Free Republic

A top Fatah official who was kidnapped on Monday has been released after his abductors shaved off his mustache. Fatah officials held Hamas responsible, saying the act was designed to humiliate Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, who is one of the most senior leaders of Fatah in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, however, said Abu al-Naja's kidnappers were former Fatah security officers who were angry because the Palestinian Authority had not paid them their salaries.

I have gone AWOL in the blade wars. My desertion happened when I noticed that Gillette had issued Fusion, a razor with five, yes five, blades. This is in response to Schick's Quattro four-blade razor, which itself was a response to Gillette's three-blade Mach3 and Mach3Turbo, which uses a battery to make the razor vibrate and followed the Gillette two-blade Sensor, which was in competition with Schick's... But enough. I am a Christian conservative Republican who believes in profits and free markets -- but I also know what planned obsolescence and scams are. And the shaving wars have been enough...

Posing hand on hip in a cutaway dress, Drew Barrymore has an announcement to make.She has joined the growing number of celebrities who have stopped shaving under their arms - and don't care who knows it. The 29-year- old Charlie's Angels star made her fashion statement at a New York catwalk event featuring designer Marc Jacobs. With his penchant for dressing models in combat boots and army-style jackets, Jacobs is famed for his grunge-inspired look - and Drew certainly fitted in. One of those attending the event at the Lexington Avenue Armory observed: 'She looked absolutely stunning but all people...

The Japan High School Baseball Federation has taken the unusual step of telling schools to tighten up against players who have had their eyebrows shaved or those wearing shabby clothes. The latest trend among schoolboys to shave their eyebrows has already created a stir among education officials who are outraged over the fashion. Officials of the high school baseball federation on Friday decided to warn member schools to take action against student players with shaved eyebrows or those wearing clothes considered too rough. "This is probably the first time for us to give instructions over the appearance of student players,"...

...Medical experts are observing the emergence of a relatively new strain [of Staph infections], known as community-acquired MRSA, among gay and bisexual men, athletes, prisoners and Native Americans. Since a staph outbreak among gay men in Los Angeles in early 2003, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention identified five major factors that facilitate the transmission of the infection: close contact, crowding, cleanliness, contaminated items and surfaces, and compromised skin integrity, said Nicole Coffin, a CDC spokesperson. The compromised skin integrity category includes tiny abrasions that may occur during "manscaping" -- the cosmetic shaving of body parts popular with some...

...One-fifth of the men who didn't shave daily were less likely to be married, had sex less often, and were more likely to smoke, have heart problems, and work in manual, blue-collar occupations than other men...

The frequency of shaving among men is an indicator of mortality risk, new UK research suggests. Neglecting to shave associated with disease Researchers found that men who do not shave on a daily basis are more likely to suffer from heart disease and have a 70 per cent higher risk of stroke. In addition, there is a greater chance that men who shave less regularly will smoke, be single and experience a lower frequency of orgasm than daily shavers. In a joint study between the University of Bristol and Belfast’s Queens University, experts tracked a group of more than 2,400...

<p>Campbell officials this week quickly put an end to a longtime ritual among city-sponsored swim teams. Teenage boys and girls will no longer hold coed ``shave-downs'' at the Campbell Community Center.</p> <p>The action followed complaints from parents of girls on a 6- through-8-year-old swim team who walked in on teenagers shaving themselves and their teammates in the girls locker room. The teen boys and girls, 14 through 17 years old, are members of the Campbell Wavemakers Senior Division Swim Team.</p>