Free Republic

The temperature of the ocean has cooled 0.2 degrees C in the past few of years, and is now only 0.1 degrees C warmer than it was throughout much of 1944. This data set had been showing a general warming trend since the late 1970s, (as well as a warming trend from the 1910s through the mid 1940s) with the warmest time being recorded in the El Nino year of 1998. Despite temperatures peaking in 1998, it's been reasonable to describe the temperature trend as continuing, since 1998 at the time was a flukishly hot spell. Since 1998, the "normal"...

Bloomingdale, Jun 14, 2007 / 09:44 am (CNA).- The Apostolate for Family Consecration, an Ohio-based ministry to Catholic families, is now one of fewer than 125 organizations in the world to be granted Pontifical status by the Vatican. The granting of Pontifical status means that the ministry is now officially recognized and approved by the Holy See. While the new status sets the apostolate apart, the organization is also the first of its kind to be founded by a married American couple. By decreeing Pontifical Status on the Apostolate for Family Consecration, the Holy See is providing important impetus for...

RINOS could be gone in six years. For starters, Conservatives can prevent the renomination of three of the worst RINOs, with minimal danger of losing their seats to the Democrats: Sen. Chuck Hagel, although only 60, was thought to be possibly retiring at the end of this session of Congress. He has been the leading Republican supporter of surrender to Islamofascism. He was a member of the gang of Seven Republicans who opposed the use of Senate Rules to prevent a Supreme Court filibuster, as well as a champion of liberal Senator Arlen Specter. And, behind only John McCain and...

The Los Angeles Times article about the Bloomberg poll it sponsored highlighted the fact that Fred Thompson is only six points behind Rudy Giuliani in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. For those watching the nomination polls, that's encouraging but hardly shocking. But many other poll results are downright surprising. For instance, the LA Times treats Republican-leaning independents as Republican primary voters, as if the rest of the nation followed California's relatively unique system of open primaries. But Giuliani leads among independents, 31-17. The category “Conservative Republicans” seems to track very closely to an estimate of the results of...

As of May, 2007, the temperature at the surface of the Earth's seas reached the coolest have cooled off about .18 degrees since October, 2003. That month had been the warmest even recorded, except for in December, 1997, when an anomalously strong El Nino created the warmest seas ever recorded. Most of the cooling has occurred since November, 2006. The oceans are currently .08 degrees warmer than they were in 1944, following massive de-industrialization caused by war and economic depression, and .7 degrees warmer than they averaged in the first decade of the 20th century, before pollution controls removed particulates...

Is Fred Thompson No. 2? Well, now we have the second poll released just today that says "yes." After the jump, we reproduce a memo just sent out by McLaughlin & Associates (now-confirmed pollsters for the Thompson campaign — though this poll was not done for the campaign). It breaks down as follows (change since the last time the poll was taken in April in parentheses): Rudy Giuliani: 24% (-4) Fred Thompson: 18% (+5) John McCain: 17% (+1) Mitt Romney: 7% (-1) UPDATE: A survey just released by Pew also shows Mr. Thompson second to Mr. Giuliani in how many...

Five Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to ensure the destruction of America. They are "post-nationalists," demanding open borders, free access for terrorists, and an illiterate underclass. These aren't near-sighted liberals, but fake conservatives who know full well that the havoc they will create, but they lust so badly for the blood money of a class of people who cannot wait for a slave class so poorly paid, they could not survive without massive amounts of taxpayer funds. Yes, 20 million criminals from Mexico will get free medical care and Spanish-language education instead of the Americans who paid their taxes....

CALIFORNIA RESULTS: Poll Date Giuliani McCain Romney Gingrich Thompson Spread SurveyUSA 06/01 - 06/03 28 21 11 8 21 Giuliani +7.0 SurveyUSA 05/04 - 05/06 34 21 12 9 11 Giuliani +13.0 SurveyUSA 03/03 - 03/05 41 23 8 13 -- Giuliani +18.0 In CA GOP Gold Rush, Fred Thompson leaps into 2nd-Place Tie with McCain, 7 Points Behind Giuliani: Eight months to the newly accelerated and suddenly critical California Republican Primary, the contest destabilizes and further tightens, according to a SurveyUSA poll of likely GOP Primary voters, conducted exclusively for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, and KGTV-TV San...

"Rebuilding" is a very trying experience for baseball fans. It's what owners do when they decide that the current team is overpayed, underperforming, and irreformable. They clear out the current regulars and make room for new talent. In the meanwhile, though, fans have to suffer through a few seasons of not even hoping to win. When done well, it works. The New York Yankees found themselves paying the highest salaries year after year in the 1980s. Although they had the best winning percentage overall for that decade, they had no division titles, let alone World Series championships, to show for...

It's been a long time since there was an official FR poll on this subject, and I'd like to propose certain conditions: 1. Who would you vote for, given the current field? A. Gilmore B. Giuliani C. Huckabee D. Hunter E. McCain F. Paul G. Romney H. Tancredo I. Fred Thompson J. Tommy Thompson 2. Who would you vote for, knowing that Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich would be candidates? A. Gilmore B. Gingrich C. Giuliani D. Huckabee E. Hunter F. McCain G. Paul H. Romney I. Tancredo J. Fred Thompson K. Tommy Thompson 3. Suppose it's after New Hampshire,...

1. Who would you vote for, given the current field? A. Gilmore B. Giuliani C. Huckabee D. Hunter E. McCain F. Paul G. Romney H. Tancredo I. Tommy Thompson 2. Who would you vote for, knowing that Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich would be candidates? A. Gilmore B. Gingrich C. Giuliani D. Huckabee E. Hunter F. McCain G. Paul H. Romney I. Tancredo J. Fred Thompson K. Tommy Thompson 3. Suppose it's after New Hampshire, and most of the lesser known candidates have dropped out. Who would you vote for? (PLEASE answer this one.) A. Giuliani B. McCain C. Romney...

(German) Reformed Church in the United States (Original) Church of God Advent Christian Church African Methodist Episcopal Church African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church Alaska Moravian Church Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (Original Allegheny Conference) Alliance of Baptists in the USA Amana Church Society American Association of Lutheran Churches American Baptist Association American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. American Baptist Convention American Baptist Mississippi Convention American Ethical Union American Evangelical Christian Churches American Evangelical Lutheran Church American Lutheran Conference American Rescue Workers American Unitarian Association Anglican Orthodox Church of North America Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarene)...

Once the nation with the fewest priests per nominal Catholic, Brazil now has more seminarians than it had homegrown priests in 1980. The number of major seminarians in Brazil has increased ten-fold since 1972. The rate of increase has been even higher in Peru and Bolivia, and comparable in the rest of South America. The source of claims of a collapse in Catholic adherence comes from statistical abuse of mainstream media sources. Take the instance of Brazil. Brazil’s black and mixed-race populace was recently largely unevangelized by Catholics as well as Protestants. In 1968, there were nearly 30 million adherents...

By February 6, the primaries should be settled, because most states will have held elections or caucuses by then. But only six states will likely make their decisions before February 5. And "front-runner" Rudy Giuliani is trailing badly in five of them. In Iowa, according to American Res. Group, John McCain leads Giuliani 26-19. Romney and Thompson are at 14 and 13 percent, each. In New Hampshire, according to Survey USA, Romney has built a sizeable lead, gaining 32% of the vote. Giuliani and McCain are virtually tied for 2nd, with 23 and 22 percent, respectively. In Nevada, Giuliani trails...

The population of college-aged Chinese is about to collapse. In the late 1960s, China's first great baby boom peaked, the product of soaring fertility rates, which soon fell dramatically under Mao's harsh repression. The number of births fell dramatically, at first, until the decreasing fertilty rates stabilized. Once the baby boomers reached child-bearing years, however, a second boom was created, not because the fertility rate rebounded, but simply because of the dramatic increase of the population of fertile women. There will be not much of a third wave. The second boom is entering their child-bearing years, but the first wave...

The sinner does not draw himself to Christ, but it is Christ who draws the sinner to Himself. Thus, the sinner has no merit of his own when he receives Christ, whether in prayer, or in baptism; the merit is entirely Christ's, earned through the outpouring of His blood upon the cross. Any work which helps draw the sinner to salvation, or any fruitful work at all, is not the work of Man, but is work of God, merely enacted through Man, who needs only submit to God. Man because Man is totally unworthy of receiving Christ, but it is...

The following is based on observations accepted by the global-warming consensus, and does not attempt to refute or even provide contradictory evidence. Is the Earth warming? Yes. With extremely advanced statistical techniques, scientists have been able to cut through all the background noise of weather patterns and cyclical fluctuations to detect a tiny increase in temperature over the past 100 years. To be precise, there have been two warmings in the past century, each about three decades long, and each of about one third of one degree, separated by a pause of about three decades. These increases are by no...

The following are ties Cho had to Islam. They are not offered as proof of anything, but merely to prompt consideration or disproof of any links. Cho’s father lived in Saudi Arabia as a young, single man. His sister works for a State Department contractor which oversees billions of dollars of aid for Iraq. Previously, she worked in Bangkok. (1) Both of Cho’s plays are about sexual abuse. (2) Bangkok is a city famous for its sex trade, which caters especially to Muslim businessmen. Cho’s rampage was on Holocaust Remembrance day. Although probably a happenstance, one of the professors he...

I read the following from Little Green Footballs: "Apparently, South Korean student Seung Hui Cho signed his note, “Ismail Ax,” and also wrote those words on his arm. All other signs right now point to this being a deranged individual with a history of odd behavior (not a “sudden jihadi”), but this is very curious." Hotair.com suggests that he meant only to refer to a story by an author named Ishmael: You probably already know this, but in James Fennimore Cooper’s story “The Prairie,” the settler Ishmael Bush, who is attempting to escape from civilization, sets out across the prairie...

A couple of recent posts referred to male-only congregations. It made me wonder what a Protestant, male-only service would look like. Let's see some suggestions, folks. (Many of these would be offensive to Catholic and other high-church sensibilities, but so are most uniquely Protestant practices. That said, the intention is not to bash others, or to be prurient; keep this in good fun. This is farce, not bitter satire!) Holy Water applied by Super Soaker. “The Word of the Lord” changed to, simply, “Word!” “Change my heart, O God” replaced with “Drop kick me, Jesus” Kiss of Peace handshake replaced...

Senator Obama joked with David Letterman, "I think it is possible that in that kind of situation, we might have to have a brokered convention and, Dave, we might turn to you." It's a stupid joke, but it may reveal that the prospect of a brokered convention is already on candidates' minds. And it already seems likely to some, due to a complete breakdown of the primary system. The Wall Street Journal's Brian Carney says, "The presidential primary system as we have known it for 35 years is dead. History books will record that the era that began with the...

Meet George "Sonny" Purdue, the most popular major-state Republican governor in America. In a year of devestating losses, he handily beat his Democratic challenger by a 3-to-2 margin. Gov. Purdue is a vet in two ways: He is a former Air Force Captain and a Doctor of Veterinary medicine. With his wife, Mary, he is a father of four children, and foster parent of eight. He was also a University of Georgia walk-on quarterback, and will appear as a coach in the movie, "We Are Marshall" Since his election in 2002, Georgia has improved from 50th in the nation on...

One must be careful to make too much of a given Senate candidate appearing broke at the 3rd-quarter FEC filing time. After all, the national parties and major donors can rescue a strong candidate’s foundering finances. And certain costs, such as advertising, may even still have been paid up front. But when so many candidates from one party, who have been very strong, are suddenly out of cash, while the other party is cash-rich, something may be afoot. In this case, the Republicans continue to use their strategy which produced surprise wins in 2002 and 2004: They are keeping their...

The demographic situation of the world is not simply overpopulation. In many regions of the world, it is severe underpopulation. Globally, there is a mix of both. Yet the focus has been nearly exclusively on overpopulation, to the point where underpopulated groups foolishly try to reduce their own population. This could have devestating effects. In the early 1960s, the earth's population was expanding at a rate of 2.2% per year. At that rate, it would double every 32 years. By the year 2050, the Earth's population would be over 20 billion. As recently as a decade ago, many demographers guessed...

The era of the free-masons. Between 1937 and 1958, an amazing succession of publicly Masonic Supreme Court justices were appointed to the Supreme Court. Collectively, they radicalized American politics. Since their ascension, it can truly be said that every major socio-political change in America has been brought about by judicial, rather than legislative, means. They utterly dominated the Supreme Court during the Warren, Stone, and Vinson courts (1941-1969.) At times, as many as eight of the nine justice were Masonic. The following is a listing of Masonic US Supreme Court justices appointed in the last 70 years. This is no...

Most of the speculation of who will be the next President focuses on senators, who almost always lose. This article examines some of the other potential nominees who have gotten less attention. Keep in mind that most presidential nominees were not among the most-discussed candidates two years before the election. Sonny Purdue is the most popular governor of any state with more than five electoral votes, and his overall approval ratings have taken off while he takes on more and more positions which drive Democratic voters nuts: reversing his Democratic predecessor's centralization of pedagogic education, refusing to allow aliens to...

Zogby and the Wall Street Journal released a poll only two weeks after their last one. It represents a loss of 3.5 for Casey and a gain of 1.2% for Santorum. The Romanelli factor is unknown. Casey's lead has dropped from 9% in July and August to 4.1% today. The margin of error for poll was 3.3%. The polling was done between August 29th and September 5th, which means that only the last three days of polling would have covered the Meet the Press debate. The Casey performance's effect on this poll may be minimal. A 4.1% difference is closer...

Rick Santorum (R-PA) was recently as many as 20 points behind. He had shown clear signs of making a strong come-back, pulling to within single digits, apart from a fluky-seeming Gallup/USA Today poll showing him trailing by 18. Then he trounced Bob Casey, Jr. in the debates. Now, there are rumors he has pulled to within the margin of error, and the source is none other than Casey's own polling! [National Review]: An internal Casey polls shows Santorum within the margin of error. [National Review Citation]: Casey's handlers are at loggerheads as far as when/if/how to go negative. The fear...

Pundits of every stripe have been treating it as a forgone conclusion that the Democrats would pick up many seats in the House. Most suggest that the Democrats are in strong shape to gain the fifteen needed to take control. There's only one problem with that theory: while the generic surveys show the Democrats with a significant, although quickly shrinking lead, when faced with a real, live Democrat -- not their idealized 1940s populist, but a real, dyed-in-the-wool blame-America Democrat -- they decide the Republicans aren't so bad after all. So far. Now, it's only election day, and it's true...

I spoke last week with a former top-level member of the Reagan administration, who has humbly faded into anonymity, but who is a very devout and pro-life Christian and a wondrously strong prayer warrior. This person was pleading... most assuredly not expecting me to post to such a forum... for prayers for the election of Liuetenant Governor Michael Steele to the United States Senate. She insists he is a wonderful man, dedicated profoundly to prayer. He is a daily communicant, a grace of extraordinary devotion among Catholics. Please pray for the election of Michael Steele, and if you live in...

The most liberal republicans: (The score represent the portion of ACU-selected votes that the congressmen voted with the Conservative union. 12 SENATOR Chafee RI 20 Shays CT 32 SENATOR Collins ME 32 SENATOR Snowe ME 33 Leach IA 36 Kirk IL 40 Johnson CT 42 Gilchrist MD 44 McInnis CO 45 SENATOR Specter PA 48 Simmons CT 56 SENATOR DeWine OH 58 Tim Johnson IL 60 Biggert IL 60 Fitzpatrick PA 61 Shaw FL 62 Smith NJ 63 Foley FL 63 Freylingheusen NJ 65 LaHood IL 67 Gerlach PA 68 SENATOR Voinovich OH 69 Regula OH 70 Weldon PA 70...

This was inspired by the discussion had on the thread Christian Retailing and the Great Commission. No disrespect is meant in posting the following (and no, this isn't satire) Was websurfing earlier this evening, and quite accidentally (seriously!) stumbled across the following toys:Pope Innocent III action figure Armed with his formidable power of excommunication and an intimidating scroll inscribed with Latin text, this 6-inch tall, hard plastic model of the youngest Pope will soon have all of your other action figures lining up for confession. Read the back of the illustrated blister card and you'll find that Pope Innocent III...

(If you're thinking what you're thinking is just a joke; you might be horrified to know that any play on words in the original title is intentional.) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- New York, NY- July, 26 2006—- A presidential bust of Hillary Clinton is set to be unveiled at the Museum of Sex on August 9, 2006 at 10 am. Accentuating her sexual power and bolstered by the presidential seal, The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States of America will be officially open for public viewing on August 9 for a limited six...

Herb Kohl (D-WI) is going broke. He has spent nearly $2.9 million already. His campaign is in debt $4.7 million, although that debt presumably is money he has lent his campaign from his personal fortune. He has raised $4.8 million, although I don’t know how much of that is his personal fortune, or whether his debts are from previous campaigns. He has less than $2 million in the bank. He doesn’t have an official opponent, yet. I know Wisconsin Freepers have told me to write this race off, but if Kohl’s fundraising is that poor, I suspect there will be...

Many Catholic apologists are former Protestant theology- or divinity-students, who, as a result of their studies, came to concur with the Catholic side of many theological debates: Marcus Grodi, Peter Kreeft, Scott Hahn, Dave Armstrong, Mark Shea. The deeper they drew into their faith, the more the pull of Catholicism became irresistible. There certainly are plenty of ex-Catholics out there in protestant ministries. Most of them could be called “apostates” without offending conservative Christians. They no longer fit in as Catholics because they didn’t like some teaching of the Catholic church, such as those against homosexuality or divorce, and once...

It doesn't look good for Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, whose support has gone from bad to worse in the latest Rasmussen Reports election poll of Rhode Island's U.S. Senate race. Chafee now earns just 41% of the statewide vote and trails Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse by five percentage points. In June, with 44% support, Chafee was a bare two points ahead of Whitehouse; in April he had scraped a three-point advantage. Chafee continues to be challenged for the Republican nomination by Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey as Republicans show their disaffection with the incumbent. Now trailing Whitehouse 29% to 57%, Laffey...

Free Software? Perhaps you've heard of the Open-Source software movement, but thought maybe they were cheap, college-student-written, "Brand X" knock-offs. Maybe you presumed the only people who could use such programs wore pocket protectors and broken bifocals. Or maybe you had recent experience and found the installation too confusing, with "targzs," incomprehensible "readme files," etc. The open-source movement has come of age, armed with self-extracting files, crossplaform capabilities, and extensive documentation. (That means you simply download the program, and it installs itself; it works on any operating system including, yes, Windows --not just UNIX -- and it teaches you how...

As the Supreme Court wraps up its session, there has been so far fairly little attention paid to the fact that this is when U.S. Supreme Court retirements are typically announced. All of the last 14 retirements were announced between May 14th and October 1st of their respective years; the last to retire outside of those dates was Charles Whittaker, whose doctor ordered him to retire on account of a worsening disability making it impossible for him to sit at his bench. Of those 14, 9 announced their retirement between June 12 and August 3rd, a space of only seven...

The following is a list of Republicans that the party would truly be better off without. They are listed from liberal to moderate. Their rankings are largely based on recent American Conservative Union scores, slightly modified to reduce the effect of outlying data and to recognize regional voters' demands. The Dirty Dozen: CT Christopher Shays IA James Leach NY Sherwood Boehlert CO Scott McInnis VA Tom Davis IL Mark Kirk CT Nancy Johnson MD Wayne Gilchrest CT Robert Simmons MI Carol Schwarz NH Charles Bass NH Bradley The "Good" Democrats: MS Gene Taylor OK Daniel Boren TN Linc Davis LA...

LONDON (Reuters) - One of Britain's most prestigious art galleries put a block of slate on display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work of art. The Royal Academy included the chunk of stone and the small bone-shaped wooden stick in its summer exhibition in London. But the slate was actually a plinth -- a slab on which a pedestal is placed -- and the stick was designed to prop up a sculpture. The sculpture itself -- of a human head -- was nowhere to be seen. "I think the things got...

I took a good year off from relationships so I could concentrate on my graduate studies. It’s very interesting being an impartial observer. I live in a very “blue-state” region of a red state. Most of the people I know who have gotten married were about 39 ½. They are all very good, even admirable Christians, but they have waited so long to reproduce, they’ll be lucky if all the plumbing still works. From my observations, it’s downright crazy how preposterously dysfunctional the dating scene is. For the survival of the species, I offer my observations. Ladies (and if you’re...

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time 

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...

I recently received a reply to a post that stated: "This should be beneath a "freeper". Sad." So I asked.. what is it that makes a FReeper? My reply (and I will admit was tasteless) was also questioning. It stirred controversy and was removed? Why Moderators? Can you not tell me? Did it not meet with your "FReeper" mentality? According to all posted guidelines it should be listed but no, you chose to delete it. Yes.. I'm the first one IBTZ, I'm sure you'll nick me for speaking up..

The way I see it, Dan Brown should be very happy for Fandango, which allowed millions of theater-goers to see "The Da Vinci Code" before reading the reviews. Normally, movies don't crash, losing 57% of their audience in the second weekend. Especially not when the 2nd weekend is a holiday weekend and the first weekend was not. But normally people who see movies this stupid have already invested in their Jar-Jar Binks Happy Meal Action Figure. Go figure that the Happy Meal featuring a dead, naked museum curator with a pentagram scratched in his back didn't sell to well. (OK,...

Long, Long ago, in a pickup truck far, far away, Molly Seidel and Emily Erwin were just two rather talented, Southern musicians. Then, like the Little Rascals' remake of "Faust," (or, "Damned Yankees,") Natalie Maines was plunked in their midst. Ms. Maines is a short, stubby woman of no obvious talent or beauty. But her rock-and-roll attitude was just the twist that the Dixie Chicks needed to differentiate themselves from the kind of passable bluegrass music that is most useful for the background music of a Ken Burns documentary. Up through 2002, with the exception of "Landslide," the Dixie Chicks'...

A. Top 10 Chomsky Lies About Communist Mass Murderers 10. THE LIE: “in comparison to the conditions imposed by US tyranny and violence, East Europe under Russian rule was practically a paradise.” THE TRUTH: The communists murdered 4.5-5 million people in Ukraine; 400,000 in Poland; 360,000 in Romania; 300,000 in Belarus; 200,000 in Hungary; 100,000 in East Germany; 100,000 in Lithuania; 70,000-100,000 in Yugoslavia; 30,000-40,000 in Bulgaria; 20,000 in Czechoslovakia; and 5,000 in Albania. Other atrocities included the murder of over 500,000 POWs in Soviet captivity and the mass rape of at least 2 million women by the Red Army...

As the Da Vinci Code's approval ratings (15%) appear to be settling far beneath even President George Bush's immigration program, and left-wing conspiracy theories begin to sprout up that the whole controversy is just Karl Rove's evil plot to distract America from the Iraq War / Halliburton / The Washington Nationals' bullpen woes, I thought I'd see if it were possible that such a poorly reviewed movie could become a hit. So I checked the list of 324 movies which have made $100 million for any movies which seemed like they could have gotten such low ratings. These, then are...

As of May 2, 2006, the CIA has updated its World Fact Book data on Iraq's death rate. The new data shows a death rate of 5.37 per 1,000 per year. This is down from 6.4 per 1,000 per year in 2000. Given a population of over 26,000, a decline of 1.03 fewer deaths per 1,000 people translates into 27.5 thousand people per year. Since Bush's election, the declining death rate indicates that over 100,000 people fewer died than would have died at the death rate in Iraq in 2000. Death rates are declining around the world, but the sharp...