Free Republic

...Ryan called the Democratic lawmakers' sit-in Wednesday to protest inaction on gun laws a "publicity stunt," saying that House liberals were more interested in headlines.... .....the sit-in that began earlier in Ryan's chamber earned his scorn. "This is nothing more than a publicity stunt," Ryan said, saying House Democrats would infringe on Second Amendment rights and do nothing to prevent terrorist attacks. "This is not about a solution to a problem. This is about trying to get attention." Ryan said they would not take up gun bills that the Senate already voted down on Monday. He called on legislation to...

Police in Dresden, Germany, say they have arrested a 55-year-old police officer on suspicion of murdering and butchering a man he met on a cannibalism website. The two men met on Zambian Meat, an Internet chat forum where people discuss their sexual and cannibalistic fantasies. Text messages and online chats revealed that the 59-year-old victim from Hanover asked to be killed, police said.

Bono, Olivia Wilde and Richard Branson join Matt Damon's "toilet strike" What is the latest celebrity accessory trend? Diapers. In a humorous, but fact-filled PSA, Olivia Wilde, Bono and Richard Branson announce they are joining Matt Damon's toilet strike to raise awareness about the global water crisis. In the definition of promises they can't keep (but it's the sentiment that counts), the three celebs pledge, "We won't go to the bathroom until everyone in the world has access to clean water and sanitation." "I remember when Matt first brought up the idea, it was at a meeting of the illuminati,"...

Police are investigating a series of explicit pictures that were taken last week at a veterans cemetery in Seattle and then posted on the photographer’s web site, which is devoted to fetish and bondage images. The photos show a naked woman bound by rope hanging from a cannon barrel and a statue of a soldier. In the background of the photos are the neatly aligned headstones of dead veterans buried at the Evergreen Washelli cemetery. The images were posted last Friday to the web site of photographer Patrick Cameron, who captioned the photo set “Playing around in the Cemeterey.” The...

A man whose self-professed fetish for slashing exercise balls with a knife — which has gotten him in trouble with the law at least twice previously — has been arrested again. Duluth Police said Christopher Neil Bjerkness, of Duluth, Minn., was arrested on Sunday afternoon after he broke into Chester Creek Academy, a school connected with Northwood Children’s Services. The room he was in was meant for physical therapy, and contained a number of inflatable exercise balls. When the alarm rang and staffers arrived, none of the balls had been damaged. He was arrested soon thereafter. Police said Bjerkness damaged...

Octomom stars in a fetish video, in which she whips a grown man wearing a baby diaper and a bonnet ... TMZ has learned. The video was shot recently in her L.A. area home. The video shows Nadya Suleman, dressed in a black corset, black leggings and her body is kinda smokin'. Octo whips the dude in the diaper, so much so he has welts on his back. The video is being shopped for sale. We're told both Nadya and the dude have signed the model release so it can be sold.

A theatrical production of unusual pomposity will open on Wednesday when Republicans assume control of the House for the 112th Congress. A rule will be passed requiring that every bill cite its basis in the Constitution. A bill will be introduced to repeal the health care law. On Thursday, the Constitution will be read aloud in the House chamber. And in one particularly self-important flourish, the new speaker, John Boehner, arranged to have his office staff “sworn in” on Tuesday by the chief justice of the United States.

Now this is a laugh. As Vanity Fair reports, the House GOP leadership's symbolic gesture of reading the Constitution on the House floor today -- in an effort to please their Tea Party base who decry virtually all of the Obama administration's policies as both a monumental waste of money and, more importantly, an affront to our founding document -- could also itself cost a lot of money. The magazine asked an expert on government waste, and he said in part: The amount I get is nearly $1.1 million. $1,071,872.87, to be exact, though of course this is more back-of-the-envelope...

In a nation founded upon the U.S. Constitution, one might think that reading the founding document out loud on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives might not be controversial, but some on the left suggest those promoting its voicing have a "fetish." Among them is Dahlia Lithwick of Slate.com, who penned a column titled, "Read It and Weep: How the tea party's fetish for the Constitution as written may get it in trouble."

The 2010 midterm elections are shaping up to be a Democrats nightmare. But the problems for the Democrats and Obama won’t end there. Indeed, the fallout from the 2010 elections will likely carry over into 2012 which may well feature Hillary running against Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s retirement. Here’s why: 1. Republican’s Political Carpe Diem. It appears more everyday that Congressional Republicans are coming to grips with the tide sweeping the Country – Tea Party and otherwise. If Republicans rekindle their successful strategy of 1994, by setting a clear, practical and limited fall election agenda, then they can successfully frame...

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - A Duluth man wanted for allegedly breaking into a medical clinic and slashing rubber exercise balls has turned himself in. Christopher Neil Bjerkness, 31, was arraigned Monday. He turned himself in early Saturday after calling police and was taken into custody without incident. Bjerkness has a history of burglary to satisfy a self-professed sexual fetish for slashing large rubber exercise balls. He is accused of breaking into the St. Marys/Duluth Clinic West building last May, where he allegedly slashed exercise balls.

Two transgender advocates will be part of an on-air apology Thursday by a Sacramento radio team who have upset lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates. Transgender advocates Kim Pearson and Autumn Sandeen will appear on KRXQ's "Rob, Arnie & Dawn" show Thursday morning to "further educate the hosts," according to a press release from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). The trio's morning show is off the air because of their remarks but will return at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. "KRXQ appears to be taking this matter very seriously following widespread response from community members and advertisers," said Rashad...

Upon reflection, another thing strikes me about the Obama-Cheney face-off, or rather its interpretation. There is a mirror-universe quality to the partisan reactions to the two speeches—perhaps not surprisingly, but still quite strikingly. If you are a consumer of conservative blogs, Cheney was "a grownup," "sober," a projector of "gravitas" ... you get the idea. Obama, by contrast, is the callow, dilettante law school professor too busy campaigning to grasp the grownup, sober, grave nature of the presidency and the threat we face. It was "a mismatch."If you're touring the lefty side of the blogosphere, the battle between them...

Here'a an excerpt and a sample: Vanity Fair: Miss “Cable Queen,” as Vogue calls you, do you suffer from any paraphilia? Maddow: Paraphilia? Vanity Fair: Listen to this saucy pedant. Paraphilia is having a rare erotic fetish. Perhaps you may indulge in eproctophilia?
 Maddow: Duh? Vanity Fair: Darling! Eproctophiliacs are those sexually turned on by farts and farting! Maddow: That word actually exists?

In yet another manifestation of the "maverick's" fealty to a failed president, John McCain is stuck trying to explain why he and Bush remain united in their opposition to a new, bipartisan G.I. Bill that would benefit our returning troops. McCain felt compelled to defend himself again yesterday, during his Memorial Day speech, and no wonder. This is quite the political dilemma. By standing with President Bush, he risks being perceived as standing against the soldiers - which is not exactly the ideal profile for a Republican candidate. In his speech yesterday, he at least tried to argue his case...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney's pregnant lesbian daughter Mary will make a "fine mom," President George W. Bush said, sidestepping his past comment that a child ideally would be raised by a mother and father. Mary Cheney, 37, and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, are expecting their first child, which would be the sixth grandchild for the vice president. Cheney was hired last year as an executive for America Online. "I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I'm happy for her," Bush said in an interview with People magazine.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna said he thought Darwin's theories on evolution deserve to be studied in schools, along with the scientific question marks that remain. It is right to teach "the science of Darwin, not ideological Darwinism," Cardinal Schonborn said Aug. 23. He spoke at a meeting in Rimini sponsored by the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation, and his remarks were reported by Italian newspapers. In 2005, Cardinal Schonborn helped fuel the debate over evolution and intelligent design when he wrote in The New York Times that science offers "overwhelming evidence for design in biology." He later...

Following her discussion of dinosaurs examined in Part II of this series, Coulter (2006, 219) ventured this: For over a hundred years, evolutionists proudly pointed to the same sad birdlike animal, Archaeopteryx, as their lone transitional fossil linking dinosaurs and birds. Discovered a few years after Darwin published The Origin of Species, Archaeopteryx was instantly hailed as the transitional species that proved Darwin's theory. This unfortunate creature had wings, feathers, teeth, claws, and a long, bony tail. If it flew at all, it didn't fly very well. Alas, it is now agreed that poor Archaeopteryx is no relation of modern...

What are Darwinists so afraid of? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 27, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Jonathan Witt © 2006 As a doctoral student at the University of Kansas in the '90s, I found that my professors came in all stripes, and that lazy ideas didn't get off easy. If some professor wanted to preach the virtues of communism after it had failed miserably in the Soviet Union, he was free to do so, but students were also free to hear from other professors who critically analyzed that position. Conversely, students who believed capitalism and democracy were the great engines of...

Ten years ago, an international team of scientists reported evidence, in a controversial cover story in the journal Nature, that life on Earth began more than 3.8 billion years ago—400 million years earlier than previously thought. A UCLA professor who was not part of that team and two of the original authors will report in late July that the evidence is stronger than ever. Craig E. Manning, lead author of the new study and a professor of geology and geochemistry in the UCLA Department of Earth and Space Sciences, painstakingly mapped an area on Akilia Island in West Greenland where...