Free Republic

A social club in Devon has banned a 77-year-old man from breaking wind while indoors.

The dirty white warehouse marked "2120" with a big black sign didn't let on what made it different from all the other buildings just off New York Avenue in Northeast Washington. Then Kathyrn Pearson-West peered inside and saw condoms and lubricants lined up just beyond the door.... "A pleasure pit," said Audrey Ray, one of the other women who took a look last week at the nude entertainment club that has opened on West Virginia Avenue, next to a vacant lot and across the street from an auto body shop. "We don't need this in our neighborhood." ...There's been an...

NEWINGTON, Conn. -- On a recent evening in this quiet suburb, Matthew Fiddler hunched over a door lock, jiggling it with a pick and poking it with a wrench. In just a few moments, it popped open. Mr. Fiddler wasn't locked out and he isn't a thief. Instead, the 36-year-old father of four, clad in khakis and a blue button-down shirt, was seated around a table with a handful of people who pick locks for fun. The group, a chapter of Locksport International, gets together monthly to poke and prod everything from padlocks to dead-bolt cylinders. They swap tips, hold...

Russia to display new naval missile systems in Greece 15:05 | 02/ 10/ 2006 MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's state arms export company, Rosoboronexport, will present an array of weaponry, including new missile systems for the Navy at an upcoming international arms exhibition in Greece, the company said Monday. The 14th specialized exhibition of conventional weapons systems for national defense on land, sea and air, Defendory International 2006, will be held October 3-7, in the Greek capital, Athens. Fifteen Russian defense industry companies will exhibit more than 300 models of military equipment in the form of mock-up models,...

The female is the facilitator who attracts the less frugal male to the bar. Bringing females to a bar is a conspicuous display of your wealth, but in this case the currency has 34-Cs. Rolling into a venue with an attractive female on each hip is like pulling up to an awards show in a Bentley Continental GT - completely unnecessary, yet thoroughly effective at getting your point across.

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – A group of golf enthusiasts plans to donate golf clubs, balls, tees, mats and other golf equipment to servicemembers at Camp Taji, a military base in Iraq. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Abdul Mercado inside his living quarters at Camp Taji, Iraq. Soon Mercado and others at his base will have golf equipment donated by Golfers 4 Freedom. Courtesy photo    U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Abdul Mercado, 36, of 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery, has been playing for 13 years. For the past eight months he has been deployed to Camp Taji and hasn't been...

BOUNTIFUL - When Gregg Revell packed his bags for a trip to Pennsylvania last April, he had no idea how far he'd be traveling. Before the week was out, the 57-year-old suburban real estate agent and grandfather would be arrested, thrown into one of the country's most notorious jails, strip searched and inoculated against his will. The soft-spoken Utah native would be on his way to becoming a poster child for the National Rifle Association in a $3 million lawsuit. During a nearly five-day stay in a Newark, N.J., jail, he would meet a terrifying side of America that most...

Two guys from Minneapolis embark on a four-state tour of topless clubs, shelling out for champagne, lap dances and various favors from VIP-room strippers. The men are Minneapolis police officers. They are on duty. And their commanders know exactly what the officers are doing, handing them cash advances for their cross-country foray. Minneapolis police sent two officers on the road in 2004 to evaluate whether the city should grant a liquor license to a Denver businessman who owns a chain of strip clubs. The license would have given the businessman, Troy Lowrie, control of a well-known downtown Minneapolis club.

MILLINGTON, Tenn., Jan. 24, 2006 - Through a Department of Defense (DoD) initiative, children of active-duty and Reserve Sailors and Marines can receive free memberships to their local Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA), effective immediately. “These free memberships allow our Sailors to stay focused on the Navy’s mission because they know their children are in good hands while they’re away from home,” said Larrie Jarvis, Child and Youth Programs analyst for Commander, Navy Installations Command. “We are very fortunate to have this partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.” According to Jarvis, every Navy youth center...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. (Jan. 10, 2006) -- When out on the Station there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my car to see what was the matter. Roars of Chevy engines ringing out through the skies, and my eyes not prepared for such a grand surprise. The sun on my back, but the day still cold and the distant sound of helicopters on patrol. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but 41 shinning Corvettes, bringing holiday cheer. A familiar sight to Marines and families of Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron-26 as dozens of Corvettes...

SACRAMENTO – State lawmakers are no longer sitting on the sidelines as the San Diego Chargers scramble to build a $450 million stadium under the city's haunting fiscal cloud. Legislation to create a state bonding authority that could help the Chargers secure tax-free financing for a new home is on a steady march through the Legislature and to the governor's desk. Where that home might be has been a matter of speculation in recent years. While the Chargers insist they want to stay in San Diego, the prospect of moving north has added intrigue to their quest for a new...

As midnight approached, a trail of men filtered into the movie theater to watch X-rated gay movies and eye each other in a warren of dimly lit lounges. A few steps up the street, a half-dozen men danced nude for a barroom crowd, while next door a female impersonator known as Ella Fitzgerald sashayed down a staircase in a brunet wig and a glittering blue-and-red gown. "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" the impersonator lip-synced to a booming soundtrack as the audience roared and men lingered at the darkened edges of the dance floor, waiting to...

Clubs were one of the 18th century's great inventions. "Clubbable", a word invented by Dr Johnson, was a coinage for the age. For men, the club promised a new form of sociability. Nowadays we associate clubs with reactionary habits, yet once they were self-consciously modern, allowing enlightened gentlemen to socialise outside the narrow confines of family or profession. In a club, men were to express their common rationality and learn social sophistication. And lowland Scotland, whose capital, Edinburgh, was a hub of Enlightenment culture, was the home to many such associations of like-minded citizens. David Stevenson's mischievous aim is to...

Thousands of hunters armed with clubs, rifles and spears have begun the world's largest seal cull on the ice floes off eastern Canada. Turning the ice red with blood, they killed hundreds of pups during the first day of the annual harp seal hunt. The cull, which has been the target of protests since the 1960s, will mean the slaughter of up to 320,000 young seals on the floes and islands around Quebec's les de la Madeleine in the Gulf of St Lawrence. "It's just horrific out there," said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States. "There...

In the heart of Republican country, some high school students of a different political persuasion are making waves...

BRAINERD, Minn. -- Maybe it's all that fighting at the Legislature. A state senator said he used a wooden club to scare off two men who were trying to rob his liquor store here. Sen. Paul Koering said he was working around 8 p.m. Saturday when two men wearing hooded sweatshirts and scarves over their faces entered the store. When Koering asked the men what they wanted, they tapped the cash register with an aluminum baseball bat and said, ``This is what we'll have,'' the Republican from Fort Ripley recalled Monday. Koering said he grabbed the club left behind by...

Arrogant censorshipDavid Limbaugh (archive) February 11, 2005 | Print | Send An incident at Hudson High School in Massachusetts provides an object lesson in the occasional arrogance of liberal bias. A group of students decided to form a conservative club as "a counterweight" to the majority political viewpoint at the school. Student Chris Bowler put up posters to publicize the club's first meeting in December. Within hours, school administrators reportedly removed the posters because they contained a link to the Website of High School Conservative Clubs of America (HSCCA), a national organization for high school conservative clubs. HSCCA's Website included links...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

(New London-WTNH Nov. 18, 2004 10:30 PM) _ A rifle club at a Southeastern Connecticut High School has come under fire. Some say putting guns in the hands of students is the wrong lesson to teach. Despite those concerns The Board of Education in Montville approved the rifle club. Control, accuracy and safety are just some of the lessons learned at the Quaker hill Rod and Gun club. I enjoy it because it's focusing more on staying still which a lot of sports don't do." says Junior Maximilian Carpino For the past few months Max Carpino, Scott Graves and a...

Near the end, Klemm and club President Bill Sprenkle spoke briefly about proposed changes to the club's by-laws. Klemm indicated club officers had met to discuss allowing the club to alter the by-laws early next year to let GOP-leaning independents to join as voting members. "What we are trying to do is get these independents here and become Republicans," Klemm explained. Club member Lee Foreman questioned the proposed by-laws change. "I'm not sure that's where you want to go," Foreman said, referring to the by-laws alteration. Klemm asked whether Foreman would be amenable to allowing unaffiliated members to join as...