Free Republic

February 2, 2005OUR TOWNSConservative in Politics, Not in Lingerie By PETER APPLEBOME HO knows if the Republican Babe of the Week feature on Tom Schneider's conservative Web site will do much for the party in New Jersey?But with the Republicans ascendant nationally and stuck in the mud in New Jersey, maybe Mr. Schneider is on to something with his promise to put the party back in the Grand Old Party.So if the seven Republicans hoping to take on Democratic Senator Jon S. Corzine in the race for New Jersey governor want to get some attention, here's a hint: Don't worry...

U.S. Leads in Sexually Transmitted Disease Rate Wed Jan 26, 7:02 PM ET By Amanda GardnerHealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Rates of early death and disability that can be attributed to sexual behavior are three times higher in the United States than other so-called developed nations, a new study finds. Yahoo! Health Have questions about your health?Find answers here.   This finding precludes the AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic in many African countries. American men still die more often as a result of having a sexually transmitted disease, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four Sacramento, California firefighters who admitted to having sex while on duty have been suspended pending an investigation, a spokesman for the city's fire department said on Tuesday. The three men, including a captain, admitted to having sex with a fourth firefighter, a woman, while on duty. Superiors put all four on administrative leave on Monday, marking the second recent sex scandal to hit the sleepy state capital's fire department. "The four individuals have admitted to having sex in the firehouse," said Captain Niko King, a spokesman for the department. "They even conspired to keep it...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four Sacramento, California firefighters who admitted to having sex while on duty have been suspended pending an investigation, a spokesman for the city's fire department said on Tuesday. The three men, including a captain, admitted to having sex with a fourth firefighter, a woman, while on duty. Superiors put all four on administrative leave on Monday, marking the second recent sex scandal to hit the sleepy state capital's fire department. "The four individuals have admitted to having sex in the firehouse," said Captain Niko King, a spokesman for the department. "They even conspired to keep it...

Weiner heckled by his own mom BY MAGGIE HABERMANDAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU Anthony Weiner got a public reminder yesterday that "Mother knows best." As the Democratic mayoral hopeful blasted Mayor Bloomberg's educational policies yesterday, he was quietly corrected by his own mom. After Weiner's first major education speech, the congressman told a West Side Chamber of Commerce breakfast that music, arts and language programs have been "decimated" under Bloomberg. "You basically have one choice in school now in terms of a second language and that's Spanish," said Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn), a public school alum. But his mom, Fran, a...

Wal-Mart's cost too high for workers, merchants By BILL DANIO and SUNG SOO KIM With more than 3,000 stores and super centers in the country and more than 1.5 million employees worldwide, there is no denying that Wal-Mart, which wants to build a 135,000-square-foot store in Rego Park, Queens, is a Wall Street darling and a rip-roaring success story. More and more, however, people are beginning to see that Wal-Mart's incredible expansion is only one side of a more complicated story. The other side of the narrative finds Main Street shopping areas closed all over the country. It finds regional...

January 24, 2005THE SUBWAYSSignal Room Fire Reroutes Trains on 3 Subway Lines By SEWELL CHAN subway fire severely damaged a signal relay room in Lower Manhattan yesterday afternoon, and transit officials warned last night that service on the A and the C, two of the city's busiest subway lines, would be suspended or sharply reduced throughout today.The A, C and E lines were rerouted following the 2 p.m. fire at the Chambers Street station, but the extent and significance of the blaze were not apparent for hours, officials said. No one was injured in the fire, which officials said appeared...

<p>ALEXANDRA Kerry might not have made the most gracious presidential daughter. She waltzed into the Converse suite at the Motorola lodge and started demanding shoes. "The woman running the suite was helping someone else, but Alexandra didn't care," said our spy. "She just started pointing to all these shoes and saying really loudly, 'A 10! In those, those and those! Didn't you hear me? A 10!' " When the Converse woman told Kerry she didn't have her size, Kerry waggled her finger and sniffed, "I am NOT impressed with what's going on here." The woman sighed, "Well, then, you can leave — I am not impressed with you!"</p>

Report: Knicks' Wilkens resigns By Frank IsolaNew York Daily News Lenny Wilkens resigned on Friday night as Knicks coach and will be replaced by assistant coach Herb Williams, according to a league source. The stunning development came just hours after Scott Padgett's jumper at the buzzer gave the Houston Rockets a 92-91 victory over the Knicks at the Garden. Within minutes there were rumors flying around the arena that Knicks president Isiah Thomas had fired Wilkens, the legendary coach whom Thomas hired last Jan. 15. However, a team source denied that Wilkens had been fired and would only say that...

MODERN LOVEWitness to a Wedding That Wasn't By JENNIE YABROFF HE invitation to the wedding said black tie. That afternoon I put on my black silk spaghetti-strap dress and a pearl necklace while my boyfriend searched for the cuff links for his tux. Brian and I were at that point in our relationship (together just under a year) where we liked to talk about weddings ("What did you think of the cake?" "Would you ever make your best man wear a kilt?") but weren't yet ready to talk about marriage. Still, I loved going to weddings - loved, most of...

January 16, 2005 An In With the In Crowd, for a Fee By FRANK OWEN RESSED in a sober business suit, Jorge Lima, 30, a salesman for a pharmaceuticals company, looked out of place among the gyrating house music mavens at Cielo, a lounge with a futuristic theme in the meatpacking district known for a rotating cast of celebrity D.J.'s. But Mr. Lima didn't mind. On a recent Saturday night, sitting at a private table with a bottle of overpriced vodka, he was having the time of his life watching his pal Sam Oro awkwardly navigate the sunken dance floor...

Tryst turns torrid Woman hurt in fire BY DAVID EPSTEINand MAKI BECKERDAILY NEWS WRITERS Some early morning hanky-panky nearly proved deadly for a 32-year-old Manhattan woman when a candle ignited a comforter while she and a neighbor were in bed, witnesses said. The victim was having sex with her neighbor, who identified himself only as Leo, at her first-floor apartment on Broadway on the upper West Side yesterday. "The bed was moving back and forth and then - swoosh - the comforter's burning," said Leo, who ran from the fire, apparently leaving her behind. He said he then dialed 911...

By SUN ONLINE REPORTERA WOMAN today admitted ripping off her ex-boyfriend’s testicle with her bare hands after he refused to have sex with her. Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage after her ex-lover, 37-year-old Geoffrey Jones, rejected her advances at the end of a drunken house party.She yanked off his left testicle, which was later handed to him by a friend with the words: "That’s yours."Monti, of Birkenhead, Merseyside, pleaded guilty to wounding at Liverpool Crown Court today and will be sentenced next month.The court heard that Mr Jones had ended his long-term relationship with Monti towards the end...

January 9, 2005MODERN LOVESometimes a Model Girlfriend Shouldn't By KELLY McMASTERS Y fiancé, Mark Milroy, sees at least two naked women a week, not including me. His day planner is full of blocks of time carved out by long sweeping arrows and women's names: Aviva, Leslie, Francie, Elise, Maria, Eva. Sometimes they bring costumes: large peacock feathers, polka-dot babydoll dresses, leather corsets, fuzzy cow-print coats, vintage stockings and garters, flowers in their hair. But mostly they are naked. He pays them $20 an hour and feeds them Bustelo coffee from his old Bakelite and aluminum percolator. He smokes and squints,...

January 9, 2005 Can This Hookup Survive? By BAZ DREISINGER PPOSITES attract, yes, but they also bicker like third graders sometimes. When the 5-foot-8 rapper Flavor Flav — whose group, Public Enemy, emerged as the Black Panthers of the hip-hop generation in the late 1980's — met the 6-foot-2 former action-film star Brigitte Nielsen, a battle of bling versus brawn began. He balked when she tried to touch his gold teeth; she towered over him, swiped him with her makeup bag and proclaimed that she would wear the pants in the house. The house in question was the set of...

January 9, 2005EDITORIALMalpractice Mythology ort reform," the Bush administration's answer to the problem of high medical malpractice costs, makes sense from only one aspect: the political. The genius of tort reform, which focuses on putting a cap on the awards from malpractice suits, is that it offends only one big-money lobbying group: trial lawyers, who are important financial supporters of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, it helps or holds harmless Republican special interests in the insurance, drug and health care industries. The only problem is that it hurts the hapless patients who suffer grievous harm at the hands of incompetent doctors.We...

NEW YORK - Jimi Hendrix not only had the skills to become a rock legend — he apparently had the right look as well. A recent poll found that Hendrix had the best "guitar face" — the look guitarists get when trying to nail a high note or power chord. Hendrix received 24 percent of the 3,000 votes cast online by the public and a poll by some 20 celebrity judges. B.B. King captured 18 percent of the vote, followed by Angus Young of AC/DC with 16 percent. Gary Lucas (news), guitarist for Gods and Monsters, said he voted for...

January 6, 2005 Malpractice Costs Up 150% Since 1999, Hospitals Say By THOMAS J. LUECK he cost of medical malpractice insurance in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island has risen by nearly 150 percent since 1999, creating severe financial strains that have limited patients' access to such specialties as obstetrics and gynecology and made New York a "crisis state" for doctors, according to a report released yesterday by a hospital trade group.The trade group, the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents medical institutions in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, said its analysis had...

Violent city deaths hit historic lows By JOSE MARTINEZDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, January 2nd, 2005 New York city a safer city — and the startling proof is in the numbers: Not a single livery cabbie was killed in 2004. In fact, it has been nearly two years since anyone behind the wheel has been killed while on duty. Just one pedestrian was killed last year on Queens Blvd., the deadly roadway that claimed 72 pedestrian lives from 1993 to 2000. Now the notorious Boulevard of Death could use a name change. The murder rate continued to fall, keeping the...

January 2, 2005 Resolved: To Do More. Or Less. Or Something. By WARREN ST. JOHN T'S time for the New Year's resolution, that odd annual rite wherein after a month of giving thanks and celebrating all that is good in our lives we resolve to change the very lives we professed to be so thankful for. While many people are happy with tidy and task-oriented resolutions — stop smoking, drop a few pounds, lay off the Scotch — others are more ambitious. They strive for personal improvement, not a task but a project. Fortunately for them, there is no shortage...