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I'm just wondering that, as much of the press has decided that it must be nation-neutral in its reporting of the war, if there may be some security concerns in the representatives of such organizations attending military press briefings (as well as other government events)?

I've been thinking lately that it might be a attractive to interested business-minded Freepers to put together a conservative business networking event, with proceeds from that event going to support the FreeRepubic website. The admission price for the event would be such that a) We would be pretty much guaranteed of only serious participants and b) We would generate some nice funding for FreeRepublic.

Could it be that NBC, once a pillar of the American media establishment, is the source of the anthrax mailings that are terrorizing the nation? In years past NBC has been found to have fabricated news in order to increase ratings (does anyone remember the rigging of the car-truck crash in 1991?). It is by now common knowledge that NBC has consistently, for decades, displayed a leftist bias in news reporting while attempting to portray themselves as a legitimate source of news. The fact that those labeling themselves as liberals have consistently worked to undermine the interests of the American ...

I keep looking at the equation of our current national security situation and keep coming up with the nuclear option. Every developed nation has skyscrapers - and every superpower has a problem with the violence of radical Muslims. Sure, the US was the target on Sep 11, but the entire world needs A SCAPEGOAT, someone to make an example of. And what better place to make an example than some desolate, rocky dirt clod at the top of the world called Afghanistan? What I'm suggesting is that, if the world does not clamp the lid shut on bio-terrorism in a ...

I can't imagine a more stupid move the terrorists could make than to send anthrax to the US media outlets. Why, given another month or two, after the bodies of US innocents killed on Sep 11 have had a chance to reach room temerature, who can doubt that our media would have started to gen up sympathy for those poor, misinformed terrorists (or are they "freedom fighters")? Heck, given another 10-15 years our media would have awarded him with his own nation to rule (al la Nelson Mandela), and five years afterwards the teachers in our public schools would have ...

It occurred to me today that America may have perhaps had a situation very analogous to (if not absolutely equivalent to) a "terrorist problem" during the first half of our existence. I'm speaking, of course, about our nation's dealings with the Native Americans, with whom I have long been sympathetic. I would imagine, however, that the fear and uncertainty that we now feel about terrorists would be very much like the feelings experienced by our forefathers when the "Indians were on the war path". Perhaps there are other solutions to the terrorist problem that are more compatible with the psyche ...

Identifying a good solution to the USA's "Bin Laden" problem can be as difficult a mental exercise as planning "the perfect crime". Even after extensive consideration, one finds oneself balancing the danger of an expanded conflict, the loss of lives of US troops, the potential of creating a marytr and sheer cost against the absolute need to defang terrorism. This is a problem I've wrestled with since last Tuesday's terrorist attacks in NYC, and only this evening have I hit on an idea that addresses the many concerns. I must say that it is an unorthodox solution, but one that ...

Since Tuesday's tragic terrorist attack in NYC I have repeatedly heard President Bush refer to a goal of eliminating "all terrorism", and on one occasion believe I heard that goal represented as "eliminating all evil". I am concerned that these goals that, on the surface, sound noble, are in fact un-achievable and can be potentially molded to work against the best interests of good people. Much has already been said by others on the unrealistic nature of "eliminating all terrorism", however no-one has yet pondered the definition of the word "terrorist". I have no doubt that Adolf Hitler would have ...

In reading today's discussions of America's possible response to Tuesday's act of war against the US, I'm finding myself a concerned that we may expose a chink in the American armor that could be a source of much BIGGER trouble than we saw Tuesday. That chink is the assumption that, once America engages the enemy, the battle will be fought exclusively on foreign soil and not right here at home. Tuesday's attack was something previously imagined only in the minds of Hollywood - so perhaps we should ponder other attacks which have been imagined in Hollywood - particularly those attacks ...

The host of our local radio station (as well as a number of his callers) is today ridiculing the opinions of those who are critical of the tightening of security measures and "loss of freedoms" at America's airports in response to Tuesday's terrorist attacks. Maybe it's just me, but by focusing our attention on increasing these security measures aren't we sending exactly the wrong signal to terrorists around the world? Aren't we signalling them that our response to their terror is to, as a society, basically go cower in some corner? Any impediment to air travel will ultimately manifest itself ...

For several years now I've heard my fellow Americans (including good ol' Rush) coldly describe how our military "kills people and breaks things", an expression that carries an implicit callousness that fails to differentiate between civilians and military or, for that matter, men, women and children. It has become a virtual mantra adopted by the "kill 'em and let God sort them out" crowd as a means of celebrating our own supposedly tough (e.g. "sh&t happens") worldview. Well, yesterday we saw firsthand that there are other folks out there, probably folks we've been "bombing to the stone age" for several ...

By Andrea OrrPALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The dot-com storm isn't over. Even after waves of dot-com failures have washed ashore in recent months, many other struggling companies are heading toward the rocks.For every company like the Internet grocer Webvan Group Inc. (Nasdaq:WBVN - news) that called it quits this summer, there remain others such as software maker NetObjects Inc.(Nasdaq:NETO - news), that are fast running out of cash, and options.NetObjects, which makes software for building Web sites and was to have been a big hit in a wired world, last week warned it had only enough money to last ...

I've always felt that Monica Lewinski had the most open-and-shut, best documented case for a sexual harassment lawsuit in the history of this nation. I mean, my god, she had the bosses own semen on her dress! Given what we know of the character of those who constitute the Democrat Party I find the fact that she didn't exploit this situtation for the purposes of a little "self-enrichment" just a bit puzzling. So, I've created a vote to see why the online community thinks Monica has not made a peep about filing a sexual harassment lawsuit. To participate in the ...

BUNION NEWS WIRE - Citing recent revelations in the case of missing DC intern Chandra Levy, Reverend Jesse Jackson today resoundingly criticized Congressman Gary Conditi(D) for the "moral crime" of cheating on his mistress. Reverend Jackson was referring to revelations that Condit(D) was involved in sexual relations with other women and staffers while also being involved with Chandra Levy. Said the Reverend Jackson, "These young women come to DC to give of themselves to comfort those of us who are engaged in the people's business. For any man to willfully and knowingly betray the sacred trust that exists between a ...

3:43pm - BUNION NEWSWIRE - BREAKING: DC Police today pulled over Democrat Rep. Gary Conduit and charged him with "impersonating a Clinton". Conduit, who vehemently denies the allegations, was quoted as saying "hey, I never told her to put ice on nuttin'!" The officer on duty, however, noted the numerous dried semen stains on the cloth interior of his 1974 Buick Electra and found reasonable cause to detain Representative Condiut for further probing. As he was being hustled into the waiting paddy wagon Representative Conduit repeatedly screamed "hey, I got my rights, I'm a Democrat. I want the DC Park ...

It seems that early on in the Clinton administration there started to be much talk among the "conspiracy theorists" (aka the "tin-foil hat crowd") about some mysterious "Clinton body count". This, of course, referred to the surprising number of people linked to the Clinton administration who suddenly found themselves "pushing up daisies". The liberals and moderates of the time suggested that, while perhaps the administration did reek a bit of corruption, any mysterious deaths were purely coincidental and attributable to the sheer numbers of individuals who come in contact with a US president on a daily basis. So, assuming that ...

On his radio program yesterday nationally syndicated talk show host Michael Reagan castigated Freepers in general for the backlash here on Free Republic against Mia Lawrence. Mia, as you may recall, is the individual who reported the Bush daughters to police last week for seeking to make an underage purchase of alcoholic beverages. I must disagree with Michael's defense of Mia Lawrence. When Ms. Lawrence actively sought out the media as a political tool she made herself a public figure, and fair game for the "political dirty tricks" that more often than not accompany contemporary American politics. I think it ...

Tonight I had occasion to watch the new eposide of "The X-Files" only to have occasion to hear "Agent Mulder" declare something to the effect of "This is America, the person with the most votes doesn't always win." Did any other Freepers happen to hear this outrage? I'll never watch one second of this program again, and I would urge others to give it serious considertion as well.

In that year the three of us lived in a house on a bluff overlooking the Toms River in central New Jersey, and the winter rental of $50 a month, which we split evenly, was entirely manageable for young, single reporters whose salaries would have hovered just above the poverty line, if there had been a poverty line in those unenlightened days. The three-bedroom bungalow featured a large living room with a fireplace as well as a sunroom with a ping-pong table and dartboard. The owner used the house only in summer but had furnished it with an eye ...

I am regularly and consistently amazed at the number and vitriolic capacity of the sympathizers the music industry has been able to garner in its all-out war against the online service known as Napster. Napster, for those who've been stuck on a desert island for the past few months, is an online service that enables its users on the Internet to search for and exchange MP3-encoded music files. Because these files can and often do contain copyrighted music, the music industry has initiated a lawsuit against Napster to have the service deactivated. The operative word here is "enables". The Napster ...