Free Republic

Just reading an email from a German friend of mine pointing out that Palin has English, Irish and German ancestry.

...I then added that Pomerania had been historically disputed in all sort of wars, but that now, as the rest of Europe, was finally at peace. Instinctively realizing that this latter observation was the perfect leader of a thread for a nice political conversation, I quickly added that such current status of peace in Europe, and, relatively, in most of the world, was the result of America having become the most powerful nation on Earth ever. Bedazzled by my assertion, more in sheer disbelief than in amazement, he bluntly asked me why it was so. I rapidly quipped that wise...

Our Celtic roots lie in Spain and Portugal May 5 2008 by Darren Devine, Western Mail THE Welsh have more in common with sun-kissed glamour pusses like actress Penelope Cruz and footballer Christiano Ronaldo than pale- faced Germans like Helmet Kohl, according to an academic. Professor John Koch suggests the Welsh can trace their ancestry back to Portugal and Spain, debunking the century-old received wisdom that our forebears came from Iron Age Germany and Austria. His radical work on Celtic origins flatly contradicts the writing of Sir John Rhys, who in the late 19th century established the idea that we...

PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE No Obamanation Part 1: Barack who? By Mark Alexander (Part 1 of 3 on Barack Hussein Obama) It is unlikely that Hillary Rodham Clinton can turn enough Demo super delegates her way to defeat Barack Hussein Obama for the Democrat presidential nomination. Her prospects for a big win in the 22 April primary in Pennsylvania are diminishing, and even if there were a Michigan revote and the Florida delegates were seated, it would not put Clinton over the top. Though Clinton has pledged to “fight to the convention,” having pulled out all the stops she and hubby Bill...

Race: Barack Obama says black "anger is real, and to simply wish it away without understanding its roots only serves to widen the chasm." He's right. So let's examine these bitter roots.We saw last week just how real that anger is from the video clips of his preacher's shocking sermons. They jarred America's white majority, which had no idea the hostility in the black community was so fevered that it spews from pulpits by men of the cloth at America's largest black churches each Sunday. In his speech, Obama rationalized that "the history of racial injustice in this country" gives...

The Eurasian Politician - Issue 5 (April-September 2002) THE ROOTS OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM Antero Leitzinger (March 2002) This article intends to trace the roots of Islamic terrorism, with special focus on Afghanistan. Notes are added on practical and philosophical problems of world media in finding the right track. From systematic errors in revealing little details, to serious misconceptions about basic facts and principles, we can relatively easily learn how much of "common knowledge" rests actually on superficial research and popular myths. Instead of becoming critical and aware of the traps laid around the issue, both Islamists and Islamophobes fail to...

Using DNA, Scientists Hunt For The Roots Of The Modern Potato ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2008) — More than 99 percent of all modern potato varieties planted today are the direct descendants of varieties that once grew in the lowlands of south-central Chile. How Chilean germplasm came to dominate the modern potato-which spread worldwide from Europe-has been the subject of a long, contentious debate among scientists. While some plant scientists have maintained that Chilean potatoes were the first to be planted in Europe, a more widely accepted story holds that European potatoes were originally descended from plants grown high in the...

The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws — and not in any subtle way. Throughout much of American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping blacks and Hispanics “in their place,” and to quiet the racial fears of whites. This paper is intended to provide a brief summary of this unholy alliance of gun control and racism, and to suggest that gun control laws should be regarded as “suspect ideas,” analogous to the “suspect classifications” theory of discrimination already part of the American legal system. Racist arms laws predate the establishment...

When our children were young, we had a plaque hanging on the wall of our bedroom that read: There are two essential things you can provide your children. One is roots. The other is wings. Roots, so that they might know from whence they came, and where they can always look for affirmation and love. And wings to provide a sense of independence, and the tools and the spirit to strive to be all that they can be. A good friend, the contributor known as ‘First_Salute’ here on FR, recently forwarded me a Wall Street Journal article entitled, What’s...

'Darwin's Plantation' Breaks New Ground in Study of Subject Contact: Melany Ethridge, 972-267-1111 PETERSBURG, Kentucky, Jan. 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- Author Ken Ham and theologian Dr. A. Charles Ware take a groundbreaking look at one of the human race's greatest problems – racism – in "Darwin's Plantation: Evolution's Racist Roots." Along the way, they also tackle the questions of the origin of all the people groups, skin "color," and interracial marriage, Ham is the president of Answers in Genesis and the new Creation Museum, ministries that uphold the authority of the Bible from the very first verse. Ware is the...

An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A. Dede, now 35, baffled medical experts when warty "roots" began growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident. The welts spread across his body unchecked and soon he was left unable to carry out everyday household tasks. Sacked from his job and deserted by his wife, Dede has been raising his two children - now in their late teens - in poverty,...

The Eurasian Politician - Issue 5 (April-September 2002) THE ROOTS OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM Antero Leitzinger (March 2002) This article intends to trace the roots of Islamic terrorism, with special focus on Afghanistan. Notes are added on practical and philosophical problems of world media in finding the right track. From systematic errors in revealing little details, to serious misconceptions about basic facts and principles, we can relatively easily learn how much of "common knowledge" rests actually on superficial research and popular myths. Instead of becoming critical and aware of the traps laid around the issue, both Islamists and Islamophobes fail to...

Brainchild of the KGB As Ion Mihai Pacepa, onetime director of the Romanian espionage service (DIE), later explained, the PLO was conceived at a time when the KGB was creating “liberation front” organizations throughout the Third world. Others included the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created in 1964 with help from Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and the National Liberation Army of Colombia, created in 1965 with help from Fidel Castro. But the PLO was the KGB’s most enduring achievement. In 1964, the first PLO Council, consisting of 422 Palestinian representatives handpicked by the KGB, approved the Soviet blueprint for a Palestinian...

When HaShem (God) dictated the Torah to Moses, that Written Law, or Torah She'bi-khetav, made God's laws known to His people.  This Truth, in all its glorious revelation, was to provide the Jewish people with instructions for daily living, how to celebrate their holidays, and the ways in which they should worship their Creator.  The Torah is also unambiguous on the behaviors that should be avoided and gives clear directions for atonement for sins committed.  Although the Written Law was considered complete, traditional Jewish teaching is that Moses also received a second set of laws called Torah She'bi-al peh: the...

On Aug. 9, 2007, and the days immediately following, financial markets in much of the world seized up. Virtually overnight the seemingly insatiable desire for financial risk came to an abrupt halt as the price of risk unexpectedly surged. Interest rates on a wide range of asset classes, especially interbank lending, asset-backed commercial paper and junk bonds, rose sharply relative to riskless U.S. Treasury securities. Over the past five years, risk had become increasingly underpriced as market euphoria, fostered by an unprecedented global growth rate, gained cumulative traction. The crisis was thus an accident waiting to happen. If it had...

Tree man 'who grew roots' may be cured By Matthew Moore Last Updated: 2:55am GMT 27/11/2007 An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A. Dede, now 35, baffled medical experts when warty "roots" began growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident. Watch: Dr Anthony Gaspari believes that he has diagnosed Dede's rare condition The welts spread across his body unchecked and soon he was left unable to carry out...

THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA (November 27, 1868, Indian territory - modern-day Oklahoma) Gregory F. Michno, ENCYCLOPEDIA of Indian Wars 1850-1890, pages 226-227 "On November 12, 1868 , 11 companies of the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George A. Custer, 3 companies of the 3rd Infantry, 1 of the 5th Infantry, 1 of the 38th Infantry, and about 450 wagons set out from Fort Dodgefor Indian territory to seek out hostile Indians. Across a snow-covered landscape Custer followed Indian trails to a 50-lodge Cheyenne village on the banks of the Washita River. Early on the frigid morning of 27 November,...

When military leaders describe the bond between those who serve, they often speak in terms of brotherhood and family. But for several members of Tucson's 162nd Fighter Wing, the family connection is more than symbolic. A handful of Air National Guardsmen serving in the unit based at Tucson International Airport are following in the footsteps of fathers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, and siblings, with many of them performing jobs similar to those of their forebears. While members of the unit say it's not unusual for children to follow their parents into the military, it's not common to have them nearly replicate...

In spring 2005, the Rev. Carol Solovitz, pastor of Zumbro Lutheran, had the honor of preaching the English service for two weeks in Wittenberg, Germany, in Martin Luther's church: the Stadtkirche (city church). Inspired by her visit, members of Zumbro met in April 2006 with the prospect of forming a tour to Germany. By September 2006 -- a year in advance -- the trip was sold out. On Sept. 10, 2007, a full bus left the church parking lot on its way to the Minneapolis airport, flying Iceland Air to Frankfurt. On our first day, we toured the Wartburg, where...

Long but worth it Something quite a few need to read ! WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG, majoring in marijuana at the university, hanging out with the Progressive Labor Party, and skipping through the clouds of tear gas on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, I was convinced that any war that would send my long-haired, sensitive, poetic and acid-tripping self off to wade through rice paddies in Vietnam just had to be wrong, wrong, wrong . Then it was easy to see the United States through red-tinted glasses. All you had to do was roll up a Chillum , roll another...

Though America got where it is today by following a pattern of freedom and prosperity followed, Americans at a present political crossroads may be in danger of choosing instead a path that leads to inevitable demise, said Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson Monday in Marshalltown. Thompson, however, advocated adhering to the country’s foundational principles and doing what is right. “How often, when you do the right thing, it turns out to be good politics too?” he said to a full room at the Tremont on Main. At the core of his campaign, Thompson said he stands behind a federalism based...

WHERE DO FINNS COME FROM? Not long ago, cytogenetic experts stirred up a controversy with their "ground-breaking" findings on the origins of the Finnish and Sami peoples. Cytogenetics is by no means a new tool in bioanthropological research, however. As early as the 1960s and '70s, Finnish researchers made the significant discovery that one quarter of the Finns' genetic stock is Siberian, and three quarters is European in origin. The Samis, however, are of different genetic stock: a mixture of distinctly western, but also eastern elements. If we examine the genetic links between the peoples of Europe, the Samis form...

U.S.-Born Students Are Going Back to Their Family Roots As the first day of school approached this month, Brian Agugoesi, 13, packed his bags with pens..He also included Honeycomb cereal, which is impossible to get at his school, and tablets to fend off malaria...The Randallstown, Md., boy was packing for his second year at Grundtvig International Secondary School in...Nigeria, an institution that, according to its Web site, boasts a water borehole and "network of tarred roads" on a 10-hectare campus... Brian's parents, Rita and Charles Agugoesi, chuckled at that story on the recent eve of Brian's flight to Lagos. It...

European and American countries that enslaved African people and scattered them in the African Diaspora should pay reparations for their slave crimes. This came out at the historic African Union (AU) conference in the Caribbean Island of Barbados, set to tackle the integration of the African Diaspora and the continent. Leading scholars, ambassadors and government ministers from Africa and beyond are examining economic relations and the responsibility of the slave masters in undoing the slave trade damage they inflicted on Africa and her Diaspora. With song and the beating of drums, the African people in the Diaspora of the Caribbean...

New book claims Merlin had Scottish roots By David Sapsted Last Updated: 1:52am BST 28/08/2007 Merlin the magician - hirsute confidant of King Arthur and the architect of Camelot - was, in fact, Scottish, according to a new book. The English, Welsh and French have laid claim to Merlin the magician Not only Scottish but, to be precise, hailing from Ardery Street, just off the Dumbarton Road, in the Partick area of Glasgow. While the English, Welsh and even the French have laid claim to the wizard with the peaked hat for centuries, this is the first time that anyone...

LOS ANGELES, June 11, 2007 – One of TV’s biggest names, Don Bellisario -- creator of “Magnum PI,” “JAG” and, most recently, “NCIS” -- credits his own Marine Corps experience with giving him the background he needed to break into the television industry. Actor Mark Harmon (right) joins other cast members on the “NCIS” set during the “Vanished” episode, in which a Marine Cobra helicopter is found abandoned in the middle of a mysterious crop circle in a Virginia cornfield. Don Bellisario, who created the program, said Defense Department support adds realism to the production. Photo by Danny Feld/CBS/Paramount,...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's strategy for winning the Democratic presidential nomination against better funded and more famous rivals includes a focus on his Hispanic roots and leadership of a Western state. That explains why he chose to officially launch his presidential campaign Monday in California, a state with newfound prominence in the 2008 campaign. Richardson is hoping changes to the primary calendar that give new clout to several states with large Hispanic populations can increase his chances of victory. Among those new powerhouses are Nevada, Florida and California, the most delegate-rich state which will hold a primary Feb. 5....

Genetic roots of manic depression revealed By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 2:24am BST 08/05/2007 The genetic roots of bipolar disorder - manic depression - have been revealed by the first scan of the entire human genetic code, revealing a new target for treatments. Bipolar disorder affects one person in every 100 inducing mood changes from extremes of depression to irritation, elation and mania. However, the likelihood of developing the disorder, which usually occurs in young adults, depends in part on the combined, small effects of variations in many different genes in the brain, none of which is powerful...

Early Humans Dug for Food, Study Suggests Ker Than Staff Writer LiveScience.com Tue May 1, 9:25 PM ET Early humans might have turned to plant roots and underground storage organs when fruit was scarce, a new study suggests. A 1999 analysis of teeth belonging to two species of hominids, Australopithecus aferensis and Paranthropus robustus, living 2 million years ago found chemical evidence that one-third of their diet consisted of grasses and sedges, or the meat of animals that ate such plants. The finding puzzled some scientists because the hominids had flat, thickly enameled molars best suited for chewing hard, brittle...

Here again, with the right link - the other was not right. The Custer legacy - Custer division in World War II, the 7th cavalry in Ia Drang and Baghdad, Custer's Civil War veterans... It's an American legacy.

It's 30 years since the TV drama Roots first screened. The show had a profound impact on black people in the US and UK, recalls Kwame Kwei-Armah, right, who spoke to others about their memories of the programme.Thirty years ago I was an 11-year-old growing up in West London. One evening I sat down with my family to watch a new television programme called Roots. It was a moment that changed my life. By the end of the series I had told my mother that I would one day trace my heritage back to Africa and reclaim an ancestral...

To see the DNA results of some of the ancient people click here. You'll have to scan around to find this exact page but it contains many links of interest. A compilation of DNA haplotypes extracted from ancient remains Cheddar ManIn 1903, skeletal remains were found in a cave in Cheddar, England. The remains of a 23 year-old man, who was killed by a blow to the face, were discovered to be at least 9,000 years old. Ninety-four years after the discovery of "Cheddar Man", scientists were able to extract mitochondrial DNA from his tooth cavity. Name Haplo Haplotype Cheddar...

Roots of Human Family Tree Are ShallowRoots of the Human Family Tree Are Remarkably Shallow - All Alive Today Share 1 Common Ancestor By MATT CRENSON AP National Writer Jul 1, 2006 (AP)— Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He or she did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die. Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the...

Where It All Began The very thing which is now called the Christian religion existed among the ancients also, nor was it wanting]rom the inception if the human race until the coming if Christ in the flesh, at which point the true religion which was already in existence began to be called Christian. -ST. AUGUSTINE, Retractiones THIS ASTOUNDING STATEMENT by St. Augustine, one of the most brilliant thinkers in the earliest centuries of the Church, utterly refutes the traditional view that Christianity, though of obvious Jewish roots, virtually fell from the skies as a radically new, unique, all- surpassing religion...

Richard M. Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences, published in 1948, was among the founding documents of contemporary conservatism. The title phrase has become something of a cliché, and overuse has stripped it of the interesting meaning it once had. Nowadays most people assume that what Weaver was saying was that how we think is bound to affect how we act, and that the intellectual trends that prevail in a society will determine its moral and political character. To be sure, that was part of his meaning, but if that were all he had in mind his message would have been a...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 13, 2006) -- The Marine Corps is a cornucopia of people. It's an array of black, white, brown, red and yellow, and its varied folk practice a plethora of religions. In the last year, two recruits, who happen to be brothers, came separately from perhaps the Corps' most uncommon origin - the Amish Order. "It's a very small world within the Amish community," said Pvt. Abner A. Miller, Platoon 1152. "Usually it's a 20-mile circle. We go as far as the horse and buggy take us." Miller grew up in a sheltered environment....

Study traces Egyptians’ stone-age roots Dec. 17, 2005 Special to World Science Some 64 centuries ago, a prehistoric people of obscure origins farmed an area along Egypt’s Nile River. Barely out of the Stone Age, they produced simple but well-made pottery, jewelry and stone tools, and carefully buried their dead with ritual objects in apparent preparation for an afterlife. These items often included doll-like female figurines with exaggerated sexual features, thought to possibly symbolize rebirth. Details from a tomb painting from Hierakonpolis, from prehistoric Egypt's Naqada culture. A new study suggests the Naqada people, the earlier Badarians and the later...

Contact: Mark Cassutt cassu003@umn.edu 612-624-8038 University of Minnesota The roots of civilization trace back to ... roots MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL- About five to seven million years ago, when the lineage of humans and chimpanzees split, edible root plants similar to rutabagas and turnips may have been one of the reasons. According to research by anthropologists Greg Laden of the University of Minnesota and Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, the presence of fleshy underground storage organs like roots and tubers must have sustained our ancestors who left the rain forest to colonize the savannah. They have published their research in...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Chuck Morse's latest book, "The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism, Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini," provides the clearest, most incisive history of how Islamo-fascism and Jihad terrorism have become the dominant political philosophy in the Arab world. It is the untold story of how Nazism took root in the Islamic world through the untiring efforts of the mufti of Jerusalem, whose aim it was to destroy the Jews in Palestine. Morse writes: The Nazi Holocaust appears to have kicked into high gear on Nov. 25, 1941, during a Berlin meeting between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050715/tc_cmp/165702500 UN Panel: No Single Nation Should Control Internet Addresses Aoife White Thu Jul 14, 9:38 PM ET BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

A.N.S .W.E.R.'s response to Bush:Hit the Streets September 24!Recognizing that the people of the United States have turned dramat ically against the war and occupation of Iraq, Bush went on national televi sion tonight to defend his imperial foreign policy. He repea tedly invoked September 11 as a pretext for the criminal and illegal war ag ainst Iraq. Bush took to the airwaves tonight because the antiwar m ovement is growing in strength. Our power poses a major poli tical obstacle to the continuation of the war and occupation. Now Bush has taken on the additional role of Recruiter-in-Chi ef, urging young people to sign up for military...

WASHINGTON — Megan Watson, leader of Mainstream Moms, is so angry at military recruiters for invading schools to sign up unwary youth for combat in Iraq that she and her group launched an online movement, “LeaveMyChildAlone.org.” “They offer these trinkets to lure our children to enlist,” Watson said in a phone interview from her home in Bolinas, Calif. “This is very aggressive, demographic targeting to have conversations with our kids that should not be happening.” All branches of the military are falling short of recruiting goals as parents say, in effect, “Hell no! My kids won’t go!” Watson blasted the...

Marty Johnson first met his mom and dad in a park in Nebraska. He was 4. He had no idea he was getting a family when the nuns brought him there from his home, a foster farm in Iowa. And so he began his life, always slightly the outsider, and always slightly curious about his past. "I'd never seen anyone who looks like me," he said. Nearly four decades later, Johnson, 41, recalls being similarly unprepared to meet his biological parents. He knows that's hardly an unusual sentiment for a child of adoption. But how his story unfolds — what...

July 4th is more than a time to celebrate America’s birthday by grilling hot dogs and buying on credit. It is an opportunity to reflect upon the deeds of our founding fathers and to consider the means by which we might continue to guard those essential freedoms that we associate with happiness. Over two centuries ago, these men sacrificed their lives, their families, their homes to create conditions by which every American has a chance to better himself, to determine his own fate, to pursue happiness on his own terms, and most importantly, or simply to be left alone. In...

The Genographic ProjectPublic participation, including yours, is critical to the Genographic Project's success. Here's how you can get involved: Purchasing a Public Participation Kit will fund important research around the world—and open the door to the ancient past of your own genetic background. With a simple and painless cheek swab you can sample your own DNA. You'll submit the sample through our secure, private, and completely anonymous system, then log on to the project Web site to track your personal results online. This is not a genealogy test and you won't learn about your great grandparents. You will learn,...

A left-leaning group called the Interfaith Alliance is protesting the influence of Christianity in U.S. history. A liberal action group has challenged the views of a well-known conservative who points in detail to the influence Christianity has had on U.S. history. David Barton, founder of Wallbuilders, regularly gives tours of the U.S. Capitol to spotlight the faith-based underpinnings of key moments in American history. But the Interfaith Alliance—a group from the religious left—recently objected to a Barton excursion, accusing him of revising history. The tour in question was for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, but the alliance didn't complain to...

DNA shows Celtic hero Somerled's Viking roots IAN JOHNSTON SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT A HISTORIC Celtic hero credited with driving the Vikings out of western Scotland was actually descended from a Norseman, according to research by a leading DNA expert. According to traditional genealogies, Somerled, who is said to have died in 1164 after ousting the Vikings from Argyll, Kintyre and the Western Isles, was descended from an ancient royal line going back to when the Scots were living in Ireland. But Bryan Sykes, an Oxford University professor of human genetics who set up a company called Oxford Ancestors to research people’s...

When Pope Benedict XVI was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger he told Europe to recover its Christian roots “if it truly wants to survive.” Amen from an arch-Protestant whose ancestors included refugees who fled Catholic persecution for freedom in Virginia. The new Pope is a scholar who sees history unfolding into the future. We agree. Europe will be Islamic and subject to Islamist Totalitarianism by 2100, unless Europeans turn to faith and family. If Europe fails to live for faith and family, succumbing further to Socialist Human Secular Totalitarianism, then European culture deserves to die under Islamic culture. Many Europeans hope that...