Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2007 – Troops in Iraq know too well how quickly life can take a wrong turn. An outpouring of goodwill and support from the public is helping one wounded soldier and his wife cope with a tragic loss. For Army Spc. John A. Johnson, the fifth improvised-explosive-device blast he experienced in Iraq, in August, was the one that caused traumatic brain injury that landed him at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for treatment. Two months later, when he was being discharged, his wife and three children left El Paso and headed east to meet him....

Tuesday is September 11th. Tuesday, lets everyone go and run with the flag, walk with the flag, drive, wear it and show the world that our answer to Osama is.... LETSROLL U S A. Embrace THAT! Let the World see that America Reacts. Let them see HOW. Mr. President, Lead US in our Response. Run to the Iwo Jima Memorial with a big ole Red White and Blue OLD GLORY flying in the wind. Run by the Pentagon. To the Washington Monument. To the Jefferson and the Lincoln too. I'll do my share, 11 miles with the flag here in...

Tomahawk Troops Embrace Pocket-Size Memories Soldiers keep pieces of metal which wounded them during their deployment to Iraq. By Spc. Jeffrey Ledesma 1st Cavalry Division, Multi-National Division, Baghdad BAGHDAD, April 17, 2007 — One undeniable commonality in every battle fought is the memories of war that burn into the minds of the soldiers who fight in it and the small pieces that remind them to never forget. Three infantrymen with Company C, 1st "Tomahawk" Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, experienced three different attacks, on three separate occasions and each came away with...

ROME, Italy (AP) -- It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua. The site is just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of "Romeo and Juliet." Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig. (Watch archaeologists uncover the embracing...

Call it the eternal embrace.Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other."It's an extraordinary case," said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova."There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging."Menotti said she believed the two, almost certainly a man and a woman although that needs to be confirmed, died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down."I must say that when we discovered it, we all...

AL ASAD, Iraq, Aug. 25, 2006 -- When two sisters from Jefferson, Ga., walked into a Marine Corps recruiting station and decided to join, they had no idea the entire experience of a four-year enlistment would be spent together. Cpls. Leenorta and Renorta Washington are electrical equipment repair specialists with the Utilities Platoon of Marine Wing Support Squadron 274, Marine Wing Support Group 37 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and have not been separated once since leaving home for recruit training. “We joined the Delayed Entry Program on the same day,” said Renorta. “We worked to get into the...

In California, Fox Gets Warm Embrace and a Cold ShoulderBy JOHN M. BRODER Published: May 26, 2006 SACRAMENTO, May 25 — In an echo of the debate on immigration under way in Washington, the California Legislature gave visiting President Vicente Fox of Mexico a two-edged welcome on Thursday. Democratic and Latino members, including the Assembly speaker, Fabian Núñez, embraced Mr. Fox, while some Republicans boycotted his evening address to a joint session of the Legislature. Other Republicans attended the speech, but wore yellow buttons reading "No más!" to protest Mr. Fox's support for liberalizing American policies on immigration. In his...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2005 – A Missouri-based nonprofit organization uses the power of teddy bears to comfort young military family members with one or both parents deployed in the war against global terrorism. Little Patriots Embraced Inc. was incorporated in 2004 "to show support from the American people to the immediate family members of military personnel," according to the organization's Web site. The group solicits donations from individuals and corporate sponsors to buy and assemble gift packages, including teddy bears, that are distributed to service families at military bases, said Michelle Williams, president of Little Patriots Embraced for about a...

United Nations: The world body this week invited Zimbabwe's dictator, who starves his own people for political purposes, to its World Food Day — where he compared President Bush to Hitler. We kid you not. ... Also on hand at the celebration was Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who used the occasion to accuse the U.S. and our allies of threatening "all life on the planet." Chavez praised Mugabe's policies, and said Venezuela was enacting similar "reforms." Mugabe and Chavez were photographed embracing happily, like the two birds of a feather they are.

It points towards Mecca Today is September 11. Michelle Malkin and other bloggers are buzzing about the proposed Flight 93 memorial, which bears a striking resemblance to an Islamic crescent. Zombie produces an animated image consisting of the memorial (rotated so the arms of the crescent point to the right) overlapped with the crescent of the Tunisian flag. The juxtaposition is nearly perfect. Zombie also links to this image credited to "Etaoin Shrdlu". What you're seeing is an azimuthal equidistant projection of the globe centered on the Flight 93 crash site. On such a projection, the concentric circles represent a...

TRANSLATION FROM SPANISH: CARACAS.-The U.S. reverend and activist affirmed that the political model of Venezuela constitutes an example for all the nations of the world, shortly after arriving last night to the nation, he told a local radio station. In his first words on arriving to Venezuelan soil, Jackson cited the just distribution of natural resources and the revindication of minority rights as some of the positive points of the 'revolutionary' process that impels the government of President Hugo Chavez, he told Union Radio. The defender of civil rights of Afro-Americans indicated that in his three-day visit to the country...

On June 8, 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited President Bush in the White House. Among the topics the two discussed were freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Speaking from the Oval Office, Bush declared Turkey's democracy to be "an important example for the people of the broader Middle East."Turkey remains an important ally of the United States despite recent bilateral tensions over the Iraq war and its aftermath. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have valued Turkey not only as a strategic military partner in the Cold War but also, in recent decades, as a democratic outpost...

Militant Aborigines embrace Islam to seek empowerment By Kathy Marks in Sydney 28 February 2003 Militant young Aborigines are converting to Islam in increasing numbers, and some are flirting with the fundamentalist ideologies that have inspired recent terrorism. There are an estimated 1,000 indigenous Muslims in Australia, including new recruits and descendants of mixed marriages. Some Aborigines are embracing Islam for spiritual reasons, but many say it gives them a sense of worth that they have lacked as members of an oppressed minority. The religion has particular appeal for disaffected young men who feel impotent after generations of injustice and...