Free Republic

Tech workers asked to instruct their overseas replacements SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 10 — Scott Kirwin clung to his job at a large investment bank through several rounds of layoffs last year. Friends marveled at the computer programmer´s ability to dodge pink slips during the worst technology downturn in a decade. But it was tough for Kirwin, 36, to relish his final assignment: training a group of programmers from India who would replace him within a year.        “THEY CALLED IT 'knowledge acquisition,”´ the Wilmington, Del., resident said. “We got paid our normal salaries to train people to do our jobs....

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, one of the nation's most popular radio talk-show hosts and the most successful on-air counselor, is no longer practicing the rituals of Judaism – a religion she converted to a decade ago in her 40s. ''Almost 10 years ago, I talked on the air about becoming a convert to Judaism,'' she told her listeners last week. ''I was open on the air at that time about that evolution. Well, I would say within the last year I have had a de-evolution.'' Where is she now spiritually? ''Nowhere exactly,'' she chuckled. ''Suspended animation. I still see myself as...

The deadliest weapon in the world today is not a nuclear bomb or an infectious agent, but a machine gun. Small arms kill half a million people a year, picking off American soldiers in Iraq, turning Liberian thugs into powerful warlords and allowing 12-year-olds in eastern Congo to terrorize their neighbors. The ease of obtaining AK-47's helps turn grievances into wars. Controlling small arms is complex. Guns are easily concealed, trading and retrading in a quasi-legal netherworld. ... THIS IS AN EXCERPT

Ginsburg: America Is Not Enough August 5, 2003 My friends, I have something shocking to discuss with you and I'm not just pulling that word out of the air for dramatic effect - I genuinely mean this. The Associated Press reported the following over the weekend: “The Supreme Court is looking beyond America's borders for guidance in handling cases on issues like the death penalty and gay rights, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Saturday. The justices referred to the findings of foreign courts this summer in their own ruling that states may not punish gay couples for having sex. And...

The New York Times has announced a new liberal executive editor, Bill Keller, and a report on the Jayson Blair scandal, and they both seek to perpetuate and expand the liberal diversity program that contributed to the plagiarism and fakery scandal in the first place. But this fact has been obscured by news that the paper intends to implement various reforms and appoint an ombudsman or "public editor."

California taxpayers are celebrating a silver anniversary, as 2003 is the 25th year since the enactment of California's Proposition 13, whose landmark victory in 1978 sparked a national tax revolt. It passed in a landslide vote, with some 65 percent of Californians favoring the measure. The proposition slashed property taxes by limiting property-tax rates to 1 percent of the sales price of a home, and it limited subsequent increases to 2 percent per year -- a radical concept at the time. Previously, tax rates were based on a valuation established by a county assessor. Moreover, voracious local politicians determined the...

WASHINGTON – A major hotel chain that will not make top-rated Fox News Channel available to guests has a record of individual campaign contributions heavily favoring Democrats. Federal Election Commission records reviewed by NewsMax.com show that among those officials who list Starwood or a Starwood hotel property as their workplace favored Democrats by better than 3 to 1 over Republicans for the 1999-2000 election cycle. Starwood's hotels include Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, Luxury Connection, Four Points and, ironically, W.

Regardless of how bad a regime North Korea has, its demands of the United States are reasonable. They are four: one-on-one talks, a nonaggression treaty, economic aid and normal diplomatic relations. The Bush administration's obstinate refusal to consider these could prove to be one of the deadliest blunders in the history of stupid diplomacy.

WASHINGTON, July 29 — Despite renewed warnings about possible airline hijackings, the Transportation Security Administration has alerted federal air marshals that as of Friday they will no longer be covering cross-country or international flights, MSNBC.com has learned. The decision to drop coverage on flights that many experts consider to be at the highest risk of attack apparently stems from a policy decision to rework schedules so that air marshals don’t have to incur the expense of staying overnight in hotels.

Just three years ago, Congress voted to allow more foreign workers into the United States. Times have changed. Politicians are proposing tough — opponents say misguided — steps to keep jobs at home in the face of rising unemployment, a growing number of white-collar jobs being transferred to India and other countries and lingering anger over some U.S. allies' opposition to the war in Iraq. The House has passed measures to require the Defense and State departments to buy a larger share of equipment from U.S. firms. The measure, which has provoked a corporate and political uproar, has not been...

ost of the earth's surface is covered by oceans, and their vastness and biological bounty were long thought to be immune to human influence. But no more. Scientists and marine experts say decades of industrial-scale assaults are taking a heavy toll. More than 70 percent of commercial fish stocks are now considered fully exploited, overfished or collapsed. Sea birds and mammals are endangered. And a growing number of marine species are reaching the precariously low levels where extinction is considered a real possibility. "It's an incipient disaster," said Richard Ellis, author of "The Empty Ocean." A rush of recent studies,...

By Ron VanNostrand Just after the tragic events of 9/11, my son asked me if this was the beginning of World War III. I assured him that the perpetrators of that tragedy were a small group of angry people. I told him that before a world war began, there would be many alliances formed and great powers would divide into opposite sides, each brandishing their own weapons of mass destruction. With the daily headlines reporting little but doom and gloom, I may have been wrong in my assessment. Recently, at a breakfast table discussion, my spouse and I discussed this...

Today on the Michael Medved Radio Show, actor Eric Roberts told listeners that it is the Republicans who are responsible for the July 16th deaths on ten people when 87-year old driver Russell Weller plowed through a Santa Monica, California farmer’s market.

The threat of scrapes and bruises, not to mention sunburn, didn't stop the fledgling North American Nude Bikers club from holding its first rally this weekend. Events at the Rock Haven Lodge Family Nudist Park in southeast Rutherford County included a barbecue, live music, bike games and a poker run -- where bikers vie for the best hand by drawing cards at stops along the way. They don't actually ride naked. Mostly. "You've got to be real careful or you're liable to get something burnt or hurt," club Vice President Allen "Anchor" Turner said. Turner, 46, came up with the...

<p>The "new" anti-Semitism is as virulent as ever, but it's often easy for Americans — Christian and Jew alike — not to notice.</p> <p>Christians and Jews get along here. Evangelical Christians have become some of the best friends Jews have, and, for their part, most Jews are not as suspicious of Evangelical motives as they once were. Since the anti-Semites abroad regard America as the great Satan and Israel the little Satan, we all feel equal-opportunity hate.</p>

Nuclear Breakout larming as they are, the nuclear bomb making programs of North Korea and Iran are part of a much bigger problem. The international controls that contained the spread of nuclear weapons for decades are crumbling. Major repairs are needed, and the Bush administration, preoccupied with Iraq and wrongly viewing the nuclear challenge as limited to a few rogue states, is not pressing hard enough for them.The first warning signal came from Iraq in the early 1990's. In a nearly successful end run around the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iraq used a legal civilian nuclear energy program as a decoy...

Nine months after Sen. Paul Wellstone's fatal plane crash, some DFLers are outraged by what they consider disrespectful bumper sticker messages printed in Wellstone's green and white. One spotted on a car parked near the State Capitol reads: "It's time to park the bus," a reference to Wellstone's campaign vehicle. Another spotted around town said, "He's dead, get over it."

Chief Wiggle's, a 30+ year veteran of the guard, is furious at the reports from Amnesty International and the Red Cross. He has decided to set them straight, and this is a guy in the know considering he is a Chief Interrogator for the US Army! A quote from what he says: "This is a prisoner of war camp, now transitioning over to being a prison. If you were to look at a list of why these men are being detained you would see that most of them are here because they have either committed some violent crime or have...

BRUNSWICK -- If there's one thing an armed pilot cannot do, it is allow a terrorist to take the gun away. That's why 12 pairs of sweaty airline pilots punched, grabbed and pulled at each other at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center here Wednesday. They were learning how to ward off an attacker trying to get their pistols. The pilots are part of the latest group of 44 training for federal approval to carry guns in the cockpit to deter terrorist attacks -- and defend their planes and passengers if one occurs.

It's Birdwatching time again in Bethlehem, PA. Philadelphia Eagles rookies and selected veterans will report to training camp at Lehigh University Friday and hit the practice fields Saturday and Sunday for workouts at 10:30 a.m. and 3:05 p.m. each day, according to a schedule released by the team Monday. The remainder of the Eagles will arrive in camp next Monday and the entire preseason roster will begin two-a-day workouts on July 30. Those practices, which are open to the public, are scheduled for 8:45 a.m. and 2:15 or 2:45 p.m. each day the Eagles are at Lehigh University and not...