Free Republic

Notice that a cheap pair of jeans costs $50.00 in Sweden, here you could buy a cheap pair of jeans for $20.00. Strange price difference in an era of free trade. Naive fair minded Americans taken advantage of again by so called free trade.

This article occuring during Canadian elections is a veiled attempt to drive some votes into the Liberal camp, it will be only excerpted by the Canadian press and most people will only see a paragraph or two.

Undoubtedly this study was skewed by the fact that mostly Europeans remains have been studied IE: the Cro-Magnon people of Northern Europe who have still today, larger faces than Asians or other peoples. How many Asians are in the fossil remains? Another point to consider suppose the genetic factors where split 50-50, farming allowed more smaller faced people to survive and past on their genes this would be perhaps be survival of the unfitest.The same arguments could be made about eyesight and an extremely slim build, my slim near sighted brother inlaw would have died in the first famine of childhood if he hadn't fallen off a cliff or been eaten by a lion earlier!

The Library of Alexandria existed in one form or another for
perhaps a thousand years it was rebuilt and restocked many times after being destroyed by fires or invaders, also the city was plagued by many civil wars. To blame the Library of Alexandria's destruction solely on Christians is misleading Islamic propaganda.
So who did burn the Library of Alexandria? Unfortunately most of the writers from Plutarch (who apparently blamed Caesar) to Edward Gibbons (a staunch atheist or deist who liked very much to blame Christians and blamed Theophilus) to Bishop Gregory (who was particularly anti-Moslem, blamed Omar) all had an axe to grind and consequently must be seen as biased. Probably everyone mentioned above had some hand in destroying some part of the Library's holdings. The collection may have ebbed and flowed as some documents were destroyed and others were added. For instance, Mark Antony was supposed to have given Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the Library long after Julius Caesar is accused of burning it.

It is also quite likely that even if the Museum was destroyed with the main library the outlying "daughter" library at the Temple of Serapis continued on. Many writers seem to equate the Library of Alexandria with the Library of Serapis although technically they were in two different parts of the city.

The real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the Library's destruction but that so much of ancient history, literature and learning was lost forever.

Selected sources:
"The Vanished Library" by Luciano Canfora

I am surprised that no one has mentioned "as goats and chickens wandered around the property." He was described elsewhere as a vegan. Most Americans do not eat goats, chickens and goats are used in Satanic rituals. Strange coincidence?

Ah bashing the Clintons brings back fond memories.Seriously anyone with an hour to spare should see this website names, dates, photos, documents and more! Many newer members have probably never seen or heard these allegations
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/FOSTER_COVERUP/foster.html (better to read the whole thing then click around)
Everyone post their opinions

A careful reading of this article will expose it as more global warming propaganda. We are to send 100's of billions of dollars so that the average summer temputure will not increase 0.1 to 0.4 degrees Celsius degrees, Madrid is "baking" at 74F and London at 72F. Fallacy,they picked a certain five year period to compare with, could they have picked a warmer or colder time period? Fallacy, cites are large heat sinks warmer than the countryside have the cities grown or changed to materials like asphalt? More science and less proaganda please.

I too live in the area and the notion of an extreme drought is bogus see "With record-breaking rain showers this winter, wildflowers are painting the normally beige sands of Southern Nevada's deserts in waves of yellow, purple and red." From :http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2005/mar/07/518405389.html
The former drought was in the Rockies and the result of less snow fall than usual for several years. Lake Mead is designed to rise and fall, prior years it was nearly full.

I have asked in this forum and have searched on the internet for an answer to this question, If Iraq did not have CBW at the time of the war what happened to them? Does anyone have an answer.
A summary of this issue is provided by:
http://www.iraqwatch.org/bulletins/vol2iss6nov03.htm
Volume 2, Issue 6
November-December 2003

Iraqi Weapons: Five Unanswered Questions

By Shabnam Faruki

"Despite the fact that no cache of mass destruction weapons has been found in Iraq, a number of crucial questions about Iraq's past weapon efforts - raised by nearly a decade of U.N. inspections - remain unanswered. ....

The existence of these unresolved issues cannot be taken lightly. ...... Below is a list of the top five concerns:


1. VX

The inspectors never could figure out what happened to 3.9 tonnes of VX, the deadliest kind of nerve gas. Iraq admitted producing VX in 1988 and 1990, but furnished no convincing evidence that it was destroyed in 1991, as Iraq claimed. This failure was not cured by an Iraqi report handed to inspectors in March 2003, which attempted to account for up to 63 percent of the missing VX.

2. Anthrax

The inspectors concluded that Iraq may not have destroyed about 10,000 liters of the biological agent anthrax, which if properly stored, could still be viable. Iraq admitted producing 8,425 liters of anthrax, but claimed it had disposed of all the agent in 1991, and provided inspectors with a series of technical reports aimed at substantiating the claim. However, the reports failed to prove exactly how much anthrax was disposed of.

3. Other Germ Warfare Agents

Iraq did not explain what happened to thousands of liters of other biological agent that it admitted producing, including more than 340 liters of clostridium perfringens - though inspectors concluded that Iraq had enough growth medium to have made "much larger quantities." This agent would still be viable today if properly stored. The inspectors were also unable to account for some 19,000 liters of botulinum toxin and at least 2,200 liters of aflatoxin. Neither of these agents would be viable today, but accounting for them is necessary to determine the total amount of germ agent and the individual amounts of each agent that Iraq produced.

4. Chemical and Biological Munitions

Iraq consumed 6,526 fewer chemical-filled aerial bombs - containing some 1,000 tons of agent (mostly mustard gas, but also sarin and tabun) - during the Iran-Iraq war than it claimed, according to the "Air Force document" handed over by Iraq in December 2002. Moreover, inspectors could not account for 550 mustard-filled artillery shells that Iraq claimed to have lost. The inspectors determined that Iraqi mustard gas was still of a very high quality. Also unaccounted for are 29 germ-filled bombs, some possibly containing anthrax."End quote

If God knew in advance of Saul's errant ways and or "evil" then this entire thread or discussion leads to the equally devise issue of Theodicy: "If, according to the Bible, God, who is omnipotent and benevolent, has eternally decreed all that ever comes to pass, and if He sovereignly and providentially controls all things in His created universe, how is He not the author of evil? How can evil exist in the world? How do we justify the actions of God in causing evil, suffering, and pain? This is the question of "theodicy." The word, which supposedly was coined by the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), is derived from two Greek words (theos, God, and dike, justice), and has to do with the justification of the goodness and righteousness of God in the face of the evil in the world. Through devine foreknowledge is God responsible for good and evil in the world? If so then is he considered benevolent? We all struggle with why evil happens to someone, either ourselves, our family, our friends, our nation, or perhaps some particularly disturbing instance in the news, a school shooting, genocide in another country, a terrorist bombing earthquakes and tsunamis.

PS I don't know the answers to these questions but I have pondered them alot.

The implied question in 1 Samuel 15:11 ""I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments."
is not if God changed his mine, it is did God had perfect foreknowledge or did Saul's freewill make the outcome unknown to God

An interesting book I am reading on the subject is "What Does God Know and When Does He Know It?" described as "As "openness theology" becomes increasingly controversial within evangelicalism today, divine foreknowledge threatens to join predestination vs. free will among Christianity's divisively debated doctrines. Now one of America's most respected theologians examines the question from both sides. Thoroughly evaluating all relevant arguments with graceful deliberation, Erickson offers thoughtful conclusions with less heat and more light." An example of the debatable Bible verses is 1 Samuel 15:11 ""I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments." Here it seems that God did not have perfect foreknowledge because of Saul's free will. Believe in John 3:16 and your questions will be answered in Heaven

Further reading of the document reveals that only .07% of those with children were hungry:
"Prevalences of Food Insecurity
and Hunger—National
Conditions and Trends
Eighty-nine percent of U.S. households were food
secure throughout the entire year 2002 (fig. 1). “Food
secure” means that all household members had access
at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.5
The remaining 12.1 million U.S. households (11.1 percent
of all households) were food insecure at some
time during the year. That is, they were uncertain of
having, or unable to acquire, enough food for all
household members because they had insufficient
money and other resources for food. About two-thirds
of food-insecure households avoided hunger, in many
cases by relying on a few basic foods and reducing
variety in their diets. But 3.8 million households (3.5
percent of all U.S. households) were food insecure to
the extent that one or more household members were
hungry, at least some time during the year, because
they couldn’t afford enough food.
In most households, children were protected from substantial
reductions in food intake and ensuing hunger.
However, in some 265,000 households (0.7 percent of
households with children), food insecurity was sufficiently
severe that 1 or more children in each household
were also hungry on 1 or more days during the
year because the household lacked money for enough
food."

As Paul Harvey says "now the rest of the story",undoubtedly there are some hungry people in America, however the basis for this story is answering yes to three of following questions. It would not take much for most(note these questions concern money and not food stamps or food aid) to answer yes over the past 12 months: Economic Research Service/USDA Household Food Security in the United States, 2002/FANRR-35 ✥ 3(and later years) Questions Used To Assess the Food Security of Households in the CPS Food Security Survey 1. “We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? 2. “The food that we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? 3. “We couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? 4. In the last 12 months, did you or other adults in the household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No) 5. (If yes to Question 4) How often did this happen—almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months? 6. In the last 12 months, did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No) 7. In the last 12 months, were you ever hungry, but didn’t eat, because you couldn’t afford enough food? (Yes/No) 8. In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because you didn’t have enough money for food? (Yes/No) 9. In the last 12 months did you or other adults in your household ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No) 10. (If yes to Question 9) How often did this happen—almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months? (Questions 11-18 are asked only if the household included children age 0-18) 11. “We relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food to feed our children because we were running out of money to buy food.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? 12. “We couldn’t feed our children a balanced meal, because we couldn’t afford that.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? 13. “The children were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? 14. In the last 12 months, did you ever cut the size of any of the children’s meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No) 15. In the last 12 months, were the children ever hungry but you just couldn’t afford more food? (Yes/No) 16. In the last 12 months, did any of the children ever skip a meal because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No) 17. (If yes to Question 16) How often did this happen—almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months? 18. In the last 12 months did any of the children ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)

I think the statement "then pointed his machine gun at the horizon, trying to release the safety catch. He fiddled with the gun for a few minutes, then turned to me: "Do you know how to make these things work?"" is an outright lie. A lie designed to build sympathy for the terrorist with the Guardian's readership in England. How dumb would you have to be to not know how to flip a lever? After days or weeks in a battle zone. More left wing propaganda the Guardian is full of it.

I believe most commentators are missing the big picture here! Consider this quote "Teresa Heinz Kerry, controls a vast fortune estimated by a Los Angeles Times study to fall somewhere between $900 million to $3.2 billion" June 27, 2004. Let us split the difference and call it $2,000,000,000, an income of $2,291,137 on 2 billion is minuscule. You could put in a checking account and do 10x better. Obviously the true income is much higher and is concealed by various loopholes and tax evasions. While undoubtedly legal, this is sheer hypocrisy coming from an extreme Liberal, this is mind staggering. Write some angry letters to the newspaper editors and blogs. If the Bush's where this rich, it would be Billionaire George Bush tag line mentioned every time in the MSM!

What really happened to Iraq's biological weapons? This is a mind staggering amount, imagine the trillions of germs contained in a liter bottle of soda. What was the ultimate disposition of these weapons, do we have proof? Anthrax (dried spores) is a hardy bacteria, antidotal evidence suggests it can survive a 100 years. What is buried in undetectable plastic containers in the sands of Iraq? What is stored in neighboring countries? Can the readers link to a news story answering these questions? I could not find the answers.

After reading this article, concerning mobile biological weapons laboratories using fermentation to produce hydrogen in Irag, I would like to point out a major flaw in the reasoning ie. electrolysis of water is the favorite method to produce hydrogen, other methods include: thermochemical reactions in carbon base fuels (oil), photoelectrochemical process using sunlight, and natural photosynthetic activity of bacteria and green algae. No where do I see fermentation used as favorite method. Why produce an elaborate mobile biological weapons laboratory when you cab produce hydrogen like this link: http://webhome.idirect.com/7Efamistew/hydrogen/electro.htm Is this a coverup? Perhaps a reader who is a chemist can comment further.

The last line is a link to a more detailed discussion of Heinz-Kerry's wealth take a look. Every couple running for Presidential office has produced their 1040s since the 1980s
Why won't Heinz-Kerry? Does anyone believe that if George and Laura Bush where as rich as the Kerrys, the Liberal Media would not attach the adjective Billionaire to Bush's name

With the next Presidental debate topics sure to include tax rates of the rich and paying our fair share, what did Mrs. Heinz Kerry pay? Only $587,000 on income of $5,115,000 (some tax exempt) or 11.7% Donald Luskin says "If John Kerry wins the presidency, his household will be the richest ever to occupy the White House. Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, controls a vast fortune estimated by a Los Angeles Times study to fall somewhere between $900 million to $3.2 billion" $5,115,000 is a minimum rate of return of only .05%! http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin200407140830.asp