Free Republic

Abbas poses pragmatic for the Western press, while the PA Media Portray Feb. 25's Suicide Bomber of a Tel Aviv Night Club as a Hero fighting for Allah. While PA leader Mahmoud Abbas issues tersely worded condemnations of the February 25th suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv night club, the PA news media has been glorifying the memory of the bomber, Abdalla Badran, calling him a “shahid”, a martyr, a person who died for the highest ideals of Islam. Taking a page right out of Arafat’s book, Abbas has been projecting a moderate, pragmatic image abroad while the PA's state-controlled...

Hello, once again. Welcome to the weekly Free Republic Book Club thread. The winner of the poll and the topic for this week is historical novels. For those of you that want to get a jump on next week, the runner up in the last week's poll was mysteries, so grab one off the shelf and get busy reading, so you'll have something for next week. 8-)

Welcome to the Free Republic Book Club This is the place to discuss any book under the sun. First of all, my apologies for not getting to this thread until Saturday evening. Second, as has been suggested by several people on the previous threads, we're only going to make one thread per week, starting on Saturdays. We'll see how that works out. Third, let's try to pick a topic for the week. Granted, "off-topic" posts are to be expected (and practically mandatory, if reading other threads is any indication). Fourth, I pulled a lot of names from the previous...

Welcome to the Free Republic Book Club. Last time I checked there were over 70 posts on our first thread by 40+ posters. Not bad at all. Let's call our second meeting to order. I'd love to give you a topic, but I have to go dig up the car and take the kids bowling. So talk amongst yourselves. The results of yesterday's "survey" are below.

Welcome to the Free Republic Book Club. It was suggested a couple of days ago, in the FReeper's Book Rockets Up Amazon After Ingraham Show! thread (somewhere toward the end) that it would be great if there FR Book Club. Somehow, I think I got nominated to start one. I don't really know how to do that other than just to go ahead and do it. So I am -- please, feel free to point out mistakes, or point out how to make a "ping" list for folks that want to be a part of this. Anyway, if there are...

BOISE, Idaho - A city ordinance bans complete nudity at all gentleman's clubs, but one has challenged that ordinance by distributing pencils and sketch pads to patrons during "art night." The ordinance does give nudity exclusions for artistic displays which include dance, ballet and dramatic performances, so every Monday and Tuesday, the club encourages customers to sketch the models as they perform nude routines. "As far as the Boise city code, it specifies it has to be a serious artistic manner and this is a serious artistic manner," said Chris Teague, Erotic City owner. The club has put on art...

School targets lesson 'biases': Principal says he wants balanced talk on the issues By Carolyn Kessel Stewart / Daily News Staff Thursday, February 17, 2005 HUDSON -- After a legal defense team took an interest in the new student Conservative Club's claims of censorship, Hudson High School is now investigating some teaching practices for potential biases and inconsistencies. However, the school will not budge on allowing students to advertise a controversial conservative Web site, said Principal John Stapelfeld. English and social studies teachers have been asked to make sure all sides of an issue are represented in materials and teaching,...

BRAINERD, Minn. -- Maybe it's all that fighting at the Legislature. A state senator said he used a wooden club to scare off two men who were trying to rob his liquor store here. Sen. Paul Koering said he was working around 8 p.m. Saturday when two men wearing hooded sweatshirts and scarves over their faces entered the store. When Koering asked the men what they wanted, they tapped the cash register with an aluminum baseball bat and said, ``This is what we'll have,'' the Republican from Fort Ripley recalled Monday. Koering said he grabbed the club left behind by...

Easley campaign returning money from topless club owner The Associated Press Published: Feb 3, 2005 Modified: Feb 3, 2005 2:40 PM CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Gov. Mike Easley's re-election campaign will return donations it received from a Charlotte-based operator of topless bars. Easley political adviser Mac McCorkle offered no reason for the refund to David "Slim" Baucom, who runs 17 topless clubs, including 12 in North Carolina. Easley, who won re-election in November, has returned contributions from other club owners in the past. Campaign finance reports at the State Board of Elections show Baucom gave $8,000 to Easley during the 2004...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) --Shots were fired early this morning at an exotic night club in West Palm Beach. A woman went to the Flashdance Exotic Night Club after it closed today to talk to the owner about getting a job. She asked the owner if her two friends could go in with her. The owner let them in, and then the two male friends beat up the owner. The woman applying for the job beat and tied up the cleaning lady. The owner managed to pull out a gun while the men were kicking him. He fired shots...

SIERRA VISTA - Saving the World War II black officers club on Fort Huachuca is a worthy goal and it will fit well into the Army-Community Heritage Partnership Program, a senior Army civilian leader said. Noting the project will be costly and take time, William A. Armbruster, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for privatization and partnerships, said the military service can help provide some architectural assistance and support fund-raising. This week, he visited the building, which almost met the wrecking ball until the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers was able to work a deal with the Army to renovate...

Alongside U.S. 59, several miles north of the Loop, sits the appropriately named 59 Gun Range. Run-down homes, vacant lots and a fireworks emporium line its block. Immediately adjacent is Pancho's Mobile Homes, a makeshift sales lot marked by a hand-painted sign, where dented trailers teeter on cinder blocks like derailed train cars. In the smoky gun shop, which forms the lobby of the range, a wispy teenager with long, oily hair and a dimwitted but lively gaze drawls about the thrills of gun recoil. His sidekick affirms with a crooked smile. At one of the shadowy shooting lanes, Marie...

COLUMBUS, OHIO - A man opened fire in an Ohio nightclub Wednesday night, killing a heavy metal guitarist and three others before a police officer shot him to death. The unidentified man climbed onto the stage at the Alrosa Villa just as the band Damageplan was opening its show, firing several shots at guitarist Dimebag Darrel Abbott. Abbott was killed, witnesses said. The gunman also killed a club bouncer and two other people before a police officer arriving at the scene shot and killed him. Two other people were wounded as the man fired into the crowd before police arrived....

During halftime of the Dallas vs. Seattle game tonight on ABC's Monday Night Football there was an interview of Tiger Woods to promote his upcoming Target World Challenge golf tournament also broadcast on ABC this coming weekend.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Here are some .jpg scans that Korean War and Vietnam War Vets & their families can save and use....

As a private citizen, the Senate candidate joined a club accused of discrimination to spur change, he says. TALLAHASSEE - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez spent about five years in the 1990s as a member of an exclusive country club that was criticized for discriminating against women, blacks and Jews. Martinez said he quit the Country Club of Orlando before he ran for Orange County chairman in 1998 because the club was too slow to admit minorities. His membership would have been a major liability in a political campaign in which he pledged to be an inclusive leader. "I...

Rapper Combs settles with club shooting witness Sean "P Diddy" Combs has settled a £1.7 million lawsuit filed by his former driver, who said he suffered emotional damage after a nightclub shooting four years ago. US Supreme Court Justice Harold Beeler announced the settlement and dismissed the Manhattan jury which had been hearing the lawsuit filed by Wardell "Woody" Fenderson. Lawyers for both sides, having agreed to keep the settlement terms secret, refused to disclose details. They would say only that "the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties". Fenderson's lawsuit arose after three people were wounded...

During 14 years in the Michigan Legislature and 11 years in Congress, Rep. Nick Smith had never experienced anything like it. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, in the wee hours last Saturday morning, pressed him to vote for the Medicare bill. But Smith refused. Then things got personal. Smith, self term-limited, is leaving Congress. His lawyer son Brad is one of five Republicans seeking to replace him from a GOP district in Michigan's southern tier. On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island -- Six months after a nightclub fire that killed 100 people, the U.S. federal agency that regulates workplace safety has fined the club's owners and the band Great White more than $90,000 US. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Derco LLC, which operated The Station club, $85,200 for one "wilful" violation and six serious ones. OSHA said the wilful violation was the installation of an exit door that swung the wrong way. The others involved the use of highly flammable foam in the club, inadequate safety planning and an exit door that was concealed by foam,...