Free Republic

The nation's oldest ladder manufacturer, family-owned John S. Tilley Ladders Co. of Watervliet, N.Y., near Albany, has filed for bankruptcy protection and sold off most of its assets. Founded in 1855, the Tilley firm was profitable until a few years ago but could not handle the cost of liability insurance, which had risen from 6 percent of sales a decade ago to 29.4 percent by the end, even though the company wasn't sued often and had never lost an actual court judgment. Jury awards in product liability cases have jumped from "an average of $1.7 million in 1994 to $6...

CHICAGO (Jan. 1) - Despite a sharp drop in homicides, Chicago has regained a title it didn't want: America's murder capital The city finished 2003 with 599 homicides, police said Thursday. That was down from 648 a year earlier and the first time since 1967 that the total dipped below 600. Still, the nation's third-largest city outpaced all others for the second time in three years. New York, with about three times the population, ended the year with 596 homicides. Los Angeles, which had the most murders in 2002 at 658, wound up 2003 with an estimated total just under...

<p>VaxGen's experimental AIDS vaccine couldn't block HIV infection among volunteers in Thailand, the Brisbane company said Wednesday, in another blow for the closely scrutinized drug.</p> <p>The vaccine, dubbed AIDSVAX, had no noticeable effect on infection rates among the 2,546 intravenous drug users in Bangkok who volunteered for the study. Nor did it slow the disease's progress among volunteers who took the vaccine and later contracted HIV.</p>

<p>Brian Robertson was just months away from graduation at Moore High School in Moore, Oklahoma, last year when he found the beginnings of what he thought was a short story on a school computer. He copied the file to another computer, added some paragraphs to the initial text and then promptly got arrested.</p>

<p>Congress may consider a bill that not only expands the government's wiretapping and investigative powers but also would link low-level drug dealing to terrorism and ban a traditional form of Middle Eastern banking.</p> <p>The draft legislation -- titled the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003, or Victory Act -- includes significant portions of the so-called Patriot Act II, which faced broad opposition from conservatives and liberals alike and embarrassed the Justice Department when it was leaked to the press in February.</p>

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (July 26) - Last month, Penn State University officials learned something about professor Paul Krueger that wasn't on his resume - he is on parole for a triple murder committed in Texas nearly 40 years ago. The university knew nothing about Krueger's conviction until late last month, when the Pennsylvania Bureau of Probation and Parole contacted the university, spokesman Bill Mahon said Friday. "We're in shock to find out some of the details, and we're still looking into it," Mahon said. "We've never had a situation like this before." Mahon said the university doesn't require prospective faculty...

American Red Cross January 6,2003 Dear (Former Donor) RED CROSS WANTS TO WELCOME YOU BACK AS A BLOOD DONOR! We wrote you after your last donation to advise you of a mild alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation discovered when we tested your blood. ALT is an enzyme found in the liver as well as other parts of the body. ALT may be elevated for a variety of reasons,which may include exercise, moderate alcohol consumption or being overweight. Even some types of over-the-counter medications may cause elevated ALT levels. Scientific information recently presented at a National Institutes of Health conference demonstrated that...

Posting for information and research purposes. I. Group Profile Name: International Raelian Religion Founder: Rael, formerly known as Claude Vorilhon Date of Birth: 1946 Birth Place: France Date Founded: 1973 History: Flashback to 1973 The Raelian tradition is unique among UFO groups in that it offers a creation story that ties it to the sacred books of the monotheistic traditions. The core idea is that the ancient Hebrew concept Elohim should have been translated as "those who came from the sky" rather than "God." The Elohim come from another planet and are responsible for the creation of life on this...

Humanitarian Work Progressing in Afghanistan By Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2002 -- When coalition forces ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan last year, U.S. officials estimated up to 8 million Afghans were in danger of starving or freezing to death. "Thank goodness, very little of that happened," largely because of humanitarian efforts by the American and other governments and international aid organizations, a senior Defense Department official said in the Pentagon today. Much of the immediate potential for humanitarian disaster has passed, and much of the country is more secure than it's been in decades....

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, on October 5, 2001, Francis Fukuyama declared that his "end of history" thesis remains valid twelve years after he first presented it shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Fukuyama’s core argument was that after the defeat of Communism and National Socialism, no serious ideological competitor to Western-style liberal democracy was likely to emerge in the future. Thus, in terms of political philosophy, liberal democracy is the end of the evolutionary process. To be sure, there will be wars and terrorism, but no alternative ideology with a universal appeal...

"Follow the Money". There has been much misdirection and disinformation about where the money was supposed to go. It was to go into a credit card account, but not one stolen in the Alabama robbery. The police chief there was adamant in stating that no credit card was taken in that robbery. A redacted copy of the killer's note has been published, and an astute freeper has shown us how to get past the redactions and read the name on that credit card account. You can find that name by going hereA check for that name hasn't yielded much, but...

Here is a partial list of our articles; for the full number, click the 'keyword' to access our database. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/769468/posts D.C. Terror Team?Newsmax ^ | Oct. 11, 2002 | John LeBoutillier Database:SNIPER; DC; FALLS CHURCH; MD; SEVEN CORNERS; SHOOTINGS; VA;   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/769460/posts Who Is the Sniper? Behind the Evil.NRO ^ | October 15, 2002, 9:00 a.m. | James S. Robbins   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/769346/posts Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Tuesday, Oct. 15Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 15, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/768937/posts Poll Question: Do you think the sniper has U.S. military experience? WEAU TV 13 ^  ...

Here is a compillation of links, some old, some just gathered- for your information and use.Feel free to copy them and pass them on across the web. Click: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/746429/posts Iraq steps up nuclear efforts, experts sayThe Dallas Morning News ^ | September 7, 2002 | By JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News"I don't think he has it right now,"... "But do I want to bet New York City on that? No."     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/746398/posts ATOMIC SCIENCE COMMISSION: IRAQ 6 MONTHS AWAY FROM HAVING NUCLEAR WEAPON!FOX NEWS CHANNEL ^ "Another great legacy of Clinton: Iraq now is on the precipice...

"Cast your Best of Ithaca ballot on-line! Be sure to include your name and address, and if you're one of the lucky 10 people chosen at random you'll win a gift certificate for dinner-for-2 at an Ithaca restaurant. Only one entry per person, and any attempts at ballot stuffing will be disqualified. Entries must be received by Friday, August 30."Okay, Freepers, last year we were able to FREEP this poll so that Cornell's only conservative professor (and Ann Coulter's mentor), Jeremy Rabkin, was voted best professor (funny how that catagory is gone this year...heh).We were also able to flood the...

This best-selling recording was performed by the legendary John Wayne. It's finally available as Duke’s spoken-word CD of poetry. It's a must-have for all patriotic Americans... Track listings: 1. Why I Love Her 2. The Pledge of allegiance 3. The Hyphen 4. Mis Raices Estan Aqui 5. The People 6. An American Boy Grows Up 7. Face the Flag 8. The Good Things 9. Why Are You Marching, Son 10. Taps

[...]Unsettling signs of al Qaeda's aims and skills in cyberspace have led some government experts to conclude that terrorists are at the threshhold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of bloodshed. The new threat bears little resemblance to familiar financial disruptions by hackers responsible for viruses and worms. It comes instead at the meeting points between computers and the physical structures they control.By disabling or taking command of floodgates in a dam, for example, or of substations handling 300,000 volts of electric power, U.S. analysts believe an intruder could use virtual tools to destroy real-world lives and property....

A lot of long pdf downloads, only posting the link for anyone who might be interested. Very fact-loaded. Very interesting if heartbreaking reading even with a cold analytical writing style. A point it makes is that both 767's banked steeply right before impact, hence widening the damage to more floors. I wonder if the flight schools with the trainers save session tapes or disks; it would be interesting to see if the hijackers practiced this move. A good bit of vicious brainpower seems to have gone into it.

ABC 2004: The Invisible PrimaryBy Mark Halperin, Elizabeth Wilner & Marc Ambinder U P D A T E D May 29 — Since we last published our Invisible Primary Ratings in February, we've had a big cattle call, a fundraising disclosure deadline, and at some point along the way, a silent but unmistakable go-ahead for the Democratic field to frontally attack the wartime President they hope to replace. All six of the top-tier contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, plus the upwardly mobile (ratings-wise) Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, have stepped up their criticisms of President Bush. Former Vice President...

Democrat Political Attacks Democrat insinuations that the President and Administration had prior knowledge of the September 11th tragedy is an outrageous political attack on the Commander-in-Chief during wartime. Principled dissent and disagreement are at the heart of democracy. However, principled dissent should not be confused with the political gamesmanship and partisan attacks being launched by Democrats. The insinuation that President Bush had prior knowledge of the September 11th attacks is nonsensical but not without precedent. Conspiracy theorists have long accused FDR of having prior knowledge of the December 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Conspiracy theories are as American...

<p>Couldn't President Bush have had the decency to sign the farm bill over the weekend or in the dead of night? At least that would have been a sign of his personal embarrassment over this monstrous $190 billion piece of legislation. But, no. Mr. Bush was out there, surrounded by approving senators, predominantly Democrats. Even Mr. Bush's nemesis, Judicial Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, he of the extravagant milk subsidies, was right there applauding. Does that mean Mr. Bush feels really good about what he did?</p>