Free Republic

Nation: Oklahoma stages bioterrorism drill McALESTER, Okla. (April 13, 2002 8:58 p.m. EDT) - Feverishly shivering and coughing as if afflicted with pneumonic plague, more than 10,000 people received fake doses of medication from masked hospital workers Saturday in the second day of a three-day bioterrorism drill. People in this eastern Oklahoma town of 18,000 lined up at a Wal-Mart, health department office and convention center to get plastic packets of jelly beans labeled Cipro and doxycycline. Boy Scouts and other volunteers were taken by ambulance to the health center and whisked to a triage area or operating tables by...

There are some slick moves being made against our second amendment rights to own and bear firearms. It is a shame that dignified, law abiding citizens using guns appropriately for several generations have to be harassed by some socialist scatterbrain who is turning every crisis into another reason to take away their right to own firearms. I'll just give you the quick study. Governor Roy Barns, Georgia, tried to push through SB 385. This is a bill about bio-terror that in effect would allow the Governor to declare statewide emergency gun control measures if there is a public health emergency....

Smallpox Vaccine Is Here: Now What? Americans May Be Asked to Roll Up Their Sleeves By Daniel DeNoon WebMD Medical News March 28, 2002 -- Most Americans appear willing to roll up their sleeves to fight terrorism. But what if it means getting the smallpox vaccine? Smallpox is the most feared of all possible biological weapons. The chances of a smallpox attack are small. The impact of such an attack would be terrible almost beyond imagination. There's only one sure defense -- smallpox vaccination. If nearly all Americans got the vaccine, a smallpox attack would be pointless. There's just one...

Ninety miles from our southern border, one of the world's wealthiest men (worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine) lives like a king, while his subjects, the Cuban people, live in abject poverty, facing chronic shortages of even the most basic commodities such as food, medicine, clothing and housing, writes Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D., in his newly released book, "Cuba in Revolution – Escape From a Lost Paradise." (1)Fidel Castro, the longest-ruling Marxist dictator in history, runs an island prison without an exit, a brutal repressive police state where individual rights are non-existent. Cuba now has over 300 prisons...

Teaching Perseverance Through Adversity-A History Lesson by Lawrence F. Roberge M.S. Editors note: Mr. Roberge resides and teaches in Middletown, NY-60 miles from the World Trade Center Ground Zero. I recently had a discussion with a colleague that reminded me of a lesson in perspective. Under the present shadow of the September 11th terrorism as well as the discord aroused from the news of bioterrorism, I was wondering out loud whether our nation would have the resolve to handle this crisis. And then, a more senior colleague, reminded me (and chided me a little) of our nation's history at handling...

Victims Identified in fatal plane crash CASTLE ROCK - Denver car dealer Kent Rickenbaugh, his wife, Caroline, and their son Bart were killed Sunday in a plane crash near Centennial Airport. Pilot Dr. Steven Mostow also died. Kent Rickenbaugh, 64, owned two car dealerships in the Denver area. Caroline Rickenbaugh, 62, was known for her involvement in the community. Bart Rickenbaugh, 35, lived in Bozeman, Mont. Mostow, 63, was one of the country's leading infectious disease experts and was associate dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Mostow was a crusader for better health, an early advocate for...