Free Republic

HONOLULU (AP) _ At key moments in his adolescence, Barack Obama could not turn to a father he hardly knew. Instead, he looked to a left-leaning black journalist and poet for advice on living in a world of black and white. Frank Marshall Davis had his opinions. He once argued that the public schools of his youth prepared neither blacks nor whites for "life in a multiracial, democratic nation." He called hypocrisy "a national trait of American whites." Advocating civil rights amid segregation, Davis wrote in 1949: "I refuse to settle for anything less than all the rights which are...

It is a sport folks.As seen on ESPN the World Hot Dog eating Champ Joey from San Jose California kept this years title in the USA. Well today he at over 8 pounds of rib meat. King Vanity had a blast watching the panal of grown men compete for this years Smoking At the Ocean rib eating Championship Belt. He visited with all the contestants post contest and enjoyed their grunting in abdominal pain. Other contestants were World Champs in eating Jalepenos, Captain Crunch, fried Asparugus and much more. Can you imagine downing jars of Mayonnaise? It is true.

Third red spot erupts on Jupiter 18:03 22 May 2008 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga Three red spots now adorn Jupiter – the Great Red Spot at right, Red Spot Junior at lower left and the third red spot just above it, as revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope (Image: NASA/ESA/M Wong/I de Pater/University of California, Berkeley) A third giant red storm has flared up on Jupiter, joining the Great Red Spot and the recently developed Red Spot Junior. The spot, along with new measurements of record-high wind speeds on Red Spot Junior, suggest the solar system's largest planet is...

DNA reveals Neanderthal redheadsNeanderthals’ pigmentation possibly as varied as humans’, scientists say By Steve BradtWith Neanderthals’ surviving bones providing few clues, scientists have long sought to flesh out the appearance of this hominid species. Illustration created by Knut Finstermeier, Neanderthal reconstruction by the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum Mannheim Ancient DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals suggests that at least some of them had red hair and pale skin, scientists report this week in the journal Science. The international team says that Neanderthals’ pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans, and that at least 1 percent of...

TO HIGHLIGHT China's repressive policies, protesters are attacking the Olympic torch as it wends its way to Beijing and the summer games. It's embarrassing for the moment, but China knows the real score. In the long run, the drive for human profit always beats the drive for human rights. Massachusetts offers a tiny but telling glimpse into that broad economic reality. On April 1, University of Massachusetts president Jack M. Wilson announced an agreement with Chinese officials to offer government-sanctioned online classes in the communist nation of 1.3 billion. The deal, UMass officials said, could generate up to $5 million...

Mounting Evidence Shows Red Wine Antioxidant Kills CancerA natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells. (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2008) — Rochester researchers showed for the first time that a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells by reaching to the cell's core energy source, or mitochondria, and crippling its function. The new study also showed that when the pancreatic cancer cells were doubly assaulted -- pre-treated with the antioxidant, resveratrol, and irradiated -- the combination induced a type of cell death called...

An image of an eight-year-old Knowles appears in the ad, shown sleeping soundly in bed. The Clinton campaign legally purchased the file footage of Knowles from Getty Images. Clinton's ad aimed to emphasize her experience and say she'd be a strong national security candidate. The ad was a play on a 1980s-era advertisement with a similar theme: if there was a middle-of-the-night national security emergency, who would you want to have answer the phone and deal with it? Ironically, though, the now-17-year-old Knowles would want Clinton rival Barack Obama to answer any important 3 a.m. calls coming into the White...

I do like the new interface to FR. But I have to ask, why is the keyword 'Obama' red and all the rest are grey or grey bold. I'm sure this is just a coincidence.

"It is not yet true, as it has long been of the United States, that if China were to sneeze, the world would catch pneumonia," comments Times Literary Supplement reviewer Rosemary Righter. But "China's potential capacity to upset the international applecart already exercises financial analysts and other crystal-ball gazers." It is certainly instructive to see how "the next superpower" responds to the dangers of inflation. While Ben Bernanke continues to cut interest rates to spur easy credit and artificial economic growth – and to make his political masters look good – China raised interest rates six times last year. The...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items coloured scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolising love, newspapers said. "They visited us last night," the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying. It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine's Day, which it...

Living On 'The Red Edge': Rare Form Of Chlorophyll Discovered In Newly Sequenced BacteriumSea Squirts and sea stars. The Acaryochloris marina lives beneath the sea squirt, which is a marine animal that lives attached to rocks just below the surface of the water. The cyanobacterium absorbs "red edge" light through the tissues of its pal the sea squirt. (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2008) — Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Arizona State University have sequenced the genome of a rare bacterium that harvests light energy by making an even rarer form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d. Chlorophyll d...

Debby Hutton gives a comfort kit to Army 2nd Lt. Larry Cook at the Combat Support Hospital on Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Tikrit, Nov. 19. Hutton, of Kingsport Tenn., is the assistant station manager of the Red Cross Station on COB Speicher. Cook, of Greensboro, N.C., is a platoon leader with 3rd Battalion, 1st Aviation. Photo by Spc. Eric Rutherford, 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. TIKRIT — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines have a lot to worry about in a forward-deployed combat zone. Besides roadside bombs, sniper attacks, and ambushes, they also have to worry about their families back home...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Nov. 6, 2007) -- The Marines of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 268 arrived at Al Taqaddum to support service members operating in the Al Anbar province, Sept. 15. The 'Red Dragons' assumed responsibility of the general support helicopter mission in the Western Al Anbar province after a transfer of authority ceremony with HMM-161. The Camp Pendleton-based CH-46E squadron offers helicopter assault support to ground units and general support to air elements, including water drop off at combat outposts, troop lifts and equipment transport from camp to camp to sustain operations. In addition to general and assault support,...

U.S. Marines with Viking Red Section, Mobile Assault Platoon, Regimental Combat Team 2, observe an Iraqi personal security detachment fire AK-47 rifles on a firing range at Camp Gannon. The Iraqis are training to be personal security officers for local judges. Viking Red Marines Train Iraqis to Keep Judges Safe Troops employ visual cues to bridge language barrier. By Cpl. Eric C. Schwartz 2nd Marine Division CAMP GANNON, Husaybah, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2007 — It’s not news to read that politicians, famous athletes and even entertainers have bodyguards protecting them from dangerous people, but in Iraq, their judges need...

Pakistan struggles to contain Red Mosque fury By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad Last Updated: 2:05am BST 14/07/2007 Hardline protesters burned effigies of Gen Musharraf shouting 'Long live the martyrs' President Pervez Musharraf's regime sought to reassure Pakistan's Muslim clergy yesterday as the authorities tried to contain public anger over the siege of the Red Mosque. Minor protests took place in cities across the country. The regime is braced for an Islamist backlash after commandos stormed the mosque and killed about 100 people. Protesters burned effigies of Gen Musharraf and President George W Bush, shouting "Long live the martyrs" and "Musharraf...

Pakistan's army says an operation to flush out militants from a mosque in Islamabad is in its final stages - 24 hours after troops stormed the complex. Several explosions were heard after dawn on Wednesday and sporadic gunfire. During heavy fighting on Tuesday, the Red Mosque's militant cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and some 50 of his supporters were killed, the army said. Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law. On Tuesday, eight soldiers also died, and some 50 women and children were freed. Pakistan's military spokesman Gen Waheed...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani troops raided Islamambad's Red Mosque on Tuesday and attempted to flush out the remaining militants entrenched inside a women's religious school in fierce fighting that left at least 50 militants and eight soldiers dead, the army said. He said the army attack was now focused on the women's school but that some militants were still firing from the tops of the mosque's minarets. He said the entire compound included 75 rooms, large basements and expansive courtyards.

TWO aid workers and a soldier were killed in fierce fighting yesterday between the Lebanese army and al-Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp. A Palestinian cleric trying to mediate an end to the fighting between the army and the Fatah al-Islam group was also wounded at the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon. Two members of the Lebanese Red Cross were killed and a third was wounded when they were hit by a shell, while a soldier was also killed. At least 133 people have been killed, including 57 soldiers, in three weeks of fighting - the worst internal...

"Rotten Tomatoes UK can exclusively reveal that Kevin Smith's next project - a horror movie - is called "Red State". Up until now Smith has revealed little about the film other than the fact it's a horror movie and it'll be decidedly less joke-y than his back-catalogue. But, in addition to the title, Smith was keen to give us a head's up on the plot of the film. If you've seen any of his "An Evening With..." DVDs, you'll know how much fun it can be to sit down in an audience and listen to "Clerks II" director Kevin Smith...

This is a lengthy, comprehensive and well written account of the pros and cons of the Chinese economy. One must read the whole article to grasp its balance and fairness but it begins thusly: China is securing an ever-bigger share of the world market with the methods of a planned economy. Competitors and economists alike are astounded by the country's seemingly unstoppable march to becoming a global economic superpower. The development has left many wondering: Does communism work after all?

Russia has suffered terribly at the hands of Islamic terrorism over the centuries and continues suffer today. Yet, Russia is the best friend of the terrorism-exporting Muslim countries. Russia is actively helping Iran towards its ambition to extiprate Israel. Will Russia learn a lesson?

Paviland Cave and The Red Lady Paviland Cave, on the south coast of the Gower peninsula, South Wales, is an Early Upper Palaeolithic (Early Stone Age) archaeological site, dating to roughly 30,000 - 20,000 years ago. It is the richest site of its kind in Britain, with four and a half thousand finds, including worked bone and stone (lithic) tools. The Red Lady of Paviland was a fairly complete human skeleton dyed in red ochre that was discovered in 1826 by the Reverend William Buckland in one of the Paviland limestone caves at )Goat’s Hole Cave). The "lady" has since...

Families are Red, Singles are Blue: Marriage, Fertility, and the Mid-Term Elections After the 2000 election, the terms "Red state” and ‘Blue state” became a popular shorthand for describing the political and cultural divide that separated Democrats and Republicans. The flawed but useful metaphor implies that idealogical leanings and political affiliations are clustered around geographic areas. But a recent analysis by Census data by USA Today reveals a pair of factors that are even more determinative of political affiliation than race, income, education or geography: family and fertility. In fact, when it comes to Congressional representation, marriage and parenthood are...

In the reprehensible Sunday Star Tribune story by Paul McEnroe and Rochelle Olson on the expunged 1995 arrest of Republican Fifth District congressional candidate Alan Fine, the reporters omitted relevant facts. Fine was charged by his then wife with domestic assault, but the police report (quoted by the Star Tribune) indicated only that Fine had been attacked. What's the rest of the story? The charge was dropped and Fine was never prosecuted for the incident. In 2004 Fine's arrest was expunged by court order -- a court order that was apparently violated by someone who supplied the police report to...

Democrats and liberal judges say terrorists have the same rights as you. Democrats will impeach President Bush for spying on terrorists. Democrats will cancel the Patriot Act, terrorists surveillance and missile defense programs. Stop obstruction and the filibuster. Vote for a Republican majority! If you're not an extremist, you're not a democrat. Take the red pill (R). Take the blue pill (D). VOTE!

The division of America into red and blue is a totem of our times. The red states voted for Bush, the Blue for the Democrats. The blue states are on the coasts, the red states are flyovers. More importantly to Republicans, and invidiously to Democrats, the red states are -- at worst -- no less prosperous than the blue states, and probably a good bit better off if we pay attention to migration patterns. The Democrats know they are in real trouble if they don't start turning some of those red states, because the electoral college will shift away from...

"As a child, Ned's family dinners were animated by political discussions, with lively exchanges between his grandfather, a banker, and his uncle, a Democratic activist," reports Ned Lamont's Web site. This passage could just as easily have been written by the mainstream news media in one of their incurious biographical sketches of the state's newly minted Democratic U.S. Senate candidate. But this is how the Lamont propaganda machine wants it. As The New York Times reported Aug. 3: "Mr. Lamont prefers not to talk about his background. 'I've been blessed,' he will say, but beyond that he can turn testy."...

The Silicon Valley Young Republicans Federated would like for you to attend this event this August.This is a funraiser to help raise funds for many Pro Troop causes. SVYRF Club Socials SVYRFC Annual BBQ Location: Sanborn Skyline County Park, Saratoga When: August 12, 2006 Registration: starts at 3pm Food: 4pm Program/Speakers: 5pm Clean-up: 8pm Confirmed Speakers: Claude Parrish, BOE member and Republican candidate for State Treasurer Mike Wasserman, Los Gatos town councilman, former Los Gatos mayor Elsie Gufler, Republican candidate for CA Assembly District 19 Larry Hileman, Republican candidate for CA Assembly District 24 Rob Smith, Republican candidate for CA...

The Silicon Valley Young Republicans Federated would like for you to attend this event this August.This is a funraiser to help raise funds for many Pro Troop causes. SVYRF Club Socials SVYRFC Annual BBQ Location: Sanborn Skyline County Park, Saratoga When: August 12, 2006 Registration: starts at 3pm Food: 4pm Program/Speakers: 5pm Clean-up: 8pm Confirmed Speakers: Claude Parrish, BOE member and Republican candidate for State Treasurer Mike Wasserman, Los Gatos town councilman, former Los Gatos mayor Elsie Gufler, Republican candidate for CA Assembly District 19 Larry Hileman, Republican candidate for CA Assembly District 24 Rob Smith, Republican candidate for CA...

Red faces after Putin jibe over peerages By Graeme Wilson and Alec Russell in St Petersburg (Filed: 17/07/2006) Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin tried to present a united front yesterday after the Russian president publicly mocked the Prime Minister's difficulties over the "cash for peerages" scandal. The men exchanged diplomatic pleasantries following talks yesterday afternoon, but struggled to disguise the strained relations after Mr Putin's barbed intervention. The Russian president used a televised press conference yesterday morning to take a swipe at Britain's increasingly beleaguered premier. Asked by Alec Russell, The Daily Telegraph's Washington correspondent, about British criticism of Russia's...

Red Friday Just keeping you "in the loop" so you'll know what's going on in case this takes off. RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply...

Iran is denying reports that it has passed legislation requiring its Jews to wear yellow cloth strips to single them out, its Christians to wear a red version and Zoroastrians a blue one. Some are unpersuaded. The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Rabbi Marvin Hier, for instance, is adamant "that the national uniform law was passed and that certain colors were selected for Jews and other minorities." But Teheran is adamant and scandalized. The reports of such Nazi-echoed branding "are slanderous accusations… a smear campaign," according to an outraged Iranian government spokesman. So that's all right then? We can all relax? Hardly....

Red alert for Indonesia volcano Thousands living under the volcano have been told to leave. Thousands of people living on the slopes of Mount Merapi in Indonesia are being taken to safety, because of fears the volcano may be about to erupt. Old people, women and children have been taken to emergency shelters, after officials monitoring the volcano raised the threat status to the highest level. The volcano has been rumbling for weeks but is becoming more volatile. Streams of lava have been flowing down one side of the mountain, which is also spewing out hot volcanic ash and smoke....

Letter from Newfoundland: Homing in on the Red Paint People Volume 53 Number 3, May/June 2000 by Angela M.H. Schuster (Lynda D'Amico) Port au Choix, Newfoundland-- More than 5,000 years ago, this barren, sea-lashed coast was home to the Maritime Archaic Indians (MAI), who hunted and fished the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland for more than 2,000 years. The first evidence of the Maritime Archaic culture was discovered more than 30 years ago when James A. Tuck of Memorial University of Newfoundland excavated 56 elaborate burials exposed during housing construction on a small promontory at Port au Choix, on the...

HOLLYWOOD, Fla., May 5, 2006 – It was all about blues at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino here last night. Zee (left) and Elwood Blues - Jim Belushi and Dan Akroyd - take the crowd at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino's Hard Rock Live venue down memory lane with their trademark songs, "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Soul Man." The concert was part of the casino's "Red, White and Blues Bash" on May 4 in conjunction with Fleet Week USA and the 2006 McDonald's Air and Sea Show. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 4, 2006) -- A line of tracers and a corkscrewing missile flash up from the ground a thousand feet below a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, which immediately takes evasive action. Trailing bright sparkles of light emit from its aft sections, as a gout of flame spits from its side-door machine gun. Saving the helicopter from enemy fire are the flying skills of its pilots, the deadly aim of its enlisted crew and an electronic countermeasure flare system. The job of maintaining the M2 .50-caliber machine guns and flares that are instrumental in the helicopter's survival belongs...

Red Cross workers Heather Ross and Michael Patton at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq. “I love working with the soldiers – I love hearing their stories – I love being part of this,” said Ross. U.S Army photo by Staff Sgt.Russell Lee Klika Red Cross Heather Ross Red Cross Volunteer Loves Her Work In Iraq By Sgt. Waine D. Haley 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, April 17, 2006 — Every day, women are making history here in Iraq, but one Red Cross worker is making history one family at a time. Heather Ross, assistant station manager, Tikrit-American...

6 April 2005   http://www.lapl.org/catalog/ Leary, Timothy Francis, 1920- Title(s) Politics of psycho-pharmacology / Timothy Leary. Publisher Berkeley, CA : Ronin Pub. : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2002. Paging 127 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. Series Leary library [ This from Los Angeles Library, it did not show up at the University of California, nor at the New York Public Library. My question : was this written by Timothy Leary (1920-1997). ] Leary, Timothy Francis, 1920- Title(s) Your brain [!] is god / Timothy Leary. Publisher Berkeley, Calif. : Ronin : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2001. Paging...

Jerusalem police go on red alert Etgar Lefkovits, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 21, 2006 Citing intelligence information over a planned terror attack, Jerusalem police on Tuesday went on a heightened state of alert, police said. Police set up spot checkpoints throughout the city and were inspecting suspicious vehicles and persons in an effort to ward off an attack.

The red-hot power of chillies can kill cancer By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 16/03/2006) The substance in chillies that causes the tongue to burn also drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, according to research that could pave the way for new treatments. The pepper component capsaicin makes the cells undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis, says a study published in the journal Cancer Research. High intake of hot chillis has been linked to stomach cancer Tests found that it induced approximately 80 per cent of cancer cells growing in mice to follow the molecular pathways leading to apoptosis....

<p>Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell at the U.N. detention center near The Hague, the U.N. tribunal said Saturday. He was 65.</p>

Mars orbiter reaches Red Planet It will take six months for the MRO to attain its final orbit Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has survived a critical phase in its mission by parking itself in an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet. News of its success followed a tense period of radio silence while the spacecraft passed behind Mars. Over the next six months, the probe will steadily reduce the size of its orbit until it reaches an optimal position to start scientific studies. MRO will examine the Martian surface and atmosphere in unprecedented detail. At 2124 GMT (1334 PST),...

Amelia Gentleman and Robin McKie Sunday March 5, 2006 The Observer There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers. Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it...

Che Guevara, who did so much (or was it so little?) to destroy capitalism, is now a quintessential capitalist brand. His likeness adorns mugs, hoodies, key chains, bandannas, couture bags, jeans, herbal tea and, of course, those omnipresent T-shirts with the photograph by Alberto Korda of the socialist heartthrob in his beret during the early years of the revolution as he happened to walk into the photographer's viewfinder -- and into the image that, 38 years after his death, is still the logo of revolutionary (or is it capitalist?) chic. The metamorphosis of Che into a capitalist brand is not...

NPR features an interview today with Bennett Haselton, programmer of Circumventor software, which allows users in China to access blocked sites via a compliant machine based outside of China. When you install the software it generates a URL Chinese users can use to use your machine as a proxy for uncensored Web surfing, Haselton explained to...... Voice of America VOA-funded Circumventor software allows Chinese an endrun around censors

/8/2006 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) -- Units from across the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Australia and the United Kingdom gathered here for the second part of the Red Flag 06-1 exercise, which started Feb. 6. More than 130 aircraft and 2,500 personnel will fight and support in a simulated air war over the Nellis Test and Training Range during day and night missions, through Feb. 18. “Red Flag exists mostly because of the Nellis Test and Training Range -- a lot of air space out there, a lot of ground space,” said Maj. Greg Weart, Red...

Lee Ann Womack helps ring in the holidays with a special tribute for Air Force members. Click here to listen in to this holiday special.

It seems not a month goes by when we are not treated to some dire environmental prediction. Only last week we were told that Europe is on the verge of being plunged into an ice-age of sorts. And this as a result of global warming of all things. Allegedly involving disruptions in the flow of the warmth-exuding Gulf Stream, the mechanism behind this impending calamity is admittedly not easy to grasp. Howard Dean conceded as much himself, but he then quickly added that he had spoken to Al Gore who had explained the whole thing to him with eye-opening clarity....

12/5/2005 - FORWARD OPERATION BASE QAYYARAH WEST, Iraq (AFPN) -- The sounds of hammers smashing nails and the buzzing of saws cutting wood, typically resonate through this forward Army outpost -- simply knows as Q-West. The 200-plus civil engineering Airmen of the 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron are nowhere near an airfield. And they are nowhere near any of their Air Force brothers and sisters. “It’s just us flying solo, wherever we are,” said Senior Airman Jesse Gent, a structural journeyman. “We’re kind of like a contractor, and we support the Army wherever they need us.” “We’ve had a pretty...