Free Republic

In South Carolina, the pundits are stumped. A much-favored candidate somehow was trumped by a little-known upstart without a campaign. How could this happen? Please, someone, explain. This outcome does not fit the experts' deep studies. The winner should come from their small pool of buddies. How could some loner have suddenly won? How could a common guy even have run? Someone named Alvin? No doting supporters? Surely he's in someone's power, taking orders. The election results are a brain-busting mystery. This outcome, the strangest in all voting history. Were South Carolinian voters all crazy? Did they not read the...

In the late 19th century, crusading journalists helped identify and correct some of the worst problems American society faced at that time. Newspapers like The New York Times and the New York World and journals like Harper's Weekly and Cosmopolitan (a very different kind of magazine than it is today) led campaigns that exposed and helped eliminate problems ranging from the sale of patent medicines to corruption in city government. Newspaper and magazine sales soared - and publishers knew a good thing when they saw it. If stories exposing evil sold papers - why, give the public what it wants;...

BEIJING - China has executed two ethnic Uighur men and imprisoned another 15 for alleged terrorist links, a U.S-funded radio station reported Saturday.... The U.S. government-funded RFA said the 17 men were charged as members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a militant separatist group that Beijing, as well as Washington, claims has links to al-Qaida. An official who answered the phone at the Kashgar court confirmed that multiple sentences, including "two or three" executions, were handed down during trials on July 9.

The religious left of this country seems to delight in mocking the laws of the Old Testament and in making fun of anyone who thinks that these laws should be regarded as part of the inspired word of God. It's amazing how often their sneering attempts at humor simply ignore long-established Christian ideas on how to study the Old Testament and how to apply it to our lives. Jesus and the apostles themselves emphasized the importance of the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus told his followers that he hadn't come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them. The...

It's time for bold solutions. Bold solutions and straight talk - or straight solutions and bold talk. We need to get the country back on track, since it keeps derailing every 10 miles. All aboard the Right-Track Express, which boasts superior cow-catching capabilities. We need to invest in a commitment to the investment of commitments. We must stop dragging the nation down by calling for fear instead of hope, division instead of unity. Just last month, special interests were calling for more fear. They proposed a 20 percent increase in fear and division. We must say no to CEOs, Washington,...

BRUSSELS: On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes. In her living room, El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY. But it is on the Internet that El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name Oum Obeyda, she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe. She calls herself a female...

Recently, I reviewed a new American history anthology. I was amused to find included in the book a generous selection of 1960s protest songs. Apparently, lyrics by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Country Joe MacDonald are making their way into the academic canon, and at least some professors seem to think these are “must-read” documents for our students. Well, maybe so. But if one really wants song lyrics that reflect the 1960s, I'd point my students instead to some of the songs from math professor and musical satirist Tom Lehrer. In terms of insight into America, Lehrer's “National...

As waves of talk hosts, producers, disc jockeys and news personnel are sent packing in the wake of Citadel- ABC Radio's financial collapse, shell-shocked radio insiders are wondering if anything can be done to save their highly- successful talk format. Yesterday, now known as "Black Friday", has career professionals in a state of outright panic, with even more job cuts expected on Monday. When it is over, even the highest- rated major- market outlets will be expected to somehow function with few remaining staffers. And even deep cuts aren't likely to provide more than a drop in the bucket for...

A powerful bomb ripped through a section of the Philippine House of Representatives yesterday, killing two people and injuring at least 10, including lawmakers, officials said. Killed in the blast was Wahab Akbar, a congressman representing Basilan island, where troops are hunting down remnants of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group. Akbar had received death threats in the past. Troops went on heightened alert and security forces set up checkpoints around Manila as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo quickly ordered a national police probe into the blast at the sprawling complex north of the capital in suburban Quezon City. The explosion -...

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) - Philippine and Muslim rebel peace negotiators began peace talks Wednesday in Malaysia's capital city, where Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak voiced hopes for a quick end to conflict in the troubled Philippine region of Mindanao. Najib, who is also Malaysia's defence minister, urged representatives from the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to continue their resolve to end decades of fighting. "It is my hope that the last obstacle can be resolved - that is the handing over of a province to be governed by the MILF," Najib was quoted as saying...

SEOUL: For years, under the leadership of Choi Kwang, a hard-driving missionary from South Korea, North Koreans seeking refuge in China were taken to apartments where they were put through a rigorous training course in Christianity that began daily at 6 a.m. and continued until 10 p.m. The trainees repeated out loud the words of an eight-hour-long tape recording of the New Testament. Before taking breaks for meals, Choi and the North Koreans would embrace and pray: "Let's spill Jesus's blood in North Korea! Let's become martyrs for North Korea!" By 2001, when his underground proselytizing network was broken up...

ISE, Japan, Oct. 26 — It was supposed to be a celebratory year for Akafuku, a confectioner that had been selling bean-jam sweets here since 1707. On its 300th anniversary, its top-selling sweets were still indispensable gifts to bring back home or to the office after a trip to Ise Shrine here, Japan's holiest religious site. Instead, Akafuku has become the latest Japanese food company to be exposed for lying about the contents of its products, tampering with expiration-date labels and recycling ingredients. For only the second time in its history, Akafuku, which was forced to halt production during World...

GOLDEN, B.C. – Rescuers who helped find a 3-year-old girl alive in the crumpled wreckage of an airplane in the rugged British Columbia mountains say they knew she was OK when she cried for her teddy bear. The girl, Kate Williams, miraculously survived the crash on Sunday because she was strapped into a child's car seat, said Mike Plonka, a member of Golden's search-and-rescue team. Her pilot grandfather, Allen D. Williams, 65, and Steven T. Sutton, died in the accident. The plane was found nose down and flipped over in the icy water on the edge of a riverbank. "What...

When drug makers voluntarily recalled infants' cold medicine this month - and a Food and Drug Administration panel recommended an end to cold medicine for kids up to 6 - it was a triumph for the chicken soup brigade. For years, moms waking to the weak cry of congested babies avoided advice from health-quack relatives by pointing to experts. They cited scientifically sound formulas recommended by pediatricians, pharmacists and advice nurses. But now, that's all over. With manufacturers recalling products - and some pediatricians declaring outright that the cold medicines didn't do any good anyway - parents are now left...

Americans are obsessed with fat because fatness has become a symbol for poverty, downward mobility, nonwhiteness and socially marginal status in general. Fear and hatred of fat has very little to do with the health risks associated with being "overweight" and "obese" (which are wholly imaginary and highly exaggerated

Drug addicts in the town of Drammen say they were offered money or free kebabs to vote for the Labour Party in the local election last week. Bent Sandberg was offered NOK 50 (about USD 9) to vote for the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) in the local election last week. He declined the bribe. "It is nasty to take advantage of society’s weakest people. And to offer NOK 50 is scornful. But I know many people accepted the money," he told local newspaper Drammens Tidende. Reports were also coming out Wednesday that some drug addicts had been offered free kebabs to...

Concerning mankind’s contribution to climate change and in keeping with obligations toward the welfare of our citizens: What, in your view, should policymakers consider when addressing climate change?The — so-called — climate change and especially manmade climate change has become one of the most dangerous arguments aimed at distorting human efforts and public policies in the whole world. My ambition is not to bring additional arguments to the scientific climatological debate about this phenomenon. I am convinced, however, that up to now this scientific debate has not been deep and serious enough and has not provided sufficient basis for the...

Quite frequently, articles on the late Gerald Ford refer to him as the nation's "only unelected president." This is more than a bit misleading. There's no particularly good reason to distinguish Ford from other "accidental" presidents, the vice presidents who have assumed the presidency without being elected directly to it. Strictly speaking, no American president has been elected directly by the people: we vote only for delegates pledged to vote a certain way in the electoral college. Besides, Ford was in a certain sense elected. Knowing full well that he would likely take over the presidency from Richard Nixon, Congress...