Free Republic

love the Kern River. I've probably driven there a hundred times or more over the past 20 years. But it can be a dangerous place for the young, the inexperienced, the careless, as evidenced by a sign warning of lives lost just before you enter the gorge en route to Lake Isabella from Bakersfield. Which makes this Bakersfield.com report even more sobering: Pools now claiming more victims than Kern River... So far this year there have been seven drownings in pools compared to just four in the river... So far, five local children under the age of 10 have drowned...

I am currently reading a book written by a friend about movies. He has asked me to read it and write a book review for him. While I am reading his book, I would like to get an idea of where my fellow Freepers stand as to what you think about today's movies. I have learned in my 11 years as a member of Free Republic, to trust and respect the opinions here more than anywhere else I could go to on the WWW. I guess I would have to say that your opinions reflect the truest conservative points...

Pacific NW Cover Story Growing up in Normandy Park in the mid-'70s, Jeff Wiltse spent summers at the pool. All day. Every day. And it wasn't just about swimming. There was Wiffle ball, showing off for pretty girls, trading baseball cards on the pool deck. The pool was where he had his first meaningful conversations with adults (during intergenerational games of pickleball), and Wiltse vaguely understood, even then, that the pool was more than chlorine and concrete; it was a uniquely intimate community space, "effective for overcoming the social distance that keeps people separate in most spheres of life." Decades...

They're pulled from backyard pools and bathtubs each year, tiny limp bodies, blue and not breathing. A young life can vanish quickly under water. A survivor can endure a lifetime of disabilities. Either way, families are torn apart by an almost always preventable tragedy. Standard summer companions in our desert climate, swimming pools can be deadlier for children than guns. A child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident than in gunplay, writes Steven D. Levitt, University of Chicago economics professor and best-selling author. Levitt analyzed child deaths from residential swimming pools and guns and found...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As the EU looks set to open membership negotiations with Turkey at the end of next week, over a third of its citizens are opposed to further enlargement of the 25-nation bloc. Conducted in October and November, just months after the Union expanded by 10 countries, the poll shows that 35% of citizens are against further enlargement - with 53% in favour and 12% saying they do not know. Those against enlargement rises to 43% when citizens only from the 15 'old' member states are considered. Austrians and Germans have the highest percentages of citizens against...

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Only 1 in 5 foreigners wants to see President Bush re-elected, according to surveys taken in 35 foreign countries this summer and released Wednesday. John Kerry would win a "global election" for president in 30 of the 35 countries, including overwhelming majorities among European allies and pluralities in the nine Latin American nations surveyed. Only in Poland, Nigeria and the Philippines was Bush preferred. India and Thailand were closely divided. On average, 46 percent of respondents favored Kerry to 20 percent for Bush. One-third of those surveyed said that they had no preference or it didn't...