Free Republic

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Disclosure that the Chicago, Ill. Police department has apparently been "experimenting" with tiny microphones in unmarked police cars that can pick up nearby conversations on the street is yet another civil rights slap in the face in a city where law-abiding citizens have already been effectively stripped of their gun rights. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today agreed with Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois that there is a genuine concern about Fourth Amendment violations if such conversations would be recorded...

"I can't imagine what's going to happen to 100,000 AK-47s…I can't understand why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47s. I personally hope it doesn't happen. I can't imagine, if it did happen, it would be good for the hemisphere." -Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Washington D.C. - The Bush Administration very deliberately allowed the Federal assault weapons ban to expire last fall. Since the ban expired, it is quite likely that there are more than 100,000 new assault weapons like AK-47s in the United States. In the past six weeks, such assault weapons have been used in horrible high-profile shootings in Dallas and...

This is gonna be a strange question. Have any of you ever drank absinthe before? Somebody was telling me about it tonight (never heard of it before then), saying it's a wild alcoholic beverage that makes you hallucinate, comparable to being on a drug trip. He said the original version is illegal in the US, but there is a legal version called absente or absinthe refined that contains small amounts of the neurotoxin which made it illegal here. Anybody ever drink the stuff that's legal here in the US? And does it make you feel like you're tripping?

I've been trying to get into the military, but got rejected from MEPS this past weekend for high blood pressure, so they made me go to a doctor 3 times to get my blood pressure readings then send it back to the military. Well I just found out that the military doctors said I'm a walking heart attack waiting to happen and I should get immediate medical attention. I'm only freakin 21 and not obese, so I guess there's something very seriously wrong here. My prayer request is that the doctor will find out what's wrong with me when I...

I've asked twice for prayer about joining the Marines, so here's an update some people wanted. I went to MEPS (military entrance processing station) this weekend for the ASVAB and medical exams, and everything went fine except my blood pressure and heart rate. They said my pulse was too high and told me to see a doctor about it then return to try again. Kinda weird considering I'm only 21, but other factors probably played into it. I've been really pissed off about it since then, but haven't touched any chew or caffine since then so maybe things will turn...

U.N. influence on court's juvenile execution ban In 5-4 case, majority ruling based on global treaties, foreign opinions WASHINGTON – In its stunning 5-4 ruling banning states from executing murderers who committed their crimes before they turned 18, the U.S. Supreme Court majority openly cited a United Nations convention, an international treaty and the laws of the United Kingdom in arriving at its sweeping decision. In outlawing the death penalty for juvenile killers, the majority declared a national consensus had emerged in the last 15 years against the practice, which is now seen by the court as unconstitutionally cruel. The...

I doubt anybody remembers, but about a month ago I posted a prayer request that I'd make it through military medical exams for the Marine Corps. I had set up an appointment to go, then let my mom talk me out of it. Then tonight my recruiter called me during the middle of a date and I decided to go ahead and go to MEPS next weekend, so my prayer request is that I'll make it through the medical stuff just fine, and that I won't let my parents talk me out of it. It's time to get on with...

ASHEBORO -- For a second day in a row, local citizens were caught off guard by mock military operations when uniformed soldiers with weapons were sighted in the area. A sighting on Thursday sent Balfour Elementary School and North Asheboro Middle School (NAMS) into lockdown around 1 p.m. for roughly 25 minutes. An incident on Wednesday had an employee at a South Fayetteville Street business calling police about a kidnapping that turned out to be staged. The soldiers' activities were part of Operation Robin Sage, a military training exercise for Special Forces troops out of Fort Bragg. The operations occur...

The United Nations is supporting a new campaign urging governments around the world to register every newborn child, and it's getting help from South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. ''It is, in a very real sense, a matter of life and death,'' the Nobel Peace Prize winner said at a New York news conference. ''The unregistered child is a nonentity. The unregistered child does not exist. How can we live with the knowledge that we could have made a difference?'' The campaign, called "Write me down, make me real," is backed by UNICEF and calls on governments to record the estimated...

Leaders of a U.N. Internet panel yesterday said they hope to set up a global system where cyberspace would be under the control of the United Nations. The committee, which was set up in December 2003, is laying the groundwork for the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society where a final decision on the control of the Net will be determined, stated a Reuters report. The summit will take place in Tunis in November. The panel is considering such problems as cyber-crime and e-mail spam. ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, currently is the most recognizable...

THE Royal Navy has turned to Stonewall, the gay lobby group, for advice on how to recruit and retain homosexual sailors. Senior officers want to encourage more gay and lesbian sailors, estimated at 2,100, to “come out”, paving the way for the first openly gay admiral. The partnership, to be announced tomorrow, will provide the template for a wider change in the culture of the armed forces. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said: “We hope that the RAF and the army will be following shortly.” Vice-Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent, Second Sea Lord, said he looked forward to working with...

The "Butcher of Baghdad" is reportedly relying on the devil to pull him through his trial. Canada Free Press reports the long-time follower of the occult studies tealeaves to divine the outcome of his crimes-against-humanity case, while adding a prominent international attorney nicknamed "the Devil's Advocate" to his legal dream team. Satan may not disappoint Saddam, according to his former comrade, Lt. Col. Ali Mazhar. After defecting to Kuwait, Mazhar shared a "bizarre" photo with the Weekly World News that purportedly shows Saddam with a horned figure. Mazhar believes Saddam signed a "sinister pact" with the devil. In connecting the...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: America is losing its ability to distinguish right from wrong. Let me illustrate what I mean with a tale of two citizens. Ward Churchill, a tenured University of Colorado ethnic studies professor, appears to be secure in retaining his $94,000 a year public teaching job, despite the following record: He wrote an essay insulting 9-11 victims and affirmed the terrorist attackers who killed 3,000 Americans. He secured the teaching job under apparently false pretenses – claiming he was an American Indian. Not only is his writing offensive, according to a study...

In what is being hailed as a victory for free speech, a judge in Philadelphia today dismissed all criminal charges against four Christians who were arrested for evangelizing at an outdoor homosexual event. Judge Pamela Dembe of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas dismissed the charges, saying that she found no basis whatsoever for any of them...

I don't know about you, but I have practically been hyperventilating since I heard about the charges filed against Marine 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano. I can scarcely catch my breath when I think about the young New Yorker, who served his country honorably during the first Gulf War and re-enlisted to serve his country again following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. am praying that he his exonerated, that the Marine Corps recognizes the terrible injustice done in charging him and that, appropriately, those responsible for prosecuting Lt. Pantano are themselves disciplined and dismissed from their positions of authority, which have...

(CNSNews.com) - Congress is considering legislation that conservatives and libertarians warn will create a national ID card system, calling it a backdoor attempt to remove privacy protections gained in a law passed only last year. The Real ID Act of 2005 (H.R. 418), introduced Jan. 26 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), would eliminate existing privacy protections and give the Secretary of Homeland Security expanded powers to control states' driver's licenses and ID cards, and the data collected while issuing them. The proposal would replace a more restrictive 2004 law and give the federal government additional control over...

The international gun prohibitionists have their sights set on you. A coalition of human "rights" groups is urging the United Nations (UN) to begin drawing up plans for a "legally binding," worldwide "marking and tracing" system that they foresee as a means to track firearms from "factory" to "user" anywhere in the world (including the United States). The coalition includes the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and its vehemently anti-gun Director Rebecca Peters (who, in October 2004, debated NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre in the "Great Gun Debate"), in addition to Amnesty International and Oxfam International. Despite...

Sorry, but I couldn't resist sharing this with everyone. Moderators, you can pull this thread if you want, since DU material is frowned on here. The resident "psychologists" at DU are speculating what exactly makes us tick. Ironically, a lot of their descriptions sound like what we'd say about them. Sorry if I stole tonight's DUFU material ahead of time, PJ Comix. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3063456&mesg_id=3063456

Today at a gun show I bought a pre-ban European AK-47 drum magazine (75 rounds). I have no idea how to open and load the thing, and only been able to find instructions for the Chinese ones, which are different than mine. Does anybody know how to operate the pre-ban European style AK-47 drum magazine? Or have a link I can go to that gives step by step instructions?

If you had control of the purse strings, where would you cut spending? a. Military (6%) 314 b. Social Security Reform (18%) 968 c. Healthcare (35%) 1,923 d. Homeland Security (7%) 373 e. Kill Tax Cuts (34%) 1,865 5,443 total votes