Free Republic

April 2006, Vol. 89, No. 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The radar site was deep in enemy territory. The assumption was that it was impossible for attackers to climb the sheer face of the mountain. The Fall of Lima Site 85 By John T. Correll Lima Site 85 and the secret Air Force radar facility sat atop one of the highest mountains in Laos, 15 miles away from the border with North Vietnam. The site was defended by a force of 1,000 Hmong irregulars in the valley below, but a key element in its security was the mountain itself. The drop on three...

CARY, N.C. - The joke around here is that this town's name is really an acronym for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees." As far as Vernon Yates is concerned, they haven't been contained well enough. Nearly surrounded by pricey subdivisions, the cinderblock Yates Grocery and Farm Supply sells neither anymore. As if things weren't bad enough, style maven Martha Stewart has chosen this Raleigh suburb to build a signature neighborhood of houses designed after her homes in Maine and New York. Holding court near a potbellied stove, the 69-year-old man in the suspenders and NASCAR shirt laments that his old...

Nov. 7) — "Mmmm … beer." This oft-repeated sentiment of Homer Simpson is a mantra for the millions of beer drinkers in the United States. As popular as beer is, however, it often has gotten a bad rap as a calorie-loaded beverage that only serves to create paunchy beer bellies and alcohol-fueled lapses in judgment. But that negative image may begin to fade: Research is showing that beer could join the ranks of other guilt-inducing but wildly popular foods -- chocolate, coffee and red wine -- as a possible disease-fighter. It turns out that beer hops contain a unique micronutrient...

Unless you're among the bean-sprout-sized minority of Americans who describe themselves as "vegans" (vegetarians who also won't touch milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, or even a dollop of honey), you may have been alarmed by the publicity surrounding an article appearing last month in the journal Pediatrics. The anti-milk piece -- written by activists from the PETA-affiliated Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) -- concluded that feeding milk to children is unnecessary, and that there are better ways (kale, tofu, turnip greens, or spinach, for instance) for kids to get the calcium they need. In reaching this result, PCRM relied on...

Thirty elementary school children died of food poisoning yesterday after eating a native delicacy made from cassava flour at the San Jose Elementary School in Mabini town, Bohol. San Jose Vice Mayor Ester Tabigi said authorities had not yet determined exactly how many children had fallen ill, but at least 50 were still in critical condition last night in various hospitals in the nearby towns of Ubay and Talibon. Some children were brought as far as the provincial capital of Tagbilaran City, some 100 kilometers from Mabini. Reports said the children, mostly second and third-grade pupils, started complaining of stomach...

(From a mom): He told me how wonderful the care packages were and wanted me to tell everyone thank you. He said that one guy we’ll call “Marine X” did get a girl care package and everyone was giving him a hard time. My son said, "Marine X got some really nice smelling lotion and everyone really likes it, so everytime he goes to sleep they steal it from him." I told my son I was really sorry about the mistake, and if he wanted I would send Marine X another package. He told me not to worry about Marine...

The 'offend-no-one' crowd just doesn't understand the First Amendment: CHARLOTTESVILLE--There seems to be a new code of conduct in American society in which the golden rule is "offend no one." At least that appears to be the case in Riverside, Calif., after city officials gave in to a threat of a lawsuit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and agreed to cover up a Theodore Roosevelt quote in the Riverside County Historic Courthouse. The quote in question, by an American who was the 26th president of our nation, states that "The true Christian is the true citizen." It is engraved in...

FROM:FRANKLIN DUBE{JNR) ATTN: A REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE ON BUSINESS TRANSACTION I got your contact through the South African Trade and Business Information Service through a very reliable friend of mine who introduce your capability,personality and business addresses to me.I am Mr FRANKLIN DUBE(JNR)the eldest son of Major Johnny Dube,the former military head of state of Republic of Sierra Leone. My father was involved in the plot to overthrow the president,Tejan Ahmed Kabba.He among others was found gluity by then special Militry Tribunal.The government seized all my father`s properties and assets.When the West African peacekeeping forces (ECOMOG) arrived we escaped to...

Republicans have given up the pretense that their party is the party of small government. “One of the most misunderstood parts of Hoosier culture is that Hoosiers are reluctant of change of any kind,” State Rep. Luke Messer told Brian Howey, publisher of Indianapolis Eye News, in an article that identifies an undercurrent in Indiana to have a constitutional convention. “If we have a strong leader, Hoosiers are willing to step up and make big changes. Bob Knight and Larry Bird were pretty big figures in Hoosier culture and they have been willing to make big changes. What we want...

After being elected twice as a Republican to the position of county attorney in Anderson County, Kan., Fred Campbell decided following the Nov. 2 elections to drop his Republican Party affiliation in favor of the Libertarian Party, saying the GOP has abandoned the idea of minimal government. Campbell was re-elected in November with no opposition. He has been a Republican for years, primarily because he's "always been in favor of less government rather than more," he said. "I've always thought that the Republican Party was the major party that went along with that philosophy," Campbell explained. "But in the last...

Six Navy SEALs filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press and one of its reporters yesterday, saying the news organization revealed their identities, compromised their security and invaded their privacy by publishing personal photographs in a Dec. 4 story.     The complaint says AP reporter Seth Hettena used about 40 images from the personal photo-storage Web site of a Navy SEAL wife. [snip] The images were picked up by the Arab press, including Al Jazeera, and have made their way onto a billboard outside U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where detainees from the war on terror are being kept. The...

Ashcroft v. Raich, the Supreme Court's medical marijuana case, isn't really about medical marijuana. It's about power -- the power of Congress to exert control, and the power of the Constitution to rein Congress in. The named plaintiff in this case is Angel McClary Raich, a California mother of two afflicted with an awful array of diseases, including tumors in her brain and uterus, asthma, severe weight loss, and endometriosis. To ease her symptoms, doctors put her on dozens of standard medications. When none of them helped, they prescribed marijuana. That did help -- so much so that Raich, who...

By PETER PORCO Anchorage Daily News November 26, 2004 ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sixteen-year-old Rachelle A. Waterman would appear to be any parent's ideal child - an honor student, an athlete, a gifted singer. But for months, she planned her mother's murder with two of her former boyfriends who are eight years her senior, according to Alaska State Troopers. Two weekends ago on Southeast's Prince of Wales Island, their plot ended in the death of 48-year-old Lauri Waterman of Craig, according to court papers. Lauri Waterman, a teacher's aide and community activist, was killed by one of the men using a...

Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot is dropping columnist Michelle Malkin because, according to the paper's editorial board, she's an "Asian Ann Coulter" whose columns are too "anti-liberal" and "seemingly mean-spirited." Responding to a reader's complaint about the conservative scribe, the paper's public editor, Marvin Lake, announced on Monday that "she's outta here." In quotes covered by Editor & Publisher, Lake explained that the Virginian-Pilot's editorial board had concluded that Malkin was "too stridently anti-liberal" and that readers objected to her "seemingly mean-spirited rantings and suggested that she be dropped." Malkin's meticulously researched columns have covered a variety of topics, including exposing Sen. Robert...

I just joined www.smartstocks.com and have created a group for freepers.Its a stock market simulation game that lets you pick real stocks from the stock market and track how well you do with them.They give you 1 million dollars to start out with and they track the rise or fall of the stocks in each group.The group I created is called freepers rule and the password to join the group is freeple.Once you sign up go to the left hand side of the page and click groups then scroll down the list of groups. freepers rule is about 1/4 of...

Update at 4:30 pm nov 3 results for all presidental candidates ALL CANDIDATES CANDIDATE VOTE TOTAL VOTE % John Kerry, Democrat 55,104,702 48% George W. Bush, Republican (incumbent) 58,640,799 51% Ralph Nader, independent 392,219 0% Michael Badnarik, Libertarian 374,741 0% Michael Peroutka, constitution party 129,162 0% David Cobb, green party 104,591 0% Leonard Peltier, peace and freedom party 21,616 0% Gene Amondson, Prohibition Party 1,895 0% Andy Andress, Unaffiliated (no websites for candidate or party )716 0% Walter Brown, Socialist Party USA 10,258 0% Roger Calero, socialist workers party 5,263 0% Earl F. Dodge, Prohibition party 122 0% Thomas Harens,...

There's been a lot of vitriol hurled at both Democrats and Republicans this election, but I'd like to focus on one party that has, until this point, largely escaped some richly deserved criticism. The voters. That's right, the precious American voters: Sacred stewards of democracy. You don't have to spin around in an election cycle for long to discover that a shocking number of voters are in fact gullible, greedy, oblivious to facts, or simply fundamentally retarded. However, three types of voters deserve special mention for taking their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote, and essentially wiping their with it. Let's...

TACOMA, Wash. (Oct. 28) - A seriously wounded 8-year-old boy calmly described his father's deadly knife rampage during a call for help to 911. "My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone," the boy told a dispatcher. "Can you please send the Army men or the ambulance?" The soft-spoken child gave a wrong address and then hung up. But a second dispatcher called back, keeping him on the line while a frantic search was under way. On Wednesday, authorities released the remarkable tape of Anthony Sukto's calm courage during the Oct. 22 ordeal, and the frantic efforts to...

The vice presidential candidates' debate tonight between Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrat Sen. John Edwards, touted by the mass media as a possible pivot point in the presidential election, is missing a vital component -- four other candidates for the same office. Because several candidates were excluded from the "official" debate, there will actually be two debates between vice presidential candidates tonight in Cleveland, Ohio. Libertarian Richard Campagna, Pat LaMarche of the Green Party, Ralph Nader's independent running mate Peter Camejo, and Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party all plan to take part in a debate for "third...

RICHMOND, Va. (Aug. 31) - Republicans selected state Del. Thelma Drake Tuesday to replace U.S. Rep. Edward L. Schrock on the November ballot, a day after he dropped out of the race amid claims that he is gay. The Republican Committee for Schrock's district gathered Tuesday to hastily vote for a nominee who could take on Democrat lawyer David B. Ashe in the Nov. 2 election. Drake, a real estate agent, is a reliable member of the state House's conservative GOP majority. Schrock, 63, a married retired Navy captain who was popular among conservatives, cited unspecified ''allegations'' for his surprise...