Free Republic

SUSAN Atkins, who admitted slitting actress Sharon Tate's throat during the Manson Family murders, was refused "compassionate release" from jail. The 12-member parole board listened to arguments on releasing Atkins, who is thought to be suffering brain cancer, before issuing its decision in court documents without further explanation.

Breaking on Fox, no link yet. This means there are new murders to tie to Charles Manson. Maybe, just maybe, he can get the death penalty for one or more of these. Assuming the liberal gods in black robes don't block it again to save him.

About once a year I review a book in this column that ought to be required reading for people who care about politics. Edward Klein's "The Truth About Hillary" is such a book. The pre-publication leak about the book — that Bill Clinton had allegedly talked about raping his wife — was off-putting for me. I don't usually waste my time reading salacious scandal books from the left or the right. But I was advised to take a look at this book, which I read last weekend. It was worth my time. This is not a scandal book intended merely...

CANNES — The last episode of the seminal sci-fi saga "Star Wars" screened at the Cannes film festival Sunday, completing a six-part series that remains a major part of popular culture — and delivering a galactic jab to U.S. President George W Bush. "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" was seen ahead of a celebrity-laden evening screening to be attended by its creator and director, George Lucas, and its cast, including Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen. Reaction at advance screenings was effusive, with festival-goers, critics and journalists at Cannes applauding at the moment the infamous Darth Vader...

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said in 1974, “We live in a sensate age. We are no longer governed by Faith, we are no longer governed by reason. We are governed by feelings.” The outpouring of naked emotion at the death of Pope John Paul II proves these words true. It is expected that Catholics worldwide would grieve and pray for the departed Pontiff, as it is a fitting expression of filial piety. But the effusion over John Paul II was a good bit more. Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and laity vied with each other to canonize him as “John Paul...

Police Seek Clues After Fetus Cut From Slain Woman's BodyAmber Alert Issued For Missing Fetus POSTED: 7:05 am EST December 17, 2004 UPDATED: 10:19 am EST December 17, 2004 SKIDMORE, Mo. -- A 23-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant was killed Thursday and the fetus was taken from her body, authorities said. Stinnett home in Skidmore, Mo. Sheriff's deputies were investigating the afternoon killing of the woman and they were searching for the baby, who they believed could have survived. Nodaway County Sheriff Bill Espey said, "Someone was wanting a baby awful bad." The sheriff issued an Amber Alert...

Manson Family Member Van Houten Loses Parole Bid LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California prison board on Wednesday refused for the 15th time to parole Leslie Van Houten, a Charles Manson disciple who was sentenced to life behind bars for her role in the sensational cult murders. Van Houten, now 55 and serving her sentence at the California Institution for Women in Frontera, was rejected in her bid for parole despite a tearful apology for her part in the grisly 1969 crimes. (snip) The former homecoming princess admitted to holding down Rosemary LaBianca while two other Manson followers, Charles "Tex"...

Plan to attack school alleged Laguna Creek High plot involved guns and bombs, authorities sayActing on a dead-of-night tip from a worried parent, Sacramento and Elk Grove law enforcement officials say they thwarted a "Columbine-style" plot by students to attack Laguna Creek High School with guns and bombs during the lunch break today. The alleged plan, which authorities say may have involved as many as six students, was to include a "hostile takeover of the school" in Elk Grove, Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas said Tuesday. "We know they were planning on shooting students at the school," Blanas said. "We...

<p>Vote against the recall, but vote for Feinstein, too, just in case.</p> <p>The discussions, prompted by private polls that purportedly show Davis losing in the recall, are expected to continue right up to Saturday's deadline for candidates to file to run.</p>

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Former Charles Manson disciple and convicted murderer Susan Atkins is suing Gov. Gray Davis, contending his policy opposing parole for nearly all murderers has made her a political prisoner. Parole board members and prison officials also are named in the federal civil rights lawsuit, which accuses them of ignoring the Constitution and parole rules to keep Atkins behind bars. "Over the course of her incarceration, Ms. Atkins has been transformed into a political prisoner," said the suit, filed by attorney Eric P. Lampel of Irvine. He said psychiatrists call her a model prisoner who is not a...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A plan to raise billions of dollars by imposing sales taxes on a myriad of services drew mixed reviews Wednesday during a hearing before a state Senate committee.</p> <p>The idea, being pushed by Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, the chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, would be to extend the sales tax to thousands of services provided by businesses, ranging from gardeners and dry cleaners to attorneys and accountants.</p>

MADURAI: In a ghastly incident, a lorry, laden with match boxes, which caught fire after colliding with a tractor, set ablaze three autorickshaws, two roadside hotels, a tea shop and a fertiliser godown at Vadipatti, about 30 km from here on Saturday.Police said three persons, including the lorry driver, were injured in the accident.According to police, the diesel tank of the lorry burst in a collision igniting the match boxes. The fire spread instantly, forcing the lorry driver to jump out.Later, the lorry ran helter-skelter setting ablaze three autorickshaws, two roadside hotels and a tea shop before demolishing a fertliser...

I apologize if this has been posted (other than the one time I've used it as a reply) already. Although the site I found it on is a leftist POS place, this poster kicks ass. I think that the leftists assume this poster is a slam on Rummy, when in fact it is patriotic - just shows how twisted their thinking is!

CNN and the Chechen Mujhadeen are accusing Christians of murdering Muslims. Here is Pat Robertson's response to CNN's baseless and inciting charge at the Nov. 26 interview on CNN. ... SAVIDGE: And there are Christians that are also burning mosques as well. ROBERTSON: No, they're not. Come off it. You know better than that. Christianity is a peaceful religion, and we're out to talk about peace. And I ran a television station that promoted peace between Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Middle East for 18 years, and I'm an advocate of peace, period. Thank you. The following is Islamist...

The former US president, Jimmy Carter, marked his elevation to the status of Nobel peace laureate yesterday by chiding President Bush on his doctrine of pre-emptive war, and urging him to respect the UN's role in Iraq. The comments, delivered at the Nobel awards ceremony in Oslo, were the second time that the award has been used as a vehicle for criticism of US preparations for a possible war on Saddam Hussein. In a speech that deplored the emergence of terror and sectarian conflict since the end of the cold war, Mr Carter said the United Nations - though flawed...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Results from the congressional inquiry into alleged intelligence failures leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks released Wednesday indicate a number of systemic problems with U.S. intelligence gathering, analysis, sharing, and response. The report was introduced with a somber warning from the co-chairman of the Joint House-Senate Intelligence Committee probe. "It is almost a certainty that, in the coming months, Americans will face another attempted terrorist assault; an assault that could quite possibly be on the same scale as that of September the 11th, 2001," Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). "It is a certainty that such an...

An overwhelming majority of people in the United States, 91 percent, say they do not believe Iraq gave a full and accurate accounting of all weapons of mass destruction in a weekend report to the United Nations, a survey released Wednesday says. But the public wants the United States to be patient. The CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll showed a majority, 66 percent, want the United States to wait for U.N. inspectors to find evidence of such weapons before deciding to invade Iraq.The poll suggested public doubts about whether the U.N. inspectors will be able to find any such weapons that Iraq...

A newly released best-selling novel for teens, Rever la Palestine (Dream of Palestine), sympathetically portrays a young Palestinian who becomes a suicide bomber. The fifteen-year-old Egyptian author, Randa Ghazi, who lives with her family in Italy, writes about Palestinian teenagers who fight "bloodthirsty Jews, who assassinate children and old people, profane mosques, and rape Arab women." Dream of Palestine is being touted as 'surprisingly mature' and 'a great text of suffering and hope.' One of the novel's heroes calls for Jihad against the Jews who are 'a doomed people' and to 'kill all Israelis.' The main character is encouraged 'to...

The American writer Grace Halsell did not exaggerate when she said that Christian Zionists in Washington were more dangerous than the Zionist lobby. In 1989, Muhammad Sammak translated Halsell’s book “Prophecy and Politics” into Arabic. The book discussed the dangers posed by militant Christian fundamentalists to the Arab world but Arab policy-makers did not pay much attention to her warnings. Though a few Arab writers have written about the dangerous course taken by religious fundamentalists in the US, serious efforts have yet to be made to warn the Muslim and Arab public about the increasing influence of the anti-Muslim religious...

Part of the charm of the regime-change argument (from the point of view of its supporters) is that it depends on premises and objectives that cannot, at least by the administration, be publicly avowed. Since Paul Wolfowitz is from the intellectual school of Leo Strauss—and appears in fictional guise as such in Saul Bellow's novel Ravelstein—one may even suppose that he enjoys this arcane and occluded aspect of the debate. For those lacking a similar gift for hidden meanings, the best way to appreciate the unstated case for war may be to examine the criticisms leveled by its opponents. These...