Free Republic

The rocket-propelled Canadian dollar flew past $1.07 (U.S.) Friday, fuelled by strong economic data that have many forecasters wondering whether the economy is decoupling from its troubled southern neighbour. Canada churned out five times more jobs than expected last month, a stellar showing that sparked a number of forecasts that the loonie is on its way to $1.10, as the greenback continues to dive. While that's good news for Canadians who are planning to travel to the United States this holiday season, it will likely mean more pain for manufacturers, exporters and the tourist industry on this side of the...

Four tales of city dwellers who fled New York More New Yorkers leave the city every year than move here, a trend highlighted in a population study released last week. The report showed that in 2005, 300,000 people left New York, and only 200,000 arrived from across the U.S. and other countries to replace them. The results prompted the Daily News to ask: Why did you say goodbye to New York? Here are the stories we heard: He's getting more bang for his bucks Carlos Thompson and his wife owned a house in Brooklyn and made a decent living as...

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent Fri Mar 2, 4:36 PM ET Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani acknowledged his differences with the party's conservative base on Friday but said bigger principles should be at stake in the race for the White House. The former New York mayor led a parade of six Republican White House contenders who wooed frustrated conservatives at an annual convention. He asked the activists to look past his support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control. Giuliani, dubbed "America's Mayor" for his leadership after the September 11 attacks, touted his New York record of reducing crime,...

Minorities are starting to fight employers over the use of credit history in hiring. Lisa Bailey worked for five months at Harvard University as a temp entering donations into a database. When the university made the job a salaried position, Ms. Bailey, who is black, saw a chance to lift herself out of dead-end jobs. Bailey's superiors encouraged her to apply, she says, but turned her down after discovering her bad credit history. Bailey, with her lawyer, has lodged a complaint against Harvard charging racial discrimination. The reason: Studies show that minorities are more likely to have bad credit, but...

U.S. Army Capt. Kathlen Stornelli (left), physician’s assistant, Company C, 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, wraps a bandage over the ankle of Spc. Silas Brown, a combat medic assigned to Company C, at Forward Operating Base Duke, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Edgar Reyes Company C Aid Station Soldiers On Call 24/7 Despite long workdays and details at Forward Operating Base Duke, Company C personnel stand ready to treat injured soldiers. By U.S. Army Pfc. Edgar Reyes2nd Brigade Combat Team4th Infantry Division FORWARD OPERATING BASE DUKE, Iraq, April 12, 2006 — When U.S....

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...

Democrats add a new C to corruption By Josephine Hearn As Democrats mull when and how to introduce an election-year agenda, some party leaders have already begun to broaden the now-familiar Democratic refrain of a “culture of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and cover-up” to add a new alliterative element: costs. The shift in language reflects some frustration among Democrats that their steady drumbeat on corruption isn’t connecting with voters as much as they’d like. The new phrase allows them to segue from ethical abuses to pocketbook issues such as prescriptions drugs, energy prices and tuition costs, where they contend that Republicans...

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

As a voice from the past, God's mighty man raises His Standard high, that God's Truth should not be lost in these Last Days of deception."He being dead yet speaketh" (Hebrews 11:4 ).James A. Wylie (1808-1890) "The men who handed in this protest did not wish to create a mere void. If they disowned the creed and threw off the yoke of Rome, it was that they might plant a purer faith and restore the government of a higher Law. They replaced the authority of the Infallibility with the authority of the Word of God. The long and dismal obscuration...

Coloradans have no commonsense. Within one year we reelected a financially incompetent, liberal Ken Salazar, then raised our own taxes and legalized marijuana. What is wrong with my neighbors? Well, they want to smoke pot and pay more taxes. One problem explains the other. Drug abuse is a large cause of liberal thinking. This is proven historically as we look at the ‘60s and ‘70s. Drug abuse and modern liberalism are synonymous. Person becomes rebel. Rebel smokes pot. Pot affects mind, causing liberal thinking. Liberals raise taxes. Its simple! Fortunately state and federal law will ensure that nothing in Denver...

On the flight home this morning, I was unfortunate enough to have a bleeder sit next to me. By bleeder, I mean he was invading my space because he was large and his body was spilling over into my seat. I've seen worse cases than what I had today but let's hear your experiences.

High doses of vitamin C injected into the bloodstream may be effective at combating cancer, new research suggests. Scientists found that vitamin C in the form of ascorbate killed cancer cells in the laboratory. But the effective dose was so high it could only be delivered to patients by infusion into the bloodstream. The findings appear to contradict earlier studies showing no cancer benefit from vitamin C. However the researchers point out that those trials only investigated orally taken vitamins. Vitamin C kills cancer cells but leaves normal cells intact In the latest study a US team led by Dr...

An unnamed former top government official told a Newsweek magazine reporter that his story, about a U.S. military guard at Guantanamo prison flushing a Koran down a toilet, was "a slam dunk," according to the latest apology from Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker. The magazine's uncorroborated, single-source, hearsay report of the Koran desecration sparked riots in several Muslim countries, killing at least 15 and injuring perhaps 100. While the magazine has apologized publicly to the riot victims and their families, Mr. Whitaker told the New York Times, "We're not retracting anything. We don't know what the ultimate facts are." For those...

I did it!!! For years I have been tying to post an article during normal freeping hours that nobody would comment on for over an hour. It is quite a challenge really. FR has a wide range of interests, and if an article is too weird, then people will comment on its weirdness. Anyway, every few weeks I have been trying to find an article just so totally boring that there would be no reason for anyone to comment on it, and at the same time not be too weird as to merit a comment based on its weirdness. I...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. citizen working for a contracting company was kidnapped at a construction site Monday in Baghdad, a U.S. Embassy official said. The embassy would not reveal the name of the American or the name of the company. The contractor's next of kin has been notified.</p>

An online petition gathering signatures to save Microsoft’s Visual Basic 6 programming language will not change the company’s intention to cut free support on March 31, a Microsoft representative said on Thursday afternoon. Microsoft’s plan to stop support has been discussed for almost three years and the deadline already has been extended once, said the press representative, who requested anonymity. Visual Basic 6 has been supported longer than any other Microsoft product, according to the representative. “Extended” support, which is fee-based, will continue through 2008. The vendor has spent the past few years encouraging Visual Basic 6 programmers to migrate...

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As an American, I have always been inspired by the fact that my country welcomes those who seek refuge. And as long as our government officials maintain our borders and ensure that those coming from other countries are screened in order to protect those who legally live here, the concept of welcoming immigrants is a noble one. However, something has gone awry. Indeed, illegal immigration into the U.S. has become an immense problem and a clear and present danger. Documented illegal immigration has more than doubled in the last decade. It has grown, by conservative counts, from 3.5 million in...

Yellowcake: Joe Wilson Skating on Thin Ice By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 14, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Remember President Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2003? During his speech, Bush spoke of Iraqi attempts to buy uranium oxide -- now infamously known as “yellowcake” -- from Niger. The President’s assertion about a Nigerian uranium connection was attributed to British, not American, intelligence. Now, do you remember Joseph C. Wilson IV, the one-time CIA operative in Niger? He told the Washington Post that President Bush ignored his warning that it was “highly unlikely” that Iraq tried to buy yellowcake from Niger....

<p>A lot of students grouse about a low grade in school, but Brandy Hurd is making a federal case out of it.</p> <p>Hurd, a straight-A eighth-grader and a top athlete in her class, is suing a teacher and the Island Union Elementary School District in Lemoore for what a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno says was an unfair C in physical education last year.</p>

Doctors warn of death toll from 'silent epidemic' of hepatitis C By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor 01 January 2004 Hospital specialists criticised the Government yesterday for failing to act to curb the spread of hepatitis C, a lethal blood-borne virus. The silent epidemic of hepatitis C is officially estimated to have infected 200,000 people in the UK - four times as many as HIV - and more than 100 people are being infected each week. It is already the main reason for liver transplants and is predicted to be killing more people than Aids by 2020, yet only a quarter...

<p>Finding local supplies of surgical masks depleted, villagers in southern Taiwan are strapping bras to their faces to guard against the deadly SARS virus.</p> <p>"I went to every pharmacy in the village and it's impossible to find a proper mask," a middle-aged man told cable television Thursday, his face partially covered by a dark red cup.</p>

Hi everyone. Ok this may sound bizarre, but I need to find C++ training, and as fast as possible. I am 'between' jobs right now, and have a great new job lined up, BUT I need to learn C++. Now, this is not a huge stretch, as I have been programming in Java, Visual Basic and various web scripting languages for years. I simply need an intensive C++ course that will cover syntax and how the language implements various programming structures. Now, here is the thing... I am willing to pay a small finders fee to anyone who can find...

The Middleware Company has performed a new comparison of the performance and scalability of J2EE and .NET based on the familiar Pet Store application. This time, the Middleware Company has re-coded the J2EE Petstore and optimized the implementation for performance. In the comparison, a new implementation of the .NET Pet Shop has also been tested. This implementation uses dynamic SQL instead of stored procedures, and like the J2EE equivalent is an object-oriented, logical 3-tier implementation following Microsoft's recommended design pattern for building scalable Web applications. In addition, the new performance and scalability comparison includes new comparative performance data on .NET...

C# standardization moves ahead By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 11, 2002, 6:42 AM PT Microsoft and its allies have quietly expanded an effort to gain acceptance for C#, the software giant's competitor to Java and a foundation for its next-generation Internet services. To convince potential customers that C# is a sound, independent technology, Microsoft already succeeded in getting it recognized by an international standards group known as ECMA, formerly called the European Computer Manufacturers Association. Microsoft has now used that as a stepping stone to gain the imprimatur of a more widely recognized standards group, the International...

Since I am approaching my one year anniversary of being a "freeper" and since I have never contributed a dime to FR, jim or the republican party, I am going to beat the powers to be at FR and voluntarily leave, rather than have them come up with one of the cock and bull stories to ban me. Been fun,Bye

Show me a honest politician and I will show you someone who has never won an election.

Microsoft .Net software's hidden costSat Jun 22,11:11 AM ETJoe WilcoxCompanies planning on moving their old programs to Microsoft's new .Net software plan had better prepare for sticker shock: Making the conversion could cost roughly half of the original development cost, Gartner says. More resources from CNET:  ?  CNET News.com: Top CIOs  ?  Tech gifts for Father's Day, click here!  ?  Find a job you love. Over 1 million postings.  ?  Live Tech Help. Submit your question now. CNET Newsletters: News.com Daily Dispatch News.Context (weekly) News.com Investor (Daily) More Newsletters(CNet/ZDNet Privacy Policy) News.com Video:  ?  Could Red Hat be the next...

Microsoft's new C# programming language is gaining in popularity, with usage nearly doubling in the last six months, a new study shows. C# is Microsoft's new Java-like language and a crucial piece in the software company's .Net Web services strategy, in which software is made available over the Net to be accessed by multiple devices, such as PCs, cell phones and handhelds. Twelve percent of all North American software developers have begun using C#, up from 7 percent six months ago, according to a new survey by market research firm Evans Data. The firm also predicts that the number of...

Q&A: Java creator Gosling says .Net falls short of expectations By Carol Sliwa (Mar. 29, 2002) SAN FRANCISCO -- Java creator James Gosling, a vice president and fellow at Sun Microsystems Inc., shared his views on Microsoft Corp.'s rival .Net development environment, its new C# (pronounced C-sharp) language and its promotion of Web services with Computerworld during this week's JavaOne conference. Q: Is there anything in the .Net architecture that you actually admire? A: [Long pause.] Chutzpah. Um [pause] boy. I guess I found it really disappointing. I mean, there had been all kinds of rumors and that about what...