Free Republic

PETA, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, is known for pushing the envelope on acceptability: Its proposed vegetarian ad for the Super Bowl this year was sexually suggestive, and it periodically stages nude models in various poses saying they'd rather wear nothing than fur. But a new feature of the organization's website takes its campaign to a new level: a will posted by founder Ingrid Newkirk that, among other things, calls for her flesh to be used for a barbecue and her feet for umbrella stands. Newkirk's posting on the site explains: As someone who has dedicated a part...

A MAN whose family was told he would die without waking has spoken his first words after almost three years in a coma. "I am better," Ilija Marinovic told his wife, Margaret. Mrs Marinovic said: "I didn't believe it because all the doctors said it would never happen." While Mr Marinovic has been "away", his daughter has celebrated her 18th birthday, his son has had a second child, his sister has died and the whole world has changed. The 57-year-old was unaware his only son, Dinko, flew from Croatia twice to see him - once expecting to collect his body....

HBO's Bill Maher was spewing some extraordinary hatred for his fellow countrymen again Friday night, this time claiming that he doesn't "trust Americans to do the right thing or make the right choices" because "[t]hey're just too f***ing dumb." Why does he feel this way? Because not everyone is going to vote for Barack Obama. Yes, folks, if you don't vote for the Messiah, it has nothing to do with the issues, or whether the junior senator from Illinois isn't qualified, or even because you think John McCain is a better candidate. According to Maher, if you don't vote for...

Prosecutors can’t use secret videotapes of a Watertown minister having sex with his comatose wife while she was in a nursing home, the 4th District Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. Advertisement The man faces eight felonies — four counts of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious person and four counts of third-degree sexual assault — as well as a misdemeanor. The case raises a number of issues, including a nursing home’s obligation to protect the health and safety of a patient, an individual’s right to privacy and questions of marital sexual abuse. According to the appellate decision and other court...

The No. 1 automotive replacement battery brand in North America has launched a commercial aimed solely at spreading God's love. Interstate Batteries, a company selling approximately 15 million batteries a year, is an associate sponsor for Joe Gibbs Racing car No. 18 driven by Kyle Busch. Chairman Norm Miller explained why the company decided to promote God's love in a video statement. "Well I was really burdened with man's inhumanity to man – all the violence and abuse and murder and mamas killing their babies and all these things that you get," he said. "It came into my heart and...

I have a question for everybody in Freeperville. I don't know if it has been asked or brought up before, but shouldn't the Secret Service begin an investigation of Jesse Jerkson? He did utter a threat against a presidential candidate after all. What do you folks think?

Photographs of nude 13-year-olds confiscated by police from a Sydney, Australia, gallery have been returned following a flurry of objections from artists – including movie starlet Cate Blanchett – and a decision that successful prosecution under child porn laws was unlikely. The exhibit was created by photographer Bill Henson, whose dark and dramatic imagery is studied in Australian schools. The photos prepared for display at the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in the Sydney suburb of Paddington, however, focused on images of naked 13-year-olds.

A city Health Department study finds that more than a fourth of adult New Yorkers are infected with the virus that causes genital herpes. The study, released Monday, says about 26 percent of New York City adults have genital herpes, compared to about 19 percent nationwide.

Listen up drivers! If you're planning routes that include highways in Illinois, be especially alert through construction areas. That's because a state program there has assembled a squadron of white photo speed enforcement vans that are loaded up with the latest in photo radar technology that are to be used in those locations. The vans are set up to record the speed of vehicles and "capture clear images of the driver and the license plate." The result, state officials say, is like other photo radar programs in that citations for speeders are sent by certified mail requiring a court appearance,...

While clowning around with my grandchildren one day, I suddenly shouted, "Look at the sky, it has turned from blue to green." Try as I might, I could never convince them that it was true, because they could see and couldn't be fooled. So it is with Robert Levy's column ("Employers Must Pull The Trigger," Our Opinion, April 22). Levy claims that our right to have firearms locked in our cars in a parking lot is not about the Second Amendment but about the mythical right of corporations to usurp the Constitution and ban guns. But Levy didn't pull it...

FORT HOOD – Five-year-old Gaven Cox was given one wish to do anything he wanted. Instead of asking to go to Sea World or to meet Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Gaven modestly asked for some McDonald's food. The child's parents laughed and told him to make another choice. "He told us he wanted to be an Army soldier," said Melissa Heminger, Gaven's mom. "I was a little bit surprised that he asked for McDonald's, but in reality, he wanted to be a soldier since he was 3." Gaven, who is diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was granted one wish by...

I am very profoundly saddened to hear of the passing of William F. Buckley Jr. and offer my deepest condolences to the Buckley family. Bill had many friends, including my parents, who he even took time to visit when they were stationed at the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. My father and mother very much admired him and so did their son. With Bill’s passing, freedom has lost one of its greatest defenders. Bill was a great American who helped change the course of history. When conservatism was a lonely cause, he bravely raised the standard of liberty and led...

Montana officials are saying that the United States already has resolved any questions about the 2nd Amendment's application, defining that "any person" has the right to bears arms. That's the issue at hand in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case originating in the District of Columbia, where authorities have banned handguns under the claim that such a limit is "reasonable" and therefore enforceable even given the rights granted by the 2nd Amendment. U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has asked President Bush to order the U.S. Justice Department to submit a brief to the high court supporting the rights of individuals...

British athletes who want to compete in the summer Olympics will be required to sign a contract promising not to make statements critical of the communist regime's human rights record or they will not be permitted to travel to China, according to a 32-page document prepared by the British Olympic Association. "There are all sorts of organizations who would like athletes to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to publicize their causes," Simon Clegg, BOA's chief executive, told the London Daily Mail. "I don't believe that is in the interest of the team performance. As a team we are...

The Good Samaritan who tried to stop the Christmas-versus-Chanukah subway beating has two black eyes and a sore nose - but no regrets. "I did what I thought was right," said Hassan Askari, 20. "I did the best that I could to help." Askari, a Bangladeshi Muslim studying at Berkeley College in Manhattan, was on a Q train headed to Brooklyn late Friday when he came to the aid of young women confronted by a group of 10 thugs. Fearful for the women's safety, he pushed one of the men away - and was then pounced on by the group,...

Seventy years locked up in institutions hardly seems to be a punishment that befits the crime of stealing half-a-crown. However, it is just such a fate that befell Jean Gambell when at the age of 15, in 1937, she was falsely accused of stealing 2s 6d (12.5p) from the doctor's surgery where she worked as a cleaner. She was sectioned under the 1890 Lunacy Act and even though the money was later found, she has been moved from mental institution to mental institution. More recently, she went into a care home and has been lost to her family, who thought...

A Christian church-affiliated university in St. Paul, Minn., has suspended a student after he raised questions about the campus ban on concealed weapons, and is ordering him to have a mental health evaluation before he can resume his education. The Hamline University case involves student Troy Scheffler, who, after the Virginia Tech massacre where a student shot and killed nearly three dozen others, suggested the killing spree might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons. "Questioning administrators on controversial topics isn't going to be a threat even if the conversation involves guns," Robert Shibley, vice...

A man who is believed to have killed up to 100 million people in his life is to be the subject of a positive $60 million biographical film portrait, if a Hollywood producer gets his way. "Challenging Heaven" by Steven North will tell the story of the founding of Communist China with Mao Zedong in the role of George Washington. North is currently trying to romance Beijing into offering support for the project. "This is a very positive portrayal of Mao, and we are hoping that once the script clears the approval process, China will come forward with services and...

THE book cost $2 million at auction, but large sections are unreadable. Some of its 348 pages are torn or missing and others are covered with sprawling purple patches of mildew. Sooty edges and water stains indicate a close escape from a fire.

The new $30 million, 60,000-square-foot Creation Museum, built on prime real estate near Cincinnati's airport, isn't scheduled to open its doors officially until May 28, but it already had its first celebrity visitor. The facility, the crowning achievement of Answers in Genesis, which defends a biblical worldview including its account of Creation, was visited unexpectedly – and covertly – by comedian Bill Maher, formerly of ABC's "Politically Incorrect" and lately of HBO's "Real Time," and who once said Christians suffer from a neurological disorder. Ken Ham, president of the organization, calls the incident part of "an elaborate media deception." "A...