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I refuse to let them force me into an upgrade that I don't want. Any ideas? Is this happening to other FReepers. Is there any way around it? I nearly killed my computer, trying to find a solution. I've already checked online, and can't find much help. Do I have no other choice but to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8?

I found this list and thought it was something that we could be thankful for, on this day before Thanksgiving. Thankful that there are celebrities who are opposed to Polanski being above the law, and who think that he should be prosecuted.

Unmentionable: Best-Selling Conservative Books and the Networks that Ignore ThemResearch reveals a glaring imbalance in network coverage of liberal best-sellers and comparable conservative titles. Since the 1940s, an appearance on The New York Times Best-Seller List has been the mark of commercial success for any book. Authors with titles on the list can count on media attention to help sell even more copies. Unless they are conservatives. Conservative books and authors have been very successful recently, as evidenced by their showing on the best-seller list. Since January 2009, conservatives enjoyed 95 total weeks on the list, compared to just 80...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed two gay rights bills, one honoring late activist Harvey Milk and another recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. In the last of hundreds of bill actions taken before midnight Sunday, Schwarzenegger approved the two bills by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. The governor last year vetoed the measure declaring May 22 a state day of recognition for Milk, suggesting that the former San Francisco supervisor be honored locally. But he subsequently named him to the California Hall of Fame. Leno's SB 54, meanwhile, requires California to recognize marriages performed in other states where same...

A woman girl who has been missing from her South Lake Tahoe home has surfaced in Concord, 18 years after she was kidnapped, and two people are apparently in custody, her stepfather said today. Jaycee Dugard, who would be 29 today, walked into the Concord Police Department on Wednesday, stunning police and family members who had all but lost hope that she was still alive.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' bid for state Attorney General got a big boost today with a plum assignment from the Obama Administration. She's in Washington D.C. Monday with a special invite to talk up the success of her youth and gang violence prevention programs at the White House. Democrat Harris, a longtime friend of President Obama and a very early supporter of his presidential campaign, was picked for a star role at today's National Conference on Gang Violence Prevention and Crime Control, where she'll be discussing her "Back on Track" re-entry initiative and anti-truancy work.

Dear friends, family, loved ones, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, my brother in law, Sam, and my cousin Joe: I am sorry and you were right. These are not easy words for anyone to utter, much less a leftist from Berkeley, or a recovering leftist, that is. Even though I've been in recovery for 14 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days, leftists are always right in your face, in an I-hate-you-if-you-disagree sort of way. Hence, this letter of amends to all the people I've lectured, scolded, ranted and raved at, and otherwise annoyed during my 30 plus years of "progressive" politics.

MOMBASA, Kenya — As the Maersk Alabama plowed through the glassy waters of the Indian Ocean early last Wednesday, the cargo ship's 70-year-old electrician sat in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee, counting the minutes to breakfast. Suddenly, the ship's alarm sounded, shattering the morning calm. The electrician rose with a start. It was, he reckoned immediately, the scenario that he'd been warned about for four months, ever since he set off aboard the Alabama into the most dangerous waters in the world. Four Somali pirates had boarded the ship...

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Ray Bradbury (born 1923) foresaw with clairvoyance the socio-political phenomenon that goes by the name of political correctness. His 1953 dystopia, Fahrenheit 451 attests [to] Bradbury’s prognosticative perspicacity. Most readers know the general situation that Fahrenheit 451 depicts, one with a resemblance to other items in the category of dystopian fictions such as H. G. Wells’ The Holy Terror or George Orwell’s 1984. Decades of cold war between hostile polities have assimilated the formerly classically liberal societies to the model of their totalitarian rivals until all societies exhibit the characteristics of an ideological dictatorship founded in strict repression of any...

The pilot of a crippled US Airways jetliner made a split-second decision to put down in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a catastrophic crash in a populated neighborhood, he told investigators Saturday.

Down to single digits in his days left in office, President George W. Bush is warning the Republican Party not to become "anti-immigrant" as it regroups from defeat and retools its leadership. "It's very important for our party not to narrow its focus, not to become so inward looking that we drive people away from a philosophy that is compassionate and decent," the departing president said in an interview broadcast Sunday, nine days before his term ends. "My call for our party is to be open-minded."

The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A Long Island teenager has earned all 121 merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts of America. It's an accomplishment the local arm of the organization calls "an almost unheard-of feat."

paraphrase: A Mammoth Lakes couple in California found what appears to be two FAA cards that list the name of Steve Fossett. Mammoth Lakes is in Mono County, CA, which borders Nevada. It is close to where Steve Fossett took off on September 3, 2007 from the Flying-M Ranch near Smith Valley, NV and Yerington, NV.

Just found this research piece via Breitbart's posted article, what if everything we think we know about aids is wrong? Read HIV, AIDS and Gallo's Egg by Clark Baker. It's a real eye-opener.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law. The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a traffic ticket offense.

The vision of airplanes rumbling slowly over San Francisco, spraying a pesticide mist on parks and playgrounds, has now mobilized one of the most effective lobbying groups in the world. Moms. The California Department of Food and Agriculture's plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth with aerial spraying over the city this summer was already in an uphill fight. But when 100 or so mothers and kids showed up at City Hall on Monday afternoon with signs like "Keep Your Spray Off My Baby," it was clear that the battle had entered a new phase. "Nothing gets people more...

McCAIN, IN SHIFT, ASKS GOVERNMENT TO STEP UP IN HOUSING CRISIS By Laura Meckler and Elizabeth Holmes April 11, 2008 John McCain called for an aggressive federal government role aimed at stabilizing the housing market, rejecting a largely hands-off approach he outlined two weeks ago. The likely Republican presidential nominee's prescription included a heavy dose of policy more typically associated with Democrats, as he sought to show voters he understands their economic pain. Most significantly, he urged the federal government to guarantee new mortgages for homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

Goodbye, Windows XP. Microsoft, which released its latest operating system, Vista, last year, plans to stop selling Windows XP in stores and through its PC partners on June 30.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Heavy-duty bunker fuel oil has washed up on beaches throughout the San Francisco and Marin coastlines all day, leaving purplish sheens on the water, ugly black blobs in the sand, and hundreds of injured or dead birds.