Free Republic

Mubarak son offers 'Arab vision' Mr Mubarak serves as a senior member of the ruling party President Hosni Mubarak's son has said Egypt must offer a new political vision for the Middle East - one not imposed from outside, but based on Arab values. Gamal Mubarak, a senior figure in the governing National Democratic Party, urged the rejection of "foreign ambitions" trying to shape the region. The remarks were seen as a reference to efforts by Egypt's US ally to introduce Western-style democracy in the region. Mr Mubarak was speaking at the start of NDP's annual conference in Cairo. "We...

Marion Kleinfeld got up one Sunday morning, picked up the newspaper, settled down to read it, and couldn't see the words. Kleinfeld, 79, of Delray Beach, Fla., already blind in her right eye, lost sight in her other eye because of a condition called wet age-related macular degeneration, AMD, the leading cause of blindness in people over 55. Leaking blood vessels in the back of the eye cause a large black spot in the center of vision. "I could not see at all. It was very frightening," she said. After years of having to tell patients losing their eyesight to...

SOMETHING HAPPENS to a political party when it is not just out of power but has had to play on the home field of its opponents for a generation: It loses faith in itself and becomes scared. Like the 98-pound weakling who lives in fear of the school bully, it will say anything to avoid being stuffed into a gym locker: I don't really believe in anything! I don't stand for anything! Please just leave me alone! That this has become true in the Democratic Party is clear in listening to the worried words of pundits and political professionals who...

I'm short-sighted, or far-sighted. I can never remember which one. Whatever causes you to see someone from 6 feet away as an amorphous ectoplasmic blob -- that's what I have. But what a great day and age in which to have such an affliction! I have several different sizes and styles of eyeglasses (in several different states of disrepair). I can go to any one of a dozen local one-hour optometrists and get a prescription for contact lenses (soft or hard? colored or transparent? extended wear or throw away?). I can even choose any one of 31 flavors of laser...

VIRGINIA BEACH-Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson is warning that, according to God, storms and possibly a tidal wave will pound America's coastline this year.

A vision system that helps soldiers plan a route through the chaos of the battlefield will undergo tests on both sides of the Atlantic. The system, called Primordial Soldier, will provide soldiers with a real-time picture of where troops are in relation to each other and a digital rendering of the route they should follow. It is about to undergo trials with US special forces and has been bought by the UK arm of MBDA Missiles. MBDA plans to carry out conceptual research on the system to learn how using such technology affects a soldier's decision-making capability in the field....

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2006 – A document released today outlines the Defense Department's strategy for combating weapons of mass destruction and will serve as the foundation for assigning specific responsibilities throughout DoD toward that goal, a senior military official said. The "National Military Strategy for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction" deals with "the greatest risk" confronting the United States and other free societies, Army Brig. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., the Joint Staff's deputy director for the war on terror, said. "And that's weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists," he said. Caslen said there's no doubt that...

Orlando Surgeon Restores Wounded Iraqi Girl's Sight   POSTED: 9:59 am EST February 19, 2006  ORLANDO, Fla. -- Peering through a high-powered microscope into the blinded eyes of the little Iraqi girl, Dr. Saad Shaikh was astounded at the damage. The retinas -- the film that lines the back of the eyes -- looked like old, peeling wallpaper. Each was riddled with dozens of gray metal fragments that had shot into 3-year-old Alaa Abd's eyes when an American tank shell hit her home in May in western Iraq's Al Anbar province. Alaa, who was at a tea party with...

GARMISCH, Germany, Feb. 15, 2006 – The key to spreading and sustaining democracy is for leaders to remain visionary and optimistic, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told more than 200 students from 49 countries here Feb. 10. Rice addressed the students, faculty and staff of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in a late-afternoon teleconference from the State Department in Washington, D.C. The students were participants in the center's 12-week Program in Advanced Security Studies and its five-week Program in Terrorism and Security Studies. "It really was an extraordinary event for our participants to not only interact...

Eating carrots, which are rich in the nutrient beta carotene, as well as foods containing the antioxidant vitamins C and E and zinc, results in a significantly reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration in elderly people, a new Dutch study has found. Currently, age-related macular degeneration affects 11.5 percent of white people over the age of 80. The number of people severely disabled by late-stage AMD in the United States is expected to increase by more than 50 percent, to 3 million, in the next 20 years. Previous studies evaluating antioxidants had shown conflicting results, with one major study showing...

[In a vision] I see America as a prizefighter. I see her in a boxing ring fighting a boxing match.She has been egging the opponent on. In reality, the opponent is God. She is egging God on, saying, "I dare ya, I dare ya" She took her first major punches on 9-11, 2001. She was hit hard, but she did not go down. She continued to challenge her opponent. Her greatest sin is PRIDE. Her pride enabled her to "take" the punch, but it did not "do her in". She kept on asking for more. She still wanted to fight....

Publishers are coming to the rescue of baby boomers who are having trouble reading the small print of mass market paperbacks. Simon & Schuster's Jack Romanos says, "We've been losing the foundation of our customer base because their eyesight is getting worse, and the books are getting harder and harder to read." So they are printing new paperbacks in a bigger size with larger type and more space between lines. These aren't to be confused with the "large print" version of books. These new books will still fit on the same shelf at the airport store, so boomers will be...

17,000 blinded by fags By EMMA MORTON MORE than 17,000 Britons have gone blind because they SMOKE, it was revealed yesterday.  The shock statistic shows the link between fags and sight loss is as strong as that between cigs and lung cancer.The cigarettes cause a form of blindness called Age-Related Macular Degeneration, known as AMD.Smoke destroys cells in an area at the back of the eye named the macular. And smokers do not absorb nutrients from food essential for good eyesight.Cigarette puffers are four times more likely to develop AMD or lung cancer than those who shun the weed. And...

ORLANDO, FL, Sept. 2, 2005 – A relevant, reliable, ready, and accessible National Guard. It’s the mantra Chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, has taken on the road with him every where he goes. On Aug. 21 Blum brought his message to the Rosen Centre Hotel, location of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States’ 2005 National Conference. Prior to Blum taking the podium, conference attendees were shown a short video where Blum outlined his vision of the future for the National Guard. The key point in the presentation was the...

When I was a boy, my parents used to enjoy a comedian named Ronnie Graham. One of his jokes was, "The other day a cat came up to me and said, 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall?' and I said 'Practice, man, practice.' This other cat came up to me and said, 'Meow.' He was a real cat." We talk a lot in our movement about spiritual practices. I am a Religious Science Practitioner; the root word of Practitioner is practice. But why do we practice? Ernest Holmes said that a central concept of our movement is "Perfect God,...

THE FACTS It was more than 70 years ago that television sets first went on sale in the United States, and perhaps it was just as long ago that a cautious mother, noticing a son or daughter propped in front of that mesmerizing new invention, snapped and barked the words that generations of children would grow up hearing: "Don't sit so close; you'll ruin your eyesight!" Now, scientists can say with certainty that the age-old warning is outdated. Before the 1950's, television sets emitted levels of radiation that after repeated and extended exposure could have heightened the risk of eye...

The Food and Drug Administration said today that it had asked Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, to amend its warnings on Viagra in response to scattered reports of vision loss by people taking the drug. Some blindness was reported by 38 men taking Viagra - a tiny fraction of the 23 million people who have used the drug - and among four men taking Cialis, a newer competitor. None of the 100 or so clinical trials on Viagra have suggested that the drug causes vision loss, but the F.D.A. said it had suggested updating the drug's warning label...

Ayn Rand, Doctors, and a Good Book by Reginald Firehammer Students of Objectivism frequently note the number of things Ayn Rand predicted about society, culture, and the world which have actually happened just as she predicted. It is not what she wanted. She hoped her predictions would not come true, that her writing would serve as a warning that would stop the growth of the anti-intellectualism, altruism, and collectivism that is slowly eating away at western culture and civilization, creating the very horrors she predicted. Then DoctorsIn Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in the chapter, "Is Atlas Shrugging?" Ayn Rand identified...

Stem cells used to restore vision A hospital in West Sussex is pioneering the use of stem cells to restore the eyesight of patients. The trial, being carried out at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, has already helped 40 people see again. The surgery at the hospital has been developed over the past five years. Stem cells from the patient or a donor are used to redevelop the cornea, the transparent film at the front of the eye which lets in light. Opthalmic surgeon Sheraz Daya said: "Many people who've had injuries to their eyes, or even people born...

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin became today the first Kremlin leader in history to visit Israel, but there was a cool reaction to his idea for a major regional peace conference. The proposal for a Middle East peace conference, Israeli concern over Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran, and bitter opposition to Moscow's planned sale of anti-aircraft weapons to Syria were expected to top the agenda. Flying to Israel from a two-day visit to Egypt, Mr Putin travelled to holy sites in Jerusalem, where he was meeting tomorrow with Israeli President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. On Friday, Mr Putin...