Free Republic

Readers — As you know, Free-Range Kids is about trust, community and common sense. All of which a Virginia middle school student displayed the other day when he held open the door for someone he knew. For this, he was given a day long suspension. The reason? The school had just installed a $10,000 + security system, and his action violated it. Voila: According to an anonymous e-mail sent to The Tidewater News, the “A” student opened the door for a woman he knew, who had her hands full. The e-mail also indicated the student received a one-day, out-of-school suspension....

It has been two and a half years since an arsonist tossed a firebomb into the governor’s mansion in Austin and slipped into the night, but the Texas Rangers say they are finally closing in on the person responsible. Steven C. McCraw, the head of the Department of Public Safety, said on Friday that investigators had linked the arsonist to a group of anarchists known as Austin Affinity. He said two members of the same group had pleaded guilty to making and possessing gasoline bombs during the 2008 Republican National Convention... But one of the men who pleaded guilty in...

This is the best description I've seen of the NASA mess to date.

SEATTLE -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is suing King County over its refusal to place advertisements critical of the Israeli government on Metro buses. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court says Metro had a long history of allowing noncommercial advertisements on its buses, and that makes the buses a traditional public forum. The ACLU says the county's refusal to run ads that said "Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work" violates the First Amendment rights of the group that sought to run the ads. The county received complaints asking officials to block the ad from...

Looks like our elected officials are failing at all sorts of things. Latest on the FAIL list is knowledge of the Constitution. Since many are required to swear (or affirm) an oath to uphold that document, you’d think that they’d know a bit about it. But then again, you might also think that most U.S. citizens would know at least a bit about what’s in the Constitution, right? But you’d be wrong on both counts, of course. As HotAir reports: “The bad news: the general public gets an F, with just a 49% average on the 33-question civics test. The...

Two people are facing criminal charges after a “party game” gone wrong ended in a man’s death. Authorities said Jimmy Mounts, 27, of Romeoville, was at a garage party in the 2000 block of Waterford in Crest Hill Sept. 25 when he starting offering other guests $5 if they could take a punch from 21-year-old Tiffany Startz, of Joliet. John A. Powell, 25, who was 5-foot-8 and weighed 140 pounds, took Mounts’ wager and stood before the 5-foot-5, 142-pound Startz, police said. Witnesses told police Startz swung and hit Powell once in the face. He collected his money from Mounts...

WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Volusia County authorities want to make it clear that 911 is for emergencies only. Two people were arrested on Sunday for making calls that the Sheriff's Office said weren't quite of an emergency nature. The two calls were not related. Authorities said 44-year-old Cynthia Colson, of Deltona, called 911 several times after she wasn't satisfied with the length of her nails after a manicure. Deputies said Colson called 911 at least four times: twice after her original 911 call asking when deputies would arrive and a fourth time when the deputy was at the store trying...

Anywhere we are, Us is." That looks like a line from an Amos 'N Andy show. One can easily imagine that it served as the motto of the Mystic Knights of the Sea, and that it was recited by such characters as The Kingfish, Andy Brown and Algonquin J. Calhoun. In fact, however, the line that I have quoted is the motto of a real organization -- a real organization that was originally named United Slaves but now calls itself The Organization Us (or simply Us or US). It was created some 40 years ago, in Southern California, by a...

Many of us made our disgust known to Omaha Steaks for their clear political agenda driven decision to pull their advertising from Glenn Beck's show. They initially sent several of us an email defending their decision and NOW they've sent a new email from the president, essentially saying, 'no, no, no'.....that's not what we really meant. I guess they've really felt the heat from us! Below is the new email...

For American lovers of governmental idiocy, fraud, cowardice and tyranny, 2010 was a year to be cherished -- ending with promises of even more exciting idiocies to come. All for your own good, of course! Behold the Top 10 Highlights of the Great Government Grope of 2010. Don't you just swell with pride, seeing your tax dollars at play? (Careful you don't swell too much. TSA agents are already complaining how yucky it is to strip-search "fatties.")

With the situation in North Korea having gotten pretty dicey in recent months, Gov. Bill Richardson – a favorite of the North Korean government – may be heading back there next week. That’s according to the Washington Post: “Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, is off this week to South Korea to tell officials that the United States is standing with them. And there’s talk that outgoing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson may be off to North Korea next week for a private chat with top officials at the invitation of key people in the nuclear crowd...

<p>A robot met its end near Coors Field tonight when the Denver Police Department Bomb Squad detonated the "suspicious object," bringing to an end the hours-long standoff between police and the approximately eight-inch tall figurine.</p> <p>Denver Police Spokesman Matt Murray said that a citizen called police at 3:27 p.m. to report the presence of the plastic white toy robot cemented to the base of a pillar supporting a footbridge near the intersection of 20th and Wazee streets. Police closed 20th Street between Blake Street and Chestnut Place, but did let a few people past the police tape to retreive cars parked in nearby lots. Nobody was allowed within about 100 yards of the robot.</p>

A New York lawmaker is under fire for calling the police on a pair of 13-year-olds selling homemade baked goods in a local park. Andrew DeMarchis and Kevin Graff were just trying to earn some pocket change by selling an assortment of cupcakes, brownies and Rice Krispies treats in a Chappaqua park. But the middle school entrepreneurs were shut down by local police at the request of New Castle Councilman Michael Wolfensohn. He called the cops because the boys were operating a business without a license, according to The Journal News. “The police offer was extremely pleasant,” Suzanne DeMarchis told...

As we all know, Libs say the darnest things be it in blogs, posts, discussions or on TV. So we want you to scour the net and post the dumbest quote you can find from a Liberal/Progressive...or whatever they are calling themselves today! I'll start the thread with one of the most ridiculous ones I've seen today: You've seen the video, you know how silly it is: “Are things in our country so bad that it might actually be time for revolution?” Dylan Radigan asked yesterday on his MSNBC show. His unequivocal reply: “The answer is obviously ‘yes.’ The only...

Anyone critical of President Obama being in India right now is an "idiot," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough bluntly served on his morning show, which prides itself on being a safe haven for different views. India is "exactly where [President Obama] should be" right now, he opined. With Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass on as a guest Monday morning, Scarborough clamored that President Obama "needs" to be in India right now for the sake of U.S. foreign policy. "I would send my President to India, like once a month, if I could, for long weekends," he emphasized. Scarborough hit left-wing...

From HorsesAss.org (a left-wing blog/ranting site for leftists in Seattle, run by David Goldstein, local Marxist and sometimes-radio-show host: Our Founding Fathers put the Second Amendment in there for a reason, and that was to enable the People to protect themselves against tyranny. In fact, it was Thomas Jefferson who said that it’s good for a country to have a revolution every twenty years. I hope that’s not where we’re going, but, you know, if the Republicans take our nation the way they promise to take it, my fellow patriots on the left are going to start looking toward those...

Student leaders met into the night Tuesday to prepare a response. Emory University's administration also weighed in, sending a campus-wide e-mail promising an investigation into the incident, first reported by the campus newspaper and picked up by countless blogs, including the popular Gawker website. At issue: a scuffle early Saturday morning at a frat party involving a gay student and an Emory alum. No one was injured and no police report was filed.

They blow each other up by mistake. They bungle even simple schemes. They get intimate with cows and donkeys. Our terrorist enemies trade on the perception that they’re well trained and religiously devout, but in fact, many are fools and perverts who are far less organized and sophisticated than we imagine. Can being more realistic about who our foes actually are help us stop the truly dangerous ones? (snip) The difference between a sophisticated killer like Mohamed Atta and so many of his hapless successors lies in training and inherent aptitude. Atta spent months learning his trade in Afghanistan and...

Good news this week: Four Muslim converts who plotted to bomb a pair of Riverdale synagogues and shoot down military planes were convicted. The bad news: Activists are turning the "Newburgh 4" into a cause célébre -- a supposedly hapless squad of dimwits armed with fake explosives, arrested by the feds before they did any harm. Dimwits we'll buy, but that doesn't make them innocent. Even idiots can detonate explosives -- and this dangerous crew showed an unseemly eagerness to enlist in jihad. And they're not alone. Far from it: * A 2004 sting netted Albany pizza-shop owner Mohammed Hossain...

H/T to Mike V. at SipseyStreetIrregulars. Media gun follies: ".50 Cal. machine guns bought over the counter in the US" & Chicago Gang's pick for ATF Honcho primps for the cameras.NBC demonstrates once again that it doesn't know crap from breakfast about firearms and isn't afraid to parade its ignorance as fact. Link is here