Free Republic

Over the past few months, the story of the Awan brothers has been largely ignored by mainstream media. However, the Pakistani-born brothers Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan are at the center of a criminal investigation by U.S. Capital Hill Police and the FBI.  While official charges have not yet been filed, allegations of wrong doing vary from simply overcharging taxpayers for congressional IT equipment to blackmailing members of Congress with secrets captured from emails. The Awan brothers were Pakistani IT specialists, whom worked for more than 30 house and senate democrats, as well as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The...

A video of a golfer teeing off at TPC Sawgrass has been making the internet rounds, and not because he crushed his drive--he also hit a duck in the process. It's one of those freak things in life where physics can't explain just how the man's trajectory perfectly synced with the unaware bird's flight path. Unfortunately, the duck fared worse than the player's rinsed tee shot.

The results of NASA's tests on the 'impossible' EM Drive have been leaked, and they reveal that the controversial propulsion system really does work, and is capable of generating impressive thrust in a vacuum, even after error measurements have been accounted for. The EM Drive has made headlines over the past year, because it offers the incredible possibility of a fuel-free propulsion system that could potentially get us to Mars in just 70 days. But there's one major problem: according to the current laws of physics, it shouldn't work. The issue is the fact that the EM Drive defies Newton's...

It’s easy for U.S. drivers to forget the high gas prices in recent years after the ultra-lows seen only months ago, but prices going into the summer months of 2016 are still well below what they were this time last year, and the lowest price heading into the summer months since 2009. Despite a recent uptick in the price per barrel of oil—up $20 since the last week of January 2016—U.S. drivers will still enjoy the low gas prices this summer. The spot price for WTI crude oil is still significantly lower than this time last year, trading today at...

Despite a court preservation order, the IRS has wiped the hard drive of their former director of transfer pricing operations, Samuel Maruca. Maruca is connected to the agency’s controversial retainer of law firm Quinn Emanuel. The IRS privately contracted the litigation firm to assist in an audit of a corporate taxpayer, overlooking the firm’s lack of any experience managing sensitive tax data. The IRS has faced criticism for its decision, specifically from Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 43% . In a letter to the IRS, Senator Hatch voiced his concern that the agency’s $2.2 million tax-payer funded contract...

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WRCB) - The American Red Cross honored local heroes during the 8th annual Heroes Luncheon. Among the brave men and women recognized, Lt. Cmdr Tim White gave his first TV interview describing his experiences during the July 16th shootings. Lt. Cmdr Tim White says the community has been so supportive since the attacks. White wants to thank everyone for donating their time and money to help the victims and their families, and for showing the local military their support. "We've been receiving cards, and letters, and gifts to the units and it's been overwhelming, it's been really amazing,"...

Strange thrust: the unproven science that could propel our children into space For many decades, a fantasy among space enthusiasts has been to invent a device that produces a net thrust in one direction, without any need for reaction mass. Of course, a reactionless space drive of this type is impossible. Or is it? By Charles Platt div#main-image {background-image:url('http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Figure-6.jpg');} Ever since I was old enough to read science fiction, I've wanted to visit Mars. Even the Moon would be better than nothing. Alas, rocket technology is unlikely to take me there within my lifetime. The problem is that rockets are a...

only women over 30 would be allowed to drive and they would need permission from a male relative — usually a husband or father, but lacking those, a brother or son. They would be allowed to drive from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday through Wednesday and noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear why the restrictions would be different Thursday and Friday ... The conditions would also require that a woman driver wear conservative dress and no makeup, the official said. Within cities, they can drive without a male relative in the car,...

A special prosecutor is investigating the newly installed executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia amid allegations related to his tenure as chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors. Shaun Kenney, who took over day-to-day operations of the party last month, is under investigation for his role in a purchase of land that may have been poised for public development, according to The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk. Kenney confirmed the investigation but denied any wrongdoing in an interview with the newspaper.

A McDonald's outlet in Australia has begun playing classical musical and opera late at night to deter young people from loitering around the restaurant. Fed up with their outlet's nocturnal transformation into an unofficial youth club, the store adopted the tactic a few weeks ago and says it has significantly reduced the number of loiterers, particularly around the car park. The strategy has reportedly been tried before by a local council at a car park in Australia, though previous efforts involved blaring songs by Barry Manilow. Matthew Watson, the operations manager at the Mt Annan McDonald's on the outskirts of...

Authorities warn women against joining a driving campaign on Saturday. ... the scholars from Saudi Arabia said they were vehemently opposed to any decision to permit women to drive cars amidst intense female campaigns to have a permanent ban on their driving lifted. The statement was issued just before the Ministry of Interior announced that it would not allow women to take to the streets and drive ... “There is no doubt that a decision to allow women to drive is the shortest way for them to take off their face veil so they can see the road more clearly...

The driver, who went by the name Afroduck, was fast and proud of it, using a dashboard camera to capture his wild 26.5-mile journey around Manhattan in 24 minutes.

DALLAS — Warp-drive technology, a form of "faster than light" travel popularized by TV's "Star Trek," could be bolstered by the physics of quantum thrusters — another science-fiction idea made plausible by modern science. NASA scientists are performing experiments that could help make warp drive a possibility sometime in the future from a lab built for the Apollo program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A warp-drive-enabled spacecraft would look like a football with two large rings fully encircling it. The rings would utilize an exotic form of matter to cause space-time to contract in front of and expand...

3/12/2013 For all you NASCAR fans!...a disguised Jeff Gordon takes an unsuspecting car salesman on the test drive of his life. Jeff Gordon test drive

National Procurement, a branch of the NHS National Services Division, arranged for staff who are deemed to be "regular users" of cars for business to get the cars through a taxpayer-backed vehicle-leasing scheme. The role of National Procurement, which is funded by the Scottish Government, is to buy medical supplies for the NHS, and to "increase savings" for the health service. Figures provided by National Procurement in response to a Freedom of Information request showed that 40 employees, or one in eight members of staff, had used the 4x4s and convertibles to drive to work. Much of the

Study Reveals Most Popular Cars Of Each Major Political Party Marketing research company Strategic Vision recently completed a study that sought to identify what new vehicles found the most favor with Democrats and Republicans. After 38,000 responses the study revealed some rather interesting results. The most popular vehicle of those who self identified as members of Republican Party was the not so conservative Ford Mustang Convertible, followed by the Audi A8, Mercedes GL, Ford Expedition and Ford F-150. In fact it seems convertibles are a big hit with members of the Grand Old Party, who were responsible for 69% of...

Now with family and friends in canada...last night at LAX we went to the idiotic, commie routine of putting our hands on our heads and posed for the x-ray like the rest of the sheep. TSA nazis were in the same mood: yelled at everyone especially to take out ALL ELECTRONICS, place them in the bin etc. There was a very noticeable line of people that AFTER the x-ray, they were still pulled to the side and had to take out every stuff they had in their bags of course, especially the women who had to embarrassingly take out their...

Public support for the new healthcare law dropped significantly in October, a new survey shows, dealing a blow to the Obama administration as Republican presidential candidates keep up their pledges to repeal the president’s signature domestic legislative achievement. More than half of Americans now view the law unfavorably, according to a tracking poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. And just 34% of Americans view the law favorably, the lowest level of support since the president signed the law in March 2010. Much of the decline appears to have been driven by faltering support among Democrats, just 52% of whom...

On Thursday, September 22, environmentalists want you to feel guilty about driving cars. In other words, it’s annual “World Car-Free Day.” Instead of celebrating the many ways that the automobile has liberated and improved the lives of ordinary people, environmentalists want to suggest that rejecting the car for a day is somehow virtuous. The governor of Massachusetts is going even further by advocating a car-free week – notwithstanding the governor’s real-world choice to drive around in an SUV this week.

The letter she wrote to her family before the birth of Trig gives us a glimpse into the soul of the penultimate "NON-quitter." In her email Palin imagines a letter from God to the family about to launch on its challenging child-rearing experience together. "Then, I put the idea in your hearts that his name should be 'Trig', because it's so fitting, with two Norse meanings: "True" and "Brave Victory"." "I've given Trig's mom and dad peace and joy as they wait to meet their new son. I gave them a happy anticipation because they asked me for that.I'll give...