Free Republic

I'm interested in doing some semi-weekly blogging on events from a Christian perspective, but I would rather contribute to an existing collaborative blog than start one on my own. Anyone interested in bringing on another contributor? You're welcome to browse my posts to see how I write, and I can send samples by email as well. I feel compelled to write not so much about politics as about issues that arise in our everyday Christian walk... personal ethics, balancing work and family, family leadership, church participation, relating to our neighbors, and the like. Freepmail me if you have a blog...

Macho man is an endangered species, with today's male more likely to opt for a pink flowered shirt and swingers' clubs than the traditional role as family super-hero, fashion industry insiders say. A study along these lines led by French marketing and style consultants Nelly Rodi was unveiled to Fashion Group International during a seminar Tuesday on future strategy for the fashion industry in Europe. "The masculine ideal is being completely modified. All the traditional male values of authority, infallibility, virility and strength are being completely overturned," said Pierre Francois Le Louet, the agency's managing director. Instead today's males are...

Jack Bauer's going to have to call in the reinforcements to get through this one. Facing heat over how Muslims are depicted in its countdown thriller series 24, Fox is working to mend fences before time's up. The latest season of the Fox drama, which kicked off a week ago, stars Kiefer Sutherland as special agent Bauer. His latest race against the clock to save the world from terrorism has angered America's Muslim community by its portrayal of a Muslim family as a sleeper cell at the heart of a dastardly plot. Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic...

The Energy Challenge 2004 - Hydrogen 11.30.04 Murray Duffin, Retired Much has been written about the hydrogen economy (HE), and much misunderstood. In fact the label itself is probably a misnomer. Many in the USA believe that the Administration's hydrogen initiative is just a way to postpone doing anything useful about energy for as long as possible. If so it has backfired. Widespread research on all aspects of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and use is evident, not just in the USA, but worldwide, and technological advances are appearing at a bewildering rate. The subject is so large that only a...

Richmond Police Officer is on a mission to lock up Pro-life Christians RICHMOND, Virginia, Nov. 06 /Covenant News Wire Service/ -- On Friday, November 5, Officer Howard Noyse of the Richmond Police Department arrested Fred Neal, a Christian, as he preached on the public sidewalk at Richmond Medical Center for Women. Fred's charge was "disorderly conduct". This is a favorite "catch-all" charge used when no law has been violated. This is another instance in a long history of harrassment by this officer who is on the payroll of RMCW. For several years this police officer has been moonlighting at the...

LONDON - The U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites) hasn't made the world any safer, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said in a British TV interview aired Sunday. "I cannot say the world is safer when you consider the violence around us, when you look around you and see the terrorist attacks around the world and you see what is going on in Iraq," Annan told the ITV network. "We have a lot of work to do as an international community to try and make the world safer," he said. Annan has previously described...

QAIM, Iraq - American troops stationed along Iraq (news - web sites)'s border with Syria are coming under increasing mortar attack from shells fired from Syrian territory, but it's unclear who's responsible, U.S. officers said Thursday. Reuters Photo Reuters Slideshow Slideshow: Iraq The 82 mm mortar rounds have been fired at U.S. and Iraqi positions in and around Husaybah in the far west of Iraq's Anbar province, said Lt. Col. Chris Woodbridge, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. "Who exactly is firing these mortars, we do not know. But what we do know is that the point of...

I’m not a Microsoft-basher; I use their products productively virtually every day of my life. Excel is my workhorse, Word my constant companion for nearly a decade, PowerPoint my standard for presentations, Visio Professional a powerful tool in my arsenal, and I rely on Outlook to keep track of notes, emails, contacts, tasks, and my calendar. I have also been using Internet Explorer since about 1996, when it came pre-loaded on a computer I bought. I found it to be adequate, and certainly seemed to be on the cutting edge (anybody remember “push technology”?). But increasingly over time it came...

Picking up where we left off, I said in my last column that I can't find anybody who can prove whether the costs of illegal immigration outweigh the benefits. This, of course, was like throwing red meat to a pack of wild dogs. Aside from the social costs, readers screamed, illegal immigrants drive down wages for everyone. And besides, a study has just been released saying that illegal immigrants are a $10-billion annual drain on the federal budget alone. Yeah, I know. I had seen the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, but didn't entirely trust it. Why? Same...

WASHINGTON - The chief critic of John Kerry (news - web sites)'s military record told President Nixon in 1971 that he had been in Cambodia in a swift boat during the Vietnam War — a claim at odds with his recent statements that he was not. Photo AP Photo Special Coverages Latest headlines: · Bush lawyer quits in anti-Kerry ad flap AFP - 9 minutes ago · Swift Boat Writer Lied on Cambodia Claim AP - 29 minutes ago · Lawyer Advising Vets Quits Bush Campaign AP - 37 minutes ago All Election Coverage "I was in Cambodia, sir. I...

Woe! Woe to the politician who is perceived to be failing to do something about the soaring price of gasoline, which has jumped about 20 percent in the past six months. Every week, drivers feel the bite on their pocketbooks as they pull up to the pump. AAA estimates the average two-car household will consume more than 1,200 gallons of gasoline a year. That means the 50-cents-a-gallon increase over the past year has families spending an extra $600 of after-tax money each year, squeezing middle- and low-income families the most. Americans can't stop driving, but this means they'll have to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Anger grew Friday among U.S.-picked Iraqi leaders over the Marines' bloody siege of Fallujah, with one member of the Governing Council suspending his membership and another threatening to quit. Friday's halt in the assault had been requested by the council to allow for talks on reducing the violence, a U.S. spokesman said. Several of the council's 25 members spoke out against what they called the "mass punishment" of Fallujah's people in the siege, launched early Monday by U.S. forces to uproot Sunni insurgents in the city. Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni member, and the representative of another Sunni...

Port Angeles, Washington - May 16, 2003 [SolarAccess.com] In what is the first example of a U.S. public utility securing a power purchase agreement with an ocean energy company, Clallam County PUD finalized an agreement to purchase electricity generated by an offshore wave energy pilot plant, to be developed by Mercer Island, Washington-based AquaEnergy Group, Ltd. "We applaud Clallam County PUD for being the first public utility in the nation to execute a power purchase agreement for offshore wave energy," said Alla Weinstein, CEO of AquaEnergy Group Ltd. "We are glad that the Pacific Northwest will be part of the...

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - In an astonishing concession, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il confirmed Tuesday that Japanese citizens were kidnapped decades ago to teach language and culture to spies. Kim said at least four of the victims were still alive and might be allowed to return home. Ending years of denials, Kim admitted the kidnappings during a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Kim said about a dozen Japanese were kidnapped by North Korean agents, acknowledging the abductions were "regrettable and would never happen again." Kim said those responsible would be punished. The North Korean leader's comments...

resident Bush will try to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today that a return to 1967 borders is a starting point for resuming peace talks, officials said. After weekend meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and top U.S. aides just back from the Mideast, Bush's White House sitdown with Sharon is a last hurdle to creating a U.S. peace plan."He [Bush] won't draw a map and we're not going to start proposing borders. ... The 1967 borders are seen more as a beginning," said a U.S. official familiar with the plan.'Committed to Peace'Bush has embraced a Saudi peace proposal...

Economy Grows Brisk 5.6 Percent Fri May 24,11:16 AM ETBy JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) _The economy snapped back from last year's recession, growing at an annual rate of 5.6 percent in the first quarter, the strongest performance in nearly two years. The latest reading on the first-quarter gross domestic product — which measures the total output of goods and services produced within the United States — showed the economy grew a little less briskly than the 5.8 percent rate estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department (news - web sites) reported Friday. Even so, the revised January-March...

Bertelsmann Snaps Up NapsterFri May 17, 5:51 PM ETBy Andrew Quinn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Embattled Internet music upstart Napster (news - web sites) Inc. was handed a new lease on life Friday as German media giant Bertelsmann stepped in with $8 million to buy its assets and keep the online song-swap service in business. The surprise deal also brought Napster Chief Executive Officer Konrad Hilbers and founder Shawn Fanning back into the fold just days after they quit the company amid fears that mounting legal, financial and technical problems would silence Napster for good. "While this has been a...

On Hannity & Colmes tonight, there was a segment on anti-Muslim civil rights violations. The Guest were Joseph Farah, of WorldNet Daily, and Jason Erb, of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR). They discussed a report released by CAIR that alleges a three-fold increase in anti-Islamic civil rights abuses over the last year. Now... as soon as Jason Erb's image came up, I thought: "Isn't that the guy that used to wear a skullcap and a beard, and called himself 'Ibrahim'?" Now, he looks like the boy next door. Interesting. Anybody else notice?

This Is Your Father's IBM, Only Smarter By: Erick Schonfeld  Issue: May 2002WebFile | Print Article | Email This Article    How a former has-been kicked its old habits, got open-source religion, and regained its status as one of the biggest, baddest tech companies on earth. It was one of the most high-profile technology deals to come up for grabs in years, and IBM didn't seem to stand a chance. Last summer Web auctioneer eBay (EBAY) kicked off a ferocious bidding war for the contract to provide software to power the next version of its website. Microsoft (MSFT) already provided eBay with key technologies,...

A NAKED performance artist is to cut his stomach and invite an audience to look at the wound at an arts festival backed by £65,000 of public money. Franko B, an Italian-born Londoner, is appearing in Fierce!, the annual festival of performance art, in the West Midlands this month. Funding has come from bodies including the Arts Council and West Midlands Arts, sparking accusations that public money is being put to absurd uses. In a previous work, the artist had two taps inserted into veins in his arms and bled on to a piece of canvas. This time he will...