Free Republic

An employee at the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida was asked to leave the premises for refusing to remove an American flag pin from his jacket on Wednesday. Sean May, who has worked for more than two years at the company, now faces the harsh reality of losing his job as the front desk supervisor. May, in an exclusive interview with Townhall.com, explained that following his weekly staff meeting on Wednesday -- he was unexpectedly asked by the HR Director to remove the insignia from his uniform. When he protested the policy, he was given two options: Remove...

I'm pretty sure that this is my first vanity post. I just went to Google and today, on the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, GOOGLE decided to celebrate...the 25th anniversary of the birth of TETRIS! I had my fill with the smug, liberal indoctrination of Google ages ago but there was nowhere else to go (Yahoo was inferior or annoying in too many ways). Well take courage all you Google haters. Microsoft just released last Tuesday (with little fanfare) their answer to Google. BING.COM appears to be just as affective as Google and I think it is more attractive...

Misunderstandings with people who carry guns can turn ugly. This past week it has been ugly at the newspaper, after passionate gun owners latched onto three very wrong ideas about why The Commercial Appeal's Web site now lists all those in Tennessee who have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. -- Wrong idea No. 1: The newspaper is against the Second Amendment that gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms. -- Wrong idea No. 2: The newspaper is invading people's privacy by posting the permit-to-carry-guns list on its Web site. -- Wrong idea No. 3: Posting the...

SOQUEL -- Teachers at Soquel High School have agreed not to wear "Educators for Obama" buttons in the classroom after a parent complained that educators were attempting to politically influence his daughter and other students. John Hadley, an importer of South African goods, called the school to complain Friday after his 16-year daughter Teegan returned home and reported that she had seen several teachers wearing the buttons.

Taxes could get sky-high with aerial technology By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer, 609-463-6711 Published: Monday, September 29, 2008 Images like this from a new high-tech aerial photography system can reveal an illegal porch from 5,000 feet and give tax assessors a way to grow revenue. A new high-tech aerial photography system that can spot an illegal porch from 5,000 feet is being marketed to tax assessors as a way to grow revenue. Pictometry International Corp. says it offers tax assessors 12 different views of every square foot of building or land in a jurisdiction that buys their system. They call...

A raid gone wrong: Time to rein in police SWAT teams Published: Friday, September 19, 2008 Marc Fisher The Press of Atlantic City 9/19/09 It's sad, of course, that Cheye Calvo's dogs were blown away, left for hours in two pools of blood on the floors of his living and dining rooms. It's unfortunate, to be sure, that Calvo's front door had to be burst open, that it was necessary to plant his mother-in-law on the floor, arms bound, a high-caliber weapon pointed at her head, or that his house had to be trashed, every drawer flipped over, his belongings...

UPS delivered my hedge trimmer a few weeks ago. Actually, it is not just a hedge trimmer but has interchangeable heads so that it can trim grass, mow down brush and cut small tree limbs. The whole thing was a steal: $359. As I powered it up, I felt mild pangs of guilt -- the two-cycle contraption uses a mixture of oil and gas to cool the engine as well as fuel it, which makes it not just copiously smelly but also a behemoth when it comes to producing carbon dioxide. If you think that is bad, so do I...

Images from the Dark Side of War By Marc Pitzke in New York A moving photo exhibition in New York shows what the media doesn't -- shocking photos of seriously wounded Iraq veterans. The images and the soldiers' quotes which accompany them say more about the war than you might want to know.

A northern California school is in the hot seat tonight over words removed from yearbook ads. Liberty High said no to religious references in the senior ad section of their award winning yearbook -- they went ahead and changed some parents' messages. Before this years version comes out the school will have to fork out a pretty penny get god back in.

Venezuela to sell D.C. oil at discount By Nicholas Kralev THE WASHINGTON TIMES November 2, 2006 Venezuela will provide heavily discounted heating oil to about 37,000 low-income families in Maryland, Virginia and the District this winter, Caracas' envoy to the United States said yesterday. The local jurisdictions are beneficiaries of a greatly expanded program that this winter will assist more than 400,000 families in 16 U.S. states and the District, up from eight states and 180,000 families last year, said Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera. Oil provided under the expanded program, first mentioned by President Hugo Chavez during a fiery speech...

Stealth jet quietly slips into history F-117A fighter retired after 25 years Cutting-edge design cloaked in mystery Nov. 2, 2006. 12:54 PM BILL TAYLOR FEATURE WRITER Almost as furtively as it flew above war zones from Bosnia to Baghdad, America's F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter has retired from active duty. The years had snuck up on it. Though it remained cutting-edge contemporary in many people's minds, the Nighthawk had hit the quarter-century mark. At a discreet "Silver Stealth" ceremony at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico this week, some of the people who built, serviced and flew the plane marked...

I hate to do this, especially as a new poster (but looonnggg time lurker) but I am having trouble determining if St. Denise existed. Wikipedia has an entry but they are notoriously unreliable and nowhere else can I find information. My daughter is tasked with dressing up as a Saint for All Saint's Day at her school and Denise was my departed mother's name. There are many learned Christians here. Maybe someone knows or can direct me? Many thanks.