Free Republic

April 2006, Vol. 89, No. 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The radar site was deep in enemy territory. The assumption was that it was impossible for attackers to climb the sheer face of the mountain. The Fall of Lima Site 85 By John T. Correll Lima Site 85 and the secret Air Force radar facility sat atop one of the highest mountains in Laos, 15 miles away from the border with North Vietnam. The site was defended by a force of 1,000 Hmong irregulars in the valley below, but a key element in its security was the mountain itself. The drop on three...

Meet Joe Enge.Joe is an award-winning, 15-year veteran history teacher in Carson City who has, among other things, written two history textbooks and served on the 1997 task force which drew up Nevada's history standards.  But according to school district administrators, he's a "bad" teacher.You see, Joe has this crazy idea that American history should include our colonial period, as well as the Revolutionary War period.  You know, where the Founding Fathers fought for independence from England and wrote the greatest governing document the world has ever known - the United States Constitution.  You know, that period of time which...

Time marches backward for a weekend Sunday, November 21, 2004 FORT LEE - Three dozen Revolutionary War reenactors marched past a Korean nail salon, a steakhouse and a synagogue Saturday before coming to a halt in the shadow of a 20-story apartment tower. The borough has changed dramatically since the Continental Army began its retreat from here to Valley Forge, Pa., 228 years ago Saturday. "Here it's very difficult, unfortunately, because there are so many distractions," said Peter Schaaphok, who is from upstate New York and is president of The Brigade of the American Revolution, one of the nation's largest...

The First Christmas Present to America - 1776 - The Revolution is saved at Trenton Ernest R. Bower | December 25, 2003 | Ernest R. Bower In the gloom of this holy Christmas night, a cold sleet fell. It was not a night for man nor beast but yet here they were. Huddled upon the banks of this frigid river, 2000 men contemplated their bleak fate. The past few months had gone very, very badly. Their hopes had been crushed time and again. The noble experiment in Liberty which had begun with such promise, had by this time deteriorated to...

An American Coup d'État?by Clayton E. CramerHistory Today, November 1995Some Americans regard our country as superior to other nations because we don't change governments by coup d'état - and we never have. Perhaps because of our long tradition of power changing hands by election, we regard our nation as immune to the use of force for political purposes. True, assassins have killed four of our Presidents, but these deaths did not lead to turmoil and chaos; the government followed well-established procedures for transferring control to the men previously elected Vice President. Unlike other nations where assassination often leads to...

U.869 (U-Who)  The Unterseeboot 869, was a Type IXC/40 German submarine. Her keel was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, Germany on April 5, 1943. The U-boat, commissioned on January 26, 1944, displaced 1,120 tons surfaced, 1,232 submerged, was 251.9 feet long and 22.5 feet wide. The boat was commanded entirely during her thirteen month career by Kapitaenleutnant Hellmut Neuerburg.The submarine operated in the North Atlantic area from December 8, 1944 to mid-January, 1945. Around January 19, 1945, the U.869 and the U.300 were ordered to the Gibralter area. It is unclear if the U.869 received...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

Why Morality Matters by Steven C. Bonta, Ph.D. It is my conviction that the greatest threat to our free republic is moral decline. It is becoming fashionable nowadays to discount or ignore completely the relationship between morality and political liberty. Perhaps this is because the deteriorating moral culture in the modern United States of America seeks to be its own justification. Freedom, some believe, can flourish independently of moral standards, as long as we allow every man uninhibited license in his so-called “personal lifestyle choices.” This badly flawed notion is going to be the death of our republic, unless...

The identities of the crew of the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley are coming to light just days before the mens remains are to be buried. The first submarine to sink an enemy ship, the Hunley itself sank off South Carolina in 1864, was found in 1995, and was raised in 2000. On a cold February night in 1864, eight men squeezed through the tiny hatches of the H.L. Hunley, a strange new warship tied up at a dock in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. They crawled or duckwalked through the 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter-tall) passageway to their places on a...

The Year's Ten Worst Moments in EducationBy Rick ParsonsYoung Americans for Freedom | December 25, 2003 Our nation’s education system continues to be weighted down with incidences of bias and political correctness. Young America’s Foundation compiled a list of the top ten most shameful campus events in America’s education system in 2003: 10. Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA) administration officials censored a conservative student group’s flyer advertising a Young America’s Foundation organized lecture because the word “hate” was used on the flyer. The flyer in question featured the topic of guest speaker Dan Flynn’s speech, “Why the Left Hates America,” which...

A parent of an elementary school student is upset with a teacher who replaced "Christmas" with "winter" in a carol to be performed during an upcoming concert. Mark Denison, music teacher at Clover Creek Elementary in Tacoma, Wash., revised the lyrics of Dale Wood's "Carol from an Irish Cabin" to read: "The harsh wind blows down from the mountains, and blows a white winter to me," the Tacoma News Tribune reported. Darla Dowell, the parent of a 7-year-old student, thinks the move is "absurd," especially since the children will sing a Hanukkah song referring to the "mighty miracle" of Israel's...

In Michigan, there has been a major First Amendment victory for Christian students, as well as a defeat for advocates of the homosexual agenda in public schools. Detroit Federal Judge Gerald Rosen has ruled that Pioneer High School violated the constitutional rights of student Betsy Hansen by censoring her Christian views against homosexuality. Last year, during a so-called "Diversity Week" forum at the Ann Arbor school, officials only permitted pro-homosexual viewpoints to be expressed. Hansen, a Roman Catholic, had been asked to give a speech on the topic "What Diversity Means to Me" and to present it during a "Homosexuality...

THE Year was 1979. The place was Arkansas, teeming with big hair bimbos, corrupt prison guards, and Brubaker. A young, rising liberal Governor was determined to remold the state in his image. But his eagerness to pursue his activist agenda would lead him to bite off more than he could chew, and imbibe in him a bitter political lesson. William Jefferson Blythe Clinton III angered state leaders when he increased automobile license plate fees and challenged powerful timber and utilities interests. His heavy-handed leadership style led to his biggest political defeat in 1980, when Arkansas voters did not reelect...

That Was Then: Allen W. Dulles on the Occupation of Germany By Allen W. Dulles From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003 A Note from the Editors: In thinking about the reconstruction of Iraq, many have looked for insight to the American experiences in rebuilding Germany and Japan after World War II. Optimists point to similarities across the cases and argue that they bode well for the Bush administration's efforts today. Pessimists point to differences and draw the opposite conclusion. In truth, some aspects of the occupations look familiar and some do not. As the saying goes, history does not repeat...

We are in a cabin deep down below decks on a Navy ship jam-packed with troops that’s pitching and creaking its way across the Atlantic in a winter gale. There is a man in every bunk. There’s a man wedged into every corner. There’s a man in every chair. The air is dense with cigarette smoke and with the staleness of packed troops and sour wool. “Don’t think I’m sticking up for the Germans,” puts in the lanky young captain in the upper berth, “but…” “To hell with the Germans,” says the broad-shouldered dark lieutenant. “It’s what our boys have...

Geneticists Report Finding Central Asian Link to Levites By NICHOLAS WADE Published: September 27, 2003 A team of geneticists studying the ancestry of Jewish communities has found an unusual genetic signature that occurs in more than half the Levites of Ashkenazi descent. The signature is thought to have originated in Central Asia, not the Near East, which is the ancestral home of Jews. The finding raises the question of how the signature became so widespread among the Levites, an ancient caste of hereditary Jewish priests. The genetic signature occurs on the male or Y chromosome and comes from a few...

H. W. Brands argues that too much reverence for the Founding Fathers is unhealthy—and that it's time to take them down a notch or two Patriotism is thriving in America today, and its many symbols abound—flags, stars-and-stripes bumper stickers, and freedom fries are all going strong, and so are the reputations of the Founding Fathers. As global insecurity and economic uncertainty become ways of life and leaders appear increasingly tarnished by the compromises of politics, it's comforting to think about the successes of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and their compatriots, and encouraging to know that we are continuing their experiment. Confidence...

Jill Stanek held the "Baby Malachi" sign in front of Speaker Madigan and Leader Daniels' offices in the spring of 2002 For the next few weeks, IllinoisLeader.com will be featuring some of Jill Stanek's "Best of the Best" columns as she focuses a block of time this summer on writing a manuscript for an upcoming book. For two weeks beginning July 9, the Pro-Life Action League is hosting a two-week Truth Tour in Chicago. For more information on the Chicago tour, call 773-777-2900.OPINION -- A “Truth Tour” is an organized event that typically stretches over two weeks. Pro-lifers post...

The Fascist Epithet Mack Tanner Epithets are always good political weap- ons. If they are well chosen, they paint the opponent's reputation so black that further discussion is no longer required. If an opponent is inherently evil, then one has no reason to expect that rational discussion and debate would produce any useful result. Therefore, once a political opponent has been appropriately labeled, that person can be shouted down and driven from the po-dium without the need of further discussion. Using epithets is obviously not engaging in logical political discourse, but politics isn't about logic, it's about winning and...

<p>Two hundred years ago, right about now, a 29-year-old Virginian named Meriwether Lewis was buying supplies for what was about to become America's most famous camping trip. Among other things on a very long list, Lewis was stocking up on gunpowder, fishhooks, tobacco, whiskey, trade beads (he went heavy on blue ones), mosquito netting, packets of powdered ink, flannel for clothing and nearly 200 pounds of something called "Portable-Soup" -- one of the first commercially dried foods the country had seen. William Clark wasn't yet part of the deal. The men knew each other -- Lewis had served under Clark's command in the U.S. Army -- but they weren't close friends. They would be soon enough, though, when they and the companions they called the Corps of Discovery stepped into the pages of history in May 1804.</p>