Free Republic

In a bizarre end to the House vote to reopen the federal government late Wednesday night, a stenographer was escorted off the House floor after yelling into a microphone about God, Freemasons and a divided government, aides and members said. The woman, Dianne Reidy, was carried off the floor by House staff. Capitol Police said she has been "transported to a local area hospital for evaluation."

While she might not look it, Maria Kang has three children between the ages of 1 and 4. Though proud of her physique, this self-proclaimed “no-excuse mom” is being accused of “fat-shaming” after she posted a photo on Facebook showing her toned body with her three boys and asking, “What’s your excuse?” Maria Kang, a 32-year-old proud of her body, and her three children. (Image source: Maria Kang/Facebook) The photo was posted last year with Kang asking people to share her message, but some didn’t take too kindly to it. It rubbed some the wrong way, so much so that...

Bacon might be the least “ninja” ingredient out there. Aside from being bright-ass red, its scent alone has the power to send every fat kid (or fat kid at heart) running from within at least a three mile radius. Still, we wouldn’t want our ninja burgers made any other way. Starting October 25, Burger King Japan is rolling out a black-bunned hamburger called the “Black Ninja.” Like most of the country’s other chromatically-challenged eats, the BN gets its hue from the bamboo charcoal used to make it, which in this case, also happens to impart a nice smoky smell. But...

It started off as a normal morning at Great Clips in San Jose, with employees snipping away and customers enjoying a trim. Then, just before 10 a.m., a customer with a pale purple Saturn - and a San Jose Sharks license plate frame - slammed into the hair salon at 2980 East Capitol Expressway, according to police Sgt. Heather Randol. The driver was pulled out of the car, but Randol said neither he nor anyone inside the salon was hurt. His name or age hasn't been released. Hairdresser Teresa Phuouc was in the salon at the time. "I don't know...

Police are trying to figure out how the hell they lost track of a 20-year-old female prisoner who wiggled her way out of her handcuffs and casually walked out of the Police Department over the weekend. The bizarre incident happened at about 5:40 p.m. on Sunday when the suspect was brought into the Northern Police Station for questioning about a car burglary. However, the suspect, later identified as Sonya Espinoza, lied to the cops about her identity and then declined to be interviewed. After the cops learned her real name, they also learned she had a no-bail warrant and was...

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On the 13th floor of a haunted house in Arizona, one woman was given a much bigger surprise than zombies or skeletons: a ring.

A German couple's marriage got off to a rocky start when the groom forgot his bride at a highway gas station on the way home from their honeymoon, only noticing she was missing after hours had passed.

Michelle Chapman is trying not to cry over spilled milk. The Surrey, B.C., resident was shocked to discover last month that a June fender bender she caused that left almost no visible damage to either vehicle escalated into a $4,800 writeoff. She was more shocked to discover the reason why. “They’re writing off the truck for spilled milk,” said Chapman, whom the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is holding responsible for the claim. The tale of the curious claim begins in June, when Chapman was stopped behind a black Dodge Dakota truck in her Chrysler Sebring sedan at a Vancouver...

Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort is testament to changing times Relatives offered words of comfort to a teary-eyed woman paying her last respects as an undertaker slammed shut the door of the cremation chamber and flames engulfed the small coffin of a cherished family member. The hastily arranged prayers, cremation and scattering of ashes in Vietnam's capital was for Capi, a 13-year-old dog that died that day after a battle with diabetes. Capi's owner had called Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort, a one-stop shop with services rivalling anything on offer to humans. "I'm so glad this place exists. Otherwise I wouldn't know...

Sacrificial goats have been stolen from the house of Pakistani Test cricketer Imran Farhat in Lahore. According to police report, Farhat – a resident of Valencia Town in Lahore – had bought two goats for sacrifice ahead of Eid Al Adha which will fall in Pakistan on Wednesday October 16. Last night, thieves broke into Imran Farhat’s house and whisked away two goats which were bought for Eid Al Adha. The family had filed a police complaint. Opening batsman Imran Farhat has not been included in the current Pakistani team which is playing its home series against South Africa in...

Tracey Payntar says she spotted a huge snake in the lake next to her Suffolk house as it was attacking a river otter. The mother of four says she had just gotten out of her car and the disturbance in the water got her attention. "I ran to the shoreline freaking out and tried to take some video with my phone. I was so scared I could not concentrate very well," said Payntar. Payntar and her husband contacted Suffolk Animal Control who referred a snake expert from a company called Zoo Pro. Based on her description, the professional wildlife workers...

A teenager thought to be possessed by the devil was subjected to a violent crucifixion-style exorcism by four religious extremists, a court in France heard today (Monday). Three men and a woman belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist Church are accused of kidnapping, and acts of torture and barbarism against the 19-year-old. The young woman, referred to solely by the name Antoinette, was barely alive when police found her in a flat in a housing estate in the Paris suburb of Grigny. Her tormentors are accused of tying her up like Jesus on the cross, and keeping Antoinette in the...

Dan Price was once a successful but stressed out family man in Kentucky but left it all behind twenty years ago to live underground in the Oregon woods. He's the Hobbit hole man who walked away from the 9-to-5 life, dug himself a house under a horse pasture and he has never looked back. ‘When you get rid of things and you’re willing to have less, you’re given a gift of more,’ said Price as he sat in his 8-foot abode.Price once worked as a photojournalist to help support his wife and two young kids and to pay the family...

A pilot of a Saudi cargo aircraft en route for Hong Kong canceled the flight after he was attacked by a cat hiding under his seat, a Saudi newspaper reported on Monday. The captain of flight 982 from the Saudi capital Riyadh has just turned the plane’s engine on when the scared cat emerged out and jumped on him. “The captain decided to cancel the flight until further notice after suffering from light injuries,” the London-based Arabic language daily Al Hayat said. It said the cat had sneaked into the plane and hit under the pilot’s seat, adding that it...

Philip Franchine of The Green Valley News notes that property on and near downtown's Fourth Avenue is getting snatched up by a religious group with UFO tenets—and that has been accused of being a cult: Why all this activity in Tucson? “We fully intend to take this message to the entire world,” Lilly said. “While Tumacacori is great for agriculture, Tucson has a large student population and they need a society like we have — that is drug-free, alcohol-free and environmentally conscious.” Global Community has attracted young people from around the world who seek to learn sustainable farming and ranching...

Lisa Perriera is an abortionist responsible for botching at least two chemical abortions in Ohio. Now she admits to sidestepping Ohio law to see that a late-term baby was aborted. As a featured speaker at an abortion rally in Ohio, Perriera proclaims to a crowd that after listening to a baby’s beating heart and determining the baby could live outside the womb, she sent the parents out of state for a late-term abortion. In a sad twist of irony, she cradles her newborn son to her chest throughout her speech. WATCH and SHARE this video in all of your pro-life...

A Sarnia man refuted his alcohol breath readings in court, claiming the readings woud have been elevated after he put alcohol in his ears to test a Jesus theory.Robert D. Bourque, 55, was convicted following his trial in Sarnia court of driving while his blood-alcohol level exceeded the legal limit. He was fined $1,000.On Nov. 10, 2012, at 8 p.m. an OPP officer stopped Bourque's vehicle was because the taillights were out.Breath tests showed Bourque's blood-alcohol level was one and a quarter times the legal limit.Bourque, who represented himself, testified he had put alcohol in his ears as part of...

A suspected drunk driver lost control of his car early Sunday, slamming into a newly purchased Hayward home that may now have to be red-tagged, authorities said. The incident took place shortly before 2:30 a.m. in the 700 block of West Tennyson. “One of our officers was responding to another call,” said Hayward Police Lt. Jeff Lutzinger. “He was driving down Tennyson when he saw a group of citizens standing in the street. He stopped to talk with them. They pointed to the house and said a car had just crashed into it.” Hayward police said the car was going...

Season Four starts tonight...."I spent most of Saturday watching The Walking Dead Season 3. It was another great season of episodes, ... narrow those down to ten, which will be in the Top Ten poll below for you to vote upon and select YOUR favorite quote of the ten."...[language] Patriot Babe;

All is not well in the luxury world. Stalwart luxury buyers in China are cutting back, according to recent statements from Burberry and Richemont, among others. New data from research firm Euromonitor International confirms that the industry is in a bit of a slump. Global luxury sales are on track to grow by 3% this year, the slowest rate in four years. Euromonitor reckons that growth will pick up next year, though, driven by its strongest segment in recent years: accessories, specifically men’s accessories. The luxury goods industry has been “manning up” of late, says Fflur Roberts of Euromonitor. A...

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the late former first lady Betty Ford and Title IX advocate Bernice Sandler were among the nine women inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame Saturday. The ceremony, attended by about 700 people, was held in Seneca Falls, the western New York village where the first known women’s rights convention was held in 1848. “Our mission is to share the stories of these women with the general population and to inspire future generations to their own greatness,” the hall’s deputy director, Amanda Bishop, said after the ceremony. …

Meet the newest mascot at Fukushima Industries! This cute, winged egg is the perfect face for a company that manufactures the kind of industrial refrigerators, blast chillers, freezers and refrigerated showcases that you might find in a restaurant or a supermarket. The name they chose for this little egghead, though, probably needed a bit more work…

UPDATED AT 6:40 P.M. CLEVELAND,Ohio -- The Rev. James McGonegal,pastor of a West Side Cleveland Catholic church,was charged today with soliciting sex while being HIV-positive. He had been arrested Friday in Edgewater Park. In the incident report released today,an off-duty Cleveland Metroparks ranger said McGonegal offered the ranger $50 to help him “get off,” then exposed himself and masturbated,all while sitting inside his late-model Jeep SUV. The report said McGonegal had three sex devices in his Jeep when he was arrested around 12:45 p.m. The priest,68,was released on personal bond from Cleveland City Jail this morning other media reports said....

London-based sculptor Ron Mueck, formerly a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, has been creating fine art sculptures since 1996. Using resin, fiberglass, silicone, and many other materials, Mueck constructs hyperrealistic likenesses of human beings, while playing with scale.

He is a passionate campaigner on green issues, and now Jeremy Irons has backed a campaign to ban lorries from the quaint Oxfordshire town where he lives. The Oscar–winning actor has thrown his weight behind an action group to prevent HGVs using the narrow streets of Watlington as a rat-run between the M40 and M4. The market town—reputedly the smallest in the country—is regularly snarled up with lorries whose drivers, looking for a shortcut between Oxford and Reading, are directed there by their satnavs. …

A Papua New Guinea man described as a vampire has been arrested after allegedly murdering his young daughter by biting her neck, eating her flesh and drinking her blood, a report said Friday. Police called the grizzly incident that occurred on Wednesday at a settlement near Lae “an act of cannibalism”. The PNG Post Courier cited local councilor John Kenny, who was one of the first on the scene, as saying the three-year-old child and her mother were visiting the father when he grabbed the girl and ran off into nearby bushes.

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With nearly 15,000 Facebook followers rooting for him, a cheating husband was able to earn back the trust of his estranged wife, after he posted a photo of himself holding a note admitting to his infidelity on his personal Facebook page. “With him doing that, it really showed me that he loved me and it really didn’t matter who else was in his life,” Sonya Gore told NewsOne in a phone interview Wednesday night. “It showed that he loved me, and he put it all out there. It kind of touched me.” As originally reported by NewsOne, Ivan Lewis was...

Robert Eric Fredrickson, 50, had arrived at Washington's Cowlitz County Hall of Justice to face an indecent exposure charge when he spotted a stranger's birthday cake.Mmm, birthday cake. Officers at a courthouse in Washington state arrested a man who twice lunged at a stranger’s birthday cake, covering police and the suspect with frosting. Robert Eric Fredrickson, 50, was due to appear at the Cowlitz County Hall of Justice on an indecent exposure charge, but became distracted at the sight of a child’s birthday cake as he passed through security. Michelle Flavin, who had never met Fredrickson, had bought the cake...

When London videographer Anthony Aurelius sent newlyweds Stan and Claudia Gocman unedited footage from their wedding, he didn’t realize that the video was littered with his anti-Semitic remarks. The Jewish couple haven’t accepted his sniveling, handwritten apology.A wedding videographer revealed just how vile he could be when a Jewish couple caught him making anti-Semitic remarks on their wedding video. The racist camerman, Anthony Aurelius, didn’t realize he’d kept the tape rolling while chatting with his assistant during a central London wedding shoot last year. “Mental, Israeli dancing, isn’t it? There’s a real feeling of like, they’re better than everybody else....

A Papua New Guinea man faces murder and cannibalism charges after he allegedly killed his three-year-old daughter, ate her flesh and drank her blood, local media report. A government councillor, John Kenny, was the first on the scene. He told the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier the child and her mother were visiting the father, Rex Eric, at a compound on Wednesday. Kenny said the father allegedly took the child from her mother and ran into the bushes, where he held the baby close to him, bit deep into her neck, ate the flesh and sucked the blood. Two boys climbing...

Video of why we can't compete with the Chinese: http://static.video.qq.com/TPout.swf?auto=1&vid=r010673xh67

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him, after all. We have the technology. The term “bionic man” was the stuff of science fiction in the 1970s, when a popular TV show called “The Six Million Dollar Man” chronicled the adventures of Steve Austin, a former astronaut whose body was rebuilt using artificial parts after he nearly died. Now, a team of engineers has assembled a robot using artificial organs, limbs and other body parts that comes tantalizingly close to a true “bionic man.” For real, this time. The artificial “man” is the subject of a Smithsonian Channel documentary that airs Sunday, Oct....

Security cameras planted in the Western Saudi town of Makkah appears to have caught what could be a jinn (ghost), clad in white but without a face. A Saudi newspaper said the creature was filmed by all security cameras planted inside the secretariat building in Islam’s holiest shrine. “The person was totally clad in white and was standing near one of the building’s doors but his face did not appear…it was round 3am,” Almadina Arabic language daily said, quoting sources at Makkah secretariat. The paper, which published the picture, said the creature could be a jinn but did not make...

The Internet we each see every day is an infinitesimally tiny sliver of the whole—the parts we have curated for ourselves, the parts our network of friends and family sends to us, and the sites that we have made parts of our routines. But beyond this micro-level editing, there are also macro forces at work: The Internet largely exists for and is created by the people who are on it. The map above gives a rough idea of who those people are—or, at least, where they are. The map, created as part of the Information Geographies project at the...

Hunters who killed an albino moose later admitted to making a mistake after being chastised by local aboriginal communities. The rare creature is considered to be a sacred symbol to the Mi’kmaq people, who call it a Spirit Moose, but according to Jim Hnatiuks, the owner of a hunting and taxidermy store in Lantz, Nova Scotia, the hunters had no idea. “The hunters are saying, ‘We wouldn’t have shot the moose if we had known it meant that much,’” Hnatiuks told CTV News. After taking down the moose on their hunting trip in the Cape Breton Highlands, the hunters brought...

FULL TITLE: Orthodox rabbis 'plotted to kidnap and torture Jewish men with cattle prods and karate so they would divorce their wives' Two Orthodox rabbis have been arrested for allegedly plotting to kidnap and beat Jewish men - using cattle prods and karate moves - so that they would divorce their wives. Mendel Epstein and Martin Wolmark were arrested following a sting operation with an undercover agent posing as unhappily married woman in New Jersey, the FBI announced on Thursday. Orthodox rules allow only a man to initiate a divorce, but the rabbis allegedly told the woman they would torture...

A homeless man who has graced San Francisco and went on an anti-Semitic tirade in Times Square while dressed as Elmo was sentenced to a year in prison in a plot to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts. Dan Sandler, aka "Evil Elmo," was sentenced Wednesday in New York City after pleading guilty to attempted grand larceny and misdemeanor stalking as part of a deal with prosecutors. VIDEO: Evil Elmo Comes to San Francisco Sandler, of Ashland, Ore., was accused of threatening to publicize false information about the Girl Scouts unless he got the money. Prosecutors say he sent...

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet lifetimes. It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO...

CHURCH HILL — A month long pizza binge landed a Hawkins County teen in jail after she allegedly bought pies in Church Hill on 18 separate occasions this past June using a debit card number stolen from the online boyfriend she was scamming. Heather Nicole Arnold, 19, 145 Lynch Road Lot 9, Church Hill, allegedly gave the online boyfriend a bogus name, and used a bogus Facebook profile during that online romance earlier this year. CHPD Detective Kevin Grigsby said Arnold’s phony Facebook page used photos that Arnold allegedly pirated from a Destin, Fla. woman’s Facebook profile. The Florida woman...

Investigators, even scientists, have never seen anything like it. The new synthetic drug called Crazy Clown is now linked to deaths across the country.

The lemon-lime soda seems to help the body better metabolize alcohol, according to Chinese researchers. Plain soda water had a similar effect.If you're searching for the magical elixir to cure a hangover, Chinese researchers may have found it. The solution: lemon-lime flavored soda Sprite. But if you prefer to skip the sweet stuff, soda water is a good alternative, findings showed. Some of the adverse effects of alcohol are thought to be caused not by the alcohol itself but by the process of the body trying to break down the alcohol. After drinking, the body goes through two stages of...

FULL TITLE: Teenage mom who thought she was dating rapper Bow Wow after they 'met online and he sent her $10k' discovers she was victim of a lesbian's elaborate catfish hoax A teenage mother has been left devastated after finding out that her 'boyfriend' - millionaire rapper Bow Wow - was in fact a woman conducting an elaborate Catfish hoax. Keyonnah's whirlwind romance started four months ago when she liked Bow Wow's fan page on Facebook. Out of the blue, the rapper began messaging her, escalating to daily text messages where the pair would plan their life together. The super...

Pro Familia, Germany’s leading family planning group, published articles years ago that appeared to advocate for pedophilia, university researchers say. The findings by researchers at Gottingen University were published Wednesday by the newspaper Tagesspiegel, The Local.de reported. An institute at the university has been involved since May in finding past statements by politicians and others that seem to make light of sexual relations between children and adults. …

You’re a slushie machine. You sit at home at the convenience store of the gas station, churning out sweet frozen delight and depositing it in customers’ cups. Then along comes an unclothed someone who wants to beat you up — and for what? What did you ever do to deserve such a beat down? The aggrieved slushie machine in this instance was minding its own chilly business at a Shell station in Massachusetts when police say a woman took off all her clothing in a violent attack on the machine.WWLP.com’s 22News reports that cops had to use a taser and...

Heather Harley-Davidson swore profusely after her arrest, a St. Johns County Sheriff's Office deputy saidA St. Augustine woman named Heather Harley-Davidson was arrested for driving under the influence – but she wasn’t driving a motorcycle, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said. Heather Harley-Davidson, 49, was at the wheel of a 2001 Silver Lincoln Continental that was swerving from side to side on the 5500 block of A1A late last Wednesday night, according to an offense report from the sheriff’s office. A deputy said that he saw the car leave the road three times. The vehicle was still swerving when...

1941: Photograph of a 'time traveler' ... Young man (right side, third up) with sunglasses and contemporary-like clothing in this 1940s photograph. - From Wikipedia:  “A photograph from 1941 of the re-opening of the South Forks Bridge in Gold Bridge, Canada, was alleged to show a time traveler. It was claimed that his clothing and sunglasses were modern and not of the styles worn in the 1940s. “The modern appearance of the man may not have been so modern. The style of sunglasses first appeared in the 1920s. The sweater with a sewn-on emblem, is the kind of clothing...

Hello. If you all haven't noticed how the obomba led government shutdown is affecting your postal service hopefully I will be able to open your eyes.On a topic that I have yet to see anything written about my wife and I have noticed that the USPS is now, more than ever, losing mail, taking two to three times as long to deliver the mail and when they do deliver the mail they are tacking on a COD charge to the recipient. My wife and I run a couple of online business where we have to send lots of mail out...

MOUNT CLEMENS, Michigan - A 53-year-old woman has pleaded guilty after she allegedly used cans of spaghetti sauce to simulate a bomb and then proceeded to rob a bank. Police say Ophelia A. Neal, a parole absconder, robbed a Fifth Third Bank branch in Macomb County's Clinton Township on April 6. According to police, Neal told bank employees she had a bomb in a cloth bag, demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash into a getaway car driven by a man. Neal pleaded guilty Monday in Oakland County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens to bank robbery and...