Free Republic

The IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai attributes the successful action to good intelligence information and the quick actions of soldiers. B’chasdei Hashem a major border incursion and terror attack was thwarted along Israel border to Sinai. The terrorists infiltrated an Egyptian military base on Sunday night, the eve of 18 Menachem Av 5772 at 20:00 and killed at least 15 Egyptian policemen in their armed assault. They made off with armored vehicles, weapons and ammunitions and then headed for the Israeli border – where they planned a major attack against Israeli troops. Mordechai told Israel Radio “we were not taken...

Government Offensive Escalates For the second time in a month, evidence has surfaced about a case of neonatal herpes that shatters a myth about metzitzah b’peh (mbp) that the New York City Department of Health (DOH) is bent on propagating. The DOH wants to prohibit mohalim from performing the practice during circumcision, claiming it can lead to death or brain damage in newborns by spreading herpes infection (HSV-1). No direct evidence in the medical literature supports this allegation. In addition, it flies in the face of clear evidence of an impressive record of safety over thousands of years of practice....

An 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that sweepingly denied Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin’s appeal has shocked tens of thousands of people monitoring the case, including many in the legal community. The court denied the request for a new trial, for a review of the case by an unbiased judge, and for a commutation of the draconian 27-year sentence. It opposed the motion for additional discovery and the request for an evidentiary hearing. The decision rejected the money laundering arguments that would have deducted 15 years from Sholom Mordechai’s sentence, and the points that invalidated the sentencing calculations. It validated all...

Chief District Judge Linda Reade both coordinated with prosecutors and acted as judge in the contentious conviction of Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse operator Sholom Rubashkin, according to internal federal documents and court filings obtained by this reporter. According to the documents, Judge Reade personally participated in many aspects of the raid and prosecution “game plan” nearly from its planning inception in October, 2007 some six months before the raid and long before the ultimate trial of Rubashkin before her. Her continuous week-to-week involvement in the organization of the raid and ultimate prosecution was not disclosed to defense counsel or a House...

Virginia Tech University Prof. Liviu Librescu, described as a family man who once did research for NASA, sacrificed his life to save his students in the shooting rampage yesterday. "When he heard the gunfire, he blocked the entrance and got shot through the door," his daughter-in-law Ayala Schmulevich said. "He realized he had to save the students," she said. "That was the kind of man he was." The hero educator was beginning a class on solid mechanics when all hell broke loose on the second floor of Norris Hall. First came the terrifying gunshots from a classroom next door. "It...

Ammunition for how you can defend Israel. It happens every time. Israel is forced into a defensive war, and winds up defending itself against canards of aggression and excessive force. Around the water cooler and on talk radio, Israel's supporters are put on the spot: Why are so many Lebanese civilians being killed? Why the destruction of so much infrastructure? Can't Israel show some restraint?At times like this, every Jew becomes an ambassador for Israel. Even if you don't agree with everything Israel does, we must defend Israel's right to self-defense.So let's sort out fact from fiction -- for the...

The thing that most impressed Capt. Yisrael Friedler, commander of A Company in the Golani Brigade's Battalion 51, during the bloody battle in Bint Jbail on Wednesday, was the way the junior commanders conducted themselves after their officers had been hit by Hizbullah gunfire. "The moment their officers went down," he told The Jerusalem Post Thursday, "the sergeants took their radios and began reporting in and managing the battle, while at the same time taking charge of evacuating the wounded. It was the height of professionalism," he said. The firefight began early in the morning when two companies, A and...

The small group of Ghanaian soldiers manning UNIFIL Position 6-52, to the west of the village of Maroun a-Ras, less than a kilometer from the border, hasn't left its base in the last two weeks. "Those are the orders of our superior officers," explains one of them who presents himself as commander of the post, but refuses to give his name. "We have been visited by our officers three times since the fighting began and a supply truck arrives here every three or four days." On the wall nearest to the gate of the white-washed building is an "Alert State"...

Thousands of Internet phone users who have not yet acknowledged limitations to their providers' 911 service will get an extra month before their service is cut off. On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission said it would extend the deadline another 30 days, to Sept. 28, 2005, for voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to notify all their customers of the limitations of E911 service and for customers to acknowledge the notification. The FCC was set to begin enforcing its requirement starting next week that Net phone services connected to the public telephone network--known as "interconnected" services--receive acknowledgment from 100 percent...

http://www.aish.com/spirituality/odysseys/Carrots_Dont_Cry.asp Carrots Don't Cry by Rachel Ginsberg Doctors said that Marsi Tabak would remain in a persistent vegetative state for the rest of her life. With tireless dedication and a warehouse of faith, her husband proved them wrong. "True redemption is the freedom from preconceived notions and breaking out of the bonds of hopelessness, knowing that the Almighty is with you and making miracles for you all the time," says Dr. Yacov Tabak. He should know. Seven years ago his wife, Marsi, suffered prolonged oxygen deprivation after a heart attack and was given a grim diagnosis: persistent vegetative state (PVS)....

In the eight years since they began pressing for the tough bankruptcy bill being debated in the Senate, America's big credit card companies have effectively inoculated themselves from many of the problems that sparked their call for the measure.

Since December 26th, I've spent many hours online, coffee cup in hand, reading about the ongoing events in Asia and looking at photographs. Like a man who stops his car to gaze at an accident, my interest and concern are suspect. Am I getting out of my car to help? Am I catching the first flight out to Thailand to offer my services, which they wouldn't want anyway? Like gawkers on a highway, my hypothetical trip to India, or Sumatra, or any one of the other countries involved, would surely present more hindrance than help to those engaged in acts...

Dinesh D'Souza, author of "Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader," discussed Reagan's life and presidency. D'Souza is the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University. He is the author of numerous books including "What's So Great About America," "The End of Racism," and "The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in an Age of Techno Affluence." D'Souza was senior domestic policy analyst at the White House during the Reagan administration from 1987 to 1988. The transcript follows. Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most...