Free Republic

Today’s Morning Jolt is jam-packed, as it is a special ALL-SCANDAL edition! SCANDAL ONE: Dear Media: Obama’s Indignant Benghazi Response Revealed a Lot Yesterday! Dear friends in the media. Come on. I mean, come on. You and I know what’s going with the Benghazi thing. Let me share something that I first put into play during the “was Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account hacked” debate, but that comes from watching the Lewinsky scandal, the where-did –Mark-Sanford-go scandal, the why-is-David-Wu-dressed-in-a-tiger-suit scandal, and a wide variety of wrongdoing committed by politicians: When there is evidence of scandalous or bizarre behavior on the part...

Fans of Iron Man, take notice: A group of students at the Royal College of Art in London have created two masks that can give you superhuman sight and hearing. The first prototype covers the wearer's ears, mouth and nose and uses a directional microphone to give him the ability to hear an isolated sound in a noisy environment. For example, you could target a person in a crowd and clearly hear his words without the surrounding noise. The other prototype is worn over one's eyes. A camera captures video and sends it to a computer, which can apply a...

What actually happened in Egypt and Libya on September 11, 2012? The story from the U.S. government has changed many times in an effort to craft a narrative that causes as little damage as possible to the Obama administration. Now the administration seems to have settled on something approaching a final version.The U.S. embassy in Cairo, September 11, 2012Newscom It goes like this:On September 11, and in the days that followed, citizens in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa gathered to protest The Innocence of Muslims, a video on YouTube produced in California that was disrespectful to Islam and the...

<p>State police are responding to a report of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dickinson Drive, school officials said.</p> <p>Police are reporting a number of injured parties. The nature of their injuries is not clear.</p> <p>There are unconfirmed reports of two shooters — one dead, one still at large.</p>

NEWTOWN, Conn. (CBS Connecticut/AP) — CBS News is reporting that 27 people are dead, including 18 students, after a mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. The gunman is among the dead. CBS News’ John Miller reports there is preliminary information that the gunman was the father of one of the students. Miller additionally reports the gunman is 20 years old and is from New Jersey. The shooter was killed and apparently had two guns, a person with knowledge of the shooting said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way....

CLACKAMAS, OR (KPTV) - A 22-year-old man from southeast Portland parked his car outside Macy's, rushed into the Clackamas Town Center mall food court and opened fire, killing two people Tuesday, investigators said. Jacob Roberts' AR-15 rifle then jammed, but he was able to get the gun working again. He shot and killed himself, sheriff's deputies said. Steve Forsyth, of West Linn, and Cindy Yuille, of northeast Portland, were killed by Roberts, authorities said. A third shooting victim, Kristina Shevchenko, survived and is being treated at Oregon Health & Science University hospital. Deputies said Roberts stole the rifle used...

A gunman who witnesses say was wearing camouflage and a white plastic mask opened fire in a shopping mall near Portland, Ore., in a rampage that left three dead, including the shooter, and multiple wounded, police said. Authorities say police "neutralized" the gunman but have yet to elaborate on how he died. Witnesses described a harrowing scene, as the gunman appeared to be dressed in body armor while firing off an estimated 60 shots from a semi-automatic rifle. One witness told KPTV that the gunman ran past her and her boyfriend and "had the look of death in his eyes."

One arrested during peaceful — and wet — day of protest at Republican National ConventionBy Alexandra Zayas and Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writers Posted: Aug 27, 2012 05:06 PM TAMPA — Police arrested one protester on Monday afternoon and Tampa police Chief Jane Castor said that so far officers and protesters alike are getting along during this storm-shortened session of the Republic National Convention. "We hope this is it," Castor said. "But I doubt that's going to be the case." Police said protester Dominick De La Rosa, 19, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of wearing a mask — which is...

St. Petersburg sees first RNC-related arrests after men found on downtown rooftop with weaponsBy Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer Tampa Bay Times In Print: Sunday, August 26, 2012 ST. PETERSBURG — Two suspected protesters were arrested after they were found playing with a BB gun atop a downtown parking garage, authorities said. **SNIP** They also found several items indicating the people were protesters, including antigovernment T-shirts and a backpack stuffed with a large machete, a pocketknife, tin snips and a pry tool, Puetz said. The backpack belonged to Trevor Swanson, 19, of St. Petersburg, who is prohibited from having weapons...

I can only hope that this means that we have solved the shortage (somehow I doubt it), but Paula Stern reports that she got gas masks in Jerusalem. This is significant because there really has been no distribution in and around Jerusalem until now (although we had our gas masks collected a number of years ago). The only reason we have gas masks already is that Mrs. Carl works in the center of the country and got them there. This comment from Paula is a great summary of what's so bizarre about this situation: This was more than I had...

Beach-goers in China wear nylon masks to beat the sun's rays In a radical approach to protecting themselves from the sun, beach-goers in Qingdao, China's Shandong province don colourful nylon masks over their heads. The mask, which was invented by a woman about seven years ago, is used to block the sun's rays. The mask is under mass production and is on sale at local swimwear stores. However, the masks are still rare on the beach, with more swimmers sticking with good old sunscreen.

RIVIERA BEACH— Authorities are seeking the public's help in identifying a man who robbed a McDonald's on Saturday while wearing a President Barack Obama mask. Riviera Beach Police say that the man who held employees of the McDonald's at 3551 Broadway at gunpoint with a silver, semi-automatic handgun, was wearing a mask "resembling a likeness" to Obama. He ordered all employees to the back office at 6:21 a.m., and then ordered the manager to open the safe and place the cash in a cloth bag he brought.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November. And remember to wear your mask! Your Guy Fawkes/"V for Vendetta" mask, that is. No, Halloween is not over. You can keep wearing your costume into November, especially today, November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day. It's the trendy outfit to wear to your local Occupy protest. All the cool Guys and gals are wearing it. And when you walk into your bank today to close out your account, and they look at you a little funny because you're wearing a mask, don't be alarmed, even if you start hearing an alarm! Just tell them...

Is "Black Bloc" hijacking Occupy Oakland?By John Blackstone November 4, 2011 7:00 PM (CBS News) Peaceful protests by the Occupy Oakland movement were overshadowed this week by violent clashes between a small group of demonstrators and police. Now there's concern among the majority of protesters that their message is being hijacked. CBS News correspondent John Blackstone looks into this latest development. It could be seen as a battle for the image of the Occupy movement. One demonstrator struggles to put out the flames of a burning barricade as others masked and dressed in black pull him away. It wasn't the...

Get your bids in now, right here. God, 80 people, or thereabouts, actually want to own it. Ours is a sick society, very sick, gravely sick. (No, I have absolutely nothing to do with the sale of that hideous thing.)

It began in 1959. After experimenting with designs off the ice for months, Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante felt he had found the right kind of goalie mask to use for protection in a game, but there was just one problem. He wasn't allowed to use one.It wasn't just that no goalie before him had ever worn a mask during a game in the NHL, but that his coaches, including head coach Toe Blake, thought it would hinder his vision, and therefore told Plante he would not be able to wear the mask.Talk about tough love, and especially for a goalie...

A gun-wielding man wearing a Hillary Clinton mask robbed a Sterling bank on Dec. 27, authorities said. The man walked into the Wachovia bank in Community Plaza about 9:14 a.m., approached a teller, brandished a firearm and demanded cash, according to Loudoun County sheriff’s office reports. The robber then fled the bank in an unknown direction with an undisclosed amount of cash. No injuries were reported, according to Kraig Troxell, spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses described the robber as a 6-foot-tall black man. He was last seen wearing a black jacket with a red shirt underneath, according...

When Helen Thomas said that Israel's Jews should just GTFO and return to Germany and Poland, I suggested her comments were not anti-Semitic per se but merely very blunt anti-Zionism. But her latest comments suggests that, no, she really has a problem with Jews: Thomas, who grew up in Detroit the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, was in Dearborn today for an Arab Detroit workshop on anti-Arab bias. ... In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Thomas talked about "the whole question of money involved in politics." "We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There's no question about that....

A first-grade art project has two parents so upset that they are moving their son to another school in another city. Monday, Dallas Smith, 6, came home wearing a white, cone-shaped mask he made in art class at Winfield-Scott Elementary in Fort Scott, Kansas. “It appears to look like a Ku Klux Klan hat, which is a heck of a thing to put on a six-year-old boy,” said Barry Smith, Dallas’ father. It was part of a project done in Russ Gordon’s art class. “That was never, never the purpose of the project,” Gordon said, referring to Smith’s description of...

WINSTON-SALEM -- A quick glance at surveillance video taken inside a local convenience store might lead someone to believe the 44th president of the United States committed a crime. Police said a man wearing a mask of President Barack Obama robbed the Sheetz on Somerset Center Drive at about 3:24 a.m. on Wednesday. Police said the man, who was armed with a handgun, demanded money and left after he was given cash. He was last seen driving away in a compact gold or silver vehicle, police said.

Sexy red lingerie and heavy breathing have traditionally gone hand in hand. But a bra from inventor, Dr. Elena Bodnar, is designed to let people breathe easier. Her Emergency Bra is a protective device that transforms from a bra into two respiratory pace masks to filter out harmful airborne particles, such as those released by fire, explosion, terrorist, radiological, biological attack, and natural disasters.

MIDWEST CITY, Oklahoma (Reuters) – An unemployed woman who said she was desperate for money has been arrested on charges she robbed an Oklahoma McDonald's with a white stretch girdle wrapped around her face as a makeshift mask. Authorities said 51-year-old Sharon Lain of Midwest City admitted to being the underwear-masked bandit who made off with the contents of a cash drawer from the fast-food restaurant around 3 a.m. Tuesday. A surveillance video captured the woman on tape and was broadcast on local television, prompting several tips that led police to a condemned home on Wednesday night where Lain was...

For sale on Amazon.com for only $39.00 Teleprompters and Nobel Peace Prize not included

PHOENIX (AP) -- A driver has racked up dozens of speeding tickets in photo-radar zones on Phoenix-area freeways while sporting monkey and giraffe masks, and is fighting every one by claiming the costumes make it impossible for authorities to prove he was behind the wheel.

Protex N95 Respirator Mask - 20 pk. Protex N95 Respirator Mask - 20 pk. Select Quantity, then click "Add to Cart" The item is available ONLINE only Home or Business delivery: Delivery: $10.77 #685965 Suggested Items Dynarex Transparent Surgical Tape - 144 ct. - 1" Dynarex Transparent Surgical Tape - 144 ct. - 1" Overview Protex respirator masks are latex free, adjustable for different head sizes and adjust at the nose as well. NIOSH approved as a Particulate Filter (95% efficiency level), these masks provide effective viral protection. They are individually, hygienically packed for safe use and are ideal for...

A mask similar to one President Barack Obama himself wore in a "Saturday Night Live" skit prompted a Portland school principal to ban a boy from performing while wearing it at his elementary school talent show after deciding the rubber likeness of the 44th president was "inappropriate and potentially offensive." Dru Lechert-Kelly, 11, a fifth-grader at Llewellyn Elementary School in Southeast Portland, decided to dress up like his role model and dance to a popular YouTube song that features an Obama look-alike dancing to a parody called "I Can Do Whatever I Like." Dru performed the skit in front of...

An elementary school principal is barring a fifth-grader from wearing a Barack Obama mask in the school's talent show because parents have complained it's inappropriate. Dru Lechert-Kelly, 11, hoped to dress presidentially and dance to a YouTube parody that features an Obama look-alike and a rap called "I Can Do Whatever I Like." The skit features him in a navy blue suit, white shirt, red tie, black shoes and an Obama mask purchased at a costume shop — one like Obama himself once donned for a Saturday Night Live sketch. The choreographed routine rehearsed Thursday ends with Dru on the...

A U.S. cyclist arrives wearing a mask at Beijing airport to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, August 5, 2008. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

Olympic Athletes Wearing Masks Could Cause China to Lose Face U.S. Committee Developed a Model in Secret; Jarrod Shoemaker Ponders the Geek Factor By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS and STEPHANIE KANG July 21, 2008; Page A1 U.S. triathlete Jarrod Shoemaker has a decision to make at the opening ceremony of the Olympics next month in Beijing: Should he strap on a mask? Chinese officials insist the notorious Beijing air will be cleaner by August, making such contraptions unnecessary. Concerned about the pollution, the U.S. Olympic Committee is distributing a high-tech mask, developed in secrecy, to its more than 600 Olympians. If athletes...

Crime, I don’t condone it, but sometimes you do feel sorry for the perp. Take for instance this story of an animal lover looking to provide for his pets. ( TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese animal-lover on welfare went to extremes to provide for his many pets by robbing convenience stores while wearing the mask of a dog, police said Monday. Takaharu Kawata — branded by Japanese media as “The Dogman” — was caught on a surveillance camera wearing an oversized black-and-white canine mask while brandishing a knife.) OK…I feel I need to step in here. Please take a look...

February 14, 2008 British defy Beijing over masks Owen Slot, Chief Sports Reporter British Olympic authorities will risk offending their Chinese hosts at the Beijing Games this summer by allowing their athletes to wear masks while competing in order to contain the impact of air pollution. The issue of pollution has dogged the lead-up to the Games and the Chinese are unlikely to enjoy having television pictures beamed around the world showing the likes of Paula Radcliffe running the marathon with a high-tech antipollution mask and looking as if she is a hospital surgeon. Some countries, notably the United States,...

Maya Mask Splendor Enhanced With Sparkling Mica ScienceDailyReconstruction of the Rosalila in the Copan museum. The Rosalila is still entombed within another pyramid. Ms Goodall said the mica was applied over the red paint of stucco masks on the corners of Copan's well-preserved Rosalila temple, found buried under another pyramid. (Credit: Dr. Jay Hall) (Jan. 27, 2008) — Ancient Mayan temple builders discovered and used lustrous pigments to make their buildings dazzle in the daylight, a Queensland University of Technology researcher has discovered. Studying tiny shards of paint from the Mayan city of Copan, QUT physical and chemical sciences PhD...

Rare Maya "Death Vase" Discovered Blake de Pastino National Geographic News Updated December 4, 2007 An extremely rare and intricately carved "death vase" has been discovered in the 1,400-year-old grave of an elite figure with ties to the Maya Empire, scientists say. The vase is the first of its kind to be found in modern times, and its contents are opening a window onto ancient rituals of ancestor worship that included food offerings, chocolate enemas, and hallucinations induced by vomiting, experts say. Archaeologists discovered the vase along with parts of a human skeleton while excavating a small "palace" in northwestern...

NEW YORK -- One person carrying a rifle in a bag was arrested on the St. John's Queens campus Wednesday afternoon, police said. The man appeared to be wearing a President Bush mask, according to preliminary information from law enforcement officials. Authorities asked students and faculty across the campus to stay indoors. There was a large police presence on the campus. Areas near the site of the man's apprehension have been locked down. Police said they were possibly looking for more suspects. The St. John's University Web site issued this advisory: "A male with a rifle in a bag was...

Bulgarian archaeologists discover 2,400-year-old golden mask The Associated Press Published: July 16, 2007 SOFIA, Bulgaria: Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,400-year-old golden mask in an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, scholars announced Monday. The mask was discovered over the weekend by a team of archaeologists excavating near the village of Topolchane, 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of the capital, Sofia. Its discovery, archaeologists said, indicates a Thracian king was buried in the tomb. It was found together with a solid gold ring engraved with a Greek inscription and with the design of a bearded man in a timber-lined Thracian grave....

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2006 – Though suicide bombings continue to take innocent lives in Iraq, the country's political progress is a truer measure of success in U.S. efforts there, President Bush said here yesterday. Bush met with reporters at the White House along with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Asked why the world's most powerful military force has been unable to quell the violence in some Iraqi provinces, Bush pointed out that suicide bombings are difficult to prevent and said the tactic has become the "main weapon of the enemy." "If one were to measure progress on the number...

The Iranian government is to contact the Iraqi tribunal prosecuting Saddam Hussein to seek justice for the Iranian victims of Iraqi chemical weapons attacks which contaminated up to 100,000 people. Tehran promised last week to present a dossier to the tribunal documenting Saddam's use of poison gas in the 1980-88 war with Iran. So far, the only charges Saddam will face are those relating to crimes inside Iraq and during the 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait. Western countries offered Saddam tacit support during his war with Iran, refusing to blame Iraq for its invasion and the subsequent use of poison gas....

Archaeologists unearth part of 3, 500 year-old gold mask SOFIA (bnn)- Archaeologists in Southern Bulgaria, exploring what they believe to be the tomb of Orpheus, discovered fragments of a golden mask dating from the Trojan War, state TV reported. The expedition found the gold in a 3, 500 year-old temple that has survived untouched by treasure hunters. Archaeological team leader Nikolay Ovcharov said the mask was older than a 690-gram (24.3-ounce) Thracian gold mask that was unearthed a year ago in central Bulgaria. The Thracians were Bronze Age people, who lived in the Balkans between 4,000 B.C. and the seventh...

King Tut Exhibit Outrages Activists. Critics Want Busts Depicting Tut As White Removed. LOS ANGELES -- African-American activists criticized the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for allowing a King Tut exhibition at the county Museum of Art, saying that renderings of the boy king as white are inaccurate. The "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs" exhibit opens a four-city, nationwide tour at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on June 16. Among the installations are three busts of Tut II reconstructed from the boy king's mummified corpse. All of the busts, fashioned by three groups of researchers, show...

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) -- City and county attorneys are defending Wheeling police who arrested a man for wearing a Grinch mask while walking along a city street. Norman Eugene Gray, 42, was arrested Tuesday. He was arraigned and released on a personal recognizance bond. Officers saw Gray about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, told him to take the mask off and not put it on again. Gray removed it and asked why he could not wear it, according to Wheeling police reports. Officers told him wearing masks in public is illegal. Gray said he felt he had a right to wear it...

Thracian Owner of Gold Mask Axe-Chopped The owner of the ancient gold mask – Thracian king Seutus III – has been chopped after his death, Bulgarian experts found, proving a theory for Thracians' funeral rituals. Photo by Kameliya Atanasova (Sofia News Agency) Lifestyle: 17 May 2005, Tuesday. The Thracian king Seutus III, whose gold mask was unearthed in 2004 by Bulgarian archaeologists, has been chopped with an axe after his death, an expert research showed. According to archaeologists this discovery is pure sensation because it proves the theory that ancient Thracians used to chop into pieces their rulers' bodies and...

TEHRAN -- Archaeologists at a dig on a farm in western Iran have uncovered a skeleton with a solid gold mask in a bronze coffin in what could be the first of a fresh wave of Parthian-era discoveries. "This finding is without precedence in our province," said the head of the Lorestan cultural heritage organization, Sirous Ebrahimi. "We were told by locals that some people were searching the area with metal detectors, so we rushed to the area, and sealed it off," he explained. He said that the coffin dates back between 1,700 and 2,200 years. The Parthian Empire occupied...

Cid Martel of the Dutch Disease blog has kindly sent along this revealing translation of a Dutch story from Trouw. Cid explains: "A small Dutch Christian party called ChristenUnie (ChristianUnion) is trying to figure out how to deal with Muslims. Some feel Muslims are a threat, others think that Christians need to be open to people from other cultures. There was a debate recently between the party leader and the director of Milli Gorus. It started out fine but suddenly Haci Karacear, the director, dropped his mask. This is from a column which appeared in today’s Trouw newspaper by the...

One of the terrible tragedies of communist Cuba is the dead silence of Cubans who must voicelessly live on that island. Unless we have Cuban relatives, we don't know a thing about those people, who might as well be living in the blacked-out Iraq of Saddam Hussein, or on the far side of the moon, for that matter. The only sound out of Cuba is the megalomanical voice of dictator Fidel Castro, or the parroting of his obedient minions. In the Cuban press and public square, every single issue and article, one way or another, is ultimately all about Castro....

Lurch, Herman Munster, we've all seen Kerry compared to these hollywood monsters. Now you can put that to work for you this Halloween. If you go to the source link, you can download a .pdf that, when you print it out on cardstock and follow the instructions, provides you with your very own 'sKerrystein' mask for Halloween. Enjoy. PS: It didn't take much editing, honest!

There has been reports of novelty stores selling Osama bin Laden masks. I have people telling me this but cannot verify as to whether this is true that novelty stores are making a buck off of the 9/11 event and the lives of 3000 people thinking the Osama bin Laden mask is the best thing since sliced bread. Can people report and verify this, and which stores are carrying the mask and which company is making this mask?

The Associated Press MILWAUKEE — Maybe there’s a reason Halloween and Election Day are so close together. For the last six presidential elections, since Ronald Reagan’s first victory, sales of rubber Halloween masks caricaturing the Republican and Democratic candidates have predicted the next president, according to an Internet costume seller. Buycostumes.com is keeping track of which mask — President Bush or his Democratic opponent John Kerry — the company sells the most of and posts the results on the Web site. As of Thursday, 55 percent of the masks sold were of Bush and 45 percent Kerry. On Election Day,...

Ancient golden mask unearthed August 20 2004 at 06:14PM Sofia, Bulgaria - Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed a 2 400-year-old golden mask in the tomb of an ancient Thracian king, a newspaper said on Friday. The mask bears the image of a human face and is made of 500 grams of solid gold, the project's lead archaeologist Georgi Kitov told the local Trud daily. The discovery was made on Thursday near the village of Shipka, 200 kilometres east of Sofia. Kitov, who is at the excavations site, could not be reached immediately for comment. Dozens of Thracian mounds are spread throughout...

Michael Jackson Asked to Identify Himself After Wearing a Ski Mask in Colorado Feb 27, 2004 The Associated Press GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Michael Jackson was pulled over by police and asked to identify himself after shopping at a Wal-Mart while wearing a ski mask. An employee called police Tuesday, police Lt. Bill Kimminau said. The employee gave a description of the vehicle and Jackson was stopped a short time later. Authorities asked Jackson to identify himself, which he did by removing his mask. "There were no problems, and that was it," Kimminau said. Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain said...

A mysterious ancient stone mask from Mexico has spoken but apparently only to say that its people's written language remains undeciphered. BYU's Stephen Houston holds a copy of ancient script from Mexico. He disagrees with claims that "Teo Mask" words have been deciphered.Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning News A study by Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen Houston and his colleague from Yale University, Michael D. Coe, say the mask disproves earlier claims that the language had been cracked. Their paper is to be published in "Mexicon," a journal about news and research from Mesoamerica. The title is "Has Isthmian Writing Been...