Free Republic

An Army survey of sore-footed soldiers has led leaders to take on a new mission: finding the perfect boot that withstands the weather but properly cushions across long treks and rough terrains. And the Army has put a team of specialists on the job — footwear project engineers at the branch’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts. “The soldier lives in his boots,” said Bob Hall, one of the footwear engineers, in The Boston Globe. “If he’s having problems with his boots, he’s having problems with everything.” Army researchers in Natick are winding down a two-year campaign...

The homeless man who was given a pair of boots by a kindhearted New York City police officer apparently isn't homeless. According to the New York Daily News, Jeffrey Hillman, 54, has an apartment in the Bronx that is paid for via a combination of rent vouchers, Social Security, and military veteran benefits.

The barefoot homeless man who was given a pair of shoes by a kind-hearted beat cop is wandering the streets shoeless again. Jeffrey Hillman, 54, was spotted panhandling on the upper West Side Sunday without the $100 boots NYPD Officer Lawrence DePrimo bought for him on a frigid November night in Times Square. “Those shoes are hidden,” Hillman told The New York Times after he was spotted walking around with no shoes on Broadway near W. 79th St. “They are worth a lot of money. I could lose my life.” A tourist from Arizona snapped a cell phone photo of...

President Obama has deployed combat troops to central Africa to aid in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army. In a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, Obama says 12 troops with "appropriate combat equipment" were deployed on October 12 and approximately 100 in total will be deployed including a second combat team and headquarters, communications and logistics personnel. The forces will provide information and advise and assist "select partner nation forces," Obama explains. The troops will not fight except in self-defense. The full letter is after the jump.

A prime complaint against Rick Perry is that some have attributed to him that he doesn't support the building of a border fence. This is not true. Perry is for a more comprehensive border security system that includes strategic fencing, better surveillance, and "boots on the ground." If you have ever visited the border regions of Texas, you will agree with me that constructing a fence along the entire 1,200 mile border is not only horribly expensive, but very disruptive to the environment, private property, and the Rio Grande.

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to prohibit ground troops from being sent to Libya and only narrowly defeated a measure to force President Barack Obama to lay out plans to end the Afghanistan war, in moves that show the limits of congressional support for military involvement in overseas conflicts. The U.S. military's actions on three fronts—Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq—are wearing on the public, polls show, and lawmakers are leery of additional open-ended military commitments amid a severe budget crunch. The killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last month is also adding to the reassessment of...

MATEHUALA, Mexico – The Mexican pointy boots that were said to have started by a certain “Cesar of Huizache” created a craze in Matehuala town in Mexico, international news reported. As noted from several news sites, it was said that the idea of having a pointed boots started when a customer only known as “Cesar of Huizache” made an odd request to Dario Calderon, a shoemaker, to create him a pair of boots with pointy toes. The pointy boots created by Calderon was seen being wore by Cesar of Huizache to Mesquit Rodeo nightclub, where he danced with a handkerchief...

British military officers will be sent to Libya to advise rebels fighting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces, the UK government has said. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the group would be deployed to the opposition stronghold of Benghazi. The BBC understands 10 UK officers and a similar number from France will give logistics and intelligence training. Mr Hague said it was compatible with the UN resolution on Libya, which ruled out foreign military ground action. He stressed that the officers would not be involved in any fighting and the move was needed to help protect civilians.

We've seen Camp Lejuene marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and now they are joining the fight against Libya. 2200 marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or 26th MEU will take part. Their mission is to help end the violence directed at the Libyan people. "In Libya right now they are doing exactly what we need them to do. They are doing what they are told and right now that's protecting Libyan people against Qadhafi forces," said Captain Timothy Patrick, a marine with the 26th MEU. A press release from the 26th MEU reads, in part: "Protecting the innocent and...

In a post I wrote regarding Michelle Obama and her plans to parent our children for us, I remarked about her $495 Tory Burch gardening boots. A few of the comments wondered why I brought them up, and why, as a capitalist, would I have a problem with pricey shoes? The boots were mentioned to remind readers of how out of touch with reality the First Lady is. The average American mama doesn’t have a single pair of shoes in her closet that cost that much, let alone gardening boots. When I’m inclined to work outdoors, I put on a...

But a Super Bowl appearance is a priceless opportunity for Obama or any president to sell himself as a regular guy. It's just harder for Harvard alums because they are so much smarter than others and so unsuccessful at hiding it. And making a favorable impression on chewing Americans couldn't hurt the Democrat, given his deeply faded job approval since the early post-inaugural days and the rapidly melting 639 days remaining before American voters give him the Jimmy Carter one-term boot or extend his lease at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

SIERRA VISTA — Living next door to Fort Huachuca, there aren’t many communities like ours that offer such a large variety of programs to support veterans, the military and their families. From providing food vouchers to helping with post traumatic stress or combating homelessness among the state’s veterans, there is no lack of organizations to aid current and former service members. However, this means that there seems to be a perpetual thin spread of money to go around to these programs. For this reason, Boots For Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that helps raise money on behalf of veterans’ organizations,...

LONDON, - High-heeled shoes for men appear to be making a comeback, British shoe purveyors say. The London department store Selfridges reports sales are good for boots that combine pointed toes with a Cuban heel, The Times of London says. Sam Lobban, a Selfridges buyer, calls the style "flamboyant, but in an edgy, cool way." "Heeled boots are the epitome of this and seem a natural turn for our customer -- rock'n'roll twinned with elegance," he said. James Taylor & Sons reports its customers want the extra inches a "man heel" provides without any obvious fashion statement. Owner Peter Schweiger...

E.O. “Coots” Matthews, the famed oil well firefighter and founding partner of Houston-based Boots & Coots — a company legendary for putting out some of the world’s most spectacular fires — died at an advanced age on Wednesday of natural causes. Matthews, whose age was not immediately available, [86 by another article] was raised in Porter. He began his oil field career with Halliburton in 1947, after serving as a tail gunner on a B-17 during World War II in Europe. Later that year, he joined M.M. Kinley Co., where he met Asger “Boots” Hansen and Red Adair to...

A man, they say, can be judged by his friends. If that's the case, then Barack Obama can surely be judged by George Clooney. The UK Daily Mail reported this week that the "Ocean's Eleven" actor regularly speaks with and text messages the presumptive Democratic nominee, advising him on everything from fashion to foreign policy. "George has been giving him advice on things such as presentation, public speaking and body language and he also emails him constantly about policy, especially the Middle East," stated a Democratic Party insider. "George is pushing him to be more 'balanced' on issues such as...

Suede shoes are timeless footwear. For Fall 2008, they are making a triumphal return with metals, trim, and even fringe. What can be more glamorous than a pair of slouchy suede booties and ankle boots?

(You can’t get much happier than a pig in muck, or so we are told. But when this little piggy arrived in the farmyard she showed a marked reluctance to get her trotters dirty. While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the edge shaking. It is thought she might have mysophobia - a fear of dirt.) A pig, fearing dirt. That’s like a dog fearing social interaction, a cat fearing afternoon naps or Rosie O'Donnell fearing an all you can eat buffet. It’s unheard of. (Owners Debbie and Andrew Keeble were at a...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Halfway across the continent from where Buffalo Bill roamed and Custer made his last stand, the mayor of this debt-ridden city spent millions in public money on everything from six-shooters to covered wagons for a museum about cowboys, Indians and the Wild West. And he did it without telling the City Council, whose members felt as if they had been hit by the swinging doors of a frontier saloon when they found out from a reporter in 2003. On Saturday, the other dusty cowboy boot will drop when hundreds of the items go on the auction...

Deputy Mayor of the Moscow government Petr Biryukov has promised that the city authorities will pay compensation for winter boots if they are spoiled by anti-ice reagents used on the streets of the Russian capital. “If it is the reagents to blame for spoiled boots we will return you money”, Biryukov said at a press-conference on Thursday. According to his words, new-generation reagents have been used in Moscow for several years already and they are less harmful than the reagents that were used in the past (salt, for instance). “Old reagents are still being used in some Russian cities, but...