Free Republic

You cannot have it both ways! Every year in America, this “both ways” mentality gets worse and worse. Somewhere along the line Americans started thinking that we could have all of our rights and freedoms and have expedient justice and results at the same time. Well, I have to tell you: YOU CANNOT. There is a blend of the two that must be championed if we are going to continue being a successful country. The mortgage crisis of late is one of the great disasters caused by this “have it both ways” mentality. The government was constantly pressured by citizens...

FORT HUACHUCA — If England and America are two countries separated by a common language as George Bernard Shaw once said, the same is true of Australia and America. Just ask Australian Army Capt. Tony Sewell. One day while relaxing with some American friends, the 28-year-old officer mentioned he was going to put on his thongs. The comment elicited some raised eyebrows and pointed comments about why Sewell would want to put on the skimpy item meant for the most private of parts. Of course, what the captain meant to impart “to the mates,” he was going to wear flip-flops,...

18 Ways To Be A Good Liberal 1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand. 2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity. 3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than U.S. Nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Iran or Chinese and North Korean communists. 4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding. 5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earth's climate and more...

Blue sky tinkering (Filed: 17/09/2006)Page 1 of 5 Scientists fighting global warming are now considering wacky ways of deliberately manipulating the environment to control the world's climate. Philip Sherwell in New York reports on the schemes that were once dismissed as the work of crackpots Trillions of tiny sunshades orbiting in space; a mirror 150 miles high stationed between Earth and the sun; clouds sprayed with seawater; planes pumping sulphates into the stratosphere. They may sound to a layman like the weird and wacky fantasies of an eccentric bunch of boffins, but such ambitious plans for cooling the planet are...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 30, 2006 — As improvised explosive devices continue to ravage the area, officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. are responding by proposing an old remedy – cooperation. More than 70 leaders from the three nations and other coalition members attended the Counter IED Symposium from May 22 to May 24 at Bagram Airfield in an effort to neutralize the threat of improvised explosive devices in the area. “IEDs are the biggest threat to the Afghan people and the military effort in Afghanistan,” said Afghan National Army Col. Paiman, public affairs deputy for the Afghan Ministry...

WASHINGTON - Government studies released Thursday show a broad range of potential costs if the United States were to regulate carbon dioxide to curb global warming, from relatively cheap to expensive. The Environmental Protection Agency said its analyses show the superiority of President Bush's plan for cutting air pollution from the nation's 600 coal-burning power plants. But Bush's plan, which wouldn't regulate carbon dioxide at all, has been stalled in Congress since its introduction in 2002. Nonetheless, EPA compared it with current regulations as well as competing legislative proposals by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and James Jeffords, I-Vt. None of...

WASHINGTON - A private commission trying to restore public confidence in national elections recommended on Monday requiring a free photo ID for voters, drawing opposition from Democrats and some voting rights activists. Critics suggested that having to acquire the ID cards in order to vote could be an obstacle for minorities, the poor and older Americans and might intimidate some people. "We believe such a requirement would constitute nothing less than a 21st century poll tax," said a letter from Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and John Lewis, D-Ga. Poll taxes were once used in some states to prevent black citizens...

Pelosi: 'Having Admitted Error of His Words, President Must Admit Error of His Ways' Fri Jan 14, 2:19 PM ET To: National Desk Contact: Brendan Daly or Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616, both of the Office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on remarks by President Bush in an interview with regional newspapers yesterday in which he said he regretted saying "bring 'em on" in reference to insurgents in Iraq who wanted to attack our troops: "The President has finally acknowledged that his taunting the Iraqi...

When the 84th Minnesota Legislature convenes at noon today, it will be the most evenly divided in at least half a century -- with 101 DFLers, 99 Republicans and one Independence Party member. Coming after last year's stalemate, that mix raises the question: Can the legislators come together and produce results? The situation was markedly similar on Jan. 5, 1971, when there were razor-thin partisan divides in both chambers and a popular young governor. That year, predictions of a legislative train wreck seemed fulfilled when Republican legislative leaders stared down DFL Gov. Wendell Anderson through a costly special session that...

Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when an American district court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing US$156 million.The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself, providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.First, it validates...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Delegates Seek Ways to Confront Warming By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent November 28, 2004, 4:20 PM EST The ice is melting and the heat is on for international delegates assembling in Buenos Aires next week to find new ways to confront global warming under the 194-nation treaty on climate change. The treaty's Kyoto Protocol, requiring initial cuts in "greenhouse gas" emissions by 2012, finally comes into force in February, seven years after it was negotiated. Next, European governments want the annual treaty conference -- Dec. 6-17 in the Argentine capital -- to get down to talks on steps...

REMAINS OF FOOD SHED LIGHT ON ANCIENT WAYS BY BEN MURCH 11:00 - 20 November 2004 Exotic spices unearthed beneath the Bath Spa show military administrators lived in the lap of luxury in the city's early days. Food and architectural remains found preserved beneath the remains of Roman buildings provide new evidence of the high living enjoyed by the military rulers of what was then Aquae Sulis in the first century AD. The remains were discovered in 1999, but have only just finished being analysed. The ancient grapes, figs, coriander and a peppercorn - along with highly decorative architectural fragments...

Nearly four years have elapsed since the Oslo process (1993-2000) between Israelis and Palestinians foundered in bloodshed. Over that period, two U.S. administrations have tried to forge policies that would reduce the violence and point toward a solution to the conflict.It has not been a single-minded pursuit. Since September 11, 2001, the prime focus of Washington has been the management of unprecedented U.S. military interventions in the region, which removed regimes from power in Afghanistan and Iraq. The notion of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the key to regional stability has been replaced by the war on terror and the insistence on...

The state budget deal contains some devastating compromises, including one that will hit California's kids hard: Republicans agreed to drop their demand to revise a 2002 law that largely prohibits schools from hiring private firms for food, transportation, and janitorial and landscaping services. The failure to repeal this law and give districts more control over funding puts California at odds with national trends in utilizing public- private partnerships to improve public education and condemns many districts to financial straits. Schools across the country have saved millions through outsourcing, thus directing more resources to classrooms. When the St. Louis school district...

It started with the mind-numbing reading of a 200-page pension overhaul bill, erupted into a remarkably bitter name-calling match between House Republicans and Democrats, and ended with a GOP lawmaker summoning Capitol Police to evict an outraged gaggle of Democratic colleagues from a congressional library. Ultimately, nobody was assaulted or arrested. But the brouhaha that exploded yesterday morning in the Ways and Means Committee marked the most bitterly partisan spat thus far in the 108th Congress, a place already known for unusually angry relations between the Republican majority and the Democratic minority, especially in the House. The Longworth building showdown...

<p>SACRAMENTO - Allies of Gov. Gray Davis are quietly exploring whether the steamrolling recall campaign might be vulnerable to a court challenge that could derail -- or at least delay -- the historic election.</p> <p>The step comes after the apparent failure this week of their bid to thwart anti-Davis forces from gathering enough signatures to force an unprecedented no-confidence vote.</p>

Fifty ways to leave your lover: US Army's online Lothario wreaks havoc and heartbreak By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 12 June 2003 For Robin Solod, a sassy New Yorker who had spent four years trawling internet dating sites looking for the right man, Colonel Kassem Saleh seemed the perfect catch. He was a tall, good-looking, special forces officer contacting her from a war zone and he wrote her messages that she found as intoxicating as a crystal flute of champagne. What's more, he clearly had no commitment issues: within months of their "meeting" he had proposed marriage to her. Unfortunately,...

Monday, 6 January, 2003, 17:58 GMTMilky Way's star 'doughnut' A ring of stars surrounds the Milky Way A vast, but previously unknown structure has been discovered around the edges of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The first large area surveys of the sky have revealed several hundred million stars surrounding the galaxy's main disc. The ring, which has the appearance of a giant doughnut, could be the remains of a satellite galaxy. Astronomers believe it could hold clues as to how the Milky Way and other galaxies evolved. Giant doughnutAn international team of astronomers looked at images of the Milky...