Free Republic

You’re a new nerd in town. You want to roll some dice, cast some spells, kill some orcs. Or you want to leverage your fandom for good, not evil, in the so-called “real world,” whatever that is. Let it be known, verily and forsooth, that Our Fair City and its environs is a kingdom replete with every variety of nerdery known to man, woman, halfling, and beast. Boston is the undisputed center of the nerdverse — a mothership for dweebs, techies, trekkers, weirdos, and gamers. “Our mainstream is geeky,” said Kevin Harrington, who runs an annual comedy festival called Geek...

Following are excerpts from a debate on female circumcision in Egypt. Al-Azhar University lecturer Dr. Muhammad Wahdan and lecturer on Islamic religious law Dr. Malika Zarrar participated in the debate, which aired on the Kuwaiti Al-Rai TV on March 28, 2006. Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: Ibn Al-Qayyem recounts that when Hagar married Abraham and got pregnant, Sara was very jealous of her. Because of her jealousy, she swore by Allah that she would cut off three of Hagar's body parts. Abraham was afraid that she would cut off Hagar's nose or ears, so he instructed her to pierce Hagar's ears and...

As I was preparing for this article, I asked a friend who is Jewish if it was appropriate to use the term "holocaust" to portray the worldwide violence against women. He was startled. But when I read him the figures in a 2004 policy paper published by the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, he said yes, without hesitation. One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence...

PARISLast Saturday morning, needing help to move several heavy cartons of books from my apartment in central Paris to a storage room, I hired two movers and a van from the want ads. Students were in the streets protesting the Contrat de Premier Embauche (CPE) -- a law proposed to combat unemployment by giving employers more flexibility to fire young employees -- and the barricades and traffic diversions made our four-block drive into a half-hour ordeal. As we turned down one obstructed street after another, the movers -- both Arab immigrants -- became more and more incensed."They're idiots," said the...

Fishnet Hosiery Does in Robbery Suspect - New York Times           MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) -- A man's pantyhose led to his arrest, authorities said. An unshaven man wearing a black evening gown, fishnet stockings, calf-high boots and a black wig robbed a USA Gas station Monday morning, authorities alleged.           The armed man stuffed $290 in cash into an ensemble-matching black purse.

Taking a key piece from its rival New England, Indianapolis agreed in principle to a deal with Adam Vinatieri, the Colts said. Vinatieri, who twice hit winning kicks in the Super Bowl for the Patriots, will replace former Pro Bowl kicker Mike Vanderjagt.   Adam Vinatieri will try to create some historical moments for the Colts.     The deal was announced on the team's Web site, though terms were not immediately available. Messages left with the Patriots and agents for Vinatieri by The Associated Press were not immediately returned. The Patriots allowed Vinatieri to test free agency rather than...

A wily coyote led sharpshooters armed with tranquilizer guns on a merry chase through Central Park for two days before it was finally captured Wednesday morning.At one point, the searchers had it cornered near the park's ice rink, but the clever creature jumped into the water, ducked under a bridge, then scampered through the rink grounds and ran off.The coyote was captured somewhere north of that area, Parks Department spokesman Ashe Reardon said.The hunt had been on since Tuesday afternoon when Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, among others, spotted the animal in the southeast corner of the park, not far from...

Mihos will run for governor as independentBy Tom Benner Patriot Ledger State House BureauBOSTON - Brockton native and convenience store magnate Christy Mihos will announce on Thursday that he is bolting the Republican Party to run for governor as an independent candidate, a campaign aide said.The decision by Mihos, a multi-millionaire and longtime underwriter of Republican office-seekers, comes as a major blow to Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, whose own campaign for governor stands to suffer now that there's a three-way race for the corner office.Mihos will make his formal announcement at a 5:15 p.m. press conference Thursday outside the State...

Meet Osama's niece She's not the model niece Osama bin Laden's looking for - but she is modelling.This is how Wafah Dufour, the al Qaeda leader's niece, will appear in the January 2006 issue of GQ magazine.Dufour, who took her mother's maiden name after the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, is an aspiring musician struggling to make a name for herself.She says she has never met Osama bin Laden."Everyone relates me to that man, and I have nothing to do with him," she said in the article."There are 400 other people related to him, but they...

From Pokémon to Full Metal Panic, the anime industry is doing everything the rest of show biz isn't: embracing technology, coddling fans—and making a killing.           It was 2 a.m. when John Ledford heard the banging at his door. Stumbling from bed on that night in the fall of 1999, he threw on a robe over his boxers and opened the door of his Houston apartment to a twentysomething guy with glasses and a face full of freckles. Ledford was about to tell him he had the wrong apartment when the stranger launched into a speech....

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary September 23, 2005 President Presents Medal of Honor to Corporal Tibor "Ted" Rubin The East Room President's Remarks view 2:45 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Laura and I welcome you to the White House. This is a special occasion for our nation. We're here to pay tribute to a soldier with an extraordinary devotion to his brothers in arms, and an unshakeable love for his adopted homeland of America. Corporal Tibor "Ted" Rubin's many acts of courage during the Korean War saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow soldiers. In the...

An American Hero Meet Ted Rubin.           When the White House called Corporal Tibor "Ted" Rubin to tell him he was to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor he thought it was one of his friends playing a joke. President Bush has called the 76-year-old Korean War veteran "one of the greatest Jewish soldiers America has ever known." But Ted is characteristically modest. "I was just a country boy," he told me, "but next week I'll be honored with the country's highest award. This is unbelievable."           Being awarded the Medal of...

After long campaign, Jewish veteran will finally be honored by U.S. military LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 (JTA) — On Sept. 23, as Tibor Rubin enters the White House, generals will stand at rigid attention, President Bush will rise, and then he’ll drape the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for gallantry in combat, around the neck of the 76-year old Holocaust survivor and Korean War veteran. Rubin and a legion of supporters have waited almost 55 years for this moment of triumph of camaraderie and persistence over bureaucratic lethargy and the prejudice that embittered the lives of so many...

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Click here at peril of your soul! Ted Kennedy dancing at the Bay State's donkey gathering.

Evolutionary scientists have never had difficulty explaining the male orgasm, closely tied as it is to reproduction.But the Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant - doing their part for the perpetuation of the species - without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose?Over the last four decades, scientists have come up with a variety of theories, arguing, for example, that orgasm encourages women to have sex and, therefore, reproduce or that it leads women to favor stronger and healthier men, maximizing their offspring's chances of survival.But in...

The victory of two dark-horse candidates for Dartmouth College's board of trustees this week has revived a struggle over competing visions for the future of the small Ivy League campus. Peter Robinson, who wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan and is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Todd J. Zywicki, a George Mason University law professor who contributes to a libertarian-leaning web log, ran on platforms that were scathingly critical of the administration, saying it has become too politically correct and has stifled fraternities, de-emphasized athletics, and shortchanged teaching in favor of research.

SOX 5-2 CUBS 12-3! Get ready for the Armegeddon series!

Dean`s rivals in the Democratic presidential primary are now asking themselves how a former governor from Vermont raised so much support online and how they can do the same. “There`s a saying, ‘Never get in a bar fight with someone who has a lot less to lose,`” said Walsh by way of explanation. “Dean had nothing to lose.” Dean was open to new tactics, such as creating a campaign “blog” or Web log, to update supporters on campaign-trail happenings, building an e-mail list of supporters, and using online forums such as Meetup.com to organize rallies and other backing. Using...

I'm proud to be a liberal. I've been a liberal all my life, espousing civil rights, environmental protection, fiscal prudence, energy independence, gun control, educational uplift, stands against military dictatorships, etc. I believe firmly in individuals thinking of causes greater than their own and translating such impulses into public policies to change society for the better. Which is why I have been appalled, disgusted, and ashamed at the direction so many liberals have taken in the weeks and months since Sept. 11. Almost immediately, many left-wingers blamed America or Israel for the attacks (some still do). When idiotarian's canards of...