Free Republic

<p>The famously drug-free Mormons, who have long abstained from tea and coffee, instead used to drink a beverage made from a desert plant called ephedra. The National Football League is determined not to let its players — who make a living by slamming into each other and getting knocked to the ground — behave so recklessly.</p>

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jul 02, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A number of Saudi businessmen have completed the final touches to launch the first Arab satellite television station to address the West and which will broadcast from London, according to a Saudi newspaper on Tuesday. Prince Mansour bin Nasser bin Abdel Aziz told the Al-Watan newspaper that the cost of the Arab TV channel, which will broadcast from London on Echostar or Direct TV satellites, reached 600 million Saudi Riyals ($160 million) raised from some charity institutions and world banks. Prince Mansour said the channel will help...

http://listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0206&L=justwatch-l&D=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=41500 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - TO ALL MEDIA AGENTS Subject: To mark the birth of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a former UNITED STATES Marine announces his intent to seek legal representation in order to charge the U.S with War Crimes for Human Experiments during the Gulf War (details below) and Crimes Against Humanity for its use of Depleted Uranium (DU) with absolute knowledge that its use would cause massive birth deformities and death from radiation exposure. Kenneth Nichols is currently seeking political asylum in Holland and will additionally Serve Legal Notice to the U.S. officials of his human right...

I just returned from a trip to Boston. We saw Paul Revere heroically mounted upon his horse. We saw Faneuil Hall, cradle of liberty, meticulously restored and still in use as a town meeting place. We visited Lexington and Concord and saw the monument erected to honor the shot heard 'round the world: the first brave resistance to the British tyranny of our long-dead forefathers. These monuments are no different than many others Americans erected during our first hundred years. Do you notice what they have in common? They commemorate not our losses but our victories. For most of our...

ANKARA, Turkey -- "The main obstacle to democracy is not Islam, but Kemalism," says Atilla Yayla, the unassuming head of Turkey's Association for Liberal Thinking. Turkey is a critically important country, but also an amazingly complicated and frustrating one. And while it has done better than most other Muslim countries in mixing Islam and secularism, as a democracy it remains a works in progress. Turkey today is suffering political instability, with the illness of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. It is still recovering from the economic crisis of the last two years. And it is at a geopolitical epicenter: eastern Mediterranean,...

Arab World Lags Behind in Human Development, U.N. Report Says CAIRO, Egypt July 2 — The entire Arab world is suffering deficits in three critical areas: freedom, women's empowerment and knowledge, according to a U.N.-commissioned report released Tuesday. "Out of the seven regions of the world, Arab countries had the lowest freedom score in the late 1990s," according to the first Arab Human Development Report."The Arab region has the lowest value of all regions of the world for voice of accountability," particularly in regard to political processes, civil liberties, political rights and media independence.The world's seven regions are Sub-Saharan Africa,...

As I like to remind folks around this time of the year, in 1776, at the founding of America, there was a Holy Roman Empire, Venice was a republic, France was ruled by a king, China by an emperor, Russia by an empress, Great Britain was a constitutional monarchy and Japan was ruled by a shogun. All of those governments have passed into the pages of history. The only constitutional republic to retain its democratic form of government is that little union of 13 states founded on the northeast shore of the New World by courageous and farsighted men and...

It seems self-evident that no individual should be allowed to own a law that all of us must obey. Laws and regulations are adopted, we hope, through the process of self-government, and citizens must enjoy the right to copy and restate the laws. Over the past several decades, some private organizations have quietly assumed ownership over certain legal requirements, ranging from building safety codes to medical billing terminology. Their trick (some might call it a scam) has been to give drafts of regulations and codes to the government without charge, induce the government to require their use, and then make...

Yesterday, congressional Republicans were publicly beseeching Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts, the party's most prominent black elected official, to withdraw his retirement announcement. But behind the scenes, says one Washington wag, the GOP leadership is not all that unhappy to see him go. "He was a funny guy to deal with," said Fox News Channel's Fred Barnes, while discussing Watts' retirement with anchorman Brit Hume. "The other leaders didn't get along with him. He did not work effectively in the leadership." In fact, said Barnes, Watts had developed a reputation as a pain in the neck. "[He was] always disgruntled,...

Women on campus and everywhere should put away their razors and reclaim their body hair this summer. The woman who chooses to give up shaving doesn't just save herself some time, money and skin irritation, she can discover the sense of personal acceptance, freedom and natural beauty that her body hair can bring. Women are compelled to shave more in the summer as their legs, armpits and bikini lines become more regularly exposed. Women don their shorts, skirts, tank tops and swimming suits and try their best to sustain a standard of hairlessness that is inextricably tied to American society's...

Shenzhou-4 May Rocket Into Space In September by Wei Long, Beijing - Jul 01, 2002 The next test flight of China's Shenzhou manned spacecraft may occur as soon as this September, according to various pieces of information that the Chinese media has reported since April. On May 20 Beijing Entertainment News said in a brief report that the microsats in the project dubbed "OlympiadSat" would be launched piggyback along with Shenzhou-4 (SZ-4, Shenzhou means "Magic Vessel" or "Divine Vessel"). A month earlier on April 19, the weekly aerospace publication China Space News reported that the "OlympiadSat" microsats would be...

<p>BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Yugoslavia has plunged into the worst political crisis since the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic nearly two years ago, which threatens to bring some of his former associates back into active political life.</p> <p>The prospect of delaying much-needed reforms and hampering cooperation with The Hague war-crimes tribunal, where Mr. Milosevic is on trial, is a result of a bitter power struggle between the country's top politicians, who joined efforts against the former president in 2000, local officials and foreign diplomats say.</p>

<p>Thirty-five years after federal engineers descended into the canyons near the Gold Country town of Auburn and drained all the water from a scenic stretch of the American River to construct a 700-foot-tall dam, an astounding moment in dam-building history is about to occur.</p>

<p>MOSCOW — New criminal and administrative law codes went into effect in Russia yesterday, introducing new protections for defendants and restrictions on law enforcement officials.</p> <p>The new codes are a key component of Russia's post-Soviet legal reform, which was delayed for more than a decade by political infighting and foot-dragging by prosecutors and others who stand to lose much of their previous domination of judicial processes.</p>

Why we can't trust Microsoft's 'trustworthy' OSTue Jul 2,11:58 AM ETDavid Coursey COMMENTARY--Stung by criticism of its current offerings, Microsoft seems to be pinning its hopes for a truly "trustworthy" operating system on a future version of Windows, code-named Palladium. ? BizTech Library ? 2GHz Notebooks ? Wireless ISP Info ? Bluetooth Report  Sign up for the free ZDNet News Dispatch:     (CNET Networks Privacy Policy) Don't expect to see that OS anytime soon. Palladium is a long-term project that requires not only a new operating system, but new computers as well. How long Microsoft won't say. I'm thinking 2006 or later....

     Regulating e-mails Top Stories • Security stepped up for Fourth festivities• U.S. threatens to kill peace missions• Bush celebrates voucher win• Rift between blacks, Jews cited in election• 95 killed as planes collide in midair• China deploys drones from Israel• U.S. to boost North surveillance• Northrop to buy TRWto create defense giant      Sen. John McCain and other congressional backers of the new campaign finance law demanded that the Federal Election Commission regulate e-mails as well as Internet advertising, according to FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith.      Mr. Smith, interviewed last week by Tony Snow on the Fox News Channel's "Special Report," said the commission resisted the Arizona Republican's demands because...

<p>"OK, Charlie, I'll ask you, because you're one of them."</p> <p>For the record, Mr. Rangel is 72. Mr. Dreier turns 50 on Friday.</p> <p>Learning from Lyndon?</p> <p>We'd written yesterday that former Clinton strategists James Carville and Paul Begala had issued a strategy memo last year encouraging Democrats to call President Bush unflattering names — or so conservative pundit Ann Coulter charges in her new book, "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right."</p>

I was wandering through my local supermarket the other monrning when I noticed a young woman checking the dates on some bread. In the seat of her shopping cart was her young son, who I reckoned to be about 5 and whose name I quickly learned was Brian. There is a reason I have not forgotten his name. It seems young Brian had become bored and was demanding that his mother take him back to the toy aisle. I only know this because Brian started screaming the word "Toyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," the way a World Cup announcer might call a game-winning...

Independence Day 2002 comes with the threat of terrorism, but there is another threat that many Americans still have not fully comprehended. They would do well to consider the way their nation is being transformed by a virtual torrent of illegal aliens from Mexico. The issue is not that they are Mexicans, but the sheer volume of their numbers. America has become a nation that cannot maintain its borders, nor manage immigration that is three times higher than the next highest receiving nation. In the first six months of this year, the US Border Patrol apprehended 176,655 illegal aliens...

As Americans gather for Fourth of July festivities, you can bet the barbecues will be satisfying hungry people, as will picnics, lunches and dinners, as Americans come together as family and friends to celebrate. As a result, some, if not most, will pack away a lot of food. Here's the bad news. You're fat. You have been eating all those good things that are available to Americans: soft drinks, snack foods, not to mention an abundance of steaks, chops, chicken, pork and fish. You have some nerve eating well. And you have packed on those pounds. Some, not me,...