Free Republic

Sheriff’s deputies had an unusual suspect in the back of their patrol squad car this week in Imperial Beach, San Diego, California. Let’s just say fingerprinting him could be tough. A sea lion pup wandered away from the shoreline on Wednesday and waddled five blocks to Mar Vista High School. School staff called in San Diego County sheriff’s deputies to “investigate.” Deputies detained the little guy, or put him in the back of the patrol car. Animal Control officers and SeaWorld workers arrived soon after to tend to the pup. In a news release, sheriff’s deputies jokingly described attempting to...

The TURN: Washington’s Spies Season 2 premiere airs this Monday, April 13 at 9/8c. Looking for ways to get ready? Here are 10 suggestions: 1. Catch up with a marathon of all 10 Season 1 episodes starting this Monday, April 13th at 10:30am/9:30c, leading directly into the two-hour Season 2 premiere event at 9/8c. You can also watch the cast and crew talk about where Season 1 left off. 2. Watch four sneak peek scenes from the two-hour Season 2 premiere. 3. View behind the scenes videos from Season 2 to get a preview of the upcoming season, meet this...

U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy is throwing his support behind fellow Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the 2016 presidential race. "I'm backing Scott Walker," Duffy told the crowd gathered in Milwaukee Saturday for the Young America's Foundation Midwest Freedom Conference. Walker is not officially a presidential candidate, but he has ramping up his travel in the United States and internationally, and his political organization, Our American Revival, has been hiring staff as all signs point to a presidential run. When asked how Walker's likely presidential run would affect Wisconsin, the Wausau Republican and former reality television star applauded the move....

I feel it’s necessary to preface this article by stating that I am not a brony. I’ve met a couple, and I don’t exactly…get it. It’s like relishing the days when you had easy access to a playground butt-kicking. That said, after seeing the message the show carries, I might join them now. There’s an inherent cowardice within the mainstream media that stops writers from venturing anywhere into territory that contradicts leftist narratives. While there might be some bravery, any divergence into territory that might run contradictory to ideals the leftist cause célèbre puts forth ends with a flurry of...

During the 1950s the world became familiar with the phrase “planned obsolescence.” The basic idea was that manufacturers change the appearance of products in order to sell more products. Customers are encouraged to want a new look, and to disdain the old look. A similar concept is called “intentional product failure.” If you design products to wear out quickly, customers will need more replacements. There have always been rumors that lightbulbs could last almost forever. Apparently it’s true. No question, both techniques increase sales and raise a country’s GDP. You probably need cynicism and maybe some criminality to practice these...

[ ... Dufresne is by no means out of the woods for her exploits. Neither is Respess. They both still face criminal charges for their roles in a threesome with the same, unidentified student. ... ] [I read it was a marathon session at 9 hours.]

Winston Churchill Day Share By Hillsdale College Apr 8, 2015 5:57:00 PM As the publisher of the Official Biography of Winston Churchill, Hillsdale College plans to host a celebration on April 9 in honor of national Winston Churchill Day!To mark the anniversary of Churchill's honorary US citizenship, Hillsdale College and RosettaBooks are offering free Kindle downloads of all 8 volumes of the official biography on April 9-11 – An $80 value, absolutely free!Download your free copies here:  Youth, 1874–1900 (Volume I)Young Statesman, 1901–1914 (Volume II)The Challenge of War, 1914–1916 (Volume III)World in Torment, 1916–1922 (Volume IV)The Prophet of Truth, 1922–1939...

When Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau was forced to go public in 1997 with an affair she was having with her former sixth grade student, Vili Fualaau, after she became pregnant with his child, it was the teacher-student sex scandal heard around the world. At the time, Mary was a 34-year-old, married teacher in Seattle, who already had four children of her own. Vili was just 13 years old. Mary was arrested and served seven and a half years in prison. Today, Mary is 53 and Vili is 31. The couple is still together and are about to celebrate their 10th...

An Orange elementary school teacher has been suspended for having her third-grade students write “get well” letters to an inmate convicted of killing a cop, school officials announced today. In a statement provided by Orange Superintendent Ronald Lee, district officials sharply criticized the assignment given by teacher Marylin Zuniga to write letters to former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. School officials said they “vehemently deny” having prior knowledge of the assignment, and said Zuniga neither sought prior approval nor notified parents about this “unauthorized activity.” “The school’s principal and district administrators vehemently deny that it had any knowledge of the...

Subject: Great Analogy If you read this and do not feel compelled to do something else, at least forward it to others- it is very good Crash Position The pilot was locked out of the cockpit. That phrase finally revealed the full horror of the crash of Germanwings flight 9525. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz waited for the pilot to leave the cockpit, then locked the door to prevent his re-entry. After which Lubitz, for reasons unknown and perhaps unknowable, deliberately steered the jet into a harrowing 8 minute plunge ending in an explosive 434 mph impact with a rocky mountainside. 150...

The University of Michigan made headlines this week for initially canceling a screening of the blockbuster film American Sniper because some Muslim students said that it being shown would make them feel “unsafe.” The college has since reversed this decision, but it’s not the only time something like this has happened. Here are seven other things that a school or its students have declared hazards to campus safety: 1. Bill Maher When the University of Berkeley announced that Bill Maher would be its graduation speaker last October, more than 6,000 students signed a petition demanding that he be banned because...

The Secret Service has stepped out of its lane of protection to assist in another crucial task for the first family: teaching teenaged Malia Obama how to drive, CNN reports. First lady Michelle Obama revealed the details in an interview with television cook Rachael Ray for a show that will air Thursday, CNN said. "The Secret Service [taught her], actually, because they wouldn't let me in the car with her," Obama told Ray, adding that she hasn't been behind the wheel in several years, having been driven during her family's White House years.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The University of New Mexico’s student paper has started using new pronouns for people who don’t identify as a man or a woman. “I thought that was ridiculous,” said Samantha Peters. “I think the names are kind of funny,” said Paul Talley. “I feel it’s weird,” said Michael Peters. The names “zi” and “zir” have people on UNM’s campus talking. Thursday, the university’s newspaper, The Daily Lobo, explained in an editorial it will now be using the two words as pronouns when writing about people who don’t identify as a male or a female. “The only non...

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee teaching assistant is offering extra credit to his students—but only if they’re bisexual. In an email sent by Jonathan Dellinger to students enrolled in his public speaking class on April 1, the TA promised three extra credit points to any of his students who were bisexual. “I’m just writing to inform you of another extra credit opportunity (3 points),” Dellinger wrote in the email obtained by Campus Reform. “To be eligible to participate in this study, you must identify as bisexual, so not everyone will be able to do this one.” A student in the Communications...

Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne pleaded guilty to obscenity Thursday (April 9), admitting in court that she had sex with a 16-year-old student. The plea lets her and the student avoid a public trial and allows her to avoid a three-year prison sentence. She must spend 90 days at an inpatient mental health facility, serve three years of active probation and pay a $1,000 fine. If she fails to enter the court-approved mental health facility by the end of August, she must report to the St. Charles Parish jail Sept. 1 for a 90-day sentence, Judge Anne Simon...

From cost to employment prospects, the state of American higher education is dismal for students. Modern American universities used to assume four goals. First, their general education core taught students how to reason inductively and imparted an aesthetic sense through acquiring knowledge of Michelangelo, the Battle of Gettysburg, “Medea” and “King Lear,” Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” and astronomy and Euclidean geometry. Second, campuses encouraged edgy speech and raucous expression — and exposure to all sorts of weird ideas and mostly unpopular thoughts. College talk was never envisioned as boring, politically correct megaphones echoing orthodox pieties. Third, four years of college...

"[..... Currently, the NCAA is coming under close scrutiny for the “one-and-done” recruiting policy schools are using to secure highly-touted freshmen, and McCaskill used her congratulatory tweet to the Blue Devils as an opportunity to criticize the collegiate athletic body. .....]"

La Paz, Mar 27 (EFE).- The government of Bolivia announced it will start exploratory excavations this year at the ancient fortress of Tiahuanaco after a buried pyramid was detected. Ludwing Cayo, director of the Tiahuanaco Archeological Research Center, told Efe that the formation is located in the area of Kantatallita, east of the Akapana pyramid. In a presentation for the media, Cayo outlined a five-year for further research at Tiahuanaco, an archaeological site 71 kilometers (44 miles) west of La Paz that was the cradle of an ancient civilization predating the Incas. Excavations may start in May or June, depending...

IÂ’ve written many times about the shortcomings of government schools at the K-12 level. We spend more on our kids than any other nation, yet our test scores are comparatively dismal. And one of my points, based on this very sobering chart from one of my Cato colleagues, is that AmericaÂ’s educational performance took a turn in the wrong direction when the federal government became more involved starting about 40-50 years ago. Well, the same unhappy story exists in the higher-education sector. Simply stated, thereÂ’s been an explosion of spending, much of it from Washington, yet the rate of return...

What Could Be More Appropriate on Easter? Jerry Coyne Challenges Francis Collins on Metaphysics Michael Egnor April 5, 2015 3:15 AM | Permalink National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, who is a devout Christian, did an interview recently with National Geographic about his faith and his science. Predictably, Jerry Coyne, an atheist biologist from the University of Chicago, took exception to some of Collins's answers about the compatibility of faith in God and science. Collins: [Question asked of Collins] Are science and religion compatible?I am privileged to be somebody who tries to understand nature using the tools of science....