Free Republic

or a Harvard Ph.D., Tim Gould acted pretty stupid Wednesday afternoon. The Metropolitan State College philosophy professor got nose-to-nose with a conservative undergraduate in front of a legislative committee considering whether Colorado needs to pass a law to protect college students from liberal bias.As members of the House education committee watched, Gould gave the Republican-dominated General Assembly the ammunition it needs to impose a legislative gag order on teachers at state colleges and universities.Gould threatened to sue 21-year-old Ian VanBuskirk after VanBuskirk invited the General Assembly to put "a chilling effect" on professors.VanBuskirk had just told the committee how his...

Crime doesn't pay, but often the laughs are priceless Despite the continuing statistical decline in most categories of crime, we are happy to report there has been no correlating drop in the seemingly endless supply of dumb crooks. Herewith is part one of 2003's crop of smart-challenged lawbreakers and IQ-impaired felons. Part 2 appears Friday. Just put some oink-ment on the bruise: In January, a 21-year-old Stratford man was charged with assault of a victim over 60 after he belted a convenience store owner with a slab of bacon. The proprietor had refused to sell the bacon to the man,...

EAST ORANGE, N.J. -- The FBI has arrested a city political figure on charges she sold crack cocaine for a street gang. A cooperating federal witness bought 169 vials of crack from Sophia Merritt two weeks after she was elected to the Democratic committee in June 2002, according to a court document filed by the FBI. She was 18 at the time. Several weeks later, Merritt was seen in a car with more than a pound of cocaine, the filing said. "She was a full-time narcotics dealer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Agnifilo said. Merritt sold drugs for the Double ii...

NBCSandiego.com Bug-Bomb Explosion Rip House Apart 19 Defoggers Create Gas 'Bomb' POSTED: 11:43 AM PST December 17, 2003UPDATED: 12:16 PM PST December 17, 2003 SAN DIEGO -- A City Heights home was destroyed Wednesday morning by bug bombs. IMAGES: Bug Bombs Destroy House The owners of the house at 3715 Euclid Ave. reportedly set off 19 bug bombs in the home to exterminate insects, only to have the gas inside the containers fill the house until a pilot light ignited it, tearing the house apart.The three people who lived in the house were outside at the time of the explosion...

<p>December 15, 2003 -- A 22-year-old transvestite was in critical condition yesterday after he hacked off his penis, then lied and told cops he was the victim of a hate crime. The man, who was not identified because of the nature of the crime, was in critical condition yesterday after doctors at Harlem Hospital Center were unsuccessful in reattaching his penis. Police said the man initially claimed it was a berserk gypsy cab driver who had severed his penis in a fit of rage.</p>

GILMANTON — A local exotic bird dealer says she is out $5,000 as a result of a bogus Internet transaction where she received a bad cashier’s check from a man claiming to be in Africa. Authorities who investigate such cases of fraud say they are more common than one might expect and that they are more frequently seeing individuals receiving counterfeit checks. "You would think you could trust people ... I never thought this would happen to me," said Barbara Murray of Crystal Lake Road. Murray, who says she is the victim of fraud, makes her living by raising and...

When the mayor said 'cheese,' everyone in town had a feast By JANE ARMSTRONG UPDATED AT 3:57 PM EST Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2003 VANCOUVER -- As the first female mayor of the northern B.C. town of Houston, Sharon Smith was proud of her accomplishments. So was her husband. So proud that he snapped photos of Her Worship wearing the chain of office - and nothing else. Everything was fine until photos of a smiling Ms. Smith were allegedly copied from her home computer during a house party her kids threw, then circulated around the mill town of 4,300. Now, the...

The second of two SUNY Maritime College students who slammed into a bridge while riding atop an elevated subway in the Bronx last week has died, officials said yesterday. Brian Hochstetter, 21, was critically injured when his head hit the Whitlock Avenue bridge and died Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. "We did everything we could," said Jacobi Medical Center spokeswoman Nancy McPartlin. "We tried. We really tried everything we could to help that family and their son. Our hearts go out to them." Hochstetter and Christopher Loughrey, a friend and classmate, were riding on the northbound No. 6 train on...

Ouch ... Hossein Barkhah of Iran dislocates his elbow while attempting to snatch 157.5kg in the men's 77 kilogram class at the World Weightlifting Championship in Vancouver, British Columbia, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

A Russian teenager ended up with frostbite after turning to the freezer after burning her mouth on a hot drink. The 13-year-old girl had panicked after scalding her tongue while drinking tea. She opened the freezer and placed her tongue against the interior wall to cool it down. But her hot tongue quickly became stuck fast to the appliance. Because she was alone at her home in Severodvinsk, northwest Russia, she had to wait for her parents to return home to be rescued. She was still face down when they walked through the door some time later. Her frantic parents...

Surgeons Remove Chopstick From Man's Face KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian surgeons treating a man for an eye infection said they were surprised to find part of a chopstick embedded in his face — the result of an assault five years ago. Doctors at a government hospital in the northern city of Ipoh said they found the section of a wooden chopstick lodged in tissue between his eyes during exploratory surgery to remove an unknown foreign object, the national new agency, Bernama, reported. Dr. Gurdeep Singh Mann, the hospital's senior eye, nose and throat specialist, said the man, Ng Keng...