Free Republic

A PYTHON has been filmed trying to swallow a wallaby whole at a Cairns university. Posted on break.com and believed to have taken place at James Cook University, students can be heard squealing with fear as the python clamps its huge jaws around the creature and begins to swallow.

State whistleblowers tried to curtail greedy lending—and were thwarted by the Bush Administration and the financial industry....

A friend—an educated, extremely successful executive who has spent her entire career in a male-dominated industry—I was talking to about McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin—had a different take on the pick than mine: “I’m tired of old white men appointing women who aren’t qualified just because they think that will appease women. It happens all the time in my business.” So, McCain may not be thinking like a CEO , but it looks like he’s thinking like a lot of bosses who tap people who don’t have the goods. Potential is one thing; proven ability is another. Within minutes, another...

EXCLUSIVE: THE Howard Government has banned a radical Muslim sheik from entering Australia to speak at a major Islamic conference in Melbourne on the weekend. Sheik Bilal Philips, who has been linked to the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings in New York, was refused a visa at the last moment by Department of Immigration officials, sources told the Herald Sun. It is believed the department acted on advice from national security agencies.

ROBERT Hooper's anti-gravity machine is a huge weight on his mind, and on that of his wife Pat. The part-time inventor is almost certain it can sort out the world's woes. He says the machine's free, clean and endless power could end global warming -- or it would if only someone would take him seriously and build the damn thing. "It's driving me up the bloody wall," he says.

HIGH Court judge Michael Kirby yesterday accused America of being "obsessed" with September 11, 2001, saying more people died each day of AIDS than perished in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Justice Kirby played down the significance of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon - in which 2900 people, including 10 Australians, died - after questioning claims by lawyers for the commonwealth that they had made Australia more vulnerable to terrorists.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has been described as bizarre and irrelevant by US Democrats after he launched an attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

ROSEBUD burger baron Ian Macdonald almost bit off more than he could chew when he went public about his bunfight with fast food giant McDonald's. Yesterday his business, Macdonald's Gourmet Burgers, had the busiest day in its short history as it was flooded with supportive customers. "I am on my way to buy another 150kg of beef now because we have completely sold out," Mr Macdonald said yesterday afternoon, before reopening for the dinner rush. "It has been absolutely crazy. I really have to apologise to everyone for the delays, but it was just so unexpected." .......

SUNDAY Age columnist Terry Lane has been caught out again quoting unreliable Internet sources, despite a similar "almighty stuff-up" last year leading him to offer his resignation. It is the second time Lane has used spurious Internet claims to back anti-George W. Bush attacks in the paper – and this time to criticise Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. In his latest piece deriding the US Bush administration as a "self-evident force for stupidity", Lane claimed rangers at the world-famous Grand Canyon were banned from answering questions about the age of the park "because the truth will upset Bush's fundamentalist supporters".....

Dear Lonely at the Top, I'm worried that my parakeet is about to defeat Orrin Hatch for election to the U.S. Senate. See, I run a company that makes voting machines. Just for testing purposes, I inserted "Crazy Daisy" into the software in nine states. Now my techies are telling me that the bird stands a good chance of winning in Utah. What should I do? Holding My Breath Dear Holding, Let's see. I guess my first question is: Where does your parakeet stand on gay marriage?

Shock, incredulity and downright horror – that has been Australians’ reaction to the news that US has banned Vegemite. And even Americans who can’t stand the stuff think their government has gone too far. “We have terrorists trying to smuggle in weapons, dirty bombs, WMD, we have druglords smuggling in tons of illegal hallucinogen drugs,” writes an American poster going by the screen name of Fair Opinion at the US-based Free Republic bulletin board. “And border security is spending time and effort to stop people from bringing in vegetable extract!” Another US poster observed, “It's pretty silly for the government...

MUSLIM women wearing face veils can board passenger planes without having to show their face or produce identification. But they may draw loud taunts as they walk along Melbourne's streets. The veil, or niqab, is at the centre of controversy in many Western nations. It is said to make non-Muslims uncomfortable. I dressed "under cover" this week for the Sunday Herald Sun to test reactions to the garment from different sections of the community. While wearing the face covering, I was singled out for a random explosive-trace test at Melbourne Airport. At no stage did security ask that the veil...

Hundreds of innocents surrender their lives to gravity, stepping into space and oblivion. The cops and firemen and brokerage clerks, first crushed and then slow baked in that long-smouldering pyre of rubble. The parade of coffins that became a permanent fixture in what was then my local Catholic church on the East Side of Manhattan. They were the nightmare images that dreadful morning committed to memory, the ones I brought home to Melbourne after 25 years of living in New York, the same ones that fuelled a simmering fury through the months and years that followed Osama bin Laden's outrageous...

Former professional soldier "Tiny" O'Shea will remember the legendary Long Tan battle on his own terms and in his own way, as NEIL WILSON writes. VETERANS of Australia's legendary Vietnam war battle Long Tan will gather at Parliament House in Canberra this week for a special 40th anniversary reception. All but one, that is. John "Tiny" O'Shea will not be there. Instead, he will mark Vietnam Veterans Day, for the first time, next Friday, at the Shrine of Remembrance. Using a wheelchair and with limited arm movement, Tiny decided the trip to Canberra would be an ordeal for him and...

HISTORY has been turned on its head at the Shrine today with the re-birth of the famous 39th battalion in the Australian Army after 63 years. About 40 old Diggers proudly witnessed their volunteer unit returned to the army's order of battle on Kokoda Day, the anniversary of them taking on a huge Japanese force at that New Guinea village. They have lived to have the satisfaction of seeing the battalion, down to just 42 fit men after months of savage fighting, finally gain justice after high command abruptly disbanded it in 1943. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20059157-661,00.html

The morning's email haul summed up what happened better than any editorial writer's reflection on the divided hearts and minds of the American electorate. The first message was from a friend in Washington, a former military guy and proud son of the American heartland. "Can you believe it!" he gushed. "Let the Democrats just try and steal this one. Bush by 2 million votes!!!!" (snip) Then came the second email, penned by a TV news producer at one of the Big Three networks. A couple of weeks ago, at a Long Island barbecue to celebrate her 50th birthday, she shot...

Four years ago in this space, a simple political rule-of-thumb was put forth in an attempt to slash through all the confusing polls and hot-air punditry surrounding the Presidential race. It's a simply theory: The cool guy wins (see BW Online, 8/4/00, "Cool Guys Finish First"). (snip) The difference between Bush's tortured data-twisting and Kerry's self-serving hyperbole is that nobody has died because of the Democrat's alleged fabrications and prevarications. The rabid Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can rant all they want about whether Kerry deserved three Purple Hearts, two Purple Hearts, or no Purple Hearts. Who cares? He went...

Is the GOP trying to hold down the turnout among Cincinnati's Democratic voters to help President Bush carry swing state Ohio? Since 1980, local businesses have helped fund get-out-the-vote campaigns for a ballot initiative that pays 15% of the city's education budget. After failing to get the initiative pushed back to spring '05, the Cincinnati Business Committee, which includes Procter & Gamble (PG ) and Kroger (KR ), is withholding its support -- even though a defeat on Nov. 2 would whack $32 million from the schools this year. Local Dems charge that the GOP-friendly CBC is worried that the...

Let's play Clue, the engrossing Election 2004 edition. The rules aren't that hard, really. Like the better-known variant featuring Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick or Professor Plum in the conservatory with a lead pipe, it's all about collecting evidence, figuring out whodunit and why. The ending should be very interesting.... (snip) Start with Dan the Anchorman, who broadcast a story about Top Gun George Bush, the fighter pilot-turned-President and how strings were pulled long ago to keep the young scamp from combat in Southeast Asia. That's where Democrat John "Lieutenant Lurch" Kerry, his rival, now says he...

Just came from the protest by the Great Unwashed outside Fox News HQ on Sixth Avenue. Kristinn, True Black Man, Laser Light and others are surrounded by a sea of scum and standing their ground. Makes you proud to be a Freeper.