Free Republic

Does anyone recognize this? It's a weighted clamp, used by a vendor at the farmers market to hold down his tent from blowing away. He said he got it from a photographers' supply -- that it's something photographers use to keep their equipment steady in outdoor shooting conditions. I'm trying to buy something like this, but I can't look for it until I know what it's called. Thanks....

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Sayeed Habibi considers himself a marked man. The reason: his Internet blog that challenges some of the policies of Iran's theocracy. He predicts that someday - perhaps soon - he'll be taken to prison and his site will be shut down. "And another voice will be silenced," said Habibi, a 34-year-old postgraduate and an unofficial elder statesman for student-led activist movements. "I fully expect to see the inside of a jail cell." He's not alone. Iranian authorities are stepping up arrests and pressure on popular bloggers as part of a wider Internet clampdown launched after hard-liner...

AL ASAD, Iraq(Jan. 5, 2006) -- The Bulldogs of Marine Attack Squadron 223 are taking a bite out of the insurgency in western Iraq. The AV-8B Harrier squadron deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, from its home at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., during August. Since arriving, the squadron's pilots and maintainers have worked hand in hand to ensure the squadron's bite is worse than its bark. "These Marines have been busting their butts," said Capt. Marc F. Arnold, a '223 pilot and Auburn, Ohio, native. "Witnessing all the work they do to keep the squadron up and running...

BERLIN (AP) - Germany's government Friday proposed new laws to combat far-right demonstrations, timed to include a planned May march in Berlin on the 60th anniversary of the Nazi surrender in World War II. Also Friday, police sealed off part of downtown Munich for an annual security conference, bracing for thousands of anti-war protesters and an expected appearance by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The proposals for laws against the rightist gatherings came in response to a rising neo-Nazi threat and would target anyone who glorifies or plays down Nazi crimes, said Interior Minister Otto Schily, Germany's top law enforcement...