Free Republic

Beijing - The son of American evangelist Billy Graham said Friday he is opposed to missionary work at this summer's Beijing Olympic Games. Franklin Graham, also an evangelist, was speaking to reporters Friday during a visit to Beijing for meetings with the Communist Party-controlled Protestant church movement. He said he wanted to encourage authorities to resolve conflicts with the church, but would not criticize policies that critics say limit the church's independence and religious rights. While some Christian groups have said they plan to proselytize during the August games, Graham said he was against that because Chinese law does not...

Abortion is back in the news yet, understandably, many women still find it difficult to talk about. Here Lucy Cavendish – who has been through it twice – offers a candid view Virtually every woman I know of my generation has had an abortion. The problem is that no one talks about it. It is hidden away as if it were a dirty secret. This week, however, every time I've opened a newspaper or turned on the radio, abortion has been the topic du jour. First, Conservative MP Nadine Dorries called for the legal limit for terminations to be...

A Pennsylvania elementary school has angered parents by giving them one-day's notice of planned counseling sessions with 100 third-grade students to explain that one of their male classmates would soon begin wearing girls' clothing and taking a female name and to ask that they accept him as a girl and not make unkind remarks. The exercise in "social transition" was initiated by the boy's parents who approached the administration at Chatham Park Elementary School in Haverford Township asking that the school help in having their child's female identity find acceptance among his peers. After consulting experts on transgender children, the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Forget avocado, evening primrose oil or other exotic ingredients, the latest facial to hit New York is a mask made with bird excrement. The Geisha Facial, available at Shizuka New York for $180, about $100 more than the shop's other facials, contains nightingale excrement. The Japanese powder, also known as uguisu no fun, is rich in the amino acid guanine, said to brighten and cleanse skin. In the 18th century geishas and kabuki actors used the powder to clean heavy white makeup off their faces. "I'm always trying to bring Japanese culture and tradition to...

A seventh-grader organizes a protest outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Washington. A 15-year-old girl attempts to ban circus elephants in Denver. A rash of adolescent-driven, animal-rights-related vandalism hits California. A popular software company promotes a video game about "animal liberation" activists who destroy medical research labs, and in a new game “Clubby the Seal” takes revenge by collecting human skin hides. Is there any doubt that the animal rights movement is targeting your kids? In a newly updated report, "Your Kids, PETA's Pawns," the Center for Consumer Freedom explores how one group, the $31 million People for the Ethical...

Saturday, April 26, 2008 Jim Geraghty Reporting BARACK OBAMA Jeremiah Wright: ‘We cannot see that what we are doing is the same as al-Qaeda, under a different color flag.' Hugh Hewitt offers new audio of two sermons of Jeremiah Wright, one from September 2001 and one from April 2003. Permit me to propose a new rule: If your mentor of 20 years has ever declared the United States to be ‘the same as al-Qaeda, under a different color flag, calling on the name a different God to sanction and approve our murder and our mayhem!’ you are ineligible for the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday called on the White House to temporarily stop sending crude oil into the nation's emergency stockpile. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she was calling on President George W. Bush to work with Democrats to find a way to "temporarily suspend" oil deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The White House immediately rejected the plea. "We don't believe the fill rates have a meaningful impact on oil supplies," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We continue to fill the reserve to provide an added layer of protection to...

<p>In his upcoming biography of Jesus, "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven will make the shocking claim that Christ probably was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee.</p> <p>An Amsterdam publishing house said Wednesday it will publish the Dutch filmmaker's biography of Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait," in September.</p>

Carter's comments came after he met with the top Hamas leaders last week in Syria. Carter also says Hamas won't undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel. He says Hamas is ready to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Carter made the comments during a speech in Jerusalem.

TUCSON -- The debate over the fence the United States is building along its southern border has focused largely on the project's costs, feasibility and how well it will curb illegal immigration. But one of its most lasting impacts may well be on the animals and vegetation that make this politically fraught landscape their home. Some wildlife researchers have grown so concerned about the consequences of bisecting hundreds of miles of rugged habitat that they have talked of engaging in civil disobedience to block the fence's construction. "This wall is so asinine, and so wrong, I am one of a...

(IsraelNN.com) Former US President Jimmy Carter says Palestinian Authority Arabs living in Gaza are being “starved to death” by Israel. Carter made the claim speaking with students at the American University in Cairo on Thursday, saying that Gaza Arabs are receiving fewer calories per day than people in the poorest regions of Africa. “It’s an atrocity, what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza,” said Carter. “It is a crime… I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on.” The former president has not actually visited Gaza; Israel declined to authorize his use of...

The more important issue than Senator Obama’s choice of words, is the world view underneath them. By using voter’s adverse economic circumstances to rationalize his cultural beliefs, Barack Obama has reintroduced what has been a defining question in American politics for more than generation: Why do so many working-class voters cast their ballots on social and values-based issues like gun ownership, abortion and same-sex marriage rather than on economic policy prescriptions?These voters — known as “the silent majority” in the 1970s, “Reagan Democrats” in the ’80s, and as “values voters” during the last two election cycles — have long been...

Minnesota taxpayers are footing the bill for a charter school that reportedly violates the law by promoting religion — Islam. Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) in Inver Grove Heights regularly holds prayer sessions and includes study of the Koran in its curriculum, even though charter schools are public schools and must not endorse or promote religion, according to columnist Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. She writes: “TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is ‘establishing Islam in Minnesota.’ The building also...

AIRPORT CITY, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday he hoped to help open talks between Hamas and U.S. leaders, saying Washington's policy of not meeting with people it labeled terrorists was counterproductive. Carter angered Israelis with his plans to meet in Syria this week with the leader of the Islamist group, which rules Gaza and is largely responsible for rocket fire against Israeli towns. Hamas has killed some 250 Israelis in suicide bombings and has been blacklisted by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist organization. Speaking at an event organized by an Israeli financial newspaper, Carter said...

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey. The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday. She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people. Turkish police say they have detained a man in connection with the killing. Reports say the man led the police to the body. Ms di Marineo was hitch-hiking from Milan to...

HE'S A COP AND 'ROBBER'- ROOKIE BUSTED IN BANK STICKUP By ERIKA MARTINEZ and C.J. SULLIVAN April 11, 2008 -- A rookie NYPD cop was busted yesterday for an armed bank robbery in Pennsylvania, authorities said. Christian Torres, 21, a transit officer who lives in Queens, waited outside a Sovereign Bank branch in Muhlenberg Township shortly after 8 a.m., police said. Torres, who had traded his NYPD uniform for a black suit with a button-down shirt, approached a teller as she arrived for work, police said.

Congress: The cowardly start more wars than the courageous. Nancy Pelosi's craven altering of House rules to kill off Colombia's trade pact brings that danger to the Andes. If war breaks out, her name will be on it.April 10 may end up as a date which will live in infamy. The Speaker of the House not only refused to step forward and be counted on approving the vital Colombia free-trade agreement, she ran away from letting anyone else vote on it. After President Bush submitted the pact to a vote under fast-track rules, she changed them to ensure it wouldn't...

To fight global warming, a bill in Sacramento would enable Los Angeles County transit officials to increase taxes on motorists. It's a bad idea that may foreshadow even worse to come. Billed as a "climate change mitigation and adaptation fee," the measure would cost motorists either an additional 3 percent motor fuel tax, or up to a $90 annual flat fee, based on vehicle emissions. The new charges would be on top of taxes already paid at the pump. Either option requires a majority approval by a vote of the people. Climate has changed as long as the Earth has...

Vermont senators call for investigation of oil pricesThe Associated Press 4/4/2008 MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Vermont state Senate called Thursday for Attorney General William Sorrell to launch a criminal investigation of major oil companies to see if recent petroleum price increases might involve price-fixing, consumer fraud or other violations of law. "At the same time that we are paying $3 and $4 a gallon for gas and oil, the oil companies are making record profits, billions and billions of dollars," said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham. "It's puzzling to us that so few politicians both on a state...

The California congressman who called the Sept. 11 attacks "simply" a plane crash ran for cover Wednesday under a barrage of ridicule from fellow Republicans, first responders and victims' families. San Diego GOP Rep. Darrell Issa was under siege for suggesting the federal government had already done enough to help New York cope with "a fire" that "simply was an aircraft" hitting the World Trade Center. "That is a pretty distorted view of things," said Frank Fraone, a Menlo Park, Calif., fire chief who led a 67-man crew at Ground Zero. "Whether they're a couple of planes or a couple...

MIAMI (Reuters) - China's growing wealth is good for the world, and there will come a time when the influence of the United States shrinks to the level of its share of the world population, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Asked at a meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in Miami whether he regarded China's growing influence in Latin America as a threat, Gates, one of the world's richest people, said not at all. "The fact that China is getting rich is overall a very good thing. The fact that more minds are getting educated is huge....

At the National Theatre, a new play by the former radical playwright Howard Brenton, Never So Good, paints a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of the Sixties Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who as a young man opposed Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. Chamberlain's claim that he could talk Germany out of war and produce "peace for our time" is, of course, a byword for craven weakness and earns only contempt. But in the very week the play opened, a second Chamberlain was revealed in the form of our Defence Secretary, Des Browne. In an interview on Saturday, Mr Browne said he thought...

As Barack Obama emerged in front of an estimated crowd of 22,000 in front of Old Main on the Penn State University campus, Ashley Sims shouted the kind of welcome usually reserved for pop stars. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I love you, Barack! Look at me! Hi!" This from a 24-year-old graduate student who customized her cell phone's ring tone as the Obama Girl tune, "I've Got a Crush on Obama." When speaking about Obama, she has a dreamy look in her eyes, clasps her hands to her chest, and pauses in the middle of sentences as if...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice believes that a framework for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians could be reached by the planned May 14 visit to Israel of US President George W. Bush, Channel 1 diplomatic correspondent Ayala Hasson reported Sunday. Rice expressed this hope to a top Israeli leader Sunday when she met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayed. Rice's high expectations will put further pressure on the two sides, who were already meeting frequently in an effort to meet the November 4 deadline that Prime Minister...

Gays, women seeking abortions, couples not married will be includedJust as the Christian church has done many wonderful things throughout history, says the Rev. Richard Mark Lee, it also has done many terrible things, such as targeting, judging and condemning various individuals and groups. On Sunday, Lee plans to apologize for these past wrongs in a sermon at his church, Sugar Hill Baptist, known as The Family Church. Some of the groups Lee said he'll apologize to include gays, women seeking abortions and couples who live together outside of marriage. "For too long, we're been known for the issues we're...

SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - People switched off lights across the world on Saturday, dimming buildings, hotels, restaurants and bars to show concern at global warming. Up to 30 million people were expected to switch off their lights for 60 minutes by the time "Earth Hour" -- which started at 8 p.m. in Suva in Fiji and Christchurch in New Zealand -- completed its cycle westwards.More than 380 towns and cities and 3,500 businesses in 35 countries signed up for the campaign that is only in its second year after it began in 2007 in Sydney alone."Earth Hour shows that everyday people...

After the attacks of 9/11, many people in the West, including Christians, were asking, “Where are the moderate Muslims?” They may have showed up last fall. A group of what appeared to be moderate Muslim leaders sent a conciliatory message to representatives of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant faiths, offering to work toward a more peaceful coexistence between the world’s two largest religions. How should Christians in the West respond to this offer? A basis for peace? Issued October 13, 2007, and titled A Common Word Between Us and You, the Muslim document stressed the need for peace between...

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Five former U.S. secretaries of state are urging the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran. Each says closing the facility in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad. Regarding Iran, they say it's important to maintain contact with adversaries and allies alike.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding. "Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding." As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you...

(March 25, 2008) -- Given the current tragedy in Iraq--hell, given the past five years--you would think the many pundits who agitated for an attack on that country, largely on false pretenses, would have take the opportunity of the arrival of the fifth anniversary of the war (or the 4000 dead milestone) to drop to their knees, at least in print, and beg the American public for forgiveness. With more than 60 percent of their fellow Americans now calling the war a "mistake" and agitating for troop withdrawals--and the president's approval rating still heading south, thanks to their war--it would...

WBBM Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reporting. CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Police say no one could make this story up; a would-be-thief gave his victims his phone number. An 18-year-old man entered a muffler shop in the 2600 block of North Laramie Avenue Monday and declared a robbery. He allegedly waved a gun around and demanded money, according to police. When he was told the money was in a safe and that the manager that knew how to open it was not there, the suspect had a brilliant idea; at least he thought it was brilliant. He gave the shop employees...

Judiciary Chair Pledges Legal Action Against Bush By Josiah Ryan CNSNews.com Staff Writer March 19, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - At a gathering of liberal activists in Washington on Tuesday, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) was asked if he would commit to holding the Bush administration accountable once a Democrat is in the White House and illegal acts have been pinned on President Bush. "Yes, you have my word on that," Conyers replied. He then shook the questioner's hand as a sign of his commitment. Conyers, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, told an audience at the liberal Take Back America Conference that...

03/17/2008: "Eco-Terrorism On Orcas" ”I did it to punish the rich white people of Orcas Island and make them pay for the death of the whales and the depletion of the rain forests” -Mondragon Gabriel Thomas Mondragon, 29 years old, who recently arrived from New Mexico, explained to Sheriff’s Deputies that in an attempt to make the people on Orcas “suffer just like the whales and trees”, he attempted to use a tree limbing saw -on a metal pole- to cut through a 69,000 volt power line.

The Foreign Office on Saturday dismissed as "inconceivable" calls by an ex-aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair to open a channel of communication with al Qaeda. Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair's chief of staff between 1995 and 2007, said he would "want to find a channel to al Qaeda" if he was still in government, the Guardian newspaper reported. Only by talking to al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan could Western governments hope to secure a long-term halt in their campaigns of violence, he was reported as saying. But the Foreign Office said: "It is inconceivable that...

Iran's bad behavior blamed on Bush March 15, 2008 By Rowan Scarborough - Sen. Barack Obama's most senior military adviser says President Bush is to blame for Iran's bad behavior. The assessment from an interview with retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak provides a glimpse into how an Obama administration would deal with Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called repeatedly for the destruction of Israel, is pursuing nuclear weapons in the opinion of some national security experts, and his Revolutionary Guard is training Iraqis to kill American military personnel in Iraq. Earlier this month, Mr. Ahmadinejad said of Israel,...

[Geraldine Ferraro is correct in saying that she, as well as minorities in general, get a boost in Democrat Party for being female, black, and transgendered, I might add.] From http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/pdfs/2008delegateselectionrules.pdf 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention 5.. NNOONN--DDIISSCCRRIIMMIINNAATTIIOONN A. In order that the Democratic Party at all levels be an open Party which includes rather than excludes people from participation, a program of effective affirmative action is hereby adopted. B. Discrimination on the basis of "status" in the conduct of Democratic Party affairs is prohibited. C. In order to continue the Democratic Party’s ongoing efforts to...

The world's Muslim countries warned Wednesday that an "alarming" rise in anti-Islamic insults and attacks in the West has become a threat to international security. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called on Europe and America to take stronger measures against 'Islamophobia' in a report prepared for a summit of the group's 57 members in Dakar on Thursday and Friday. The report by a special OIC monitoring group said the organisation was struggling to get the West to understand that Islamophobia "has dangerous implications on global peace and security" and to convince western powers to do more. Islamic leaders...

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network. The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East , U.S. officials told McClatchy . However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime. The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives...

AN Australian women's magazine has apologised for breaking a global media blackout on Prince Harry's frontline deployment in Afghanistan. In its latest issue, New Idea magazine says it is sorry it was not "alert to the possible ramifications" of running the story about Harry's secret tour of duty, which appeared in the magazine and on its website in January. Few people noticed the initial report, but a scandal erupted after US website the Drudge Report picked up the story and broadcast it around the world, breaching an agreed global media blackout. "We did not knowingly breach any embargo and were...

The youth, glamour and dashing political style of Senator Barack Obama has evoked many comparisons with President John F Kennedy, but the most Kennedyesque member of the Obama family may be his wife Michelle...

JERUSALEM, March 6 (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it would continue with U.S.-backed peace talks with the Palestinians despite a shooting attack in Jerusalem that killed at least eight people

A burqa may not be the flirtiest garment ever invented for women. The highly modest head-to-toe robe even shrouds the eyes, so for centuries it's been difficult for women wearing them to send suggestive signals to men. But now a German designer has debuted a digitally-enabled burqa that can broadcast a photo of the wearer to nearby mobile phones. Markus Kison calls it the "CharmingBurka," and says it isn't forbidden by Islamic law. A model demonstrated a prototype of Kison's garment at the Seamless 2008 design and fashion show in Boston, a high-tech fashion event run with support from the...

She’s French, works in Hollywood, and has volunteered for Greenpeace. Surprise.There are some sins, my friends, that even the Pickler/Burnett rule can’t expunge. “I think we’re lied to about a number of things,” she said, singling out September 11.Referring to the two passenger jets flown into the World Trade Centre, Miss Cotillard said: “We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours.It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [New York], in a few minutes, the whole...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah on Friday rejected the deployment of U.S. warships off Lebanon, calling it a threat to the country that will not affect the militant group. "We are facing an American threat against Lebanon," Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said. "It is clear this threat and intimidation will not affect us."

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Congress is considering an apology for slavery, something five states have done in the past year. While it has apologized before, Congress never apologized for slavery, USA Today reported Thursday. "We've seen states step forward on this," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, noting resolutions in Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. "I'm really shocked, just shocked" that the federal government hasn't apologized. "It's time to do so." Harkin said he and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., will propose an apology for slavery and subsequent "Jim Crow" laws that furthered racial segregation. Among...

THE jury in Australia's largest terrorism case has been asked to consider the "evil" America has done, as a court judges 12 Melbourne men accused of plotting to commit "violent jihad". Opening the defence case today, lawyer Remy van de Wiel, QC, told the jury America had suffered an enormous blow to its pride as a result of the September 11 World Trade Center attack. Mr Van de Wiel described the attacks as "evil and shocking". "But don't forget, America has done many evil things too," Mr van de Wiel told the court. He also told the Victorian Supreme Court...

The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday. Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee. Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network,...

AUSTIN -- American icon Willie Nelson says he supports efforts to impeach President Bush and "throw the bastards out," adding that the administration will do anything to stay in power, including staging an event to cancel the election. Nelson made the comments on a radio show Thursday, saying that he supported Dennis Kucinich's attempt to impeach Bush. "If you break the law you have to pay for it one way or another, and if these guys haven't broke the law nobody has," said Nelson. "The deck's been stacked and we need to figure out a way to get a new...

TEHRAN (AFP) - The assassination of a top commander of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has hastened the "certain death" of Israel, the top military adviser to Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift by the end of the week a six-month cease-fire widely credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq, officials said Wednesday. Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended "then that means the freeze is over." The cease fire was declared in August and due to expire at this month's end. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq. The crux of...