Free Republic

How’s your 'Progenitor A?' By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent (Filed: 07/03/2006) Spain has taken another step in its journey from conservative to liberal bastion by creating new birth certificates to avoid discrimination against same-sex couples. According to an announcement in the Official Bulletin of State "The expression "father" will be replaced with "Progenitor A", and "mother" will be replaced with "Progenitor B"."The head of the national Civil Register, Pilar Blanco-Morales, told the newspaper ABC that the change took account of a new law on same-sex marriages passed by the socialist government in July. The move has prompted sharp criticism from...

PARIS AND SKOPJE, MACEDONIA – Serbia and Montenegro, already struggling to find its place in Europe, risks becoming the first state ever to be formally branded genocidal, as judges at the World Bank last week began hearing arguments in a Bosnian lawsuit over crimes committed during the war in the early 1990s. The case could make Serbia, as the successor state to Yugoslavia, liable for tens of billions of dollars in reparations. But Bosnian Muslims say the suit's importance lies elsewhere, in creating an accurate and unchallengeable account of the conflict, which continues to poison regional politics. "For our future,...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Some Florida cities would like to throw a dog a bone _ or maybe a burger and some fries. Dogs would be able to sit with humans at outdoor restaurant tables in some communities under a measure advancing in the Florida Legislature. The bill, approved by a House committee Wednesday, would create a three-year test program to allow cities to grant restaurants that want to host dogs special permission to do so under certain conditions. Rep. Sheri McInvale, an Orlando Republican, filed the bill after some restaurant owners complained because they were threatened with fines for allowing...

Graffiti scribbled on a mosque in the village of Bnai Elias, calling Mohammed “a pig,” sparked Arab riots in Samaria Sunday afternoon. An Israeli motorist was wounded and evacuated to the hospital. The motorist was lightly wounded when her car was stoned on the Azoun bypass road. After being struck in the head by a rock, she continued driving to the community of Karnei Shomron where she received first aid before being evacuated to the hospital. Four other Israelis were treated for shock after their vehicles were attacked by stone throwing mobs. Hundreds of Arabs rioted in the towns of...

WASHINGTON - They are the Pentagon's new "rules of engagement" _ the diamond ring kind. U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk." The matchmaking advice comes as military family life is being stressed by two tough wars. Defense Department records show more than 56,000 in the Army _ active, National Guard and Reserve _ have divorced since the campaign in Afghanistan started in 2001. Officials partly blame long and repeated deployments which started after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and stretched the...

The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association has announced the appointment of Dave Ehrig as chairman of the Longhunter Committee and the NMLRA Longhunter Muzzleloading Big Game Records Program. Since 1988, the NMLRA Longhunter Committee and staff have maintained a trophy measuring, scoring, and record-keeping program for North American big game animals taken with muzzleloading firearms. The fourth edition of The Longhunter Muzzleloading Big Game Record Book, which includes all qualifying animals taken since the program’s inception, was recently released. Mr. Ehrig is well known among muzzleloading enthusiasts and others in the black powder shooting industry. Known as "Pennsylvania’s Mr. Black...

Dear Friends, As most of you have probably heard, I was arrested before the State of the Union Address tonight. I am speechless with fury at what happened and with grief over what we have lost in our country. There have been lies from the police and distortions by the press. (Shocker) So this is what really happened: This afternoon at the People's State of the Union Address in DC where I was joined by Congresspersons Lynn Woolsey and John Conyers, Ann Wright, Malik Rahim and John Cavanagh. Lynn brought me a ticket to the State of the Union Address....

Fisking Osama From todays message from Osama. I Hereby Commit "A Fisking". The Transcript taken from the BBC Translation page. My comments are in Bold... My message to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the way to end it. Well now, that’s interesting. Saying “way to end it” is significantly different that pounding on your chest and talking about victory. I had not intended to speak to you about this issue, because, for us, this issue is already decided on: diamonds cut diamonds. Diamonds cut diamonds? What the hell does that mean? Either A) We (Bush...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Jan. 17, 2006) -- Six-year Navy veteran, Petty Officer 3rd Class Christopher D. Baird, was presented the Thomas A. Christensen Jr. Award Dec. 16, for “going above and beyond the call of duty,” according to the award citation. The Cordell, Okla., native, a corpsman with 2nd Dental Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, was selected from three contestants – one from each MLG. The Thomas A. Christensen Jr. Award is presented to a dental technician in recognition of significant contributions to the Navy and the Fleet Marine Force. Baird is one of 15 Sailors to...

We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy. That wasn't the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. If we've become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules, for our nation to be a republic.

The stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could prove to be one of the great disasters in the country's nearly 60-year history. As I write this, Sharon's condition remains uncertain, but the severity of his stroke makes it unlikely that he will survive, let alone return to power. That could be disastrous because Sharon represented, indeed embodied, the emergence of a rational, farsighted national idea that seemed poised in the coming elections to create a stable governing political center for the first time in decades.

BUHL, Idaho -- You never call a Marine a Soldier and you never call a Soldier a Marine. And never confuse a Marine's "oohrah" with a Soldier’s "hooah." In fact, one of the few things a Marine and a Soldier will agree on is how much fun it is to make jokes about the Air Force. But when it comes down to the wire, they come through for each other.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq (Jan. 5, 2006) -- While on a long deployment overseas, Marines look forward to from letters from home, the occasional phone call or photos sent from their loved ones. These are the times where it’s the little things that matter so much – showers, a warm place to sleep and hot chow. To add one more item to this list, Marines from the 2nd Marine Logistics Group’s Food Service Company recently set up a Field Food Service System to support the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) at the unit’s base of operations, Forward...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, December 30, 2005) – As is usual at this time of year, most news organizations take a look back at what made news in the year just ended. The Army News Service is no different. So what made news for the Army in 2005? You could almost sum it up in three words: war, hurricanes and elections. Almost. January The Army started 2005 just as it ends 2005 – as an Army at war. Soldiers were fighting for freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan throughout the year. It wasn’t just Iraqi insurgents and Taliban remnants that Army...

In the President’s address to the nation Sunday the 18th, 2005, he made this statement, “It is true that Saddam Hussein had a history of pursuing and using weapons of mass destruction. It is true that he systematically concealed those programs, and blocked the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong.” This is the confession many Americans have been demanding for years now and for what-ever reason, the President decided to make this confession before the world community...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 20, 2005 – The U.S. ambassador to Iraq envisions "an Iraq that works" - a country on a path to increase democracy, and one that will respect the rights of all in the country. At a news conference here today, Zalmay Khalilzhad said he wants an increasingly prosperous Iraq that poses no threat to its neighbors, and serves as an example to the region of the power of democracy. The ambassador said it's too early to talk "definitively" about the results of the Dec. 15 election, but it appeared "as if people preferred to vote their ethnic or...

This is a link to the video "Christmas Shoes"

BOSTON (AP) - Investigators were searching for suspects in one of the city's bloodiest crimes in recent memory after four men were fatally shot in a basement that neighbours said had been set up as a music studio. The dead were in their late teens and early 20s, authorities said. Three men were found dead at the house and the fourth died at a hospital, police Supt. Bobbie Johnson said. Johnson said witnesses told police they saw a heavy-set person fleeing the scene Tuesday night. Police said the people involved appeared to know each other, but Johnson would not comment...

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against three Amman hotels, and police arrested 120 Jordanians and Iraqis in the hunt for anyone who might have aided them. If their involvement is confirmed, the husband and wife would be the first married couple yet known to take part in a suicide bombing, a top Israeli counterterrorism expert said. Thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman for a second straight day, condemning the attacks that killed 57 people, excluding the bombers, and denouncing al-Qaida in Iraq's leader,...

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (Nov. 8, 2005) -- The phrase, ‘It’s a small world,’ is used when people unexpectedly reunite. For two Marines with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, it’s not just a small world, it’s a small Marine Corps. Even though there are hundreds of units in the Marines, Orland, Calif., native, Cpl. Joshua E. Thompson, and Claremore, Okla., native, Cpl. Timothy R. Roundtree, served together nearly every step of their Marine Corps careers. Now in Iraq for the second time together, they spend everyday together fixing vehicles for the battalion’s motor transport section. The two are known to complete...