Free Republic

This is what Obama doesn't understand about the Common American on Main Street. A True Redneck - This isn't your typical redneck joke. We have enjoyed the redneck jokes for years. It's time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God. If I had to stand before a dozen terrorists who threaten my life, I'd choose a half dozen or so rednecks to back me up. Tire irons, squirrel guns and grit -- that's what rednecks are made of. I hope I am one of those. If you feel...

HIV-positive men told a Dutch court on Wednesday how a three-member gay gang tried to infect them with the AIDS virus at sex orgies. "I feel fear, anger, sadness and anxiety," one of the alleged victims testified before the district court in Groningen on the third day of the week-long trial. "I have lost a lot of weight," lamented the student, who is infected with HIV. The three accused, all HIV-positive, are charged with drugging gay men at sex orgies, raping them, and injecting them with blood contaminated with HIV. They are aged 39, 49 and 50. The three, including...

Have you noticed all those signs at Barack Obama rallies that look like hand-lettered, home-crafted messages from honest-to-goodness grass roots supporters? They’re fakes. Terry Ann Online: Passing out the signs at the Obama rally.

In 2006, after the Lebanon war, Israel's foreign ministry decided that the country had a p.r. problem on its hands. The solution? Let the world know that Israel, far from being a place of war and terror, was in fact a land of sunny beaches and beautiful women: in other words, a country that was fundamentally normal. And, so, Israel retained the p.r. firm Saatchi and Saatchi, which promised a campaign to help the Jewish state build a "narrative of normalcy." Then, last July, the Israeli consulate in New York arranged for the men's magazine Maxim to publish a spread...

I was driving in Sderot early in the day. A rocket alert was sounded. I felt that I do not wish to stop, so I kept on driving. I then heard an explosion not too far away. I looked in my rearview mirror, and saw a cloud of smoke rising from the area I left behind. I kept driving. Another rocket alert was sounded. I was in an open area between neighborhoods and saw a frightened woman standing at the side of the road. I stopped, she entered the vehicle, and I drove her to the nearest rocket shelter, where...

ADHAMIYAH, Iraq, March 24, 2008 – Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers here witnessed the changes and progress in the area and its bustling market during a joint dismounted patrol with the Iraqi army on Chem Street. Iraqi army and Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers head toward Chem Street in Adhamiyah, Iraq, during a dismounted patrol, March 20, 2008. Soldiers of 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, which is attached to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, regularly patrol the streets with their Iraqi counterparts from 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division. Photo...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2007 – President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have laid the groundwork for defining what a long-term relationship between the two countries will look like, White House officials announced today. Both signed the U.S.-Iraq Declaration of Principles for Friendship and Cooperation, the first step toward a normalized, bilateral relationship, said Brett McGurk, director for Iraq in the National Security Council. The document provides a framework for future negotiations between the two countries and loosely defines the issues. McGurk said long-term progress in the region will take a generational commitment in one form or another,...

Coral reveals increased hurricanes may be the norm 18:00 06 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The recent increase in the number of major Atlantic hurricanes may just be a return to the norm after a period of unusually low storm frequency, say researchers. Johan Nyberg of the Geological Survey of Sweden and colleagues used marine sediment cores of coral samples from the northeast Caribbean to build a proxy record of wind shear and sea-surface temperatures since 1730, and from this they estimated hurricane activity since that time. High wind shear – the difference in speed and direction between...

He looks like a good cop. He's got the 'stache, the short-cropped hair, the pushed-out chest and the shiny badge. He sounds like a good cop too; drawled and official. He's got a TV reporter's microphone in his face and a brick of marijuana in his hand, and he's answering questions—not in the "I just accidentally Tasered an old lady" kind of way, but with a grin of accomplishment. The total bust was in the neighborhood of 275 pounds. This is the old Barry Cooper. Top cop. Total prick. He claims more than 300 felony drug arrests during his eight...

Vegetation die-off (areas of reddish-brown) in New England observed by NASA satellite, revealing the negative influence of heating oil use on normally healthy vegetation.(Greenbelt, Maryland) A new sensor on a NASA Earth-orbiting satellite has for the first time observed a global-scale die off of vegetation, a new article in Science magazine reports this week. "We were amazed at the continental scale that this die off occupied", said Dr. John Jorgenson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The relatively rapid change in vegetation characteristics was observed from late summer through the fall, when the multi-million dollar NASA instrument recorded a distinct...

SACRAMENTO Sierra Nevada snow levels are far above normal as warm temperatures hit California and flood-wary residents wait for the spring runoff, but officials predicted Thursday that reservoirs would be able to handle the extra water. The state Department of Water Resources said its last check of the 2005-2006 rainy season found a Sierra snowpack that averaged 180 percent of normal water content for this time of year. Levels were higher than that average in the northern Sierra 207 percent of normal and lower in the central and southern parts of the mountain range 169 percent and 175 percent, respectively....

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 6, 2006 — After years of war, sanctions, insurgency and occupation, it is difficult for some Iraqis to remember what "normal" is. Many see the media reports of a car bomb here or an attack there and think this happens everywhere in Iraq on a daily basis. Not true. While violence happens all too often around Iraq, it is not normal nor something Iraqis should accept. Normal life is an economy where a young man can go out and find a job, build a career or ultimately own his own business. Normal is the ability to get...

Last night, I watched our President give a pretty great speech. "We love our Freedom ... and we will fight to keep it". Little Gb will be a year in June, so he's too little to enjoy the speech, especially since he was in bed. Mrs. Gb was tidying up, and commented little. So it was just me watching George as he give us a straightforward account of what he saw going on with the USA, and what he thinks should be going on. Coffee was ready to brew this morning. I punched the button, and then let the dogs...

CáRDENAS, Cuba · Elián González says he wants to be a gymnast when he grows up. But his grandfather, Juan González Sr., knows Elián's future career choices are as variable as any normal preteen's and could change next month. "I want him to be a good man, to do good deeds, not do anything he will regret. Everything else is all right," he said, sitting in his home in the coastal town of Cárdenas under a large photograph of a very young Elián. At age 11, the boy whose bitter custody battle stands as a symbol of the Cold War...

IN mid-2002, when the video game Narc was only six months into development, the most startling element in it may have been a barrel-throwing sumo wrestler. Or it may have been the inclusion of a villainous flamenco dancer named El Toro. When the game is released for PlayStation 2 and the Xbox next week, however, the most arresting aspect will most likely be that players of Narc will - as part of the gameplay - be able to take drugs. In an industry known for depicting violence, Narc's foray into substance abuse is a venture into a largely untracked frontier....

"Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within." — from a song by the Undisputed Truth Did you search for murder in Dennis Rader's eyes? I certainly did. He looked disheveled and disgruntled, as anyone might in his or her mug shot. But did you see anything else? An unsettling gleam like the one in Charles Manson's eyes? The remote coldness that lurks in Theodore Kaczynski's? Did you see murder in Rader's eyes? ....It's a judgment call, of course, but I didn't. He looked like Joe Blow's cousin, a fat, balding white guy of late middle age,...

"But I'm not a serpent, I tell you!" said Alice......."Well! What are you?" said the Pigeon, "I can see you're trying to invent something!" ----Advice From A Caterpillar Noah Webster defined 'orient' and its' derivative 'orientation' thusly: "orient: the east; East Asia; to cause to face the east; to set as a map; to adjust to a particular situation. "orientation: oriented; recognition of and adaptation to a situation or environment." Primarily then, orientation speaks to direction and/or adjusting or adapting to a situation or environment. Implicit in this definition is 'choice,' as one must make a decision as to whether...

WASHINGTON — Pot. Cannabis. Hemp. Weed. Grass. The herb takes many names. But in the nation’s capital, where the marijuana lobby (search) was once the recreational diversion of Playboy Magazine's Hugh Hefner, pro-pot special interest groups have crystallized the divergent issues behind the plant and gained a seemingly unified voice. ________________ Puff, Cough, Puff, Cough________________ "It’s a no-brainer. It makes no sense putting old and sick folks in jail for an herb that makes them feel better," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project (search), which was established in 1995 by Rob Kampia, a former mainstay at the...

Pride week on campus is not just for homosexuals anymore. A group of College Republicans at the University of Central Oklahoma is gearing up for what it calls "Straight Pride Week." "The general gist is that if you are a straight student on campus be proud, be loud, this is your time to shine," College Republican Kyle Houts told KOCO-TV. Already posted around the Edmond, Okla., campus are fliers reading, "We're here, we're conservative, we're out." University officials have granted permission for the fliers, but they say it's not an endorsement of the message. Members of the Gay Alliance for...

Activist: Fight nuclear power Disarmament advocate talks at IWU, ISU By Michele Steinbacher msteinbacher@pantagraph.com BLOOMINGTON -- Nuclear arsenals still point at the world's cities more than a decade after the Cold War, and atomic power plants like the one in Clinton dot the nation's landscape. That should terrify Americans into action, one of the world's leading advocates for nuclear disarmament told Central Illinois residents Thursday. "Why do you have all these missiles if Russia is now your best friend?" Dr. Helen Caldicott asked a crowd gathered at an Illinois Wesleyan University lecture hall Thursday. Later that night she spoke at...

  Response To "In Praise of Hijacking" by Reginald Firehammer Dr. Chris Matthew Sciabarra is the kind of man I wish I never had to disagree with; but, if I must have an adversary, I could not ask for a more decent or worthy one. "In Praise of Hijacking," his recent well-crafted criticism of my book, The Hijacking of a Philosophy, exmplifies the very high qualities for which I admire him.To most of Dr. Sciabarra's criticisms, I plead guilty. He has been very fair and accurate in portraying my arguments. Of course, they were presented from his point of view,...

4 years after return to Cuba, Elian a normal schoolboy BY MAKI BECKER New York Daily News Posted on Sat, Jul. 31, 2004 NEW YORK - (KRT) - Elian Gonzalez, now 10, hits the books in Cardenas, Cuba, where he lives with his father. Four years after little Elian Gonzalez was plucked from the seas off Florida's coast and sparked an international custody battle, the young boy is leading a sheltered and almost normal life back in Cuba. Elian lives with his father in their hometown of Cardenas and he still sports the same impish grin that captivated the world...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mayor James K. Hahn announced the resignations of the three top aides, including a deputy mayor at the center of a so-called pay-to-play controversy. Hahn said Thursday that Deputy Mayors Troy Edwards, Sarah Dusseault and Joy Chen quit their jobs. Edwards, a key fund-raiser for Hahn's 2001 election campaign and his airports and harbor departments liaison, will leave April 9. He was subpoenaed to testify by a county grand jury investigating corruption in city contracting practices, the Daily News reported Friday. "Troy has been a longtime key adviser to me," Hahn said in a statement that...

Divorce and adultery are common; still, nearly all Americans at least try marriage President Bush wants a constitutional amendment to preserve marriage. But what, exactly, would it preserve? Traditional marriage already has been transformed, not by gays and lesbians who want in, but by straights who want out. What the president called civilization's ''most fundamental institution'' is, in America, a rather peculiar one. It's an institution that 59% of us currently inhabit and that more than nine in 10 of us eventually embrace, at least once and for a little while. It correlates with health, wealth and happiness. It's the...

ISS appears normal after capsule leak January 13 2004 at 04:06PM By Reuters By Sonia Oxley Moscow - Air pressure has stabilised aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after astronauts found a tiny hole that probably caused the ISS to fall for three weeks, Russian and United States space officials said on Tuesday. The orbital platform had been slowly losing pressure since December 22. On Monday, astronauts removed a hose in the window of a US onboard laboratory, which was the likely source of the leak. "My understanding is that the air pressure levels have stabilised," Jim Newman, director of...

Looks like this poll by the American Family Association is under attack by the homopervs and/or their surrogates. Currently the exclusivity of traditional marriage is only backed by 32% of respondents, while 67% want to enshrine homosexual sodomy within the bounds of a legally defined "marriage" or union in the United States.Sure, I know online polls aren't scientific or even necessarily heeded by courts or legislators...but we can certainly do better than this!

Worm Suspect Said Just a Normal, Fun-Loving Teen Sat Aug 30, 6:28 PM ET By Todd Melby HOPKINS, Minn. (Reuters) - A friend of a Minnesota high school student charged with unleashing a new strain of the Blaster Internet worm that infected computers around the world described him on Saturday as "just a kid" who is likely innocent. Mike Heldt, who once worked with suspect Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, at a local movie theater, told Reuters he and Parson like to shoot billiards, rent movies, play video games and "just sit around and joke like other kids." "I don't think...

What the hell is happening in America? Every perversion and "choice" is being presented to us as "normal," as though challenging us to disagree and confess we think they're abnormal. Such a confession would earn us one of those labels meant to silence us (bigot, homophobe, redneck, intolerant, or just plain "not with it"). The Supreme Court's endorsement of sodomy was bad enough, but we should worry as much about the gradual intrusions that the gay, lesbian, bisexual, sadomasochist, transgender, transvestite, and other members of the "sexual rights" gang and their cohorts make on decent American society. The Baltimore Sun...

HBO's 'Normal' and Showtime's 'Soldier's Girl' bring the lives of transgendered people to the small screen BY GLENN GARVIN ggarvin@herald.com The conversation would have made Calpernia Addams wince, if she hadn't already heard it a thousand times before. Walking down the street at Sundance Film Festival, the center of the hip filmmaking universe, the phrase floated out of the cloud of deal-cutting babble: . . . and then the transsexual prostitute. . .''In Hollywood, it's like the two words go together, transsexual and prostitute,'' says Addams, who owns a video production company -- and is also transsexual. ``They don't even...

Baghdad on slow path to normalcy Public workers return; hunt for Hussein's cohorts continues04/20/2003 From Wire Reports BAGHDAD, Iraq – With the fighting largely over and the roundup of members of Saddam Hussein's regime slowly building, Baghdad showed its strongest signs of a return to normalcy Saturday as thousands of public employees returned to work. "I don't know what to think," said Nawal Abdel Karim, who shook her head at the scattered papers, computer disks and mangled furniture in the Supreme Audit Bureau, where she has worked for 19 years. "I can't believe Iraqis could do this. This cannot be...

In Detroit, the world's second oldest profession is taking aim at knocking out the world's oldest profession. Never mind that many people who have received, or are receiving, a paycheck from city government are or have been involved in prostitution in some way. The hunt is on. Except, in this case they are not exactly going after the prostitutes, per se. Hassling the working girls seems to be a lost cause. They pop up faster than spring dandelions on city owned property. And, like the dandelions, there seems to be a large bumper crop of new young ones every year....