Free Republic

County studies, readies rifle bill By Peter Felsenfeld CONTRA COSTA TIMES All it would take is a willing mind and a powerful explosive to turn Contra Costa's hulking oil refineries into giant chemical bombs. In an age of terrorism and readily available weapons, neither prospect can be completely discounted. So Contra Costa supervisors are scheduled Tuesday to take aim at a readily available gun they say presents just such a threat. The board is expected to ask county attorneys to draft an ordinance that would ban the sale of .50-caliber BMG rifles in unincorporated areas. The measure would be based...

Why do the republicans allow the democrats to continue to distort and misrepresent the the employment figures ? Let's look at the simple facts. President Bush's first budget was not enacted until November of 2001. Until that point we were operating under a Clinton budget. Yet, we allow the democrats to hang their hat on the distortional claim of "since Bush took office". Here are the real statistics:

Tech workers asked to instruct their overseas replacements SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 10 — Scott Kirwin clung to his job at a large investment bank through several rounds of layoffs last year. Friends marveled at the computer programmer´s ability to dodge pink slips during the worst technology downturn in a decade. But it was tough for Kirwin, 36, to relish his final assignment: training a group of programmers from India who would replace him within a year.        “THEY CALLED IT 'knowledge acquisition,”´ the Wilmington, Del., resident said. “We got paid our normal salaries to train people to do our jobs....

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, one of the nation's most popular radio talk-show hosts and the most successful on-air counselor, is no longer practicing the rituals of Judaism – a religion she converted to a decade ago in her 40s. ''Almost 10 years ago, I talked on the air about becoming a convert to Judaism,'' she told her listeners last week. ''I was open on the air at that time about that evolution. Well, I would say within the last year I have had a de-evolution.'' Where is she now spiritually? ''Nowhere exactly,'' she chuckled. ''Suspended animation. I still see myself as...

The deadliest weapon in the world today is not a nuclear bomb or an infectious agent, but a machine gun. Small arms kill half a million people a year, picking off American soldiers in Iraq, turning Liberian thugs into powerful warlords and allowing 12-year-olds in eastern Congo to terrorize their neighbors. The ease of obtaining AK-47's helps turn grievances into wars. Controlling small arms is complex. Guns are easily concealed, trading and retrading in a quasi-legal netherworld. ... THIS IS AN EXCERPT

Ginsburg: America Is Not Enough August 5, 2003 My friends, I have something shocking to discuss with you and I'm not just pulling that word out of the air for dramatic effect - I genuinely mean this. The Associated Press reported the following over the weekend: “The Supreme Court is looking beyond America's borders for guidance in handling cases on issues like the death penalty and gay rights, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Saturday. The justices referred to the findings of foreign courts this summer in their own ruling that states may not punish gay couples for having sex. And...

The New York Times has announced a new liberal executive editor, Bill Keller, and a report on the Jayson Blair scandal, and they both seek to perpetuate and expand the liberal diversity program that contributed to the plagiarism and fakery scandal in the first place. But this fact has been obscured by news that the paper intends to implement various reforms and appoint an ombudsman or "public editor."

Boy, I hope Chris Hitchens can give the eulogy at my funeral! I mean, I’m kinda normal, pretty routine, probably not the most spellbinding story here. But in the hands (or keyboard) of Mr. Hitchens, who knows what kind of exciting or outlaw life I will have ended up living? I’d love to see! For surely, Hitchen’s tacky, curmudgeon portrait of Bob Hope in his article (Slate, 8/1/03) is such an off-target, vindictive exercise in below-the-mudline journal-ooze-im that you almost want to see what muck he concocts out of your own life experiences. Put in a diamond, out comes a...

California taxpayers are celebrating a silver anniversary, as 2003 is the 25th year since the enactment of California's Proposition 13, whose landmark victory in 1978 sparked a national tax revolt. It passed in a landslide vote, with some 65 percent of Californians favoring the measure. The proposition slashed property taxes by limiting property-tax rates to 1 percent of the sales price of a home, and it limited subsequent increases to 2 percent per year -- a radical concept at the time. Previously, tax rates were based on a valuation established by a county assessor. Moreover, voracious local politicians determined the...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ten years ago, it seemed as if every rapper wanted to be a gangsta. Now, everyone wants to be a pimp. 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg strut in full pimp regalia, surrounded by a bevy of beauties, in their new video "P.I.M.P." Rappers like Lil' Jon bounce through their videos holding jewel-encrusted chalices popularized by pimps. Even old-school soul veteran Ronald Isley personifies the pimp style with his alter-ego, "Mr. Biggs," right down to his elaborate cane. Modeling yourself after figures most people consider among the degenerates of society might not seem like the most respectable...

WASHINGTON – A major hotel chain that will not make top-rated Fox News Channel available to guests has a record of individual campaign contributions heavily favoring Democrats. Federal Election Commission records reviewed by NewsMax.com show that among those officials who list Starwood or a Starwood hotel property as their workplace favored Democrats by better than 3 to 1 over Republicans for the 1999-2000 election cycle. Starwood's hotels include Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, Luxury Connection, Four Points and, ironically, W.

Dhaka - A 24-year-old man was sentenced to death in Bangladesh for throwing acid on his nine-year-old bride, disfiguring and blinding her for life, prosecution lawyers said on Tuesday. A special tribunal in the industrial town of Gazipur, 35km north of the capital Dhaka, handed down the death sentence on Swapan Gazi after a lengthy trial. The tribunal also fined him.

Regardless of how bad a regime North Korea has, its demands of the United States are reasonable. They are four: one-on-one talks, a nonaggression treaty, economic aid and normal diplomatic relations. The Bush administration's obstinate refusal to consider these could prove to be one of the deadliest blunders in the history of stupid diplomacy.

WASHINGTON, July 29 — Despite renewed warnings about possible airline hijackings, the Transportation Security Administration has alerted federal air marshals that as of Friday they will no longer be covering cross-country or international flights, MSNBC.com has learned. The decision to drop coverage on flights that many experts consider to be at the highest risk of attack apparently stems from a policy decision to rework schedules so that air marshals don’t have to incur the expense of staying overnight in hotels.

Just three years ago, Congress voted to allow more foreign workers into the United States. Times have changed. Politicians are proposing tough — opponents say misguided — steps to keep jobs at home in the face of rising unemployment, a growing number of white-collar jobs being transferred to India and other countries and lingering anger over some U.S. allies' opposition to the war in Iraq. The House has passed measures to require the Defense and State departments to buy a larger share of equipment from U.S. firms. The measure, which has provoked a corporate and political uproar, has not been...

ost of the earth's surface is covered by oceans, and their vastness and biological bounty were long thought to be immune to human influence. But no more. Scientists and marine experts say decades of industrial-scale assaults are taking a heavy toll. More than 70 percent of commercial fish stocks are now considered fully exploited, overfished or collapsed. Sea birds and mammals are endangered. And a growing number of marine species are reaching the precariously low levels where extinction is considered a real possibility. "It's an incipient disaster," said Richard Ellis, author of "The Empty Ocean." A rush of recent studies,...

By Ron VanNostrand Just after the tragic events of 9/11, my son asked me if this was the beginning of World War III. I assured him that the perpetrators of that tragedy were a small group of angry people. I told him that before a world war began, there would be many alliances formed and great powers would divide into opposite sides, each brandishing their own weapons of mass destruction. With the daily headlines reporting little but doom and gloom, I may have been wrong in my assessment. Recently, at a breakfast table discussion, my spouse and I discussed this...

Today on the Michael Medved Radio Show, actor Eric Roberts told listeners that it is the Republicans who are responsible for the July 16th deaths on ten people when 87-year old driver Russell Weller plowed through a Santa Monica, California farmer’s market.

The threat of scrapes and bruises, not to mention sunburn, didn't stop the fledgling North American Nude Bikers club from holding its first rally this weekend. Events at the Rock Haven Lodge Family Nudist Park in southeast Rutherford County included a barbecue, live music, bike games and a poker run -- where bikers vie for the best hand by drawing cards at stops along the way. They don't actually ride naked. Mostly. "You've got to be real careful or you're liable to get something burnt or hurt," club Vice President Allen "Anchor" Turner said. Turner, 46, came up with the...

<p>The "new" anti-Semitism is as virulent as ever, but it's often easy for Americans — Christian and Jew alike — not to notice.</p> <p>Christians and Jews get along here. Evangelical Christians have become some of the best friends Jews have, and, for their part, most Jews are not as suspicious of Evangelical motives as they once were. Since the anti-Semites abroad regard America as the great Satan and Israel the little Satan, we all feel equal-opportunity hate.</p>