Free Republic

The Anti-Asian Hate Crime legislation may make senators feel good about themselves, but it won't do much to address the real concerns of Asian Americans.In response to the rise of anti-Asian crimes, the U.S. Senate passed an Anti-Asian Hate Crime bill by a 94 to 1 vote. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, the bill’s lead sponsor, said passing the legislation sent a “solid message of solidarity that the Senate will not be a bystander as anti-Asian violence surges in our country.” Yet a close examination of the bill raises the uncomfortable question of whether the effort will do anything meaningful to...

Entanglement is one of the most confusing aspects of quantum mechanics — a field of physics that isn't exactly known to be clear-cut, sensible, common-sense and easy-to-understand.  Even Albert Einstein himself was flummoxed by the surprising behavior of microscopic particles, and he firmly believed that we were fundamentally misunderstanding the universe with quantum mechanics. It turns out that Einstein was wrong, but it's going to take a while to explain where he went wrong and what's really going on in the quantum realm. Head of state One of the most important lessons from quantum mechanics is that we have to...

A leftist guerrilla movement responsible for many kidnappings and attacks inside Mexico is secretly receiving funding from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, U.S. and Mexican intelligence officials told The Washington Examiner. The group, called the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR), is "a terrorist organization bent on destabilizing Mexico. ... Splinters of the group are also adding to the problem," said a Mexican official who requested anonymity. The group, which announced its existence in 1996, claimed responsibility for the 2007 bombings of the Mexican government's Pemex oil pipelines, along with several other bombing attempts of a bank and Sears department stores in cities...

California stands on the verge of ushering in an environmental program which aims to change the face of waste production standards. Several bills currently in the California Legislature propose to codify the European concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) , which has so far been a voluntary practice. It is a strategy which promotes the integration of environmental costs associated with a product throughout its lifecycle into the market price of the product. In other words, b efore the manufacturing of a product begins, EPR suggests that the manufacturer should know how the waste created by the production process should...

On May 25, somewhere in central Mexico, two middle-aged Mexican men vanished. A week later, a shadowy Marxist guerrilla group that had been dormant for a few years issued the first of 14 communiqués identifying the men as their "comrades." The Popular Revolutionary Army, or EPR, blamed the Mexican government for their abduction. "They were taken alive, and we want them back alive," the communiqué said. Above the statement were blurry photographs of the pair, one a burly, mustachioed man named Gabriel Cruz Sánchez, and the other, Edmundo Reyes, whose spectacles and tie gave him the mien of a mild-mannered...

Security force has been slashed, and the rebels are sophisticated MEXICO CITY — With the Mexican government finding it difficult to guard much of the country's petroleum pipeline network, preventing further attacks on it depends upon a national security apparatus that analysts warn may not be up to the task. Once a brutally efficient weapon of the one-party regime that ruled for most of the 20th century, Mexico's domestic intelligence service has been weakened over the past decade by budget cuts, personnel purges and the shifting priorities of a more democratic society, the analysts say. Some of the more experienced...

Terrorism: Another six blasts at Mexico's energy infrastructure Sunday drove world natural gas prices higher. But the probable real intention was to destabilize Mexico by destroying its economy. Who benefits here? Thus far, no one has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attack in Veracruz that blew up six natural gas pipelines, cut off critical energy to Mexico's two biggest and most industrialized cities, and forced the evacuation of 12,000 residents. The direct perpetrators are probably the Popular Revolutionary Army, or EPR, a newly re-formed terror group that was active two decades ago. Recrudescing out of seemingly nowhere, it struck two...

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) - A shadowy leftist guerrilla group took credit for a string of explosions that ripped apart at least six Mexican oil and gas pipelines Monday, rattling financial markets and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production. The six explosions could be seen miles away, and set off fires that sent flames and black smoke shooting high above the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. At least a dozen pipelines, most carrying natural gas, were affected, said Jesus Reyes Heroles, the head of Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, without providing specifics. He said there would be hundreds...

War On Terror: Mexico may think its differences with the U.S. and status as a nonaligned country somehow shield it from the global war on terror.... Nearly 11,000 people were evacuated Thursday from Torre Mayor, Mexico City's tallest, ritziest tower, after a terrorist called in a car bomb. The device, which Mexican investigators called "artesanal," was easily dismantled. But the unprecedented evacuation echoed the disruptions Manhattan has seen as an al-Qaida target since 1993. An obscure group called EPR claimed credit the next day, but it doesn't seem to be linked with global terrorist networks.There's reason to worry, however, that...

Disaster Looms in Pakistan Decorum was abandoned as accusations ricocheted between the wood-panelled walls of Pakistan's national assembly on Monday night. "Murderers! Murderers of innocent people!" screamed an MP from a religious party, his yellow turban shaking as he wagged a finger towards the government benches. Five female parliamentarians, their faces concealed behind black and white burkas, slapped the benches with open palms. Another mullah stood up and started shouting. The speaker strained to maintain order. Others were less captivated by the debate on last month's siege of the Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people died. One...

At least 4 states lose natural gas source in attacks on key pipelines MEXICO CITY — Hundreds of companies, including multinationals such as Honda and Hershey's, shuttered operations temporarily on Wednesday after a shadowy rebel group claimed responsibility for a series of explosions of key petroleum pipelines. Near-simultaneous blasts carried out just after 1 a.m. Tuesday in central Queretaro state cut off natural gas supplies to at least four states in central Mexico. The region was still reeling from a round of pipeline explosions July 5 in neighboring Guanajuato state. "There can't be fewer than 800 or 1,000 medium and...

DEA confirms nexus between Mexican narcotics traffickers and the FARC We know the contacts, they assure us; they are confident in the support of the new regime Jose Carreño El Universal (Mexico City) Wednesday 31 January 2007 WASHINGTON. - The United States anti-drug agency (DEA) assured [El Universal] that it knows who the contacts are between Mexican narcotics traffickers and the guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The head of operations of the DEA, Michael Braun, assured that the FARC obtains between 500 million and a billion dollars by their drug-related operations [annually]. Narcotics trafficking, he added,...

LONDON – Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, has established the first proof al-Qaida is playing a major role in the new Cold War between North and South America – with Osama bin Laden's terror network seeing itself in league with Mexican subversives in infiltrating the U.S. border. The evidence emerged as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez swash-buckled into London after scoring a win in yet another venomous battle with Washington for influence and economic advantage across the Latin American continent. Chavez is in London to meet the capital's anti-Bush mayor, Ken Livingstone, and other prominent British opponents of the war in...

...With insufficient fossil fuel reserves, our country very early on invested in energy alternatives. The two oil crises of the '70s convinced us to accelerate the construction of facilities to produce safe and economically profitable nuclear energy. That strategy paid off: In 30 years, France's energy independence has risen from 30% to 50%. While turning toward nuclear energy might have seemed unusual 60 years ago, I believe that it was an especially visionary choice. The development of nuclear energy enabled us to meet several objectives: energy independence and security of supply, and competitive, stable energy prices. This nuclear option is...