Free Republic

In an attempt to lower crime and raise government revenue, Uruguay is planning on legalizing marijuana. Currently, it is legal to possess less than 25 grams of cannabis, but it is illegal to grow or sell it. If the proposal passes, Uruguay’s government would oversee the growth and distribution of the $75 million business. Buyers would be required to register with the government. “It’s a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking,” said defense minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro. “We think the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems for society than the drugs themselves.” Congress must approve...

I need to send some furniture to my daughter in Georgia. It is not a full sized load but rather one room's worth. I want to be sure it gets there as it has sentimental value (and is really nice furniture to boot). Since I figure that FR is the location of some of the most knowledgeable people around I figured some of you might have a recommendation or two for me.

Researchers recently uncovered a startling phenomenon — a set of teardrop-shaped lakes in Antarctica that mysteriously move, jogging along at a pace as fast as 5 feet (1.5 meters) per day. The lakes sit atop the George VI ice shelf — a massive floating plain of ice larger than Vermont, composed of the mingled fronts of glaciers that flow off the edge of the continent and rest on the ocean. Glaciologist Doug MacAyeal at the University of Chicago, and student researcher C.H. LaBarbera, noticed the traveling bodies of water while studying satellite images of 11 ice shelf lakes captured between...

Iran has started moving the machines that enrich uranium for nuclear fuel from its main atomic complex in the central city of Natanz to an underground bunker near the holy city of Qom, its top nuclear official was quoted as saying on Monday. "Transferring Natanz centrifuges to Fordow (near Qom) is under way with full observance of standards," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state broadcaster IRIB, adding "Fordow's facilities are being prepared and some centrifuges have been transferred."

Dear FRiends: The Internet has been my favorite hobby since I first got connected back in 1997. Then in 2004 I upgraded to DSL, and it's just been wonderful to have the world at my fingertips. Most of you didn't know this, but we are moving. We received our notice back in March and have finally found and bought a house and are in the process of getting all our stuff over there (not easy to do since there are so few of us). Right now the target it to get enough moved to actually be living over there after...

Just learned I need to move to Connecticut - Fairfield County area (like within 30 days) . I have questions that are not for Realtors, but for Freepers. You know the ones.

As Major League Baseball continues to discuss possible realignment, one idea that has come up is going to a league with 15 teams per league, reports ESPN's Buster Olney. Currently, the National League has 16 teams and the AL 14 for scheduling purposes. Should baseball go to two 15-team leagues, that would likely require interleague play every day of the season. Given baseball likes to treat interleague play as an event, that could dilute the appeal of interleague play to the point it would no longer be a moneymaker. However, there is still real resistance to the idea which has...

We may be transferred with Mrs. 2ndDivisionVet's job within a month or so (about 98% chance it'll happen) and need suggestions. Last time we used U-Haul and it was a bear and that was before her stroke and my leg and all going bad. Don't think either of us can do very much lifting and all that this go-round. Can't afford traditional movers and I just called a few of those Pod places and they're very expensive, too. Thanks in advance...

Greetings all! Any info would be appreciated to research a relo to Tampa area/Tarpon Springs. I'd like to narrow things down a bit and would like resident input. My wife and I are in our 40's and have a 7 year old son. We currently live in Fairfield County, CT and are researching relocation potential for us. We own our home here and know that if we sell, we can get more bang for our buck down there. We are are of Greek heritage and active in our Greek Orthodox church community here and very much would like to have...

After the State Supreme Court here stunned the nation by making this the first state in the heartland to allow same-sex marriage, Iowa braced for its sleepy judicial elections to turn into referendums on gay marriage. The three Supreme Court justices on the ballot this year are indeed the targets of a well-financed campaign to oust them. But the effort has less to do with undoing same-sex marriage — which will remain even if the judges do not — than sending a broader message far beyond this state’s borders: voters can remove judges whose opinions they dislike. Around the country,...

MoneyGram International Inc. is moving its global headquarters to Dallas from St. Louis Park. The company’s executive staff will move to Dallas and there will be new hires there as well. MoneyGram plans to have about 75 employees in place in Dallas by March 2011 and 150 by 2012. Today the company has about 800 jobs in the Twin Cities, including 470 at the MoneyGram Tower in St. Louis Park and 330 at an operations center in Brooklyn Park.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Islamic cleric behind plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York warned Sunday that retreating on the project would only strengthen the hand of the Muslim extremists. But imam Feisal Abdul Rauf did not commit to keeping the Islamic cultural center at its current site, two blocks from where Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center. "The decisions that I will make -- that we will make -- will be predicated on what is best for everybody," he told ABC's "This Week" program. Thousands marched through New York on Saturday's ninth...

Thanks to President Obama and the soon-to-be-reimposed drilling moratorium, our loss is becoming West Africa’s gain. WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Executives from oil and gas companies on Monday concluded an hour-long meeting with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar without securing promises from the government to lift a deepwater-drilling moratorium imposed after a disastrous BP PLC (BP) oil spill…

Getting Outta Dodge By Daily Reckoning Contributor 06/21/10 Edited by Eric Fry and Joel Bowman Were I without family ties, I might consider expatriating to one of the quiet, out-of-the-way towns in Central- or South America that I drove my VW bus through in 1977-1978. Spending a year and a half living life at a slower pace and speaking in a second language was world view-opening for this California born American. Through it all, I met many wonderful, amazingly generous people. Unfortunately, I also saw a lot of grinding poverty and misery. I finally lost count of how many times...

We are done with California. We are looking at Arizona area between Phoenix (too hot) and Flagstaff (too cold. Sedona is to expensive. We're thinking about mid-way up I-17 to Camp Verde, Spring Valley, and/or Lake Montezuma. We looked at Prescott and spent some time there looking at properties, but it is too far from the Interstate Hwy and airports.

MOVING TO MEXICO Dear President Obama: I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me. We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements. We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I'm on my way over? Please let him know that...

4/19/2010 - CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- A team of 28 aerial port and vehicle maintenance Airmen from the 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Det. 1 here are moving the mission in Afghanistan. The unit's air traffic operations center and ramp operations have uploaded and downloaded more than 40,000 short tons of cargo from almost 3,000 aircraft moving in and out of the airfield here since Jan. 1. "We are a small group of guys doing a big mission out here," said 1st Lt. Josh Meyer, the 451st ELRS Det. 1 commander deployed from Pope Air Force Base, N.C. "Seven...

I have seriously been thinking of leaving the country. My hope is pretty much gone that we can turn any of this around. Who would I be staying for....to support the people who ride in the cart and don't contribute and hate this country? I'm too old for all this and if the immigration bill goes through, I totally believe all is lost. How can we pay VAT, Tax and Trade, Healthcare, Local sales taxes, income taxes, etc., etc. and survive? So overused today, but it's "non-sustainable"

Obama says US "is developing a significant regime of sanctions."As a defiant Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama said the international community was “moving along fairly quickly” toward imposing new sanctions, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for crippling sanctions “right now.”

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) said last week he was “shocked” to hear a senior Department of Defense official agree with him that the administration’s plan to move detainees of Guantanamo Bay to Thomson, Ill., would pose an increased security risk. At a press conference in the House of Representatives, Manzullo said the official “agreed with me there would be an increased security risk to northwest Illinois, but he had no way of estimating the extent of this threat.”