Free Republic

President Obama’s highly controversial Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, is concerned about the heterosexual indoctrination of children in our public schools. In his bizarre view: “we all know what’s promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country. And you know what, it doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But they’re still...

A 28-year-old man died early this morning in Pueblo while trying to steal electrical wiring from a high voltage electrical box... The man, Brian Repinski of Pueblo, was brought unconscious to Parkview Hospital suffering from high voltage burns. Duran said interviews were conducted with associates of Repinski. They said the electrocution occurred on Greenhorn Drive while Repinski and an accomplice were attempting to steal the wiring. Detectives are continuing their investigation to determine whether Repinski and his associates were involved in other recent thefts and burglaries.

(SNIP) Looney was demonstrating how to use the different safety mechanisms on several guns. Witnesses told authorities that Looney would put the guns to his head, ask his girlfriend if she thought the gun would go off, then pull the trigger.

TORONTO -- A first date with a playful, late-night search for ghosts inside a University of Toronto landmark ended in tragedy yesterday when a 29-year-old woman plunged to her death. Leah Kubik, just two weeks shy of her 30th birthday, was found without vital signs inside a courtyard just before 2 a.m. "They were believed to be exploring an old building because it's rumoured to be haunted," Toronto Police Const. Wendy Drummond told the Sun. The Gothic-style, 134-year-old Connaught medical research building was the site of a grisly murder in 2001 but paranormal experts stress it's not haunted, only rumoured...

Must be a great morale booster. Note: Inane Allah-chanting, so watch your speaker volume....

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A 57-year-old man was treated for a serious hand wound Tuesday after Charleston Police say he tried to drill through a live round to make a keychain ornament. It happened at about 1 p.m. at the man's home on the city's west side. Sgt. Eric Hodges with the Charleston Police Department says the man was drilling through a .30-06 deer rifle round when he saw a spark and the ammunition exploded, causing serious injuries to his left hand. Hodges says the powder charge inside the round had not been removed -- and the round was still...

A motorcyclist was killed Monday in a collision with a motor home on Highway 101’s Conejo Grade after he slowed rapidly in front of the recreational vehicle in an apparent road-rage incident, authorities said. The motorcyclist, a 57-year-old Ventura man, was killed about 12:22 p.m. on southbound Highway 101 near Camarillo Springs Road when he collided with a roughly 30-foot motor home driven by Michael Antoine, 68, of Thousand Oaks, said Officer Terry Uhrich of the California Highway Patrol’s Moorpark office. The motorcyclist and Antoine were both traveling about 55 mph when the collision occurred in the right lane, authorities...

HOMEL, Belarus -- A 21-year-old man from the southeastern Belarusian town of Uvaravichy in Belarus was killed when a piece of a statue to Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin fell on him as he tried to climb it, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. Early this morning, the unnamed man climbed atop the seven-meter monument and tried to hang from Lenin's famous outstretched arm.

Wildlife officials say a bear was found feeding on the body of a 73-year-old woman who had been repeatedly warned not to give dog food to the bruins that live near her home north of Ouray. Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman ...says the woman was known to feed bears dog food and would not stop, even after repeated requests from wildlife officials. Sheriff's deputies investigating the incident killed an aggressive bear at the woman's home. A necropsy is planned for the 250-pound male to determine the contents of its stomach.

For the second time this year a tourist at Yellowstone National Park has been attacked by a bison. a 55-year-old man from Norco, California, was taking pictures of a bull bison that was wandering in the Bridge Bay Campgrounds. The two were about 10 feet apart when the bison charged. a bull bison can stand six feet tall, weigh up to 2,000 pounds and run up to 30 miles an hour. During the next several weeks they are more dangerous than usual because it's their mating season.

Alexa Longueira Suffers Deep Cuts, Bruises After Landing In Raw Sewage, Blames DEP For Leaving Hole Unattended: Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking along Victory Boulevard near Travis Avenue on Staten Island Wednesday evening when she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness. She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer. "It was just really gross and it...

Brasov, Romania (AHN) - Electricy and water don't mix! A Romanian teen died of electrocution while Twittering in her bathtub, after she dropped her laptop in the water. Found by her parents with her laptop lying next to her, Maria Barbu, 17, of Brasov in central Romania, died in her bathtub at home, the Croatian Times reported. Police believe she may have tried to plug in the laptop with her wet hands after her battery died during a long Twitter session.

(WSB Radio) Police in Gwinnett County have arrested and charged a man in a deadly hit and run. Sabrina Stanek, 25, was dragged 40 feet after trying to get Constantine Toncz, 39, to slow down in her Belmont Lane neighborhood when he struck her with his truck and pinned her between his truck and a parked vehicle. Stanek's neighbor, Ashely Hawk said when Toncz finally stopped his Ford F-350 he yelled a few expletives and wondered if he had hit a trash can. Toncz then fled in his truck only to return later. "She gave everything to everyone before anyone...

A would-be gangster shot himself in the crutch when his gun went off half cocked in his pocket. Lukas Neuhardt, 27, had forgotten to put the safety catch on when he stuffed the gun into his trouser pocket to impress pals in Saarbruecken, Germany. He told paramedics that a masked mugger had blasted him in the crutch in a bungled robbery. -- Now - after surgeons stitched his manhood back together - he's facing up to three years in jail for breaching Germany's tough new anti gun laws.

Don't underestimate the power of a sunny day. On Sunday, one Bellevue family learned that the hard way, when the culprit of their house fire turned out to be the family dog's glass water bowl and a little bit o' sunshine. This past weekend temperatures hit the 70s, and if you recall from your childhood heyday, with just a magnifying glass and some sun there's the potential to fricassee ants. Well, the Bellevue dog bowl did just that, but instead of ants, the hot-hot-heat from the sun's rays permeated through the glass bowl and ignited the home's wooden deck. The...

Emailed from my Sister, I couldn't stop laughing... A guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Tazer for their anniversary submitted this:

A 17-year-old boy was struck and killed by a vehicle while apparently tagging the center divider on the 60 Freeway near Hall Avenue early Saturday. Blake Locko, 17, of Riverside, was struck in the carpool lane about 2:15 a.m. and thrown across the 5-foot-high center divider into the eastbound carpool lane, where he was struck by several vehicles, according to the California Highway Patrol.... The driver who first struck Locko was not expected to be cited in the death.

Surveillance video from a Phoenix gas station shows a man burst into flames when he lights a match while his friend pumps gas. According to the station's manager, the driver of the vehicle was pumping gas when his friend walked up and struck a match. The match caused an explosion, enveloping the match man in flames. WATCH - Click here to see the surveillance video. Surveillance video catches explosion on camera. When it happens a woman climbs out of the drivers side window, and someone rushes to grab a child from the backseat. Employees were able to get the pumps...

On your list of things to never, ever do, add this one: Using a lighter to check if your fuel tank is empty. A 44-year-old man from Fort Worth stuck a lighter into the neck of his dump truck's fuel tank Sunday night to confirm that's why the engine died, authorities said. Diesel fuel vapors in the tank ignited, causing a flash fire that burned his face and hands, Wichita Fire Department Lt. Stuart Bevis said. The incident happened on the Kansas Turnpike in south Wichita shortly after 9:30 p.m, he said. The man walked to a convenience store at...

<p>A British driver has blamed his GPS navigation unit for leaving his car teetering on the edge of a cliff after he followed its instructions.</p>

We have a candidate for the Darwin Award. He hasn't won it yet, but he has to be in the running as a potential candidate. Up in Oshkosh, Wis., it is sill cold and the lakes are still frozen, for the most part. But this is now official spring and the frozen north is beginning to thaw. At least partially. It is also a part of the country where ice fishing is popular. For those not familiar with the sport, it involves going onto the ice of a frozen lake, chopping a hole through to the water and then sitting...

Gangsters videoed their crime boss accidentally blowing his head off with a handgun during a drink and drugs party, police the Republic have said. Philip Collopy (29), a top member of a feared feuding gang in Limerick, apparently didn’t realise his Glock 9mm pistol was loaded when he pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. Investigating gardai were able to rule out any foul play in the death almost immediately after one of his associates handed over footage of the shooting he had taken on his mobile phone. Five or six people at the party were all being...

JERUSALEM (Map, News) - An American demonstrator was critically wounded Friday in a clash between protesters and Israeli troops over Israel's West Bank separation barrier. Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement said Tristan Anderson, of the Oakland, Calif., area, was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops. The military and the Tel Aviv hospital where Anderson was taken had no details on how he was hurt. "He's in critical condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator and undergoing imaging tests," said Orly Levi, a spokeswoman at the Tel Hashomer hospital. She described Anderson's condition...

A suspect in the burglary of a suburban Philadelphia pharmacy has been arrested because he left his keys in the trunk of his car. police arrested a 43-year-old repeat offender. Chitwood says a neighbor saw the keys left in the trunk for a few days and notified police. When police checked out the situation, they found stolen drugs in the trunk and a gym bag with the suspect's name and address.

Kirsten Brydum pedaled away from the Howlin' Wolf club into the darkness of another American city that she didn't know very well. It was 1:30 a.m. She rode a black cruiser bicycle with a basket on the back, borrowed from friends of friends. In nearly every city she had visited on her 2-month-road trip, it seemed someone was willing to lend her an old bike. The Rebirth Brass Band was on the bill that night. Brydum, 25, had danced for a while outside the club in her flip-flops. She thought that the bouncer would eventually let her in for free,...

Sevier County authorities are investigating how one woman died and a man was found unconscious in a home under construction on Little Valley Road. ... The couple was found in a room with a running gas generator and a kerosene space heater. The Sheriff’s Office noted “the pair may have succumbed to carbon monoxide fumes emitted by the generator running in a closed room.” “There were also signs that the pair may have been consuming alcohol while in the home,” the SCSO release stated. ...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Five of the Somali pirates who released a hijacked oil-laden Saudi supertanker drowned with their share of a reported $3 million ransom after their small boat capsized, a pirate and a relative of one of the dead men said Saturday. Pirate Daud Nure said the boat with eight people on board overturned in a storm after dozens of pirates left the Sirius Star following a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden that ended Friday. He said five people died and three people reached shore after swimming for several hours. Daud Nure was not part of...

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Police in Nigeria have arrested scores of motorcycle taxi riders with dried fruit shells, paint pots or pieces of rubber tire tied to their heads with string to avoid a new law requiring them to wear helmets. The regulations have caused chaos around Africa's most populous nation, with motorcyclists complaining helmets are too expensive and some passengers refusing to wear them fearing they will catch skin disease or be put under a black magic spell.

SEATTLE – A college student dressed in a vintage German military uniform who was fatally shot by police on New Year's Day was a harmless, eccentric history buff, his family and friends said Friday. Miles Murphy, a University of Washington senior, was shot several times at his apartment early Thursday after police said he pointed a rifle affixed with a bayonet at officers and refused orders to drop the weapon....Murphy emerged from inside and pointed what was later identified as a World War II Kar 98 German infantry rifle at the officers, police said. When he refused several orders to...

Wash. student was armed with WWII rifle, wearing Germany army uniformSEATTLE - A college student dressed in a vintage German military uniform who was fatally shot by police on New Year's Day was a harmless, eccentric history buff, his family and friends said Friday. Miles Murphy, a University of Washington senior, was shot several times at his apartment early Thursday after police said he pointed a rifle affixed with a bayonet at officers and refused orders to drop the weapon.

SAN ANTONIO - The lives of two 20-year-olds changed overnight on the back porch of an east side home. Gibran Estrada is dead. Joseph Santos, 20, is in jail after police say he pulled the trigger of a shotgun that killed his friend. “The victim was laying on the back porch with a shotgun wound to the head,” San Antonio Police Officer Joe Rios told News 4 WOAI. Officer Rios says the two 20-year-olds were fooling around with Santos' new shotgun. “At one point they were playing with it. It was unloaded. The victim was putting it to his head,...

(IsraelNN.com) A Fatah terrorist in Gaza was killed during terrorist training in 2005, and more than three years later the cellphone video recording documenting the event is circulating in terrorist websites. The Blue Eye website, which brings this information, calls the video "very rare." It shows Fatah terrorist Khalid Hamid of Khan Younis trying to fire an RPG at a vehicle marked with an Israeli flag. The rocket goes off prematurely and the other terrorists on the scene begin shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and crying after realizing Hamid is hurt. Hamid is evacuated by fellow terrorists, who place him inside a...

The stupidity of some people must never be underestimated, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries occasionally provides classic examples of it whenever none-too-bright poachers are caught red-handed. What irks me, however, are dreadful violations of wildlife laws that eventually involve descriptions such as "hunter" or "hunting," which is the wrong application of the meaning and intent of the words. See if you don't agree. Shortly after midnight on a recent late-summer day, Virginia senior game officer Dewayne Sprinkle received a call from the Bedford County Sheriff's Office about a possible spotlighting incident. Apparently a county resident saw...

NEW YORK -- A 19-year-old man throwing eggs from a New York City rooftop as part of a prank is dead after he plummeted to his death while trying to jump between two buildings. Police said David Diaz was found bleeding heavily in the courtyard between two buildings on West 135th Street in Harlem about 1:15 a.m. Monday. They say he was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. Residents at the building say Diaz was on the rooftop throwing eggs at others across the street. The teen's mother, Rosa Diaz, says her son was a...

(excerpt) "She spun the wheels so fast that her tyres disintegrated and the metal rims sent a shower of sparks into the engine, igniting the brake fluid and setting the car on fire."

A man was killed trying to steal a copper cable which was carrying 11,000 volts, an inquest heard today. Kirk John Thompson was electrocuted at the derelict Panteg steelworks, in Pontypool, South Wales, when his bolt croppers pierced the plastic coating of a cable still connected to the National Grid. Britain has been hit by a plague of of metal thefts in recent years as the Asian construction and manufacturing boom has pushed up the prices of raw materials. Thieves routinely rip long sections of copper cable from the side of railway lines or steal lead flashing from church roofs...

SAN FRANCISCO — A car burglary suspect plunged 200 feet to his death after he jumped over a wall on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill while trying to flee from police, authorities said. The unidentified man died early Thursday after police say they received a report that someone was breaking into cars on a city block near Coit Tower. Authorities say they attempted to arrest the suspect after they saw him getting out of a car. But the suspect ran and jumped over a wall — apparently without realizing there was a steep drop. He was pronounced dead at the scene....

SAN FRANCISCO -- A car-burglary suspect fell to his death early today after he climbed over a wall on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill while trying to flee from police, authorities said. The incident began at 12:30 a.m. when police received reports of a someone breaking into a car on the unit block of Alta Street near Montgomery Street, east of Coit Tower. Officers set up surveillance in the area and spotted the man getting out of car. Police tried to stop him, but he took off running. At one point, he stumbled, and a screwdriver fell out of his pocket,...

Police say he was listening to music, didn't hear horn LOUDON - A 28-year-old Loudon County man walking on train tracks listening to music with headphones apparently didn't hear the train that came up from behind and killed him, police said Friday. Steven Fulk, of Davis Ferry Road, died in the 5 p.m. Thursday incident, said Loudon police officer Bill Shirk.Shirk said Fulk was walking westbound between the rails when a westbound train approached near the State Route 72 overpass. Fulk's back was to the approaching train.The train operator repeatedly blew a horn to warn the man, but Fulk did...

A three-metre (10-foot) python has killed a student zookeeper who let the snake out of its enclosure in Venezuela while working a night shift at the zoo. Horrified employees at the Caracas zoo discovered the Burmese Python as it tried to swallow its victim's head. "The young man underestimated the animal's instinct,"

As a burglar, John Pearce thinks nothing of turning his victims' homes upside down. But this time it was the house that turned him the wrong way up. Attempting a daylight raid, the 32-year-old somehow got his foot caught after smashing his way through the front window of a Victorian terrace home at 6pm. Unable to free himself, Pearce was left hanging upside down in the window frame for more than an hour as a crowd of 30 neighbours and passers-by gathered to ridicule him in Dartford, Kent....

http://www.wjno.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=244038&article=4117332

A tourist who relieved himself over a live railway line at a south London station was electrocuted.

On the first of June, two men and a rabbit set sail from the port of Long Beach, bound for Hawaii, on a raft made of junk. Their cabin is the cockpit of a Cessna 310, white with a blue racing stripe, salvaged from the desert. It floats on a system of handmade pontoons -- 15,000 plastic bottles held together with recycled nets -- propelled by currents and wind. If it sounds dangerous and makeshift, that's the point. The pilots of Junk, as the vessel is called, want to get your attention. They are Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of research...

Fleeing from St. Charles Parish authorities, a River Ridge man drove a stolen Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office squad car into the Mississippi River early Sunday, according to both law enforcement agencies. David Mitchell Jr., 22, of River Ridge managed to get out of the car as it started to sink about 30 yards from the river bank, said Capt. Patrick Yoes of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. A towboat operator dragged Mitchell aboard after he struggled in the current for some time. The incident started in Metairie at about 6:10 a.m., when a Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputy, after investigating...

"Batman the Ride" at Six Flags Over Georgia. It was the second Batman ride-related death at the Cobb County park. According to the police and a statement from the amusement park, the boy and a friend climbed over two 6-foot fences -- the park perimeter fence and a second one surrounding the ride -- to get to the roller coaster. Park officials said there were numerous signs warning would-be intruders of the danger. The victim was decapitated when the ride struck him, police said. The youth was not identified. "The areas where the individuals entered were clearly marked with signs...

A 17-year-old South Carolina boy on an church outing was killed Saturday when he was struck by the popular "Batman the Ride" at Six Flags Over Georgia. It was the second Batman ride-related death at the Cobb County park.

"...Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" only cemented the mystique of Christopher McCandless for Alexander and others heading to Alaska this summer to retrace the steps of the young adventurer along the Stampede Road near Denali National Park. In particular, they want to see the old abandoned bus where the 24-year-old Virginian starved to death in 1992 after more than three months alone trying to live off a harsh landscape. "That's sort of the heart of the story," said Alexander, 44, of Arlington, Va. "It's almost like a Jim Morrison grave site, where people just want to go see it." This...

2005 Honorable Mention Confirmed True by Darwin February 2005, Canada | Canadian winter nights are long and usually quiet, but one exception was the night Constable Morgan responded to a drunk driver call. He caught up to the errant driver and fell in behind in order to establish the commission of the crime. In a short distance, the driver missed a curve and slid into a snow bank. Morgan switched on his lights, stopped his patrol unit, and approached the driver's door. The driver decided to flee. His tires, mired in the snow, spun wildly but the car went nowhere....