Free Republic

I must be living in Lake Wobegon, that mythical Minnesota town that my fellow Anokaian Garrison Keillor created where all the children are above average.

Apple Macs have long had a reputation for being free of the viruses and malware that often plagues Windows. But even Apple is now admitting that its users could benefit from protection from security threats.

A few weeks ago, as I was walking across the campus of UNC-Wilmington, I heard an old familiar sound. A rap song was blaring from the general vicinity of the university amphitheater. I heard the n-word broadcast loudly (from over 100 yards away) so I decided to walk over to investigate the source of the racial epithet.

Would the invigorating winds of change blow through the halls of North Carolina's state government if a Republican -- specifically, Pat McCrory, for 14 years the mayor of Charlotte -- were elected governor? You betcha, says McCrory, vowing to dispel what he calls a culture of corruption that has afflicted the capital under Democratic rule.

A Florida Keys man punched a shark to save his dog from becoming a meal. The rat terrier named Jake, who was badly bitten, is expected to recover.

People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns. The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- American soldiers herded the detainees into holding pens of razor-sharp concertina wire, the kind that's used to corral livestock. The guards kicked, kneed and punched many of the men until they collapsed in pain. U.S. troops shackled and dragged other detainees to small isolation rooms, then hung them by their wrists from chains dangling from the wire mesh ceiling at the Bagram Air Base detention camp. Former guards and detainees whom McClatchy interviewed said Bagram was a center of systematic brutality for at least 20 months, starting in late 2001. Yet the soldiers responsible have escaped serious...