Free Republic

There has certainly been plenty of reaction to the recent decision by the United States Court Of Appeals Ninth Circuit, in the case Newdow v. US Congress, whereby the Pledge of Allegiance, containing the words "under God" is unconstitutional. In fact, Alfred T. Goodwin, the wonderful jurist who wrote the opinion, stayed the three-judge panel's decision, just two days afterward, pending a review by the full 11-member Court of Appeals. No doubt, he was surprised by the volume of outrage his ruling generated, and is looking for a way out, quicker than the all but assured reversal by the...

<p>Members of the joint terrorist task force rushed to a Brooklyn landfill yesterday to investigate a bold daylight break-in by four men who made off with two computers, a source told The Post.</p> <p>The robbers - at least one of them armed - escaped with the computers and a copier by loading them into a Jeep Cherokee they found at the Pennsyl- vania/Fountain Avenue landfill and crashing it through a gate.</p>

Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney (Ga.) is scheduled to be one of the keynote speakers at a political rally held in conjunction with the Green Party's midterm convention later this month. The Green's convention is scheduled to take place July 18-21 in Philadelphia. McKinney will address the rally July 19. Green Party political coordinator Dean Myerson said while it is uncommon for any Member of Congress to take part in the convention, the party's already good relationship with McKinney has evolved in recent years. He said the Congresswoman "has been a long supporter of election reform," and the party also agrees...

For over thirty years we have been indoctrinated by some politicians and most of the national media that ‘the separation of church and state´ is part of the U.S. Constitution, and that it requires the removal of all references to God from the public arena, or consideration of His principles. Both are bald-faced lies, spawned by those who would dismantle this republic for their own idealistic, though deadly, purposes. As supporting evidence of that claim, I offer here but a small sample of what the Founding Fathers thought about G-d and religion. With apologies to Tom Brokaw, those who...

In addition to honoring our forefathers, here's a little something to reflect on during the upcoming celebration of our country's founding. In 1905, Albert Einstein published his first introduction to the "special theory of relativity": "It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing -- a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind. Furthermore, the equation E is equal to m c-squared, in which energy is put equal to mass, multiplied by the square of the velocity of light, showed that very small amounts of mass may...

A New Questioning of the War By David S. Broder (Excerpts) Sunday, June 30, 2002; Page B07 WATERLOO, Iowa -- Vermont Gov. Howard Dean,... was making points with the 10 party activists who joined him for coffee the other morning at the Country Kitchen cafe. He had been asked where he would find fault with President Bush, and he replied, "As far as domestic policy is concerned, I can't think of anything he's done that I agree with." ... And then he added, almost as a throwaway line, "I think he's done a good job on the war on terrorism."...

Were a young man to ask me, "To marry perchance, or remain forever single?" I would, given the hostile circumstances today of law and love, urge caution. "Marriage is a commitment of several years of your life, plus child support," I would say. "Do not make it rashly." The question is simply, "Why marry?" As a young man full of dangerous steroids, your answer will probably be, "Ah, because her hair is like corn silk under an August moon; her lips are as rubies and her teeth, pearls; and her smile would make a dead man cry." This amounts...

Once again, the world has been enlightened as to the wisdom of socialism. A recent article in the USA Today highlighted a great problem in Communist China. It seems that China is suffering from having too many men versus women between the ages of 18-34. The trend, largely a result of governmental family planning, could potentially make it virtually impossible for approximately 40 million Chinese men to find a wife in the next two decades. According to the article, Chinese men-to-women ratios range from 117 to 130 men for every 100 women, versus a worldwide rate of about 105-107...

The Florida Highway Patrol and Pinellas County officials responded to a call this morning that reported two suspicious men on the bridge. The men appeared to be lowering a strange package. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is calling this a bomb threat. "We have closed the bridge in both directions," said Sterling King, a spokesperson with the FHP. "There are people at the site now investigating." In addition to closing the bridge to traffic, the Coast Guard and FDLE have shut down the shipping lanes under the expansion. A driver reported seeing two "Non-American" men standing near the top...

<p>FORT APACHE RESERVATION - The heart has been ripped out of this place.</p> <p>The "Rodeo-Chediski" fire has become a multidimensional disaster for this 12,500-member tribe, with racial prejudice, economic misery and spiritual grief among the possible lasting legacies.</p> <p>A deep sense of guilt descended on the reservation with the news that a member of the tribe, contract firefighter Leonard Gregg, had been charged with setting the Rodeo fire in the hope of earning a day's wages.</p>

WASHINGTON - Sometime this fall, President Bush will issue what some are calling the biggest change in U.S. strategic policy since the dawn of the Cold War in the late 1940s. It's the doctrine of "strike first," or "pre-emption," and it has the potential to reshape military thinking, dispatch U.S. forces into the world's dark corners without warning, shake up relations with allies and break new ground in international law. The doctrine holds that the United States must be prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes against the country's dangerous new enemies: terrorist groups plotting an attack against Americans, or "rogue states,"...

(img src="http://www.cnn.com/US/9806/29/gay.parade/parade.jpg"> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Clad in a long white coat and waving the British flag, actor Sir Ian McKellen leaped from a silver convertible and raced to hug cheering fans during the city's annual gay pride parade. McKellen, who starred in ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' and ``Gods and Monsters,'' served as one of the celebrity grand marshals in his first San Francisco parade. ``For generations the people in San Francisco have set standards for the rest of the world to catch up to,'' said McKellen, who decided to come out in 1988...

By David Lister Media and Culture Editor 21 June 2002 'The Sound of Silence' may have prompted engaging harmonies from Simon and Garfunkel – but a more literal appreciation of the absence of noise has prompted one of the more curious copyright disputes of modern times. Mike Batt, the man behind the Wombles and Vanessa Mae, has put a silent 60-second track on the album of his latest classical chart-topping protégés, the Planets. This has enraged representatives of the avant-garde, experimentalist composer John Cage, who died in 1992. The silence on his group's album clearly sounds uncannily like 4'33", the...

LINK Published: Monday, July 1, 2002 Baboon from L.A. slain by fellow ape in Virginia NORFOLK, Va. -- A 2-year-old male baboon on loan from the Los Angeles Zoo is dead after getting into a fight with another baboon in an exhibit at the Virginia Zoo. Virginia Zoo spokeswoman Tammy Lindquist said Tommy, one of three male baboons in the African exhibit, likely was killed by the dominant male in the group, JoJo. Tommy died soon after the altercation Friday morning. Test results are being done on Tommy to determine the exact cause of death. It was the second death...

Solomon wouldn't be remembered as the wisest of all judges if, in the famous story, he had ended up having to actually split the baby in two. Ramsey County Judge Michael Fetsch has made a somewhat Solomon-like, difference-splitting decision concerning Minnesota's tobacco settlement proceeds. We shall see whether the effort ultimately makes a mess of things. Fetsch handed down a ruling last week that in blunt language describes how a private group handling hundreds of millions of public tobacco dollars has "ignored for four years... one of the pivotal reasons for the organization's existence, namely to prevent death and disease...

Editorial | Philly? That town is outta here! Imagine, Pennsylvania, if some got their wish and the city they love to hate just vanished. All incurable romantics and boxing fans, now hear this: There are no more Rocky steps to scale at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As Rocky Balboa might say, fuhgedaboudit, Paulie - and get over it. And get over all this stuff, too: Philly funnyman-extraordinaire Bill Cosby? He said he could go anywhere, and he did - someplace other than Philadelphia. Remember the 1950 Whiz Kids, National League baseball champs? Well, they never even took the field...

US President George W Bush is well-versed in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's political lexicon, as was demonstrated by his lashing out at the Palestinian leadership, his demands for its ouster and outlining of conditions to be met by Arab and Muslim states. Yet the substance of his vision for the final resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was greeted by Palestinian officials as being workably close to their own. They highlighted Bush's insistence that he was committed to building a provisional Palestinian state, and that a final settlement be based on UN Resolutions 242 and 338. That he regarded territories...

<p>EDENTON, N.C. - When the legendary Dean Smith was basketball coach up the road at the University of North Carolina, fans knew what to expect when his team got the lead. He'd go to his trademark "four corners" slow-down offense to salt away the victory. Elizabeth Dole doesn't call it four corners. She graduated from Duke, in Durham, N.C. But she is pursuing her own run-out-the-clock strategy as she sits on a huge lead in her quest for the U.S. Senate, a critical race in the GOP's bid to retake control of the chamber. The question is whether voters will keep cheering or begin to boo.</p>

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The newest candidate challenging Secretary of State Katherine Harris in her bid for Congress is truly an underdog: a border collie mix. Percy the dog is running as a write-in candidate in the Republican primary, said his owner and campaign manager, Wayne Genthner. Genthner is offering up his canine candidate as both satire and as a protest against the political establishment. THE REST OF THE STORY Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

We are building upon the momentum of our organizing work that led to our successful participation in the United Nations World Conference Against Racism. Therefore, the Durban 400, led by the December 12th Movement and the National Black United Front (NBUF), is calling on African people in America to get prepared over the coming months to participate in the Millions For Reparations Mass Rally demanding reparations from the United States Government in its Capital City, Washington, D.C. on August 17, 2002, the 115th anniversary of the birth of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Against this backdrop, as we travel throughout...