Free Republic

Muslim residents hand out "Islam Explained" to fairgoers; want to show people they are "not terrorists." Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Ozonder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street. Each time a new wave of people exited, the young Minneapolis residents — who hadn't eaten all day — tried to press into their hands a small, glossy card that read "Islam Explained" on one side. On the other, it had about 180 words of background on...

Those who are even paying attention to the case of the arrested Russian spies are either all a twitter over the attractive Anna Chapman or snickering about the ineptness of the spy ring for their failure to get any real information of use to the SVR, scion of the KGB. One cartoon calls the Russian spies “quaint”—a throwback to the olden days when America was worthy of foreign invasion. Such dismissals reflect a profound ignorance, either willful or the product of too many years of a government run school system. Hollywood celebutards have long embraced the most brutal of communist...

Tiger Woods is banned from letting girlfriends near his kids in a divorce deal netting his ex a record $750 million settlement, The Sun reported Wednesday. The golfer agreed to keep single women away from daughter Sam, three, and son Charlie, one. He can bring a new flame into their lives only if he marries her. In return, former wife Elin Nordegren ,30, gets the biggest payout ever seen in a celebrity divorce. But she can never publicly speak out over his alleged flings with socialite Rachel Uchitel, reality star Jaimee Grubbs, porn queen Joslyn James and up to 17...

Small dots appear to "burn" through leaves Area affected is along Tipton and Shelby County line Farmers afraid they may lose their entire crop (Memphis 6/1/2010) A mystery is unfolding across MidSouth farms. Something is killing crops, trees, even weeds and nobody can explain why. Farmers are scratching their heads and some are worried their crops may be lost to the mysterious plague. It's happening along a large swath of land near the Shelby and Tipton county border along Herring Hill Road and elsewhere near the Mississippi River bottoms. Tiny dots appear to have burned onto leaves of all types...

utchman Joran van der Sloot, long the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of a U.S. teen in Aruba, has confessed to killing a young Peruvian woman in his Lima hotel room last week, a police spokesman said. Peru's chief police spokesman, Col. Abel Gamarra, told The Associated Press that Van der Sloot admitted under police questioning Monday that he killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores on May 30. According to La Republica newspaper, Van der Sloot told officials he broke Flores' neck in a rage after he discovered she had used his notebook computer without permission and learned he was involved...

Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it. Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she's been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan...

Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it. Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she's been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan...

Beleaguered taxpayers may finally put a stop to the sheer waste of government spending Back in 2008, when I was fulminating against multiculturalism on a more or less weekly basis, a reader wrote to advise me to lighten up, on the grounds that “we’re rich enough to afford to be stupid.” Two years later, we’re a lot less rich. In fact, many Western nations are, in any objective sense, insolvent. Hence last week’s column, on the EU’s decision to toss a trillion dollars into the great sucking maw of Greece’s public-sector kleptocracy. It no longer matters whether you’re intellectually in...

It's just bit creepy when someone that is investigating you and intends to write a book about you moves next door. Especially if your name is Todd or Sarah Palin. Surely someone is due a little privacy at home right? Tonight Mark Levin took an extraordinary step on Palin's behalf. Levin called Joe McGinniss the erstwhile writer/investigator/author/creeper and asked for an interview on the phone. When Levin did not receive a return call he did something startling-he gave out the email of Joe McGinniss.

Like many young women in love, Colette Armand believes she was hit by a coup de foudre when she first saw her future husband. 'The attraction was instant,' she says. 'We had an immediate connection.' Photographs testify to the strength of their bond, showing a beaming young couple clearly delighted by each other's company. That, however, is where the conventional nature of their romance ends. For Colette's intended is a Masai warrior whose home is a mud hut on the vast African plains.

The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, the BBC has learned. The possibility surfaced at talks in Paris last week between a senior US official and Qatar's foreign minister. The official said the US would "seriously consider abstaining" if the issue of Israeli settlements was put to the vote, a diplomat told the BBC. The US usually blocks Security Council resolutions criticising Israel. But relations between the allies have been severely strained by the announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement during a...

The ultimate fall from grace, a Federal grand jury is about to indict John Edwards, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively. In another shocker, close sources say Edwards' estranged wife Elizabeth could help send the former presidential candidate to jail!

Hazardous materials crews were called Monday to an Internal Revenue Service building in Utah after a suspicious substance was found. The FBI's Salt Lake City division says it responded to a possible hazardous material threat at the building in Ogden.

(Feb. 7) -- Authorities said a power plant explosion has killed at least two people and injured 100 in the Hartford, Conn., suburb of Middletown Sunday. "We had an explosion at our new Kleen power plant," said Middletown Police Officer Kevin White. He told AOL News there are "mass casualties." White confirmed at least two people were dead. According to local CBS affiliate, WFSB-TV, 250 are injured. There are reports of people trapped under collapsed parts of the plant.

FOR ALL OF THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN KNEE JERK TRASHING PAWLENTY... JUST LINK TO THIS... http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/aug/28/mccains-vice-president-tim-pawlenty/

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Fresh-out-of-rehab starlet Lindsay Lohan was busted on DUI charges early Tuesday for the second time in a matter of months — and cops said they found cocaine in one of her pants pockets. Lohan, 21, was booked on two misdemeanor charges of suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving on a suspended license and two felony charges of possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic, said Sgt. Shane Talbot. She was then released on $25,000 bail. Lohan was pulled over near the Santa Monica Police Department after authorities spotted her car chasing...

DAN Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003. By April 2005 it had sold 17 million copies in 44 languages and it is still selling well, as any traveller by plane, bus or train will confirm. It is a novel of the popular, conspiracy theory type. The central thesis is that “the Church” has covered up the fact that Mary Magdalene married Christ. Christ’s divinity was a myth invented by Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD and the pair had descendants. Brown suggests that Mary Magdalene’s character was unjustly impugned by “the Church” in...

NORTHERN Ireland's biggest Protestant party overnight ruled out sharing power with its rival Catholic counterpart, dealing a serious blow to hopes the semi-autonomous government could be restored following disarmament by the IRA. There was "no prospect of an executive including Sinn Fein/IRA for the foreseeable future", Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said, referring to the now officially defunct Catholic paramilitary group and its political wing. "In keeping with our manifesto commitments, the DUP will not countenance an executive in Northern Ireland that is inclusive of those who are not committed to explicitly peaceful and democratic means," he...