Free Republic

Suspect in girl's kidnapping listed pornography as Web interestKENNETH HEARD ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE MARMADUKE -- A self-created profile on the Internet shows that a man police say kidnapped a 13-year-old Marmaduke girl enjoys pornographic Web sites and chat-room discussions. Police are searching for Vincent P. Quinn Jr., 58, a plumber from Franklington, N.C., in the abduction of Danielle Shea Blair from a Marmaduke city park Saturday afternoon. Danielle met Quinn on the Internet earlier this summer in a Yahoo.com chat room and developed a relationship with the man. Police say she arranged to meet Quinn at the park Saturday, but when ...

The creationists Not uneducated foolsJIM FLETCHER SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The effort to tar Springdale Rep. Jim Holt as the political equivalent of Jethro Bodine's double-nought spy has been breathtaking in its viciousness. He's no buffoon, but his detractors are working double-time to portray him that way. Holt is finding out just how entrenched evolutionary dogma really is. Called an "ayatollah" by a Democrat-Gazette columnist the week after House Bill 2548 failed to pass, Holt is finding out just how entrenched evolutionary dogma really is. The freshman legislator has been called a lot of unflattering names, but those descriptions pale ...

The Angel's DictionaryPAUL GREENBERG With apologies to Ambrose Bierce, author of The Devil's Dictionary: Art is where religion goes when it is locked out of the soul. Art is the most common excuse for the lack of it. Beauty, or the conventional idea of it, is what every new aesthetic movement revolts against--and the century just past has been the most revolting. Caricatures of ourselves is what we become as we age. Celebrity, an American category that has replaced hero. Computers are machines that can perform almost any mental process except thought. Charity is what all need and none want. ...

I rode on Air Force Two once, and danged if I don't have a single memento to show for it. Well, there is the news story I wrote as a result of it. One cannot write about interviewing the vice president without mentioning where the interview was conducted. But that's about the size of it. There are no cups with vice-presidential seals in my cupboard, no souvenir toiletries or blankets or wine glasses suitable for display. I didn't even get a keepsake photograph of the big guy himself. I have many human frailties, but ripping off the government isn't one ...

NOT THAT we can't stop writing about Bill Clinton. We can stop any time. Any time we want . . . but first . . . The Clintons left the White House packing $190,000 worth of gifts. The list of goodies seemed more typical of newlyweds than politicians, even presidents: China, flatware, lamps, TVs, DVD players . . . enough to fill all their new digs. Tacky? Yeah, but not serious. What really inflamed the establishment press were the midnight pardons handed out by Bill Clinton. Included were the usual Whitewater suspects like Silent Sue McDougal and some less-familiar, now-in-the-news ...

REMEMBER the way Bill Clinton dazzled the press, and infuriated opponents, with selective leaks? Even leaks damaging to his own administration? That way, he could scoop the opposition, and turn even breaking scandal into "old news." But the originator of the 24-hour War Room knew what he was doing. Even bad news can be good news if selectively released. President-elect W. must have been watching down in Texas. And learning. The result? A whole mock epic of spin over the economy during the final days of the presidential transition. Call it post-modern spin. It transcends original spin. It even rises ...

At one time, I would have advised young people with any ambition at all to live each day as though they were destined to be president. The point was to fashion a life and a lifestyle that would withstand public scrutiny. It sounds a rather quaint notion now, doesn't it? These days, it would seem that if one has the proper balance of charm and glibness and cleans up nicely, success is well within reach. Possibly. Of course, this depends on one's definition of success. Ambition is a funny thing. Usually, man being what he is, the more you ...

Ozone Hole Expands to Record Size Thursday, October 5, 2000 The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica ballooned to record size last month, extending over a populated area for the first time, New Zealand scientists have discovered. The gap, which previously had covered only Antarctica and the surrounding ocean, expanded to 11.4 million square miles — an area three times the size of the United States — on Sept. 9 and 10, enough to reach the airspace over the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. Citing data from the U.S. space agency NASA, atmospheric-research scientist Stephen Wood, a researcher ...

Ohio Democratic congressman James Trafficant just endorsed Rick Lazio for the New York senate seat. He also described Janet Reno's justice department as a total disgrace. This all just happened on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes program.

A slow drowning PAUL GREENBERG A lot of people around the paper tried to warn me. Even if they hadn't, something told me that, when we decided to put Tony Moser back in the paper, this time as a columnist, we'd have our hearts broken. But not this way, Tony, not this way. Missed deadlines, strange and incessant phone calls, rambling e-mails, maybe a visit at midnight, or finding you keeled over on my doorstep . . . . I would've known how to react to any of that. But not this, Tony, not this. Not a report that you'd ...

It's hard to remember the good without the bad WALLY HALL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Tony Moser was the most talented and gifted writer I've ever known. He was also the most tragic figure I've ever known. With an IQ that was so far out there he could debate any subject, and usually either side. Tony, though, suffered from a terrible disease. One that destroys people and families. Tony was an alcoholic. He never met a drink he didn't like. I returned Monday night from a wonderful trip to Panama City Beach, Fla., with 192 youths from my church, so I didn't ...

Nine times six is fifty-four PAUL GREENBERG It's just about the best piece of news for American education this year. It comes from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics--which is not a teachers' union, or another department of education composed of professors who haven't actually taught a child in years. These people are teachers--not administrators or kibitzers. And they've resolved to de-emphasize the New Math, than which there couldn't be anything older by now. That misbegotten approach to complicating the simple has confused, thwarted, and generally screwed up a whole generation of befuddled students. In math circles, there's even ...

UPDATE 1-Young Americans want sex, no weddings-study By Patrick Rizzo NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Romance and marriage are out while casual sex and low-commitment relationships are in among young Americans, researchers said Tuesday. A study by Rutgers University's National Marriage Project found that young men and women in their twenties, unlike generations before them, aren't interested in finding marriage partners when they date. Instead, as the study's title suggests, they are more concerned with "Sex Without Strings, Relationships Without Rings." "Today's singles scene is not oriented toward marriage, nor is it dedicated to romantic love as it has been in ...

Letters from an editor BY PAUL GREENBERG Dear Critic from Cleveland, It was wholly a pleasure to open your letter and find your comprehensive critique of my appearance, personality, weight, height, and taste in automobiles. I could have paid a therapist for years and not got so concise yet thorough a diagnosis. Yours, sir, is the kind of letter that makes going through my hate mail a delight. I could hardly wait to share it with other readers, who deserve to know just what kind of inky wretch they're dealing with. So I take the liberty of quoting its essence: ...

Adios, Elian . . . Or is it only Hasta Luego? DESPITE THE brave talk about appeals, yesterday's decision by an appellate court in Atlanta was a great victory, maybe a decisive one, for the Clinton Administration, for Janet Reno and her Justice Department, for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and for tyranny in general. One can sense the elation in the hearts of those who really never wanted to be bothered by this little case and this little boy in the first place. Now both, it would seem, have been put in their place. It is a great ...

The conspiracy grows Vaster and vaster . . . AND SO it begins. You can almost hear the War Room gearing up, the e-mail flying, the charges being test-marketed on line. Here is the word from Charles Schumer, freshman senator and senior Clinton apologist from the First Couple's latest home state: As for that disciplinary committee in Arkansas that recommended disbarment for the president, Senator Schumer tells the New York Times, it's just "a kangaroo court" unworthy of respect. Isn't this the same Charles Schumer who, during the president's impeachment, explained that the defendant's offenses--if any--could be safely left to ...

LOGGING ON Windows 2000: It's Not For You By Rob Pegoraro Friday, February 18, 2000; Page E01 If you're running a home computer, don't buy Windows 2000. This may not be an obvious choice--what with the ads on the sides of buses, the banners across Web sites and the name that suggests it's the chronological and numerical successor to Windows 98--but it's the right one. Just ask Microsoft. "It was designed for business users," said Microsoft Windows product manager Bob Visse of the operating system that shipped yesterday. "I do not anticipate a lot of consumer pickup." With an upgrade ...

What People Say They Want to Know MEREDITH OAKLEY Like it or not, for the past year or so Americans have been forced to do some soul searching about personal mores and what type of conduct they expect from folks they elect to represent them. As this year began, most who responded to surveys on such topics made it clear that they didn't think a person's morality, or at least morality as traditionally defined, was anybody else's business. Thus I was curious when there moved on the news wire last week a report on the results of a public ...

Ozone layer over Europe dwindling -space agency Updated 11:30 AM ET December 2, 1999 PARIS (Reuters) - The ozone layer over Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavia has dwindled to worrying levels nearly as low as those found in the Antarctic, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Thursday. Measurements taken in the Netherlands showed local ozone levels were some two-thirds below the norm for this time of year, confirming the abnormally low levels detected over northwest Europe this week, ESA said in a statement. The ozone layer, high up in the atmosphere, shields Earth from much of the sun's harmful ...

Not a good week for Hillary Rodham Clinton's perpetually exploratory Senate candidacy. Over the weekend, a New York Post/Zogby International poll showed that a majority of New Yorkers just plain don't want Mrs. Clinton in the race, and that her candidacy (she currently trails likely Republican candidate New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani 42.7 percent to 50.3 percent) scores only between half-a-point and two points higher than several other possible Democratic candidates, including a couple of trusty liberal name brands, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "At this point, it's Giuliani's to lose," said Mr. Zogby. ...