Free Republic

I n the final days of the Gulf War several farsighted people began to see that the stunning humiliation of Saddam Hussein had made possible a real transformation of the entire Middle East. The PLO had predictably taken the wrong side, and had been cut off from its longstanding subsidies from the Arab oil countries (most notably Saudi Arabia). Iraq was in shambles, its oppressed peoples openly speaking of bringing down Saddam's evil regime. American military might was so awesome that nobody could even imagine defeating it, and hence the American ideology of freedom was running rampant through the...

OSLO -- In May the prominent Dutch rightwing populist Pim Fortuyn was shot to death. The suspected perpetrator is an animal rights activist. This marks the first high-profile murder committed by radical environmentalists in Europe. Sadly, it will probably not be last. Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess coined the term "deep ecology" in 1972 to express the idea that nature has intrinsic value, apart from its usefulness to human beings. This distinction between a biocentric and human-centered -- anthropocentric -- perspective has been hotly debated in the environmental movement ever since. In its most extreme form, a biocentric perspective leads to...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Toss those colored contacts, soldier, and forget about getting that alligator tattooed on your hand: the Army’s new uniform regulations take effect Aug. 1, and both are verboten. The good news is that you can wear your cell phone on your uniform now — if you need it to do your job and if it’s small enough, that is, according to the new regulation released last week. This is the first overhaul of Army Regulation 670-1 since 1992, although the policy — which covers all Army uniforms and grooming standards — has undergone several changes in the...

Filed at 9:02 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- It appears an errant bomb dropped by the United States was not responsible for scores of deaths reported in a central Afghan village, defense officials said Tuesday. That bomb, from an Air Force B-52, is believed to have fallen in a remote or uninhabited area, officials said on condition of anonymity. They stressed, however, that the investigation is still under way. Residents and officials said dozens of civilians, including women and children, were killed in an attack early Monday in the village of Kakarak, about 175 miles southwest of the capital of...

<p>ARLINGTON, Va. (CSM) - Fourth of July fireworks exploded early this year.</p> <p>Just listen to the cacophony of patriotic outrage across America in the wake of a federal appeals court decision declaring the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words "under God."</p>

Commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance by Red Skelton As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton's teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own. I - - Me; an individual; a committee of one. Pledge - - Dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity. Allegiance - - My love and my devotion.To the Flag - - Our standard; Old Glory ; a symbol of Freedom; wherever she waves there...

Advanced Army aircraft plagued by cost overruns HUNTSVILLE -- The Army's Comanche helicopter program is down to its last chance. The Army has spent $5.2 billion over two decades to develop the stealthy, armed reconnaissance helicopter. But the program has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Critics want to scrap the program, and a congressional committee recently said its support of the Comanche is in jeopardy unless there's a quick turn-around. And the Army is asking the Pentagon to bless a plan that restructures the program a sixth and final time. The program will need another $6.7 billion to...

Al Gore is revisiting an old strategy. Back in 1992, the then-vice presidential candidate led the charge against President Bush I's handling of foreign policy. National security was an area in which most thought the former U.N. ambassador, deposer of Noriega and victor of Desert Storm was immune from criticism. However, the Clinton team adroitly turned this supposed immunity into a liability, making charges that were difficult to respond to and impossible to disprove. One such accusation was that Bush in fact caused the Gulf War by coddling Saddam. Therefore, the (incomplete) victory was in fact just damage control,...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO — One of the federal appellate judges who declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional said Monday that the court was wrongly swayed by public criticism when it put the ruling on hold.</p> <p>Judge Stephen Reinhardt said the court caved in to public pressure.</p>

<p>A Dallas priest who professed his attraction for Hispanic men on an online homosexual pornographic chat room has left his parish after receiving what church officials called "threats against his life."</p> <p>The Rev. Clifford Garner, 36, "will not be coming back," Monsignor Lawrence Pichard, pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church announced at Masses last weekend, after the priest's comments on the Web site were reported by The Washington Times. "He will no longer be here at St. Pius again," Monsignor Pichard told parishioners, the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday. The monsignor said Father Garner had reported to the police two "threats against his life." However, the Dallas Police Department said he reported Thursday just one anonymous telephone call from a man who threatened "to beat him up." At around 9 p.m. EDT, the St. Pius X Web site (www.spxdallas.org) was cleansed of references to Father Garner as part of the parish. The site had earlier listed him among the parish priests, had provided a biography and had linked his e-mail address. However, an interactive question-and-answer section called "Ask an Expert by Fr. Cliff Garner" was still on the site last night. The threat against Father Garner came after newspaper reports of the priest's homosexual advocacy on the St. Sebastian's Angels Web site, which included pictures of nude men. In messages he posted to the site, Father Garner declared his desire for Hispanic men, including a youth pastor from Dallas with whom he shared a room at a Catholic retreat. The weekend before last, accompanied by Dallas Bishop Joseph Galante, Father Garner apologized to his parishioners for "inappropriate" remarks.</p>

Here is a short list of recent crime reporting as found in the Buffalo News: Deli owner, 85, injured as robbers strike again 7/2/2002 An elderly store owner who has stood up to knives and guns was hit by a bag of charcoal Monday, when he was robbed for at least the seventh time in approximately 18 months, according to Buffalo police. The 85-year-old owner of Kaminski's Deli, 1315 Broadway, told Ferry-Fillmore District officers that two men came into his store Monday afternoon, ostensibly to buy a bag of charcoal. But the bag was thrown at him, followed by a...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - A woman passenger allegedly tried to enter the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines jet in flight Monday but she was seized and turned over to local authorities for a mental evaluation, the FBI said.</p> <p>Sacramento-bound Flight 2060 turned around shortly after a 10:30 a.m. takoff from Los Angeles International Airport because a woman "began interfering with the flight crew," which is a federal violation, said Laura Bosley, an FBI spokeswoman.</p>

Christians Know Your Enemy You may have to log in as a guest if you don't have an MSN account. The information is not for the weak-hearted. But it's a good resource.

(WASHINGTON--JULY 1, 2002) Today, U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL), chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, made the following statement regarding consideration by the United Nations Security Council of options for renewing the mandate for peacekeeping operations in Bosnia: "I commend the Bush Administration for its dogged efforts in the United Nations Security Council to defend American sovereignty. No one should expect the United States to deploy its Armed Forces around the world on humanitarian missions on behalf of the United Nations if those forces are to be exposed to prosecution by a United Nations court whose jurisdiction...

<p>June 24, 2002 -- A Brooklyn woman and her 11-year-old granddaughter were killed when an out-of-control SUV jumped a curb and slammed into them as they sat in front of their building, police said yesterday.</p> <p>"It's like a nightmare. I left my kids and their grandmother and went to work, and I come home to find out they are dead," said a distraught Roslyn Patrick, 30.</p>

Animal 'Rights' Zealot: Christianity Harmful; Infanticide OK Marc Morano, CNSNews.com Tuesday, July 2, 2002 Princeton University professor Peter Singer, dubbed the "godfather" of animal rights, says Christianity is a "problem" for the animal rights movement. Singer, author of the book "Animal Liberation" and a professor of bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, criticized American Christianity for its fundamentalist strain that takes the Bible too "literally" and promotes "speciesism." He defined speciesism as the belief that being a member of a certain species "makes you superior to any other being that is not a member of that species." Baby...

With his plan for a new conglomerate federal agency dedicated to domestic defense, President Bush has reignited an old battle — with higher stakes than the predictable turf fights over the 22 agencies slated for new management. The president's proposal anticipates a wholly new personnel system for the new agency, instead of placing it under the same rules as the rest of the federal civil-service system. If the administration succeeds in elevating the need for domestic security over federal workers' desire for ironclad job security, Bush officials will have the authority to create a unique workforce of 170,000 accountable...

<p>BALTIMORE -- Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy on Monday testified that he was kept in the dark about the 1972 break-in he helped organize - even as he lay in wait that night with radio transmitters at the Watergate hotel.</p>

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Nobody invited Fred Clifford to the backyard party local Democrats threw for Sen. John Edwards last week in Manchester even though it was just four houses away. "Edwards is here?" Clifford, 52, said in astonishment. He was puttering around his porch in the working-class neighborhood, wearing a worn, faded T-shirt. With applause from the nearby event drifting through the air, Clifford offered his opinion even before the question was asked."I hope he runs for president."Clifford, a union activist with a bushy walrus mustache continued in his full Yankee accent: "He's got it all. He's got looks, plus...

VIENNA (Reuters Health) - US scientists said on Monday they have developed a biological "magnet" for healthy sperm that will allow them to weed out those that are genetically faulty before carrying out assisted reproduction. Professor Gabor Huszar from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said that intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)--which is used to overcome male infertility by injecting a single sperm directly into the egg--bypasses the evolutionary sperm selection process. "We do not know for sure what the risks are of allowing these genetically damaged sperm that would normally never fertilise the egg to cause a pregnancy," he told...