Free Republic

From The History of the State of Georgia, by I. W. Avery On January 16, 1865, Union general William T. Sherman issued his Special Field Order No. 15, which confiscated as Federal property a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John's River in Florida, including Georgia's Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast. The order redistributed the roughly 400,000 acres of land to newly freed black families in forty-acre segments.... Although Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 had no tangible benefit for blacks after President Johnson's revocation, the present-day movement supporting...

Among the tens of thousands of words spoken and written this week over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's split with the Likud, no one has stated the basic fact that the real parents of his new party are the country's journalists. Many months, if not years, before Sharon began considering this week's momentous step, the basic blueprint had already been drawn on the pages of the newspapers. Long hours of brainstorming were spent this week on coming up with a suitable name for the new venture, but if the copywriters had been honest, they would have called it the Media Party....

There will be no press junket, no premiere and, most importantly, no Oscar marketing campaign beyond trailers and posters for Steven Spielberg’s movie Munich, I have learned. This dicey decision to have no traditional publicity for the film before and after it opens December 23 is the director’s alone. He will not even be giving press or broadcast interviews. “The official strategy is for the movie to speak for itself,” an insider told me this week. “All they’re going to do is just show the movie to people. You have to be Steven Spielberg to get away with that.”

A friend of mine related to me recently an incident that happened to him. He was driving his car in Jeddah, when he realized that he had a flat tire. He parked in a side street and when he got out of his car to change the tire, he was attacked by two “Takrunis”. Takruni is a term used in Saudi Arabia to describe illegal immigrants from West Africa. It supposedly alludes to an ancient kingdom there called Takrun. He was knocked unconscious and, on regaining consciousness, discovered that he had been robbed. When he went to report the crime...

For many people the idea of a state that cares for every aspect of its citizens’ well-being is a highly desirable even utopian ideal. The rise of the “nanny state” in many Western countries was heralded as a triumph of political evolution. For me, this is a highly dangerous prospect. There are several reasons that lead me to this conclusion. Firstly, human beings are, on principle, fallible and corruptible, who will take any opportunity to abuse power when it is placed in their hands. A state which intervenes in the affairs of its citizens to serve their every need inevitably...

Arafat's remarks came amid growing criticism of corruption and lawlessness. The warnings followed two attacks on PA installations in the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours. The first attack took place in the town of Zweideh south of Gaza City. The gunmen broke into the empty police station, pouring gasoline on mattresses and blankets and setting the building alight. The fire also damaged a room in the municipality offices on the upper story of the building. PA security officials said the fire destroyed files, computers and communications equipment, but no one was hurt since the building was empty. Mayor...

Rubinomics or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Inflation (Apologies to Stanley Kubrick) Ah, the 1990s. The economy was growing at a rapid clip. Consumer prices were tame. The stock market was rising. It seemed as if with just a snap of her magic thong our fairy godmother had repealed the business cycle. But now it is the 21st century and the coach is seen to be a pumpkin and the dashing steeds mere mice. What went wrong? What happened is neither new nor hard to explain. What we have discovered is that the business cycle has not...

President Bush has done it again and his incessant critics have not a clue about what has transpired. We refer to the brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed strategy the Bush team crafted for protecting the build up of American forces in the Persian Gulf. It is the newly reconstituted UN inspection regime that is providing cover for the build up of the force that will soon launch the offensive that brings an end to Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq. The one unmistakable lesson Saddam Hussein and everyone else learned in the 1991 Gulf War was that no nation can oppose...

"Violence touched her just last year. Ms. William's boyfriend snapped and, according to police records, came at her with a knife. Ms. Williams shot him with her .25-caliber pistol. He staggered into traffic and was run over and died. The authorities ruled the shooting 'justifiable,' and Mrs. Williams was never charged."

Something to do on the way to the rallies! Algore, The Card Game with No Controlling Legal Authority Basic Play The object of the game is to obtain the hand with the most points. Points are assigned to the cards in the traditional manner. One point for an Ace, Two points for a Deuce etc. Face cards are worth ten. 1. Each player is dealt five cards face up. 2. All hands are examined and the player with the lowest point total is declared the Algore. 3. The Algore then begins drawing cards from the deck. 4. The Algore draws ...