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This isn’t one of those articles where I ask a question in the headline and provide the answer in the text. Because the truth is, I don’t know how someone accused of sexual assault is supposed to prove they obtained consent under the new “yes means yes” policies. And it looks like no one else knows either. I reached out to the lead sponsor of the California affirmative consent law, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, because when I tried asking other sponsors of the bill, they directed me to him. His office provided a lengthy description of the bill that...

FRANKFURT — The sovereign debt crisis would seem to create worry enough for European banks, but there is another gathering threat that has not garnered as much notice: the trillions of dollars in short-term borrowing that institutions around the world must repay or roll over in the next two years. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have all recently warned of a looming crunch, especially in Europe, where banks have enough trouble raising money as it is. Their concern is that banks hungry for refinancing will compete with governments — which also must...

China says no to Japan's proposal on UN dues www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-24 00:11:05 BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said here Thursday China "firmly" opposes Japan's proposal to revise UN dues assessments and set a minimum rate for permanent members of the Security Council. Japan presented a proposal to the UN General Assembly budget committee on March 10, saying each of the five permanent council members -- the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France --should contribute at least 3 percent or 5 percent of the UN budget. Under the proposal, China and Russia, whose dues currently...

Memorial to give disabled vets their dueFundraising under way for monument set to open by 2010 The Associated Press Posted on Sat, Mar. 25, 2006 WASHINGTON — Troops returning from Iraq and other conflicts with missing limbs and shattered bodies will have a place of honor among the memorials of the nation’s capital. Planners are raising money for a new site — nestled among the tributes to fallen war heroes from World War II, Korea and Vietnam — to salute about 3 million disabled veterans. Interest in the memorial has increased since the Iraq war began. So far, the Disabled...

USA Today piece. Link only.

Japan Rethinking Plan for Security Council By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 30, 8:31 PM ET Japan has warned Congress that U.S. legislation seeking to withhold United Nations dues could lead Japanese lawmakers to take similar action, possibly resulting in the loss of millions of dollars to the world body, a Japanese diplomat said Friday. Deputy Ambassador Toshiro Ozawa said he told Rep. Henry Hyde (news, bio, voting record) in a meeting early this month of the possible "unintended consequences" surrounding a bill the Illinois Republican sponsored as a way to force the United Nations to enact a...

Palestinian Elections Set For January Elections Were Postpone Due To Gaza Pullout Aug 20, 2005 2:56 pm US/Mountain Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (File) AP (CBS) RAFAH, Gaza Strip Palestinian parliamentary elections will be held Jan. 25, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced Saturday. The elections were to have been held in July, but were postponed indefinitely because of Israel's Gaza pullout. In setting a firm date, Abbas was making a conciliatory gesture to his political rival, Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in the vote. "The parliamentary election will take place in all of the homeland districts on...

Although Terri’s case has evolved into an emotionally charged disputed issue as to what Terri’s wishes are, our legal system has been resorted to to carry out Terri’s wishes, not her husbands wishes, not he parents wishes, but Terri’s wishes. One would hope all opposing parties, and I mean all those who have strong feelings in the matter, would, at the very least, want Terri to receive the full protection and due process of law as provided for under Florida’s constitution and law. Unfortunately, due process of law has not occurred in Judge Greer’s Star Chamber Court, as I shall...

Activism A Seattle Central Community College campus antiwar group, Students Against War, is in hot water after students chased U.S. Army recruiters off the SCCC campus during an Inauguration Day anti-Bush rally. Nobody was hurt in the incident, in which students ripped up recruiting literature and verbally confronted recruiters. Right-wing bloggers and radio talk shows across the country have gotten hold of the story and are besieging SCCC administrators with demands to discipline the students. The upshot, says Pete Knutson, the students' faculty adviser, was a letter from the administration demanding that the students apologize by Thursday or have their...

'TANSTAAFL," an acronym popularized by Robert Heinlein's classic libertarian novel "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress," means, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." It's one of life's most basic lessons, but, unfortunately, its message has been lost on public employee unions and the politicians who do their bidding. Through aggressive political behavior, public-sector unions have not only pushed public-sector salaries above comparable salaries in the private sector, but they have achieved astounding pension plans for their members. Firefighters and police officers in Orange County can earn more than $100,000 a year, and they can receive 100 percent...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Decision due on Hill of Tara motorway Archaeologists say 'heart and soul of Ireland' is threatened Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent Thursday November 11, 2004 The Guardian (UK) It is Ireland's most sacred stretch of earth and one of the most important ancient landscapes in Europe. The Hill of Tara, with its passage tomb, earthworks and prehistorical burial mounds, is the mythical and ceremonial capital of Ireland, dating back 4,000 years. But now the landscape in county Meath, north-west of Dublin, is the subject of a campaign to save it from what one archaeologist has called the "worst case of state-sponsored...

Over dued Due Process by Linda Eddy John Kerry’s 1971 Senate testimony put into the American public’s mind stories of war crimes being done by American troops serving in Vietnam. These stories Kerry told to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to the American people were based on lies by men falsely claiming to be Vietnam veterans. Here is what Kerry said: “I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed...

Inuit 'Poisoned from Afar' Due to Climate Change 2 hours, 1 minute ago By Amran Abocar TORONTO (Reuters) - The Inuit living in the Arctic region are being "poisoned from afar" as climate change takes its toll on the area and threatens their existence, the head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference said on Wednesday. Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman of the group that represents about 155,000 Inuit in the Arctic regions of Canada, Russia, Greenland and the United States, said Inuit were paying dearly for the actions of people elsewhere. "The Inuit have now become the net recipients of toxins coming from...

On the day that Ronald Reagan left office in January 1989, I had dinner with the Soviet ambassador. He was a guest at three Bush inaugural dinners that night, but he generously stayed at the National Review dinner for two courses and 90 minutes. And in that time he electrified the other guests with his remarks on Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union, he said, would not intervene in Eastern Europe if the peoples there decided they wanted non-communist governments. Questioned closely by his fellow guests William Safire and Jeane Kirkpatrick, he repeated this assurance several times. When he left, we...

Hamilton County officials have agreed to wait to see if Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is California's next governor before proceeding to try to reinstate 1999 pandering obscenity charges against him. That was the result -- albeit tongue-in-cheek -- of a Monday hearing before Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Dinkelacker. The five-minute hearing was supposed to be standard because the issue is before the Court of Appeals and can't go forward in Hamilton County until the higher court renders a decision. But the judge, wearing a smile, asked Flynt's lawyer if it was better to delay the Hamilton County case until...

The Arizona Republic Jul. 23, 2003 07:45 PM TEMPE - A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit claiming Tempe's smoking ban was unconstitutional ..Judge Roslyn O. Silver said in Tuesday's ruling that the ban "easily passes constitutional muster." She stated that a city does not need proof that smoking is a hazard, but can base regulation on the belief that is so. She also stated the ban is not an illegal. See Suit vs. smoking ban dismissed AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE Smoking bans and judicial tyranny July 28, 2003 I am amazed a federal Judge [Roslyn O. Silver] would...

Asif Iqbal, a Rochester, New York, management consultant, must get FBI clearance every Monday and Thursday when he flies to and from Syracuse for business. Iqbal can't get off a government watch list because he shares the same name as a suspected terrorist. But Asif Iqbal, the suspected terrorist, is eight years younger than his Rochester namesake. What's more, the suspected terrorist Iqbal has been in U.S. custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since January 2002 when he was captured in Afghanistan. In a letter to his congressional representative, Iqbal of New York said he was...