Free Republic

There is always something special about science meetings. The 109th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Lamar University in Beaumont on 3-5 March 2006 was especially exciting for me, because a student and his professor presented the results of a DNA study I suggested to them last year. How fulfilling to see the baldcypress ( Taxodium distichum ) leaves we collected last summer and my tree ring photographs transformed into a first class scientific presentation that's nearly ready to submit to a scientific journal (Brian Iken and Dr. Deanna McCullough, "Bald Cypress of the Texas Hill Country: Taxonomically...

Black youths beat a young couple walking in Springfield, Missouri on August 22,2014. The mob ran up behind the couple as they left a bar in the city. The woman was also hit and knocked down in the assault.

Stricter rules for the country's most commonly prescribed painkiller were rolled out on Thursday by the FDA, the last step in a policy change that has been coming down the pipeline for years, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Hydrocodone will now be in a more serious and restrictive category. Doctors will be barred from calling in prescriptions by telephone, and patients will not be able to get refills on the same prescription, but will have to return to a physician for a new one. It will also have be to kept in special vaults in pharmacies. The Drug...

The Taliban claimed in 2010 that [Sgt. Bowe] Bergdahl had converted to Islam and was teaching bomb-making to its jihadists. His father is a convert to Islam who has called for the release of the jihadists in Guantanamo and has implied that American troops are killing Afghan children. There is evidence that he was not captured, but walked away from his unit: “On July 2, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press the soldier had “just walked off” his base with three Afghans after his shift.” So we may have traded five jihadists for one jihadist.

WASHINGTON – One day after former Clinton administration official Webb Hubbell sounded off against a proposed Medicare rule change in a WND commentary, the Obama administration dropped plans to restrict access to antidepressant and antipsychotic medications. In a stunning reversal, the Department of Health and Human Services killed the proposal a day after the official comment period ended and a day before the House of Representatives was set to vote on a bill to block the change.

No one gasped Wednesday night at St. James United Methodist Church as the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. spoke. No one in the packed multiracial audience got up in disgust and walked out. But people did laugh a lot, applaud a great deal and gave the controversial pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago a standing ovation after his hour-long lecture titled “Another World is Possible.” Wright made headlines in 2008 for sermons viewed as critical of America when he was presidential candidate Barack Obama’s longtime minister. Obama denounced Wright, left the church and went on to...

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – The attorney for a 50-year-old woman accused of placing rubbing alcohol in two bottles of orange juice at a Starbucks in San Jose last month said Friday she is “delighted” that she will not face criminal charges. San Jose criminal lawyer Dennis Lempert said Ramineh “Romi” Behbehanian, who was suspended by her employer due to the case, “expressed her appreciation” to him. “We are gratified that my client’s position has been vindicated and it is unfortunate that people hysterically respond to a situation and caused damage to a highly qualified, innocent scientist who has done...

Someone please help me solve a mystery. Several news reports, including the one at the link below, contained this paragraph regarding the walkout at Ahmadinejad's UN speech on Thursday. "The two U.S. diplomats, who specialize in the Middle East, were followed out of the chamber by diplomats from more than 30 countries. They included the 27 European Union members, Australia, New Zealand, Somalia, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Macedonia, a U.N. diplomat said. Israel boycotted the speech." It seems very strange that Somalia, a Muslim country, would walk -- the only one to do so. I've googled until my eyes...

The Rutherford Reader is a family-owned ,family-operated weekly publication that has been in business since August 3, 2000. The Reader, as it is known, is based out of Murfreesboro, TN a city of just over 100,000 people, which is part of the Nashville, TN. metropolitan area. It is a free weekly newspaper published by Pete Doughtie. Since The Reader is a free weekly paper they often publish articles from other sources, and lately many of my articles have been featured on the front page each week with permission. The paper is circulated by Distributech throughout the Rutherford County, TN area...

A longtime Jacksonville legislator sometimes on the receiving end of criticism for his own comments about Israeli foreign policy is defending journalism matriarch Helen Thomas against a firestorm that led to her abrupt retirement Monday. On a video made May 27 at the White House Jewish Heritage Celebration, Thomas is asked if she has any comments on Israel. “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine,” she said. When questioned, she suggested they go to Germany, Poland or the U.S.

Mezhgan Hussainy's family wants music mogul Simon Cowell to convert to Islam before he marries her, says a report. The 'American Idol' judge had proposed to Hussainy last week. 'They're very westernised, but no one in their family has ever married a non-Muslim - and they're not willing for their youngest daughter to become the first,' digitalspy.co.uk quoted a source as saying about Hussainy's parents Mary and Sayed. Hussainy's sister-in-law Erlene Garcia was also asked to convert before marrying her brother Wahid. According to Hussainy's friend, 'Mezhgan is very reluctant about asking Simon to convert...and she knows how controversial it...

Imagine my surprise when I opened an email ad from Amazon.com and found that Edip Yuksel, a Muslim who is a leading Islamic reformer, had written a book, Peacemaker's Guide to Warmongers: Exposing Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, and other Enemies of Peace. He made my day. Bill Warner was included in the product description as an enemy of peace. I am flattered. Why does Mr. Yuksel call me an enemy of peace and a warmonger? It's simple. Partnered with Robert Spencer, I debated him in Frontpage Magazine Symposiums (here and here) and beat him like a drum using the doctrine...

                  Hillary at Nuremberg...

The fractured ankle that hobbled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor yesterday is nothing compared with the political stumble she'll likely encounter when conservatives begin digging into her connection to a charity organization started by controversial political activist Lenora Fulani.

Seven thousand miles away, state Rep. Jim Watson is performing duties that exemplify his seven years in the Illinois House.And it's that legislative experience that the Jacksonville Republican draws upon in helping build the provincial government in the Anbar Province of Iraq."I can download Illinois state bylaws, show it to the (provincial council) and show them what minutes mean, show them what a (legislative) session is," Marine Corp Staff Sgt. Watson said Thursday by telephone from his camp near Ramadi.Americans need to remember, he said, that the Iraqi people are starting from scratch in building a democratic country. Jim Watson...

A WOMAN who was trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her son, 3, was handed to an Afghan who raped her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched. He was jailed for 20 years for murder - but the woman, Rukhma, was jailed, too. She had put up with her mistreatment for three months before going to authorities. But in December, Rukhma, who doesn't know her age but looks younger than 20, was given a four-year sentence for adultery and "escaping her house" in Pakistan. The Taliban's fall six years ago heralded new rights for women: to...

Published in the Springfield, MO "News-Leader": Believe it or not, Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt on Tuesday said the following to a crowd of onlookers at a rally in the rotunda of the state Capitol: "The way I hear Jason sing the national anthem makes you want to go out and kill a communist." ........ Thirty-year-old Tony Pecinovsky, a 10-year member of the party living in St. Louis, called Merritt's comment "mind-boggling." "It is unfortunate that one person's sense of patriotism leads them to talk of murder while ours leads us to fight for peace and democracy and equality and...

But were the Action steps recommended here undertaken? It appears that they were not. An update on the Stephen Couglin imbroglio: "Islam cleared," from Bill Gertz's Inside the Ring in the Washington Times (thanks to all who sent this in):Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England cleared his special assistant of any wrongdoing related to a run-in with former Joint Staff analyst Stephen Coughlin, and amid questions about the Muslim aide's background. "The deputy secretary's office has thoroughly reviewed the issues of concern raised by a few members of Congress and the media and has concluded there is no reason to question...

SPRINGFIELD -- Elementary students at Robberson Elementary School got a surprise on Friday morning. Third grade teacher and Army 1st Lt. Fred Romaine received an emotional welcome home. A member of the Missouri National Guard, Romaine served in Iraq for the past year. Romaine will again teach at Robberson in the fall. At least nine Springfield school district employees have been called to active duty in the past two years.

UNEMPLOYED immigrant Nawaz Sharif, 37, built a seven-bedroom mansion in Pakistan after scalping the UK for thousands in benefit fraud, credit card and passport scams. Police, immigration and benefits officials arrested Sharif, who came to the UK in the late 80s, at his home in Slough, Berks. They found more than 35 forged credit cards and 30 passports, numerous envelopes stuffed with hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash and two copies of Home Office stamps used to allow immigrants permission to stay in Britain. The dad of three was jailed for five years at Reading in 2006.