Free Republic

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces are becoming more capable every day, fighting and dying for their country because the future depends on them, U.S. Central Command’s commander said this week. “I come to the conclusion that Iraqis are fighting and dying for their country, that the government has pledged their sacred honor and their future to making this work,” Army Gen. John Abizaid said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Their lives are on the line.” Iraqi forces now number more than 300,000, and while they still have some bad days and challenges to overcome, they are steadily improving,...

Iraq’s western border becoming more secure by Norris Jones Gulf Region Central District US Army Corps of Engineers (GRD Photos) Al Asad, Iraq -- Iraq’s western border with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia will now be more secure thanks to a continuous line of outposts that will be completed this month.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Central District (GRC) was responsible for overseeing that work which included 23 border forts overlooking nearly 600 kilometers of Iraq’s remote western frontier. The final fort, Border Fort 32, located along the Saudi Arabian border, was recently completed. Each of those castle-like,...

Wednesday, July 12 home | news | COVER STORY | 7/12/2006 RED DAWN Forget about blue Oregon: The Republicans are taking over. BY NIGEL JAQUISS | IMAGE: LUKAS KETNER & THOMAS COBB The May primary election hit Kevin Looper like a head-butt. Looper, 36, is a genial, grizzly-sized political consultant who moved to Portland six years ago and is now perhaps the state's top voter-turnout guru. If you want to know how often the average unregistered slacker changes addresses, opens his mail or is likely to be home and lucid enough to sign a voter registration card, Looper is your man....

BAGHDAD, April 10, 2006 — A platoon sergeant with Company A, 801st Brigade Support Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, is bidding farewell to the Army as an enlisted soldier to become a flight warrant officer. "I ended up liking it. I liked jumping, (Fort) Bragg and everything in the military, so I stayed in," U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Marlon Stewart Staff Sgt. Marlon Stewart, who will have 10 years in the Army in June, will leave his unit to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot. Stewart joined the Army in 1996 as a truck driver, and said he thought he...

Earth might seem like a more active and dangerous place than ever, given the constant media reports of multiple natural disasters recently. But a broader view reveals that it's not Mother Nature who's changed, but we humans. Drawn by undeveloped land and fertile soil, people are flocking to disaster-prone regions. This creates a situation in which ordinary events like earthquakes and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters that reap heavy losses in human life and property. Meanwhile, in any given year, the death toll at the hands of Mother Nature varies greatly, as do the sorts...

Spurred by new laws restricting the sales of cold remedies such as Sudafed, which contain pseudoephedrine, a necessary component of popular meth-cooking recipes, police and prosecutors across the country have been arresting convenience store clerks -- sometimes on charges that carry substantial prison sentences. In one Georgia case, authorities made mass arrests of immigrant store clerks and owners, but it's starting to look less like a criminal conspiracy and more like culturally naive foreign-born merchants simply trying to sell their merchandise. It's all a big waste of money, says the Drug Policy Alliance, which issued a press release this week...

by Heidi Hess Saxton Other Articles by Heidi Hess Saxton Real Catholics, Warts and All 05/19/05 In 1988, contemporary recording artist John Fischer launched his bestseller Real Christians (Don’t) Dance, an unabashed manifesto of those who refuse to put form ahead of substance, and charity above all. After ten years spent in various Catholic parishes and groups, I’ve discovered that much of what Fischer says about Evangelical Protestants applies equally as well to Catholics: There are Pharisees on both sides of the great ecclesial divide, who (as Jesus observed) are excruciatingly attentive to detail, yet never think to welcome the stranger...

The Scott Hahn Conversion Story The following is the transcripts of Scott Hahn's conversion story as itappears in the "Catholic Adult Education on Video Program" with Scottand Kimberly Hahn. Other transcripts are available for download aswell. For more information on this program, download (OVERVIEW.TXT) fromthe St. Joseph Communications file library. This program is alsoavailable for purchase either as a whole (20 Video tapes with studyguides) or individual programs (1 Video tape with accompanying studyguide) from the St. Joseph Communications Mareketplace. *****THE SCOTT HAHN CONVERSION STORY:*****Protestant Minister Becomes CatholicProgram 1 TranscriptsScott HahnThank you very much. It is so good to...

A Triumph and a Tragedy by James Akin I broke off a piece of the popsicle in my hand and placed it carefully in the mouth of my dying wife. Renee lay on her back, restless in the hospital bed, suffering from an advanced case of colon cancer which we had discovered a little more than a month before. She ate several more pieces of popsicle as I broke them off for her, then said she could eat no more, so I let her rest. When our parish priest arrived he and I went into a conference room down the...