Free Republic

Are we okay? I mean as a society. Like, are we good? Cuz this whole Stanley cup thing is getting a little out of hand. Stanley just released a Valentine's Day edition of their extremely popular insulated cup and people went absolutely nuts over it. The special edition cup, which, like all Stanley cups, keeps your beverage either hot or cold and can apparently survive a fire, cost a whopping $45, and is now going for upwards of $200 on eBay. Not joking. Although the holiday is over a month away, the double-wall vacuum-insulated tumblers priced at $45 have sold...

Trunp challenged forty-four minutes after nomination petitions were filed for the March 19, 2024 Illinois Primary Election

WASHINGTON — President Biden referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “president” at a Monday White House event honoring the Stanley Cup-winning Vegas Golden Knights. “Welcome to the White House, the 2023 Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights!” said Biden, who turns 81 on Nov. 20. “President Harris is here to make sure we do this the right way.” Biden has made the same error in at least six prior public appearances.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Among the list of things former NASCAR driver and television broadcaster Benny Parsons asked his wife to do prior to his death in January 2007 was to try to get North Wilkesboro Speedway to reopen for NASCAR racing. It took more than 16 years to get it done, but Terri Parsons — along with many others — can celebrate that achievement this week. The NASCAR All-Star Race this weekend will be the first NASCAR race at the historic 0.625-mile oval since 1996. The track was the place that nurtured the love of racing for the Parsons...

President Biden on Tuesday cheered the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team for its win over Iran in the World Cup at an event in Michigan to promote his economic agenda. Biden, who had wrapped up his speech in Bay City and was mingling with attendees, walked back to the microphone to tell the crowd that the U.S. had won, 1-0. “USA! USA! That’s a big game, man,” Biden said. “When I spoke to the coach and the players, I said, ‘You can do this.’ They went ‘eh.’ They did it, God love ’em. Anyway, just thought you might want to...

You don't have to like soccer to maybe have a little interesting in the Tuesday match between the USA and Iran in the World Cup, in a loser leave town match. I was never a hockey fan until the USA team with a bunch of college players defeated the hated Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics, I was throwing things at the TV when the hated Russians defeated the USA basketball team in the 1972 Summer Olympics, in an obvious case of cheating. International sports competitions are a lot more fun when the nations playing each other have a hatred...

Doctors have removed a steel cup from a man’s rectum ten days after his friends put it up there as a drunken prank. The 45-year-old from Balipadar, India, had the substantially sized object removed via surgery at a local hospital. The incident, which took place on 19 August, apparently happened when the unfortunate man was out drinking with his friends at Surat in Gujarat, an Indian state which prohibits alcohol. According to reports, the victim’s friends said they inserted the sizeable item up his rectum whilst he was in an 'inebriated state' as part of a 'prank'. The cup is...

Beverages—not including those in reusable cups—purchased in unincorporated Santa Cruz County now have a 25-cent fee tacked onto the priceStarting today, anyone purchasing a beverage in the unincorporated parts of Santa Cruz County—and who didn’t bring their own reusable cup—will notice a 25-cent fee tacked onto the price. That is due to the county’s new disposable cup fee, which was created to reduce the amount of single-use cups for hot and cold beverages going into landfills. Approved in November 2019, the fee was delayed during the Covid-19 pandemic to avoid adverse impacts on local businesses. “Santa Cruz County is a...

In January, about four months before she passed, one of those little pains started growing into a big one. There was an ache in her chest, and it was getting worse. She was losing weight. At first, the doctors thought it was an inflammation of the cartilage around her ribs – eight weeks of healing should do the trick. But it wasn’t getting better. By the end of February, she was nearly bedridden in pain. One afternoon in early March, a sudden, searing sensation in her chest caused her to jolt upright, and then head for the emergency room. There,...

Are the White Walkers cloud macchiato folks? Do the Dothraki prefer green tea frappuccinos with extra whip? (Just kidding! The Dothraki are all dead.) Can Dany’s dragons even consume Pike Place caffeinated blends? Vulture is asking the very important, very relevant questions to start our morning, as this week’s Game of Thrones episode confirmed the presence of America’s favorite (minus New England) coffee chain, Starbucks, in a scene. It’s not even that hard to miss, really: If you fast-forward to 17:39 to where Dany, Jon, Tormund, and their merry band of pals are hangin’ out, a Starbucks coffee cup is...

SAN FRANCISCO — Patrons of restaurants and coffee shops in Berkeley, California, who don't bring a reusable cup for their beverage will have to pay a 25-cent fee for a disposable cup as part of an ordinance approved by city officials to reduce restaurant waste. Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the fee on single-use cups that will take effect January 2020.

Migrant workers building a stadium for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar "have suffered systematic abuses, in some cases forced labor," a new report from Amnesty International claims. The report, titled "The ugly side of the beautiful game: Exploitation on a Qatar 2022 World Cup site", paints a damning picture of conditions for migrant laborers.

Somebody get this guy on “Shark Tank”! A Missouri resident claims to have the strongest jockstrap in the world — and he’s willing to take a bullet to prove it. Jeremiah Raber, 38, is the mastermind behind Nutshellz, a sports cup that he is marketing to law enforcement, athletes and the armed forces, according to Barcroft. Constructed with “the strongest materials known to man,” the groin protector comes in two models.

Multiple sources say it's a done deal that World Cup 2022 will take place in November and December of 2022 in Qatar. A FIFA task force will meet in Doha next week and make that recommendation, and the FIFA Executive Committee is set to make the decision final at its meeting in Zurich next month.

In the least shocking news to hit the industry this week, Rosie O’Donnell is leaving The View after a much-hyped return less-than-a-hockey-season ago. Not to end-zone dance or anything–because this choice was so obviously doomed from the start–but Ms. O’Donnell not being able to revive a sinking franchise could be seen from a mile away (as was her mental meltdown). As mentioned in this space, sequels invariably fail (at least critically compared to the original…with a few exceptions) in the entertainment world. O’Donnell is a living, breathing, 50-something sequel. And in the end, her departure is a product of classic...

Ah, yes. The infamous “latte salute.” If you haven’t heard about it yet, Obama walked off a helicopter insouciantly clutching an environmentally-deadly Styrofoam latte cup in his right hand. When the two Marines waiting at the base of steps offered him a smart salute, Obama, who seemed to avoid looking at them, vaguely pawed his forehead with the hand holding that cup and then walked on. Here, see it for yourself: People in the military and conservatives were outraged. Liberals have been outraged at the outrage. Here are a few of the comments I’ve culled from liberals on my “real...

This really happened. Today. This was actually posted by The White House on Instagram.

Brazilians bitter about their team's disastrous World Cup celebrated Argentina's defeat to Germany in the final Sunday by dancing and launching fireworks, relieved that their arch-rivals failed to triumph on their soil. In Brasilia and Sao Paulo, fireworks exploded after Mario Goetze scored in extra-time to give the Germans a last-gasp victory at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium. At a bar near the stadium, Brazilians chanted "Cry! Cry! Argentina!" in a nod to the song "Don't cry for me Argentina."

I've held off on writing about soccer for a decade -- or about the length of the average soccer game -- so as not to offend anyone. But enough is enough. Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation's moral decay. (1) Individual achievement is not a big factor in soccer. In a real sport, players fumble passes, throw bricks and drop fly balls -- all in front of a crowd. When baseball players strike out, they're standing alone at the plate. But there's also individual glory in home runs, touchdowns and slam-dunks. In soccer,...

If you go on Google Maps and ask for driving directions from San Francisco to Salvador, Brazil, you get a discouraging response: “Sorry, we could not calculate directions from “San Francisco, CA” to “Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.” But that didn’t stop Ben Oude Kamphuis, a hardcore Dutch soccer fan and Hulk Hogan look-alike, from hopping into his orange 1955 Chevy truck, Old Nellie, and going on the road trip of a lifetime to the World Cup. “The whole experience has been mind-blowing,” Oude Kamphuis, 52, told me via Skype recently from a pit stop in Urcos, Peru. “It all started four...