Free Republic

WILTON MANORS, Fla. -- A man with a tattoo of Britney Spears' name on his arm or neck allegedly stole a Chihuahua with pink earrings from a South Florida gay bar. Brian Dortort, 48, said Thursday that he has spent weeks searching for his 4-month-old pooch, named Hudson Hayward Hemingway. The dog, about the size of a softball, was in a specialty pet bag.

BASEL, Switzerland -- Roger Federer married longtime girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec in a small ceremony in his hometown Saturday. The second-ranked tennis player announced the wedding on his Web site, saying the couple got married "surrounded by a small group of close friends and family." "It was a beautiful spring day and an incredibly joyous occasion," he said. The couple announced last month they are expecting their first child.

SARASOTA, FL - A Suncoast man says he has a potato that's shaped like a manatee. Sarasota resident Len Higley tells ABC 7 that he picked the tuber from a bin of loose potatoes at the Publix on Fruitville Road near Honore Avenue. He says that as he sorted through them, that his eyes went right to the potato and immediately thought it looked like one of the endangered vegetarian mammals. Higley purchased the potato a brought it home, but says he's not going to eat it. Putting it on Ebay has crossed his mind, but not sure what he's...

ABC Radio news just announced Sen. John Edwards will admit to the affair with Rielle Hunter in an interview with the network, but insists the child is not his. We return you to your regularly-scheduled FReeping.

The Friendswood Junior High principal who outraged some parents by allowing an Islamic group to make a 40-minute presentation to students last month is now off the job. In a two-sentence statement sent late Wednesday, the school district said Robin Lowe "has accepted another administrative position effective immediately."

<p>You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.</p>

<p>Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."</p> <p>The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."</p>

American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape. According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans — a slim majority — now believe “the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals” in Iraq. That figure is up from 42 percent in September 2007. The percentage of those who believe the war in Iraq is going “very well” or “fairly well” is also up, from 30...

NYT: MCCAIN'S BIRTHPLACE IN CANAL ZONE RAISES ELIGIBILITY QUESTIONS...

Lake Superior State University's 2008 list of banished words or phrases: • perfect storm • Webinar • waterboarding • organic • wordsmith/wordsmithing • author/authored • post 9/11 • surge • give back • `blank' is the new `blank' • Black Friday • back in the day • random

Associated Press A state police academy leader has disavowed the slogan of the most recent graduating class urging one another to "go out and cause" post-traumatic stress disorder. Each class at the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy is allowed to choose a slogan that is printed on its graduation programs, and the class of 43 graduates came up with "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it." According to the Veterans Association, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers suffer from PTSD, which causes nightmares, flashbacks and physical symptoms that make sufferers feel as if they are reliving...

Last Updated: Friday, 21 December 2007, 00:02 GMT Historic penguin sketches found The signed chalk drawings are to be cleaned and restored Penguin sketches made by Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton have been found in a basement at Cambridge University. The legendary explorers drew the pictures on blackboards, probably for public lectures, in 1904 and 1909. Nobody knows how the fragile images, in need of cleaning and restoration, ended up at the University's Scott Polar Research Institute. Staff are appealing for donations to help preserve the signed chalk drawings and put them on public display. Chalk and charm "People often...

Executive Order: Closing of Executive Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government on Monday, December 24, 2007 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. All executive branch departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Monday, December 24, 2007, the day before Christmas Day, except as provided in section 2 below. Sec. 2. The heads of executive branch departments and agencies may determine that certain offices and installations of their...

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was awarded the 2007 Thomas Merton Award last night for her work within the peace and justice community. Sheehan was unable to attend the ceremony at the Sheraton at Station Square, but accepted the award in absentia. Sheehan began her career in activism after her son, 25-year-old Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed during a mission in Iraq on April 4, 2004. Since that date, Sheehan has called for the country's leaders to end the war, recall U.S. troops and hold themselves accountable for the decisions that sent the troops to Iraq. Sheehan was forced to cancel...

Chuck Norris does not vote for president of the United States. He gives the voting machine a swift roundhouse kick and Mike Huckabee wins. So the joke would read after the martial arts star announced his endorsement Sunday for the former Arkansas governor. "Though (Rudy) Giuliani might be savvy enough to lead people, Fred Thompson wise enough to wade through the tides of politics, (John) McCain tough enough to fight terrorism, and (Mitt) Romney business-minded enough to grow our economy, I believe the only one who has all of the characteristics to lead America forward into the future is ex-Arkansas...

Whatever Hollywood says a presidential candidate is supposed to look like, Ron Paul isn't it. At 72, wearing mall-walking shoes and an inquisitive smile, he looks like a retired obstetrician, which he is. His platform is hardly from central casting, either. He not only wants U.S. troops home from Iraq, he wants them home from the rest of the planet. He wants to abolish an alphabet of federal agencies and the income tax, dismantle the Patriot Act, reconnect the dollar to the price of gold, decriminalize prostitution and call an end to the drug war. Seated in the House Speaker's...

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said if he wasn’t elected president, the population of African-American males is likely to either wind up in prison or dead. At an MTV/MySpace.com forum Thursday, Edwards responded to a question about inner-city kids partaking in violence by saying there was no “silver bullet” to fight the problem. “We start with the president of the United States saying to America, ‘we cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America....

ABC-TV decides not to air Bush's news conference... Developing... (not a whole lot right now.)

Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis..... Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars...... Just now breaking.......

Whispers about John Travolta’s sexuality that have blown through Hollywood for years are getting louder now that the actor was caught kissing another man here in Canada. In photographs published in the newest issue of the National Enquirer, Travolta is seen planting a kiss on the lips of an unidentified man on the steps of his private plane at an airport in Hamilton, Ontario. Travolta, 52, has been flying his Boeing 707 in and out of Hamilton as production gets underway in Toronto on the remake of Hairspray, in which he plays Edna Turnblad. The tabloid noted that Travolta, whose...

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  Honoring China's 'The Year of the Pig' Over the weekend, Google highlighted the Chinese New Year – the year of the pig – with a couple of the porkers dancing in place of the "Os" in its name. But today, the Internet behemoth that recognizes holidays and special events with modifications to its logo declined to recognize the birthday of George Washington, "the father of our country" and the first president of the United States. It's been able, in recent months, to highlight special honors for Percival Lowell, Edvard Munch and Louis Braille. Lowell was an astronomer, Munch an...

Rush reports that a Cessna has been reported as crashing into (at least one) apartment complex in NYC Mannhattan's upper east side - on East 71st Street.

That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere. An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The story was reported in Saturday's editions of the Houston Chronicle. Some historians and critics have dogged Armstrong for not saying the more dramatic and grammatically correct, "One small step for a man . . ." in the version he transmitted to NASA's Mission Control. Without the missing...

Just wanted to you to know FOX National News just annouced a National Breaking Fox News Alert that there was a severe Thunderstorm warning in DC. With all the breaking graphics and sound effects. Ohh, The Nation is now informed and I feel safer. Oh and penny size hell. DOesnt the National Weather Service break in to these local Broadcast anyway -make loud buzzing noises and run alerts and scroll all this stuff on the bottom of the screen anyway.

SOFIA (Reuters) - Lightning killed an entire herd of 70 goats in central Bulgaria Thursday, but their goatherd escaped unharmed, civil defense officials said. The herd was sheltering under a large tree during a summer storm when the bolt struck, killing all of them. "At least the goatherd managed to survive. He was under a different tree," civil defense officer Anastas Iribadzhakov told Reuters.

Bush Backs Brother Jeb for White House By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago President Bush suggested Wednesday that he'd like to see his family's White House legacy continue, perhaps with his younger brother Jeb as the chief executive. The president said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is well-suited for another office and would make "a great president." "I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not," Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters, according to an account on the St. Petersburg Times Web...

Ponca City police officers investigated a Crime Stoppers tip Thursday at Lake Ponca. Police were looking for evidence related to a possible unreported crime that may have taken place some time ago. Police investigators searched the area and found no evidence was found to substantiate that a crime was committed.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer reacted angrily Wednesday to questions about whether he may have offended an aide to Gov. Robert Ehrlich at a meeting of the Board of Public Works.After the young woman brought him a beverage at Wednesday morning's meeting at the State House, Schaefer stared intently as she walked back to the governor's office. Then, just as she reached the door, he summoned her back as people waiting to testify before the board watched. When the aide, looking puzzled, returned to the table, Schaefer told her, "Walk again," and watched her as she...

SAFETY HARBOUR, Florida, January 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNew.com) – Michael Schiavo, who had his disabled wife Terri killed last March by refusing her food and water, was re-married last Saturday in the Roman Catholic Church of Espiritu Santo in Florida. Schiavo married Jodi Centonze. He had two children with her during the years he worked towards achieving Terri’s death. Terri Schiavo was killed in March 2005, in spite of her family’s strenuous fight to prevent the removal of her feeding tube and water. Terri was left severely brain damaged after collapsing at age 26. Although medical authorities said she was in...

SAFETY HARBOR - Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze were married in a private ceremony at Espiritu Santo Catholic Church on Saturday. "It was very emotional," said John Centonze, brother of the bride, just after the noon ceremony. "It's been a long time coming. A lot of things happened in between." The wedding came a day after the couple applied for a Pinellas County marriage license and 10 months after the death of Schiavo's first wife, Terri. Terri Schiavo died March 31, two weeks after her feeding tube was removed, and 15 years after a cardiac arrest that left her in...

They might have done this years ago, but he already had a wife. Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze applied for a marriage license in Pinellas County on Friday. She listed her last marriage as ending in divorce on March 29, 1989. He listed his as ending in death on March 31, 2005. Their relationship has long been a curious sidenote in the national right-to-die case of Michael's first wife, Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. Michael Schiavo, 42, has called Jodi Centonze his fiancee for at least six years, relatives said. They live together...

TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- Court records show that Terri Schiavo's husband Michael has applied for a marriage license. Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze applied for a marriage license in Pinellas County yesterday.

Electrocuted Squirrel Starts Grass Fire Mon Oct 31, 7:06 PM ET BYRAM, Miss. - An electric lineman believes a squirrel started a grass fire Monday after the critter was electrocuted and fell from a power line onto parched ground. It's been more than a month since significant amounts of rain have fallen in central Mississippi, though some showers were expected late Monday. Burn bans are in effect in this Jackson suburb and many other nearby communities. Passing motorists saw a flash and heard a loud pop, then saw ashes falling from the power line. The spark ignited a grassfire, which...

(CBS) When a very young squirrel fell from a tree, little did it know that would mark the start of a most unusual relationship. A woman found the squirrel and its sister lying on the ground. They had fallen about 40 feet out of their nest. The sister was dead. The woman asked animal lover Debby Cantlon, well known in the Seattle area for nursing injured animals back to health, to care for the squirrel, and Cantlon agreed. The squirrel was severely dehydrated and suffering from other physical problems when it got to Cantlon, herself a cancer patient for two...

TAMPA — A Tampa man is getting a citation for storing animal parts in a freezer. Police say Lester Huckaby can be punished by up to 60 days in county jail and a $500 fine. He had birds that wildlife officials say are protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Authorities say an anonymous caller told police that Huckaby was storing part of a migratory bird and pieces of sea turtles inside a freezer in his house. When authorities searched they house, they say they found one room filled with hawk wings, talons and a raccoon in the process...

Think about it. Can a woman safely scale Everest while fretting whether any of her hair is visible? Can she do so while obsessing about the legs or arms showing (both of which remain taboo in the Muslim community, regardless of the weather or circumstances)? Think somebody can climb a mountain wearing a shalwar kamees, much less a jilbab? Wait, it gets worse. What if there is a man beneath her on the trail? Is she not dishonored by this compromising position? And won’t that sight risk causing fitnah and fatality on the mountainside? (I’m reminded of the fretting of...

Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Passed by the Texas House of Representatives, a bill that bans high school cheerleaders from performing "sexually suggestive" routines -- effectively taking the "hip" out of "hip-hip-hooray". Bill author Al Edwards, a Democrat from Houston, said that "we see that as a result [of lewd routines] more of our young girls being pregnant in middle and high schools, dropping out of school, having babies, and having AIDS and herpes." The bill, which doesn't define what constitutes sexually suggestive behavior, was mocked by several legislators. One said it was "stupid" and "insulting" that the issue was even being discussed, and others...

Hi I am 10 years old.I am a good Christian who takes his Bible to school and reads it at recess. If some of the other kids are doing bad things I go over to them and tell them from the Bible that what they are going is wrong. Bad behavior is the tool of the devil.Also I like to go over to some of the non believers and tell them that they are going to hell because they don't believe. I don't like to play on the swings and play basaeball because Jesus never did that and I shouldn't...

<p>What is this palce? Are you peeple for reel? Is this some kind of joke?</p>

how did we end up here? are we so involved with the day to day grind,the rush for free time to enjoy friends and family that we have ignored our duty as employers of the largest company in the world to hold accountable the employees that work for us the people just like a parent whose child has grown and become more indipendent we give more responsiblity and less oversight on the assumption that being more responsible they would never bend or ignore the rules we have set forth yet here we are complaining of taxes,rules and laws that we...

Nothing going on...post responses here

Swedish soldiers are so attached to their military-issue green camouflage underpants that 3,199 pairs of them went missing last year. The garments topped the list of items that recruits failed to account for when the army does its inventory. The next most-pilfered article was the olive-coloured military bath towel, of which 2,400 disappeared, said the army in-house newspaper Vaernpliktsnytt. Military service is compulsory for men aged 18 to 24 in Sweden. More than 15,500 new recruits are inducted into the Swedish army every year, typically serving between eight and 15 months as conscripts. Each new soldier is issued with military...

While all animal adjectives don't end in -ine (simian, for instance), most of them do. There are -ine terms for more animals than most people know. Here's a short list of some of the lesser-known entries on the list: bats — pteropine bulls — taurine crows — corvine deer — cervine eagles — aquiline fish — piscine foxes — vulpine frogs — ranine geese — anserine hares — leporine horses — equine kangaroo — macropodine lobster — homarine mice — murine peacocks — pavonine pigs — porcine seals — phocine sheep — ovine ticks — acarine wasps — vespine wolves...

I was using Google yesterday, searching for sources with info about the 1960 U.S. Presidential election. My search results included to my surprise, an old post I made on FR, that was only remotely related to the election. Same results with other search engines I used. My understanding of websites is that usually only keywords, slected and listed by the website, were "seen" by search engines. My search results included hundreds of links, some that I would not want to visit because they are questionable or leftist sounding. Worse, some of these sites are likely to be "under watch" by...

<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Arvin Mayor Juan Olivares had just one request of a Kern County sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop - "Don't call me dude."</p> <p>Olivares planned to file an official complaint with the sheriff's department, seeking to have the deputy fired for what he called disrespectful behavior.</p>

The Futility Of The Left's America Bashing, The Opiate Of The Academic Elites In his essay "The Intellectual Origin of America Bashing" author Lee Harris argues that the leftists that practise this idiocy are not ever being true to their mentor, Karl Marx: http://www.policyreview.org/dec02/harris.html

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- What a shame. Police have run out of parking tickets and city officials said they won't get more for two to six weeks. However, there's no shortage of the tickets for expired parking meters. Officers typically write between 25 and 100 parking tickets a day, more if snow parking restrictions go into effect, but meter enforcement officers use a different ticket and have plenty of those for meter fines. The police department ordered new parking tickets after the city council raised fees and fines for violations to help close a $6.5 million budget...

Congressman J.C. Watts will be on FnF at 8:15 am ET. At 7:27 am ET, on Imus, Joe Klein, of The New Yorker, will talk about his Book: “The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton.” And, at 8:27 am ET, Bo Dietl, Private Investigator, will be on. On C-SPAN's Washington Journal: At 9:00 am ET, Business Week Senior Writer Richard Miller will discuss the Future of the Federal Reserve. At 9:30, The President of the Economic Policy Institute, Lawrence Mishel, will discuss Economic Policy.