Free Republic

(AP) - Legislators' libertarian leanings prevailed over pleas for highway safety Friday when a House of Delegates committee dealt with bills governing motorcyclists and red light scofflaws in Virginia. The Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee rejected several bills to expand or continue local pilot programs that use cameras to catch red light runners. The panel also endorsed legislation allowing motorcyclists 21 and over to ride without a helmet. The panel voted 15-6 to kill Del. Michelle McQuigg's bill expanding so-called "photo-red" monitoring systems statewide. Six northern Virginia localities and Virginia Beach have pilot programs that are scheduled to end...

A new, locally made military helmet being used by troops in Iraq provides less coverage and may result in more serious head traumas, the Army's senior neurosurgeon told The Wall Street Journal. Lt. Col. Jeff Poffenbarger, stationed in Baghdad, is critical of the helmets, which are smaller and offer less protection on the back and sides of the head, according to an article published Wednesday. He estimates a 30 percent increase in serious head traumas if the helmets are distributed throughout the entire force in Iraq. Despite Poffenbarger's misgivings, the Army hasn't changed its original specifications, and production of 107,000...

TEHRAN (MNA) -- During the latest season of excavations of the northern gate of Takht-e Suleiman, an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple located in northwestern Iran, the stamps of two seals were discovered which indicate that objects entered Takht-e Suleiman from other regions with special tags attached to them which seem to be advertisements. They signify that an early form of advertising was being practiced during the Sassanid era (224-642 C.E.), Yusef Moradi, the head of the excavation team, said on Friday. “The team began its excavations in early August and found the stamps of two seals at the upper levels...

Secrets of an ancient Persian armada sunk off the coast of Greece 2500 years ago are being dredged up by modern archaeologists. A team from Greece, Canada and the United States has just completed a second expedition to retrieve artefacts from 300 ships of the Persian King Darius that were wrecked in a storm off the Mt Athos Peninsula, northern Greece, in 492BC or 493BC. Aucklanders will be among the first to hear the results today when three of the expedition leaders present their findings in a free public lecture at Auckland University. In two trips so far, last October...

ASPINWALL: Nine-year-old Maddy Beard is hoping to get nabbed by police for zipping through town on her two-wheeler. Propped on her pale blue Schwinn, Maddy said she follows the rules and cruises along the sidewalks. Her friend Paige McLaughlin, riding alongside on a purple, sticker-adorned bike, chimed in, "We don't speed!" Still, they want stopped. The girls learned Friday of a new program, sponsored by the Aspinwall Civic Association and Kieffer Optical, in which police will stop cyclists to give them a ticket -- a $1 coupon toward a purchase at neighborhood convenience store, J&W Variety. There is a catch,...

<p>If you're going motorcycle riding with a bare head, you might just as well ride in the buff, a group of angry bikers say.</p> <p>Tonight, they plan to do just that -- well, almost. The bikers want to illustrate their point while protesting the repeal of the state's helmet law for motorcycle riders. The new freedom takes effect today.</p>

Madison - Wisconsin juries could not reduce damage awards in cases where motorcyclists are hurt or killed while not wearing helmets, under legislation backed by bikers at a public hearing Tuesday. "Society says helmets must be safe and that motorcycles must be dangerous, and that's not true," Wisconsin Rapids motorcyclist Kirk "Hard Tail" Willard told the Senate Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy Committee. The measure, which would also apply to snowmobilers and riders of all-terrain vehicles, is a response to a 2002 state Supreme Court ruling that held that the failure of an ATV rider to wear a helmet could be...

NO NANNIES NEED APPLY by Robert Wolf We are not a democracy. As has often been said, democracy is two wolves and a sheep arguing about what is for dinner. We are (or were meant to be) a Federal Republic, a collaboration of autonomous states headed by a deliberately shackled Federal government. As citizen of this Federal republic we should be permitted to manage our own risk and to pursue our own destiny; free of the meddling of those who think fast food is bad for us, that motorcyclists must wear helmets, or that we should split up into multi-cultural...

<p>Crack open a coconut. That's the sound of a skull bouncing off the pavement.</p> <p>Sickening, isn't it?</p> <p>Motorcyclists without helmets who relish easy-riding "freedom" are a Darwinian argument for improving the species through natural selection.</p> <p>After considerable lobbying, the state Senate passed legislation lifting the mandatory helmet law for riders 21 and older who have been motorcycle-licensed for at least two years or passed a state-approved safety course. Passengers 21 and older of a qualified driver also could be exempt.</p>

Luckiest man in Iraq By Matt Sun March 28, 2003 THIS is the luckiest man in Iraq - a Royal Marine who cheated death despite being shot four times in the head during a raging battle. (Soldier Eric Walderman wearing the hat that saved his life. Picture: AFP) Marine Eric Walderman was hit by a volley of bullets while fighting Iraqi soldiers at Umm Qasr in southern Iraq. The bullets hit his Kevlar helmet just above his eye, tearing the camouflage lining and ricocheting away. If a round had struck a 1cm lower, he would have been killed. Marine Walderman...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A bill to exempt motorcyclists over age 21 from having to wear helmets failed in the Assembly on Thursday.</p> <p>Already defeated once, bill author and motorcycle rider Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia, resurrected AB2700 to argue once again that the state is taking away individual freedom by requiring drivers to wear helmets. His effort failed on a 34-33 vote.</p>