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A GUN-control group has called for a total ban on semi-automatic handguns to prevent them falling into criminal hands with deadly consequences. Speaking at the launch of a new national anti-handgun advertising campaign, National Coalition for Gun Control chair Sam Lee said the future looked bleak in relation to guns. "What we are going to see in the future is more high-powered handguns on the streets because gun manufacturers are developing what are called quick-draws, which means they can be quickly grabbed and aimed at someone," Ms Lee said. The campaign launch comes just days after the fatal drive-by shootings...

Now, I got one more thing on this Social Security business. Apparently some people misunderstood what I said when recently discussing the program. I never said that the first recipients didn't get any benefits. What I said was the first recipients didn't pay into the system or very much. The first recipients of Social Security were pretty much near retirement age or were at retirement age when FDR introduced the program. They were the real, true beneficiaries of this program. That's when it took 16 workers to pay the taxes for those people that had not put anything in the...

After three years in litigation, the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District has found itself on the losing end of a lawsuit filed by the Santa Barbara Libertarian Party — a lawsuit that has already taken a $250,000 bite out of the IVRPD’s modest budget. The lawsuit began in November 2001 when Robert Bakhaus, secretary for the local office of the Libertarian Party, sued the IVRPD Board of Directors for committing several violations of the Brown Act, California’s law requiring all meetings of local legislative bodies be open to the public. In a Dec. 23, 2004 decision, Santa Barbara County...

ST. LOUIS (Dec. 16) - The board of a St. Louis charter school on Wednesday placed a principal on leave after he had police handcuff a 5-year-old and drive him around the block in a squad car to curb his unruly behavior. Principal Sam Morgan is on leave from Thurgood Marshall Academy pending an investigation into last month's incident, board attorney Wayne Harvey said. Morgan declined to comment Wednesday, but last week said he had spent more time on the boy "than any kid in this building, trying to steer him straight." He said he had police "put the handcuffs...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Eleven days later, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. All twenty-five members of the European Union supported the motion.[1] The EU position would not have been so offensive had it not then undertaken an act of stunning hypocrisy. In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from...

Posted on Fri, Oct. 03, 2003 ALEXANDRIA, MINN.Norse stone authenticity put to the test BY TRAVIS REED Associated Press Its authenticity may forever be in question, but the Kensington Runestone is on its way to Sweden, where a group of scientists will study it and lend their opinion to the question of whether the rock is really a centuries-old artifact or a 200-pound hoax. Scientists working with the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minn., are traveling with the stone and say they have new geologic findings that suggest it was buried far longer than anyone was settled in western Minnesota. The...