Free Republic

There comes every few years a phrase that perfectly captures a cultural moment. "Irrational exuberance" was Alan Greenspan's way of telling investors to tread lightly. The CIA liked "plausible deniability" in the 1960s. The one I have seen recently, and really has struck a chord, is "pathological individualism." It is without question that the conditions in early America, particularly during westward expansion, called for a type of person who was self-reliant, determined and able to shape his environment by sheer force of will. This became a uniquely American archetype in movies, portrayed by the likes of John Wayne or Gary...

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- Harry Gallatin, the Hall of Fame basketball player who was a seven-time All-Star forward for the New York Knicks in the 1950s, died Wednesday. He was 88. The Knicks and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, where Gallatin was a former coach and athletic director, confirmed the death through Gallatin's family. He died in Edwardsville.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The city's subway riders can handle panhandlers, rats and tuneless street musicians. But eating spaghetti in a crowded subway car? Well, that's just going too far. An Internet video that shows New Yorkers brawling over a passenger's right to nosh noodles on the subway has ignited a debate about what people should and shouldn't do in the nation's largest mass transit system.

LONDON: Heathrow Airport's terminal 3 was closed Sunday night after a "suspect package" was found, airport authorities said. Airport operator BAA said in a statement that police were on the scene and "are working with airport staff to get the terminal reopened as soon as possible." Further details were not immediately available.

APEX (AP) ? A man who kept 77 sheep in his downtown Apex home was charged Wednesday with 30 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. David Watts, 47, was being held at the Wake County jail in lieu of $30,000 bond and was to appear in court Wednesday afternoon, Apex Police Detective Joey Best said. Watts surrendered the flock to animal control officers Monday after police found some sheep grazing in the town cemetery. Watts kept some of the younger sheep on the ground floor of his suburban Raleigh house and kept the others in pens in the yard. In an...

"AFP) Bestiality, or sex with animals, is a growing problem in Sweden and in many cases the animals suffer physical injury, according to the country's first government-commissioned study on the issue presented on Friday. Horses are the species most often abused, the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency said in its report, which it handed to the government. A total of 209 cases of bestiality, of which 161 involved horses, have been documented since the 1970s, the agency said. It based its figures on responses to more than 1,600 questionnaires sent to veterinarians, animal welfare inspectors and police agencies across the country....

Kidnap, rape and animal sex porn trial starts 10 January 2005AMSTERDAM —The trial of two Belgian brothers, and three other people accused of kidnapping, raping and forcing women to have sex with animals for pornographic videos has opened in the Dutch city of Lelystad.Two Belgians and a Dutchman — were arrested in April last year on accusations they forced three kidnapped female asylum seekers to have sex with men and animals in a farm shed in the Dutch village of Kraggenburg. The trial opened on Monday.Both Belgian men claim they were pressured by the other to participate in the offences,...

RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT Memo to all of you who have braved this winter's bitter cold, piles of snow, and bad roads to train for the Boston Marathon: All you needed to do to qualify for this year's Boston run was be able to deliver the South Side of Des Moines come presidential-caucus time for our very own Senator John Kerry . The March 17 issue of US News & World Report describes a phone conversation between Kerry and Des Moines state Senator Matt McCoy , who just prior to their conversation had completed the San Diego Marathon. The mag quotes...