Free Republic

Oklahoma’s proposed anti-abortion Senate Bill 1433 states a fetus “at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state.” In response, pro-choice Oklahoma State Senator Constance Johnson introduced an amendment......

The idea of the average mayor pole dancing would not appeal to most voters, but in the Italian town of Taranto, porn stars Amandha Fox and Luana Borgia both think it will get one of them the job.

CONCORD, Calif. — Instead of beating the bell between classes at Mount Diablo High, senior Charles Campos often finds himself waiting frantically for a chance to use a rare unlocked restroom on the sprawling campus. Relief has been hard to come by since beleaguered Principal Kate McClatchy closed all but one boys and girls' bathroom to the 1,400 students last year. Although McClatchy unlocked a second set of restrooms this week, the dearth of commodes may violate the state's education code. She refused to say why she did it, but district trustee Gary Eberhart said he's been told it's because...

Bin Laden Zombie Film Coming This Summer A Utah production company announced today that it has shot a movie based on the premise that Osama bin Laden rises from his watery grave and leads an army of zombie terrorists in a violent jihad of the undead. In the feature-length film, "Osombie: The Axis of Evil Dead," a NATO Special Forces unit races to defeat zombie bin Laden and his flesh-seeking militia, while also stopping the infection from spreading to even more terrorist corpses. According to the film's executive producer, Kynan Griffin, the script was written before the real al Qaeda...

When your society has inhabited a small, remote island for countless generations and boasts a population of only 300,000, the odds of having sex with a relative are significant. Luckily, Icelanders now have a handy tool to avoid family-sex. Íslendingabók—meaning "book of Icelanders"—is an online incest avoidance search engine. Plug in your name and that of a potential mate, and the site searches a genealogical database to see how closely you're related. It's likely that you'll have some overlap many generations back—in which case you're probably safe from mutant children. But if you share great-grandparents, you might want to reconsider...

A thief who broke both ankles fleeing from a hotelier was greeted with little sympathy as his angry victim shouted 'Good, you thieving s***'. -snip- Darryl Philips suffered the injuries when he jumped 18 feet from a multi-storey car park in a bid to escape the vigilante hotelier as he fled with a bottle of whisky. He failed to look behind him as he vaulted over the barrier of the car park in Torquay, clutching the bottle of Jack Daniels, and as he lay on the ground he called up to hotelier Rick Johnson that he had broken his legs...

DENVER — The college student accused of "glitter bombing" Mitt Romney after the Colorado caucuses has been fired from his unpaid internship with state Senate Democrats.

A South Bend mother returned home Monday night and discovered Keith Davis, 46, had broken in and cleaned her home. -snip- Once I finally got a chance to get in I then notice he cooked some chicken and onions in a pan, folded my clothes up and swept my floor," said Murray. "The police said it looked like he was a good chef. it looked like he had broth and everything in it." -snip- "He drunk up my orange juice, but it's cool because he swept up my floor and folded my clothes," said Murray.

Here’s an equation you probably didn’t learn in school: European cold snap + Swiss ingenuity = wood-burning stove in a Volvo. Europe is being hit by severe cold weather that started two weeks ago, and the Continent’s deep freeze expected to continue until mid-February. Still, that hasn’t stopped one enterprising man in Switzerland from venturing outside in his slightly modified Volvo. And by “slightly modified,” we mean he took a whole wood-burning stove and put it in his car.

Muslims told Valentine’s Day can invoke wrath of God KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — An invitation “to be my Valentine” on February 14 is against Islamic beliefs and would incur the wrath of Allah, Muslims were told today in the official Friday sermon prepared by the federal government. The sermon warned Muslims against celebrating Valentine’s Day, which the federal Islamic authorities claimed was in breach of the tenets of their religion. In the text of a sermon provided by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) titled “Awas jerat Valentine” (Beware Valentine’s trap), Muslims were told that asking someone to...

NO ONE WOULD accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described “sloppy dresser,” the 63-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire. Certainly Flegr’s thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the...

DNA Test Helps Enforce Pet Clean Up Policy SAN DIEGO - The same DNA technology that has solved cold case murders is now being used to crack down on a whole new class of criminals: dog owners who don't clean up after their pets. "Unfortunately, people leave surprises in my yard, but I always carry plastic bags, so I can clean up those surprises," said dog owner Ted Stevens. Now, BioPet Vet Lab ,a company in Knoxville, Tenn., has developed technology that is says can identify the dogs that leave unwelcome calling cards on neighborhood lawns. The system, called Pooprints,...

SPARTANBURG, SC (FOX Carolina) - Deputies said they were called to an Inman residence Tuesday night after a domestic dispute led to the wife shooting her husband in self-defense. Spartanburg County deputies said they were called to the County Estates Road residence about 8:24 p.m. where they found Robert Fowler, 43, lying and screaming on the ground with a gunshot wound to the buttocks and his wife holding the gun. Deputies said they determined that Fowler got into a fight with his son, pushing him and beating him in the face, and his wife tried to separate them before shooting...

February 8, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Netherlands Right-to-Die Association (NVVE) has announced that it will soon fulfill a promise made last year to open a private euthanasia “clinic” that offers door-to-door service, for people who can’t convince their regular doctor to kill them. According to reports in the Spanish and Portuguese-language press, the clinic will serve clients who wish to end their lives, but have been refused help from doctors for “ethical” reasons. A report by Radio Netherlands says that the organization has mentioned patients who are “in the early stages of dementia and those suffering from chronic psychiatric problems.”...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been under fire from world leaders to step down this week. He’s also under fire from hacktivist group Anonymous, who leaked hundreds of his office’s emails on Monday. While Anonymous is infamous for its hacking know-how, it doesn’t take a genius computer programmer to guess one of the passwords commonly used by Assad’s office accounts: 12345. The string of consecutive numbers is the second-weakest password according to a 2011 study.

You can’t argue with the research… Researchers have long known that people who have frequent sex are generally healthier Most health benefits seem to be linked to penile-vaginal intercourse Frequent sex may also bring longer life, fewer coronary events, lower blood pressure Researchers have long known that not only is sex fun (when done with the right person, of course), but that people who have frequent sex tend to live longer and have healthier hearts and lower rates of certain cancers. These studies also show that men with an active sex life have healthier sperm, and sexually active women have...

Authorities say two marching band tubas were stolen from Bell High School over the weekend, the latest in a rash of thefts at area high schools. Two King brass sousaphones valued at $6,000 each were the latest to be stolen in a series of high school thefts believed to be related to the popularity of Mexican banda music, according to the Los Angeles Times. The thieves cut the locks on numerous metal lockers in the school’s band room, apparently searching for the sousaphones. When they didn’t find any, they broke into the band director’s office, where the uniforms and tubas...

Uh-oh, looks like it's time to have "the talk." According to a new study, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are climbing among a certain segment of the population. You'll be relieved to know that it's not your teen you need to worry about — it's your parents!

Deep snows and blizzard-like conditions have combined to create a "moose emergency" in Southcentral. The group tasked with recovering moose hit by vehicles on local roads, Alaska Moose Federation, was rolling almost non-stop Thursday and Friday, responding to at least 15 collisions in 20 hours. "We had one truck with two moose on it," AMF Executive Director Gary Olson said. "Literally, a bull was hit in Eagle River on a curve, then a cow was hit by another car. They were (loaded) on the truck and we delivered them to a local church." Just a week after taking over as...

A 43-year-old man was charged Friday with trying to rob First State Bank on Stock Island-- while wearing shorts on his head. The Sheriff's Office says Eli Escalera walked into the Maloney Avenue bank at 12:30 p.m. with the shorts on his head -- not covering his face -- and handed a teller a note that said: "Give me what are 20s and 50s." The teller asked, "What do you want?" and Escalera said "never mind" and walked out. The bank manager called Sheriff's Office Detective Donald Catala and relayed descriptive information to him; Catala spread the word over police...

The latest in weird crazes sweeping the internet sees pet owners around the world lifting their animals above their head. Copying a famous scene from the film The Lion King, the internet phenomenon, follows other such memes as planking, owling and Tebowing. The videos take their inspiration from the famous scene in the beginning of The Lion King where the wise mandrill Rafiki presents the young Simba to the herd.

Out for a walk with 42 Saint Bernard dogs Lasquite's Saint Bernards on Lasqueti Island Canada (Click onto the link to view the two-minute + video on the Fox 43 WPMT webpage)

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - A college student claims he was injured when a fraternity member in a "drunken stupor" decided "that it would be a good idea to shoot bottle rockets out of his a***," and did so, "but instead of launching, the bottle rocket blew up in the defendant's rectum, and this startled the plaintiff and caused him to jump back," and fall off the fraternity's deck. Louis Helmburg III sued The Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Inc., of Huntington, West Virginia, and Travis Hughes, a fraternity member, in Cabell County Court. Helmburg claims - in a statement it would be...

Belgian politician risks Muslim backlash after using teenage daughter dressed in burka and bikini for campaign against Islam Cover up: Politician's daughter An-Sofie Dewinter poses in a burka and bikini in a campaign against Islamic extremists A Belgian politician has risked causing uproar among Muslims after starting a 'Women Against Islamization' campaign featuring his 19-year-old daughter wearing a burka and a bikini. Filip Dewinter, leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party, uses a shot of his daughter An-Sofie Dewinter in the dark blue bikini for the political campaign. The glamorous teenager dons a burka that covers her head and face,...

A woman dressed as Catwoman on Hollywood Boulevard is speaking out Friday after a pepper spray incident. Her name is Lydia and she tells CBS2′s Jeff Nguyen that she unleashed a canister of pepper spray Thursday night when she got into a scuffle with a character dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. According to Lydia, the Sparrow impersonator and his friend were harassing her for hours. “And they were out of control… drunk out here,” she says. The incident in the 6800 block of Hollywood Boulevard was witnessed by several people. Lydia says the men bumped into her and tourists and...

SANTA ANA – A Garden Grove woman Friday pleaded not guilty to charges in an indictment of torture and mayhem in the cutting off of a man's penis. An Orange County grand jury has indicted Kieu on one felony count each of torture and aggravated mayhem, plus a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife to commit a crime. Kieu was living with the 60-year-old man July 11 when the couple argued over the possibility of a friend staying at their residence on a future date, prosecutors said. She then served him dinner and waited until he became...

Animal sex abuse is on the rise in Germany, with bestiality brothels being set up across the country, according to a state animal protection officer demanding stronger laws to protect mankind's furry and feathered friends. Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government, said the law needed to be changed to make sex abuse of animals – known as zoophilia – a crime. “It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not,” she told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily paper on Friday. “There are even animal brothels in Germany,” she said. Sex with animals was...

On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini -- the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution -- returned triumphantly to Tehran on an Air France flight from Paris after 14 years in exile. Now, 33 years later, that return was reenacted in a bizarre ceremony that saw guards carrying a giant cardboard cutout of Khomeini down the stairs of a passenger plane and a waiting crowd paying their respects to "him." Iranians have been faced with many unusual and absurd events in the past three decades of the rule of the clerics. The February 1 ceremony, however, may have topped them...

A German pensioner who had kept a tub of lard in his cupboard for 64 years, took it to authorities who pronounced it very much fit for consumption -- if a little tasteless. Retired chemist Hans Feldmeier, 87, told AFP he had received the pig fat as a student in 1948 near the northern city of Rostock as part of the post-war US aid programme.

RIVIERA BEACH— Authorities are seeking the public's help in identifying a man who robbed a McDonald's on Saturday while wearing a President Barack Obama mask. Riviera Beach Police say that the man who held employees of the McDonald's at 3551 Broadway at gunpoint with a silver, semi-automatic handgun, was wearing a mask "resembling a likeness" to Obama. He ordered all employees to the back office at 6:21 a.m., and then ordered the manager to open the safe and place the cash in a cloth bag he brought.

Love stinks! Just two weeks before Valentine's Day, hundreds of skunks have flooded Sacramento, Calif., in search of the perfect mate, bringing with them a pungent smell and creating a nuisance for many homeowners, Fox40.com reports. "They are everywhere," animal trapper Stephen Andert told the station. Andert, the owner of Creature

Authorities in Toledo, Ohio said a woman and her son robbed an area tax preparation office with nothing more than a curling iron wrapped up in a towel. The Toledo Police Department said Sonia Watson and her son Antonio are on the run after robbing Liberty Tax Services of $280, WUPW-TV reported. Officers said the duo entered the business, threatened the employees and then Watson struck a woman with the curling iron when she refused to give up her possessions. The pair fled the office but were caught on surveillance video as they exited.

It is a cliché almost as old as the motor car itself, and the subject of many a sexist joke. But the idea that women cannot park is simply untrue, according to research indicating that female drivers are more adept than men at manoeuvring into a space. Covert surveillance of car parks across Britain has shown that while women may take longer to park, they are more likely to leave their vehicles in the middle of a bay. The study is one of the most comprehensive ever conducted on gender driving differences, and took into account seven key components of...

The Capitol architect wanted to reanimate George Washington’s dead body George Washington may have been America's first president, but was he nearly America's first zombie-in-chief? If William Thornton, physician and designer of the US Capitol, had had his way, Washington's body would have been subjected a scientific experiment designed to bring the deceased former president back to life. In December 1799, 67-year-old George Washington took a ride through the wet winter rain and, shortly afterward, developed a fever and a sore throat. When his condition became so bad that Washington could no longer swallow the concoctions of vinegar, molasses, and...

Waffle House has a reputation for strange encounters. Round-the-clock service makes the bright yellow restaurants an attractive spot for people from all walks of life — students cramming for exams, workers eating after the graveyard shift and drunks and stoners out for a 2-AM snack. Not surprisingly, Waffle House has also been the scene of many strange crimes.

Any university student who has ever purchased a used textbook knows that there are sometimes strange surprises hiding between those pages. Usually they come in the form of messy scribbles or perhaps even a forgotten piece of gum, but in one student's case the unexpected (and unwanted) gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine. -snip- When Stockton flipped through the textbook, she "discovered a bag of white powder had fallen to the ground." According to WPTV, Stockton feared that the bag contained anthrax and took it to the local police department the next day: "I told them white powder was in...

Gannett publication - link and title only.

If You Spot Bigfoot, Should You Shoot Him? In the new Animal Planet reality TV show optimistically titled "Finding Bigfoot," a team of experts examines video of an alleged Sasquatch spotted in the Canadian Rockies. The video, shot by a man named Todd Standing, shows something large and dark, standing atop a wooded ridge and then ducking back behind a bush. It could pretty much be anything, and when the experts concluded that the subject was probably not a Bigfoot, Standing expressed his frustration: "No video is ever going to be evidence, ever. It's never going to be good enough…"...

The death of a man in Doddridge County has sparked a police investigation and troopers want you to be safe. A man in his 60's died this week at Ruby Memorial Hospital, supposedly after drinking poisoned moonshine he got in the county. Troopers say the unidentified man drank from a bottle of moonshine he got from a friend on Saturday night. He was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital after what was believed to be stroke symptoms. He died at the hospital Tuesday. After testing and investigations, it was determined that the tainted moonshine shut down the man's internal organs. Troopers...

An agitated moose ran down and stomped a well-known Bush pilot from Willow, but he was saved when his wife grabbed a shovel from their pickup truck and whacked the big animal until it backed off.

I haven’t had many lectures where terms like necrophilia or bestiality came up. That’s why, among all the classes I’ve taken over the past four years, the sociology course I’m taking this semester, Sexuality and the Law, stand outs. It wasn’t until the second class that the professor really delved into the ‘makes you feel uncomfortable and avoid eye contact with the other students’ material. Penis rings, polygamy, chastity belts, the Kama Sutra, and the lack of a female counterpart to Viagra were all discussed, in no particular order of uncomfortableness. Next, the professor gave a brief overview of popular...

This cracked me up. Romney SPeaks

The only arguments that Romney supporters have made, is that he is "electable", and can beat Obama. But I have not seen any supporter of Romney actually praise any accomplishments that he made as the Massachussetts Governor, that will appeal to voters. Mittens reminds me of John Kerry, and he seems to have "loser" written on his forehead. He also reminds us of Al Gore - a man who seems like he is made of wood, and cannot connect emotionally with voters.

She was found inside the ship's chapel, submerged up to her shoulders, but in one piece. Fire department divers wrapped her in a white towel, and used a nylon belt to hold it in place so she would not be damaged as they pulled her out. On Saturday, the plaster statue of the Madonna from the doomed Costa Concordia cruise liner stood in a white tent on the port of Giglio, still wrapped in the same towel.

Ron Paul has Brothel “Pimpin for Paul” Ron Paul, known for his Libertarian views, has picked up a new endorsement. The Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a Nevada brothel has begun a campaign they are calling “Pimpin for Paul” The owner of the Brothel, Dennis Hof said in a statement “We decided to go with the guy that’s more about state’s rights — and that’s Ron Paul,” Hof did a survey of 500 prostitutes to see which candidate they wanted to support, and the results were close between Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. “We thought real closely about supporting Newt Gingrich —...

DALLAS - Many women are choosing tattoos as a way to celebrate their children, both publicly and privately. The trend has grown even more popular in recent years with celebrity moms like Angelina Jolie, Nicole Richie and Jessica Alba showing others tattoos and the love for their kids are nothing to hide. Amber Adams is a busy mother of six who hangs on to just about everything. “I kept their outfits that I brought them home in. And because these are preemie, they are really, really tiny,” she said. But for Adams it isn’t just about the blankets and baby...

CNN) -- It's tough to pick a mascot these days. Over the past few years we've seen several instances of schools being pressured to change their mascots because of cultural sensitives like Miami University of Ohio having to go through a 25-year process to change from the Redskins to the Redhawks. But we've never heard of a mascot that offended, well, older women. The Corner Canyon High School in Draper, Utah, needed to choose a mascot and after 23 percent of students who voted decided they wanted to be the Corner Canyon Cougars. Falcons, Raptors and Diamondbacks were the other...

According to State Police troopers, the Deshongs seriously damaged a 2006 Ford Fusion, which had its windshield and windows either cracked or broken, was covered with dents, and had blood on the front passenger seat. The car’s hood was also open and various hoses had been disconnected. As for the flaming tampons, a probable cause affidavit notes that investigators “discovered that the gas cap was removed and tampons were used to possibly ignite the gas tank." Additionally, “Tampon was used in the engine compartment where the oil fill cap is located.” Since “ashes were at the gas cap area and...

Los Angeles police detectives are investigating the slaying of a man believed to be of Armenian descent whose head was discovered Tuesday afternoon by two dogs off a hiking trail below the Hollywood sign. Two women were hiking with nine dogs in the rugged hills near the 3200 block of Canyon Drive when two of the dogs found a plastic bag in the brush containing the head... In addition to combing the area for evidence, investigators will seek help from the Los Angeles County coroner to identify the victim through dental records