Free Republic

George S. Welch, who died in 1954

Real interesting pair. Welsh, after becoming an ace in the Pacifc theater, became a test pilot for North American, where he flew the prototype of the F-86. Indeed, it is now generally conceeded that he took that prototype supersonic before Chuck Yeager went Mach 1 in the X-1

He also became the first pilot of the F-100 prototype (the first fighter capable of going supersonic in level flight), a job that got him killed in 1954 when yaw problems led to a breakup at supersonic speeds.

The Popes personal opinion is not the same as doctrine

One of the few criticisms about the current catechism is that it injected the popes personal opinion on the matter of the death penalty. Numerous Catholic authors have pointed out that this opinion really does not belong there, since it is at odds with previous staements by previous popes as well as Church history.

Hope that really clears things up...

Actually, while incorporation may be a recent creation (legal fiction if you want), you have everything else backwards

The constitution strictly limited the federal govt, not the states. The writers of the constitution did not intend it to be the controlling law for state governments - it was the controlling - and limiting - law of the federal govt.

The application of the US constitution to state and local matters expanded the jurisdiction of the federal govt...especially the jurisdiction of unelected federal justices... at the expense of state and local elected officials.

The practical result of extending the US constitution to supercede state constitutions has been a loss of freedom.

Period

Actually, since the 2A has never been subject to the Doctrine of Incorporation (note: no other amendmant should be either) state gun control laws are not constitutionally a federal function to begin with. The US constitution spells out specifically what the feds can and can't do, and leaves everything else to the states and the people.

On the other hand, since the Ohio state constitution itself guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, general gun control restrictions and pretty much any law in the state or any municipalities therein restricting ownership of pretty much any type of firearm by law abiding citizens should be unconstitutional in Ohio under the state constitution.

To make things a bit more complicated, the state constitution explicitly states that the right to keep and bear arms does not apply to concealed carry - meaning that it is only with respect to concealed carry that laws can be passed in the state either restricting or facilitating - at least if we care about the state constitution to begin with, which, of course, no Democrat and darn few Republicans in Ohio do...

I followed the link, and the links from it. The story has not been debunked - it just has not been confirmed.

As of right now it may be false - or it may be true.

Rome is staunchly against both.

"Rome" is not staunchly against capital punishment as a matter of doctrine. JPII really didn't like it, but it is not a matter of doctrine or faith. The Church has always and still does recognize the authority of the state to use the death penalty.

Hope that clears things up...

While you are at it, your research would also show that the various Inquisitions were the fairest courts in the world at the time, far less likely to use torture or administer the death penalty than civil courts in Europe or any court in Asia.

You would also find that when the witch craze swept Europe in the 17th century, civil authorities were more likely to condemn people as witches then ecclesiastical authorites (Protestant or Catholic) and that those parts of Europe that were by far the least touched my the mania were those with an active Catholic Ecclestiastical court - Inquisition - because those courts required a far higher degree of evidence of guilt than other courts in Europe and were far less swayed by Emotion.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that the Church was perfect - it's made up of people, after all. However, it's judicial system was a lot fairer and more humane than the actual alternatives at the time.

How is Opus Dei whining about the Da Vinci Code any different from liberals whining about the Passion of the Christ? IMO, both groups look pretty silly...

Let's just postulate that I'm planning on making a movie about you - in it you will be portrayed as a self destructive lesbian, and your mother will be shown as a crack whore. I will introduce the film my stating that everything that is about to be shown is true...

...but claim it's just fiction when challenged.

Based on your above comment I have no doubt that you would protest not at all - it would just look silly...

By the way, I would do no such thing, of course; you are probably a fine upstanding person (the fact that you are at FreeRepublic indicates above average intelligence) and it would be wrong to slander someone for money.

As long as you are asking for differences, those that protested the Passion stated that the film was a slander against Jews (it wasn't) and that it would lead to pograms (it didn't) and that the film indicated the need for Christians to rewrite the New Testaments and abandon their false anti-semetic faith (it isn't and we didn't).

Critics of the Code note that the film is a slander against the Catholic Church in particular and Christianity in general - which it is - that is based on a combination of old Gnostic B.S., new feminist B.S. and as many hoary old anti Catholic myths that can be packed into a book/film at one time without making it look like Jack Chick was the head writer (true), and that argues that Christians abandon their false anti-feminist faith (it isn't and we won't)

I think that sums up both differences and similarities in the criticism

Anybody remember "My Mother the Car" ???

A 1928 Porter
That's my mother dear...
She helps me through everything I do
And I'm so glad she's here

Till the die I die I will never forget that stupid theme song...

Vote to at least temporarily suspend all federal gas taxes and make due with these year's bloated transportation budget to cover next years as well. Gas prices would drop 18 cents a gallon.

This won't have any affect on gasoline prices. Since the final price is a function of supply and demand, and gasoline taxes do not affect the supply, rmoving the taxes will result in the same price that we have now, since demand will not change much either (that is, it would increase a bit if the price was reduced by the amount of the tax, which, given the same supply, would quickly drive prices back up to their current levels)

On the other hand, your comment about clean air mandates - particularly in reference to the various federally mandated reformulated fuels - is spot on. Mandatory fuel formulations not only add a lot of cost and complexity to the manufacture and distribution of gasoline, but they typically reduce automobile gas mileage by 5% and result in an effective 5 - 10% loss in refinery capacity, due to change up and other associated downtime.

Eliminating the silly ass reformulated fuel requirements would effectively add 5 - 10% additional supply while reducing costs and complexity and have ZERO real impact on the environment. And Bush could do it TODAY!

John Kerry - the most patriotic person I know...

yo GS, yeah she was a real "hottie" at 22....LOL

1922, maybe...

"Al-Biruni, the 14th Century physicist was able to calculate the circumference of the Earth and its tilt 600 years before Galileo."

This statement is silly at several levels. For example:

• Galileo lived in the 17th century. The 14th century is not 600 years before the 17th - unless Moslems also invented a new sort of math
• The use of Galileo's name is specious - it has never been suggested that he had anything to do with theorizing the world as round - which would be silly as well, since Magellan's expedition had already circumnavigated the globe
• The Greeks had already determined the earth to be spherical with a circumference of 25000 miles several centuries before Christ. Given Moslem conquests of the middle east and, therefore, access to this info, I wonder how original the 14th century discovery was?

Islamic civilization peaked centuries ago - and was built almost entirely on the back of conquered Christian, Jewish, and Hindu civilization and discoveries. It is no real shock that when the Turkish empire reached it's limit of conquest, it also stopped creating new technolgy, techniques, and treasure - it had no one else to obtain these from.

By the way, claiming all sorts of "inventions" for "Islam" is nothing new - do some Google searches and you'll find that Moslem historians also teach that all of Columbus's ship captains were Moslem, and that Moslems were exploring the Mississippi river centuries before anyone else. I swear, it reminds me of the old days of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union used to teach that Russians had discovered everything from the airplane to the electric light bulb, or the 80's fad of African Historical Revisionism, which insisted that Cleopatra was Black, and taught inner city kids stories about Egyptions (who, of course, the inner city kids were decended from) using gliders 3000 years ago (Note - I'm not kidding).

Apparently, Mugabe was ok until the late 90s, when he lost it.

Mugabe was always a marxist thug. It's just that at first he inherited an economy that was one of the most productive in Africa, and for a decade or so, he tried to protect that, for his own good if not for the peoples.

However, a thug is always a thug. Eventually the temptation to start stealing and passing on to cronies became to great. Moreover, the mishandling of the econmy outside of the privately owned white farms (marxists mishandling an economy? go figure...) created the incentives to start stealing even more from the farmers to buy political support

Eventually, as the economy got worse, not only were the white farms great targets for theft, but the white farmers became more and more useful as scapegoats.

The country is in a death spiral now. Very sad...

Be sure to copy jvl, since he was the one that was confused

Nice t-shirt, by the way - I'm checking out the website next

Wish I could get a copy of that old Revell model of Flak Catcher, though...sigh

I had a model of this specific B26 when I was a kid - Revell made it, if I recall.

After reading Martin Caidin's Ragged Rugged Warriors when I was in the 6th grade, I really fell in love with the B26

I believe that the A26K was the Douglas Invader, a different aircraft than the B26 Martin Marauder

On the other hand, after WWII, the Marauder was pulled out of service and the A26 was renamed the B26.

Around the time of the Vietnam war, these "B26" bombers were pulled out of desert boneyards, renamed the A26 again, and sent to SE Asia to operate as COIN aircaraft.

I seem to recall that the B-26 had a lower loss rate in combat.

In fact I recall that it ended up with the lowest combat loss rate of any bomber operating in the European theater during WWII

However, that was after the introduction of the 'B' version, which had wings that were 18" longer than the original

AKM

Not the earlier AK-47 - which was not in production for all that long.

Actually, what most everyone calls an AK-47 is almost always an AKM

"Right now, about 1 percent of gun dealers account for almost 60 percent of guns used in crimes nationally,"

Oh yeah. I'm sure.

This statistic may be as correct as it is misleading.Walmart and K-Mart are two of the biggest gun dealers in the country, responsible for some astoundingly high percentage of all firearms sold. Add in the next several largest national or reagional dealers and you will find that far less than 1% of all dealers are probably the source of more than 60% of all gun sales.

Now, take into account that practically all firearms used in crime are stolen. Over time, some very high percentage of the stolen firearms will be associated with victims who originally purchased the weapons from the small number of very big dealers.

Now, this tells us NOTHING about the selling practices of the dealers, the way they do business, or the clientel they sell to. As I said, the statistic is useless, but it sounds real impressive to a double digit IQ gun control type...