Free Republic

Sherman Oaks, California I was detained last night by federal authorities at San Francisco International Airport for refusing to answer questions about why I had travelled outside the United States. The end result is that, after waiting for about half an hour and refusing to answer further questions, I was released – because U.S. citizens who have produced proof of citizenship and a written customs declaration are not obligated to answer questions. * * * “Why were you in China?” asked the passport control officer, a woman with the appearance and disposition of a prison matron. “None of your business,”...

I was tempted to turn my abaya into a black masquerade cloak and sneak into Mecca, just hop over the Tropic of Cancer to the Red Sea and crash the ultimate heaven’s gate. Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century British adventurer, translator of “The Arabian Nights” and the “Kama Sutra” and self-described “amateur barbarian,” was an illicit pilgrim to the sacred black granite cube. He wore Arab garb and infiltrated the holiest place in Islam, the Kaaba, the “center of the Earth,” as he called it, in the Saudi city where the Prophet Muhammad was born. But in the end, it...

WASHINGTON – A Democratic official says Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election for his seat representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Congress. ... The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his late father, Edward Kennedy, held for almost half a century.

When politicians claim scads of people earn a living by selling stuff on eBay, Max P. Sanders probably wasn't the sort of person they had in mind. Sanders, a 19-year-old University of Minnesota student, was charged with a felony Thursday, after placing an auction ad on eBay with the headline, "I'm selling my vote in the Presidential Election." "The rules are simple, the highest bidder will tell me who to cast my vote for in the election," he wrote. "I will vote for any candidate of any party, as long as they are on the ballot." He also said that...

Shanbo Heinemann, a pro-Palestinian activist from San Francisco, California, sits on the ground after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet fired by Israeli troops during a violent protest against Israel's security fence in the West Bank village of Bilin, February 22, 2008.Slideshow (graphic): http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1604&galleryName=All%20Collections#a=1

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office arrested activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn in West Asheville Wednesday morning after a complaint that the couple was desecrating an American flag. They say a deputy invaded their home and used excessive force. [The photo at right, taken by a neighbor, shows Mark on the ground, with Deborah standing by, during the arrest.] The flag was hung upside down as an act of protest and had several statements pinned to it, including a picture of President Bush with the words “Out Now” upon it and one explaining the meaning of the upside down flag, a...