Free Republic

The rise in carbon dioxide emissions is big news. It is prompting action to reverse global warming. But little or no attention is being paid to the long-term fall in oxygen concentrations and its knock-on effects. Compared to prehistoric times, the level of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere has declined by over a third and in polluted cities the decline may be more than 50%. (snip) In the 20th century, humanity has pumped increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning the carbon stored in coal, petroleum and natural gas. In the process, we've also been consuming oxygen...

From the time of our birth, God has graced us with a faithful companion, appointed guardian and guide: our dear guardian angel.  Angels are spiritual beings who are constantly in God’s Presence, singing praises to Our Creator.  Angels serve as Divine messengers, bringing God’s Will and Word to all humanity. Although we are unable to see them they are there ready to protect and watch over us at God’s command. The Doctors of the Church teach that the guardianship of the holy angels over men only terminates at the souls’ entrance into Heaven. Some mystics have asserted that it extends to...

The Kremlin's decision today to call a halt to its five-day assault on Georgia leaves Russia calling the shots in the energy-rich Black Sea littoral and Caspian basin. (Snip...) Nato and the EU The Russians see the Caucasus test as a zero-sum game and have won. That means lose-lose for the west. A key objective for Putin was to destabilise Georgia to invalidate its aim of joining Nato. He may have succeeded. The Americans suffered a rare defeat in April at a Nato summit when George Bush argued strongly for starting Georgia towards alliance membership and was defeated by Angela...

Your new timetable, kids: double maths, English and a spot of shooting · Surge in school gun ranges after minister backed sport · Lobby group rejects link to violent crime Polly Curtis, education editor Saturday January 26, 2008 The Guardian The number of schools introducing rifle ranges for pupils has surged since ministers backed shooting sports last year, say gun groups. One local authority is reportedly seeking to introduce shooting at 16 of its schools, and an academy due to open in September in a deprived area of south Bristol is believed to be the first of the government's flagship...

Guardian journalist expelled from Iran Guardian Unlimited January 4 2008 The Guardian's Tehran correspondent, Robert Tait, has been expelled from Iran without explanation after nearly three years of reporting from the country. Tait was forced to leave the country after the Iranian authorities declined to renew his visa and residence permit, despite an appeal on his behalf from the Guardian's editor, -excerpt- He is now back in the UK, along with his Iranian wife. The ministry gave no reason for its decision but said the newspaper was free to put forward another journalist as its correspondent in Iran. Tait, 43,...

This has been a hectic week for me. My husband fueled up his Tiger Grumman airplane with aviation gas and soared off into the skies for his first cross-country solo flight. He landed in Kitty Hawk, S.C., and spent a couple of days re-acquainting himself with the Wright Brothers and their dazzling accomplishment of first-ever flight and American can-do spirit. Simultaneously, my teenage son, his best friend and my niece left for Nicaragua on a mission by our church to help build a youth center in the mosquito-infested town of San Ramon. So I was minding my own business when...

In another sad example of self flagellation by western elitists, the Guardian Newspaper in England published a column on how we Americans (and our English cousins) should not celebrate the founding of Jamestown, the first Virginia colony, 400 years ago because of... you guessed it... slavery. Here we have another elitist congratulating himself that he is "informed" enough to know that slavery makes the founding of the USA a blight on humanity instead of the great event it truly is. Another leftist who cannot bring himself to be proud of anything the west has been responsible for because there were...

The Guardian's obsession in adopting "Palestinianism", big words on empty reality * "Apartheid" -, the Guardian was/is obsessed to use it at any opportunity Israel's survival war against racist terrorism by Arabs (http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Guardian_Promotes_Apartheid_Slur.asp Guardian Promotes Apartheid Slur), long before the bribing by the Arab lobby of former US president, the infamous Jimmy Carter to use the word "apartheid" as a title of his anti-Israel bigoted book. Facts of equal rights & equal treatment of Arabs in Israel, that even Carter has admitted (interview with former President Jimmy Carter. ... "I recognize Israel is a wonderful democracy with freedom of speech...

What's wrong with this picture? & Just How Islamized is 'The Guardian'? Muslim organization to address Jewish audience Associated Press of Pakistan, Pakistan - Mar 18, 2007 LONDON, March 18 (APP): Britain's leading Muslim organization will tomorrow signal a radical shift in its position when one of its senior members addresses ... MCB at JCC event Something Jewish British Muslims extend a friendly hand to Jews Guardian Unlimited Instead of the MINORITY Jewish organization having a clean foot a sane voice in the dirty hate empire of Islamofascistic 'mainstream Islam' that teaches that non Muslims are apes & pigs, What...

PS3: difficult stories emerge in run up to Euro launch http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/02/13/ps3_difficult_stories_emerge_in_run_up_to_euro_launch.html [...] More juicy perhaps, is the comment made on a blog named FreeRepublic.com, by EA employee Dr. Andrew Garrett: "My opinion - get the 360 and/or the Wii. Skip the PS3 unless there's a big change in the near future." You can read his full post here. Naturally, anti-Sony zealots are spinning this as 'EA says skip PS3', which means Dr Garrett is probably in a whole heap of trouble. That's the problem with the modern videogame industry and the web - the two are utterly incompatible... Blog culture...

As she sees it now, she spent her 20s working too hard, never saying no to anything and succumbing to "the bad side of American psychology". "I love the English way, which is not as capitalistic as it is in America. People don't talk about work and money; they talk about interesting things at dinner parties. I like living here because I don't tap into the bad side of American psychology..."

American "expatriate" Greg Palast published an article in the UK's left wing "Guardian" on Monday: "explaining" how the GOP "stole" the Mid-term elections ! (Talk about being stuck on "Stupid" !)

The Guardian's Sound of Silence Posted by Marc Landers on October 3, 2006 - 13:13. Remember when the AP ran the bogus story about the Crowd booing when President Bush annonunced that Bill Clinton was ill? There was no booing and the report created a firestorm in the blogsphere. Faced with an onslaught from bloggers, the AP was forced to retract the story. The Guardian's Jonathan Freeland was caught in the reverse when he claimed there was no applause in response to this statement by PM Blair at the Labor Party conference: "So when Blair said that a withdrawal from...

Meaningless apology 9/19/2006 3:28:00 PM GMT   (AFP Photo) Pope Benedict XVI greets pilgrims and faithful in the courtyard of his summer residence  Fury continues over radical remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI last Tuesday in a speech during a pilgrimage to his native Germany in which he linked the noble faith of Islam to violence and terrorism, quoting a 14th-century Christian emperor who said that Prophet Mohammed's command to spread Islam by the sword had produced "evil and inhumane" results.Earlier this week and following mass protests that broke out across the Muslim and the Arab world, the pope...

The US government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free. The Guardian found them in three days. Two years ago the US military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the United States, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal. As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan. But months later the tribunal president returned with bad news: the witnesses could not be found. Mr Mujahid's hopes sank and he was returned to the wire-mesh cell where he remains...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 27, 2006) – Volunteering to work in public affairs for Task Force Guardian is somewhat like plunging into Lake Pontchartrain. It immediately awakens all of ones senses, while providing instant meaning to priorities and issues of real importance. While the experience was meant to expand my media-relations knowledge, it’s also schooled me in the power of the human spirit. As a Department of Army public affairs intern, I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to deploy to an emergency operations center. When the chance was offered to work with the Corps of Engineers, I quickly...

MINNEAPOLIS - The founder of the New York-based Guardian Angels civilian patrol comes to Minneapolis today. Curtis Sliwa (SLEE'-wuh) will offer his services to interim police chief Tim Dolan. That follows the recent fatal shootings of a Minnetonka (minn-eh-TAHN'-kuh) man in downtown Minneapolis and of a Clemson University graduate student in the Uptown area. Sliwa's Guardian Angels last patrolled the streets of Minneapolis 20 years ago. By the early 1990's, they were gone. Sliwa hopes to have a group of Guardian Angels from Denver patrol trouble spots in Minneapolis this weekend. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information from: Star Tribune/Minneapolis, http://www.startribune.com

May 7 2009 will surely go down in history alongside September 11 2001. "5/7", as it inevitably became known, saw massive suicide bombings in Tel Aviv, London and New York, as well as simultaneous attacks on the remaining western troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Total casualties were estimated at around 10,000 dead and many more wounded. The attacks, which included the explosion of a so-called dirty bomb in London, were orchestrated by a Tehran-based organisation for "martyrdom-seeking operations" established in 2004. "5/7" was the Islamic Republic of Iran's response to the bombing of its nuclear facilities, which President Hillary Clinton...

Britain has only one important newspaper: the left-wing Guardian. Not only is it the sole remaining daily newspaper in the country whose content is mostly devoted to serious matters, but it is the only one that the unacknowledged legislators of the world, the intelligentsia, take seriously. And this is a disaster for the country. Though it occasionally allows a dissenting voice, the Guardian has consistently advocated a demoralization of the population, followed by increased state intervention and, of course, public spending to alleviate the consequences of that demoralization. No wonder the BBC advertises for personnel exclusively in its pages. An...

During the second world war the future South African prime minister John Vorster was interned as a Nazi sympathiser. Three decades later he was being feted in Jerusalem. In the second part of his remarkable special report, Chris McGreal investigates the clandestine alliance between Israel and the apartheid regime, cemented with the ultimate gift of friendship - A-bomb technology Several years ago in Johannesburg I met a Jewish woman whose mother and sister were murdered in Auschwitz. After their deaths, she was forced into a gas chamber, but by some miracle that bout of killing was called off. Vera Reitzer...

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was "solidly" behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today. A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence...

... I first drew Bush as a monkey after his installation by the Supreme Court, exactly five years ago. It was by accident. I was trying to depict him as a spiritual heir to Ronald Reagan, another useless chump whose most celebrated movie hit was Bedtime For Bonzo in which he starred with a chimp. So Bush became a chimp before I ever realised how closely he resembles our hairy forebears. [...] Drawing him as a monkey, however, worked a treat. His four hands enabled him to get up to all sorts of interesting tricks, and also somehow fitted his...

Children won't get the Christian subtext, but unbelievers should keep a sickbag handy during Disney's new epic, writes Polly Toynbee Monday December 5, 2005 The Guardian Aslan the lion shakes his mighty mane and roars out across Narnia and eternity. Christ is risen! However, not many British children these days will get the message. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens this week to take up the mantle left by The Lord of the Rings. CS Lewis's seven children's books, The Chronicles of Narnia, will be with us now and for many Christmases to come. Only Harry Potter has...

Rory Carroll, Baghdad Correspondent of The Guardian, was kidnapped today in the Iraqi capital. Carroll, a 33-year-old Irish national, was abducted as he left a house in Baghdad’s Sadr City area after watching the televised trial of Saddam Hussein with an Iraqi family. "It is believed Mr Carroll may have been taken by a group of armed men," the newspaper said. "The Guardian is urgently seeking information about Mr Carroll’s whereabouts and condition." Carroll is one of The Guardian’s most experienced foreign correspondents and has been based in Iraq for the last nine months. After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin,...

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Corrie: By now your open letter to the world, "A Call to Action; Rachel's Words Live", has been reprinted in many different media outfits, including the viciously anti-Jewish Counterpunch magazine , in the Guardian, and was even published in Hebrew in Israel's far-leftist anti-Zionist daily Haaretz.  You begin your epistle by recalling that your daughter was "killed by an Israeli bulldozer", but you neglect to mention the circumstances under which she was so killed (nor the fact that she died from her injuries while under Palestinian medical care). You then add, "She had been working in Rafah with a nonviolent...

'Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," President George Bush told the world after September 11 2001, and he has made it clear ever since that he means it. But in that black and white universe, where do you put Josh Rushing? Rushing is a blue-eyed son of Texas, a marine for all his adult life whose clean-cut friendly charm made him the ideal public face for the US military during the Iraq invasion. But he has now joined the Arab television channel al-Jazeera as an "on-screen personality", a move which, in the eyes of many...

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese activist was missing on Sunday after being badly beaten when he and a foreign journalist went to a village in southern China, other activists and friends said.

Last month, Judge Charles Harris announced on the Today programme that "a very large proportion of domestic violence is committed by people who have been drinking - and if they hadn't been so drinking so much, they wouldn't be so violent". 'Twas ever thus. In 1751, novelist and magistrate Henry Fielding wrote: "Wretches are often brought before me, charged with theft and robbery, whom I am forced to confine before they are in a condition to be examined: and when they have afterwards become sober, I have plainly perceived from the state of case that the gin alone was the...

...The drumbeat on global warming was intended to reach a crescendo during the run-up to the summit at Gleneagles. Prime Minister Blair has been a leader in the global warming crusade. (Whether his stance reflects simple conviction or the need to propitiate his party's Left after Iraq is unknown.) In the event, for believers, Gleneagles turned out to be a major disappointment. On the eve of the summit, the Economic Committee of the House of Lords released a report sharply at variance with the prevailing European orthodoxy. Some key points were reported in the Guardian, a London newspaper not hostile...

As the rest of Europe acts, extreme Islamists take advantage of British naivety - ELEMENTS WITHIN the British establishment were notoriously sympathetic to Hitler. Today the Islamists enjoy similar support. In the 1930s it was Edward VIII, aristocrats and the Daily Mail; this time it is Left-Wing activists, The Guardian and sections of the BBC. They may not want a global theocracy, but they are like the West’s apologists for the Soviet Union — useful îdîots. Islamic radicals, like Hitler, cultivate support by nurturing grievances against others. Islamists, like Hitler, scapegoat Jews for their problems and want to destroy them....

When pilots are in an aircraft, the Marines of Aviation Life Support Systems personnel watch over them like guardian angels, working behind the scenes of the flight line to maintain aircraft emergency gear at the station Parachute Loft. ALSS personnel are responsible for providing and maintaining aircraft emergency gear pilots may use as a last resort. They rarely make an appearance on the flight line, so their contributions to pilot safety are seldom recognized, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Schmidt, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 13 ALSS flight equipment technician. “That's the strange thing about this job,” said Schmidt, a Schenectady, N.Y.,...

Albert Scardino has stepped down from the post of executive editor of the Guardian newspaper, just a week after the controversial dismissal of trainee journalist Dilpazier Aslam over his undeclared Islamist interests. Rumours had circulated last night that Mr Scardino was about to leave, but sources at the newspaper today were at pains to point out that the departure was entirely unconnected with the Aslam affair. Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, said: "Albert Scardino, executive editor for the home and foreign departments, has decided to leave the Guardian in October, at the end of his second annual contract,...

The Guardian has terminated a reporter's one-year training contract after a blogger revealed the writer was a member of a extremist Islamist political party and had not declared his interest to the newspaper when he wrote for its comment pages after the July 7 attacks. The Guardian's move - according to the newspaper, taken after reporter Dilpazier Aslam refused to resign from the party, Hizb ut- Tahrir - echoes recent media oustings in America, but is the first time a British journalist has been forced to step down after coming under fire from bloggers - independent web diarists. Scott Burgess,...

There are apologists amongst us The 'We told you so' lot have been bleating on about Iraq ever since the atrocities of 7/7 - it is time to fight back Norman Geras Thursday July 21, 2005 Guardian Within hours of the bombs going off two weeks ago, the voices that one could have predicted began to make themselves heard with their root-causes explanations for the murder and maiming of a random group of tube and bus passengers in London. It was due to Blair, Iraq, illegal war and the rest of it. The first voices, so far as I know,...

Guardian stands by journalist linked to extreme Islamic party by Gordon MacMillan Brand Republic 18 Jul 2005 Guardian standing by reporter LONDON - A Guardian journalist, Dilpazier Aslam, has been linked to a radical Islamic organisation, which is known to promote anti-Semitic hatred and praises suicide bombers as martyrs, and the paper is refusing to sack him. His links to extreme Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir were revealed by bloggers, including Scott Burgess and Harry's Place, last week after Aslam wrote a July 13 article about the suicide bombers in the Guardian, which also ran in both the LA Times and...

Aesop and La Fontaine gave animals human traits to teach humanity lessons. In modern times, the use of animals as metaphors has not always been so innocent. Dehumanizing people by comparing them to insects or other animals with an ugly image has become highly reprehensible. The Nazis used such dehumanization techniques to lay the groundwork for the physical extermination of those labelled pests, in particular the Jews. Postwar Germany has made serious efforts to reeducate its population. It is thus particularly disturbing that some mainstream figures and organizations have begun to use images and semantics from the Nazi era, ignoring...

A [PA] appellate court strongly criticized Bucks County Judge, "Dismayed" about handling of a case of a woman with disabilities. In 2001 a 46-year-old with mental illness lived alone and was not taking her medication. Her family petitioned to deem her incapacitated, her brother was named guardian. She moved into an assisted-living facility. In 2003, brother resigned after settling with ex-husband. Lawler appointed attorney Smith as guardian. Smith soon recommended that $280,000 townhouse be sold. The woman, Rosengarten, asked to have it rented, so she could return to it some day. Her family complained that Smith was draining the $900,000...

The Pope has blood on his hands The Pope did great damage to the church, and to countless Catholics Terry Eagleton Monday April 4, 2005 Guardian John Paul II became Pope in 1978, just as the emancipatory 60s were declining into the long political night of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. As the economic downturn of the early 70s began to bite, the western world made a decisive shift to the right, and the transformation of an obscure Polish bishop from Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II was part of this wider transition. The Catholic church had lived through its...

As an innocent life slips away, due to methods used by those of Nazi Germany, the spinning heads of the media circus continue to flap their lips over the case of Terri Schiavo and nothing within this mess makes any sense. Parents who love their children today here in the United States have had all their rights stripped from them by a system that has gone mad. What has happened America to our rights as citizens? What has happened to our freedoms? Where will this case take us America? Where will we end up? Will we end up lying in...

A REPORT TO GOVERNOR JEB BUSH AND THE 6TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN THE MATTER OF THERESA MARIE SCHIAVO Pursuant to the requirements of H.B. 35-E (Chapter 2003-418, Laws of Florida) and the Order of the Hon. David Demers, Chief Judge, Florida 6th Judicial Circuit regarding the appointment and duties of a Guardian Ad Litem in the matter of Theresa Marie Schiavo, Incapacitated. Respectfully Submitted Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD, Guardian Ad Litem for Theresa Marie Schiavo 1 December 2003 On 31 October 2003, pursuant to the requirements of Florida H.B. 35-E (Chapter 2003- 418, Laws of Florida) and the order of...

St. Joseph, mirror of patience, pray for us!   ST. JOSEPH Charles L. Souvay Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The chief sources of information on the life of St. Joseph are the first chapters of our first and third Gospels; they are practically also the only reliable sources, for, whilst, on the holy patriarch's life, as on many other points connected with the Saviour's history which are left untouched by the canonical writings, the apocryphal literature is full of details, the non-admittance of these works into the Canon of the Sacred...

Footsteps in the snow The readers' editor on... the manipulation of pictures Ian Mayes Saturday March 5, 2005 The Guardian About a week ago the Guardian published a photograph captioned "Spring flowers seem to be surviving the snow storm, just, in Edinburgh." It was credited to David Cheskin and the agency that employs him, the Press Association. A little before 8pm that day the PA put out what it called a "mandatory kill" - an order, in other words, that the picture was not to be published and was to be wiped from picture archives. Too late of course for...

I demand to know where the human rights and women’s rights groups are over the case of the Floridian woman Terri Schiavo. Where are her civil rights? Did she loose them the moment she could no longer audibly answer or respond for herself? Why do human rights organizations stand and give tirade after tirade to defend the war criminals at Guatanomo Bay, but where are they over a woman supposedly living in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) and her rights? Why haven’t the women’s rights groups spoken out against Terri’s “estranged” husband, Michael, who wants to pull the feeding tube...

When I pulled my car into a parking space at Dallas City Hall, I looked over to my left, and there was the man in the red jacket and matching beret, talking on his cell phone as he paced slowly on the concrete strip. I had a 4 PM meeting with the leader of the legendary crime fighting group that has become an adjunct to the justice system in America. He had just emerged from a meeting with Mayor Laura Miller, who, he told me later, was very negative about his presence in “her” city. Curtis Sliwa, the founder and...

By J.R. By now anyone who watches the news on the television, listens to news on the radio, or reads a newspaper has heard of the Terri Schiavo case. Terri Schiavo, a woman, who at age 26, collapsed and suffered brain damage under ambiguous circumstances, is said to be in a constant vegetative state according to her husband, Michael Schiavo. Mr. Schiavo wants to have her feeding tube removed so that she will die and says that's what Terri would have wanted. The Schindlers, Terri's parents, have been fighting a 10 year legal battle with Mr. Schiavo, their son-in-law, in...

A study by Media Tenor -- a German-based international media research institute -- shows that leading European newspapers and TV stations still produce twice as many negative statements about the U.S. as positive ones (even if that criticism slightly decreased from December to January). 'snip' The finding that European coverage can be more critical of the U.S. than even the Arab media mirrors results of previous Media Tenor studies. In 2003, Media Tenor published a report about four weeks of news coverage during the Iraq war that showed German television in particular covered U.S. military actions more critically than Al...

Fireworks in Washington, despair around the world The Bush administration is in denial about its disastrous failure in Iraq Robin Cook Friday January 21, 2005 The Guardian Inauguration does not do justice to the exuberant celebrations of this week. Coronation would come closer. Washington ended yesterday with nine official balls. The night before George Bush gave a new spin to the phrase moveable feast by fitting in three separate banquets. He then expended as much ordnance in peppering the sky over the Capitol with fireworks as would get his occupation forces in Iraq through a whole 24 hours. The contrasts...

Journalists' killers 'not being brought to justice' Dominic Timms Tuesday January 18, 2005 The culprits responsible for killing more than 100 journalists and other media workers worldwide last year are only half as likely to be caught as London burglars, a leading international press group claimed today. The International Federation of Journalists said most of the 129 deaths of media staff in 2004 - the highest on record - resulted from either "deliberate attacks" by gunmen, corrupt officials, armed gangs and governments, or "nervous, unruly and ill-disciplined soldiering". In most cases, the IFJ added, the killers were still at large....

A new, comprehensive poll of British opinion on foreign nations was just released by The Telegraph. The results: Israel is considered by Britons the #1 'least deserving of international respect,' the 'least beautiful country,' the country Britons would 'least like to take a holiday in,' and would 'least like to live in.' How did this British animosity toward Israel come about, with Israel ranked worse than Egypt, India, China and 20 other countries?

...In the heat of the U.S. campaign, people with limited access to the facts -- that is to say adherents to certain TV and print news outlets -- may have gotten the impression that Mr. Bush's had alienated nine-tenths of the inhabitants of the planet with his proactive style. Actually, his international opposition, aside from Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il, consisted mostly of the acolytes of French President Jacques Chirac. Now that the American people have spoken, Mr. Chirac, who never had as many friends as he was credited with, is looking all the more lonely. Even the Germans,...