Free Republic

Profs get warned of freedoms By MENSAH M. DEAN deanm@phillynews.com Words such as "McCarthyism" and "chill" buzzed through a group of Temple University professors and students who gathered on campus yesterday to discuss a state legislative committee's investigation of political diversity at state-run colleges. The "teach-in," sponsored by the Temple Association of University Professionals, drew an audience overwhelmingly convinced that the committee's very existence is a threat to academic freedom. "I think that there is a concern that people are going to start coming in and say, 'You can do this, but you can't do this.' If we are teaching...

A column about Kansas Science StandardsMonday, November 14, 2005 By Steve Abrams, chairman, Kansas State Board of Education Evolution. Creation. Intelligent Design. Is there any truth or facts that can come out of what has been bandied about in the media in the last few days? Let me first comment a little about what my critics claim. Some of my critics claim it is nothing short of trying to insert the supernatural into the Science classroom. Others claim I am trying to insert creation into the Science classroom via the backdoor. A few claim that I know nothing about science...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Some people are saying the way Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice are portrayed in an ad for the new "Stepford Wives" film is distasteful, even outrageous. 'Stepford Wives' Ad Shows Hillary, Condoleezza In Strange Light The spot shows an image of Rice made to look nude from the waist up, and a picture of Clinton that morphs into what looks like a cookie-baking Stepford wife. The pictures move across the screen very quickly, but they caught the eye of a Kansas City woman, who recorded the spot to make sure of what she was seeing. Becky...

Limbaugh and Football Stats by John R. Lott, Jr. Is it possible to even discuss race in sports, let alone anywhere else? This past week provides little hope. Whether Rush Limbaugh's comments on Donovan McNabb were "racist," there is a general agreement that he was factually wrong, that Limbaugh did not know what he is talking about. Yet, what is the evidence? Limbaugh readily admits that it was just his opinion that "the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." But his critics allowed no possibility for uncertainty, calling his comments "ignorant" or worse. As National...

Subj: news-releases NOW Fired Up By Election Losses, Steps Up Mobilization Efforts Date: 11/6/2002 1:00:40 PM Central Standard Time From: press@now.org (NOW Press Department) Sender: news-releases-owner@now.org Reply-to: press@now.org (NOW Press Department) To: news-releases@now.org NOW Press Office 202-628-8669 Rebecca Farmer, x 116 202-785-8576 (fax) NOW Fired Up By Election Losses, Steps Up Mobilization Efforts November 6, 2002 Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy With Trent Lott running the Senate and George W. Bush in charge of the White House and Supreme Court, the health and welfare of America's and the world's women and families have never been in greater jeopardy. Hammering...

The Fiery Fruits of Environmentalismby Ryan McMakenLast year, I wrote an article suggesting that it might be prudent to let states and localities have more control over forest management in their regions. I received a number of angry letters from people claiming to be conservatives who claimed that I am in favor of paving over every square inch of wilderness left on the face of the planet. Wilderness, you see, is an essential part of the freedom-loving American spirit. I agree with this. I just see an irony in putting the feds in charge of that which is supposed to...

Sunday Times of London March 31, 2002Pope gives blessing to a patron saint of Harry PottersBLESS you, Harry Potter. Thanks to Pope John Paul II, Harry will soon have a patron saint to turn to when spells threaten to go horribly wrong, writes John Follain. The Pope is planning to name Saint Don Bosco, a 19th-century Italian priest with a passion for magic, as the patron saint of conjurers, magicians and wizards. The idea is the brainchild of Father Silvio Mantelli, a bespectacled priest and magician who boasts the stage name Mago Sales and has devoured all of J K...

Subj: news-releases Women Need Real Economic Security Date: 2/6/2002 11:09:52 AM Central Standard Time From: press@now.org (NOW Press Department) Sender: news-releases-owner@now.org Reply-to: press@now.org (NOW Press Department) To: news-releases@now.org NOW Press Office 202-628-8669 Rebecca Farmer, x 116 202-785-8576 (fax) Women Need Real Economic Security: Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy February 6, 2002 Instead of decisive action to help displaced workers and reinforce the economic safety net, ultra-conservatives in Washington wasted precious time in partisan jousting on behalf of moneyed interests. The House of Representatives passed a bill last year to hand out billions of dollars in corporate welfare, while giving ...

Black History Month: Why? And the Ivy League’s misplaced emphasis. February 1, 2002 12:05 p.m. EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of those rare occasions when I feel the need to recycle an old column. My reasons are twofold, but I will give you three since NR is a traditionally Catholic magazine which encourages Trinitarianism in all things. First, I've got to go do something which would prevent me from writing a column today even remotely as good. Second, this column is about Black History Month which begins today. Third, this column elicited a very large, often angry, response when I ...

Subj: news-releases NOW President Sees Clear Agenda in Bush Decision to Classify Fetus as an "Unborn Child" Date: 2/1/2002 11:20:44 AM Central Standard Time From: press@now.org (NOW Press Department) Sender: news-releases-owner@now.org Reply-to: press@now.org (NOW Press Department) To: news-releases@now.org NOW Press Office 202-628-8669 Rebecca Farmer, x 116 202-785-8576 (fax) NOW President Kim Gandy Sees Clear Agenda in Bush Decision to Classify Fetus as an "Unborn Child" January 31, 2002 "Today George W. Bush took yet another step toward reversing women's right to abortion under Roe v. Wade," said NOW President Kim Gandy, responding to Bush's decision to allow states to classify ...

Ben Franklin: Scientist or Magician? by Alison Freisinger Electricity was, for the most part, a useless parlor diversion in Benjamin Franklin's time. Men called "electricians" performed like magicians. Dr. Archibald Spencer, for example, would suspend a boy from the ceiling and coax static electric sparks from the child's limbs. Franklin, however, was one of the first people to realize that so-called "electrical fluid" might have practical uses. Experiments, which ran from roasting a turkey with electricity to designing bells that heralded the presence of lightning (and irritated his wife to no end), helped Franklin define attributes of electricity. He recognized ...

Harry Potter? What Does God Have To Say? I am writing this urgent message because I was once a witch. I lived by the stars as an astrologer and numerologist casting horoscopes and spells. I lived in the mysterious and shadowy realm of the occult. By means of spells and magic, I was able to invoke the powers of the "controlling unknown" and fly upon the night winds transcending the astral plane. Halloween was my favorite time of the year and I was intrigued and absorbed in the realm of Wiccan witchcraft. All of this was happening in the decade ...

FUNDAMENTALISM (PART I) By R.J. Rooney I watched a program the other night about a young couple's journey through hardship. They were having twins and found out that there was a strong possibility there was something wrong prior to their birth. As it turned out the twins were joined at their side and shared several internal organs and one leg. It was a compelling story which ended in a successful separation of the girls. However, early on in the documentary the narrator explained that the reason the parents chose not to have an abortion when they found out there was ...

October 22, 2001 THE STRATEGY Sept. 11 Attacks Led to Push for More Smallpox Vaccine By JUDITH MILLER and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG The Associated Press American intelligence has suspected for years that some nations have been maintaining clandestine stocks of the smallpox virus. In late September, in the days before a series of anthrax-tainted letters made bioterrorism a reality in the United States, President Bush decided that the federal government should acquire enough vaccine to protect every American against an even more menacing biological threat: smallpox. Although smallpox was eradicated as a disease in the 1970's, American intelligence had suspected ...

10/17/01 Student: Attack praised Conversation of three Saudi students about Sept. 11 events overheard in library By Jason Williams Managing Editor On Saturday, Sept. 22, Zewdalem Kebede, a political science senior and native Ethiopian, was studying in the Reserve Book Room in Love Library. Nearby, a group of Saudi Arabian students sat talking in Arabic -- a language Kebede speaks fluently, having learned it in his native country. He was attracted to their conversation when the topic shifted to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "They started talking about the Sept. 11 action," he said. "And with that action they were ...

His Dubya and My R By IRVING R. LEVINE WASHINGTON — I want to thank you, Dubya. I'm grateful to you for restoring respect for the middle initial. When the president holds up three fingers to form a W or refers to himself as "George W.," he warms the hearts of those of us who insist on the use of our middle initials. Of course, George W. needed that middle initial to differentiate himself from his father. But under his influence, the middle initial has achieved a status that every dedicated middle- initial user can regard with awe. His "W" ...

You're a middle-aged couple, at the peak of your earning power. You are saving in preparation for your retirement, a little more than 10 years from now. You consider paying off your mortgage early. But the bank informs you that you would face prepayment penalties. Do you (a) stick with your plan to prepare for retirement, but buy stocks and bonds instead of paying off your mortgage, or (b) say, "Oh, in that case let's forget about the future and take an expensive vacation"? George W. Bush would apparently answer (b). For that is the essence of his latest argument ...

Leading House Democrat Calls For Reno's Resignation By Jim Burns CNS Senior Staff Writer December 08, 2000 (CNSNews.com) - House Democratic Whip David Bonior (D-Mich.) Thursday night called for Attorney General Janet Reno to resign, citing the Justice Department's refusal to release two would-be immigrants who are being held by the government on what Bonior terms "secret evidence." According to Bonior's statement, "Attorney General Reno has repeatedly neglected her responsibilities by sanctioning the unconstitutional use" of the evidence. One of the jailed men, Palestinian Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar, was ordered freed Wednesday by a U.S. immigration judge, but, according to Bonior, ...

Jim Collier's Ghost and Voter Fraud in South Florida Christopher Ruddy Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2000 4:21 a.m. EST As I sit here in the middle of the night and find out the vote is closer than anyone imagined in Florida, I am being visited by the ghost of Jim Collier. Jim and his brother Kenneth wrote a wonderful book called "Votescam" detailing the rampant voting fraud that regularly took place in South Florida. In 1998, Miami became the center of controversy when a state court removed the sitting mayor because of voter fraud. But the Colliers were writing about the ...