Free Republic

Editor's Note: In his address before a packed house at the Open Source Convention, Lawrence Lessig challenges the audience to get more involved in the political process. Lawrence, a tireless advocate for open source, is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and the founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. He is also the author of the best-selling book Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Here is the complete transcript of Lawrence's keynote presentation made on July 24, 2002. (You can also download an MP3 version of this presentation (20.2MB).) Advertisement Lawrence Lessig: I have been...

<p>WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate, Inc.) -- In his uncompromising condemnation of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, President Bush has no more reliable and important supporter than his erstwhile political foe Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.</p> <p>John McCain, an authentic American hero who knows firsthand the pain of combat, has said: "War is awful. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. Whatever is won in war, it is loss the veteran remembers."</p>

Three reviews of Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie French authors Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie recently published a book entitled Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth which tells of the negotiations for oil pipeline rights in Afghanistan that collapsed in August 2001 after the U.S. told the Taliban: Accept our offer of a carpet of gold or you'll get a carpet of bombs. 1. Julio Godoy: U.S. Policy on Taliban Influenced by Oil 2. Lara Marlowe: U.S. Efforts to Make Peace Summed up by 'OIL' 3. TOP VIEW: New Book Details Bush/Big Oil Negotiations With...

I was attending an evening film screening tonight for my Korean War class, when I realized that right next door a woman named Tanya Reinhart was giving a talk, with some Arab-looking sidekick. For those of you unfamiliar with her ouevre, she is one of the Israeli fifth columnists that works within Tel Aviv University; you can imagine the caliber of her work "Israel/Palestine" when Edward "Strap Dynamite to Kids" Said praises it as the "most devastating critique now available of Israel's policy towards the Palestinian people. Kind of like being praised by Stalin as an exceptional mass murderer... This...

1. What are TCPA and Palladium? TCPA stands for the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, an initiative led by Intel. Their stated goal is `a new computing platform for the next century that will provide for improved trust in the PC platform.' Palladium is software that Microsoft says it plans to incorporate in future versions of Windows; it will build on the TCPA hardware, and will add some extra features. 2. What does TCPA / Palladium do, in ordinary English? It provides a computing platform on which you can't tamper with the applications, and where these applications can communicate securely with...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police took a tough line on Friday against anti-globalization protesters hoping to disrupt Washington D.C. during meetings of the world's leading finance policy-makers, arresting hundreds of them and largely foiling their efforts to block traffic. By early afternoon 649 people had been taken into custody, according to police who mounted a strong show of force in and around the partly barricaded downtown area throughout the day. The demonstrators were targeting meetings of the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Friday and of the International Monetary Fund ( news - web sites) and World Bank ( news -...

I was hoping someone in the Freeper community could provide me with some useful links and textual sources on the current (and past) situation of Southern Africa (esp, perhaps, Zimbabwe and South Africa). My view is a distant one of a transition to modern semimarxist/semipopulist tinpot dictators, but it is clear to me that I need more facts than just those present in the economist (and a few opinions wouldn't hurt either). This is as part of an extended research on American foreign policy in that region, and information on that would be of great use as well. Thanks for...

<p>After months of bickering over editorial control, Rosie O'Donnell pulled the plug on her namesake magazine yesterday.</p> <p>In a bizarre morning appearance at the Rosie editorial offices, O'Donnell gave her staff letters notifying them of her decision.</p> <p>Some of the letters included checks of up to $10,000, according to a source.</p>

Author on trial over Islam 'insult' Mr Houellebecq The author has won the Impac prize and Prix Novembre The trial of the prize-winning French novelist Michel Houellebecq on charges of inciting religious hatred has begun in Paris. The controversial writer is being sued by four Islamic organisations after making "insulting" remarks about the religion in an interview about his latest book. Platform cover Platform has been a best-seller in France The novel, Platform, is also cited in the case being brought by the largest mosques in Paris and Lyon, the National Federation of French Muslims (FNMN) and the World Islamic...

The Puritans They make me wanna smoke New York City's Joseph Cherner is on a roll. The longtime head of SmokeFree Educational Services, he has just achieved perhaps the apex of his career. It looks highly likely that, because of Mayor Bloomberg's enthusiastic support, almost all public smoking of tobacco will soon be banned in New York City. That means bars, dance-clubs, separately ventilated areas in restaurants, and even outdoor street cafes. This new initiative, backed up by another whopping increase in the cigarette tax, will once and for all condemn smoking to those kinds of illicit and shameful activities...

So I have been doing a lot of reading, from Ann Coulter's Slander to many books on the New Deal. I force myself to suffer through the NYT, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and even my own ridiculously left wing school newspaper (which recently rejected my application for a column based on "Stiff competition", while it continues to publish fluff pieces and liberal drivel unabatedly). I listen to the garbage that fills my television and occasionally the movie screen. I go to my classes, to hear a professor of diplomacy justify the international perception of America as naive by our election of...

Alright, so this semester I am at last forced to delve into a diplomacy class on 20th Century America, which on the very first day included the use of President Bush as an example of why foreign countries think our diplomacy naive and stupid (to the riotous laughter of all my fellow traveler classmates). This class includes a massive overdose of Wilsonian perspectives on foreign policy, as well as McNamara (!), Truman, and some "textbook" that has Clinton on the cover with Yasser at the Oslo accords. You might tell me, Liz, get the hell outta the class, but I...

On hallowed ground By DAVE BARRY Miami Herald On a humid July day in Pennsylvania, hundreds of tourists, as millions have before them, are drifting among the simple gravestones and timeworn monuments of the national cemetery at Gettysburg. Several thousand soldiers are buried here. A few graves are decorated with flowers, suggesting some of the dead have relatives who still come here. There's a sign at the entrance, reminding people that this is a cemetery. It says: "SILENCE AND RESPECT." Most of the tourists are being reasonably respectful, for tourists, although many, apparently without noticing, walk on the graves, stand...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - The author of a controversial book, which claims there was no widespread ownership of firearms by U.S. citizens prior to the Civil War, has been removed from his teaching position at Emory University, the school announced Thursday. "Professor Michael Bellesiles will be on paid leave from his teaching duties at Emory University during the fall semester," Emory said in a written statement acknowledging that a six-month investigation into allegations of research fraud "is continuing." Bellesiles has been under fire almost since the first copy of his book "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture,"...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia –– Saudi Arabia has made clear to Washington – publicly and privately – that the U.S. military will not be allowed to use the kingdom's soil in any way for an attack on Iraq, Foreign Minister Prince Saud said Wednesday. Saud said in an interview with The Associated Press that his country opposes any U.S. operation against Iraq "because we believe it is not needed, especially now that Iraq is moving to implement United Nations resolutions."

Like a prayer Both God and the Constitution will survive the silliness surrounding the latest court challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance BY HARVEY A. SILVERGLATE photo THE FEDERAL APPELLATE court decision that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional brings to mind an observation made by a former law partner of mine, who has since gone on to higher callings: "The law is silly putty." Indeed, an equally cogent decision, relying on recent Supreme Court rulings, could have been written arguing that the Pledge is constitutional in its current form. But that’s not the issue...

TCPA / Palladium Frequently Asked Questions Version 0.1 26 June 2002 Please revisit this page shortly - I'm working on version 1.0 which should be ready during the week of the 8th July. There is also a Spanish version. 1. What are TCPA and Palladium? TCPA stands for the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA), an initiative led by Intel. Their website is here. Their stated goal is `a new computing platform for the next century that will provide for improved trust in the PC platform.' Palladium appears to be a Microsoft version which will be rolled out in future versions...