Free Republic

The US is set to begin tests of an air-to-air combat drone, pushing the frontiers of artificial intelligence and human judgment in aerial warfare while attempting to ensure affordable mass for great power competition in the skies. This month, Breaking Defense reported that General Atomics is set to begin flight tests in December of its design for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) LongShot program, which aims to develop an unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) that can launch air-to-air missiles. General Atomics, a US energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, was awarded a contract from DARPA for Phase...

Journey to the World-Record-Shattering 4.4 Mile Long-Range Rifle Shot Scott Austin, Shepard Humphries, and half a dozen friends surpassed the previous record for longest target hit with a long range rifle on September 13, 2022, but their journey started long before that day.Scott and Shepard both have a passion for shooting rifles at long ranges. Extreme long ranges. For many years they have operated Nomad Rifleman, a boutique extreme long range shooting experience, out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In 2020, they guided a client to set the Wyoming state record for longest hit on a target at a whopping 3.06...

PHILADELPHIA — Kathy Barnette has been outspent 358-to-1 on TV in Pennsylvania’s GOP primary for the Senate. She hasn’t run for statewide office before. She doesn’t have former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. But the ultra-MAGA commentator is surging in the polls anyway in the final weeks of one of the most expensive and closely watched races in the country. Barnette’s unlikely — and, to some, unbelievable — rise has turned heads in political circles across the state because it defies political logic. Just two years ago, she lost a House bid in the Philadelphia suburbs by a wide margin. This...

Tired of Democratic dominance in Oregon, some rural voters on Tuesday endorsed a plan to split off from the liberal state and join their conservative-friendly neighbor Idaho. Two conservative counties approved a non-binding ballot measure to "Move Oregon's Borders" as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden easily carried the rest of the state, AFP reports. The measure failed in two other counties. "In the United States, the differences between liberal and conservative... there's hatred there," said Mike McCarter, the chief petitioner of the ballot measure in Union and Jefferson counties. "Populated urban areas are controlling the mass of everybody," he told...

Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron said she’s “shockingly available” and would like somebody to “step up” and date her. Theron, 43, opened up about her dating life to “Entertainment Tonight” while promoting her latest film “Long Shot” with co-star Seth Rogen. "I've been single for 10 years, it's not a long shot,” Theron said of “someone courting her.” “Somebody just needs to grow a pair and step up. I'm shockingly available." Rogen added, “She’s out there!” “I’ve made it very clear,” Theron replied.

Here’s something you don’t hear every day: a naked man was shot in the face early Friday morning after jumping off a train in Topock, AZ, damaging water pipes near an electrical box and causing a power outage at an elderly couple’s home. According to The Daily Courier, a 72-year-old woman saw the naked man, identified by Mohave County Sheriff’s officials as 25-year-old Joshua Daniel Reza of Needles, CA, approaching her home after the power went out. Her 86-year-old boyfriend had left her alone to go check the electrical box.

Imagine firing a gun and taking out a sniper so far away that the bullet takes 3 seconds to arrive, traveling at supersonic speed. With one shot! But an unnamed British SAS Special Forces sniper is reported to have done just that. The UK Daily Star has the story: The long-range shot took place almost two weeks ago as part of a counter-sniper operation during the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul. The SAS soldier, a sergeant who was a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hit the Iraqi in the throat as he left a burned-out...

This guy can be the next American Sniper, no not likely. Ok maybe he's just having a bad day. A very bad day. Maybe he's experimenting a bent barrel, or using a lighter grain ammo. Amazingly, the buck barely moves in between misses. The range is unknown, but it must be a long shot. You are also able to see the bullet's vapor trail on the video. One would think after several rounds of misses, the hunter would make some adjustments or Kentucky wind it. Goes to show how difficult precision long-range shooting can be, with many factors to account...

It doesn’t matter to Jim Gilmore that only 12 Iowans voted for him during Monday night’s caucuses. “We didn’t expect any vote in Iowa because we didn’t ask for any votes in Iowa,” the former Virginia governor said during a phone interview Thursday. “I’m starting the campaign in New Hampshire where I am right now.” Gilmore, 66, has received little or no support in recent voter polls nationally or in New Hampshire. He acknowledged that some have made light of his long shot bid for the White House. But he stresses he’s dead serious. “I am the right candidate. I...

When I first heard the reports of a pistolero making a long shot, stopping a mass murder and saving the life of a police officer a year ago, I knew that I would work to find the details if the possibility were offered. I found that opportunity and was able  to answer many of the questions that came to mind at the time. After I had interviewed Vic Stacy, I told him that I would wait until the Grand Jury  delivered a no bill before writing about what happened. This is the story of the Peach House Gunfight ....

A British Army sharp shooter has told how he killed five Taliban soldiers in 28 seconds - in a desperate bid to protect a British patrol that the insurgents were preparing to ambush. The enemy targets were more than a mile away when the sniper, a corporal serving with 4 Rifles, got the all clear to take them out. The corporal - who has 37 confirmed kills in just four months in the war zone - said that he and his spotter were set up in an old fort in Haji Alem, in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province....

With just over 100 hours until polls close, Democrats are still smelling a filibuster-proof sixty-seat majority in the Senate. But as surveys across the country show races getting tighter, Republicans maintain a good chance of keeping the Democrats short of their magic number. An analysis of Senate seats in play shows Democrats seriously competing in a whopping eleven Republican-held states, while the GOP only has an increasingly long shot at one seat. Senators Roger Wicker and Mary Landrieu were the last two off our list. Wicker will face huge African American turnout in Mississippi, and he's gone on radio with...

Excerpt- HELENA, Mont.: Supporters of long-shot presidential hopeful Ron Paul say the Montana Republican Party's quirky caucus rules could create an opening for their candidate that other states don't offer. Under the "closed caucus" system recently adopted by the Montana GOP, voting in the Feb. 5 caucus will be limited to about 3,000 Republicans who hold party posts, such as members of Congress, statewide officeholders and precinct captains. That includes hundreds of volunteer precinct posts that have long been vacant and that some candidates are now scrambling to fill with supporters. At least three presidential candidates — former Massachusetts Gov....

Though I have formally endorsed no candidate, I made no secret of the fact that my favorites are Tancredo and Rep. Duncan Hunter – both, admittedly, long shots to get the Republican nomination. Bu I feel compelled to offer some more encouragement to Tancredo for his decision to boycott the recent Spanish-language debate. And he was the only candidate to do so. Tancredo got it right. "If they can't understand the English language, then, of course, they shouldn't be citizens," Tancredo explained. "They shouldn't be voting. And we shouldn't be pandering to them." That's what I like about Tancredo. Simple....

Former Rep. Nathan Mathis to run for governor 6/21/2005, 6:06 p.m. CT By PHILLIP RAWLS The Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former state Rep. Nathan Mathis announced Tuesday he will run for governor on a gambling platform. And he is doing it by taking a gamble that has traditionally been a loser for Alabama politicians — running as an independent. If elected, Mathis said he will try to bring casinos to Alabama and would tax them to help fund health care, prisons and state troopers. Mathis, who served three terms in the Alabama House as a Democrat from Newton,...

THE SHOOTER at the heavy bench rest squinted as he aligned his .45-70 Allin-Springfield Model 1873 Army rifle on the distant target. The rifle fore-stock and barrel was cradled in a rest; the butt was supported by his shoulder. The rear sight was flipped up to its full height, so with no stock support for his head, the rifle tester from Springfield Armory worked carefully to align high rear and low muzzle sight on the speck that was the target - a surveyed 2,500 yards distant. Holding his breath, he squeezed the 7-pound trigger. The rifle fired, and some 15...

Dear Fellow Citizens: After receiving numerous calls and requests for me to run for President of our great United States of America, I have decided to officially declare my intention to do so. As you know, a tremendous obstacle for me in this past primary race for Governor of California was the unfair exclusionary tactics of the media and our Republican Party to prevent me from participating in the major debates. However, as a result of Ralph Nader’s lawsuit claiming the very same unfair tactics concerning the debates, legitimate candidates can no longer be excluded from the debates in the...