Free Republic

Tommy Vietor started working for Barack Obama when he was still Senator Obama--well before he became a presidential candidate--and until Friday, the 32-year-old Vietor hadn't stopped. His first job for Obama was as the driver of a press van, and he rose up the ranks through the 2008 campaign, and then the White House press office, to become the National Security Council spokesman. Now leaving the White House to open a political communications firm with the president's departing speechwriter Jon Favreau, Vietor says it's been the privilege of a lifetime to work for the president. "It's been kind of a...

Iraqi Al Qaeda's entry into Syria's civil war caused "a political disaster" for Islamist militants there, the movement's global leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video message, urging the faction to redouble its efforts in Iraq instead. Zawahri has repeatedly tried to end infighting between the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and another Al Qaeda-aligned group, the Nusra Front. He said on May 2 in a message translated by SITE Monitoring that if ISIL had accepted his decision not to get involved in Syria and had instead worked to "busy itself with Iraq, which needs double its...

...Ortega explained, "Because if the whole world, or the whole United States, would have smoked cannabis freely like alcohol is consumed, I believe that we would all be so much more intelligent beings, and the government knows that. That's why it's illegal, because if we were all more intelligent as a whole it would be harder to deceive us. So they just keep marijuana illegal because they know there will always be a population that will follow the rules."

<p>That new face is a pina colada-sipping, lobster-loving lothario named Jason Greenslate.</p> <p>Greenslate, a 29-year-old La Jolla California surfer and musician who sings that he does not want a “mother**king job” and has “f**k no” guilt about living on $200 of what he calls “free money ” — or what the government called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits — while he avoids a job to hang out on the beach, sing and chase women.</p>

Both the sport and culture of surfing are increasingly at risk due to the effects of climate change. Quite simply, surfing is reliant on healthy oceans and coasts. So as climate change drives fundamental changes — sea-level rise, ocean warming and acidification — the result could be a great readjusting, and potential loss, of the world’s surf communities. Chad Nelsen-Wanker, environmental director for the Surfrider Foundation, a grassroots network of surfers in eighteen countries around the globe, explains that the world’s surf spots are very sensitive to change. While surfers are often the most attuned to the conditions that impact...

Most Interesting Man in the World, meet your match. On Sunday, Twitter user Matthew Barrett created something of a sensation by linking to the obscure Wikipedia biography of the British army officer Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart. His tweet -- "This guy surely has the best opening paragraph of any Wikipedia biography ever" -- has been retweeted more than 3,200 times over the past several days. So just how mind-blowing is the introduction? Judge for yourself: Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart[1] VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 - 5 June 1963), was a British Army...

Dude Disarms Guy Pointing Shotgun at his Face ****************************************************************************** ..For those who call fake.. http://www.wwltv.com/news/crime ****************************************************************************** NEW ORLEANS POLICE) – Detectives are asking the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect wanted for an attempted armed robbery which occurred this past Saturday, around 5:05AM, 1900 block of Burgundy Street. On Saturday, 4/27/13 at or about 5:05AM, the victim was walking in the 1900 block of Burgundy when he was approached by an unknown black male. The subject pointed a shotgun at the victim’s face and stated give me your money. The victim disarmed the gunman and then chased him. Moments later...

This Christmas, like many before it and many yet to come, the story of Santa and his flying reindeer will be told, including how the "jolly old elf" flies on his sleigh throughout the entire world in one night, giving gifts to all the good children. But according to one theory, the story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or "magic" mushrooms. "Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world," ....snip.... According to the theory, the legend of Santa derives...

Police are looking for an elderly, white, gray-haired man who, in an apparent fit of road rage, chased a bicyclist onto a golf course in Santa Rosa and ran him down. The bicyclist told Santa Rosa police he was cycling down Pythian Road at about 5 p.m. Wednesday when the driver began yelling at him and tried to hit him. To get the angry motorist off his tail, the cyclist told police he raced onto the nearby Oakmont Golf Course. But the driver steered onto the course and continued chasing him, eventually hitting him before speeding away. The cyclist had...

Obama not invited when Rep. Frank marries longtime partnerBy Alicia M. Cohn - 05/18/12 05:04 PM ET Although Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) earlier this month said he is “pleased” with President Obama’s decision to publicly support same-sex marriage, in a new interview the congressman revealed the president will not be on the guest list when Frank marries his longtime partner this summer. “If he and Michelle wanted to come, I would be delighted and honored to have him, but he will bring the Secret Service,” Frank said in an interview that will air Sunday as part of C-SPAN’s “Newsmaker” series....

April 19, a female scooter rider killed a man by squeezing his testicles for the packing dispute, in Haikou City, Hainan Province. It was learned, the woman, 41 years old, rode on her scooter to an elementary school in Meilan District, Haikou City to pick up her child that day. When she wanted to pack her scooter in front of a shop, she was rejected by the shop owner, a 42-year-old male. The two parties soon fell into a quarrel, and then the physical confrontation. The furious woman called up her husband and brother to come help her, which resulted...

Imagine you're a 12-year-old girl[or POTUS]. Ponies and clothes are your favourite things. You've just been shopping and you're wearing your new cowboy boots, new jeans, a blue checked shirt and a real cowboy hat. You've had breakfast – blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon, just the way you like them – and now you're walking across a sunlit meadow, filled with gently grazing ponies. You're feeling pretty good. A tall cowboy with a slow drawl asks if you'd care to help him round up the ponies into the corral so you say yes, as casually as you can. The...

People fear, loathe, and ignore change. The term “Brontosaurus” lost its official status to the correct “Apatosaurus” over a hundred years ago, but try telling that to a dino-loving kid. Those of us raised to believe Pluto is a planet will be sticking up for that demoted little rock till we’re buried. Recently, the Scrabble world went into a code-4 uproar when it seemed that the rules might be changed to allow proper names. (Don’t worry, folks, the change only applied to a new game called Scrabble Trickster.) When it comes to the meaning of words themselves, change is even...

Gay GOP group GOProud chairman Chris Barron tweeted on Wednesday that his husband thinks MSBNC host Rachel Maddow looks like a “dude.”[ snip ] The comment comes 6 months after Barron said he isn't accept by gay people because of his politics. “I can tell you right now, I have an easier time being openly gay with the conservatives than I do being a conservative with other gay people,” he told guest host Cenk Uygur during an appearance on MSNBC's The Ed Show. [[ For the record - the Ed Show's Ed has been suspended for calling Laura Ingraham a...

"Protest Madison Wisconsin: Stripper cop, Deer suit, drum circle"

Yesterday Dana Perino suggested that President Obama’s scheduled interview with Ryan Seacrest was just the White House giving him something to keep him occupied on election day. Considering Obama opened the interview by thanking Seacrest for “taking the time” one wonders if she wasn’t making a good point. In the friendly nine minute interview Obama touched on the usual talking points, reiterating a number of times how important it is for young people to vote, that immigration reform is still a top priority for him, and that despite everything he remains optimistic about the country.

Barack Obama became president by brilliantly telling his own story. To stay president, he will need to show he can understand our story. At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode. But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour. Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one.

http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-spots-ghostly-space-spiral.html

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge says it's not a worker's fault he got mauled by a grizzly bear at a tourist attraction, even if he smoked marijuana before trying to feed the animal. Brock Hopkins acknowledged smoking pot before arriving to work at Great Bear Adventures on Nov. 2, 2007. When he entered the bear's pen, he was attacked and had to be hospitalized. The owner of the attraction near Glacier National Park says Hopkins was a volunteer and that his use of marijuana caused the accident. But Judge James Jeremiah Shea of the state Workers' Compensation Court...

The use of the drug LSD, or commonly referred to as “acid,” appears to be increasing especially among young adults in Arcata, according to an Arcata Police Department press release issued yesterday. On April 18, officers responded to a residence to assist the Arcata Mad River Ambulance with a 31-year-old male subject who had just castrated himself. Medical personnel and officers were unable to locate the subject’s testicles. He later told officers that he flushed them down the toilet as he feared they contained “monsters.”