Free Republic

SAO PAULO — Every Friday night for 23 years, Zeli Rossi has traded his bed in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais for a coffin. Rossi tells the G1 news website that his weekly sleeping habit became public last month when his 14-year-old grandson wrote a story about him for his school's newspaper. Rossi says he sleeps in the coffin to honor a deceased friend

I stopped in at "Big Papa's Pit" in Tampa for some barbeque and Earl the manager showed a picture he had been sent. I just have to share it. This was on 275 in Tampa

Remember when the dollar reigned supreme, and nobody cared about that joke of a currency, the Chinese Renminbi? Neither do we. And neither does the CME, which just announced it is launching USD/CNY futures, which will be available in standard and E-micro sizes beginning August 22. Put otherwise, with one fell swoop the CME will now allow one to transform liability risk, credit and maturity of underlying assets from one currency to another, while on margin (granted, exposed to the same margin shenanigans that make silver bulls scream blood murder every time the CME's name is mentioned). And the CME...

FARGO - Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney says "You can't make this stuff up". Laney and the Coast Guard were called to an area south of Fargo Sunday morning on a report of a man in a makeshift canoe in the Red River. After arriving on scene, they found that the man had crossed into Minnesota. They took a closer look at the man's "canoe" and discovered it was actually a lid from a coffin.

ABC News has learned Andrew Stern will vote no on the deficit commission’s plan to reduce the national deficit by nearly $4 trillion. Mr. Stern, the former president of the SEIU, has informed co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson that he will be the fifth member voting no, ending the commission’s hopes of officially passing the plan to Congress. The commission needed votes from 14 of the 18 members in order to pass the plan to Congress. Mr. Stern joins Sen. Max Baucus and Reps. Dave Camp, Paul Ryan and Jan Schakowsky in voting against the plan. He is also...

I wonder sometimes just how many Bible preachers and teachers from among Evangelicals, Pentacostals, and Baptists are active on Free Republic. Would you like to post some serious preaching outlines with brief comments based on three interesting photos from China? I'd be very interested to see how quickly anyone could put the three photo illustrations together and produce an outline for one sermon. Please, let's witness with some serious work. Thoughtful and prayerful students of the Scriptures will quickly recognize Biblical themes that can be illustrated from these photos. The first one is a man actually carrying a coffin on...

As the Obama administration helps our largest banks tread water in an ocean they themselves created, a tidal wave has been spotted just over the horizon.A new, stock clearing house will open in the U.S. in March that will right many of the wrongs perpetrated by the market makers, brokers, and hedge funds conducting business on the NASDAQ and OTC markets. The NASDAQ OMX has been approved to start the clearing of stocks next month. Currently, 92% of all stocks in the U.S. markets are cleared by the DTC, which is an arm of the Federal Reserve.The problem for the...

MEXICO CITY — Authorities in Mexico say a newborn baby girl declared dead by doctors revived inside her coffin during her wake. Hidalgo state Attorney General Jose Rodriguez says the parents heard a strange noise coming from the tiny casket. Opening it up, they found her crying and very much alive. The baby, who was born prematurely Monday, is in stable condition at a different hospital.

Italian prosecutors believe pizza in the southern city of Naples may be baked in ovens lit with wood from coffins dug up in the local cemetery. "Pizza, one of the few symbols of Naples that endures ... is hit by the concrete suspicion that it could be baked with wood from coffins," Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale reported. Investigators in Naples are setting their sights on the thousands of small, lower-end pizza shops and bakeries that dot the city on suspicion that the owners may "use wood from caskets to keep ovens burning." Naples' graveyard has long been hunting ground...

By the way: I would call Russ Carnahan 'inbred,' but that's an insult to endogamists. Let us start by watching what happened SUNDAY. This is via Gateway Pundit - who, by the way, was there and who was a spokesman: Got it? Low-key prayer vigil, coffin brought in for staged funeral of Constitution, old people crying, coffin then removed. Now let’s see how Politico referenced it: A coffin was placed on a Missouri Democrat’s lawn, another in a string of incidents against lawmakers after their vote Sunday on a health care overhaul.Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) had a coffin placed “near...

I did not see anything wrong going on here, just a simple, peaceful, non-violent protest going on in Saint Louis area, MO a couple of days ago. The libs are LYING about this one folks! =^..^= =^..^=

When the remains of hundreds of colonial-era Africans were uncovered during a building excavation in Lower Manhattan in 1991, one coffin in particular stood out. Nailed into its wooden lid were iron tacks, 51 of which formed an enigmatic, heart-shaped design. The pattern was soon identified as the sankofa — a symbol printed on funereal garments in West Africa — and it captured the imagination of scholars, preservationists and designers. Ultimately, it was embraced by many African-Americans as a remarkable example of the survival of African customs in the face of violent subjugation in early America. The sankofa was widely...

Today we have “Transformers” star Megan Fox, joining a growing club — spouting this hateful nonsense: “Transformers” bombshell-cum-uninhibited philosophizer also contemplates — reluctantly — what she would say to Megatron to keep him from destroying the world. “I’d barter with him,” she muses to the July, issue Total Film UK, “and say instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?”

A Brazilian woman has died after being struck by her husband's coffin when the hearse they were travelling in was involved in a car crash. The 67-year-old woman was on the way to the cemetery to bury her husband, who had died the day before. The hearse was struck from behind by an Alfa Romeo car, police said. The coffin slammed into the head of the woman, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the hearse, killing her instantly, according to officers. ........................ Following the accident, the driver of the Alfa Romeo was trapped for around 50 minutes in...

Snip-"I have been as fast as around 35 mph on a flat stretch of road. On one particular hill, it's almost crawling at the top. Yet if I get a good run down the hill which precedes it, I can maintain more of a momentum -- memories of riding a bike as a child!... Snip-This is definitely a city car. It doesn't replace a "normal" car; we have a second car which we use for longer journeys or when going out with friends.Snip-The range on a single charge is supposed to be 40 miles but I think that's only in...

SANTIAGO (AFP) - An 81-year old man in the small Chilean village of Angol shocked his grieving relatives by waking up in his coffin at his own wake, local media said on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT When Feliberto Carrasco's family members discovered his body limp and cold, they were convinced that the octogenarian's hour had come, so they immediately called a funeral home, not a doctor. Carrasco was dressed in his finest suit for the wake, and his relatives gathered to bid him a final farewell. "I couldn't believe it. I thought I must be mistaken, and I shut my eyes," Carrasco's...

Unknown persons destroy ancient bronze coffin discovered recently [17 January 2008] IBB, Jan. 17 (Saba) - Unknown persons devastated early morning on Thursday an ancient bronze coffin and stole another one completely were in an archaeological location in al-Asibia area in Dhefar valley of Ibb province. The director general of Antiques and Cultural Properties Protection in the General Authority for Antiquities and Museums Hesham al-Thawr held the director general of the security office in the al-Saddah district responsible for destroying the location and disinterring the bronze coffin. Al-Thawr said that the security official has ordered the military patrols, which have...

Ancient bronze coffin discovered in Ibb province [14 January 2008] Ancient bronze coffin discovered in Ibb province SANA'A, Jan. 14 (Saba) - The excavation operations at al-Asibia area of Ibb province have revealed a stone grave and bronze coffin in a marble-walled room dating back to the Sheba era. The discoveries were found out last Wednesday at Jabal Esam eastern of Raidan Fort which is considered as an extension to Dhafar city the capital of Sheba and Dhu Raidan Ancient Kingdom, director general of the antiques office at Ibb province Khalid al-Ansi was quoted as saying. The characteristics of the...

700-year-old tree coffin discovered in Quang Tri 17:43' 04/09/2007 (GMT+7) VietNamNet Bridge – The Quang Tri Museum has recently received an ancient coffin made from a tree trunk, according to the museum’s director, Mai Truong Manh. The coffin was discovered on August 28 in Trung Chi village, Dong Luong ward, Dong Ha commune at 1.2 m underground when local residents were digging for the construction of an electricity post. The coffin is 2.25 m in length, 0.49 m in width and 0.28 m in height with the body and lid skillfully done. According to experts, burying the dead in tree...

Many people live extraordinary lives. Many have extraordinary deaths. But very, very few can hope to save the world 90 years after they have passed away. One such man was the remarkably colourful Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes, one of those larger-than-life Victorians who lived in an era when great men really could, and did, change the shape of the world. Sir Mark Sykes was a baronet, a diplomat, a father of six children, Tory MP, a senior general in the Army and a skilled negotiator. A close friend of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and Chaim Weizmann - who went...

Scorn poured on James Cameron's 'coffin of Christ' theory Archaeologists and biblical scholars have poured scorn on a Hollywood film director's sensational claim that he has discovered the coffin of Jesus Christ. Oscar-winning 'Titanic' director James Cameron's assertion that the bones of Jesus and his family were hidden for centuries in a Jerusalem tomb caused an outcry in the Holy Land. Even a British archeologist who worked with Cameron, Dr. Shimon Gibson, admitted he's "sceptical" about the claims that challenge some of the central tenets of Christianity. The very fact that Jesus had a grave would contradict the Christian belief...

1,800-year old painted coffin discovered in north China Chinese archaeologists have discovered an ancient coffin painted with colored drawings dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220) in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The funeral objects had already been robbed when the coffin was discovered from a tomb in Siziwang Banner. The coffin, in delicate appearance, was well preserved during excavation of the tomb. "The color drawings, painted at inner sides of the coffin, feature daily life and hunting activities," said Wang Dafang, an official with the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Cultural Relic Bureau The most valuable painting on...

TUCSON, ARIZ. - An empty casket with a military seal was discovered in a desert area south of Tucson, and sheriff's deputies were looking for the body. ADVERTISEMENT "Obviously it had the smell, and there was other evidence that it had been inhabited recently," Deputy Dawn Barkman said Sunday. Forensic investigators took DNA samples, and a nationwide alert was issued in hope of finding out who was the casket, Barkman said. Deputies were called to a desert area near Interstate 10 Saturday after two people playing paintball found the casket. The casket was metallic silver with a U.S. Army insignia...

"A long, long time ago I can still remember ..." That's how Don McLean's No. 1 hit from 1971, "American Pie," begins. The news earlier this month was that William Sloane Coffin Jr., America's most famous liberal minister from the 1960s through the 1980s, had just died at age 81. Obituaries noted that Coffin, recipient of an elite education in New England and Paris, had thought of a career as a concert pianist, but became Yale University chaplain in 1958. "February made me shiver, With every paper I'd deliver, Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step."...

William Sloane Coffin Jr., 81, a Presbyterian clergyman and former Yale University chaplain whose early activism against the Vietnam War brought him international notoriety during a lifelong career of civil disobedience, died April 12 at his home in Strafford, Vt. He had congestive heart failure. From the moment in 1958 when Mr. Coffin roared onto Yale's campus atop his motorcycle, he signaled that his presence would mean a distinctly radical approach to the social, political and moral upheaval that defined the next decade. Mr. Coffin called himself a "Christian revolutionary" and believed that his outspoken activism sprang from the principles...

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - A 2,500-year-old stone coffin with well-preserved colour illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archeologists said Monday. "It is a very important find," said Pavlos Flourentzos, director of the island's antiquities department. "The style of the decoration is unique, not so much from an artistic point of view, but for the subject and the colours used." Only two other similar sarcophagi have ever been discovered in Cyprus. Both are housed in New York's Metropolitan Museum, but their colour decoration is more faded. The limestone sarcophagus was accidentally found by construction workers last week...

Unusual bronze coffin unearthed in Lorestan Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN -- A bronze coffin containing a skeleton with a golden blindfold and a golden gag on its face were unearthed in farmland near the provincial capital city of Khorramabad in Lorestan Province, the director of an archaeological team working in the region said on Friday. “It was an exciting discovery. The golden items and bronze coffin show that the casket was for a person from a prominent family,” Jalal Adeli added. With four handles, the coffin is like a bathtub, and has been broken into four pieces. Its length...

Even Ghana's director of tourism may have to admit that Accra has its work cut out competing with other tourist destinations in Africa. Yet just outside the capital, is the suburb of Teshi and it is here that tourists are coming to look at a relatively new tradition - the fantasy coffin makers. Drive slowly down the main high street in Teshi, Eastern Accra, and you would probably glance at showrooms and wonder why anyone would want to exhibit a large red fish, or an oversized hammer. It is as if you have arrived at some strange storage area for...

They celebrated and shivered in Washington. They marched and protested in Tucson. Locals greeted the inauguration of President Bush on Thursday with a mixture of patriotic enthusiasm and war-weary dread. For those who traveled to Washington to witness the nation's 55th inaugural, frigid weather tempered the momentousness of the historic event, but only slightly. "There's just so much excitement here," Kendall Jose, a 16-year-old member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, said from a cell phone as he stood in front of the National Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue, watching the inaugural parade. "It's quite a sight, but it sure is cold."...

The arrest this month of two Tucson men on charges of smuggling marijuana inside coffins isn't the first time traffickers have used strange methods to try to get their drug loads into and through the United States - nor will it be the last. Officials have had little to say about their investigation into the recent coffin case. Robert Dean Harper and Timothy Gavin Hynd face charges in connection with the smuggling of 610 pounds of marijuana through Oklahoma, where they were stopped by the state Highway Patrol on Dec. 10. Both men, who told investigators they were working for...

Campaign finance reform bites the hand that passed it. Advocacy Groups Permitted to Use Unlimited Funds . . . Ruling Favors Democrats--New York Times, lead story, February 19  FEC Moves to Regulate Groups Opposing Bush--Washington Post, same day  (1) You know, I remember reading those stories. And I remember being totally confused by them. Should I be embarrassed? No: We're talking about federal election law, here. Almost nobody understands this stuff. And besides, the coverage itself was confused. Even people who do understand federal election law couldn't make heads or tails of it. According to the Times, the Federal Election...

FOR ABOUT a year, Republicans and Democrats agreed on the need to prosecute the war on terror vigorously. No longer. Nearly all the presidential contenders as well as other heavyweight Democrats have spoken out against the war on terror, preferring it to be a police action against terror. • Howard Dean, replying to a question asking about the death penalty for bin Laden: "I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in...

When a package of "garments" flown into Los Angeles International Airport turned out to be a coffin containing opium, a customs and a drug agent were assigned to escort the load on the rest of its journey to St. Paul. Working as undercover delivery men, they left the coffin in Mark Sa Yang's front yard after Yang signed for it Sept. 3, the agents said in a federal indictment Wednesday. Then they settled in to watch. Yang went to a store to buy a two-wheel handcart, which he struggled to use in moving the coffin to the back yard, according...

A motorbiking vicar has complained about being held up by police who stopped him with a coffin in his sidecar which he was taking to a funeral. The Rev Paul Sinclair was taking the body of a dead biker to a crematorium in Yeovil, Somerset, in his motorbike hearse when police flagged him down for not wearing a crash helmet. Mr Sinclair, 37, said he explained that the hearse was taxed as the equivalent of a car, meaning he did not have to wear a crash helmet. But the officers held him up for a further 10 minutes and took...

A Dutch funeral director has sacked a hearse driver for losing a coffin on the way to a funeral. The driver was on his way to a cemetery in Amsterdam when the back door of his hearse suddenly opened and the coffin fell out. The driver did not notice anything amiss and he carried on to the cemetery, leaving the coffin in the middle of the road, reports Het Parool. A bus that was following the hearse pulled up and the driver stopped to pick up the coffin - but not before the incident was spotted by a rival undertaker...

TOKYO: North Korea secretly transported equipment for its nuclear arms programme from Pakistan in 1998 by hiding it in the coffin of the murdered wife of a North Korean diplomat to Islamabad, a daily said on Sunday. The equipment included a sample gas centrifuge used to enrich uranium necessary to produce nuclear weapons, the Mainichi Shimbun said in a report from Islamabad. North Korea hid the equipment in the coffin, which was carried on a special flight from Islamabad to Pyongyang in June 1998, the newspaper said. The chief of a Pakistani nuclear development organisation and other researchers in Pakistan...

A strange sight... A SURVEILLANCE camera (CCTV) mounted atop the Kota Kinabalu International Airport terminal captured a rather strange sight resembling a “flying coffin” (picture below and a close-up view above) hovering over Terminal Two, last Friday night. A senior Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB) officer said the revolving camera was focusing on the Terminal Two area at about 7.06pm when those monitoring the surveillance were caught by surprise by the object “flying” across the scene within seconds before disappearing from the screen. An immediate check with the radar station showed the object did not appear on their screen, except for...

SEPT 28, 2002 Hanging coffins may soon yield their secrets By Larry Teo THE mystery surrounding a cluster of cliff-hanging coffins in China's Sichuan province may soon be solved after archaeologists opened three 600-year-old coffins early this week. Suspended on stakes or tucked in caves on the face of limestone cliffs, the 265 ancient coffins had never before been examined by archaeologists until then, reported Sichuan's Huaxi City Daily. The wooden boxes were placed there by the Bo people - a community which once lived in the Yibin region of southern Sichuan but became extinct around the time of...