Free Republic

The Republican Party that Buckley, Goldwater, and Reagan (re)built has not been designed to reach out to a group on the basis of identity, but on the basis of a given group’s ideas and values. By the party’s very definition — its basic principles — this precludes reaching out to groups which have race, ethnicity, and/or gender as their sole criterion for coalescing as a political entity. So when some observers wonder what the Republican Party is going to “do for” the “black community,” most Republicans will have a certain look of puzzlement on our faces, as if someone just...

The anthropologist Margaret Mead once observed that in the 1930s, when she was busy remaking the idea of culture, the notion of cultural diversity was to be found only in the 'vocabulary of a small and technical group of professional anthropologists'. Today, everyone and everything seems to have its own culture. From anorexia to zydeco, the American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has observed, there is little that we don't talk about as the product of some group's culture. In this age of globalisation many people fret about Western culture taking over the world. But the greatest Western export is not...

Ask the half-Syrian debut novelist Robin Yassin-Kassab to sum up western misconceptions of the Middle East, and he tells a story. In 1996 Yassin-Kassab moved from England, where he grew up with his English mother, to Damascus. The move was an attempt to get in touch with a part of himself that had long been missing: his Arabic heritage. "In Damascus I lived at the end of a short alley," says Yassin-Kassab. "Each morning I'd walk down this alley, and as I passed every door someone would say, 'Hey, Robin! Come in for tea!' It took me half an hour...

Identity Necessary for Survival by: Melinda Zosh, June 09, 2008 Americans are fighting the war on terror with technology and weapons, but one man says Americans are lacking the strongest, most effective weapon—identity. Natan Sharansky, author of Defending Identity and the New York Times best-seller The Case for Democracy, spoke about the importance of attaining a sense of identity in a democratic society at the Heritage Foundation on June 3. “Identity, a life of commitment, is essential because it satisfies a human longing to become part of something bigger than oneself,” Sharanksy wrote in his book Defending Identity. Sharansky, a...

The compulsory identity card could be used to carry out surveillance on people, MPs warned today. Members of the Home Affairs Select Committee said it was concerned that the way the authorities use sensitive data gathered in the multi-billion pound programme could "creep" to include spying. The all-party committee also urged ministers to make plans on how to deal with the theft of personal details from the National Identity Scheme, which will build a massive database on every person over 16 in Britain. It accepted ministers' assurances that surveillance was not part of current plans, but asked for a guarantee...

Some three and a half years ago, former Prisoner of Zion and Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky was George W. Bush's favorite author. Sharansky earned an unexpected boost when the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. invited him and co-author Ron Dermer to the White House and told the world that everyone should read their book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny & Terror. While this was not the equivalent of an invitation to Oprah Winfrey's guest couch, Sharansky's tome did make it onto The New York Times bestseller list. After the easy overthrow of Saddam...

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2008 – The Iraqi government has expanded its use of biometric identification, a U.S. official in Iraq said yesterday. While the biometric program was procured to screen for identification of the government’s civilian employees, police and army, it has expanded to identify the deceased and screen for previous criminal activity, U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Velliquette Jr., Iraqi biometrics manager for the Coalition Police Assistance Training Team, said in a conference call with online journalists and “bloggers.” “The Iraqis are embracing it and moving it beyond its initial capability of just being a civil verification system,” Velliquette...

ALBANY (1010 WINS/AP) -- The state Assembly has given final approval to legislation intended to protect teenagers who use social-networking sites from online predators. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo introduced the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act in January. It requires registered sex offenders to provide online screen names to state officials. They would share the identities with Web hangouts like MySpace.com and Facebook.com, who are authorized to prescreen or remove offenders. It also restricts use of the Internet by certain sex offenders on probation and parole. The Assembly also passed legislation that would increase criminal penalties for using...

Elections can be about policy, personality, or identity. The race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is surely not about policy. The differences between the two are microscopic. It did not start out that way. Last year, when Hillary was headed toward a coronation, she deliberately ran to the center. She took more moderate views on Iraq, for example, and voted to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. When she began taking heat for these positions from the other candidates and the Democratic party’s activist core, and as her early lead began to erode, she quickly tacked...

The rapid and drastic process of secularization in western Europe over the last decades has not diminished the continuing unease with which Europe considers the Islamic religion and Muslims in its midst. In this benchmark essay from 2004, José Casanova argues that the "Islam problem" is an indicator of the disparity between liberal and illiberal strands of European secularism. Since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 that established the EEC and initiated the ongoing process of European integration, western European societies have undergone a rapid, drastic, and seemingly irreversible process of secularization. In this respect, one can...

Medical investigators used an iPod serial number Friday to figure out the identity of a bicyclist killed when he collided with a school bus in Minneapolis on Thursday morning. Adam Ray Finley, 30, was killed about two blocks away from his Calhoun Boulevard apartment while riding in an intersection north of Lake Calhoun about 10 a.m. Thursday. Until Friday afternoon, authorities were baffled as to his identity because he was carrying no identification. The medical examiner had sought the public's help in identifying the body and was preparing to release a sketch. But Friday afternoon, an investigator for the Hennepin...

What We Think of Ourselves Is Important THE MAN WHO IS SERIOUSLY CONVINCED that he deserves to go to hell is not likely to go there, while the man who believes that he is worthy of heaven will certainly never enter that blessed place. I use the word "seriously" to accent true conviction and to distinguish it from mere nominal belief. It is possible to go through life believing that we believe, while actually having no conviction more vital than a conventional creed inherited from our ancestors or picked up from the general religious notions current in our social circle....

"I SWEAR I'M A WOMAN!" #In D.C., three corrections officers are being fired after classifying a woman inmate as a man. Virginia Grace Soto is a white Hispanic woman from the Dominican Republic. (No word yet on whether she is a legal U.S. resident.) The corrections reports describe her as "androgynous in nature." But even after a strip search and a shower with male inmates ... they couldn't tell she was a woman? Looks like there's more to this story. Turns out that this was not the first time Soto was arrested. She'd been arrested twice since April and both...

The identity card scheme will become a "great British institution" on a par with the railways in the 19th Century, Home Office minister Liam Byrne says. He said it was "time to get on with it" and predicted that the National Identity Scheme "will soon become part of the fabric of British life". But plans to "multiply the uses" of the ID scheme would mean there should be stronger accountability to Parliament. Current ID trials include employment, age and criminal records checks. The Home Office intends to introduce biometric identification for foreign nationals in 2008, with the first ID cards...

Here’s a Delphic riddle for our times: When is your father not your father? Answer: when he’s a sperm donor. Consider a case now before the Kansas Supreme Court. An unmarried woman in her early thirties decided that she wanted a child and asked a friend to be a sperm donor. He agreed, one thing led to another, which led to a syringe of his sperm, which led to the birth of twins. The mother says that she always intended to raise the kids alone and never wanted the friend involved in their lives. The donor says that he planned...

They are the "safest ever", according to the Government. But the Daily Mail has revealed how easily a person’s identity can be stolen from new biometric passports. In just four hours, the Mail hacked into a new biometric passport and stole the details a people trafficker or illegal migrant would need to set up a life in Britain. More here: • Children ages 11 to have prints stored A shocking security gap allows the personal details and photograph in any electronic passport to be copied from the outside of the envelope in which it is delivered to homes. The passport...

New far-Right group launches its mission to defend European identity By Bruno Waterfield in Strasbourg Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 16/01/2007 The first major far-Right grouping in the European parliament officially launched its mission yesterday to defend "European identity" in the face of growing numbers of immigrants. "We are in favour of upholding European identity, the identities of our individual countries. We want to uphold European tradition and yet remain modern," Bruno Gollnisch, the leader of the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) group, told the European parliament last night. By forming an EU political grouping, ITS qualifies for up to £800,000...

The former Yugoslav republic made 18,000 people disappear in the blink of an eye. Now it wants the world to forget its experiment in ethnic cleansing. ___ It should be strange talking to someone who doesn't exist. But Zoran Iliè, stubbing out a cigarette in my Ljubljana apartment, is disappointingly ordinary: watery blue eyes, a refrigerator's physique, likable laugh lines across his face. For all that's happened to the amiable middle-aged locksmith, what's hardest to comprehend lies over his right shoulder, around the sparkling river and polished cobblestone outside my kitchen window. Modern, thriving, and lovely, 21st-century Slovenia is increasingly...

Here's some TV Tidbits and anyone who remembers the old "What's My Line" quiz show will be familiar with the premise of this quasi-newer version of the game. It's called "IDENTITY" and, well it's not so great. Also, a review of last week's Kennedy Center honors with a pic of the deepest cleavage displayed anywhere in the year 2006.

Pope Benedict says Christians cannot allow their beliefs and identity to be diluted for the sake of dialogue with other religions. The question of how much dialogue Catholics should have with other religions has become a point of debate in the Church since the Pontiff made controversial comments about Islam a month ago. "We have to remember that this identity of ours calls for strength, clarity, and courage in the world in which we live," he told pilgrims and tourists at his weekly general audience. Some Catholics feel they have compromised too much of their Christian identity in the four...

Britain must regain a pride in its identity, Chief Rabbi warns By Jonathan Wynne-Jones (Filed: 17/09/2006) A crisis of national and social identity is undermining Britain's efforts to integrate its immigrant population, according to the Chief Rabbi. Sir Jonathan Sacks told The Sunday Telegraph that multiculturalism had led to segregation and a country that was no longer confident of what it stood for. Sir Jonathan: 'Britain used to know who and what it was' It needed to regain a sense of pride in being British, he said, but must be less afraid to allow ethnic minorities to contribute to society,...

THE scale of the Holocaust has been "greatly exaggerated", Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said today, adding he had visited several former concentration camps in eastern Europe. “When I was ambassador I saw several of these camps in (the former) East Germany and Poland. In my opinion it has been greatly exaggerated. It is far from what is being publicised,” Hamid Reza Asefi said. His comments come ahead of a conference to be held on December 11 in Iran which the Islamic republic hopes will present “hidden aspects” of the slaughter of Jews under Nazi Germany. “Different opinions which affirm and...

AT&T on Tuesday said hackers broke into one of its computer systems and accessed personal data on thousands of customers who used its online store. The information that was illegally accessed includes credit card numbers, AT&T said in a statement. The cyberattack affects about 19,000 customers who purchased equipment for high-speed DSL Internet connections through AT&T's Web site, the company said. "We deeply regret this incident," Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer for AT&T, said in the statement. "We will work closely with law enforcement to bring these data thieves to account." The break-in occurred over the weekend and was discovered...

Deutsche Welle has an interesting little roundup of European press reaction to Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, most of which appears to condemn the Israeli actions as “disproportionate.” As a corollary, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (of Spanish Flee fame) went on record stating that the results of the Israeli response to the agents of radicalization, fanaticism, conflict and instability will be “radicalization, fanaticism, conflict and instability.” The European reaction is instructive for several reasons: First, because it is indicative of the extent to which nationalism and national feeling has declined – there is simply little understanding of why...

WASHINGTON - The government agency charged with fighting identity theft said Thursday it had lost two government laptops containing sensitive personal data, the latest in a series of breaches encompassing millions of people. The Federal Trade Commission said it would provide free credit monitoring for 110 people targeted for investigation whose names, addresses, Social Security numbers - and in some instances, financial account numbers - were taken from an FTC attorney's locked car. The car theft occurred about 10 days ago and managers were immediately notified. Many of the people whose data were compromised were being investigated for possible fraud...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department are considering a major expansion of rules that financial-services providers keep detailed records of financial transactions and confirm customer identities. The Fed and Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, gave advance notice Friday that they are considering lowering - or eliminating altogether - the current $3,000 threshold below which banks and other financial- services providers don't have to keep special records on transactions. In a public notice, the federal agencies said this change could help with " combating terrorism, money laundering and other illicit activity."...

DUBLIN, Calif. - Audra Schmierer's Social Security number really gets around. It has been used by at least 81 people in 17 states, most of them probably illegal immigrants trying to get work. The federal government took years to discover the number was being used illegally, but authorities took little action even then. "They knew what was happening but wouldn't do anything," said Schmierer, 33, a housewife in this affluent San Francisco suburb. "One name, one number, why can't they just match it up?"

Audra Schmierer's Social Security number really gets around. At least 81 people in 17 states - most likely illegal immigrants - have used it to get work without her knowledge. It took the government years to discover her information was being used illegally by so many people. Even then, authorities took little action. "They knew what was happening but wouldn't do anything," said Schmierer, 33, a housewife in this affluent San Francisco suburb. "One name, one number, why can't they just match it up?" The case is an egregious example of a common immigration problem: Personal information being misused and...

Interview With Notre Dame's Father John Coughlin NEW YORK, JUNE 12, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Questions about the nature of Church-related universities resurfaced after a commencement speaker at a Catholic institution was booed when defending Church teaching on premarital sex and contraception. For insight into the identity of Catholic colleges in general, ZENIT turned to Franciscan Father John Coughlin, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. He shared with ZENIT the essential characteristics of a Catholic university as laid out in canon law and the 1990 apostolic constitution "Ex Corde Ecclesia," and the need for a commitment to the priority...

State tries to help vets at risk of identity theftFriday, May 26, 2006 By Richard M. Barron STAFF WRITER North Carolina's attorney general wants to make it easier for veterans to protect themselves against potential identity theft. Roy Cooper has asked the legislature to change state law to make it free for veterans to place a security freeze on their credit reports, days after the Department of Veterans Affairs said millions of its records were stolen. It now costs $10 per credit agency to put a freeze on reports, which essentially places a padlock on an account. It costs another...

Dear Military.com Member, As you may know, data was stolen from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This data contained identifying information on up to 26.5 million veterans and spouses, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and some disability ratings. At this time, we encourage you to be vigilant and monitor your financial accounts to protect yourself against identity theft. We have put together the following information to help you: Read the latest from the Department of Veteran Affairs Important FAQs What happened at VA and how does it affect me?How do I know if information on me was...

We used to fingerprint felons -- now, we're "inking" traffic scofflaws. Run a couple of mph over the speed limit in the state of Kansas (or even fail to "buckle up for safety") and you'll be duly entered into the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's electronic fingerprint database -- a privilege once reserved for actual criminals, not ordinary citizens who commit minor violations of the motor vehicle code. KBI, authorized by the state government, will be "testing out" 60 automated fingerprint readers throughout the state beginning this month -- all of it funded by a $3.6 million grant from the Department...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Buried in the huge border bill the U.S. Senate passed Thursday is a provision that would allow states to put citizenship details on new secure driver`s licenses. The pilot program, which would allow those getting new licenses the option to have the card confirm their citizenship as well as their identity, would make licenses an effective substitute for a U.S. passport at the nation`s borders and throughout the Caribbean. And critics say it would be an important step towards a national identity card system. The license provision is one of a series...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2006 – It doesn't take much information for a determined identity thief to succeed, a certified financial planner with USAA Financial Planning Services told American Forces Press Service today. The identity theft issue is at the forefront for millions of veterans who learned this week that computer equipment containing their personal information was stolen from the home of a Veterans Affairs Department analyst. A little personal information that can be easy to find on the Internet -- name, date of birth and address, for example -- can make stealing someone's identity relatively easy, June Walbert said....

MOSCOW - Russia is standing on a small and shrinking patch of middle ground as it tries to protect its huge business relationship with Iran while finding a diplomatic resolution for U.S. and European concerns that Iran has a secret nuclear-weapons program.

For readers around the world, her penetrating works about race and identity have been a source of comfort and security, a nod of acceptance for "the outsider." But for novelist Gish Jen, joining the ranks of the "middle-aged" has given rise to a new series of questions that leaves her wondering what lies ahead for younger generations living in multicultural cities across the globe. "I've always written about possibility and self-invention, but now suddenly I feel caught off short," Jen confessed Sunday, during a candid discussion hosted by the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival. With a playful reference to...

3/8/2006 - MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (AFPN) -- Identity theft is an increasingly common occurrence. Two studies concluded that there were 7 million victims between June 2002 and 2003. The Federal Trade Commission number is closer to 10 million but also includes credit card takeover. According to the FTC, identity theft is the most common form of consumer fraud, with thefts totaling more than $100 million from financial institutions, an average of more than $7,000 per victim. Since law enforcement nationwide does not often collect statistics about ID theft, there is no one answer; however, the growth rate was...

ASSEMBLY, No. 1327 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 212th LEGISLATURE   PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2006 SESSION     Sponsored by: Assemblyman PETER J. BIONDI District 16 (Morris and Somerset)         SYNOPSIS      Makes certain operators of interactive computer services and Internet service providers liable to persons injured by false or defamatory messages posted on public forum websites.   CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT      As introduced.    An Act concerning the posting of certain Internet messages and supplementing chapter 38A of Title 2A of the New Jersey Statutes.        Be It Enacted by the Senate...

Answer To Last Month's "Full House For Disaster" Four Of A Kind: Foundations For An American Future March, 2006 Feature--Return Of The Gods Web Site SynopsisThe four foundation blocks for a Conservative American Future, one that returns to the wisdom of the Founders: Integrity, Identity, Responsibility & Respect. Last month we discussed a metaphorical "poker hand from Hell," reviewing a "full house" of egregious errors in addressing social goals and in understanding the causation for social phenomena. In a discussion of error in addressing societal goals, we described serious mistakes in assigning responsibility in the approach to Public School...

Associated Press Television Network Odile Bonnivard, a leader of the community supplying the soup. PARIS, Feb. 27 — More than 200 political demonstrators defied a police ban here on Thursday, scurrying across Boulevard St.-Germain and under the sycamore trees of Place Maubert to engage in their forbidden action: eating "pig soup" in public. With steaming bowls of the fragrant broth soon passing through the crowd, Odile Bonnivard...led the crowd in a raucous chant: "We are all pig eaters! We are all pig eaters!" Identity soup, as the broth has come to be called, is one of the stranger manifestations...

CINCINNATI - Tiny silicon chips were embedded into two workers who volunteered to help test the tagging technology at a surveillance equipment company, an official said Monday. --snip-- Darks said the implants don't enable CityWatcher.com to track employees' movements. "It's a passive chip. It emits no signal whatsoever," Darks said. "It's the same thing as a keycard." --snip-- The company is experimenting with the chips to identify workers with access to vaults where data and images are kept for police departments, he said.

Undercover as a man Book explores male identity BOOKS COLLEEN LONG Associated Press Writer NEW YORK -- The only time Norah Vincent was ever accused of being too feminine was when people thought she was a man. And when she bound her breasts, wore a pressed blue suit, a fake penis and faux stubble, and went to strip clubs and men's groups to research her book, "Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back," she realized how undeniably female she is. The result is an intimate account of the 18 months Vincent spent as "Ned," penetrating tight circles meant...

The secret list of ID theft victims Consumers could be warned, but U.S government isn't talkingLinda Trevino, who lives in a Chicago suburb, applied for a job last year at a local Target department store, and was denied. The reason? She already worked there -- or rather, her Social Security number already worked there. Follow-up investigation revealed the same Social Security number had been used to obtain work at 37 other employers, mostly by illegal immigrants trying to satisfy government requirements to get a job. Trevino is hardly alone. MSNBC.com research and government reports suggest hundreds of thousands of American...

Years ago, on a flight to Louisville, Ky., the woman seated next to me asked what brought me from Los Angeles to Louisville. "I will be giving a lecture," I responded. "To whom?" the personable middle-aged woman asked. "To the Jewish community," I responded. She then proceeded to engage me in a discussion about Jews, and it became apparent that she believed Jews wielded great influence in society. So I decided to ask her a question: "There are almost 300 million Americans. How many of them do you think are Jews?" "Fifty million," she replied. When I told her there...

Right wing groups in France have for weeks been handing out pork soup to the hungry. But dietary concerns mean that Muslims and Jews are excluded. Which is exactly the point.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2006 – Military life is full of ups and downs. But for it to be a more positive experience, military spouses have to know themselves, Amberlynde Graham said. Graham has been a married nearly six years to a Navy fire controlman - he operates, maintains and repairs weapons systems' control mechanisms. In that time, the couple and their four children -- the youngest is now 22 months old -- have had six changes of station in five states and gone through two deployments. They are currently stationed in San Diego. Through the moves and separations, her enthusiasm...

Ever have your credit card denied? A check bounce? A computer tell you your credit is no good? Ever find a lot of charges on your card or phone charges on your bill you don't recognize? I have, and I'll bet you have, too. Twice I've been separated from my billfold, along with every card, my driver's license, even my Social Security card, everything that can identify me – except my face and my white buck shoes – and it's a terrible sinking feeling. Remember the Bob Dole commercial in which the elderly lady behind the cash register is demanding...

/begin my translationChina: 77 Avian Flu Patients Dead in Liaoning Province...Victim's Name Published on Internet2005/11/21 In Liaoning Province of China, 6 people were infected with H5N1 Avian Flu and had died recently, according to Nov. 20 report by an overseas Chinese language news site, Boxun, quoting the article posted by a poster.Six victims were 4 students in Beining City, 1 epidemic-prevention worker, and another person whose identity is unknown. According to the post, the number of dead people from H5N1 Avian Flu in Liaoning Province has reached 77, including the six new victims. Furthermore, at one of domestic Chinese Internet site,...

COUPLE INDICTED FOR BRINGING IN AND HARBORING SMUGGLED TEENAGE GIRLS FROM MEXICO Victims allegedly threatened; 14-year-old forced to work 12-hour shifts to repay debts SALT LAKE CITY – A federal grand jury returned an eight-count indictment this morning charging a Salt Lake City couple for their role in a scheme to smuggle a 14-year-old girl and two other young women from Mexico to Utah and hold them at a local residence until each repaid $2,800 in smuggling fees. According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, the defendants told the women their relatives in Mexico would be killed if...

CHICAGO MAN FOUND GUILTY IN BIZARRE MURDER PLOT, FACES LIFE IN PRISON CHICAGO — A Chicago man was found guilty in federal court Monday for his role in a bizarre plot involving murder, faked death and a switched body that was revealed from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). James Rand, 49, was found guilty by a federal jury of aiding and abetting in murdering William White, a 47-year-old homeless man who was suffocated in an effort to fake the death of Joseph Kalady. Kalady was facing federal prosecution in 2001 for running a fraudulent immigration document...