Free Republic

Among the peeves I keep as pets, chief is my loathing of the Easter Bunny. There are many reasons to hate the Bunny. I will get into why in particular the Bunny, but first to some other pressing business. Why is it that religious holidays require mascots to make them palatable to secularists who otherwise wouldn’t give a fig about the celebration? While some mascots are cool in their own right, most add nothing and typically detract from the holiday’s expressed purpose. Take the leprechaun. Actually, don’t take the leprechaun. I am pretty sure that taking a leprechaun is bad...

CNN) -- Hamas deserves to be recognized by the international community, and despite the group's militant history, there is a chance the soon-to-be Palestinian leaders could turn away from violence, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday. Carter, who monitored last week's Palestinian elections in which Hamas handily toppled the ruling Fatah, added that the United States should not cut off aid to the Palestinian people, but rather funnel it through third parties like the U.N. "If you sponsor an election or promote democracy and freedom around the world, then when people make their own decision about their leaders, I think...

FAYETTEVILLE, Georgia (AP) -- A teenage grandson of former President Jimmy Carter was sentenced Friday to 30 days of house arrest and 36 months probation as part of a plea agreement involving the theft of a videogame console. Jeremy Carter, 18, of Peachtree City, Georgia, was arrested in December after being caught inside the home of a former friend. Police said they found less than an ounce of marijuana in his shoe and smelled alcohol on his breath. The victim did not want Carter to go to jail, which District Attorney Scott Ballard said "considerably" affected the outcome of the...

WEST HAVEN, Vt. (AP) -- Talk about culinary irony -- rabbit meat is in short supply. Despite the critters' proclivity to reproduce, demand for rabbit meat has surged in recent years and breeders are struggling to supply the many trendy restaurants adding it to their menus. "We could easily be doing 1,000 a week. The demand is there,'' says Langis Anctil, whose Champlain Valley Rabbitry farm in West Haven, Vt., is working full tilt to raise that many bunnies a month. Of course, it's not that rabbits don't reproduce fast enough -- it's just an 11-week cycle from birth to...