Free Republic

- The only thing that made me gasp this week was that the banks suddenly dumped $22 billion in bonds last week. Kinda weird, but things have been more weird, I think. Of course, the Treasury is still issuing debt with both hands, bringing us to almost $7.9 trillion. The interest on the national debt totaled $321.6 billion in 2004, which works out to an average of 4.1%, and it, and the total debt, will obviously be higher this year. - Nursing a killer hangover and flipping through the TV dial in my boredom, I ended up watching C-SPAN 2,...

©Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley Altar Egos The top 10 worst and wackiest Hollywood nuptials by Kat Giantis MSN Entertainment On the whole, the rich and famous suck at marriage, but they're masters at getting hitched (granted, some have had a lot of practice). Most celebrities take a liberal approach to nuptial spending, creating the illusion -- at least for a little while -- that happily ever after is possible. Take Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt . When they tied the knot, their million-dollar, ultra-private ceremony included 50,000 flowers, loads of brown sugar candles imported from...

Here's an MSN poll worthy of a good Freeping. "Are war protestors anti-American?" (And IMHO, for the most part, they definitely are.) Direct Link

Setting the Record Straight By Christopher Westland Those on the left insist they have the A.N.S.W.E.R. for all of us. But the veneer of their thought process has worn extremely thin, along with the patience of most rational minds. It's not an exaggeration to say that anti-Americanism has been the main marching tune of the modern left for decades. Almost uniformly, they insist that America, her competitive private corporations, and the capital system are evil. But the left has conveniently exempted the nationalized corporations of socialist states and third world dictators — the true monopolies of the world. Pretending...

Quarterly Forecast: Emerging From the Wreckage1730 GMT, 011001 Summary STRATFOR uses a net assessment methodology in building and maintaining forecasts. Through geopolitical analysis, we build a virtual model of the world: the net assessment. We then search daily for the anomalies that reinforce, modify or refute this model and the forecasts that emerge from it. In building the net assessment, we attempt to identify, weigh and factor in all pertinent economic, political, strategic, demographic and geographic variables. Terrorist attacks can be anticipated and factored in. But terrorist attacks of the magnitude the United States experienced Sept. 11 are like asteroid ...

"I have long warned you that the New Axis might start wars in Kosovo and other areas as diversions to pull US forces away from the Persian Gulf. Kosovo's Moslem guerrillas have been receiving weapons smuggled from Moslem Albania, and rumor says some guerrillas were trained in Iran. If Kosovo becomes the next big war, watch the Persian Gulf, and consider buying more oil." By Richard J. Maybury © 1999 by Henry Madison ResearchReprinted from the May 1996 issue of EARLY WARNING REPORT. Order Back Issues. From time to time I give you secrets Washington does not want you to ...

Just a notice, for your etification: Norton Antivirus just quarantined one of my emails coming in as: Date: 10/9/2001, Time: 12:30:14, default on G0DF801 The email attachment VALORES UNITARIOS 2.doc.pif is infected with the W32.Sircam.Worm@mm virus. The file was quarantined. I did NOT open it so I can't say what the message was, or whom it was from. I just deleted it and the attachment. Just watch the attachments. Mosquito bites are small, but given enough, they can bleed a person to death. The same is probably true of a nation. I'm simply not opening ANYTHING that's suspicious. That's especially ...

War on Terrorism - McCaffrey Foresees Longest Sustained Conflict Since Revolutionary War 10/8/01 - By Brandon Spunbspun@InsightMag.com “We will sing again,” proclaimed Sandy Forker, a host at the Conference on Comprehensive NeuroScience, just before welcoming guest speaker Gen. Barry McCaffrey. In his address to the audience of behavioral health-care specialists and consumers, the former White House drug czar insisted that Americans would need to muster courage for the war which began yesterday with the bombing of Taliban bases in Afghanistan. This war, he said, would be the longest battle since the Revolutionary War, which began in 1775 and ended in ...

This video grab shows Ayman al-Zawahiri, the ideologue behind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network now wanted for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The grab is taken from a video tape circulated in Kuwait in June 2001. Ayman Al-Zawahiri: attention turns to the other prime suspect By JIR contributor Ed BlancheOsama bin Laden is not the only target of George W Bush's war on global terrorism. The Saudi renegade's reputed deputy, Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, a lifelong Egyptian radical who many believe is the real brains behind the loose-knit network of Islamic militants, is ...

Just to keep it all in perspective: In our own ethnocentric spasm, we probably shouldn't allow ourselves to forget that Arabic culture has provided the West with significant scientific and cultural tools. Damascus steel, for one, which for nearly a mellinium was considered the best in the world. The word California for another. Then there's the system of Arabic numerals we take for granted, and sweet things like the cultivated orange. And through India, they brought us the concept of zero as a mathematical number, providing us with the decimal system of accounting. They even provided the Arabic alphabet I'm ...

Islam Introductory Note from Dan Burson: I have read the entire Koran, and the unexpurgated, uncensored, non-sanitized for children, Burton Translation of The Thousand And One Nights complete with Burton notes and The Terminal Essay, and 1001 Decorations by Valenti Angelo in a six volume set comprising 3,975 pages, (copyright 1934) and here is what I can solemnly attest: Islam has always been spread violently at the point of a sword. Each person is given the choice of confessing, "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." This is fact, and there is no apology made in ...

VIEW Multiculturalism and Islam:Liberal Fiction and Historical Truthby Srdja Trifkovic "Some say there is an inevitable clash between Western civilization and Western values, and Islamic civilizations and values. I believe this view is terribly wrong. False prophets may use and abuse any religion to justify whatever political objectives they have--even cold-blooded murder. Some may have the world believe that almighty God himself, the merciful, grants a license to kill. But that is not our understanding of Islam. . . . There are over 1,200 mosques and Islamic centers in the United States, and the number is rapidly increasing. The six ...

From the February 1999 Issue of Chronicles: VIEW Insurgent Islam and American Collaborationby James George Jatras The cultural schism between the Western and Eastern halves of European Christian civilization marked principally by their respective religious traditions, Roman Catholic and Protestant in the West and Orthodox in the East, may or may not prove fatal. One issue stands above all others in determining the outcome: the Islamic resurgence that has rapidly come to mark the post-Cold War era. For the East, which borders on the Muslim world, the problem continues to be, as it has been since Islam first appeared in ...

Who did it? Sep 14th 2001 From The Economist Global Agenda The prime suspect is Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire and bitter enemy of America, who is thought to be behind earlier attacks. But it may not be possible to prove this, or even be very certain of it Bin Laden denies it all AS SOON as the scale, ferocity and boldness of the attack on September 11th became clear, suspicion immediately fell on the FBI’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Linked to an earlier attack on the World Trade Centre, as well as the bombing of American ...

Education Intelligence Agency Public Education Research, Analysis and Investigations 2001 NEA State Affiliate Survey - Professional Staff State # Staffers Avg. Salary Avg. Salary + Benefits Avg. Time Off (Days) Salary Change from Previous Year Salary Change since 1991 Alabama 43 $57,541 $69,788 31 4.9% 47.3% Alaska 12 $90,253 $124,399 47 -3.1% 17.2% Arizona 23 $52,303 $66,185 36 -13.0% 7.3% Arkansas* 15 $59,548 $71,002 35 8.7% 51.3% California 179 $92,010 $135,434 37 3.5% 34.0% Colorado 13 $84,464 $115,225 37 -2.0% 57.7% Connecticut 30 $93,115 $131,697 43 0.7% 40.9% Delaware 9 $81,193 $104,150 38 -0.3% 53.6% Florida* 31 $68,721 $90,761 41 ...

Who's Teaching Your Kids About The Environment? By Michael Betsch CNSNews.com Editorial Assistant August 27, 2001 (CNSNews.com) - It's back-to-school time, and teachers nationwide are beginning to devise their lesson plans. But when it comes to teaching about the environment, there is no single approach in America's schools. And according to one forest industry official, teachers often have trouble separating truth (science) from fiction (propaganda). Teachers are confused by today's environmental curricula, said Robert F. Legg, president and CEO of the Temperate Forest Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes the "responsible consumption and production of natural resources." Teachers need ...

Attitude Adjustment A young park ranger learns what her college textbooks couldn't teach her. The author's first job was at Grand Canyon National Park. After working for the feds for many years, her ?wacko? environmental opinions changed. By Cathy Osborn Edger Back in my 1970s college days I was well on my way to becoming an environmental wacko. I was a recreation major, parks and resources emphasis. I fretted over the impending air-pollution-induced ice age my textbooks warned about. I was disgusted with the volume of paper napkins that I saw go into the trash each day at the ...

Published Friday, August 31, 2001 Water shut off to lower land prices, suit claimsBy Jeff BarnardASSOCIATED PRESS GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- A 72-year-old widow who inherited her father's Klamath Basin homestead is suing environmental and commercial fishing groups, claiming they conspired to shut off water to farmers to buy their land for public open space. The class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Siskiyou County Superior Court in Yreka on behalf of Georgette Kirby of Tulelake, who owns 80 acres homesteaded by her father, and by California farmers served by the Tule Lake Irrigation District. It seeks unspecified damages. The lawsuit ...

  NAHB: Endangered Species Settlement Marks No Progress  U.S. Newswire 29 Aug 18:11 Settlement Agreement On Endangered Species Marks No New Progress On ESA Reform, Says NAHB To: National Desk Contact: Neil Gaffney of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), 202-266-8495 WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A newly announced settlement agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and environmental groups prematurely ends a year-long moratorium on new endangered species listings without any progress being made to improve the Endangered Species Act and the way it is administered, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said today. ...

Klamath water dispute: Suckers vs. people or alfalfa vs. people?By Larry Shumaker - Sat, Sep 1, 2001 Depending on the crop, of course, if you were to pick a locale in which to start farming, what would be some of your primary considerations: Water? Climate? A mild winter with a long growing season? While not everyone gets to pick the ideal geography when they set up a farm, it seems unlikely to me that an "A" list would include a high-desert area ... with a short summer. That, however, describes the northeast corner of California and neighboring southeast Oregon, an ...