Free Republic

A Queens woman was arrested by federal authorities after a JetBlue flight was forced to make an emergency landing because she allegedly lit and refused to extinguish a cigarette on the plane and punched a flight attendant in the face, according to KUSA.com. The plane was en route from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday when officials said passenger Christina Szele, 35, lit a cigarette in her seat and starting smoking, the Rocky Mountain News reported. Smoking is forbidden on all domestic flights, but the Rocky Mountain News reported that when a...

Senator Barack Obama, 46, was in “excellent health” at the time of his last examination more than a year ago and has no known medical problems that would affect his ability to serve as president, according to a letter by his physician released on Thursday. The undated letter was released less than a week after Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, released his medical records. blah, blah... The peskiest medical problem seems to be his multiple efforts to quit cigarette smoking, which he began at least two decades ago. Mr. Obama “has quit this practice on several...

She is 71 years old, a great-grandmother - hardly the type of person you would expect to see in Bronx Criminal Court to answer charges of buying two dime bags of pot. Yet at the appointed time today, Barbara Jackson will make her way to the courthouse, a colorectal cancer survivor ready to plead her case. "I smoke it to live," the feisty granny told the Daily News. "I don't think I should have been arrested." Jackson said she started smoking the green, leafy drug eight years ago - a year after being diagnosed with cancer - to restore her...

BERLIN - A thirsty German sold his 6-year-old step-daughter's pet beagle to the owner of a bar to pay for beer, the Bild newspaper reported on Friday. The unemployed man offered to take the dog for a walk and then stopped at a bar where he convinced the owner to buy the 3-year-old dog for $53 (40 euros). The man spent the proceeds quenching his thirst for beer. The bar owner has now returned the dog to its owner.

A biography of late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley might be turned into a movie, reports Blabbermouth.net. A press release from Arts Publications indicated that Argentinean journalist Adriana Rubio has been contacted by Philadelphia-based filmmaker Eric Moyer about making a film version of her book, Layne Staley: Get Born Again. Moyer said in a statement, "I am determined to make this film about Layne Staley, not only to celebrate his life and talent, but to warn others through his compelling story that heroin will kill you...no matter who you are." Staley died in April of 2002 after struggling with...

The United States could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, an unprecedented study released suggested. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Silicon Valley said their telephone survey indicated more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of "problematic Internet use." The findings backed those of previous, less rigorous studies, according to Stanford. Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their Internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored alcoholics using booze, according to the study's lead author, Elias Aboujaoude. "In a sense,...

Increasingly explicit and graphic global warming predictions have led to the danger of addiction: This is the story of one young man whose interest in global warming became a dangerous obsession. (Somewhere in Southern California)

For some, the Internet it has become an addiction, adversely affecting their lives and their family's lives. While not yet defined as a true addiction, many people are suffering the consequences of obsession with the online world, warns Dr. Diane M. Wieland, who treats patients with computer addiction in her practice in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. For some people, the Internet may promote addictive behaviors and pseudo-intimate interpersonal relationships, reports Wieland in the journal, Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. "Such cyberspace contacts may result in cyber disorders such as virtual relationships that evolve into online marital infidelity (cybersex) or online sexually compulsive behaviors,"...

Dateline: 10 May 2006 It’s three AM. You are driving your Ford Mustang convertible without any lights. You crash into a police barrier. It sounds like you are in trouble, but it gets worse. You stagger out of the car – perhaps this is not surprising, after the crash. But some accounts say your eyes were red and you smelled of alcohol. You offer what can only be described as a ridiculous explanation. You are rushing, you say, to an engagement at work. But in reality your place of work closed hours ago. It’s only a few weeks since your...

CNN reports Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) will hold a press conference today at 3 p.m. in Washington, D.C. to discuss his recent traffic incident on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

When Dr. Avrim Fishkind received an early-morning call to help turn a slab of concrete in the Reliant Astrodome into a medical clinic, he knew part of that task would be assisting substance abusers experiencing withdrawals from days without drugs or alcohol. Since thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims began arriving at the clinic two weeks ago, Fishkind estimates 30 percent to 50 percent have needed substance-abuse treatment. But as those working with patients at Reliant Park, the George R. Brown Convention Center, and local hospitals and clinics respond to the sudden influx of people with medical and mental health needs,...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona said on Thursday he was "in love" with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whom he admires for his left-wing political policies. "I like women, but I've fallen in love with Chavez," Argentina's former World Cup winning captain told reporters after having lunch with the Venezuelan leader at the presidential palace. The two embraced afterward. The 44-year-old soccer celebrity, considered one of the greatest players of all time, is also an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro, the Communist President of Cuba where Maradona has lived since 2000 while fighting cocaine addiction.

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A verdict will be announced Monday in the trial of a man charged with intentionally exposing 17 women to HIV, a Thurston County Superior Court judge says. "Sex machine," "Russian roulette" and "sex addiction" were among the phrases lawyers used Thursday in 2 1/2 hours of closing arguments in the case of Anthony E. Whitfield, 32, of Lacey. Whitfield, formerly of Oklahoma City, is charged with 17 counts of first-degree assault with sexual motivation, witness tampering and violating a court protection order. He could be sentenced to 137 to 182 years in prison if convicted on all...

HOUSTON -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry would appoint Supreme Court justices who would safeguard a half-century of civil rights gains, his wife said Friday. "Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, we are reminded now more than ever that we need a Supreme Court to protect our hard-won victories," Teresa Heinz Kerry told the Pennsylvania State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "John Kerry will appoint judges that interpret our Constitution and don't go there for political reasons to divide our country," she added during a 20-minute prepared speech. The NAACP had invited...

FR: The most addictive place on the web. How addictive, did I say? The most addictive. And you, innocent FReeper, may suffer from the disease, FREEPADDICTAIDIS. But how would you know? Here are the signs: You know you've spent WAY too much time on FR when..... 1. On your driver's license, instead of a regular name, you have your screenname. --1a. double points if your family calls you that --1b. triple points if you have had your first/middle name changed to that 2. On hand-written letters, you still use HTML codes. 3. You have a poster of Jim Robinson in...

(snip)...The time spanning the senate careers of Al Gore and his father, and the vice presidency of the son, has encompassed the virtual destruction of the traditional American family for another reason as well. The liberal "morality" in the name of tolerance has redefined the cover of the Thanksgiving Saturday Evening Post to where it now would have to be illustrated by Dante instead of Norman Rockwell. The only stage the Democrats have left is to issue marriage certificates for human-animal liaisons....(snip)For The Full Article, Please Click Here.

ANTI-SMOKER PROPAGANDA VS THE TRUTH Smokers, Take Back Your Dignity This petition will be delivered to President George W. Bush, to Tommy Thompson at DHHS (who spends $3 million a day funding anti-smoker activities), to John Ashcroft (who is crafting another attack on Big Tobacco which will be paid by smokers alone), to the ACLU Lifestyle Discrimination Division, to all Congressmen and Senators, and to the governors of the fifty states. This petition will be delivered to President George W. Bush, to Tommy Thompson at DHHS (who spends $3 million a day funding anti-smoker activities), to John Ashcroft (who is...