http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/culture-news/ en-us Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:08:46 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419698/posts FORT WORTH — Maria Wahba slept through her own party. The baby, who was born at John Peter Smith Hospital six minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day, was the center of attention Friday afternoon as cameras gathered to take photos of Tarrant County’s first baby of 2010. Mother Manja Daood joked that it took her two years to deliver little Maria: Her contractions started about 7 a.m. Thursday, in 2009, and didn’t end until just after midnight, she said. STAR-TELEGRAM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419698/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:08:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419694/posts A WGN radio employee was arrested after using her fist to break a window and enter the apartment of an ex-boyfriend during a disturbance early Friday in the Old Town neighborhood, police said. Grattan took to her blog to address the incident after her arrest. She claims she was invited to her ex-boyfriend’s New Year’s Eve party and stayed for awhile until realizing he was in bed with another woman. She allegedly lived in the apartment with him for two months--until recently. She also threw her drink in his face after she saw him with the other woman, Grattan said... Chicago Sun Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419694/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:04:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419693/posts COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda broke into the home of a Danish cartoonist whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage and was shot and wounded by police. Hours later, the 28-year-old was stretchered into court on Saturday and denied charges of trying to kill Kurt Westergaard. The Somali also denied trying to murder a police officer at Westergaard's home in the town of Aarhus late on Friday after he broke into the house armed with a knife and an axe, police said.Danish police intelligence said... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419693/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:00:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419689/posts Jodie Beckner demonstrated a move at Pilates Plus in La Jolla, where she teaches classes. Six years ago, Beckner suffered a permanent traumatic brain injury after a head-on collision on an icy Vermont road. She graduated from SDSU in December and hopes to go to nursing school. Peggie Peattie / Union-Tribune Mike Beckner was fixing dinner when he got the phone call parents dread — the one from a doctor trying to break awful news gently.Earlier that day, Nov. 11, 2003, his daughter, Jodie, had driven up a mountain to catch the first day of snowboarding season at a... San Diego Union Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419689/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:38:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419685/posts It was an eventful year in the pro-life movement. Many Planned Parenthood clinics were closed down -- and the activities of several others were exposed via the undercover efforts of a group of young pro-lifers. Abortion mills - 1,500 down, 700 to goOperation Rescue has done extensive research to determine how many abortion clinics have closed in the past two decades. Spokesman Troy Newman believes the days of legal abortion in America are numbered. . . . Abortion clinics exposed for hiding statutory rapeLive Action, a student-led pro-life movement conducted video undercover investigations of Planned Parenthoods in Phoenix and Tucson,... OneNewsNow http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419685/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:25:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419684/posts Not just underwear bombers generally, either, but underwear bombers trained in Yemen. I feel about this the way I felt about Napolitano’s “the system worked” comment: It’s almost a shame that it didn’t happen under Bush, just because the fireworks from the media’s outrageous outrage afterwards would have been so spectacular. As it is, don’t expect more than a few sparklers this time. Hot Air http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419684/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:23:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419668/posts It is not your imagination. There really are more dogs strolling through public spaces with their owners. Animals are going where they have never gone before. "In San Francisco, it is just so much more in your face," says Emily Simone, a senior field manager for Guide Dogs for the Blind. "In the '80s and especially in the '90s, I've just seen an explosion. We've become animal obsessed. The East Coast and San Francisco are particular hotbeds for advocacy." San Francisco has become a city filled with "service animals," meaning the owner has a permit that allows him or her... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419668/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:46:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419667/posts In March of 1993, a Gallup poll determined that about a third of respondents (32%) wanted abortion to be “legal under any circumstances.” In the same year, Mark Donald of the Dallas Observer (5/18/1995) wrote this: “On June 28, 1993, Charlotte [Taft, then director of the Routh Street Women’s Clinic in Dallas] publicly aired her evolving views about abortion. ‘We have learned a great deal from the movement that calls itself pro-life,’ Charlotte told the Dallas Morning News. ‘We (the pro-choice movement) were hiding from women some of the pieces of the truth about abortion that were threatening.... It is... National Right to Life News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419667/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:43:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419655/posts Remember the Danish cartoons? A 27-year old Somali does: Danish police on Friday shot and wounded a man trying to enter the home of an artist who drew controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The man, a 27-year-old Somalian who was armed with an axe, was caught trying to break into the home of Kurt Westergaard at 10pm local time, police said. Police shot the man, injuring him in his leg... Mr Westergaard's cartoon was seen at the time as the most controversial, as it depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban. "Controversial" but entirely vindicated by events... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419655/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:12:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419646/posts Andy, you're right to call out the President for taking refuge in discredited cliches about "crushing poverty" as a "root cause" of terrorism: Young Mr Abdulmuttalab lived in a London flat worth £2.5 million - ie, four million bucks. Still, it's good to know the President has abandoned his laughable assurances that the Pantybomber was an "isolated extremist". After all, when the leader of the global hyperpower says things that any reasonably informed person at home and abroad knows are complete twaddle, he makes his country look stupid to the world. But I think we're still missing the larger point... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419646/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:02:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419643/posts The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good. Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes. The New Media Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419643/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 19:56:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419631/posts In November 2008, I stood in a bar in Kenya watching Barack Obama give his victory speech. From the wild cheering of the crowd on TV, and his repeated appeals to them personally—"You said," "You heard," "You called"—I felt as if the people of America knew this man far better than I, even though we shared the same father. If there was a leading light in the Obama clan, he was it; and if there was a shadowed place that no one liked to talk about, then that, I guess, was me. Newsweek http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419631/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 19:22:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419627/posts Britain is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century with temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius, forecasters have warned. They predicted no let up in the freezing snap until at least mid-January, with snow, ice and severe frosts dominating. And the likelihood is that the second half of the month will be even colder. The Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419627/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 19:13:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419614/posts Laura Dekker, a fourteen-year-old girl from the Netherlands, was born on a sailboat in New Zealand waters. She has herself been a sailor for seven years and has made a solo crossing of the North Sea, known for its sometimes rather inhospitable waters. Following that crossing, Dutch authorities placed her temporarily in a children’s home. Ms. Dekker now wants to attempt a solo circumnavigation in Guppy, her twenty-six foot yacht. Last August, she was prohibited by Dutch juvenile authorities from attempting her voyage. On October 31, she was ordered confined to port by the authorities, who said that she would... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419614/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:44:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419607/posts The US Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency today announced that federal funds totaling $200 million has been awarded to assist organizations dedicated to feeding, sheltering, and providing critical resources to our nation's hungry and homeless. Funding was made available by Congress for the National Board of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) to support social service agencies in more than 2,500 cities and counties across the country... EFSP grant funds are used to supplement food, shelter, rent, mortgage and utility assistance programs for people with non-disaster related emergencies. These funds are in addition to $100 million... The New Media Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419607/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:39:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419603/posts Mortgage help lacking Natick woman frustrated with Obama program to modify loans By Thomas Grillo Saturday, January 2, 2010 - Updated 5h ago EmailE-mail PrintablePrint Comments(58) Comments LargerSmallerText size Bookmark and Share Share Buzz up! When the Obama administration launched a mortgage modification program for distressed homeowners, it sounded like the perfect solution for Cheryl Freier. But the 65-year-old Natick resident, who is struggling to make payments on an $185,000 loan, has been unable to convince JPMorgan Chase to lower the 7 percent interest rate on her loan or forgive some of the principal. “My husband died suddenly in 2006... The Boston Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419603/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:31:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419602/posts The US Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency today announced that federal funds totaling $200 million has been awarded to assist organizations dedicated to feeding, sheltering, and providing critical resources to our nation's hungry and homeless. Funding was made available by Congress for the National Board of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) to support social service agencies in more than 2,500 cities and counties across the country... EFSP grant funds are used to supplement food, shelter, rent, mortgage and utility assistance programs for people with non-disaster related emergencies. The New Media Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419602/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:30:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419600/posts WAYLAND, Mass. (AP) -- A small but growing South Asian and Middle Eastern punk rock movement is attracting children of Muslim and Hindu immigrants and sparking new bands across America. Bands like The Kominas (kuh-MEE'-nahs), based in Wayland, Mass., are trying to use their music to explore their identities as Americans and fight stereotypes about South Asian immigrants. AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419600/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:30:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419598/posts Science is one of the great achievements of the human mind and the biggest reason why we live not only longer but more vigorously in our old age, in addition to all the ways in which it provides us with things that make life easier and more enjoyable. Like anything valuable, science has been seized upon by politicians and ideologues, and used to forward their own agendas. This started long ago, as far back as the 18th century, when the Marquis de Condorcet coined the term “social science” to describe various theories he favored. In the 19th century, Karl Marx... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419598/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:29:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419596/posts Carlos Ruano was down to his last $50 when his landlord kicked him out in September because he could no longer pay rent. He sent the money to his wife and children in Guatemala and spent the night riding the E train, which has a nickname among his fellow day laborers in Woodside, Queens: “hotel ambulante,” Spanish for roving hotel. [SNIP]We’ve all learned the meaning of the law of supply and demand the hard way,” said Roberto Meneses, 48, a day laborer from Mexico who has been trying to organize his peers under a fledgling group called United Day Laborers... The NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419596/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:28:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419591/posts President Obama has been named to a "Top 10" list he'd likely be grateful to avoid: Judicial Watch's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians," for 2009. "The Obama White House believes," said the report from the organization that monitors government for corruption, and sues when it chooses, "it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability." The report released yesterday said Obama joined the likes of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; Attorney General Eric Holder; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., on the list. "Even... World Net Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419591/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:13:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419585/posts BOSTON — A Delta Airlines shuttle from Boston to New York has returned safely to Boston’s Logan International Airport after the pilot noticed smoke in the cockpit minutes after takeoff. Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, said the smoke had dissipated by the time the plane landed Saturday. He said the plane returned to the gate under its own power. Associated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419585/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:05:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419572/posts Vatican Reveals Secret Archives A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time. By Nick Squires in Rome 01 Jan 2010 In a letter dated 1246 from Grand Khan Guyuk, pictured, to Pope Innocent IV, Genghis Khan's grandson demands that the Pontiff travel to central Asia in person The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years. High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen... Telegraph(UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419572/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 17:42:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419544/posts A series of conversations between Dr Thielicke and American Christians... book on Amazon http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419544/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 16:48:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419543/posts Two big questions are driving the coverage of failed Christmas Day bomber suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and they are these: How was it that the warning signs were missed and he was allowed to board the airplane he allegedly intended to destroy? And just what is it that drives young men like him – incidentally Muslim young men of privileged upbringing and Western education – to turn to violent religious extremism? The first has sparked a vicious blame game and could well prompt a full-blown congressional inquiry. But the second is just as important, especially as the United States becomes... Sphere.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419543/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 16:46:32 GMT