Free Republic

<p>About 215,000 Texans are licensed to carry concealed weapons. The state concedes that more than 400 were licensed despite prior convictions and more than 3,000 other licensees have since been arrested.</p> <p>The largest category of problem licensees involves those who committed crimes after getting their state concealed-gun permits. The cases represent domestic disputes, road rage, drunkenness, carelessness and bad judgment under stress.</p>

<p>Just a few years ago, tax simplification was the buzzword in Washington, D.C. The House voted to dump the entire income tax system by 2004, the intent being to replace it with something better.</p> <p>The Senate chose not to play, and today simplification is a fading memory. Instructions for the short form fill 85 pages, or one page more than the long form required in 1996.</p>

An Iraqi Says We're Fighting The Good Fight... This short audio clip (only 2 minutes) is of an Iraqi woman, now an American citizen, who apparently has been there, done that. She telephoned a local call-in program at KGBX Radio in Springfield, Missouri. You'll be interested in what she has to say. (Requires Windows Media Player) Click here to play Link to page    

Arabs, Muslims Report U.S. Hate Crimes Sat Mar 29, 4:12 PM ET By DEBORAH KONG, AP Minority Issues Writer Muslim, Arab and Sikh groups say reports of backlash crimes are trickling in, and they fear an increase if the war in Iraq (news - web sites) drags on. Advocates who track such incidents say they've heard about a dozen potential hate crimes — most involving verbal harassment or property damage to Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs — since the war began last week. "The longer the war goes on and the higher the number of American casualties there, I think probably...

Terminate Ann Coulter's syndication Ann Coulter has long been considered one of the worst syndicated columnists in history.  Not only is she incapable of critical thinking, but her writing style is banal and full of witticisms that could easily be attributed to an eleven-year old.  Nevertheless, some companies still feel that they need to carry her venomous rants.  I should point out that National Review, a magazine renowned for its very conservative slant and its bloodthirsty anti-Muslim columnists, elected to terminate Ann Coulter. As an update, there was a certain amount of activity last week due to an article by...

Just so you know... Targeted Individuals Anti-Muslim Personalities A sampling of the most vocal anti-Muslim bigots on the face of the Earth. This is NOT a hit list, so quit emailing me that it is. "May the curse of Allaah be upon the liars" [3:61] Steve Emerson Pat Robertson Jerry Falwell Daniel Pipes Ann Coulter John Ashcroft Jerry Vines Michael Savage Bill O'Reilly Sean Hannity Vladimir Putin Parvin Darabi

SCIENTOLOGY: A SATANIC LINK? By RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH and CHRIS WILSON -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE trendiest religion in Hollywood was founded on the teachings of a Satanist, a new essay by Camille Paglia claims. The Church of Scientology - which boasts Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Lisa Marie Presley, Hilary Swank, Juliette Lewis and Kirstie Alley among its members - was founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. According to an article by Paglia in Boston University's Arion journal, Hubbard got many of his ideas from infamous devil worshipper Alistair Crowley. "Hubbard had met Crowley in the latter's Los Angeles temple...

Police were searching Saturday for a gunman who walked into a nightclub and opened fire, killing four people and wounding two others. A teenager was killed at a club in nearby New York a few hours later. There was no immediate indication from authorities that the shootings were linked, but both incidents were under investigation. In Newark, authorities said about 25 people were in the Cave Lounge when the gunman arrived shortly after 11 p.m. "We don't know whether there was an intended target right now," police Lt. Derek Glenn said.

<p>1. We will be acting in pre-emptive self-defense. Far from being a contradiction in terms, this policy protects us from a known, avowed threat to our interests before Saddam Hussein can obtain deliverable nuclear weapons. Strictly speaking, Iraq has already violated the terms ending the 1991 Gulf War, and its actions since that time against our forces already put us in a state of war.</p>

For only one month, in one province, in one Muslim country, the following statistics are reported: July 2002Following are the summaries of crimes committed against women for the month of July. The statistics has [sic] been taken from Lahore-based print media, and all statistics are for Punjab only.Honour killing (July, 2002)21 cases of honour killing were reported in July. 22 female victims fell prey to this crime. Of the 22 women who lost their lives in the name of 'honour', 2 were minors, while the other 20 were adults. 9 female victims were married and 8 were unmarried. 3 killings...

N.Y.C. Morgue Manager Pleads Guilty Felix Velazquez, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of petit larceny in exchange for a sentence of 15 days of community service and a $1,000 fine. The coffins, which usually sell for $3,000 to $5,000 retail, were donated by manufacturers for families of victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attack but weren't needed. The charities sent them to Bellevue Hospital Center for use there. Velazquez stole the wooden and metal caskets from Bellevue and sold them for $150 to $300 each, prosecutors said.

<p>Should the United States engage in a full-scale war against Iraq?</p> <p>Protesters’ goal of peace will only come if the United States stands up to Iraq and fights.</p> <p>In American society, freedom of speech is one of the most valued traditions of our history, and one of our most cherished rights. Today, peace protesters take advantage of this right by using it to express their opinions on American foreign policy, namely war with Iraq.</p>

<p>After 9-11, there is an increasing tendency to label all forms of political violence as “terrorism,” especially where states are trying to battle non-state actors. Russia refers to the Chechen independence struggle as a terror campaign, Israel calls the Palestinians resisting the occupation of their lands as terrorists, and India describes the Kashmiri freedom struggle as terrorism.</p>

While doing some research on the background of Yasser Arafat I ran onto a Playboy Magazine interview that contained this exchange: PLAYBOY: Where were you going to go? ARAFAT: The United States. PLAYBOY: The U.S.? That might have changed history a bit. ARAFAT: Yes. I was accepted into the University of Texas -- I think it was the University of Texas. Anyway, I didn't go. PLAYBOY: If you had, you might have become an American citizen. ARAFAT: [Smiling] Yes. Because many of my fellow students, friends of mine, went to Texas. The majority of them now have American citizenship. Any...

<p>Had George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and friends wanted to keep a closer eye on citizens in the days when only horror writers could conceive of anything like our computer system today, they probably could have.</p> <p>They could have convinced their infant Congress that such a national surveillance system was necessary because we never knew where there were Redcoats among us, holding down seemingly ordinary lives. They could have created a Bureau of Spying and infiltrated our shops, neighborhoods, churches and schools. Anyone who came forward with “valuable information” could have been awarded a get-out-of-jail-free card to tattle, no matter what crimes they’d committed.</p>

'60S ICON HAD A REAL BLAST [Advice for suicide bombers?] MAVERICK actor Dennis Hopper once blew himself up for art. In the late 1960s, Hopper says, he decided to do something different for an art show at Houston's Rice University. "I circled myself with six full-sized sticks of dynamite, rigged to go off simultaneously," he told Webster Hall Curator Baird Jones. Hopper explains the equalization of pressure at the center of the blast kept him from being harmed, but "for weeks after, I was falling all over the place because the explosion did something to my equilibrium."

<p>Terming it a “reluctant” decision, a Greene County circuit judge has determined a Springfield man did not endanger two young children he left alone in his house.</p> <p>Michael Waller, 42, whom a Kansas City judge acquitted earlier this year of killing his wife, was found not guilty of two counts of endangerment to a child. A key issue in Waller’s August trial was whether leaving the children caused “substantial risk to the life, body or health of a child.”</p>

Pat Robertson flips from critic to "poster boy" for Bush pet project Pat Robertson the head of Christian Broadcasting Network once condemned the Bush "faith-based initiative," which is designed to give money to religious groups for social service programs. The TV preacher said he was worried that "cults" would exploit such funding. However, Rev. Robertson apparently has changed his mind and accepted $500,000.00 from Uncle Sam for his "Operation Blessing" reports the Washington Post. The grant to the Robertson charity was one of 25 dispersed yesterday by the Department of Health and Human Services. There are many groups called "cults"...

  Rabbi seeks written assurance that Scout troop won't discriminateBy DONALD BRADLEYThe Kansas City Star Last year, Rabbi Alan Cohen of Congregation Beth Shalom publicly denounced the national Boy Scouts' stance against homosexuals and vowed that his synagogue would not participate in any prejudice.The decree came as the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America -- invigorated by a Supreme Court victory -- was threatening to expel troops that did not abide by the ban.Last week, Cohen said that leaders of Troop 61, sponsored by Beth Shalom since 1925, had assured him the troop would not reject gays...