Free Republic

Michael Arrington is a prominent tech blogger, who sold his site Tech Crunch to AOL in 2010. As such, this particular story of government overreach, starring a gleeful bureaucrat taking the property of a citizen operating in good faith, may get a wider audience than the usual conservatives and libertarians who catch wind of such things. Good. For every story that gets attention, there are countless abuses that don’t. The story starts with Arrington buying himself a boat. He lives in Seattle, where there’s much boating to be done. Having paid for the boat, named her, and had her imported...

PASCAGOULA -- The $2.6 billion USS Mississippi nuclear submarine will be commissioned today at the Port of Pascagoula in a public event that is expected to draw thousands of spectators and a host of dignitaries.

Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 5 ~ Feb. 24, 2012 ~ Selling Your Price & Joy 41 posts last week – we’re approaching planning speed...I can guarantee you every boat will sell. We just don’t know when, and for how much... If you aren’t using your boat at least once a month (during boating season), sell it! (When you get the boating itch again, you can always buy another boat.) The best way to sell a boat is to pretend it isn't for sale - clean it, fix it, use it, and then be pleasantly surprised when it sells....

Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 3 ~ Feb. 10, 2012 ~ Boat Transportation Launching ~ Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 1 ~ Jan. 27, 2012 Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 2 ~ Feb 3, 2012 ~ “Off Season”Last week’s thread had 26 posts, including the source for this week’s thread – boat transportation. I have helped clients ship vessels of all sizes and types all over North America and overseas. Except for two small scratches, every shipping project was successful, albeit harrowing on occasion. To help ensure your boat shipping efforts are successful, I will provide boat...

Ahoy, fellow FR boating lovers! (Boating = all boats and water-related activities; sailing, cruising, fishing, beach combing, flipflop wearing, key lime pie eating, surfing, SUPing – if it floats, tastes salty or is sand encrusted, it belongs here!) While politics are important, our country is great, and FR is amazing; boating is all about fun afloat! This post is the launch of a weekly FR thread about anything and everything boating. (Boating FReepers are either enjoying their boats or dreaming about boats while surfing on Free Republic.) Back story: my parents met in a boatyard, I grew up on boats,...

The dowager empress of China, Cixi, famously took the admiralty funds intended for building up an Imperial Admiralty and used them to construct a boat carved of marble on the shore of Kumming Lake for her amusement and the pleasure of her royal entourage. The embezzlement was condoned by the controller of the Admiralty, despite the disadvantage to the nation, because he owed his position to Cixi. Solyndra is Obama's equivalent of the Marble Boat. It represents, we think, what may be the largest in a series of enormous federal expenditures to Obama's friends and supporters for their benefit and...

This is how you do it:  nab the perps, tie 'em up, put them back on their own boat, then set the whole kit and kaboodle on fire and.... pooof, no more pirates. The video below shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somali pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker. A number of commands directed at the prisoners are heard from from an English-speaking Russian, i.e. when the commandos find a weapons stash ("WTF??!")- and "This is not a fishing boat!"The soldiers immediately freed their compatriots and the Russian oil tanker. They moved the pirates...

...When overtaken it was found to be at full throttle and on autopilot with no one in the wheelhouse (...) When questioned, passengers and crew affirmed alternately "we are all captains" and identified the captain as "Mr. Northstar," in reference to the Northstar autopilot unit. The captain has not yet identified him or herself (...) This single (to my knowledge unprecedented) set of deadly chicaneries, ending with the "secret captain" ruse, comprise – where to start? – a blanket violation of every written and unwritten Law of the Sea (...) Sadly, there's more... The Tahrir is towed back to port....

It might just be one of the oddest DWI cases in recent memory — a powerboat sliced right into a gazebo off the Toms River over the weekend. The boat's driver was charged with DWI, according to The Asbury Park Press. The 40-foot boat slammed into the gazebo outside of Ann and George Schuld's home in Berkeley Township, N.J., around 10:30 Saturday night. Ann is a popular local realtor. She and George were out dancing when it happened. Ann's cell phone lit up. "I thought someone had died," she told Berkeley Patch reporter Patricia A. Miller...

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A man is sitting in the Brevard County jail mostly because won't say who he is, or what he was doing when he beached a boat north of Port Canaveral. He's been given the name "John Doe" after he gave several name that couldn't be verified. The man also couldn't prove he owned the boat and wouldn't tell authorities where he was going.

September 24, 2010 One killed, one hurt in boating mishap â Vermont men thrown overboard during outing on Lake Champlain LOHR McKINSTRY Press-Republican Press-Republican Fri Sep 24, 2010, 03:28 AM EDT CROWN POINT — One man is dead and another seriously injured after a boating accident on Lake Champlain near Crown Point Thursday afternoon. Officials said one man died of injuries sustained when he was thrown from a bass fishing boat, which then ran over him.

It may not make for good conspiracy theory fodder, but a sunken Kennedy boat sure has a certain ring to it. River Maiden, a 59-foot steel boat registered to Max Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, sank into the north slip of Lake Michigan between Rainbow Beach and the Calumet River on June 12, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. It's still there.

Liveshot ‘swift-boated’ again! By Howie Carr | Sunday, July 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists Forget “Isabel” - Liveshot Kerry should rename his $7 million sloop “The Botched Joke.” You remember that was how he tried to explain away his nasty little dig at the military, back in 2006, saying that if kids don’t study hard, they’ll end up in Iraq. He said it was a botched joke. So I wonder how Liveshot is trying to explain this latest botched joke to his ancient gold-digging bride in her $9.2 million mansion on Brant Point in Nantucket. Lovey, they’re swift-boating me...

Talk about the big one that got away. Ryan Danoff was fishing with two friends about four miles off Hollywood beach Sunday when he spied what appeared to be a mast on the horizon. Funny thing: There was no boat underneath it. Danoff, a Fort Lauderdale fish farmer who's on the water at least three days a week, aimed his 31-foot center console Fishy Business at the mysterious upright and found himself eye to eye with a periscope. "It was crazy," he said. "If it was just myself out there I wouldn't believe what I saw." Danoff moved closer. "It...

Large Boat for sale -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2010-02-16, 1:17PM CST -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Due to the bad economy, I can no longer afford to fill up the diesel tanks on this thing and pay my crew. Therefore, I am forced to sell my 1977 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. New paint and propellors. 22 knots max. Looking for around $2,000,000 or best offer. No pirates or scammers. •Location: North Atlantic •it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests PostingID: 1603624338

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened the 'Septet' of leading ministers Thursday evening to discuss preparations for the arrival of the 'Rachel Corrie', a Gaza-bound Irish ship on a mission to challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza. Several news outlets said that Netanyahu would suggest “creative ideas” for inspecting ships claiming to carry aid for Gaza. These ideas would reportedly involve the participation of United Nations crews in the inspection process. Inspections would take place in Ashdod harbor

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the Israeli public on live television at 8:00 p.m. Israel time, regarding the attempt by a terror-sympathizers' flotilla to break the blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. "This was no Love Boat,” he said. “This was a boat of hatred. It was a terror-supporting flotilla” "The state of Israel faces an international campaign of hypocrisy,” Netanyahu said. “This is not the first time. Two years ago, we operated against the missiles that Hamas fired against Israel. Hamas fired at civilians and hid behind civilians. The IDF operated against Hamas in an effort to avoid hitting innocent civilians....

With machine-guns in hand, Mexico's deadliest cartel is patrolling the waters of a Texas border lake. These pirates have already ambushed three, possibly four boats, operating with virtual impunity as they make off with cash and electronics. It's happening on Falcon Lake in Zapata, 200 yards from the Mexican border. KENS-TV's Christopher Heath has the latest on this story.

A boating crash in Orange County on Saturday evening sent one man to the hospital. Orange County sheriff's deputies said an 18-foot-long pontoon boat ran ashore and landed on top of a 54-year-old man who was working on a jet ski in his back yard on Lake Holden. Investigators said there was some sort of mechanical malfunction with the pontoon boat, which sent it out of control. The injured man was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center with chest injuries and a large gash to one leg. Deputies said the driver of the pontoon boat was friends with the victim....

How do you keep more than 6,300 people fed, housed and having the time of their life while floating in the middle of the ocean? The Oasis of the Seas -- the world's largest cruise ship -- aims to accomplish that feat nearly every week. Almost five times as large as the Titanic, it has a population during its seven-day Caribbean sailings that is larger than many American small towns -- more than 8,600 when it is fully booked and including staff. The Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship, which first set sail last December, is almost as long as five...