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ST. PAUL, Minn. - Democratic dominance in presidential elections has been the norm for decades throughout much of the country's union-strong industrial Great Lakes region. The GOP presidential candidate is mounting strong challenges to Democratic rival Barack Obama in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and eyeing Minnesota — four states that have thwarted Republicans in at least four straight elections. The Arizona senator is also fighting to hang on to Ohio, a bellwether that President Bush won twice. They are home to large numbers of blue-collar whites, whom Obama has struggled to win over; senior citizens, who polls show tilt toward...

Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered?Sara Goudarzi for National Geographic NewsApril 23, 2008 An ancient Greek tomb thought to have held the body of Alexander the Great's father is actually that of Alexander's half brother, researchers say. This may mean that some of the artifacts found in the tomb—including a helmet, shield, and silver "crown"—originally belonged to Alexander the Great himself. Alexander's half brother is thought to have claimed these royal trappings after Alexander's death. The tomb was one of three royal Macedonian burials excavated in 1977 by archaeologists working in the northern Greek village of Vergina (see map of...

The Next Great Depression --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The main lesson we need to learn from the Great Depression is that government programs prolong, rather than correct depressions. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, I am not getting ready to join the ranks of those clever economists and financial prognosticators who periodically cop a book deal by peddling a hyped-up title that feeds our perverse appetite for scary scenarios—Financial Armageddon, Get Rich While All Your Neighbors Go Broke, How To Prosper From the End of the World As We Know It. I'm sure I'm passing up a lucrative opportunity. In fact, given the jarring financial convulsions in...

Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?The universal human myth may be the first example of disaster reporting. by Scott Carney11-15-2007 The Fenambosy chevrons at the tip of Madagascar. Image courtesy of Dallas Abbott The serpent’s tails coil together menacingly. A horn juts sharply from its head. The creature looks as if it might be swimming through a sea of stars. Or is it making its way up a sheer basalt cliff? For Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, there is no confusion as he looks at this ancient petroglyph, scratched into a rock by a...

German town wants its own Great Pyramid By Bojan Pancevski in Berlin, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:17am BST 02/09/2007 The pharaohs may have set the standard, but German entrepreneurs are hoping to challenge Egypt's pre-eminence in monumental self-indulgence by building the world's largest pyramid. The pyramid of tombstones planned at Dessau They have secured €90,000 (£61,000) in state funding to assess the feasibility of building a 1,600ft tall "Great Pyramid" near the town of Dessau, in the impoverished east German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Like the original Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, this would be a place of burial. But...

Among the 110 Hoquiam High School seniors who will graduate tonight is one remarkable young woman. Hope Hunderfund is known as a star on the High School’s golf team, one of the school’s top scholars, a dedicated volunteer, member of the Renaissance Club and president of the Future Business Leaders of America. “There are a lot of people in school … who probably think I’m just some preppie, popular kid,” the 18-year-old said. “They have no idea.” Indeed, Hope, with big blue eyes and an ever-present smile, could have grown up to be the stereotype she knows she resembles. As...

How Alexander the Great used 'Mother Nature' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 1:45am BST 15/05/2007 Alexander the Great had ''Mother Nature'' on his side when he conquered the island fortress of Tyre in 332 BC, says a study published today. A bust of Alexander the Great Tyre, in present day Lebanon, was then a strategic coastal base in the war between the Greeks and the Persians. Now archeologists have at last worked out how Alexander's engineers managed to build a causeway to enable his army to conquer what had become a bastion of resistance. All previous settlements on...

Law enforcement officers in Tennessee make the greatest underground discovery since Tutankhamen’s tomb was unearthed in the Valley of the Kings.

Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Date: March 23, 2007 The Next Great Earthquake Science Daily ? The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and resulting tsunami are now infamous for the damage they caused, but at the time many scientists believed this area was unlikely to create a quake of such magnitude. In the March 23 issue of the journal Science, a geophysicist from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute urges the public and policy makers to consider all subduction-type tectonic boundaries to be "locked, loaded, and dangerous." Subduction Zones (blue curves) and tectonic boundaries (brown curves) with filled circles showing locations of known earthquakes of M7.5...

Scientists have unearthed remains of a primate that could have been ancestral not only to humans but to all great apes, including chimps and gorillas. The partial skeleton of this 13-million-year-old "missing link" was found by palaeontologists working at a dig site near Barcelona in Spain. Details of the sensational discovery appear in Science magazine. The new specimen was probably male, a fruit-eater and was slightly smaller than a chimpanzee, researchers say. Palaeontologists were just getting started at the dig when a bulldozer churned up a tooth. Further investigation yielded one of the most complete ape skeletons known from...

How do I create a tagline? Couldn't find directions anywhere. Thanks!

Source: University of Washington Released: Mon 07-Aug-2006, 15:10 ET Ancient Bison Teeth Provide Window on Past Great Plains Climate, Vegetation Scientists have devised a way to use the fossil teeth of ancient bison as a tool to reconstruct historic climate and vegetation changes in America's breadbasket, the Great Plains.The third molar from a bison jawbone grows to 3 inches in length and has several times more surface area than a quarter. Newswise — A University of Washington researcher has devised a way to use the fossil teeth of ancient bison as a tool to reconstruct historic climate and vegetation changes...

Under tremendous pressure, mullahs agree to renovate tomb of "Cyrus the Great" May 29, 2006 Thanks to Iranian arab-parast, tomb of founder of Iran Zamin covered with dust but tomb of their beloved cowered arab imam whom ran away to Iran for dear life, covered with gold Under tremendous pressure by Iranian People, mullahs agree to renovate tomb of "Cyrus the Great". A team of experts have recently began renovating the tomb of Cyrus the Great at the ancient site of Pasargad in southern province of Fars. Several megaliths of the tomb have been stolen over time and the renovation...

Ancient engraved chessboards found on Great Wall Archaeologists have found two ancient engraved chessboards probably used by soldiers on the Great Wall more than 700 years ago at Qinhuangdao, North China's Hebei Province. The two boards, one for Chinese chess and the other for the ancient game "Tiger Eats Sheep", were engraved on a stone in front of a Great Wall beacon tower possibly in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), said officials with the provincial department of cultural relics. Archaeologists believe that soldiers from all parts of ancient China used to play chess to while away the time on the remote...

Palace of Darius the Great Discovered in Bolaghi Gorge Discovery of remains of a gigantic palace in Bolaghi Gorge and its similarity to the constructions of the time of Darius I, Achaemenid King, in Persepolis show that it was built during the same period of time. Tehran, 15 May 2006 (CHN) -- Iran-French joint archeology team at Bolaghi Gorge succeeded in discovering and identifying the remains of a gigantic palace, believed to be from the Achaemenid era (648 BC–330 BC), during their second season of excavations in the area. “Before the start of this season of excavations, our geophysical tests...

Wolves, wolf-hybrids suspected culprits in bloody predations... his herd of 700 sheep. But something had gotten there before him. Everywhere he looked, it seemed, there was a sheep that had been attacked and bloodied. "It was terrible," he said. "Some of them just had a chunk of flesh tore out, in some cases clear to the bone, the size of an orange. A few were bit in the neck." A few of the sheep could be doctored, but many of them died... of the 60 that were attacked, 21 died and 39 were injured. On top of that, the percentage...

As the scent of burning electrical wire and the pulverized dust settled over Manhattan in the wake of the 2001 World Trade Center attack, a certain book disappeared from New York City bookstore shelves. Within a week, that book rocketed from No. 8,000 to No. 125 on Amazon.com rankings. It described the nature of fanatics, offering a powerful window of understanding into the people capable of blowing up those two towers. "The True Believer" was published in 1951. Its author, Eric Hoffer, was a self-educated longshoreman born in New York City to a German cabinetmaker and his wife. His keen...

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2006 – U.S. military reserve forces are better trained and at a higher state of readiness than they've ever been as they continue to take on their new operational role in the war on terror, senior reserve-component leaders said here today. "We've all been to the battlefield; we've all been out to see our people, and I have to tell you, they are the best of the best. We have never had a fighting force like we have today," said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Lawrence W. Holland, senior enlisted advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary...

TBN EXPOSED! Hal Lindsey Refuses to Compromise to Stay on Air!Here is the letter written by Hal Lindsey to Paul and Jan Crouch, of TBN....(way to go Hal!) Hal Lindsey Leaving TBN http://www.hallindseyoracle.com/articles.asp?ArticleID=12286 Refuses to Compromise to Stay on Air January 1, 2006 Dear Paul and Jan, Paul, Jr. relayed your message to me that you are both in agreement on the policy of nothing negative being said on TBN about Muslims. Hearing that you also warned John Haggee, Perry Stone, Jack VanImpe and others of this policy caused me to realize that your are not going to modify your...

January 2, 2006 Memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors of the Church Psalm: Monday 4 Reading I1 Jn 2:22-28 Beloved:Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is...

Romans may have learned from Chinese Great Wall: archaeologists The construction of the Roman Limes was quite possibly influenced by the concept of the Great Wall in China, though the two great buildings of the world are far away from each other, said archaeologists and historians. Although there is no evidence that the two constructions had any direct connections, indirect influence from the Great Wall on the Roman Limes is certain, said Visy Zsolt, a professor with the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Pecs in Hungary. Visy made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua...

The economic indicators are painting a very bullish picture of the U.S. economy. In fact, the ongoing flow of good-news data has led President Bush to proclaim that the U.S. economy continues to gain strength and momentum, “thanks to good old-fashioned American hard work and productivity innovation, and sound economic policies of cutting taxes and restraining spending.” Fifty percent sound economic policy (in particular lower tax rates) is better than nothing. The U.S. economy grew faster during the third quarter of 2005 than initially thought. The seasonally adjusted annual growth rate of 4.3 percent was much stronger than the 3.8...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 8, 2005 – Iraqi and coalition officials have great hopes for the success of Dec. 15 national elections, officials here said on background today. Senior American officials said the elections are another important step in the evolution of Iraq from a country beat down by 30 years of tyranny to a functioning democracy. The elections are another opportunity for the Iraqi people to separate themselves from the terrorists who continue to try to intimidate Iraqis. The Iraqi people understand that al Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist groups have only an incidental interest in the country, officials said....

5 Marines were killed in Iraq yesterday. The more than 2000 U.S. troops lost in Iraq makes me want to vomit. But now, as calls to pull our troops out of Iraq grow, I fear that a premature withdrawal will lead to an even greater disaster than the sacrifices already made. Cutting and running now would render this ultimate in human toll meaningless. Unfortunately, the great gains that have come from American sacrifices go under-reported. Iraqis are learning the intricacies of democratic politics, as “accountability has taken root.� Coalitions are being formed and reshuffled. Pundits are speculating on party endorsements....

November 16, 2005Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Wednesday 49 Reading I2 Mc 7:1, 20-31 It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrestedand tortured with whips and scourges by the king,to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother,who saw her seven sons perish in a single day,yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage,she exhorted each of themin the language of their ancestors with these words:“I do...

Homeless victims of South Africa's great eviction (Filed: 29/09/2005) A million black workers have been thrown off white-owned farms since apartheid. David Blair reports on the threat of a Zimbabwe-style backlash Almost a million black workers have been evicted from South Africa's farms since the advent of the "rainbow" nation's new democracy, more than during the last decade of apartheid. A new survey has disclosed the huge scale of an enforced upheaval sweeping the country, with 942,303 farm workers and dependants evicted in the 10 years after the transition to black rule in 1994. In the previous decade, when apartheid...

Persia's kings are history's great villains. Does the British Museum's show do them justice? By Jonathan Jones The title of this exhibition is a bit misleading. Forgotten Empire, the British Museum calls its spectacular resurrection of ancient Persia. Yet the Persians are as notorious in their way as Darth Vader, the Sheriff of Nottingham, General Custer, or any other embodiment of evil empire you care to mention. They are history's original villains. In its day, which lasted from the middle of the 500s BC until the defeat of Darius III by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, the Persian empire...

JAMES the Greater Also known asone of the Sons of Thunder; Jacobus Major; Iago; Santiago Memorial25 July; formerly 5 AugustProfileSon of Zebedee and Salome, brother of Saint John the Apostle, and may have been Jesus' cousin. He is called "the Greater" simply because he became an Apostle before Saint James the Lesser. Apparent disciple of Saint John the Baptist. Fisherman. Left everything when Christ called him to be a fisher of men. Was present during most of the recorded miracles of Christ. Preached in Samaria, Judea, and Spain. First Apostle to be martyred. The pilgrimage to his relics in Compostela...

LEGACY Oh say do you recall his shining city on the hill Though strained and scarred by wickedness, that city stands here still A proud and grateful people watched his strength illuminate her That beautiful, bright city of the Great Communicator

The good news is that polls continue to show that between one and two-thirds of the public thinks that extraterrestrial life exists. The weird news is that a similar fraction thinks that some of it is visiting Earth. Several recent television shows have soberly addressed the possibility that alien craft are violating our air space, occasionally touching down long enough to allow their crews to conduct bizarre (and, in most states, illegal) experiments on hapless citizens. While these shows tantalize viewers by suggesting that they are finally going to get to the bottom of the so-called "UFO debate", they never...

The European nation-state considered to be the least Europeanist, the United Kingdom, took the presidency of the E.U. on July 1, right after the double French and Dutch rejection of the E.U. Constitutional Treaty and the failure of the June 16-17 European Council -- a sign interpreted by many as the beginning of the end for the European political and strategic union. Although many observers believe that the British rotation is going to further aggravate the E.U.'s political crisis, and that the project of a common European Security and Defense Policy (E.S.D.P.) could suffer from a "final blow" in the...

"An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense - perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire - that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other. In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society. Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium...

"An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense - perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire - that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other. In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society. Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium...

Face to face with the great firewall of China Michael Geist Citizen Special Thursday, May 05, 2005 As the Internet was taking flight in the early 1990s, John Gilmore, one of the co-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading online civil liberties group, is credited with having coined the infamous phrase that "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.'' Gilmore's view has since been regularly invoked whenever there are failed attempts to limit the dissemination of information. Beginning with a string of cases dating back to the Paul Bernardo trial in the mid-1990s, the Internet has...

HILLARY STOKES '08 FIRE WITH RED-HOT SPEECH By IAN BISHOP ----------------------------------------- HILLARY CLINTON Photo: Rick Dembow April 11, 2005 -- MINNEAPOLIS — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton bowled over the Democratic faithful in the key 2008 presidential swing state of Minnesota with a fiery weekend stump speech that had fans hailing her as the "great hope" to take back the White House. "She speaks her mind and she's a leader," swooned Debra Manninen. "She's our great hope." Party faithful here devoured Clinton's brand-new, red-meat material in her first major political speech Saturday night since the November 2004 election, which aides said...

ROME (Reuters) - The "Great Satan," part of the "axis of evil" and an "outpost of tyranny" will gather for the funeral of Pope John Paul, who toiled for peace but whose mourners find it hard to forgive each other. At what is expected to be one of the biggest funerals ever, there will be heads of governments whose hostile exchanges have long dominated the headlines -- the United States and Iran, Israel and Syria, Zimbabwe and Britain among others. "The conviction he had about humankind, about life and about peace -- it just shone through," said former U.S. president...

What meaningful eulogy can a rabbi possibly add to the many heartfelt tributes being paid to the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II? Ancient Jewish wisdom advised that in this world a man is known by his father. Not only a man's last name, but much of his identity comes from his father. However, after the process of death transforms us to spirit, we look to our children and grandchildren for clues to our eternity. In the future world of the spirit, where all is light and truth, Judaism teaches that each of us will be known by the actions...

N/T Syndicated Personality of the Year Nominees: Glenn Beck The Glenn Beck Show Premiere Radio Networks Sean Hannity The Sean Hannity Show ABC Radio Networks Don Imus Imus In The Morning Westwood One Laura Ingraham The Laura Ingraham Show Talk Radio Network Rush Limbaugh The Rush Limbaugh Show Premiere Radio Networks Dave Ramsey The Dave Ramsey Show Independent The Winner!

TEHRAN -- Iran takes the military threats of the United States and the Zionist regime seriously and is prepared to repel any air, ground, or sea attack, a top military official said here on Tuesday. "We take the U.S. and Israeli threats seriously, given the statements made by U.S. and Israeli officials over the past 26 years," Army Commander Major General Mohammad Salimi stated. The enemies of the country are seeking regime change in Iran, he said on the sidelines of a graduation ceremony at the Military Academy. Commenting on the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative, the recent statements of...

HONG KONG -- An upscale Hong Kong grocery store is being prosecuted after a customer allegedly discovered 575 beetles in a jar of cereal he bought, officials and media reports said yesterday. The customer, lawyer Philip Dykes, said the breakfast cereal was "too organic for my liking," according to the South China Morning Post. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has charged the Great grocer store with sale of "food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser," said Emily Mak, a department spokeswoman. The charge carries a maximum fine of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, $1,589 Cdn,...

The year was 1783. While formal hostilities had virtually ceased between the Crown and the American colonies, peace talks continued to drag on in London. The Congress was broke and in serious debt even though the Articles of Confederation, which required individual states to contribute funds to the Congress, had been approved two years earlier. The Continental Army was restless. Many of its officers hadn’t been paid in months. Promises made by Congress at the time of their enlistment regarding reimbursement for food and clothing, pensions, and a pledge to give the officers half pay for life were either not...

Source: University of Kansas Released: Sat 12-Feb-2005, 09:00 ET Embargo expired: Tue 15-Feb-2005, 00:00 ET Discovery Could Change Dates for Human Arrival on the Great Plains Dated by carbon-14 methods at 12,200 years old, recently discovered bones could be the oldest evidence of human occupation in Kansas, and they may be the oldest evidence of humans on the Great Plains. For photos related to the story, go to http://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/News/2005/kanorado.html Newswise — Bones of now-extinct animals and a rock fragment discovered last summer in northwestern Kansas could rewrite the history of humans on the Great Plains. The bones, which appear to...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Dick Weber, one of bowling's first national stars and a three-time bowler of the year, died. He was 75. Weber died Sunday night in his sleep at his home in the St. Louis area, said Steve James, retired executive director of the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame. A cause of death was not immediately known. Weber had just returned from the opening of the congress' championships in Baton Rouge, La. James said he spent Sunday morning with Weber, who gave no indication he was ill. In an e-mail to the Bowlers Journal, Weber's wife, Juanita,...

Composing can be a lonely job. Hour after hour, the composer sits at a piano, trying to bring out the music in his head. But for Aaron Copland, composition was about the people. Working with people, learning from them, befriending them, organizing and mentoring them. His enthusiasm for combining music with humanity assured his place in music history almost as much as his compositions. "As organizer, teacher, propagandist, critic, lecturer and expositor, he has been by far the most voluble, articulate and respected American musician of his time," wrote Harold Schonberg in The New York Times in 1970. His ballets...

Until the 18th century, there was basically only one kind of Judaism, that which is now called Orthodox. It meant living by the religion's 613 laws, and doing so suffused Jews' lives with their faith. Then, starting with the thinker Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) and moving briskly during the Haskala, or "enlightenment," from the late 18th century, Jews developed a wide variety of alternate interpretations of their religion, most of which diminished the role of faith in their lives and led to a concomitant reduction in Jewish affiliation.These alternatives and other developments, in particular the Holocaust, caused the ranks of the...

Chris Whittle, who edits Sunday Morning Shootout ... has a fascinating, wide ranging post on his site Eject! Eject! Eject!, which hits many of my political-entertainment industry buttons. The amn knows whereof he speaks, and has a lot of worthwhile thoughts. >>There are only eight conservative actors in the history of Hollywood, and five of them have been elected to high office. (The sixth was elected president of the National Rifle Association, the seventh was elected Mayor of Carmel, California on a pro-business platform, and John Wayne had the class to never run for – or from – anything.) If,...

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!

The makers of Colin Farell's upcoming epic 'Alexander' are facing the threat of lawsuit for claiming warrior Alexander the Great was bisexual.A group of furious Greek lawyers insist the legendary conqueror was heterosexual, and now they are looking into suing film studio Warner Brothers and director Oliver Stone for claims to the contrary.Yannis Varnakos, the spokesman for the 25 lawyers, says, 'The production company should make it clear that this film is pure fiction and not a true depiction of the life of Alexander.'The group of attorneys say they have gathered enough evidence so far to know that there are...

Good Evening, did anyone see the episode on tonight's "American Dreams', while I am not a fan of late of network TV, it was unquestionably the best hour of TV I have seen in several years, it REALLY REALLY stuck home and was such a GREAT boost to the military! Did anyone tape it or DVD it? I will pay! Please chat it up! Regards, Jim, a Republican from Bergen County, NJ

November 15, 2004Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time Reading IRev 1:1-4; 2:1-5 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him,to show his servants what must happen soon.He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,who gives witness to the word of Godand to the testimony of Jesus Christ by reporting what he saw.Blessed is the one who reads aloudand blessed are those who listen to this prophetic messageand heed what is written in it, for the appointed time is near. John, to the seven churches in Asia: grace to you and peacefrom him...