Free Republic

Col. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia was one of the signers of that Declaration of Independence, which we remember as our nation's birth certificate, 226 years ago. Col. Harrison was also the father of one president of the United States: Gen. William Henry Harrison – as well as being great grandfather of another president, his namesake Benjamin Harrison. That every one of the 56 Founding Fathers risked his life in standing for our treasured independence is seen not only in Benjamin Franklin's classic: "We had better hang together, or we will hang separately," but also in a plaque I found in...

You've scoped out the best fireworks in town and figured out how to beat the rush to the prime viewing spot. Maybe you've planned a picnic lunch complete with everyone's favorite foods and treats. But have you taken time to reflect on the meaning of the Fourth of July? Freedom. It's all in honor of liberty. That's the reason for our celebrating, and it's a principle we must exalt like never before on this first Independence Day since the tragic events of Sept. 11. Take a minute to reflect on the many liberties you may assume will always be. The...

Join us on Radio Free Republic tonight at 9 PM Eastern for "On Target". Tonight my guest will be Mr. Gregory Knapp of Fully Informed Jury Association. FIJA is working to let people know what their rights are under the Constitution and working to force the courts to inform jurors of their full rights and responsibilities.

Terrorists ambushed a night patrol party of army at Dodaj in Darhal area of Rajouri district last night killing an army jawan and wounding two others including a Naib Subedar. Meanwhile, in another incident, police today recovered Rs 58,000 Indian currency from an agent of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). An army patrol which was heading towards a naka point in Dodaj under Darhal police station’s jurisdiction at 2100 hours last night was fired upon by a group of terrorists from atop a hill. Army personnel retaliated. Exchange of firing between the terrorists and army jawans continued for about 20 minutes....

In 1998 South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission held hearings investigating activities of the apartheid-era government. Toward the end of the hearings, the Commission looked into the apartheid regime's Chemical and Biological Warfare (CBW) program and allegations that it developed a sterility vaccine to use on black South Africans, employed toxic and chemical poison weapons for political asssassination, and in the late 1970s provided anthrax and cholera to Rhodesian troops for use against guerrilla rebels in their war to overthrow Rhodesia's white minority rule. South Africa's CBW program was headed by Dr. Wouter Basson, a former Special Forces Army Brigadier...

My commentary on June 22, 2002, proposing that Palestinian parents who aid and abet their children in becoming mass murderers be held responsible for their complicity in these crimes, drew more e-mail than any of my previous columns in WND. Most thought it was a great idea, but doubted that it would be implemented. One wrote: People who cause their children to be suicide bombers are like those who in times past made their children "pass through the fire" or given to be sacrificed to Molech, the god of the Ammonites. Leviticus specifies that the people who do such things...

<p>NEW YORK -- The AIDS epidemic is not close to reaching its peak, the United Nations says in a devastating report released Tuesday.</p> <p>The epidemic has reached proportions once considered impossible in the world's most affected countries and is spreading at alarming rates elsewhere. The crisis "now outstrips even the worst-case scenarios" projected by epidemiologists tracking the deadliest disease in human history, the report says.</p>

All those who disagree with American support of Israel – the Arab world and its supporters in America such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the left and the State Department (privately, if not publicly) – explain American support of Israel by attributing it to the "pro-Israel lobby" and its alleged power over Congress. This is a thought-through charge that has both explicit and implicit meanings. Explicitly, it means that were it not for the power of a special interest group, the "pro-Israel lobby," America would not support Israel. Therefore, this lobby – and by implication the pro-Israel position itself...

Those watching Wimbledon tennis on NBC were just treated to a commercial for Hewlett Packard digital cameras/computers. It shows a guy doing his grocery shopping, using a set of digital photos his wife had prepared by taking photos of food items in the home and comparing them to items in the store. The tag line is something like: "a shopping list even a guy can't mess up."

When I had my first homosexual encounter and "came out" as a freshman in college in 1981, homosexuality still had a stigma about it. Coming out was not the "in" thing to do. Americans, for the most part, believed that there was something wrong with homosexuality, as did the American Psychiatric Association. Our homosexual activity was kept in the bedroom and out of society's face – until, of course, HIV and AIDS brought our "alternative" lifestyle to the forefront of America. This is when everything began to change. Homosexuals, once viewed as the "victimizers," were now the helpless "victims." Gay...

JDL leader faces fraud charges for trying to sell ‘Hitler suicide gun’ By Henry Benjamin SYDNEY, Australia, July 1 (JTA) — The head of the militant Jewish Defense League in Australia has been accused of fraud for his attempts to sell the pistol Hitler purportedly used to kill himself. Ze’ev Korwan, 51, faces a September court date on 139 counts of fraud. Korwan, who was charged under his real name of Michael O’Hara, allegedly forged documents using ink produced in Germany in 1936 in an effort to authenticate Hitler’s gun as well as a second gun owned by Geli Raubal,...

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[Excerpt] Florida International University vowed Sunday to go forward with a controversial talk by the exiled Caracas businessman who seized power from Hugo Chávez in April -- despite protests from Venezuelans. Pedro Carmona Estanga is scheduled to be the featured guest Wednesday at the Security Roundtable sponsored by FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center. The roundtable is a discreet organization of about 100 academics, journalists, diplomats and business people, hosted alternatively by the center known as LACC, the University of Miami's North-South Center and the Pentagon's Southern Command. But this weekend, roundtable members thought to be on a private e-mail...

[Jerusalem, IL]  - The Israeli army has released a sonogram discovered in a family photo album while searching the house of a wanted Palestinian militant in the West Bank city of Hebron.    It shows a fetus, which appears to be in the third trimester, wearing an explosives belt with wires attached and a headband similar to those worn by Palestinian militants. The fetus also appeared to be using a cell phone.    Family members insisted the sonogram was only a joke and was taken during a recent baby shower where "everyone was having a rollicking good time and dancing and stuff."...

Mine owners on the run after blast cover-up By John Schauble,Herald Correspondent in BeijingJuly 3 2002 In one of the more bizarre incidents in China's sorry history of mining catastrophes, police are searching for the operators of a goldmine who hid the bodies of 37 miners killed in an explosion. The owners of the privately run mine claimed the blast 10 days ago in Shaanxi province took the lives of just two people. But at least 40 miners were working underground at the time of the explosion, triggered when a fire ignited 3.6 tonnes of explosives. Wang Quanquan and Yin...

<p>The defeat of a black House Democrat who opposed pro-Israel resolutions has sent shock waves through the party and raised concerns about a widening rift between blacks and Jews.</p> <p>"It's going to have other implications in other races," says Rep. Earl F. Hilliard, Alabama Democrat, whose opponent raised more than $300,000 from Jewish donors outside the state. "I just don't think that the black community is going to sit still and let it happen."</p>

Before President Ronald Reagan told Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down that wall," his own State Department lobbied heavily with him to remove the daring, provocative and bold remark from his speech. He was told it was inflammatory. He was cautioned that it was undiplomatic. He was warned it would backfire. Instead, it led directly to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet communism. President Bush should think about that. He needs to take what his own State Department tells him with a grain of salt. He needs to measure what it says, particularly with regard to...

After weeks of deadlock, the American Congress has finally agreed an increase in the public-debt ceiling, thus enabling the government to carry on functioning. But the argument has highlighted the way in which the budget surpluses have evaporated IN THE end, Congress blinked first. After a deadlock with threatened to extend well into July, America's House of Representatives finally agreed, on June 27th, to go along with the Senate in approving an increase in the public-debt ceiling, the limit on how much the government can borrow to stay in business. As the row dragged on, the government had come close...

<p>SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Nine months after casting the lone vote against authorizing President Bush to use force against terrorists, Rep. Barbara Lee is drawing praise from peace activists and disdain from critics.</p> <p>In the March Democratic primary, she received 85 percent of the vote. Her Republican opponent trying to block her bid for a third term to represent the Oakland-Berkeley area says he is lagging in his attempt to raise money.</p>

12 helpful hints for the newly democratic By Yoel Marcus Below, Mr. Chairman, is a list of 12 hints to get you started on the reforms that will turn the Palestinian Authority into the democracy founded on tolerance and liberty that President Bush is calling for: 1. Instead of trimming government ministers, as you've done, you should double and triple the number. Appoint ministers, deputy ministers, committee chairmen and so on. Give them fat salaries, fancy cars and plane tickets to foreign countries. Make sure that approximately half the parliamentarians are officeholders. This will insure that those with vested interests...