Free Republic

"OROVILLE, Calif. - An immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. A hazardous situation has developed with the Oroville Dam emergency spillway. Officials say that operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the emergency spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville. ... Officials are anticipating a failure of the auxiliary spillway at Oroville Dam within the next 60 minutes ..."

""Myers said the Orlando attack was a “catastrophic failure” for the FBI and showed its policies, procedures, and resources are inadequate to the mission of homeland security. “This has to change now or a new organization, mandated to defeat this domestic threat, must be organized and fielded,” he said.'"

"Last year, NASA’s advanced propulsion research wing made headlines by announcing the successful test of a physics-defying electromagnetic drive, or EM drive. Now, this futuristic engine, which could in theory propel objects to near-relativistic speeds, has been shown to work inside a space-like vacuum. NASA Eagleworks made the announcement quite unassumingly via NASASpaceFlight.com. There’s also a major discussion going on about the engine and the physics that drives it at the site’s forum." ... "The NASASpaceflight.com group has given consideration to whether the experimental measurements of thrust force were the result of an artifact. Despite considerable effort within the NASASpaceflight.com...

Bill from Vegas [case quotation]"… Gun carriers seem to not notice, or willfully ignore, that apparently-purposeless gun carrying is never going to be regarded as purposeless by bystanders...." Which is why I consider lawful open carry primarily to be a form of performance art. You're not against art are you, Mr. Lathrop? Do I first have to drop my Glock in a jar of urine or rub elephant dung on it to get you to respect my self-expression? Who are you to judge me anyway? Dammit, man, it's an aesthetic, not a dialectic. Okay, yea, I'm armed. But I...

… The scale of the present outbreak, together with the fear and suffering it is causing, has resulted in a burst of scientific activity to find new treatments and vaccines. Some of these medicines look promising. But to contain the spread of Ebola, scientists and health officials will have to bypass many of the existing rules that govern the delivery of new drugs, and develop potential remedies with unprecedented speed. This strategy is being endorsed widely. In August experts from the WHO concluded that, provided certain conditions are met, it would be ethical to offer unproven, experimental treatments or methods...

Cause of New Mexico nuclear waste accident remains a mystery "A 55-gallon drum of nuclear waste, buried in a salt shaft 2,150 feet under the New Mexico desert, violently erupted late on Feb. 14 and spewed mounds of radioactive white foam. The flowing mass, looking like whipped cream but laced with plutonium, went airborne, traveled up a ventilation duct to the surface and delivered low-level radiation doses to 21 workers. … The investigators are looking at a variety of materials that may have been added to the drum, including lead, tungsten, acid and even kitty litter as possible factors in...

“ The region has seen nothing like it since the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. Perpetual war has turned into a snowball that accumulates people and resources as it rolls downhill and strips the ground bare of sustenance. Those who are left shiver in tents in refugee camps, and their young men go off to the war. There is nothing new about this way of waging war; it was invented in the West during the Thirty Years War by the imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, and it caused the death of nearly half the population of Central Europe between...

THE North Korean refugee had one request for her captors before the young Chinese soldiers led her back across the steel-girdered bridge on the Yalu River that divides two “socialist allies”. “She asked for a comb and some water because she said that if she was going to die she could not face going to heaven looking as dirty and dishevelled as this,” recounted a relative of one soldier who was there. What happened next is testimony to the rising disgust in Chinese military ranks as Beijing posts more troops to the border amid a crisis with North Korea over...

"Some senior officers have been mentioning the C-word in private conversations. They have been saying that a coup d'etat might be the only way to prevent an outcome in Lebanon that could embolden the Arab world to join forces with Syria and Iran in an all out assault on Israel, given the fact that such a development would be spurred entirely by the Arab and Moslem world's perception of Israel's leadership as weak, craven and vacillating, and therefore ripe for intimidation." Hat tip to Judith Weiss of Keshertalk at: http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2006/08/how_mad_at_olme.php Analysis: Government and IDF racked by unprecedented leadership crisisBy Jonathan...

Hizbollah Caught Planning an AtrocityAugust 2, 2006: Israeli troops operating in south Lebanon captured a Hezbollah safe house, and found the usual weapons and other equipment, as well as a supply of Israeli Defense Force uniforms. This indicated plans to stage a major "atrocity." Committed, as the evidence would clearly show, by Israeli troops. But perhaps this will never happen, for Israeli raids into southern Lebanon have captured many Hizbollah documents, as well as some live Hizbollah members. These, combined with Israeli electronic eavesdropping, reports from agents inside Lebanon, give the Israelis a pretty good idea of what Hizbollah is...

"... With the remnant of Iraq's Jewish population having long since fled the country, Christians have become today's victims of choice. Sunni, Shia, and Kurd may agree on little else, but all have made sport of brutalizing their Christian neighbors, hundreds of whom have been slaughtered since the U.S. invasion. As a result, Iraq's ancient Christian community, now numbering roughly 800,000 and consisting mostly of Eastern rite Chaldean Catholics and Assyrian Orthodox Christians, dwindles by the day. According to Iraqi estimates, between 40,000 and 100,000 have fled since 2004, many following their own road to Damascus across the Syrian border...

Two articles by Kelly Olsen of Associated Press. Here's the first ----China outpacing South Korea for economic influence in North Korea By: KELLY OLSEN - Associated Press KAESONG, North Korea -- Thousands of communist laborers toil under the supervision of capitalist managers in this fenced-in special zone, South Korea's economic beachhead in North Korea just beyond the border. The Kaesong Industrial Complex is a key part of Seoul's strategy to engage the impoverished yet militarily potent North, reduce their economic gap and prepare for the day -- South Koreans hope -- they unite as one. But at the same time,...

"Seventy-two percent (72%) of Americans say they have been following news about the Dubai Ports deal somewhat or very closely." PAGING KARL ROVE--EMERGENCY! [John Podhoretz] Rasmussen has a new poll up in which -- hold on now -- Democrats in Congress are outpolling President Bush on national security. By a margin of 43 to 41 percent, Americans say they trust Congressional Democrats more than Bush when it comes to protecting our national security. And by a margin of 64-17 percent, they oppose the sale of the ports to Dubai. The deal is dead. It won't survive after a 45-day extension...

"In the survey of 1,000 youngsters aged between 18 and 23, conducted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo on Feb. 16-19, nearly 48 percent of respondents said that if the U.S. attacked nuclear facilities in North Korea, Seoul should act on Pyongyang's behalf and demand Washington stop the attack." 48% of Youth Would Support N. Korea in Case of US Attack Survey Shows Half of Young Generation Are Progressive By Park Song-wu, Staff Reporter Almost half of juniors surveyed, who will get their first voting rights in the 2007 presidential election, said in a recent...

Syria is deeper into criminal and terrorist activities than it usually gets credit for. Syria has long been recognized as a supporter of terrorist groups. Often this support was, and still is, open, with terrorist groups allowed to maintain their headquarters in Syria. But it's Syria's less well known activities that should be the greatest cause of concern. Syria's smuggling operations have been a major source of income for the small circle of people that run the country. Smuggling is an ancient enterprise, especially in the Middle East, and flourishes because countries have long imposed taxes on what is imported....

COUNT DOWN TO IRAN'S NUCLEAR TEST by Trent Telenko at February 15, 2006 12:53 PM We are now in a fast count down to Iran’s first nuclear test. The only issues left are 1) When it will take place and 2) What kind of nuke will be used. If Iran’s nuclear test happens this spring, the device will be a plutonium-fueled, implosion triggered, bomb of North Korean design and fissile material. If the test happens in the fall, there will probably be two devices - one each of each of Plutonium and Enriched Uranium. The plutonium bomb will be North...

THE CASE FOR INVADING IRAN America has come to another turning point – whether our inaction will again engulf the world and us in a nightmare comparable to World War Two. This will entail loss of our freedom as the price of domestic security measures against terrorist weapons of mass destruction, though we might suffer nuclear attack before implementing those measures. The only effective alternative is American use of pre-emptive military force against an imminent threat – Iranian nuclear weapons, which requires that we invade Iran and overthrow its mullah regime as we did to Iraq’s Baathist regime. All the...

Another Instance of the Law of Unintended Consequences (my emphasis in the text) "Witches see an opportunity in new hate billJon Ungoed-Thomas THE government faces new embarrassment over the religious hatred bill with a warning that witches and satanists could use it to trigger police investigations of their critics. The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, now passing through parliament, has been used by Labour to bolster support among Muslims. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, says the bill is of “vital importance” to protect Muslims and other groups from “religious hatred”. Opponents of the bill — including Rowan Atkinson, the comedian,...

US military leadership has a consistent principal - "better that American civilians die than that we (the brass) be blamed for making a mistake." See the following from a Washington Times editorial today: http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050906-093817-7790r.htm "Lt. Gen. Blum said the National Guard did not move sooner to secure the Superdome and convention center because commanders were waiting to amass "an overwhelming force." Massing an "overwhelming force" you see, reduces military casualties. Let the civilians die while the military is assembling its "overwhelming force". Because avoidable military casualties might get the brass blamed. They know that avoidable civilian casualties won't get them...

"... Anti-Americanism is a particularly murky concept because it invariably merges antipathy toward what America does with what America is - or rather is projected to be in the eyes of its beholders. The difference between "does" and "is" corresponds well with Jon Elster's fine distinction between "anger" and "hatred". Elster writes: "In anger, my hostility is directed toward another's action and can be extinguished by getting even - an action that reestablishes the equilibrium. In hatred, my hostility is directed toward another person or a category of individuals who are seen as intrinsically and irremediably bad. For the world...