently suspended in protest at alleged flaws in President Robert Mugabe's re-election. "It is sad that nothing is improving in that nation," McKinnon says. "I am not at all hopeful that anything is going to change." McKinnon, whose group of 54 mainly former British colonies suspended Zimbabwe for a year in March, said Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party was showing no sign of easing its pressure on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Nor was there any let up in the policy of...

We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail." [President Bush]

A man who thought he could hide his identity by putting shaving cream on his face pleaded guilty Thursday to several charges in the bungled stickup of a Rockville convenience store. Mickey Lyman, 44, who has a long record of minor offenses, will be sentenced Aug. 22 for second-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor and unlawful restraint, said Paul E. Murray, state's attorney for Tolland County. Lyman, a frequent customer of Erum's Market at 81 Union St., entered the store last July 24 with a starter pistol, demanding money as shaving cream dripped from his face, police said....

<p>Beijing -- Yan Leidong isn't advocating democracy and has no time for the mystical religious sect Falun Gong. He supports the government's one-child policy and the Beijing Olympic Games. Yet he has been detained, beaten and deported by the country he loves.</p>

DESPITE president Robert Mugabe's claims that nobody will die of hunger, critical food shortages in the country have so far claimed about 30 lives through malnutrition-induced diseases in the drought-stricken provinces of Matabeleland North and Masvingo, it emerged this week. A staff member at Binga District Hospital this week said food shortages in the district had reached critical levels and a considerable number of local people were surviving on roots and leaves. The staff member said the hospital had recorded 27 child deaths due to malnutrition-related diseases since the beginning of the year. "The situation has been worsened by the...

KNOW HOW many people have been executed in the history of the United States? No, you don’t. Nobody does. The Justice Department only began keeping track in 1930. “Until relatively recently,” writes Stuart Banner in his new book, “The Death Penalty: An American History,” “executions were conducted by units of local government and typically produced no official public record.” It may seem astonishing that the state-sanctioned killing of individuals did not produce even paperwork, but the fact is that unless a local newspaper took note of an execution - and that very much depended on who was being executed...

THE BIG NEWS of the past week was that a federal appeals court declared the Pledge of Allegiance an unconstitutional purveyor of monotheism. Monotheism! As Archie Bunker might have said, “Ain’t they got a pill for that yet?” Yes, the “under God” phrase in the pledge violates the First Amendment prohibition against “an establishment of religion.” So ruled the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in (where else?) California. The pledge, in its present form, is likely to convey to impressionable schoolchildren “an impermissible message of endorsement to some and disapproval to others of their beliefs regarding the existence of...

New plan would have voters pick method of paying more to the state By Tom Humphrey, News-Sentinel Nashville bureau June 30, 2002 NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Senate is expected to vote today on the largest tax increase in Tennessee history. If the measure passes it will let voters decide in November how it is collected. The Senate Finance Committee passed the bill Saturday and advanced it to the full Senate, which debated it for several hours. The Senate adjourned at 10:55 p.m. EDT without taking a vote and will reconvene this morning at 9. If the bill passes the full...

Fishing worms and firewood Sunday 30th June 2002 Dear Family and Friends, When I went grocery shopping this week in my little home town of Marondera there was no salt, sugar, cooking oil, mealie meal or milk. Standing in the supermarket with only the weekly newspapers in my basket there was a sudden shout from the back and I hurriedly got out of the way as a sea of people ran past me to a stock door and pushed and jostled to get to the man who had a trolley load of salt. In less than 5 minutes the crush...

SORTE, Venezuela -- The reverberating thud of wooden drums rises to a fever pitch as smoke from cheap cigars envelops the candle-lit clearing. The crowd shouts "strength! strength!" as Naudi Jose Ramos jerks and shudders before a fruit-laden altar. Eyeballs rolled back, limbs rigid, he staggers around the clearing as the mesmerized multitude shuffles reverently back. His assistant, alternately blowing cigar smoke and spraying rum on him, hands him long needles. Ramos pierces his cheeks, arms, chin. "I am Miguel Antonio Barrios," he pronounces in a gravelly growl, assuming a bent posture. "I was shot in the back 150 years...

Laconia’s embattled Police Chief Bill Baker yesterday fired a verbal shot against politicians, businessmen and the New Hampshire Supreme Court in the wake of the shooting of two “Hells Angels prospects” in the early morning hours. The men arrived at Lakes Region General Hospital at 3:20 a.m. after being shot from behind while motorcycling on Route 106 between Loudon and Laconia. Laconia police, who were called to the hospital, said the State Police knew the two men. Laconia Police, however, did not have information on their names, ages or places of residence. Laconia Police Sgt. John MacLennan said the...

NEW YORK CITY - Schools are essentially anti-boy by their design, an Australian education expert told an international conference of boys' educators yesterday.The poor performance of boys is inevitable because schools themselves are organized in ways that seem to conspire against boys doing well, author Peter West said.''For too many of these boys, school is a place where they have to sit down, shut up and write this down,'' said Dr. West, who wrote the book What Is The Matter With Boys? and teaches in the faculty of education at the University of Western Sydney.He told the annual conference of...

Millions Tune Into World Cup Final

<p>A: And I can't believe that David Gunn, Amtrak's president, had the gall to threaten a shutdown in the first place.</p> <p>Q: What do you mean? How are the trains supposed to run if Amtrak goes broke?</p> <p>A: Let me understand you. Amtrak is in danger of going broke, so you think it should shut down the few routes on which it actually makes money?</p>

"'First to Fight' isn't a motto but a sacred pledge." Lt.Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller June 26, 1898 - October 11, 1971 His name was Lewis Burwell Puller, and he came from West Point, Virginia....... Born 26 June 1898, at West Point, Virginia, the general attended Virginia Military Institute until enlisting in the Marine Corps in August 1918. The last part of the emblem is the anchor. It is not just a plain anchor but a "fouled" anchor. The anchor emphasizes the close ties of the Marine Corps with the U.S. Navy. He was appointed a Marine Reserve second...

<p>ORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Jose Padilla, accused of conspiring to explode a radioactive bomb in the United States, worked at a suburban Taco Bell and discovered Islam.</p> <p>Two young Pakistani immigrants from Hollywood allegedly hatched a plan to attack South Florida power plants and a National Guard Armory.</p>

<p>WEST GLACIER, Mont. (AP) - Two people hiking in Glacier National Park were attacked and injured Saturday when they surprised a grizzly bear along a backcountry trail, park officials said.</p> <p>The 15-second attack occurred east of Lake McDonald as the hikers were returning from an overnight trip to the Snyder Lake backcountry campground.</p>

A couple of days ago someone posted a story with a number of pictures of Arab children in a school play or other activity dressed as terrorists and acting out the parts. It was from an Arabic source. I translated the page it was on but for some reason I can't find the thread again when I need the URL for the page at the original site. Does anyone have the URL to that site?