Free Republic

HEY! You're driving me CRAZE! I HATE those "ugly quote marks", when it’s just as easy to use “curly quotes.” And please, when quote marks occur at the end of a sentence, remember to place the ending period inside the “curly quotes.” IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?! YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZE!

OKLAHOMA CITY – Over 50 percent of 14-24 year olds have experienced some form of digital abuse, and 3 in 10 have sent or received nude pictures through text messages, said state Rep. Anastasia A. Pittman, who plans to file legislation next session to address Oklahoma ’s problem with sexting. Sexting is the sharing of sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone. More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found. Pittman said the problem has hit home and has now become a serious problem in our...

Chinese artist Liu Bolin warms his hands as his sculpture "Burning Man Obama" is tested at a workshop in Beijing A man wears basketball sneakers with an image of US President Barack Obama and the words "change" and "yes we can" along a street in Beijing Fridge magnets are seen at a shop in Beijing, including one of Chinese president Hu Jintao and some with the "Oba Mao" design by Liu Mingjie, in which he superimposed the face of Barack Obama over that of Chairman Mao The owner of a shop in Beijing shows a card sold at his...

Gucci and Prada for the under-13 crowd By Alana Semuels, Times Staff Writer November 24, 2006 Dressed in pink Uggs, Seven jeans and a matching pink sweater and cap, Elizabeth Cohen looks the epitome of hip as she winds her way through the holiday crowds at the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. She is a discerning consumer — her Ugg boots are not knockoffs, and she names Prada and Dolce & Gabbana as her favorite brands. She's also 10 years old. "I ask her, 'What do you need these for?' " said her mother, Jane Cohen of Bel-Air, who...

Curse of the Bureaucrats Voodoo dolls are all the rage in China—especially now that the government has banned them. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Quindlan Krovatin Special to Newsweek Updated: 6:45 p.m. ET May 24, 2006 May 24, 2006 - Not content with jailing subversive reporters and restricting access to prodemocracy Web sites, the Chinese government has turned its attentions to a new destabilizing influence: voodoo dolls. Central government authorities are so bothered by the political implications of the dolls that they banned them entirely from Beijing's retail stores in April. The dolls have become increasingly popular among the Middle Kingdom's misanthropes...

The gridlock in Sacramento has become so bad that the people's business has been turned over to the big money fund-raisers and the manipulators of public opinion. Last week, a Superior Court judge ruled that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can raise unlimited amounts of cash so he can put directly to voters reform measures that the Democrat-controlled Legislature won't even consider seriously. It essentially sanctions both sides to engage in an unfettered cash-fest from special interests and to spend these fortunes on what almost certainly will be false and misleading advertisements. California is giving up the pretense of a representative democracy....

/begin my translation S. Korean Drama Craze in N. Korea(Japanese 'Shukan Bunshun(?)' reports) Why did the portraits of Kim Jong-il disappear in N. Korea? In the midst of flurry of speculations, Japanese new weekly, Shukan Bunshun, reported in its latest issue situations in N. Korea, based on diverse sources it was able to assemble. In particular, it shows an interesting analysis that S. Korean dramas are fueling the hostility toward Kim Jong-il regime. The following is the summary of the original Japanese article. Up until now, N. Korean state has been firmly maintained by suffocating surveillance and ideological control. However,...

Drug craze is fuelling murder on streets of Iraqi capital An epidemic of narcotics is making thugs more aggressive and life more perilous, reports Peter Beaumont in Baghdad Sunday September 14, 2003n The Observer (UK)Zala and his friends live in the gardens of Baghdad. They hang around the banks of the Tigris to beg and steal. Last week Ala and his friends fished a bloated corpse out of the river and handed it to the police, hoping to get some money. Mainly, though, Ala and his gang do drugs. When I meet them one morning at 10am they already stink...

from the May 29, 2002 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0529/p06s01-woap.html A drug craze sweeps ThailandMethamphetamines from Burma continue to flood Thailand where use among all ages has skyrocketed.By Dan Murphy | Special to The Christian Science Monitor BANGKOK, THAILAND - Thai officials say last year was the worst year on record for the use of methamphetamine, a form of speed, called ya ba, or "crazy medicine" here. The Thai military is so alarmed that it has labeled the surge in users a threat to national security. Almost all of the methamphetamine is produced in labs in Burma (Myanmar), where the drug...