Free Republic

The intelligent-design movement is a small but growing force on US university campuses. For some it bridges the gap between science and faith, for others it goes beyond the pale. Geoff Brumfiel meets the movement's vanguard. For a cold Tuesday night in March, the turnout is surprisingly good. Twenty or so fresh-faced college students are gathered together in a room in the student union at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, the state's largest public university. They are there for the first meeting of Salvador Cordova's Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) club.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2005 – President Bush's decision to support a congressional measure that bans "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment" of terror suspects in U.S. custody or under U.S. control won't change military operations because the military always has upheld those principles, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a Dec. 15 television interview. Bush announced his endorsement Dec. 15 of the so-called "McCain Amendment," championed by Arizona Sen. John McCain, who underwent torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "Senator McCain has been a leader to make sure that the United States of America upholds the values of...

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas Medical tests today showed that cancer has returned to a 12-year-old girl whose parents were in court to fight radiation treatment because they believed her illness was in remission. The new tests were revealed by state attorneys during a hearing that was supposed to determine whether treatment for Katie Wernecke was necessary in the days leading up to a custody hearing next Wednesday. Texas Child Protective Services removed the girl and her siblings from the home of Michele and Edward Wernecke last week after doctors said discontinued treatment could be life-threatening. Katie was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease...

Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized. Gordon, a former open-wheel driver now in NASCAR, contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick's is lighter on the race track. "The lighter the car, the faster it goes," Gordon said. "Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the...

NEW IPSWICH - In the latest twist of his public battle against illegal immigrants, Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain has taken what may be a unique legal approach: He has charged a man from Mexico with criminal trespass because he was in town without legal documents. As defined in state law (RSA 635:2), a person is guilty of criminal trespass “if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place.” “If we’re going to have immigration, it needs to be controlled and we need to know what’s happening on our borders. Nobody...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in New Jersey: An Islamic Murder of Coptic Christians?.Anyone following the investigation into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife, two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.The authorities, however, have blinded themselves to the extensive circumstantial evidence, insisting that "no facts at this point" substantiate a religious motive for the murders.Somehow, the prosecutor missed that all four members of this...

Braving bullets and bombs, millions of Iraqis cast their ballots yesterday in Iraq's first free elections in half a century. First reports suggested turnout in excess of 70%. While the Independent Election Commission of Iraq will not announce the official results for another two weeks, the encouragingly high voter turnout undercuts the cynicism of a press corps that questioned the election's legitimacy before the first ballots were even cast. The Associated Press, for example, opined, "If the vast majority of the Sunnis shun the polls--either out of fear or lack of confidence in the process--it would undercut the new government's...

Federal Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff’s ties to the financiers of the Sept. 11 attacks may prevent his confirmation as Homeland Security Chief. According to a June 20, 2000 article in the The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, Chertoff defended accused terrorist financier Dr. Magdy Elamir. Elamir’s HMO was sued by the State of New Jersey to recoup $16.7 million in losses. At least $5.7 million went “to unknown parties... by means of wire transfers to bank accounts where the beneficial owner of the account is unknown,” according to the article. Foreign intelligence reports given to then chairman of...

Mitch Goodrich: Christian school teacher, competitive marksman, soldier who recently returned from active duty in Afghanistan, martial artist ... and Libertarian Party member. As attempts to stereotype Libertarians have proven, generalizations are futile. It's no more reasonable to say members of the Libertarian Party are politically far right than it is to say they're far left -- although party members are frequently hit with both labels. And you can't safely say Libertarians are anti-military -- assuming the military is being used properly for national defense. In fact, there are hundreds of military personnel in the party's membership -- many of...

Pressure Cooker A Recipe for Chief of Staff Andrew Card is talking about his kitchen. "I know my kitchen really well, as evidenced by my rotund being," Card says, patting his belly. "I know where the oven is and I know where the microwave is and I know where the sink is and I know where the refrigerator is and the freezer and the cupboards and the table and the chairs." Card, 57, is sprawled on the couch of his West Wing office, describing the kitchen from his mind's eye. It is from here that the White House chief of...

WASHINGTON — Every American is just a few steps away from committing a crime. That point is raised in new publications that seek to cast a critical eye on lawmakers for their aggressive approach to going after supposed wrongdoing. "I think we should be alarmed on a number of different levels," said Bob Barr, a former Republican member of Congress from Georgia who also used to be a U.S district attorney. "We’re changing the very nature of society — the over-criminalization of society."

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!

Don't waste your time, girls - some romances are not meant to be, writes Caroline Overington. Is there a woman alive who hasn't sat on the couch, sobbing and saying: "Why doesn't he call?" Well, now we know: he's just not that into you. Sounds simple, no? Yet a guide for women that explains this basic concept has taken the book world by storm. The book, He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys, has reached the top of the bestseller lists in The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. It was...

Has Genghis' Tomb Been Found? After four years' work, a joint team of Japanese and Mongolian archaeologists announced on October 4 that they had found what they believe to be the true mausoleum of Genghis Khan (1162-1227). The ruins, dated to between the 13th and 15th century, were found at Avraga, around 250 kilometers east of Ulan Bator, the capital of the People's Republic of Mongolia. Team members said that they expect the discovery to provide clues to the whereabouts of the khan's actual burial site, which they believe may be within 12 kilometers of the mausoleum. There is a...

CHARTED: Yoko Ono, 71, has the No. 1 single on the dance chart, "Every Man Has A Man Who Loves Him"/"Every Woman Has A Woman Who Loves Her," a mix of techno beats and her somewhat off-key vocals that delivers a message in favor of same-sex unions. "This is a victory not just for me but for all Americans who are against the administration's decision to ban gay marriage," Ono says about the success of the tune, as quoted by the BBC.

No smoking . . . Dr Bolton with his hemp crop. Photo: Jeff Dawson If Keith Bolton has his way, hemp - the great symbol of the hippy North Coast - will be coming to a sewage treatment plant near you very soon. And to your wardrobe, your pantry, your car and your medicine cabinet. Interestingly, the strongest opponents of the Southern Cross University academic's dream are the drug dealers in nearby Nimbin. Man has cultivated hemp for fibre, food and medicine for at least 6000 years and Dr Bolton says that, after a 70-year "blip in history" caused...

Tokyo (dpa) - Five school girls forced another female student to work as a prostitute so they could pay for a mobile phone bill, police said Thursday. The five grammar school girls between 14-16 years old were arrested after allegedly beating the 16-year-old fellow student while keeping her at an apartment for three days. They arranged sexual liaisons with three men through a personals service and the men paid the 16-year-old victim to have sex with them. The girls had said they needed pocket money and also needed to pay off a mobile telephone bill costing more than 450 dollars....

Has anyone else seen the life size displays of George W. Bush? They are using them to sell The Faith of George W. Bush. They set the books on the George W. Bush display and sell them off of it. Anyways as soon as I saw this I asked my manager if I could have it. He told me to call the number on the back of the display. This man apparently distributes religious books for the Publisher Charisma House. I called him and he said that if I wrote my name on the back of the display that I...

<p>VaxGen's experimental AIDS vaccine couldn't block HIV infection among volunteers in Thailand, the Brisbane company said Wednesday, in another blow for the closely scrutinized drug.</p> <p>The vaccine, dubbed AIDSVAX, had no noticeable effect on infection rates among the 2,546 intravenous drug users in Bangkok who volunteered for the study. Nor did it slow the disease's progress among volunteers who took the vaccine and later contracted HIV.</p>

Official Says U.S. Has Advantage in Iraq Sunday November 9, 2003 2:01 AM By SLOBODAN LEKIC Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A senior U.S. official insisted on Saturday that the U.S. military has the upper hand in the escalating war in Iraq, on a day when two paratroopers died in a roadside ambush and the international Red Cross said it was closing two main offices due to deteriorating security. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Iraq as a ``war zone,'' but noted that ``we have the momentum in this process.'' ``I'm absolutely convinced we have a very...