Free Republic

Is E-ZPass helping states violate the Constitution? Massachusetts and Rhode Island use electronic toll systems to charge their residents less than out-of-staters at some bridges and tunnels. Now two new lawsuits filed in federal courts say the practice is unconstitutional. An out-of-state driver crossing Narragansett Bay on the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge must pay $1.75 with an E-ZPass transponder in the car, but Rhode Islanders, under a resident discount program introduced in January, pay just 83 cents with a transponder. (No break for anyone who pays cash.) Massachusetts has a similar program that reduces the cost of some bridge and...

LONDON (Reuters) - A widely available blood pressure pill could one day help people erase bad memories, perhaps treating some anxiety disorders and phobias, according to a Dutch study published on Sunday. The generic beta-blocker propranolol significantly weakened people's fearful memories of spiders among a group of healthy volunteers who took it, said Merel Kindt, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, who led the study. "We could show that the fear response went away, which suggests the memory was weakened," Kindt said in a telephone interview.

Halloween has come early this year: Republicans have forgotten how to run without scare tactics. This year it’s Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s turn as the Democratic goblin, with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as the witch on a broomstick. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is the vampire slayer and ghostbuster who will save us from the creatures of the night. These fear tactics didn’t work in the three special House elections this year, and they’re not going to work in November. Are we supposed to be scared of Democrats as big spenders? The Bush administration and congressional Republicans topped Democratic...

The Tweezerman saga is a classic American story of a guy with a dream rising from rags to riches, then coming to Washington to change the world, but the truly amazing part is that the whole thing -- the gourmet tweezer empire, the movie producing, the peace mission to Iraq, the run for president -- would never have happened if not for that painful moment when Dal LaMagna, who is Tweezerman, got 32 splinters in his butt during an erotic interlude on a rooftop in Venice Beach, Calif. Life sure is strange sometimes, isn't it? Dal LaMagna's life has certainly...

Michael Tonello didn't grow up wearing Hermès, the venerable French label founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès as a saddlery. He never coveted Hermès ties or scarves, hallmarks of the upper crust. And the American hairstylist certainly never gave a rat's arse about the world-famous Birkin bag, the clunky, rectangular satchel so elusive that billionaires can't always get their hands on them. For the longest time, Tonello didn't even know what a Birkin was. He just wanted enough dough to live in dreamy Barcelona. But after falling into the resale business, he haphazardly discovered the formula for procuring Birkins. And...

PITY the mothers and grandmothers. Visible bra straps, glaringly obvious roots — these are but a few of the grooming no-nos that have become yes-yeses in recent years. Now there is another stylistic tic that would have been unthinkable on a proper lady in your Aunt Beatrice’s day. Over the last few years — since the era of the skull print scarf, let’s say, or the (metaphorical) rise of the Olsen twins — having streaked, chipped or just plain grotty nail polish no longer suggests drug addiction, manual labor or pure laziness. Like untied high-tops, thread-worn jeans and bedhead, it’s...

While Barack Obama snags the Hollywood limelight this week (and the movie stars' mega bucks), his fellow frontrunner in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes will be cozying up with the Persian Jews of Beverly Hills. Barack gets Denzel Washington, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Hillary Rodham Clinton gets Nina Ansary, Hassan Nemazee, Rashel Pouri and lots of other people you've never heard of. Another way to look at it: Obama attracts the stars to his fundraiser in Hollywood, but Clinton is the star of her fundraising gig in Beverly Hills. Or reframe it this way: While the minority candidate...

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft. Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way -- by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nuclear," three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations. Policymakers and intelligence officials have always struggled when...

TALLAHASSEE -- In Washington, a woman will become the next speaker of the U.S. House. In Tallahassee, a woman will join the state Cabinet. But when the Florida Legislature starts a new two-year term Tuesday, women lawmakers won't see the same type of gains. Women will represent 39 districts in the House and Senate, less than a quarter of the 160 seats. That is the same number of districts women represented last year -- and roughly the same number they have held for the past decade. Lawmakers point to various reasons for the relative lack of women in the Legislature,...

VIENNA : Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said OPEC should carry out the one million barrel per day (bpd) production cut it has planned for Thursday. He told reporters upon arriving in Vienna Tuesday for a meeting Wednesday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: "This is our valid decision and we should implement it because we have discussed and we have decided this issue." The 10 nations in OPEC's quota system decided on February 10 at a meeting in Algiers to reduce their official crude oil production from 24.5 million bpd to 23.5 million from April 1. Iraq...

TALLAHASSEE -- They would force lawmakers to substitute teach and usher 16-year-olds into the voting booth. They would dash the budget-busting dream of high-speed rail and force every driver and passenger to buckle up. They would legalize marijuana and close the peephole into bedrooms. This year's dizzying collage of 52 citizen initiatives, ranging from pie-in-the-sky universal health care to humdrum insurance rates, will be watched more closely than any in decades. History suggests that only a fraction will reach the 488,722-signature threshold to even become an issue on Election Day. Fewer still can expect to land in the constitution. But...

Politicians are quick to sum up the reason March elections in Delray Beach and Boca Raton were canceled last week after no one challenged the incumbents: Things must be great in south Palm Beach County so residents don't want drastic change. Their explanation may have truth to it, but political experts cite a mix of other factors most likely driving prospective candidates away: the need to raise tens of thousands of dollars to beat business-backed incumbents, dual-career families with no time for civic involvement, new residents from other areas not interested in the issues, steady tax rates, and local offices...

All our fears boil down to one simple thing: our fear that we're not special. We're afraid that we're replaceable, one of a crowd, that there's nothing unique about us. And we're afraid, as a result, that we won't be able to meet whatever challenges life presents us with. And while this fear is ancient, it has been greatly exacerbated in the modern era because of our culture of lovelessness. If you're not made to feel in your earliest years that you are of infinite value, then you will usually spend the rest of your life trying to prove that...

The United States is open to restoring a dialogue with Iran after "encouraging" moves by the Islamic republic in recent months, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday. Iranian leaders have agreed to allow surprise inspections of the country's nuclear energy program, have made overtures to moderate Arab governments and, in the past week, have accepted direct U.S. help as the country struggles with the effects of a devastating earthquake. "There are things happening, and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future," Powell, who is recovering from surgery for prostate...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - For the first time in more than a decade, four American military aircraft landed in Iran Sunday in a gesture between two countries more noted for acrimony than mutual aid. The US, joining dozens of other countries in providing emergency aid after Friday's earthquake, delivered about 120,000 pounds of medical supplies and water to the nation once branded by President Bush as part of the "axis of evil." But it is often at humanity's most trying moments that old foes are brought together in a spirit of cooperation and compassion. "The reception was very warm," said Lt....

<p>BAM, Iran (CNN) --Inspecting extensive earthquake damage in Bam, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised Monday that the ruined historic city will be rebuilt.</p> <p>Three days after a 6.6-magnitude quake struck Friday, authorities said most of the 25,000 discovered bodies from the quake had been buried.</p>

Neda Toloui-Semnani left Iran 22 years ago as a 2-year-old. She grew up in the District, graduated from the University of Maryland and now works for a nonprofit group in the Iranian capital of Tehran. As a result, Toloui-Semnani is closer than most Iranian Americans to the unfolding tragedy in her homeland brought on by Friday's devastating earthquake. "In a strange way, it feels like 9/11 all over again. There are the same feelings of shock and trauma," Toloui-Semnani, 24, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "The difference here is that the numbers are astronomical. Also, there is nobody to...

TEHRAN, Dec. 27--A strong earthquake in southeastern Iran killed at least 20,000 people in and around the historic city of Bam early Friday, according to Iranian officials who appealed for international assistance in searching for survivors and recovering the dead. The devastating 6.7-magnitude quake struck at 5:28 a.m. local time (8:58 p.m. Thursday EST), an hour at which almost all of the city's 80,000 residents were in bed on the Muslim day of rest. Officials who surveyed the ancient Silk Road oasis by air estimated that 60 percent of dwellings collapsed, killing thousands almost instantly and injuring as many as...

The death toll from Friday's disastrous earthquake in southeast Iran is continuing to rise with some Iranian officials putting it at over 20,000. The following is contact information if anyone is interested in helping the victims: 1-800-Help-Now www.redcross.com www.ifrc.org Iranian Disaster Fund: 0041227304222 NITV: 818-456-5977

<p>It was a historic moment for the Grand Old Party: At the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, black conservatives took center stage, delivered speeches in prime time, raised their voices in a gospel choir and locked hands with the white men who, by an overwhelming majority, run the party.</p>