Free Republic

For many families in the United States, Christmas Day comes with the expected joys, but without a loved one who is stationed overseas. The servicemen and servicewomen’s hearts and minds aren’t far from home. E-mail and telephone technology has brought those on the front lines thousands of miles away closer than ever. Today, I’d like to share with you an e-mail that I received from local resident Bob Elliott. He knows the writer, U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Dwight Bechel, and dropped it by our Sierra Vista office because he thought we’d be interested in it. I was moved by...

KUWAIT CITY — Is it religiously acceptable for Muslims to wish their Christian colleagues or acquaintances a Merry Christmas? In Kuwait, it depends on who you ask. Days before the holiday that is not officially celebrated in this small oil-rich state, fundamentalists like Mohammed al-Kandari began urging fellow Muslims not to extend the greeting to Christians they know. Al-Kandari, who heads the Society of Sharia, or Islamic law, told Al-Watan daily the celebration contradicted with Islam because Christians believe Jesus was the son of God. The decline in tolerance of other faiths comes as political Islam is sharply increasing its...

12/7/2006 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- The overcast, rainy afternoon did not dampen the spirits of Andersen Airmen and civilians as they rallied together to make a little boy's wish come true Dec. 5. Andersen AFB officials teamed up to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Guam make one of Natsuki Takeda's wishes come true. Five-year-old Natsuki, who was visiting Guam from Sendai, Japan, has a form of leukemia common among children and his original wish was to have an in-flight meal on a commercial aircraft. However, through conversations with Make-A-Wish sponsors after he and his family arrived...

Billboard I saw on the way home advertising for the UMC: If you can wish, you an believe.

...That it's not as bad as 2005...!!! Why YES... That *IS* 'Village-Idiot' font... So nice of you to NOTICE...!!!

For some time I have been suggesting here that the aim of Republican strategy has been a Republican Party that permanently runs the United States and a United States that permanently runs the world. The two aims have been driven by a common purpose: to steadily and irreversibly increase and consolidate power in GOP hands, leading in the direction of a one-party state at home and a global American empire abroad. The most critical question has been whether American democracy, severely eroded but still breathing, would bring down the Republican machine, or whether the Republican machine--call it the budding one-party...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (May 20, 2005) -- Four depot sergeants in dress blues came to the bedside of a dying Marine Raider Monday afternoon at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, Chula Vista, Calif. Color guard members Sgts. Machel M. Messias, Edgar I. Villa, Koami Fedy and Alejandro F. Galvez went to the center to fulfill the dying wish of Wallace Reid. Reid, who now has several life-threatening medical issues, has lived at the Veterans Home of California, near the center since 2001. Known as paratroopers of the sea, the Raiders were an elite World War II...

A Contentious and Unforgettable Night at the Old GOP BallparkMonthly Republican district meetings are usually more staid than argumentative and more sedentary than physical. Tonight's GOP District 22 meeting was definitely one of the exceptions. I have heard that the Phoenix police have been called in to other GOP district meetings in the recent past. Normally, there are more laughs than raised voices in D22 meetings. District 22 basically encompasses the City of Gilbert, where we are only a month away from a Town Council run-off election between a classic conservative Republican -- incumbent Dave Peterson -- and a WISH...

Now that we've won, my wish list Now that Bush has won re-election with a strong popular mandate and Republicans have strengthened their position in Congress, here is what I'd like to see accomplished over the next four years: 1. Close our borders and deport all illegal aliens. Combine the US Border Patrol and the US Coast Guard into a fifth branch of the US Military for the purpose of homeland defense. Construct a contiguous, militarized, defensive border wall between the US and Mexico. Increase troop patrols on the Canadian border. 2. Prosecute the War in Iraq (and the War...

What is WISH? Wish is “Women in the Senate and the House”. Sounds like a nice enough organization, promoting Republican women. If you check out their website, they reveal their true identity. From their website: “The WISH List -- which stands for Women In the Senate and House® -- raises money to identify, train, support and elect more Republican women leaders to public office at all levels of government. WISH is America's largest fundraising network for pro-choice Republican women candidates!”So with the mask off, we see that WISH is nothing more than EMILY’s List for Republicans. How bad is the...

Urgent! Fight the Far Right.... Voice Support for Senator Specter Today! Dear WISH Friend, (no way are they my friend!) We hope you'll join The WISH List this week in voicing strong support for U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's impending appointment as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the upcoming Congress. This is important. Senator Specter, R-PA, an outstanding pro-choice advocate in the U.S. Senate, is next in line to Chair the Judiciary Committee, which considers all presidential appointments to fill federal judgeships and U.S. Supreme Court vacancies. Recently, Senator Specter has come under fire from the far right, which...

I am a 15-year-old girl who’s had sex since the age of 13. There are two main reasons I got into having sex at such an early age. One, I didn’t know much about sex so I wanted to see what it was like. I saw it everywhere from Victoria’s Secret shops to television shows. Two, I was influenced into having sex because "everybody" in high school was doing it. I was in eighth grade and I hung around people who were older than me. The guys were not virgins. They would say things like, "It is not a big...

Man gives $100,000; family skips trip, donates $5,000. As a 12-year-old with bone cancer fell gravely ill this week, people in the Carolinas rushed to help make her wish come true. One man brought a certified check for $100,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation on Tuesday. He asked to remain anonymous. Instead of asking for something for herself, Hope Stout asked the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Western North Carolina to grant the wishes of the other 155 children on the agency's list. The organization hopes to raise $1 million by mid-January to grant wishes for the children, who suffer from...

Feinstein to Demos: Time to get tough Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross Sunday, November 24, 2002 In the wake of the Democrats' Nov. 5 election defeats, Dianne Feinstein has some advice for her fellow party members: Take off the gloves. "We haven't done near enough of a job tagging the Republicans," the senior senator from California said this past week while back home in San Francisco. As a result, President Bush "was very much able to obfuscate on the whole issue of the economy with his pre-election push for national security issues," Feinstein said. Now, she said, the time has come...

Let's get something straight from the outset. This is not a story about great, historic American cars. For that we would have needed a list of dozens, totaling 100 cars or more. It is about the great American cars that right now, today, should be made again. Who hasn't watched an old film, flipped through the pages of automotive enthusiast magazine or been struck by the beauty of an old car passing slowly in front of you on a Sunday afternoon and thought: Why can't they make cars like that anymore? .pollbutton { background: #efefef; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;...