Free Republic

It’s about time Californians of all ideological persuasions wake up and stop what is possibly the most economically wasteful and environmentally destructive project in American history: the utility scale adoption of offshore wind energy. The California Legislature intends to despoil our coastline and coastal waters with floating wind turbines, 20+ miles offshore, tethered to the sea floor 4,000 feet beneath the waves. Along with tethering cables, high voltage wires will descend from each of these noisy, 1,000 foot tall leviathans, but we’re to assume none of this will disrupt the migrations of our treasured Cetaceans and other marine and avian...

Norwegian police say they investigating a pedophile network suspected to involve at least 51 people, which includes the abuse of infants and at least one case of a suspect acknowledging abusing his own children. ---SNIP-- Floystad told reporters Sunday that many of the suspects are highly educated, and include lawyers and politicians. He said he could not reveal more details pending the conclusion of the investigation, known as "Dark Room," which began in 2015.

A series of fights broke out after a teen dance party in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday night, causing wild scenes on busy streets, and leading to the arrests of three participants. Early news reports called the action a "riot," but that term has since been downgraded to "mini-riot." The trouble started as hundreds of teenagers poured out of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which was hosting the "Big Bash 2" dance party. During the party, kids had scuffled with event security, leading to a police call, an early end to the party, and an exodus of riled-up kids. As a...

Last Friday morning, Anders Breivik burst onto the international screen when he carried out a monstrous act of terrorism against his fellow Norwegians. Breivik bombed the offices housing the Norwegian government with the intention of murdering its leaders. He then traveled to the Utoeya Island and murdered scores of young people participating in a summer program sponsored by Norway’s ruling party. In all, last Friday Breivik murdered 76 people. Most of them were teenagers. Although he has confessed to his crimes, there are still important questions that remain unanswered. For instance, we still do not know if he acted alone....

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Nordic customs officials have arrested a truck driver after he tried to illegally import 28 tons of Chinese garlic into the European Union. The driver was intercepted last month as he drove the pungent truckload from Norway, which is outside the EU and where garlic is exempt from customs' duties, into Sweden, where garlic is subject to a 9.6 percent EU-wide duty. Smuggling of cheaply produced Chinese garlic into the EU is on the rise, with around 1,200 tons brought into the 27-nation bloc via Norway since 2009, according to the European Anti-Fraud Office, known as OLAF.

The level of swine flu activity in the United States appears to be declining, although officials are worried about another increase of cases during the Thanksgiving holiday when many people travel and families gather. The news came as scientists in Norway announced that they had detected a mutated form of the swine flu virus ... It is the most recent report of mutations in the virus that is being watched closely for any change that could make it more dangerous. The two patients who had the mutation and died were the first swine flu fatalities in Norway. The third patient...

The fact that I'd ever written a piece on the Noble prize had totally slipped my mind until this past Saturday. (This shows you what writers are like.) I see little I'd retract at this point. Al Gore's worthless Nobel did in truth mark his high point, from which he has inexorably faded to his current status as the shady salesman for a questionable product. (I'd like to see his balance sheet since September 2008.) Will Obama match Al's trajectory? I think so. The Norwegians have done our Dear Leader no favor. What the award has done is to mark...

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2009 to US President Barak Obama. The Nobel Peace Prize is an international prize which is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee according to guidelines laid down in Alfred Nobel's will. The Peace Prize is one of five prizes that have been awarded annually since 1901 under the auspices of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm for outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. Starting in 1969, a Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has also been...

Ms Rabbit and I talked politics today, and the topic of Al Gore came up. As a sort of bonus to my long-eared friend,I have included a link to a 2006 article I wrote-which you might want to bookwark separately.

Controversy simmered in Poulsbo, Washington, a US town founded by Norwegian immigrants in the late 1800s, after this year's Miss Viking turned out to be untraditional. Jasmine Campbell, 17, won the honor on the strength of a combination of talent and a successful audition, but her blend of African and Latin American blood caused some temperatures to rise. The pageant organizers decided to go public after receiving a series of offensive, racist e-mails in reaction to Campbell's appointment, including sentiments like 'How dare you put an African American in there?'. The incident attracted attention after it was publicized by the...

Nearly half of those polled say they have become more skeptical about Islam as a religion after the global uproar around the Mohammed caricatures. The result comes from a survey carried out by InFact for Norway's best-selling newspaper VG. According to the survey, which was carried out on Tuesday, 47.8 percent of those asked said they were more skeptical about Islam, while 36.7 percent their opinion of the religion had not been affected by the caricature controversy. A small group of 6.5 percent said they were less skeptical about Islam after the turmoil. At the same time, 30.8 percent say...

Icelanders richer than Norwegians? Icelanders are richer than Norwegians when Norway's Oil fund and Iceland's pension funds are compared reports the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, RÚV. According to the analyst department of Íslandsbanki, if the value of Norway's oil assets would be divided between the nation, each Norwegian would receive ISK 2.6 million. Icelanders on the other hand would receive ISK 3.8 million if the net assets of the Icelandic pension funds are divided between the nation - almost twice the amount that Norway's oil fund would pay each Norwegian. Norwegians plan to use the oil fund to pay out...

NORWEGIANS were voting overnight in a closely-fought general election, with pollsters unable to predict whether Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's centre-right coalition or the left-wing opposition will emerge victorious. Some 3.4 million Norwegians were expected to cast their votes to determine the makeup of the country's government for the next four years. Opinion polls in recent days have shown Mr Bondevik's minority coalition in a neck-and-neck race with the rival left coalition of former prime minister Jens Stoltenberg. The election campaign focused on the distribution of Norway's abundant oil wealth, and the week before the election saw a major trend...

PARIS (Reuters) - A Norwegian man died parachuting off the Eiffel Tower after his parachute became tangled up in the metal structure, a French police source said on Tuesday. The 31-year-old jumped off the second floor of the structure on Monday night, planning to descend safely to the ground. But his equipment became caught in the monument and he landed on the floor below. "The jump didn't happen quite as he wanted," the police source said. "He died on impact." It is illegal to parachute from the 300-meter (980-foot) high landmark. The police were not aware of the man's plan...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Feline lovers holding pictures of cats, clutching stuffed animals and wearing whiskers faced-off against hundreds of hunters at meetings around Wisconsin to voice their opinion on whether to legalize cat hunting. Residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats - including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar - should be listed as an unprotected species. If listed as so, the cats could be hunted. The proposal was one of several dozen included in a spring vote on hunting and fishing issues held by the Wisconsin...

Greedy hypocrites January 7th, 2005 The recent disparagement of American aid efforts to help tsunami victims as “stingy” by Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations, is merely the latest in a series of anti-American words and actions by Norway and Norwegians. While one might generously characterize some of these actions as merely the typical left-wing carping of self-styled “humanitarians,” or as the by-product of good intentions gone awry, a closer analysis reveals that a prime motivation of this disproportionate hostility might be based on that oldest of human failings: greed. Recent history indicates that the...