Free Republic

It's official - our nation has gone cuisine crazy. A new little Thai restaurant opened up just round the corner. It's one of those more traditional authentic Thai restaurants, with the traditional authentic Thai decor, and the traditional authentic Thai pun-based name - it was something like Bow Thai, or Thai-Tanic, or it may have been Thai Me Kangaroo Down Sport. Anyway, it looked pretty good, and we were pretty hungry, so we popped down to get some takeaway. We ordered a green curry and a red curry, and also a brown curry, which is probably just the red curry...

I found that I am fed up with posts coming up with Wikipedia entries on things that sometimes even precede their own official site. They seem to occur with increasing frequencies that I'm considering ways to disable results from Wikipedia and their own morphs coming up in searches. Is there a way to save settings on my computer that will disable Wikipedia coming up once and for all? Many thanks in advance and your help will be much appreciated.

We often hear Christians talking about certain theological ideas and ministry models as “Western.” The implication is that, these ideas and models came from the West, and the church in Asia must take a critical look to see if they are suitable for use in ministry in Asia. What exactly does the word “Western” mean? And what did the Chinese church import from the West? WHAT IS “WESTERN”? The Gospel of Jesus Christ spread in several directions in the first and second centuries. The Christian faith went to India, according to tradition, by the Apostle Thomas. Christians also took their...

<p>Despite the 24/7 quagmire wallow of CNN International (which makes CNN domestic look like the Michael Savage show), the rolling news network founded by Ted Turner is still seen around the world as, believe it or not, “American.” The truly globalized broadcaster remains the BBC.</p>

The lives of two talented and popular Christchurch teenage girls have been brutally ended after an out-of-control St Albans party on Saturday night came to a horrific end. Jane Ada Young, 16, and Hannah Perkins Rossiter, also 16, were killed and eight others injured when a red Honda Integra car ploughed through a crowd of partygoers spilling on to Edgeware Road about 10.45pm. Two young people hit by the car were still fighting for their lives in Christchurch Hospital last night. Police have charged a 22-year-old factory worker with the murder of the two teenagers. The driver was believed to...

One of the oft-repeated mantras of 21st century evangelicalism sounds something like this: Believers! Avoid cafeteria Christianity! This axiom basically asserts that as Christians we aren't at liberty to simply pick and choose what parts of the faith we like and don't like. In other words, believers shouldn't enthusiastically embrace only that which is pleasing and comfortable, while quietly rejecting and discarding truths that are displeasing and uncomfortable. Obviously one can find wisdom in such an admonition. Certainly we are to embrace the whole council of God's Word - regardless of whether our acceptance comes easily and naturally, or only...

In order to help students develop the personality traits of Shatin Tsung-Tsiners, in particular, being self-disciplined and thoughtful, the Discipline Committee establishes the performance indicators for students’ proper behavior and the demerit system for irregularities or misconduct. We hope that students could learn to be considerate and responsible for their behavior.

New Zealand’s environment is at the core of our quality of life, our national identity and our competitive advantage, yet it is not being well managed. New leadership and direction are needed. The National Party is determined to sustainably develop New Zealand so as to deliver both a strong economy and high environmental standards. We have produced a substantive environment discussion paper containing our vision for tackling New Zealand’s environment issues. I encourage you to download this document from our website or get a copy from your local National MP so you can read the full range of our proposals....

If our cultural past isn't worth defending, why should our future be? ---------------------- Five years after the (a) all too predictable blowback to U.S. foreign policy born of decades of poverty and desperation or (b) controlled explosion by Bush-Cheney-Halliburton-Zionist agents (delete according to taste), I get a lot of mail on the lines of: C'mon, man, cut to the chase--are we gonna win or lose? Well, let me come at that in an evasive non-chase-cutting manner and circle around to it very gradually. I gave a speech in Sydney last month and among the audience was a lady called Pauline...

Everyone knows Noam Chomsky is a leftist as far as US defence/foreign policies are concerned, and also on economic system and social welfare. Does anyone know any sources about where Noam Chomsky stands on these social issues: 1. gay marriage 2. pornography 3. abortions;? There are some Asian Christian friends I know who believe that Noam Chomsky is conservative on these areas (and they literally worship him because he is a "pacifist" and a socialist economically). But I'm sceptical as far as these are concerned since I know US leftists tend to be straight A lefties on all counts. If...

Learn what American attitudes toward current events and Bible prophecy are in this exclusive new poll.Are We Living in the Last Days? We asked: "Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: 'Events such as the rebirth of the State of Israel, wars and instability in the Middle East, recent earthquakes, and the tsunami in Asia are evidence that we are living in what the Bible calls the last days.'"* 42% of all Americans agree * 44% disagree * 14% say they don’t know Last Days—Gender* 50 percent of women agree; 37 percent disagree; * 14 percent don’t know...

Of the two senior dominions, Australia's a fraction of our size with double the global influence. Where did Canada go wrong? Obviously foreign countries are the easiest to write about: "Through the haze, I could see camel caravans crossing the Niger river," etc. That's Joseph C. Wilson IV's famous New York Times editorial about whether or not Saddam was trying to acquire uranium from Niger--a bad travelogue that nevertheless catapulted him to the world's longest 15 minutes of fame. But countries that are apparently just like your own are much harder to get into the real rhythm of. On the...

The goals of Freerepublic are "to champion causes which further conservatism in America.". I have noticed there are a couple of posters on this forum who are actively promoting another country/supranational organization's (super-)national interests which are opposite of Ameirca national interests. For instance, there is a well-known Euro poster from Spain who, from what he posts and supports, is an ardent and enthusiastic supporter of the anti-American European Union. Since such posters clearly disagree with the stated goals of this forum as expressed by the founder as "pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights,...

The U.K.'s proven it will fight the radical Islamist threat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why not in London? The Prime Minister made a great impression on his recent trip to London. I don't mean just the number of times I was told what a splendid chap this Simon Harper/ Stephen Cooper fellow was. My favourite proximation, by the way, was "Stephen Howard": there's no higher praise than being taken for John Howard's cousin. But, aside from that, I was struck by the way every speech was more robust than the circumstances required. For example, in an all but unreported address...

The issue of republicanism may have divided Australia in recent years, but on Thursday night the country hailed a new king. Australian Prime Minister John Howard dubbed Harry Kewell "King Harry" after his equalising goal in their 2-2 draw with Croatia, and few people in Australia would have disagreed. The sight of Howard watching football in the early hours of the morning and jumping out of his chair with excitement summed up how Australia has fallen in love with football. And things may never be the same again. For years, football was the poor relation in the sports-mad country. Despite...

After nine days of sport that convinced some of us the beautiful game had a chance to breathe again at this World Cup, the Italians and the Americans bludgeoned the theory by fighting out, too often literally, a drawn contest. There were 34 fouls, some of them disgraceful. There were three red cards, all of them justified, and three more yellow cards that might have turned the deeper colour. There were two goals, two memorable saves from either goalkeeper, and a match of shame petered out. This turned into the first brutal and calculatedly ugly affair of the tournament. The...

A report on Jim Bennett’s talk to the Bruges Group in London A combination of day-jobbing and difficulties with internet connection at home has meant a very weak presence on the blog. This has given me a feeling of not quite understanding what is going on. (Yes, yes, there are numerous people around who would say I suffer from that all the time, particularly if they don’t agree with me.) However, some good things come out of everything. Yesterday I spent the afternoon talking to the guru of the Anglosphere, Jim Bennett, and in the evening, to round things off,...

Former Socceroo Craig Foster plots the path Australia must take to beat Japan, Croatia and, yes, even the world's best. TWO group matches will determine our fate in Germany - but only one involves Australia. Our first game against Japan is critical to start the tournament well and because Japan remain our best chance for three points. Our next most important game will be a day later when Croatia meet Brazil. Regardless of our result against Japan, we need Brazil to beat Croatia - preferably by several goals - to damage their goal differential status. This is a danger game...

As Australia prepares for the World Cup frenzy, John Huxley wonders if a game out of control may score an own goal. BY ALL accounts, Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho is a down-to-earth sort of boy. He lives with his mother, Miguelina, in Barcelona, says his favourite food is her concoction of meat, rice and beans, and relaxes by playing the bongos and walking his dogs. His earnings, though, are out of this world. Salary, sponsorship and advertising deals this year will push his income to about $38 million - more than that of the entire star-studded Socceroos, more even than David...

JERUSALEM -- With the soccer World Cup games about to begin next week, the question of which team you are going to support becomes crucial. For an American, it's simple: You support the American team, and if you're Hispanic, you get a bonus, because you can also enjoy Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Ecuador playing against the rest of the world -- not to mention favorite Brazil. However, for fans whose country didn't qualify, like Israel, it's not so easy. Of course, people who have immigrated from Argentina or the Ukraine, and there are many of those in Israel, the...