Free Republic

...We're shown Bruno sneaking around and are told that "He dared to read the books banned by the Church." The book in question was On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, which he keeps hidden under his floorboards....Tyson tells us that this (meaning reading Lucretius) "was his undoing." That's very interesting, since papal legate and cardinal Nicholas of Cusa had read and commented on Lucretius in the 15th century, formulating ideas that would later be picked up by Bruno, and was widely read and respected. As the poor Giordano secretly reads his precious book, THE CHURCH! bursts into his room...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is looking to close 2-million acres of forest to protect a toad and frog habitat. The service held a meeting in Prather Wednesday to discuss closing parts of nine forests.

FORT BLISS, Texas -- A West Texas military base said Friday it plans to build the U.S. military's largest solar energy farm. Fort Bliss commander Gen. Dana Pittard made the announcement and touted the Army base's other green initiatives, including planting 14,700 trees, encouraging the use of energy-efficient vehicles and building bicycle lanes. The Army wants to generate about one gigawatt of power from renewable energies by 2025 -about a tenth of its total consumption or enough power to supply at least 250,000 homes. However, Fort Bliss decided to take it even further and plans to become a "net zero"...

A 160-year-old European Weeping Beech tree on the campus of Norwich Free Academy was cut down Wednesday afternoon because school officials felt that it became "a safety hazard." The decision to take down the tree was made at a board of trustees meeting last week. The school's Chief Financial Officer Rich Rand said the decision was made after a 1,000 pound limb fell to the ground last week. Students were upset with the tree, which was planted in 1850, being removed from campus. "It's really difficult because the tree has been here for so long and it's really valuable to...

--a tree-hugger gets caught--- Brian Brademeyer is charged with painting over markings to trick Forest Service crews into cutting down trees. Black Hills environmentalist Brian Brademeyer has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of illegally marking trees to be cut in a U.S. Forest Service timber sale. Brademeyer agreed prior to a proceeding scheduled for Thursday in federal court to pay a $475 fine, plus a $25 processing fee. The maximum penalty for the charge, a federal petty offense, was $5,000 and six months in jail. Contacted by email Friday, Brademeyer confirmed that he was paying the $500 but did...

A Black Hills environmentalist who for years has fought U.S. Forest Service timber-cutting projects is facing federal charges for changing marks on trees in a timber sale near his home so that more trees would be cut. Brian Brademeyer, who lives on a small private acreage inside the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve southeast of Hill City, faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for the misdemeanor citation served on Jan. 31. He is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Veronica Duffy on March 15 in Rapid City. Brademeyer admitted that he painted over marks on more...

As gas prices approach $5 a gallon, and some even predict $6 a gallon by summer, the White House has launched an investigation into what is causing the rapid price surge. But on Thursday’s “Mark Levin Show,” George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams said no investigation was necessary since the cause of the spike in energy prices was obviously the fault of Washington politicians listening to “environmental wackos.” “And actually, you know – collusion, if you look for the source of collusion – it’s in Washington, D.C.,” Williams said. “The federal government is in charge of colluding, you know...

For all of you out there in America and across the globe who have fought so hard to tackle the hideous enemy of our planet, namely carbon emissions, that bogus god you worship named "Climate Change" or "Global Warming", there is some really bad news that will be very painful for you to process. But it is my duty to pass it on to you anyway. Are you sitting down? Okay, here's the bombshell. The current volcanic eruption going on in Iceland, since it first started spewing volcanic ash in March, has, to this point, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you...

See how we should celebrate at the link

Going green was a cause she could really sink her teeth into.The frantic passenger who bit a veteran driver's arm was upset that his bus wasn't a hybrid, he said Thursday. "She came on the bus, and she said she waited more than an hour for a hybrid," said MTA driver Peter Williams, 42. "I said, 'I'm not in control of what bus is assigned to me.'" Williams, a dad of two who is in the Navy Reserves, plans to take a little time off after Wednesday's bizarre attack on an uptown M104 bus. The woman, Shelia Bolar, 49, started...

San Francisco - -- A San Francisco man was arrested in City Hall today after using a bicycle chain and handcuffs to attach himself to a giant holiday tree in protest of recent budget cuts. Aaron Buchbinder, 25, chained himself to the so-called Tree of Hope . . .

<p>TUCSON, Arizona (AP) -- A judge sentenced a woman to nearly the maximum prison term for negligent homicide after hearing a recorded jail conversation in which she made light of the bicyclist she killed.</p> <p>Don't Miss KGUN: Listen to recording of Arrington's phone call Melissa Arrington, 27, was convicted two months ago of negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated DUI in connection with the December 2006 death of Paul L'Ecuyer.</p>

A tree grows in San Francisco no longer, but not before a team of tree surgeons and a small group of neighbors began mixing it up in the middle of 25th Street on Wednesday and four police officers had to be summoned to restore order. At times, the name calling and nasty language seemed capable of drowning out the roar of the chain saw. The dispute involved a 45-foot-tall valley oak in the front yard of a small apartment complex on 25th just west of Potrero Avenue. Months ago, the landlord had sought approval to remove it, saying it leaned...

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. Did someone in this wine-country town illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That is the question at the center of a quarrel that some here have dubbed "Foamgate." Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary-school principal, said he was walking with his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field. The former bean farm happens to be the site chosen for the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development. Evans and other opponents seized on the discovery of meadowfoam, a...

Opening today, the documentary Grizzly Man revisits the life and violent death of Timothy Treadwell, a controversial wildlife activist who spent 13 summers living among bears in the Alaskan wilderness. Treadwell was discovered dead and partially eaten by one of his beloved grizzlies at his campsite in Katmai National Park in the fall of 2003. His girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, was also killed. Using Treadwell's own dramatic video footage, the film tells the story of a controversial figure who put a history of drug and alcohol abuse behind him to devote his life to grizzlies. It was an obsession that cost...

The Tree Hugger A lady from New York State, who was a tree hugger and a dedicated anti-hunter, purchased a piece of timberland. There was a large tree on one of the highest points in the tract. She wanted to get a good view of the natural splendor of her purchase so she started to climb the big tree. As she neared the top, she encountered a Bald Eagle that attacked her. In her haste to escape, the lady slid down the tree to the ground and got many splinters in her crotch. In considerable pain, she hurried to the...

Aizawl: A well-known wildlife enthusiast in India's northeastern state of Mizoram has offered his corpse to be left for wild animals to feed on as part of a bizarre will, court officials said Wednesday. A spokesperson at the District Council Court in Mizoram's capital Aizawl said 46-year-old New World Laldingliana, a Christian tribal, has made a will wishing that his mortal remains be left in the forest for wild animals to eat.

Josh Mahan, the editor of the Lowbagger website writes, "The cat is out of the bag, Victoria has a dirty, dirty secret.  The pretty pages of her catalogues are printed on the pulp of Canada's Boreal forest, one the largest wildernesses left in the world.  And we're not talking just a couple of glossy pages here, folks.  Over one million Victoria's Secret magazines are shipped out to consumers every day, 395 million per year." Mahan reports, "Today in Missoula, a group of protesters gathered at Victoria's Secret in the Southgate Mall to try to convince the lingerie powerhouse to...

When I was a boy growing up in California we called them "mud puddles." If they grew large enough, grown-ups called it "flooding." But now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which enforces the Endangered Species Act, has adopted the bogus poetry of the environmentalist left, calling them "vernal pools." The question for the immediate future is whether a federal government controlled by Republicans will allow either bureaucrats or unelected judges to use these "vernal pools" to shut down development on vast stretches of private property and thus help push the American dream beyond the grasp of some aspiring...

The owner of a vast tract of virgin forest land in north-central Norway is in big trouble after chopping down trees on his own property. Newspaper Aftenposten reported Tuesday that the 54-year-old forest owner has been sentenced to six months in jail for chopping down the trees on his land in Flatanger, Nord-Trøndelag. The trees he chopped were in an area that was part of an officially designated nature preserve. An appeals court in Nord-Trøndelag ruled that the forest owner intentionally launched the logging operation, in the hopes that the area would thus lose its nature preserve status. Illegal logging...