Free Republic

In England a farmer is being prosecuted and sent to prison for a cow that lost an ear tag. NEWS-FLASH #1: Animals lose their ear tags a lot. NEWS-FLASH #2: Ear tags do not stop disease.Texas wants $1,000 per incident per day fines to enforce compliance. NEWS-FLASH #3: It could only take weeks for this to add up to more than the value of a small farm or homestead.In Vermont our Agriculture Department plans to enforce mandatory Premise ID, and probably eventually NAIS, "right down to the backyard level" in the words of our state vet Dr. Rood. When asked...

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Israeli troops on Thursday killed five Palestinians, including a top militant who said just a day earlier that he would never be caught, in Israel's largest military sweep since pulling out from the Gaza Strip last summer. Three of the dead were gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party — killed during a shootout in their hide-out in the Balata refugee camp. The deaths brought to eight the number of Palestinians killed by army fire since the Balata sweep began Monday. The military...

Recently a school in Spokane, Washington, banned students from playing tag out on their playground. The principal claims that students were getting hurt--gasp--and being coerced to play. Her idea of coercion is one student running up to another, tagging him and saying, "You're it." Apparently, pure genius takes a lot longer to reach the Pacific Northwest. Here in New Jersey, some schools have already banned tag, agreeing with the National Association of School Psychologists who say, "There's a potential for some victimization." Victimization? Are you kidding me? These people haven't a clue about victimization. I'll tell you about victimization. I...

"labels GPS" to fight against the hit and run offences Los Angeles - the police force of Los Angeles will obtain a launcher of "étiquettes GPS" to track the motorists in hit and run offence. She thus hopes to reduce the risks incurred by her men at the time of track races at high speed. According to the chief of the police force of the city, William Bratton, the police cars of the Californian megalopolis will be equipped soon with launchers compressed-air, which will project adhesive "labels" on the vehicles of suspects taken in hunting. These "labels" contain a...

CHICAGO - The reputed mob boss known as "Joey the Clown" lived up to his nickname Tuesday, making wisecracks in court as he pleaded not guilty to conspiring in the slayings of 18 people. "Joey," whose real name is Joseph Lombardo, had spent nine months on the lam from federal agents before the hearing. Federal Judge James B. Zagel asked if he had seen a doctor lately. "I was supposed to see him nine months ago, but I was — what do they call it? — I was unavailable," rasped Lombardo, who appeared in an orange prison jumpsuit and leg...

The teenagers who have made Tag one of the most popular body sprays on the market may be surprised to find out which company makes it. Gillette Co. has kept its name off Tag's spray cans and their sexually suggestive advertisements as part of a youth-driven marketing strategy. Now, after Gillette's first attempt at a teen spray fizzled, the company best known for its razors is breaking through to consumers who are too young to shave. Tag, named after the schoolyard game and billed as "uniquely designed to attract the ladies," became the second best-selling men's body spray within six...

Science is engaged in a huge stocktaking exercise Scientists are to establish a giant catalogue of life - to, in effect, "barcode" every species on Earth, from tiny plankton to the mighty blue whale.Initial projects will focus on birds and fish, recording details in their genetic make-up that can be used to tell one life form from another. The initiative was launched in London at the International Conference for the Barcoding of Life. Researchers concede it will take many years to complete the task. "About 1.7 million species are known - we suspect there are anything from 10-30 million species...

Only my third thread post,so be gentle. Did John Kerry break state and federal law during his goose hunt?All of the photos I've seen DO NOT show a "tag" attached to any goose.Ohio state,and therefor federal,law requires that all migratory game birds that you have killed,but are not in posession of,be tagged with pertinent information.John Kerry said he was "Too lazy" to carry his own bird.If that goose did not have a tag,then I submit that Kerry is violation of state and federal law. Source: Tagging:No person shall give,put,or leave any migratory game birds at any place OR IN THE...

Kerry struggles to lose elitist tag with voters By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 24/07/2004) The Democrats' presidential challenger returned to his birthplace yesterday seeking to give an answer to a key question hanging over his campaign: who exactly is Senator John Kerry? With polls showing him neck and neck with President George W Bush, he is in a better position at this stage of the race than any challenger since Ronald Reagan in 1980. He has also raised more money than any challenger in history and with his cv as a Vietnam War hero cannot easily be tarred with...

MANALAPAN, Fla. April 27 ? One of the nation's wealthiest towns will soon have cameras and computers running background checks on every car and driver that passes through. Police Chief Clay Walker said cameras will take infrared photos recording a car's tag number, then software will automatically run the numbers through law enforcement databases. A 911 dispatcher is alerted if the car is stolen or is the subject of a "be on the lookout" warning.

Call it legal but offensive drivingBy Wendi C. ThomasContactFebruary 5, 2004The Sons of Confederate Veterans is the latest group in Tennessee to get a specialty license plate, one that includes the Confederate flag logo. The license plates remind me of a T-shirt I had in college that said: "It's a Black Thing, You Wouldn't Understand." It was an accouterment of my militant phase, when I taped a poster of Malcolm X to my dorm room wall, when I badgered the university in a futile attempt to get it to divest from South Africa, when my friends laughingly dubbed me "Wendela."...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Parents of more than 100 Danish scouts were outraged over a game of tag at a scout camp in which children acted as Jews wearing yellow Stars of David and tried to escape from adults pretending to be Nazis. The group of about 160 scouts, aged 11-14, included a dozen teenagers from the Danish-speaking minority in northern Germany. The school yard was turned into a concentration camp with swastikas on the windows. "I was shocked," Johanna Christiansen, a German woman, told the Ekstra Bladet newspaper on Thursday. "It's wrong to expose children to this," said Christiansen, whose...

TRENTON, NJ-November 18, 2002 — Tag, dodge ball and other playground favorites are coming under more scrutiny at many New Jersey schools, as the threat of injuries and lawsuits spurs more districts to ban the games. In Long Hill, a ban on tag was part of a code of conduct signed by pupils at one of the Morris County district's elementary schools this year. Instead, a modified version of the game is played indoors with plenty of supervision. "The idea of loosely running around and chasing each other is not safe," Long Hill Superintendent Arthur DiBenedetto told The Star-Ledger of...

Depending on your brawn, athleticism or popularity, if you ever went to grade school you remember well your place in the playground game hierarchy. You either desperately dodged the ball or fiercely beaned classmates with it. You were the captain of the team or the last one chosen. Or perhaps out of fear or shyness, you just blended in until the bell saved you. For generations, recess games were considered mere child's play, even if they broke limbs occasionally or, more regularly, hurt feelings. These days, though, some educators have their sights set on some of the more potentially vicious...

<p>SANTA MONICA — A Santa Monica elementary school has banned the game of tag, once synonymous with youth and innocence, because they say it creates self-esteem issues among weaker and slower children.</p> <p>"We had some children who were not playing 'it' appropriately. How do you differentiate between those that are playing correctly and those that aren't?" asked Franklin Elementary School Principal Pat Samarge.</p>

<p>SANTA MONICA — A Santa Monica elementary school has banned the game of tag, once synonymous with youth and innocence, because they say it creates self-esteem issues among weaker and slower children.</p> <p>"We had some children who were not playing 'it' appropriately. How do you differentiate between those that are playing correctly and those that aren't?" asked Franklin Elementary School Principal Pat Samarge.</p>