Free Republic

At the Maldives' National Museum, smashed Buddhist statues are testament to the rise of Islamic extremism and Taliban-style intolerance in a country famous as a laid-back holiday destination. On Tuesday, as protesters backed by mutinous police toppled president Mohamed Nasheed, a handful of men stormed the Chinese-built museum and destroyed its display of priceless artefacts from the nation's pre-Islamic era. "They have effectively erased all evidence of our Buddhist past," a senior museum official told AFP at the now shuttered building in the capital Male, asking not to be named out of fear for his own safety. "We lost all...

New York Senator Hillary Clinton acknowledges a 3-minute ovation during the Democratic National Convention 2008 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, August 26. Democratic women Senators appears on stage at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 26, 2008. U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is expected to accept the Democratic presidential nomination at the convention on August 28. US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama watches New York Senator Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention on a TV screen in Billings, Montana on August 26. Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (R) (D-DE) stand at the podium...

If you're in Beijing for the Olympics kick starting this weekend, don't be spilling any beans (state secrets or otherwise) in your cab back to the hotel, because you're being listened to. As the WSJ is reporting, on your taxi's dash is a microphone that can be activated remotely, at any time and without the driver's knowledge, for a live listen into any one of Beijing's estimated 70,000 cabs. And then, if the folks on the other end don't like what they hear, they can take things even further.The GPS-equipped devices also allow for remote disabling by "cutting off...

Her Heinous Hillary, Senatrix from New York, smartest woman in the world, enabler of sexual predator Bill Clinton and launderer of Chinese cash spoke out in Boston tonight on the efforts of conservatives to shed light on the efforts by Democrats to expand S-CHIP benefits to middle class families.According to the Associated Press, Clinton warned President Bush and Republicans to, "lay off Graeme Frost," the 12 year old boy being used by her party as a human shield to ward off efforts to incrementally nationalize health care.Clinton, who was reported to have led the campaign to intimidate and discredit women...

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=abP2bh88Jrgo&refer=us Schwarzenegger's Punitive Award Fund Part of Budget (Update1) July 29 (Bloomberg) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to take 75 percent of punitive damage awards made it into the state budget in a form that placated trial attorneys and disappointed supporters of tort reform. Schwarzenegger estimates that the state may raise as much as $450 million from the punitive damages fund. That amount might be optimistic because the law applies only to suits filed after the budget is signed and judgments that are paid by June 2006. ``The courts would have to turn into a dry cleaners -- in...