Free Republic

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) released a video Sunday that described more than three months of riots as an “uprising over centuries of racial neglect and oppression.” Yes, there’s so much racial oppression and neglect in America, a Muslim immigrant from Somalia can be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a state called Minnesota.

The saga of which I sing today is a tale most remarkable: My song comes from Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, where war-heroes go to their rest. All those who have fallen in the fight, and borne wounds yet toiled unto death, from the beginning of the world, are come to the company of the great god Odin. Indeed, at a time of troublesome tumult on the earth, there is even greater news from Valhalla: Men should know that Odin has decided that it is now time to win the War of the Fourteen Centuries. That is, the War...

GENEVA (Reuters) - There has been no reverse in the trend of global warming and there is still consistent evidence for man-made climate change, the head of the U.N. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Monday. A slow-down in the average pace of warming at the planet's surface this century has been cited by "climate skeptics" as evidence that climate change is not happening at the potentially catastrophic rate predicted by a U.N. panel of scientists. But U.N. weather agency chief Michel Jarraud said ocean temperatures, in particular, were rising fast, and extreme weather events, forecast by climate scientists, showed...

Neither rookies nor seasoned veterans were spared in Tuesday's House Democratic bloodbath, which saw Republicans defeat three major committee chairmen and at least seven lawmakers who claimed 20 years' seniority or more in Congress. While the losses of 16 freshmen "Obama babies" — those elected during the president's 2008 sweep — were expected, the number of long-serving Democrats who lost re-election this week is staggering, and suggests a widespread dissatisfaction with Washington. All told, with about a dozen races still uncalled, Democrats have already shed 376 years of congressional experience, and that could go as high as 430 years if...

n the depths of northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren't built - they're grown. The southern Khasi and Jaintia hills are humid and warm, crisscrossed by swift-flowing rivers and mountain streams. On the slopes of these hills, a species of Indian rubber tree with an incredibly strong root system thrives and flourishes. The Ficus elastica produces a series of secondary roots from higher up its trunk and can comfortably perch atop huge boulders along the riverbanks, or even in the middle of the rivers themselves. The War-Khasis, a tribe in Meghalaya, long ago noticed...

Dust In West Up 500 Percent In Past Two CenturiesA dusty scene near Canyonlands in Utah. Dust in the West has increased by 500 percent since the 1800s. (Credit: Jason C. Neff, University of Colorado at Boulder) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — The West has become 500 percent dustier in the past two centuries due to westward U.S. expansion and accompanying human activity beginning in the 1800s, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. List of major natural disasters in the United States Annual sedimentary layer Sediment records from dust blown into alpine lakes...

Ancient Hittite dam inaugurated after 32 centuries Wednesday, September 20, 2006 ANKARA - Turkish Daily News A Hittite-era dam located in the central Anatolian province of Çorum and believed to be one of the oldest in the world to have survived to date has been restored and is once again serving as a source of irrigation for local residents. The dam, located at the Alacahöyük archaeological site, was built by the Hittites in 1240 B.C. The dam's inauguration was marked with a ceremony over the weekend attended by Professor Aykut Çýnaroðlu, who heads the team excavating Alacahöyük, Ankara University Rector...

China’s ‘Golden Age,’ over five crucial centuries Souren Melikian International Herald Tribune Saturday, October 23, 2004 NEW YORK As they walk through the Metropolitan Museum’s ‘‘China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 A.D.,’’ many people will marvel at the new portrait of Chinese art and culture over five crucial centuries that comes across almost instantly. The myth of a monolithic, self-absorbed China is swept aside once and for all. . In a gripping introduction (sometimes difficult to follow because it is so packed with information), James Watt, the Met curator who masterminded this unforgettable exhibition, describes the intermingling of the...

The secret language of Chinese women Tongue devised by 'sworn sisters' came down through centuries Edward Cody, Washington Post Sunday, February 29, 2004 Pumei Village, Hunan Province, C -- Nowadays, it would be called empowering women. But back then, centuries ago, it was just a way for the sworn sisters of this rugged and tradition-laden Chinese countryside to share their hopes, their joys and their many sorrows. Only men learned to read and write Chinese, and bound feet and social strictures confined women to their husband's homes. So somehow -- scholars are unsure how, or exactly when -- the women...

<p>Two young men, one an artist, the other an archaeologist, crawled over the ancient redwood beams of San Francisco's Mission Dolores earlier this month, opened a trap door, lowered an electric light into a space behind the main altar -- and stared into the 18th century.</p>

Three centuries before Christ's birth, people celebrated 25 December, archaeologists claim By David Keys Archaelology Correspondent 24 December 2003 Archeologists say they have traced the origins of the first Christmas to be celebrated on 25 December, 300 years before the birth of Christ. The original event marked the consecration of the ancient world's largest sun god statue, the 34m tall, 200 ton Colossus of Rhodes. It has long been known that 25 December was not the real date of Christ's birth and that the decision to turn it into Jesus's birthday was made by Constantine, the Roman Emperor, in the...

HOHENWUTZEN, Germany (Reuters) - Nearly 60 years after the end of World War Two, loud bangs and smoke fill the air as grenades and shells explode by the Polish border -- but this time Germany has informed its neighbour of its plans. "We've told the Polish authorities, so they won't be worried we're planning to invade again," joked bomb disposal expert Ralf Kirschnick as he inspected shards of metal after a controlled explosion on the German bank of the River Oder. Since the end of hostilities Germany has made steady inroads into the unexploded bombs and grenades buried beneath its...

PHOENIX -- As the airplane - having left wind wakes high over Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico -- slides into Arizona's baked air, I'm thinking about America, which soon will celebrate its 227th birthday, I haven't yet seen all of our impossibly huge, pasted-together country, but I haven't missed much of it. Just this year I've been in Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina and now Arizona, to say nothing of Missouri and Kansas. America takes my breath away. It is deserts -- huge reaches of hot sterility in which only the...