Free Republic

Okay, my friends. For the last week or so, the media have gotten Americans all worked up into a froth about this "deadly new bacteria" called MRSA. My ER is now inundated with frantic phone calls from people who have no idea what they are looking at, or what the disease really is. One charming woman (who clearly smoked wayyyyyyyy too much) called amid the throes of a panic attack because she found a pimple and was convinced beyond all attempts to reason with her that she was "gonna die of Melissa." "Ah, you mean MRSA." I corrected the hyperventilating...

All describe the bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening in Iraq. Knowing this disconnect exists and experiencing it directly are two separate matters. It’s like the difference between holding the remote control during the telecast of a volcanic eruption on some distant island (and then flipping the channel), versus running for survival from a wretch of molten lava that just engulfed your car. I was at home in the United States just one day before the magnitude hit me like vertigo: America seems to be under a glass...

WHAT THE MEDIA SOMEHOW MISSED .... CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY Retired Army General Ricardo Sanchez made a speech to the military reporters and editors in Washington DC last Friday. The media was quick to quote General Sanchez .. but only selectively. You can read the text of General Sanchez' speech right here. http://www.militaryreporters.org/sanchez_101207.html I urge you to do so. After Sanchez finished the speech the reporters couldn't wait to share with the American people his assessment of the war in Iraq. To put it gently, his assessment wasn't mild. Try this quote: "There has been a glaring, unfortunate, display of...

Asterisk Free Libertarianism (The Solution Ron Paul Missed) http://www.libertyreborn.com/2007/08/24/asterisk-free-libertarianism-the-solution-ron-paul-missed/ Well, it was predictable.   The talking points used by supporters of Ron Paul (i.e. Paulbots, Paulites, etc.) have now changed.You can always tell when the marching orders are given to a group by the sudden shift in the common language they use to refer to a certain situation.  It’s like when Rush Limbaugh compiles montages of several media types from different organizations all using the exact same (and often obscure) term or description for an event.  You know there was a memo sent out somewhere.Well the same thing has happened...

NEW YORK - A magazine gets a hot story straight from a soldier in Iraq and publishes his writing, complete with gory details, under a pseudonym. The stories are chilling: An Iraqi boy befriends American troops and later has his tongue cut out by insurgents. Soldiers mock a disfigured woman sitting near them in a dining hall. As a diversion, soldiers run over dogs with armored personnel carriers. Compelling stuff, and, according to the Army, not true. Three articles by the soldier have run since January in The New Republic, a liberal magazine with a small circulation owned by Canadian...

Today, Michigan Republican Pete Hoesktra sent a scathing letter to NYT executive editor Bill Keller, detailing what Hoekstra called the Times' "...recklessness in repeatedly disclosing highly classified intelligence programs to enemies who seek to attack our nation," and the Times' coverage of the Foreign Intelligence Act amendments. Hoekstra said of the Times' editorial titled, "The Fear of Fear Itself," "The only real basis for "fear" here is the scare tactics being perpetuated by the Times, which has knowingly and willfully misrepresented the new law to scare the American people." READ THE WHOLE LETTER HERE Mr. Bill Keller Executive Editor The...

Al Gore alleges climate change misinformation By agencies Last Updated: 5:01pm BST 07/08/2007 A huge public misinformation campaign funded by some of the world's largest carbon polluters is aimed at disputing the scientific consensus on global warming, former US Vice President Al Gore has claimed. Gore said the world is approaching a tipping point that will see an acceleration in efforts to fight climate change "There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10m a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community," Gore...

Dear Patriots Many of us are not fighting the islamic terrorists on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere but for sure we can fight them on the internet. We should seek the shut down of any known terrorist website and forum to deliver a shocking and devastating psychological blow to the islamic terrorists and more importantly to destroy a major tool if not the major tool of their communications. As regular folks we have less legal challenges facing us to force a terrorist website shut down than if a government law enforcement agency tries to do it, so this...

China, a country rich in coal, but with few petroleum or gas resources, might scrap efforts to produce petroleum by liquefying coal, an official with the country's top economic planning agency has said. The possibility of such a move was raised after an evaluation of the nation's limited energy resources and environment, a deputy director of the industry department of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) told a seminar on the development of China's ethanol industry. The event took place in Beijing on Saturday. "Liquefied coal projects consume a lot of energy, though the successful industrialization of liquefied coal...

The current US presidential debates are almost certain to see the candidates asked to comment on spiritual issues, but some Americans are worried about the trend towards religiosity in public life. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be challenged on their beliefs At my twins' annual school camp in West Virginia, you are meant to leave your troubles behind. It is an idyllic couple of days - a communing with nature which my wife gallantly insists is simply too enjoyable for her to take part in - it has to be a dad's experience. Actually it is not that...

This publication shows how the median income family's income tax dollars are spent for every state and 200 cities, towns and counties. This is an example. You can look up your own city: Just follow this link.

China is not a strategic adversary of the United States, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a news roundtable yesterday. “I do not see China at this point as a strategic adversary of the United States,” Gates said. “It's a partner in some respects. It's a competitor in other respects. And so we are simply watching to see what they're doing.” Chinese government officials announced last week that the Chinese military budget would increase 17 percent. This would be the 19th year of double-digit growth in defense spending, DoD officials said. China will budget roughly $45 billion for defense....

SUNDAY Age columnist Terry Lane has been caught out again quoting unreliable Internet sources, despite a similar "almighty stuff-up" last year leading him to offer his resignation. It is the second time Lane has used spurious Internet claims to back anti-George W. Bush attacks in the paper – and this time to criticise Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. In his latest piece deriding the US Bush administration as a "self-evident force for stupidity", Lane claimed rangers at the world-famous Grand Canyon were banned from answering questions about the age of the park "because the truth will upset Bush's fundamentalist supporters".....

For more than a century and a half, men and women of The Associated Press have had the privilege of bringing truth to the world. They have gone to great lengths, overcome great obstacles – and, too often, made great and horrific sacrifices – to ensure that the news was reported quickly, accurately and honestly. Our efforts have been rewarded with trust: More people in more places get their news from the AP than from any other source. In the 21st century, that news is transmitted in more ways than ever before – in print, on the air and on...

Oct. 1, 2006 — A Republican staff member warned Congressional pages five years ago to "watch out" for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page. Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor. Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said the pages were told "don't get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff." Staff members at the House clerk's office did not return phone calls seeking comment. Some of the sexually explicit instant messages...

AMMAN, Jordan — On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Abu Omar received the call to jihad. Literally. “There’s a present for you,” a voice on the other end of the phone said that morning, he recalled. It was a common code whenever his friends and colleagues wanted to share a new broadcast or communiqué from Al Qaeda over the Internet, he said. Abu Omar, speaking on the condition that only his nickname be used, said he soon went to one of the Internet cafes he frequents in Amman and began distributing the latest video by Al Qaeda,...

DELHI -- The discovery of a backpack stuffed with three loaded guns and an assault rifle prompted a lockdown at Delhi High School and Delhi Middle School on Monday. A man searching for aluminum cans found the backpack at 9 a.m. near a trash can on the western edge of the Delhi Educational Park, the campus that houses the middle school and high school. Inside the backpack was a loaded .357 magnum, a 40-caliber automatic pistol, a 380 semi-automatic pistol and an SKS assault rifle with a 30-round banana clip stocked with ammunition, said Sheriff Mark Pazin. "There's nothing more...

In a startling report revealing a tale of transatlantic espionage not witnessed since the glory days of 007, the London-based Financial Times recently detailed how Britain, supposedly America’s closest European ally, has been leading a multi-year European undercover ('back-door') effort within the United States to undermine U.S. climate change policy. While this is not surprising, it does smack of interference with another nation's policies. It also happens to confirm prior ITSSD research, readily accessible on its website.

Schwarzenegger Squashes Religious Freedom Thomasson: “Arnold Schwarzenegger has two faces. He speaks at churches and says he believes in religious freedom and family values, yet he’s stabbing pro-family Californians in the back.” Sacramento, California – Campaign for Children and Families is shocked and dismayed that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed SB 1441 (Kuehl). Today’s disastrous action by Schwarzenegger means Christian and other faith-based colleges in California will be forced to promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality if they accept students with Cal Grants. “People of conscience are appalled that Arnold Schwarzenegger has trampled religious freedom to satisfy hyperactive sexual activists,”...

6 April 2005   http://www.lapl.org/catalog/ Leary, Timothy Francis, 1920- Title(s) Politics of psycho-pharmacology / Timothy Leary. Publisher Berkeley, CA : Ronin Pub. : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2002. Paging 127 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. Series Leary library [ This from Los Angeles Library, it did not show up at the University of California, nor at the New York Public Library. My question : was this written by Timothy Leary (1920-1997). ] Leary, Timothy Francis, 1920- Title(s) Your brain [!] is god / Timothy Leary. Publisher Berkeley, Calif. : Ronin : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2001. Paging...