Free Republic

IF YOU WANT A VISION of hell, look here: the national mall in Washington, D.C., at noon on a summer's day. Mom and Dad and Buddy and Sis stand on the treeless expanse, baked by the pitiless sun, looking lost. Dad wears a muscle-beach T-shirt stretched over a Cheesecake Factory body, his hair matted in shiny ringlets round the crown of his head. Sweat begins to show at the waistband of Mom's stretch pants. The air is hung with scrims of haze. To one side the Capitol building shimmers in ghostly outline. To the other, the Lincoln Memorial looms in...

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors said Wednesday they will not file charges against Paris Hilton stemming from a scrape at a newsstand in which she allegedly pocketed a copy of her homemade sex video without paying. The county district attorney's office dropped the case for lack of evidence after investigating the hotel heiress for suspicion of petty theft. "The evidence presented is not of such convincing force that a reasonable and objective jury would unanimously agree that the suspect is guilty," said Irene Wakabayashi of the district attorney's office. The investigation stemmed from a Dec. 15 run-in between Hilton and a...

The Justice Department yesterday lost the first major test of obscenity laws in at least a decade when a federal judge in Pittsburgh threw out an indictment of Extreme Associates, which sells films of women being gang-raped, defecated on and having their throats slit. U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster dismissed charges of distribution of obscene materials brought here last year against the California company and its owners, Robert Zicari, 31, and his wife, Janet Romano, 27. In a 45-page opinion, the judge said the federal obscenity statutes as applied in the case violate constitutional protections of liberty and privacy.

Police yesterday dug up a body believed to be that of a 71-year-old Montgomery County woman and charged two more people in her disappearance -- including a man who allegedly was paid $250 to haul the dead victim in a trash can from her home and bury her under a farm shed 38 miles away. .................................................... When Sachs refused to leave, Hadl called police. On Aug. 16, police and two social workers came to question Sachs, but concluded that she could not legally be removed from the house, Driver said. "I told her to get a lock on her bedroom...

Allegations of cultural insensitivity and incompetence within the University College of Education have led the school's student and faculty diversity committee to recently declare a "multicultural crisis." Graduate student Jim Lyda, coordinator of the college's Ethnic Diversity Affairs Committee, said students of color in the college have experienced cultural insensitivity from some faculty members. He said local schools also have raised concerns that the college produces teachers who lack multicultural skills. "That's kind of what we term a crisis," Lyda said. The committee, which advocates for students of color in the college, proposed a list of recommendations to the deans...

REPORTS THAT the MBTA is implementing a first-in-the-nation plan to stop subway passengers for random identification checks and to question them about their activities at T-stops should alarm anyone who worries about civil liberties. Having to carry and produce identification has historically been a method of control. In 19th century America, the requirement of carrying identity documents was for the most part limited to slaves and Asian immigrants. More recently, we have the example of identification papers in Nazi Germany and the infamous pass system used to control the movements of black South Africans. "Your papers, please," is a phrase...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - As millions of taxpayers prepared to meet the April 15 filing deadline, an anti-tax author attempted to argue Wednesday in federal court that no American is required to pay taxes. Tax opponent Irwin Schiff and two of his associates appeared in U.S. District Court on charges they helped thousands of taxpayers file bogus returns. Schiff told U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen that he would plead guilty if federal prosecutors could show a tax requirement exists. "I will not accept your plea of guilty at this time," Leen said and entered a plea of not guilty on...

CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- The county commissioners embarked on their bold Murdock Village project -- spending more than $20 million on land for that effort so far -- based on an assumption. A circuit judge, they wagered, would allow the county to seize properties from owners who didn't want to sell their land for the redevelopment. They could soon find out if they were right. The first condemnation hearing for the 1,100-acre project is scheduled to begin today, before Circuit Judge William Blackwell. At issue in the hearings are 106 parcels -- mostly undeveloped single-family lots -- in the far western...

NORTH HAVEN — Social activist Jeffrey Johnson said Friday night he was "offended" that the principal of West Haven High School apologized for him after he gave a racially provocative speech to students during a Black History Month assembly last week. "I don’t need an apology," he told hundreds at the West Haven Black Coalition’s 18th annual scholarship and community awards dinner at Fantasia. "I am tired on every level imaginable of having to apologize for speaking out." Johnson, the keynote speaker, addressed the controversy his speech created at the school Thursday. Johnson’s remarks about racial injustice, particularly how black...

<p>WASHINGTON — TheSupreme Court (search), in a new rendering on separation of church and state (search), voted Wednesday to let states withhold scholarships from students studying theology.</p> <p>The court's 7-2 ruling held that the state of Washington was within its rights to deny a taxpayer-funded scholarship to a college student who was studying to be a minister. That holding applies even when money is available to students studying anything else.</p>

CONCORD - Colossus retailer Wal-Mart drains government resources because its low-paid, under-insured or non-insured workers have to rely on public subsidies, such as school lunch programs and Section 8 housing, according to a congressional report Rep. George Miller released here Monday. With supporters of a March ballot measure to ban Wal-Mart superstores and other "big-box" businesses in unincorporated Contra Costa County flanking him, Miller, D-Martinez, ripped the Arkansas-based corporation for creating "downward spirals in communities," violating child labor and workplace safety laws and "paying wages below industry averages." The report, which the Democratic staff of the House Education and Workforce...

CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea - The 2nd Infantry Division wants lap dancing banned in Area I nightclubs frequented by U.S. soldiers, according to documents to be presented this week to the Korean Special Tourist Association and local mayors. Club owners and mayors will have 30 days to respond to a proposed association and 2nd ID Good Commerce Practices Guide, which sets out standards expected of clubs near U.S. bases in Area I. Last year lap dancing was explicitly authorized in an attachment to the 2nd ID's 2002-2003 policy. The proposed guide states: "Though lap dancing is authorized under 2nd...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Muslims are converging on Mecca for the hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage that has been plagued by fires, stampedes and occasional riots. The risks are even greater this year, with Saudi authorities also worried about diseases and terrorism. More than two million Muslims are expected for the pilgrimage that will climax late this month, a devotion required once in the lifetime of every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it. In a ritual lasting four to six days, pilgrims circle the Kaaba, the big stone structure that Muslims face during their five daily prayers; pray at Mount...

Teenage anti-smoking activists want the province to slap an "R" rating on all movies showing tobacco -- meaning no one under 18 would be allowed to see films featuring smoking. The recommendation was part of the Lung Association's Youth Tobacco Team's report on how to curb youth smoking, presented to the province's health ministry last week. Michelle Tham, 18, of Mississauga, said the group wanted to focus on what made teens want to light up in the first place. "Everyone talks about peer pressure being the problem, but sometimes it's an individual person," Tham said. "Maybe it's one girl who...

<p>MIAMI — A 15-year-old Hollywood, Fla., student is suing her school district for forbidding her to hand out fliers for a church youth group in class.</p> <p>Christine Curren is suing the Broward County School District (search) on the grounds that her constitutional rights were violated last year when a teacher stopped her from handing out church youth group fliers to her classmates.</p>

Four hundred years ago today, the king commanded, courtiers and clergy on bended knee obeyed and the idea for a landmark translation of the Bible was born. It became the standard against which all other bibles were compared. For centuries, the King James Bible was the English bible. Its words soared to the spires of England's great cathedrals and reached deep into the hearts of those who loved the word of God as poetry. It affected the use of the English language, church reform and politics. Common English phrases that are part of every day speech today were introduced through...

Monterrey, Mexico — A "free and open" Canada-U.S. border is Prime Minister Paul Martin's key demand as he makes his debut as Canada's leader on the world stage and heads tomorrow into his first official meeting with President George W. Bush. Speaking last night after a one-on-one meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Martin said he and Fox are united in their push for free movement of goods and people across North America. "We are a North American market and that North American market must be open to the goods from the three countries to each other," Martin said after...

Nine men have been charged and police have seized more than 30,000 marijuana plants worth about $30 million in two massive grow operations in Barrie. Officers from the OPP drug enforcement section and the Barrie Police Service executed a search warrant early Saturday at a former Molson brewery site at One Big Bay Point Rd. The site, located beside the busy lanes of Highway 400, was passed daily by hundreds of thousands of drivers. A second search warrant was executed at 4921 Hwy 11 North, Oro-Medonte Township just north of Barrie. There officers seized approximately 3,000 more marijuana plants. Both...

Marijuana tokers across the country will attempt to focus their attention on Ottawa today as the Supreme Court rules on whether possessing pot is criminal. The high court is considering three cases involving two weed advocates and another man caught smoking a joint -- all of whom failed to convince lower courts their claims were just. London's Christopher Clay deliberately challenged the law by selling marijuana seedlings through Hemp Nation, a store he started with a government loan. His lawyer, University of Toronto law professor Alan Young, said Parliament has failed to prove recreational pot use causes anything more serious...

The capture of Saddam was one of those moments in US political history when only one emotion is permitted, and anyone who dares break from the official line is The Enemy. The theme is always the same: we are to celebrate whatever the state does, and condemn its enemies as nothing short of incarnate evil. Only the details change. Everyone knows that dissent is not allowed, not even in private conversation. Of course everyone also knows that silent dissent exists. It is lurking out there somewhere. The enforcers are on the lookout for anyone dumb enough to voice a hint...