Free Republic

Brownback's silence on religion speaks volumes By Mary Rintoul Sam Brownback says his religious affiliation is his private business. The U.S. senator from Kansas has flatly refused to address the issue of his conversion a year ago to the Roman Catholic faith and his association with Opus Dei, an ultra-conservative offshoot of the church. Brownback's silence speaks volumes. The senior senator from Kansas should take a page from the book of a fellow Catholic politician, who came out swinging instead of ducking when the issue of religion was raised. "I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant...

Daily Reproductive Health Report National Politics & Policy | Senators Hear 'Alternatives' to Embryonic Stem Cell Research; Adult Stem Cells, Umbilical Cord Blood Touted [Jun 13, 2003]       The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space yesterday heard "alternatives" to research using embryonic stem cells, including research using adult stem cells and umbilical cord blood, which some say could be as effective as embryonic stem cells in treating degenerative diseases, the AP/Yahoo! News reports (Abrams, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/12).        Dr. Jean Peduzzi-Nelson of the University of Alabama-Birmingham testified that there is "abundant evidence" that adult stem cells can already...

BEHIND THE HEADLINES Tourism minister angers Sharonby dismissing ‘road map’ to peace By Matthew E. Berger WASHINGTON, May 7 (JTA) — Benny Elon may sit in the Israeli Cabinet, but you wouldn’t know it from the message he brought to Washington this week. While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has publicly welcomed the “road map” toward Israeli-Palestinian peace — while making clear his concerns about the plan — Elon, the tourism minister, was making the rounds blasting the road map and offering his own, radically different approach. Elon, a leader of the far-right National Union Party, met in Washington this...

WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- A leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to introduce legislation Wednesday authorizing $50 million a year to aid democratic activists inside Iran seeking a peaceful end to that country's regime. A copy of an amendment to be offered by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, obtained by United Press International, says, "It shall be the policy of the United States to support efforts to achieve democratic reform inside Iran, including support for the thousands of protesters who have expressed a desire for the government to hold a referendum vote that could permit Iran to...

<p>Some of the wags with whom we regularly converse expressed concern nearly two years ago that a dire day soon would arrive for the American people. And they weren't referring to Sept. 11.</p> <p>What they were referencing was the Congress of the United States giving credibility to the incredible — the drive for reparations for black Americans. And the reparations train is being driven by a most unlikely shillaber.</p>

An analysis of television content shows steep declines in the portrayals of sex and violence on the small screen over the last couple of years, surprising the media watchdog group that conducted it. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington-based nonpartisan group, found that sexual material fell by 29% and serious violence by 17% from the 1998-99 TV season to the 2000-01 cycle. "There are multiple indicators that television is cleaning up its act," the center's president, S. Robert Lichter, said. "You can't know the future, but this is the first bit of good news in a while,...