http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/busybodies/ en-us Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:41:28 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1970694/posts Dear Prudie, I am a first-time mother to a beautiful 11-week-old boy. Right after having him, I was visited in my hospital room by a "lactation consultant." This person pulled out my chart without asking me and said, "I see you had a breast reduction done 10 years ago. That was extremely selfish of you." Slate.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1970694/posts#comment Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:41:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1968818/posts BAGHDAD — Dr. Anthony Cordesman, Dr. Michele A. Flournoy, Dr. Fred Kagan, Dr. Kim Kagan and Richard Lowry, all members of a Washington based think tank, visited members of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq, Feb 7. Cordesman, Flournoy, Kagan and Kagan visited Camp Dublin, home to the Italian Carabinieri trained Iraqi National Police. Italian Maj. Gen. Alessandro Pompegnani, NATO Training Mission – Iraq deputy commanding general, met with the group to educate them about their goals to help the Iraqi nation become stable. Next, the group visited the Besmaya Range Complex where Iraqi Army Col. Abbas, base commanding... Multi-National Force - Iraq http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1968818/posts#comment Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:03:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1754511/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney's pregnant lesbian daughter Mary will make a "fine mom," President George W. Bush said, sidestepping his past comment that a child ideally would be raised by a mother and father. Mary Cheney, 37, and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, are expecting their first child, which would be the sixth grandchild for the vice president. Cheney was hired last year as an executive for America Online. "I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I'm happy for her," Bush said in an interview with People magazine. Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1754511/posts#comment Sat, 16 Dec 2006 19:22:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1749871/posts Mary Cheney’s pregnancy poses problems not just for her child, but also for all Americans. Her action repudiates traditional values and sets an appalling example for young people at a time when father absence is the most pressing social problem facing the nation. With 37 percent of American children born to fatherless families, Mary Cheney is contributing to a trend that is detrimental to all Americans who will live with the ramifications of millions of children whose anger and frustration at not knowing their father will be felt in the public schools and communities of our nation. Mary Cheney is... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1749871/posts#comment Thu, 7 Dec 2006 15:16:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1761948/posts SEATTLE — This is about Ashley's dignity. Everybody examining her case seems to agree at least about that. Ashley is a 9-year-old girl who has static encephalopathy, a severe brain impairment. She cannot walk or talk. She cannot keep her head up, roll over or sit up by herself. She is fed with a tube. Her parents call her "Pillow Angel" because she stays right where they place her, usually on a pillow. Her parents say they feared that their angel would become too big one day — too big to lift, too big to move, too big to take... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1761948/posts#comment Wed, 3 Jan 2007 21:14:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1741631/posts Achieving Iraqi national reconciliation, involving other parties and progress in rebuilding the war-shattered nation should decide the timetable for US troops to leave, Indonesia's president said on Monday. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of the world's most populous Muslim nation, was speaking at a joint news conference with US President George W Bush, who was on his second visit to Indonesia. Mr Bush has adamantly opposed setting a specific timetable for withdrawal. Indonesia and the US are in accord on many issues, but some Bush policies, especially in the Middle East, are widely unpopular in the country of 220 million, 85... Reuters, via ABC News Online (Australia) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1741631/posts#comment Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:39:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1709029/posts NEW YORK (AP) -- Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids. The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil. Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts. Doctors agree that trans fats are unhealthy... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1709029/posts#comment Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:07:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701532/posts (AgapePress) - A conservative pro-family group is challenging Fox News Channel over an alleged $10,000 contribution it made to sponsor a conference last weekend for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). Americans for Truth, an organization formed to monitor and expose elements of the homosexual agenda in the nation's culture, says if Fox News did make this contribution, the supposed "fair and balanced" network needs to contribute equally to a conservative organization if its slogan is to have credence. Both the pro-family group and WorldNetDaily reported on the network's alleged contribution to NLGJA, which is listed on the... http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/132006e.asp http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701532/posts#comment Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:04:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1695686/posts PARIS If Alexander Schoppmann is right, then where there's smoke, there's a flier. As more countries ban smoking in public places, his idea might seem malapropos. But Schoppmann, a German entrepreneur, is hoping to turn smokers' umbrage at ever-expanding efforts to stub out their habit into a highflying business proposal: Smoker's International Airways. As the name suggests, the airline, known as Smintair for short, will probably not be for the faint of lung. The carrier, expected to begin luxury service with only business and first-class seats early next year, plans daily flights between Schoppmann's hometown of Düsseldorf and Tokyo -... International Herald Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1695686/posts#comment Tue, 5 Sep 2006 12:59:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674309/posts SHERMAN OAKS - A teenage boy and his 5-year-old neighbor shoot hoops on a quiet, tree-lined street. It's a quintessential image of suburbia. But it's illegal. Now, a not-so-neighborly fracas has developed along Matilija Avenue after a former City Council field deputy reported that some households were violating two obscure city ordinances by placing basketball hoops above the curbs outside their homes. The city served the offenders with notices to comply. Nate Brogin refused. "This is a great opportunity for kids to come out after school and break a sweat. Isn't that what a quiet residential street is for?" said... Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674309/posts#comment Sat, 29 Jul 2006 18:24:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663804/posts San Antonio, Texas -- site of the famous 19th-century battle at the Alamo -- is now host to another potential battle that is brewing, this one between homosexual activists and conservative Christians. The battle is centered on, of all things, a statewide chain of grocery stores. The H-E-B Grocery Company, with headquarters in Kerrville, began more than 100 years ago with one tiny family store. It now boasts over 300 stores across the Lone Star State and in northern Mexico and more than 56,000 employees. It also boasts of giving millions of dollars annually to charitable organizations, educational initiatives, and... AgapePress http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663804/posts#comment Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:03:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1662608/posts SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, an appeals judge ruled. Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an "illegitimate business" that hurts Hollywood studios and directors who own the movie rights, said U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch in a decision released Thursday in Denver. "Their (studios and directors) objective ... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies," the judge wrote.... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1662608/posts#comment Sun, 9 Jul 2006 04:24:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1660305/posts When tobacco control goes out of control Gloucester Daily Times The absurdities of tobacco politics have been with us for decades. But every few years, there is another burst of insanity that would be amusing if we didn't all have to take it seriously, because it has the force of government behind it. Such are the times in which we now live. First, the local example: In Peabody, Bruce Lerner is the most recent poster boy for the death of common sense. And the result, of course, is the death of a business that was paying taxes to a city... Gloucester (Maine) Daily Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1660305/posts#comment Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:22:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657293/posts They wanted to sue over sodas in school, they even complained about 2 percent milk, and now they’re after fruit juices. But to the Washington Post, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is just another health-conscious consumer advocacy group. The June 28 Washington Post featured CSPI’s latest complaints about fruit drinks on the front page of its weekly Food section. Staff writer Candy Sagon began by reporting on the additional business juice vendors are enjoying as the nation’s three largest soft drink makers agreed to end soda sales to public schools. But Sagon quickly shifted to complaints... Business & Media Institute http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657293/posts#comment Wed, 28 Jun 2006 20:35:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1655379/posts ANNAPOLIS -- State lawmakers voted yesterday to overturn Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of the Democrats' energy plan that will postpone a 72 percent rate increase by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. but forces customers to pay interest on the deferred charges. The company's 1.1 million residential customers will see their bills increase 15 percent on July 1 -- not the 72 percent increase to market rates set earlier this year in a wholesale electricity auction overseen by the utility-regulating Public Service Commission. However, the money customers save will still be owed to the company, and the customers will... Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1655379/posts#comment Sun, 25 Jun 2006 18:52:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652715/posts A Santa Ana man who reports his Latino neighbors for city code violations says he's just trying to raise property values. Some view his actions as part of a culture clash. How you view the recent news about a Santa Ana man who pleaded guilty to selling cars from his house may depend on which side of South Broadway you live on. On the east side, Tim Rush says he's "ecstatic, and doing a jig." For more than a year, Rush had regularly complained to city officials about problem neighbors, particularly Pedro Reyes Rios, whom he nicknamed the "Cal Worthington... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652715/posts#comment Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:45:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652569/posts Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) has become a convenient morning stop on many hectic commutes. Recent studies have even pointed to coffee’s potential in helping to prevent cirrhosis of the liver. But on ABC, the coffee maker was criticized during a “consumer alert” that treated cups of coffee like a “dose” of a hard drug. The June 19 edition of “Good Morning America” presented Starbucks as akin to a narcotics dealer preying on addicts. Correspondent Elizabeth Leamy explained “many customers love their regular dose.” The camera then cut to a shot of an apparent Starbucks consumer who referred to her relationship with... Business & Media Institute http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652569/posts#comment Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:18:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1646582/posts Cardinal Justin Rigali, writing in the Catholic Standard and Times, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said that the modern media’s obsession with pornography is “one of the most pervasive and destructive problems in our society.” “Our society," the Cardinal wrote, “is inundated with sex and sensuality largely from the media. Films, television programs, and advertisements are loaded with sexual reference as well as the promotion of sexual promiscuity.” The all-pervasiveness of sexual imagery in the media has led to the vast proliferation of pornography on the internet where it is accessible to anyone who can use a keyboard. It is... LifeSiteNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1646582/posts#comment Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:07:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1617028/posts Washington, D.C. — Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed its strong dismay at the multibillion-dollar broadcast industry’s latest attempt to abuse the public airwaves. After repeatedly offending the public with indecent broadcasts, four major broadcasters filed what CWA believes are frivolous lawsuits challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) recent rulings. A license to broadcast doesn’t give anyone – not even super-rich Big-Media conglomerates – the right to broadcast indecent language between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The four major broadcasters want the courts to approve the indiscriminate use of words for excretory and explicit sexual conduct. “All four broadcast networks... Concerned Women for America http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1617028/posts#comment Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:12:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608387/posts Homeowners Associations: Many Consider Them Fighting Words Threats against boards by resentful residents seem to be on the rise. Legislation is proposed. By Daniel Yi, Times Staff Writer April 3, 2006 When police found 78-year-old Lucy DeAbreu in her Dana Point condominium, her face had been pummeled so badly that she couldn't speak clearly. The petite widow had to slowly spell the name of her attacker: M-I-N-E-O. Charles Mineo and DeAbreu were neighbors in a tidy ocean-view complex favored by retirees and weekend sojourners. Mineo, a 47-year-old accountant, was angry at his homeowners association because it had penalized him for... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608387/posts#comment Mon, 3 Apr 2006 18:20:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1600529/posts There is a landmark legal battle of constitutional proportions being fought down in Mississippi. It involves fundamental rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not to mention the rights of certain small business owners to satisfy their customers. This week, another court refused to recognize Mississippians' right to find companionship for 29.99 and so a law outlawing the sale of sex toys will stand. “A person commits the offense of distributing unlawful sexual devices when he knowingly sells, advertises, publishes or exhibits to any person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human... MS-NBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1600529/posts#comment Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:53:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602668/posts Michael Schiavo Caught in Serious Distortion of Truth on NBC Interview By John-Henry Westen CLEARWATER, FLA., March 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michael Schiavo, who ordered doctors to withhold food and water from his severely disabled wife Terri until she died, and his current wife Jodi were interviewed by NBC's Matt Lauer. Those exclusive interviews based on Schiavo's upcoming book "Terri: The Truth," are to be broadcast on "Dateline," Sunday, March 26 at 7 p.m.. Ironically, despite claiming to speak about 'the truth' concerning Terri, NBC's Lauer catches Schiavo in a serious distortion of truth as the interview begins. In the... Life Site News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602668/posts#comment Fri, 24 Mar 2006 22:33:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1583452/posts Companies are charging smokers more money for health insurance CINCINNATI — Smokers already feeling pressure from increasing cigarette costs and workplace smoking bans are now feeling squeezed from another direction — health insurance premiums. A growing number of employers — private and public — are charging employees who use tobacco more money for their health insurance coverage. Employers hope that the higher charges will motivate more employees to stop smoking, resulting in improved health and lower health care costs for the companies and their workers. "With smokers costing companies about 25 percent more than nonsmokers in the area of health... Modesto Bee, A.P. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1583452/posts#comment Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:08:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563501/posts SAFETY HARBOUR, Florida, January 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNew.com) – Michael Schiavo, who had his disabled wife Terri killed last March by refusing her food and water, was re-married last Saturday in the Roman Catholic Church of Espiritu Santo in Florida. Schiavo married Jodi Centonze. He had two children with her during the years he worked towards achieving Terri’s death. Terri Schiavo was killed in March 2005, in spite of her family’s strenuous fight to prevent the removal of her feeding tube and water. Terri was left severely brain damaged after collapsing at age 26. Although medical authorities said she was in... LifeSite http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563501/posts#comment Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:43:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1560248/posts COLUMBUS — Ohio’s anti-smoking effort, funded by the tobacco settlement, has poured more than $2 million into passage and implementation of local clean indoor air laws. But now that the Super Bowl of smoking bans is before the Ohio General Assembly — a statewide ban that would be among the strictest in the nation — the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation must sit on the sidelines, at least officially. The 2000 law that created the foundation forbids it from lobbying or otherwise getting involved in a state ballot issue, the goal behind petitions certified by Secretary of State Kenneth... United Pro Smoker's Newsletter http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1560248/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jan 2006 14:37:58 GMT