Free Republic

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what to believe when you read it on the web. The recent “Unknown Lifeform” in North Carolina? Turns out, not a hoax, but also not a monster. But all those rumors about Jeff Goldblum falling to his death in New Zealand? Well, those were a hoax, and a rather tasteless one at that. For hundreds of years, humans have been playing elaborate tricks on each other, but the advent of social tools — from Usenet and email right on up to YouTube () and Twitter () — means that hoaxes are much more easily spread,...

Q: Has a "smoking gun" been found to prove Obama was not born a U.S. citizen? Did he attend Occidental College on a scholarship for foreign students? I recently received this and wanted to know if it is accurate, and what the implications are. Thanks OBAMA - SMOKING GUN FINALLY FOUND? April 1, 2009 AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the...

# This got some run on KNBR, but it really shouldn't have, considering there's no such thing as the Denver Examiner. A nicely mocked-up Web site bearing that name reported that the Broncos and 49ers had a deal in place to swap Jay Cutler for Alex Smith, Mark Roman and three draft picks. If the lunacy of that deal wasn't a giveaway to Fitz and Brooks, a later item in the column — Trent Edwards and T.O. got in a fight during an Ultimate Frisbee game — should have been. And if that didn't work, the line at the bottom...

April 1: We have to admit, we were surprised when the headline "Obama Orders Chevrolet and Dodge Out of Nascar" turned out to be an April Fools' joke. How can it be a joke when today's reality is far more extreme?Car and Driver has nothing on the federal government. If you think we're exaggerating, just look at some of the recent days' events, each at least as outrageous as the April Fools' joke of Obama ordering Chevy and Dodge to leave Nascar, and maybe more so. They include: • The government's stimulus efforts, as toted up by Bloomberg.com, so far...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama seems to be more interested in propping up Wall Street than saving the car companies and the auto workers in Detroit. He displayed his "get tough" side when he laid down the law to General Motors and Chrysler, whose restructuring plans had displeased the White House auto task force. The president gave the car makers a choice of coming up with tougher plans or face bankruptcy. GM was given 60 days to produce a plan for Obama, who has never ran a company, and Chrysler was given 30 days, with a threat to end its...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- President Obama has told Hachette Filipacchi Media to cease operations of Car and Driver magazine if the company wants to receive any governmental aid for its other publications, according to a statement released by the White House. Yes, this is an April Fools' joke. But many likely wish it were true after the prank the magazine played Wednesday, which was in poor taste and downright tacky under the current economic climate.

Who should be the LAST person in the world to post a warning about phony April Fool's news stories on the web? None other than our own Pied Piper Pitt, the perpetrator of one of the biggest journalistic hoaxes of the 21st century. It's like Colonel Sanders warning against killing chickens. Yet the Pittster has done just that in his DUmmie THREAD, "DU Public Service Announcement." Are you really that lacking in any sense of self-awareness that you didn't realize the DUmmie FUnnies would immediately seize upon your warnings about phony stories in less than 24 business hours? Anyway...

In a bold and surprising move, the Holy See today announced that His Excellency Bernard Fellay, General Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, has been named as the new Archbishop of Saint Louis. This appointment was accompanied by a decree from the Congregation for Bishops that provides immediate temporary jurisdiction for SSPX priests and bishops worldwide. This temporary jurisdiction involves the elevation of the SSPX to a personal prelature, but this structure is only granted for 2 years, subject to review. (The link to the Holy See's announcement is down, I guess due to traffic, but I...

In an unprecedented move Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rescinded the Peace Prize it awarded in 2007 to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, amid overwhelming evidence that global warming is an elaborate hoax cooked up by Mr. Gore. A press release from the committee quotes a chagrined Rajendra Pachauri, the UN climate panel’s chair, who claims that he was the victim of a “cunning deception spanning decades”: “I am deeply ashamed for having unwittingly perpetuated such a massive fraud on the governments of the world,” said Mr. Pachauri.

Also Announce That They Will Officially Become Republicans, Will Introduce Additional, Bipartisan, Pro-U.S. Legislation. BY TODD Q. JONES WASHINGTON, Apr. 1 -- U.S. Sens. John McCain (D-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have introduced legislation that would authorize all funds necessary and sufficient to complete the construction of fences on the southern border with Mexico, their offices announced today. The bill, S.65, or the American Immigration Act of 2009, would also authorize additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security to train and deploy thousands of new customs and border agents at key border crossings within six to twelve months. The...

With their racing budgets deemed “unnecessary expenditures,” GM and Chrysler are ordered to cease racing operations at the end of the season.

In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government.

In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globe—Honda and Audi, to name two—have drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.

I was thinking this morning when I woke up...What I wouldn't give for someone to say APRIL FOOL's..Obama's not really the President..Nancy Pelosi isn't Speaker of the House. AH...well a guy can dream can't he...... OBAMA promises..."To serve Man"....in "The Twilight Zone" Happy April Fool's Day Freepers!!

The good news is, on the very first day, we had a single donor fork over the entire $80,000 to keep FR running for another three months. WHOO-HOO! The bad news is, the donor is some guy from Chicago. He showed up on my doorstep with a box of cannoli, along with some lowlifes I assumed to be either be muscle or Congressmen. Made me an offer I couldn't refuse while mumbling something about the Fairness Doctrine. Paid me in cash out of a suitcase with TARP stenciled on the side. He took the cannoli. As a result, some wiseguy...

Are you enjoying the Your right of self-defense just a little bit TOO much? Do you actually like the idea of taking responsibility for you and your family's security needs instead of relying the wonderful government services only minutes or hours away? Do you enjoy whiling away an afternoon at the range, firing off a few (or more), boxes of ammo a little too much?Do find yourself enjoying the scent of fired off ammo as you practice your God given right of self-defense?Do you like the sweet sound of expended brass clinking to the ground as you shred the center...

Microsoft requested on Tuesday some $20 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, claiming that as the company controlling an overwhelming share of the OS market, it is too big to fail. The company said low adoption rates for Windows Vista, the ensuing ad campaign trying to convince people that they really do like Vista, and the increased need for development resources to rush Windows 7 to market to make people forget about Vista have necessitated the bailout. "We want to make it absolutely clear that this is not a crisis of mismanagement," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in...

In 1912 scientists thought they'd discovered the elusive missing link between human and ape. Found in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, a set of intriguing skull and jaw fragments were later reconstructed by the British Museum into a human-like head with an ape-like jaw. In 1953 it turned out the find wasn't proof of anything—other than the skill of the still anonymous forger. The skull was a medieval human's. The jaw was an orangutan's. And the teeth were a chimp's.

The Justice Department, in the wake of its humiliating decision to drop the corruption conviction of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), has agreed to throw out the results of the 2008 Senate race, in which Stevens was narrowly defeated by Democrat Mark Begich. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, was thought to be favored to win re-election last year against Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, until the 85-year-old Stevens was indicted for lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about renovations done to his home by a contractor friend. He was later convicted of seven felony counts. But the decision...

How about a thread to list the various April Fools jokes we've found/will find today?

Happy April Fools Day, Everyone!!!! I would be the FOOL to be leaving my most favorite site in the whole wide world! Show your support to keep our forum alive and well - OK?

The conficker worm, aka:Downup, Downadup and Kido, is scheduled to become active at 00:01:00 AM on 04/01/09. It's a complete unknown and has many experts worried. If you aren't sure about being protected on your Windows machine, please download the FREE application from Microsoft called Windows SteadyState , and install it. It only takes a few minutes, it's very easy and simple, and it will protect your hard drive. I use it on my XP Box and my Wife's Vista laptop, and I know it works. Download it, click to install, open it, and select "User Restrictions", and (if...

Researchers find super worm cure, just in timeSecurity experts have made a breakthrough in their five-month battle against the Conficker worm, with the discovery that the malware leaves a fingerprint on infected machines that is easy to detect using a variety of off-the-shelf network scanners. The finding means that, for the first time, administrators around the world have easy-to-use tools to positively identify machines on their networks that are contaminated by the worm. As of mid-Monday, signatures will be available for at least half a dozen network scanning programs, including the open-source Nmap, McAfee's Foundstone Enterprise and Nessus, made by...

It could be the biggest April Fool's joke ever played on the internet, or it could be one of the worst days ever for computers connected to the network. Security experts can't work out whether the Conficker virus – which has infected more than 10m Windows PCs worldwide – will wreak havoc on Wednesday , or just let the day pass quietly.

WARNING to all Freepers - I have not seen a thread on this virus which will release on April 1st. The IT people at my wife's org have been working like mad to protect systems for 10,000 computers and servers. See the following. There has been significant media attention to the latest variant of the Conficker worm. This variant has the potential to download fresh virus code on April 1st from what security researchers have been able to glean from studying the virus files. This means that any machine that is infected may download new malicious code on April 1st...

I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. – Barack Obama, Sept.12, 2008 Dover, NH

A teenager inspired by an ancient fertility symbol has painted a 60ft-long phallus on the new roof of his parents £1million house. Rory McInnes, 18, decided to give aerial observers an eyeful, with the aid of a tin of white paint, after watching a documentary on Google Earth. But the imposing member remained a closely-guarded secret for a year before it was 'discovered' by a helicopter pilot flying over the area, who let his passengers take photos. Fortunately for Rory, he was already safely on the other side of the world when his parents found out, on a gap-year in...

The last bastion of male dominance in the US Navy is about to be swept into history. While the eyes of the nation are focused on the first woman to have a shot at winning her party's nomination for President, the Department of the Navy has unveiled a project underway since last summer that will put women in submarines. "This is way overdue," insists Lt. Hanne Bright, an up and coming naval officer. She is among 340 female officers and chiefs who have been selected to initiate an abrupt change in Navy policy; the manning of submarines by women. Women...

In a stealthy flurry of legal mumbo-jumbo, the Boulder County Commissioners have launched a proposal that would ban any April Fools jokes targeted at the “general Boulder County public,” including residents, visitors and employees within county limits. “If there was a way, we’d ban all statewide pranks, but we don’t have that authority,” Commissioner Will Tour said. “We had to settle for county-wide bans, but that should put a stop to them.” When pressed, Tour said that “them” referred to a certain monthly newspaper that had been a thorn in the commission’s side since it began concocting stories, but that...

<p>DIAMOND BAR, California (AP) -- In what some may consider an unexpected move, rap artist "Snoop Dogg" has reportedly converted to Mormonism after nearly a year of study with the fast-growing, Utah-based faith.</p> <p>Snoop Dogg says he "can't get enough of the Book of Mormon."</p>

BERKELEY _ CodePink should be turning red. That seems to be the consensus of many who were on the receiving end of a bogus announcement Tuesday by the radical anti-war group that the embattled U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center in Berkeley was caving to the pressure of weekly protests and leaving town. ``If you want to be taken seriously as an organization of serious protest, then you don't play jokes _ even on April Fools' Day,'' said Robin Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written about the politics of language. CodePink and other...

All McCain voters are selling the rest of us TRUE CONSERVATIVES out! Enough! Show you have the values of your convictions and leave the BLUE BLOOD REPUBLICANS in Washington, crawling on their knees for forgiveness!

Have a few pranksters in the workplace to watch out for on April Fool's Day? You may want to be prepared before you become the laughing stock of your office.

How do I use it? Just click "Set custom time" from the Compose view. Any email you send to the past appears in the proper chronological order in your recipient's inbox. You can opt for it to show up read or unread by selecting the appropriate option.

Anyone else getting proxy errors when hitting the back button and other tabs on FR? I've been getting these errors now for a couple days and have to get to pages through the history. Yes, I'm logged in. Yes, I know FR was down this morning but whatever that reason was it didn't fix the proxy problem.

You might elicit a few modest chuckles today with your whoopie cushions and other makeshift means of April Fools’ prankery. But imagine having all the resources and credibility of a giant corporation or media organization. You could hoodwink people en masse on a grand new level of trickery. What follows is a list of some of the best April Fools’ Day hoaxes ever perpetrated. To see more, go to Museum of Hoaxes. The Taco Liberty Bell: On April 1, 1996, a full-page ad appeared in several major newspapers, including The New York Times, announcing that Taco Bell Corp. had bought...

The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. Camera crews discovered a colony of Adélie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands. The programme is being presented by ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, who said: "We'd been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come.

For a hearty lunchtime chuckle: Check out my interview with Ron Ott of Coptix, one of the masterminds behind the April Fools' joke that caused a Rove Derangement Syndrome feeding frenzy.

The situation has confounded local environmentalists, who are now evenly divided on whether the solar power plant or the nest of squirrels is more important to their cause.

New York Times Endorses Giuliani Responding to the steady decline in circulation, ad revenues and their stock price, the New York Times has adopted a new approach to their journalism practices of the past. Announcing the change in direction, NYT Chairman, Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger, Jr. made the following statement: The days of the New York Times’ venture into fictional reporting, liberal stories and editorials are over. In response to criticism from our valued readers, we have decided to embark on a new strategy. Our motto will be changed from “All The News That’s Fit To Print” to “All News,...

Former Vice-President Al Gore today formed an exploratory committee aimed for a presidential run in '08. He cited a lack of current candidates who are paying significant attention to the problem of Global Warming. His major policy change, according to a statement released by Mr. Gores campaign, would be for the government to become actively involved in forcing carbon-neutral lifestyles on normal, everyday Americans. "Mr. Gore firmly believes that excessive power consumption releasing unacceptable amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere causes global warming". He will therefore propose legislation that will determine, according to family size, how much power they can...

Sign up for our free in-home wireless broadband service Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for? Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD. TiSP in-home wireless broadband is: - Free, fast and highly reliable - Easy to install -- takes just minutes - Vacuum-sealed to prevent water damage Interested? You can learn more about TiSP via the links below, or get started now. Learn More: Press Release How...

According to a classified NATO report, the Japanese military and government security apparatus attempted to create an "ultimate weapon" in 2001. The NATO document, entitled "Theopotential Technology Development in Japan: An Intelligence Assessment", was discovered among a group of documents released to Samui Ochanomizu, a newspaper researcher seeking information on the August, 1998 overflight of Japan by a North Korean ballistic missile test. According to the document, reaction to the overflight created a tremendous stir within Japan's defense establishment, prompting the creation of a research project designed to create the "ultimate weapon". This research led to the initiation of a...

In a conference call with Syrian President Assad held earlier today, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi promised her full support in trying to end the war of words between Britain and Iran. "We completely support the British troops in this matter, as we support our troops currently on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. But at the same time, we realize the British are using harsh language that is only serving to inflame Muslim and Persian passions regarding this unfortunate incident of unauthorized tresspassing, and insist the British tone down their rhetoric. It is entirely up to the United...

Google has launched a breakthrough way of communicating through the internet, check it out at the source link.

Republicans are liars and manipulators. Dividers. Fear mongers. Smiling when they talk about war and grinning when they tell their lies and distort their record. Trying to impose their hateful morals on the rest of the world. Have you seen their platform? Have you listened to their speeches? These warmongers? These liars? Let's get some things straight: Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Stop insinuating there is.  Where is Osama? Why are we in Iraq if Osama Bin Laden is free?  The 9/11 commission makes it very clear that Bush's administration ignored signs of a pending attack.  There are...

A bill requiring students to learn about the contributions homosexuals have made to society and that could remove gender-specific terms including "mom" and "dad" from textbooks is making progress in California. The state's Senate Judiciary Committee has approved SB 1437, which would mandate grades 1-12 buy books "accurately'' portraying "the sexual diversity of our society.'' It also requires students hear history lessons on "the contributions of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America.'' It also precludes textbooks, teaching materials, instruction, and "school-sponsored activities" from...

This week I did an amzing discovery that I’d like to share with my fellow Vernians: an audio recording of an interview with Jules Verne by a Dutch journalist! A couple of days ago, I received an email from a Mrs Rina Appel from Amersfoort, a town not far from where I live. Among the inheritance left by her aunt, who passed away last year, she had found a small wooden crate containing five wax cilinders, each wrapped in a leather case. On the crate was a handwritten label that read “Jules Verne 1903”. The crate had belonged to Rina...

A 57-year-old Onamia woman has learned the folly of pulling an April Fools' joke at a bank. The woman visited a bank in Brainerd on April 1 to make a withdrawal from an account. After she got her money, Brainerd Police Chief John Bolduc says she passed the teller a note that read, "I'm here to take money." The woman and another witness explained that the note was an April Fools' prank, but a bank employee called 911 indicating the bank was being robbed.