Free Republic

This may be the beginning of the end for the beloved Chiquita Banana sticker. Brazilian advertising agency, AGE Isobar, has developed a way to grow fruit embossed with company logos. The agency sealed tropical fruits in plastic molds that, if done correctly, would produce fruit bearing their clients' logo. In an AGE Isobar video, set to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm," the agency walks the viewer through the process of growing, harvesting and displaying the branded fruits. A tour through a Brazilian orchard quickly turns from rustic to creepy and futuristic as a gardener displays baby guavas...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday that the 2012 election will be a "fun debate" over two competing visions for the nation, referring to Mitt Romney as the Republican "front-runner" who has backed policies that would undermine middle-class families. At a fundraiser held at a Washington hotel, Obama told supporters that his administration had spent the past three years "cleaning up after some of that mess, and I don't want to have to do it again."

Overland Park, Kansas, March 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) — On a tip from a local woman, the Kansas City Star has recovered over 1,000 abortion medical records from 2001-2002 that were illegally dumped in a public recycling bin by the discredited abortionist Krishna Rajanna, who was infamously accused of engaging in cannibalism by a former staff member. The files contained names, addresses and other sensitive information about abortion patients at Rajanna’s now-closed Affordable Medical Center. The newspaper has since turned the documents over to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. The documents could be used as evidence in a possible...

Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued. The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born. The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics,...

f the soldier-like perfection of the synchronized formation by these mini drones doesn’t freak you out a bit — their collective buzzing sure will. Orchestrated by the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, these 20 “nano quadrotors” developed by KMel Robotics seem to, as Popular Science describes, sense each other’s proximity and work together to maintain formation “like a hive of bees moving en masse.” Watch the drone swarm in varying formations and with obstacles (Note: Hold out for the figure eight at 1:27):

Liberal talk show host Alan Colmes sunk to new a new low when he said on Fox News that former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum took his deceased baby home to 'play with it.' Noting that the GOP has "speed-dated" every other candidate, Colmes said voters should "get a load" of what he called the "crazy things" Santorum has said and done. "Like taking his two-hour old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple hours so his other children would know it was real, I mean..." At this point, Fox News contributor Rich Lowry...

Pat Dollard posted this. It’s an official Barack Obama campaign ad for 2012. Having asked supporters to shove their donations to Obama’s reelection in their relatives faces last week, they’re now asking fans to convert those same people through persistent political harangues at family gatherings.

I know it's 2 years old, but couldn't get over how ghoulish and creepy she looks supporting abortion and all the time with that smug smirk on her face. Scary.

Now that everyone is recovering from the excitement of America Recycles Day, we're recycling President Obama's important proclamation on recycling, which he issues every year on Nov. 15. The president is in Australia this morning, which is tomorrow down there. We have the full text of this year's proclamation below. And here, amazingly enough, is the full text of the president's same statement on the same day a year ago, when he had just returned from another Asian trip. (Some really smart writer at LATimes.com thought to publish it back then so we could recycle it here today.) Some of...

A suspected grave robber in the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod is said by police to have made 29 life-size dolls from mummified female corpses. Local historian and cemetery explorer Anatoly Moskvin, 45, was arrested last week by police investigating a spate of grave desecrations in the area. The brightly dressed dolls, their faces and limbs covered in cloth, were found in his flat and garage, police said. It was not clear whether each doll contained a set of human remains.Police are now trying to establish the identity of the mummified remains. They said they had been investigating grave...

(CNN) -- A Burmese python slithering through the Everglades proved that her eyes weren't bigger than her stomach, swallowing intact a 76-pound deer. At 15.65 feet, the python isn't the largest on record. But the size of her prey both impresses and concerns state and federal wildlife scientists and land managers trying to control the non-native species. "They are large exotic animals that are not naturally from this area," said Randy Smith, spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District. "The potential to wreak havoc on the natural Florida wildlife ... they don't have true enemies." Contractors spraying exotic vegetation...

What in heck is the matter with this guy?...What is he smoking? This fool is beserk! I hope nothing happens to Obango as bad as he is because this nut job's wheels are coming off!

They were meant to be the saviours of the ailing network. Rosie was supposed to bring back her famous chat show charm and Oprah was going to share the lessons she had learnt in 25 years of her show. But the only lesson Oprah seems to be offering on her ailing channel OWN, is when the going gets tough, turn to drink.

The FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov. The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI's existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying other biometric markers, such as iris scans and voice recordings. Often law enforcement authorities will "have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don't know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our...

Sect member loses appeal By Matthew Waller Updated Friday, August 26, 2011 SAN ANGELO, Texas — The latest round in the legal fight over the imprisonment of polygamist sect members went to the state, but the fight may not be over. The Texas Third Court of Appeals in an opinion issued Friday upheld the conviction of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member Michael Emack on a charge of child sexual assault that came from evidence from the Yearning for Zion Ranch raid in April 2008. In the next few weeks, the case could go to the...

Profiles, status updates and messages all include a mother lode of voluntarily provided information. The social media site is using it to help advertisers find exactly who they want to reach. Privacy watchdogs are aghast. ### Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager. So when paid ads for fan sites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger's Facebook page, she was thrilled. She described herself as a "clicking fool," perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers. Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every...

The room buzzes with little voices. Little children engage in "mature, dramatic play." An adult helps the children "regulate" and "monitor each other's compliance" with "rules and assigned roles."[1] Each child knows his or her place. Each child does the group's bidding, nothing else. Orwell's 1984? No, a scene played out in thousands of classrooms across America. The drumbeat of collectivism begins in preschool. And a long-dead Soviet psychologist helped define that drumbeat. Months ago, an email from a teacher spurred me to investigate the theories of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). My research revealed starry-eyed academics enamored of collectivism.

Gabrielle Giffords' Youtube channel page contains a link to Jared Loughner's Youtube channel page. Giffords' username is giffords2 and Loughner's apparent username is Classitup10. The link "Classit..." at the bottom of Giffords' page: http://www.youtube.com/user/giffords2 connects to Loughner's page: http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10

EASTERN EUROPE: A new game is in town, it's called "300" like the movie and is being practiced in the forests of Poland,Byloruss,Latvia,Russia,Romania and other eastern european countries.

Well, well. I was scouring the Internet and came across something worthy of mention – none other than a Craigslist posting from Mr. Creeper himself, Julian Assange. Wikileaks dude! Seems like the type of chick he’s looking for is a woman who’s not afraid to get night-sticked on the street of Athens and who’s an avowed vegan. Now who would’ve guessed that, eh? Snort. See below! H/T goes to Brett Winterble of Covert Radio.

In an interview today, the author at the center of a controversy about Amazon’s sale of a self-published pedophile’s guide told TSG that he has sold exactly one copy of the book and revealed that he was involuntarily hospitalized following a “mental breakdown.” Noting that, “I have what they call manic depression,” Phillip Greaves, 47, said that he himself was not a pedophile and that “the best advice I can give a pedophile is accept that masturbation is your best friend.” Greaves’s book, “The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code of Conduct,” last week became available for...

Yesterday on FoxNews I heard Geraldine Ferraro say that whoever coined the term ObamaCare was brilliant. She said it took all the negatives of the plan and tied it around Obama's neck. So I know my fellow Freepers will have the answer to the question "Who first coined the word "ObamaCare". Also, since the people clearly regard ObamaCare as negative, how are conservatives going to get us back to FreeMarket Health Care?

Bill Clinton sought to persuade Rep. Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race for Senate during a trip to Florida last week — and nearly succeeded. Meek agreed — twice — to drop out and endorse Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent bid in a last-ditch effort to stop Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee who stands on the cusp of national stardom. Meek, a staunch Clinton ally from Miami, has failed to broaden his appeal around the state and is mired in third place in most public polls, with a survey today showing him with just 15 percent of the vote....

Submitted without comment

Good evening!November is Coming!No doubt we'll have some wavering polls, some naysayer commentators. The MSM will play their usual role trying to pit one group of conservatives against another, promoting controversy, while ignoring the cracks in the Left's facade. But with essentially one month left, a few hard campaigning weeks and weekends, we'll stay firmly focused on November 2 and stopping a horrendous assault on our Constitution and our Liberties.November IS coming!

Hollywood and robotics researchers have long struggled with the "uncanny valley," where a movie character or robot falls into the unsettling gap between human and not-quite-human. One psychologist likes to demonstrate this by holding up a plastic baby doll and asking audiences if they think it's alive. They say no. Then she takes out a saw and starts cutting the doll's head off, but quickly stops upon seeing the uncomfortable audience reactions.

Delightful: She begins slamming Bush for why we went into Iraq and the mic goes dead and she keeps on talking, waiting, check, check....She thinks it's a conspiracy..(Video)

Its pale torso is about the size of a small child, it has no legs and just stumps for arms. For a man who has made his life's work coming up with increasingly creepy robots, Hiroshi Ishiguro has really outdone himself this time. The Japanese roboticist has just unveiled his latest creation - a strange robotic creature called the Telenoid R1. Ishiguro has, in the past, tried to exactly replicate living humans and once developed an eerie robot replica of himself that he named Geminoid HI-1. He also came up with a terrifyingly lifelike female robot called the Gemnoid F....

Portland police will investigate accusations that Al Gore groped woman Published: Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 4:55 PM Updated: Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 5:03 PM The Oregonian A Portland massage therapist accused former Vice President Al Gore of "unwanted sexual contact" at a hotel during an October 2006 visit, but no charges were filed due to lack of evidence, law officials said last week. Today, Portland police officials say they will reopen the investigation. Portland police announced today that it will re-open and investigate a Portland massage therapist’s allegations that former Vice President Al Gore sexually assaulted her at a downtown...

(CNN) -- Police in Portland, Oregon, say they have reopened their investigation into a massage therapist's allegation that former Vice President Al Gore had "unwanted sexual contact" with her in 2006, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday. "The Portland Police Bureau has made the decision to reopen the case regarding the allegations brought forward against Mr. Al Gore," Detective Mary Wheat said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. "Consistent with our policy regarding open investigations, the Police Bureau will not be commenting on any additional specifics regarding this case at this time."

The allegation that Al Gore sexually assaulted a woman in a Portland, Ore., hotel room nearly four years ago has dealt a serious blow to the former vice president's story that he and wife Tipper simply "grew apart" after 40 years of marriage. The police report of the masseuse's complaint is 73 pages long and extremely detailed. According to the document, she got a call from the front desk of the trendy Hotel Lucia on the night of Oct. 24, 2006. The hotel had a special guest. Could she come at 10:30 p.m.?

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."...

WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - A writer working on a book about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says he moved to her hometown to talk to her longtime acquaintances, not to spy on the family. Joe McGinniss said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show that the price was right on the house next door to the Palins. He says he needs to be in Wasilla to do his work. Palin posted on Facebook last week that she wondered what McGinniss would gather "while overlooking Piper's bedroom, my little garden, and the family's swimming hole?"

These people get creepier by the minute. I wonder how long it will be before these videos become part of the curriculum in our schools.

This is a Television Commercial from the PA Department of Revenue. Pennsylvania authorized a Tax Amnesty period from April 26 to June 18, 2010. During this limited, 54-day timeframe, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue will waive 100 percent of penalties and half of the interest for anyone who pays his/her delinquent state taxes. Individuals, businesses and other entities with Pennsylvania tax delinquencies as of June 30, 2009, are generally eligible to participate in the Tax Amnesty Program. This was authorized by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

The historic day came and went. America’s charismatic President signed the health-care reform bill; the Vice-President kissed his boss’s posterior for succeeding where others failed, then quoted Virgil, calling him a Greek poet. Unlike a predecessor, however, he stopped short of misspelling “potatoes.� The United States is much too big for one man to trash, but Barack “Yes, we can� Obama and his entourage are giving it a try. They’re making progress. Peace is already more elusive and security less certain for America and its allies than it was before Obama took office 15 months ago. His two-pronged foreign policy...

Obama greeting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko during a visit Republican with Senator Dick Lugar

Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, President appeals for a return to "civility" in politics. "You can question my policies without questioning my faith -- or for that fact, my citizenship," he says, a reference to those who insist Obama wasn't born in Hawaii.

Acknowledging she believes in God, and then figuratively spitting in his face. Chilling.Proudly sticking it to all the pro-lifers who are kneeling in prayer.

Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama's closest confidants. Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, Sunstein is currently Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs." In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and psuedo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems...

[...] In the end, they decided to turn us away, which they did with an ill grace and in a bad-tempered manner. As soon as the decision was final, the Danish police moved in. One of them began the now familiar technique of manhandling me, in the same fashion as one of his colleagues had done the previous day. Once again, conscious that a police helicopter with a high-resolution camera was hovering overhead, I thrust my hands into my pockets in accordance with the St. John Ambulance crowd-control training, looked my assailant in the eye and told him, quietly but...

Inspirational animation!

One of the recurring thread-types we have chronicled here at the DUmmie FUnnies over the last five years is the "My Encounter With A Freeper" thread. In a MEWAF thread, the DUmmie recounts an incident in which he or she either 1) converted the Freeper, 2) put down the Freeper, or simply 3) experienced bizarre boorish behavior from the Freeper. This latter subtype--a "MEWAF-III," as we call it in the trade--is what we are dealing with here today, a Freeper Encounter of the Third Kind. It should be noted, MEWAF threads may be more or less fictionalized to make...

After a fierce controversy over what many perceived as an effort to indoctrinate students, the White House says it will rewrite the government recommendation that teachers nationwide assign students a paper on how to "help the president." According to the Washington Times, Obama aides acknowledged the White House helped the U.S. Education Department craft recommended activities to be assigned to students after they watched Obama's address: Among the activities the government initially suggested for prekindergarten to sixth-grade students: that they "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president." Another task recommended for students immediately after...

The Reno Gazette Journal has a sit-down with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who addresses the Ted Kennedy question in, um, an interesting way. Q: How will U.S. Sen. (Edward) Kennedy's death affect things? A: I think it's going to help us. He hasn't been around for some time. We're going to have a new chairman of that committee, it'll be, I don't know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd, (D-Conn.). He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, (D-Iowa), whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy)...

A reader points out that President Obama's call with the rabbis today -- as recorded in Rabbi Jack Moline's and other clerics' Twitter feeds -- freights health care reform with a great deal of religious meaning, and veers into the blend of policy and faith that outraged liberals in the last administration. "We are God's partners in matters of life and death," Obama said, according to Moline (paging Sarah Palin...), quoting from the Rosh Hashanah prayer that says that in the holiday period, it is decided "Who shall live and who shall die." The president ended the call by wishing...

What do murder, pedophilia, suicide and a baby tiger have in common? They have all been used to sell stuff in these amazingly disturbing vintage ads! These are real, untouched advertisements from the good old days. It doesn't matter if it's lovely ladies or adorable clowns, somehow these old-time ad wizards found ways to traumatize us while pedaling everyday products. Enjoy them now, call your therapist later! 15. White Bread Demon"Bread is swell, but what I'm really excited about is eating jelly made from the blood of the innocent!" 14. French Suicide SausageIt's enough to make you want to eat Kosher...

Jane Hamsher details the extremely aggressive tactics the White House and House leadership used to coerce liberal environmentalist members to vote for the cap-and-trade bill despite their belief that it helped polluters more than it did anything else (and remember their ability to do that the next time they claim that a bill they ostensibly support simply couldn't pass because it lacked the necessary votes). Jane quotes from a Politico article reporting on White House anger towards environmentalist Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, due to an impassioned floor speech he gave arguing that the bill was so industry-friendly that it would...