Free Republic

War on smokers promotes smuggling By Walter Williams During the days of the Soviet Union, Swiss watches were illegal. In the era of the American Prohibition, the sale, manufacture and importation of intoxicating liquor was illegal. England's Navigation Acts imposed high tariffs and restrictions on goods sold to the American colonies and led to our 1776 War of Independence. The common theme in all of these acts is government seeking to interfere with, regulate or outlaw peaceable voluntary exchange between individuals. I don't see anything wrong with people wearing Swiss watches or having a drink or purchasing tea from a ...

Clinton complaints about Arafat, summit cause lots of heat Monday, July 31, 2000 The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's blunt comments about possibly moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and his painting of Yasser Arafat as inflexible negotiator are reverberating in the Middle East -- and in New York, where Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for the Senate. Administration officials say Clinton's tilt toward Israel following the Camp David talks was aimed at shoring up embattled Prime Minister Ehud Barak and was unrelated to the first lady's campaign. But she has seized on the issue, staking out ...

Non-M.D.'s 17-year practice earns him 3 years in prison Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A man who practiced medicine for 17 years and delivered hundreds of babies without ever going to medical school was sentenced Wednesday to three years and three months in federal prison. Nelson Ramos, 54, who was popular as a doctor in the small northwest Florida town of Mariana, also was ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution. Ramos pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and a military health-care program. However, he will appeal on grounds the federal judge should have dismissed the charges, ...

Abducted teen freed after long drive Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A teenager carjacked in Louisiana was forced to travel more than 1,000 miles, sharing some of the driving with her abductor, until she was released early Tuesday, police said. Nicole Madere, 18, was allowed to walk away unharmed in downtown Philadelphia and was told to call her mother, police said. She flagged down a police car, and 27-year-old Paul Will was arrested about 20 minutes later trying to use her automatic teller machine card at a gas station, police said. Madere later identified Will as her kidnapper, officers said. ...

Child molesters would get only 2 strikes under new bill Associated Press WASHINGTON — People convicted of a sex crime against a child would get mandatory life sentences after a second such conviction under a measure approved by the House Tuesday. The bill, dubbed "Two Strikes, You're Out," passed by a voice vote. The rate of repeat child molesters is "extraordinarily high," said Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., the sponsor. "I make no bones about this legislation: This bill is not about rehabilitation, I openly admit it. This bill is not even about deterrence. It is about removing bad people from ...

How you can protect your brain Tuesday, July 25, 2000 By LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press medical writer WASHINGTON -- The brain is like a muscle: Use it or lose it. That's the growing conclusion of research that shows fogged memory and slowed wit are not inevitable consequences of getting old, and there are steps people can take to protect their brains. Mental exercise seems crucial. Benefits start when parents read to tots and depend heavily on education, but scientists say it's never too late to start jogging the gray matter. People have to get physical, too. Bad memory is linked ...

C-130s at Hill to fight fires Salt Lake City's Interagency Fire Center will dispatch planes Wednesday, July 26, 2000 Standard-Examiner staff and wire services HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- Six specially modified Air National Guard C-130 cargo planes arrived Tuesday at Hill Air Force Base to help battle wildfires in Utah and three other western states. The Lockheed C-130s -- three from a Wyoming Air National Guard unit and three from North Carolina -- were activated by the National Interagency Fire Coordination Center in Boise because the fleet of civilian tankers has been overtaxed in attempting to help suppress fires ...

S.L. City Teachers, Not Police, to Instruct Anti-Drug Courses Tuesday, July 18, 2000 BY HEATHER MAY THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Mayor Rocky Anderson may have KO'd funding for DARE, but that will not mean the end of drug prevention education in Salt Lake City schools. The city's school district will likely beef up an existing drug prevention program officials say could prove more effective than DARE, a national program taught by police officers. Called Prevention Dimensions, the anti-drug and alcohol program is already used by some Utah teachers. During tonight's school board meeting, Shannon Andersen, coordinator of the district's safe ...

Idaho's Religious Right Puts Tight Clamp On Public TV Station After Gay Show Airs Tuesday, July 18, 2000 BY STEVE STUEBNER SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE BOISE -- The specter of censorship and a possible end to state funding hang over Idaho Public Television, which aired a controversial program about gays that riled the state's conservative Republicans and the Christian Right. The Idaho Christian Coalition and the Idaho Family Forum teamed up with state legislators to restrict programming after the station broadcast the national documentary, "It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School," last September. "Idaho Public Television was trying to ...

U.S. soldier accidentally kills 5-year-old ethnic Albanian boy Associated Press CERKEZ SADOVINA, Yugoslavia (AP) — A 5-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was killed Monday when an American soldier's gun accidentally discharged as troops worked to repair the fence around an elementary school. A witness said the soldier, whose name was not released, had been playing with about 30 children when the weapon fired three times, striking Gentrit Rexhepi in the chest and hand. The boy ran screaming for about 10 yards and then collapsed, said Abdyselim Qosaj, 31. "The soldier involved ran toward the kid and started screaming and crying. Other ...

Blowing Smoke in the Eyes of Today's Puritans Sunday, July 9, 2000 BY WHITT FLORA THE BRIDGE NEWS WASHINGTON -- At long last, a judge has come down on the side of good old common sense in the often murky, always vitriolic debate over smoking bans in restaurants and bars. Ann S. Harrington, a circuit court judge in Maryland's affluent Montgomery County, recently found the county council's smoking ban violated several county and state laws along with the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause. The council's smoking ban was widely hailed by anti-smoking groups when it passed in March 1999. It ...

PETA's Anti-Meat Efforts Toothless; With Veggies, They're Ruthless Sunday, July 9, 2000 By Tom Barberi and Laurie J. Wilson When people who have a basically good cause go over the edge, they take their cause with them. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has a good cause. Members are concerned about the welfare of animals. It is a position I can appreciate. But when members of PETA start ranting about the people on CBS' "Survivor" island having rat-on-a-stick for dinner, they make fools of themselves. The chant, "Rats Have Rights" does little to garner sympathy. It makes people ...

Give It to Me Straight, Doc Celluloid hero John Wayne called cancer "the big C" and vowed to beat it. Of course, he did not. But he put up a helluva fight. And Americans, both famous and obscure, have been putting up such battles since Wayne admitted his disease and put a famous face on the malady's billboard. Probably the most feared of all diseases, cancer has spawned multi-billion dollar industries in both research and treatment; however, no breakthrough, no magic bullet has been found. Families tending to cancer sufferers have to be satisfied that science and medicine are "making ...

Republicans Know That If Roe vs. Wade Goes, So Do They Monday, July 10, 2000 By Robyn Blumner St. Petersburg Times Though they might not admit it publicly, Republicans narrowly averted disaster in the U.S. Supreme Court this term. By a vote of 5-to-4, the court struck down Nebraska's law banning so-called partial birth abortion. Of course, at first blush, the case of Stenberg vs. Carhart appears to be a loss for Republicans. The court ruling means 31 state laws on partial-birth abortion -- an issue Republicans have trumpeted -- are effectively invalidated. So why then is a decidedly pro-choice ...

Weitzel euthanized 5, prosecutors say They were set to finish their closing arguments today By Jenifer K. Nii Deseret News staff writer FARMINGTON — In closing arguments Monday, prosecutors said psychiatrist Dr. Robert Allen Weitzel caused the deaths of five patients under his care by his administration of medications to the patients. Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson said four of the five patients who died within a 16-day period in December 1995 and January 1996 in the Davis Hospital and Medical Center's geriatric-psychiatric unit were killed by excessive amounts of sedative medications administered under Weitzel's orders. The fifth patient, Ellen ...

Buchanan's departure is a boon for Republicans By Charles Krauthammer WASHINGTON — Why is Bush doing so well? Of the dozen reasons adduced, most have to do with Al Gore — his biweekly change of persona, his recurring investigative troubles, his sheer unattractiveness. Some explanations have to do with Bush himself — the steadiness of his performance since the primaries, and, perhaps ominously for Republicans, the fact that he does best in the polls when he is out of sight (he was never more popular than when he was almost completely unseen in 1999). But one of the most important ...

Top brass get top dollar for housing Laws on maintenance costs circumvented, report says Copyright 2000 Deseret News By Lee Davidson Deseret News Washington correspondent WASHINGTON — It infuriated Congress. The Navy exceeded budgets to maintain homes of just three top admirals by $5.7 million. The Air Force went over by $3.8 million on homes for two generals. Meanwhile, the military had reported huge maintenance and repair backlogs for housing of its enlisted personnel. So an upset Congress last year enacted laws designed to help prevent such exorbitant spending on homes of admirals and generals. It turns out those laws ...

A long read, but good info for those concerned about psych drugs. Against Biologic Psychiatry by David Kaiser, M.D. Psychiatric Times December 1996 Vol. XIII Issue 12 As a practicing psychiatrist, I have watched with growing dismay and outrage the rise and triumph of the hegemony known as biologic psychiatry. Within the general field of modern psychiatry, biologism now completely dominates the discourse on the causes and treatment of mental illness, and in my view this has been a catastrophe with far-reaching effects on individual patients and the cultural psyche at large. It has occurred to me with forcible irony ...

Birth Month Linked to Learning Disability By Nancy Deutsch NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Unless you are into astrology, you may think there's little to be learned by knowing the month in which a person was born. But researchers now report that the birth month can be relevant when it comes to predicting who may suffer from a learning disorder. People with learning disabilities are 8% more likely than the rest of the population to have been born in the months of April through July, according to researchers from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. Why? Maybe because the ...

Doolittle Raider takes on Hollywood Brigham City member of group wants filmmakers to get the facts right Sunday, July 02, 2000 By RALPH WAKLEY Standard-Examiner Capitol Bureau BRIGHAM CITY -- Chase Nielsen believes the story of Jimmy Doolittle's bombing raid on Tokyo is so compelling that Hollywood doesn't need to hoke it up. It was the only time Nielsen saw combat during World War II, as one of Doolittle's 80 raiders. The raid was the kick-off of repaying Japan for its Dec. 7, 1941, sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. As one of eight captured Americans, Nielsen would spend the next ...