Free Republic

The man had considered removing the two fingers himself. A Canadian man had two healthy fingers amputated to treat his “body integrity dysphoria,” a case report about his procedure reveals. The 20-year-old ambidextrous man experienced “profound distress” over his left hand’s fourth and fifth fingers and decided to have them amputated, according to the case report, which was published March 27 in Clinical Case Reports, an open access medical journal. Body integrity dysphoria is the rare phenomenon of individuals wanting to amputate parts of their body, usually limbs, often because they feel the body part does not belong to them....

I have been making a mistake for most of my life. See, I'm an economist, and one of the things that attracted me to economics is the notion of the "ideal economy." Of course, there are valid objections to the use of markets. There are people who cheat and commit fraud, and there are problems with information and market power and externalities. Sometime consumers make mistakes.

Luckily, just as gold is real money, conservatives are real people. We are not ideological constructs. Barack Obama’s enjoyment of golf does not render that activity beyond the pale. Those on the right use merit, rather than groupthink, to evaluate the utility of ideas and interests. Any sensible person who examined the method by which the government has flooded the market with currency would comprehend that putting their savings in a vehicle unaffected by the Federal Reserve’s manipulation was the smart thing to do. Yet leftists are not sensible. They are addicted to emotion and its accompanying flotsam and jetsam....

Barack Obama's grand speeches in Istanbul and Cairo as well as his repeated insistence on "respect" made Americans very aware that he hopes to win Muslim favor. But we did not know how deeply embedded this impulse has become in U.S. policy until this: "Obama's new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world." Byron York of the Washington Examiner uncovered an interview on Al-Jazeera in which the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Charles F. Bolden, Jr., explained how Obama charged him to pursue three decidedly non-scientific objectives:

Perhaps most significantly, the sages tell us that the messianic era will arrive b'hesik haDa'as — when no one expects it. In an age when human resilience is strained beyond all natural limits by the tribulations of a world gone mad, when no one has attention for anything other than survival, when hopelessness has descended upon every corner of civilization, at that moment the ultimate redemption will turn the tables on the pundits who prophesy imminent disaster and total devastation.

The NY State Association of County Clerks voted overwhelmingly to oppose Gov Spitzer's policy change, calling it "ill-advised" and charging that it would "pose significant security concerns . . . create unneeded confusion . . . [and] lead to a significant influx of illegal immigration"..... nearly every other state has tightened restrictions on licenses, the most universally accepted form of identity verification in America, since 9/11.

NY state's county clerks revolted against Gov. Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain state driver's licenses - some vowed not to carry it out if ordered to do so. The clerks said Spitzer's plan would make NY a magnet for illegal immigrants, raise security concerns, and create "confusion" about state-issued licenses and non-driver IDs at voting booths, in government offices and elsewhere.

AMERICANA, Brazil Now well past 90, Judith MacKnight Jones is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the illness that robbed her of all of her memory, her most precious asset. She has been lying here for the past 11 years, covered by a patchwork blanket, made from pieces her great-grandmother brought from the United States between 1865 and 1885, after the Confederacy lost the Civil War. Unable to speak or remember now, her book "Soldado Descanso" ("Rest Soldier") is written in Portuguese, but soon will be translated into English, as the publisher thinks Americans should know about the proud history of Confederate...

Die Karikaturisten schlagen zurück! Der Kampf der Kulturen geht weiter: die neuesten Cartoons zum Thema Karikaturen-Streit… Rough translation: The caricaturists strike again! The war of cultures continues: the newest cartoons on the theme of the [Muhammad] caricatures controversy...

A GROWING number of science students on British university campuses are challenging the theory of evolution, saying that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Koran as scientific fact and at one college in London, most biology students are now thought to be creationists. Earlier this month, Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution. In the US, there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes,...

In John They TrustSouth Pacific villagers worship a mysterious American they call John Frum - believing he'll one day shower their remote island with riches By Paul Raffaele   In the morning heat on a tropical island halfway across the world from the United States, several dark-skinned men—clad in what look to be U.S. Army uniforms—appear on a mound overlooking a bamboo-hut village. One reverently carries Old Glory, precisely folded to reveal only the stars. On the command of a bearded “drill sergeant,” the flag is raised on a pole hacked from a tall tree trunk. As the huge banner...

Intelligent design - coming to a school near you   David Jensen says the evolutionists' perspective relies on unproven scientific facts and theories. Picture / Greg Bowker   27.08.05   By Chris Barton   Science teachers say it has no place in the classroom. Christian educators say children shouldn't be denied alternative views. Science teachers retaliate that it's not science, it's religion behind a mask and they don't want a bar of it. Christian educators argue they can teach it alongside traditional science, so what are science teachers so afraid of? Science teachers' blood begins to boil. "It's not...

The grieving dad of the 11-year-old mentally troubled New Jersey boy who suffocated in a car trunk with two younger pals blames the state's social-services agency, saying it should have put his son in a facility where he could have gotten help. "If he would have been put in a safe place, this wouldn't have happened. The child needed a lot of help," Anibal Cruz Sr. said yesterday. -snip-" [The division] did nothing," Cruz said. "Why didn't they lock the baby somewhere safe? When kids need help, they have to help them."