Free Republic

India’s navy is training over 500 Vietnamese submariners... India (will) issue Vietnam a US$100 million line of credit for the purposes of enabling the latter to acquire four naval patrol vessels from the former, the report said. The Indian Navy's extensive experience in operating Russian Kilo-class submarines, which dates back to the mid-1980s, will be invaluable to Vietnam as its navy learns how to handle their new underwater vessels, according to the In December 2009, Vietnam signed a $2 billion deal to buy six submarines from Russia, which is due to deliver them all by 2016.

Pig rats eat Mark Obenshain.

A 27-year-old woman who allegedly bit her boyfriend's penis through his pants during an argument yesterday morning has been charged. Georgia's Sade Rene Greene is accused of scratching her live-in lover's face and neck and chomping on his manhood at their Magnolia Terrace, Athens, home about 12.45am. The woman's father, 52-year-old Ricky Levell Greene, has also been charged after allegedly punching the victim in the mouth.

Brillouin Energy has entered into its first international licensing agreement covering three nations. The firm is involved in on-going negotiations for other potential international partners. This makes the second Cold Fusion or Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) Lattice Assisted Nuclear Reaction (LANR) and Brillouin’s Controlled Electron Capture Reaction (CECR) idea to attract commercial interest. .... Brillouin’s CECR starts by introducing hydrogen into a suitable piece of nickel (or other metal with the correct internal geometry). A proprietary electronic pulse generator then creates stress points in the metal where the applied energy is focused into very small spaces. This concentrated energy...

It’s been a rough fifth year in office for President Obama, with overwrought sequestration scare tactics, Scandalpalooza, and the Syrian debacle all chipping away at his leadership street cred, among other things — but this disaster of an ObamaCare rollout is really hammering the heightened disapproval home with what’s starting to look like a majority of Americans. During past job-performance dips, O’s job approval rating has been reliably bolstered by his personal favorability ratings and Americans’ sense of trust in him — but the health care law is helping to erode those usual go-to’s, and quickly. Via the WSJ:

In 2014 the Democrats have 20 Senate seats up for the November vote. 17 of those seats are either vacant (retired incumbent) or held by Freshmen Senators. 7 of those seats are in states that either went for Romney in 2012 or else recalled sitting Democrats from their state legislature in 2013. Faced with the above, potential GOP Senate candidates for those 20 seats would appreciate something new...campaign material that doesn't regurgitate traditional Beltway Elite talking points about taxes, abortion, gay rights, etc. However, to create material that does not involve the rehashed political ideas of the 2012 Romney Campaign...

Turkish TV presenter Gözde Kansu has been dismissed after a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) criticized her for wearing a low-cut top on television, saying he found her outfit “unacceptable”. … AKP spokesperson Hüseyin Çelik criticized the presenter’s costume during the “Veliaht” TV program without naming her, but saying he found the outfit “extreme” because it revealed cleavage. …

This should come as fantastic news to former President Bill Clinton, or on a smaller scale the serial molester Vito Lopez and his enabler Sheldon Silver. Via the New York Post: It’s bad enough that unpaid interns can’t earn wages — but now a federal judge has ruled they’re not even protected from being groped by their bosses. Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel determined that Lihuan Wang, a former intern at Phoenix Satellite Television US, couldn’t bring a sex-harassment claim against the Chinese-language broadcasting company and her former supervisor there because unpaid interns aren’t employees — so they’re not covered...

Special Immigrant Visas legislation passes House, becomes law On Wednesday, October 2, the House passed legislation co-introduced by Rep. Kinzinger to provide special visas for Iraqi translators who risked their lives during the Iraqi war to assist American troops. With an estimated 2,000 visas remaining unprocessed, the bill, H.R. 3233, extends the Special Immigrant Visa Program for Iraqi interpreters, contractors, and others who aided the US effort. H.R. 3233 passed the Senate by voice vote and was signed into law on October 4, 2013.

Link to slides only: http://iccf18.research.missouri.edu/files/day3/Distributed_Power_Source.pdf

Beginning Saturday, the FOX network will air a number of animated shows that contain sexually explicit and profanity-laced content never before shown on network television during its “Animation Domination High-Def” (ADHD) programming block. The X-rated cartoons, some of which feature full frontal nudity and cartoon characters engaging in sexual activity, are modeled after Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” and will also be available on the internet. FOX Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly stated in an interview with Daily Variety that “I’d like to find the next ‘Family Guy’ out of this block.” But The Parents Television Council (PTC) strongly denounced the programming....

Russia has not received extradition request for Snowden from the United States, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The ministry did receive a letter from Eric Holder explaining some aspects of the U.S. position on the status of Snowden... The "document did not contain (a) request for the extradition or deportation of this individual," the statement said.

Sen. John McCain has a wish for any exotic dancers who might feel the pinch from legislation he’s backing that would do away with the dollar bill and replace it with a dollar coin: Shake what your momma gave you and make more moolah. … When pressed about the predicament facing scores of the country’s skin-baring and bill-collecting women, McCain responded without missing a beat, “Then I hope that they could obtain larger denominations.” …

So, George Zimmerman was scared the night he shot Trayvon Martin through the heart. Know who else was probably pretty scared that night? Trayvon Martin. Surprised I’m asking? Me too. But it seems like a lot of people haven’t thought much about that. Obviously, Trayvon isn’t here to tell us how he felt. He’s dead. And a lot of folks disregarded Rachel Jeantel’s account of him being afraid even though she was the last person to hear Trayvon speak (besides Zimmerman). She heard his fear through the phone. She heard him try to run away. He was scared. And yet...

On Tuesday, an official in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County made a decision that he said would put him "on the right side of history and the law." He decided that he would issue a same-sex marriage license to anyone who wanted it. In Pennsylvania, same-sex marriage is illegal, but Register of Wills Bruce Hanes said in a press release that he made his "own analysis of the law." He also noted that the state's attorney general announced on July 11 that she would not defend that state's gay marriage ban against a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union. At...

I’ve had many infuriating conversations with my incredibly conservative, Republican stepdad. He’s laughed in my face for pointing out with facts the inadequacy of Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. We argued over the political reputation of Obama in 2008. We’ve also silently disagreed about immigration reform, birth control, gun control, and health care reform, because we both know how that conversation will end. Every time I turn on the television in his and my mother’s home it’s already on Fox News. Every time I get in his car the sexually frustrated, diabetic voice of Rush Limbaugh rattles the dash...

Her words, not mine. Alice Walker is the author of The Color Purple, The Color Purple, The Color Purple, and probably some other books. She also has some really awesome ideas about science. But first things first. Last week, Walker wrote about her deliberately factless, emotion-based reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict. It was on the Guardian‘s “Comment Is Free” blog, because of course it was: "I deliberately watched none of the Zimmerman trial, just as I have deliberately not read a draft of a new book by Jen Marlowe and others, soon to be published: I Am Troy Davis,...

Listening to the lead prosecutor’s final argument in the Zimmerman case, it’s hard to believe he really wanted a conviction. Lead prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda lost focus from the moment he opened his mouth and began: “A teenager is dead. He is dead through no fault of his own. He is dead because another man made assumptions….” Not only is de la Rionda’s voice flat, his tone subdued and resigned, he begins by presenting the victim as an abstraction, characterizing him in a neutral, almost dismissive way as “a teenager,” who also happens to be dead, which everyone knew...

People need to shut up about Zimmerman being found “Not-Guilty.” It might have been sh*tty, but it wasn’t a “Miscarriage” of justice. Rodney King was a “Miscarriage” of Justice (even though he was a dirt-bag). Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was a “Miscarriage” of justice. What happened to Malcolm X was a “Miscarriage” of justice. This whole thing was just a sh*tty fiasco inflated by the media that left one young man dead, and ruined the life of the other. Both sides of this issue are stupid, and I’m outraged at the social media posts from both. Martin’s side for...

A Far Rockaway man was arrested last week for making a Facebook status update with the hashtag "killallwhites," which a nervous NYPD interpreted as "making a terroristic threat," a felony. In the aftermath of the George Zimmerman verdict, Remel Newson's status update caught the eye of an NYPD officer monitoring Facebook; it read: "BLAC NIGGAS CNT GET NO TYPE OF JUSTICE FU**IN WIT DESE CRACCER'S #KILLALL WHITES DATS DA TYPE OF SH*T I'M ON F**K DIS BEEF SH*T LET'S KILL COPS ND NEIGHBO RHOOD WATCHER #FACTS DAT." Cops were at Newson's door with hours. According to investigators, Newson, 20, admitted...