Free Republic

Fast forward into troubleFour years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from a country crash-landing in the 21st century Saturday June 14, 2003The GuardianApril 2002 was a turbulent month for the people of Bhutan. One of the remotest nations in the world, perched high in the snowlines of the Himalayas, suffered a crime wave. The 700,000 inhabitants of...

May 29, 2008 By Andrew Walden (Hawai'i Free Press) Nadhmi Auchi, seen here with the Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich (middle) at a 2004 Chicago dinner in Auchi's honor arranged by Antonin Rezko (potentially, right)[1]. All three men have been convicted of corruption related charges (Auchi 2003, Rezko 2008, Blagojevich 2009).[2] “A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser (dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko) just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi,...

Here are some responses politicians holding national office provided to GUNS Magazine when asked to comment on the Second Amendment. An Arizona senator: "THE SECOND AMENDMENT, which guarantees the right of a free people to the possession of arms, is as important today as ever. We who enjoy the pleasure and the challenge of hunting and marksmanship appreciate also that there must be legislation which, effectively administered, will continue to make possible our enjoyment of this privilege while providing protection from those who would abuse it." A Georgia congressman: "IT IS OF VITAL importance that the right of the people...

Few Americans have heard of Bien Hoa, but the Vietnam War started there 50 years ago today.

It has been said that director Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction to two popular westerns which angered him - High Noon (1952) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). His comment on the former was, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him." Hawks also considered 3:10 to Yuma, which had outlaw Glenn Ford playing psychological games with lawman Van Heflin, "a lot of nonsense." So Rio Bravo was the director's take on heroism...

Ever heard of Nahmdi Auchi? Mr. Auchi was the financier for long-time Barak Obama friend and fund-raiser Tony Rezko. Mr. Auchi is the cousin of Saddam Hussein and his co-conspirator in the 1959 failed assassination attempt of the Iraqi Prime Minister. Although he eventually left Iraq in 1981 and became a British citizen, Auchi prospered mightily under Saddam, becoming a billionaire and pillar of British society (He ranks 279 on the Forbes list of the richest people) He was convicted of committing fraud in France in 2004 (only had to pay a fine) and has been barred from entering the...

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama's name came up again at the Antoin "Tony" Rezko corruption trial and in a way that earlier filings in the case did not telegraph. Stuart Levine, the prosecution's star witness, said he and Obama were at a party Rezko threw at his Wilmette mansion on April 3, 2004, for Nadhmi Auchi, a controversial Iraqi-born billionaire who Rezko was trying to get to invest in a South Loop real-estate development. Auchi, now a citizen of the United Kingdom, has faced criminal charges in Europe. He also figured in the revocation of Rezko's bond early this year...

It was almost Christmas. The parlor stove sat glowing in the tiny living room. The tinsel on the Christmas tree waved back and forth from the breeze created by nine children moving around the room, with everyone trying to see if there was a present for them under the tree. Maybe one was hidden beneath the folds of the sheet that was draped around the bottom of the tree, skillfully hiding the bucket of water the tree stood in. No matter how many times you looked, there just weren't any presents in or around or under anything on that tree....

There were some pretty outrageous cars in the late 1950s, but the 1959 Cadillac takes the cake mainly because of its enormous size, glitzy chrome trim and -- most of all -- soaring tail fins. More than anything, Americans think tail fins of all shapes and sizes characterize the flamboyant autos of an optimistic and increasingly confident country in the 1950s. Why not have outlandish tail fins on the most prestigious U.S. car when America had new rock 'n' roll music, color television and Jupiter space rockets? » Click to enlarge image Some auto collectors, however, regard the 1959 Caddy...

On the surface there would seem to be little to unite the Aryan racialists of the neo-Nazi movement with the terrorists of radical Islam. To the neo-Nazis, Muslims are almost all members of ``inferior`` races; and to the Islamic terrorists, the neo-Nazis are almost without exception either atheists or members of fringe quasi-Christian sects. But the reality is that there has been close cooperation between Muslim extremists and Fascists ever since the founding of the Nazi movement in the 1920`s. For all of their differences, Muslim extremists and Nazis have always been united by a common group of beliefs and...

WASHINGTON - Senator Prescott Bush said today that Congress might have to face the "unpleasant necessity" of raising taxes to hold the line against inflation. The Connecticut Republican in a speech to the Senate, did not say when such an increase might have to be voted. But he warned that every effort must be made to fight inflation because it was "the Soviet Union's potentially most dangerous weapon in the 'cold war'. " Charles A. Halleck of Indiana, House Republican leader, said after a White House conference yesterday that a tax-cut was possible within the "next two or three years",...