Free Republic

1. Michael Jackson - 'Billie Jean' There are several claims on the meaning behind this classic song’s lyrics. One suggests that they came from a real-life experience, in which a female fan claimed that Michael Jackson (or one of his brothers) had fathered her twins. However, Jackson stated that it was actually based on groupies he had encountered.

Alexander Vindman says he got abrasive with Jim Jordan for not referring to him with his full military title because of what people were saying about him on Twitter pic.twitter.com/4ljH3IJUkx — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 19, 2019 ‘Chow Thief’ Vindman says he rank-checked Nunes because people were being mean to him on Twitter… During his testimony at the House Intelligence Committee, Vindman ranked checked a member of Congress. “Rank checking” is when an officer demands you call them by their military title, and it’s seen as uncouth when dealing with civilians. Special Forces veteran Tim Kennedy found this Vindman’s checking...

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is reportedly scheduled for a promotion. CNN’s Barbara Starr reports that a defense official said that Bergdahl will be promoted because he has not been classified as a deserter. The official also told CNN that the Army needs to hear from Bergdahl as to why he wandered away from base and how he got captured.. Bergdahl was promoted twice after he was taken prisoner in June 2009. He was promoted to the rank of specialist in June 2010 and then sergeant in June 2011. Bergdahl is hospitalized at a U.S. military in Germany as questions mount...

FORT HOOD - Lieutenant General Donald Campbell Jr., the Commander of Fort Hood said Wednesday accused gunman Major Nidal Hasan still has his rank and is still drawing a paycheck from the military while he awaits court martial set for March 5, 2012. Hasan's confinement and medical expenses are also being paid by the military, and he is moved on post once or twice a week for treatment and occasionally to see his legal defense team.

You’re in luck. For their senior project, two Cornell University computer-engineering whizzes recently built a machine that does just that. After learning in class how breathalyzers work, Robert Clain and Miguel Salas assembled a fart detector from a sensitive hydrogen sulfide monitor, a thermometer and a microphone and wrote the software that would rate the emission. A “slight perturbance in the air” near the detector sets it to work measuring the three pillars of fart quality: stench, temperature and sound. Temperature, Clain explains, is critical. The hotter a fart, the faster it spreads. “It beeps faster if it’s a high...

SIERRA VISTA — Allison Taylor has been in Girl Scouts since she was in kindergarten. And over the summer, the 17-year-old earned the highest award she could as a Girl Scout, the Gold Award, making her the first person in Senior/Ambassador Troop 785 from the Fort Huachuca Service Unit — to the best of the current troop leaders’ knowledge — to receive it. “It’s such a rare thing, but the leadership qualities you gain from earning it I really wanted,” Taylor said of her decision to work toward the award. For her project, Taylor wanted to do something that would...

Attention all Scout Leaders New Boy Scout Rank Requirements Effective January 1, 2008 The National Youth Protection Committee recommended additions to Boy Scout rank requirements that were approved and become effective January 1, 2008. These changes will help us advance the importance of Youth Protection training beyond the initial Boy Scout joining requirements, and keep youth informed and actively engaged in understanding the key elements of personal safety and protection. TENDERFOOT RANK Revised requirement 9: Explain the importance of the buddy system as it relates to your personal safety on outings and in your neighborhood. Describe what a bully is...

Gay Friendly Colleges Ranked - Reed towards top Top of the list is New College of Florida, which provides a campus community most accepting of gay students. It also ranks number one for the most politically active tertiary institution, but ranks worst for a near absence of intercollegiate sports. The top five gay-friendly Colleges are in order: New College of Florida; Macalester College of St. Paul, Minnesota; Wellesley College in Massachusetts; Eugene Lang College/New School University in New York City; and Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. The top College ranked by Princeton Review for academic experience is Reed College in...

The United States has drtopped from 1st place to 6th in this important report. America is no longer the most competitive economy in the world. Basically, you should fire anyone who isn't doing their job, or complain to a manager if an employee is not doing their job. Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the world’s most competitive economies according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, released by the World Economic Forum on 26 September 2006. Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top ten list, but the United States shows the most...

A bill that would require the California Energy Commission to evaluate and rank all existing proposals to import liquefied natural gas has been sent back to committee — a decision supporters fear could doom any chance of passage. The bill, SB426, fell just short of success on the final night of last year's legislative session. It passed the Assembly late that night, but the Senate adjourned for the year before the measure could be ferried a few hundred feet across the Capitol for a final vote that would have sent it to the governor. Since none of the LNG proposals...

Blog readership has risen dramatically this year as the number and reputation of blogs spread, with unique visitors to the top 50 blog-related sites up 31 percent in the first seven months of the year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. By July 2005, blogs boasted 29.3 million unique visitors, amounting to 20 percent of active U.S. Internet users, the survey said Monday. Blog hosting sites, which have spawned millions of blogs, play a key role in the spike in current blog readership. Blog host sites require very little technological knowledge from bloggers and their readers. MSN Spaces, which came out in beta...

Top blogs by unique audience: FreeRepublic, DrudgeReport, FleshBot, Gawker, FarkComScore Networks published a list of top blogs in Q1 2005 by unique audience. FreeRepublic, DrudgeReport, FleshBot, Gawker and Fark all got more than 1 mln unique visitors in Q1 2005....

NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia ranked last in a study of women's rights in Middle Eastern and North African countries and was the only one of 16 nations surveyed that had no constitutional guarantees of equal protection for females, according to a report released Saturday. Despite gains in educational and employment opportunities and the recent decision by Kuwait's parliament to grant women the right to vote, there was a lack of legal protections for women in all 16 nations and one territory studied, said Freedom House, the nonpartisan, Washington-based organization that released the report at the World Economic Forum. The...

Look at this liberal/conservative rank of the 108th Senate. I was really shocked that they ranked Mclame as the 4th most conservative senator! P.S. Despite these results the Republicans should trade Chaffee for Nelson.

KANDAHAR PROVINCE AND KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Abdul Rahman Akhund has been battling US and Afghan government troops for three long, hard years. He misses raising his kids among the quiet pomegranate orchards he used to tend at home. With another frigid winter setting in, and a new US offensive being launched this week, this weary Taliban fighter says he's ready to come in from the cold. "If the government will let us peacefully return to our villages and our children, we will come," he says. "We are tired living on the run in these snowy mountains." His fellow tribesman, Sarwar...

PARIS -- U.S. diplomats here respond to Jacques Chirac's continued Yankee-bashing following George W. Bush's re-election by saying the French president is out of step with his people, who are not nearly that anti-American. But thoughtful Frenchmen believe President Chirac is mining a deep vein of sentiment among fellow citizens that transcends President Bush. During a week in Paris, I encountered none of the rudeness I had been warned to expect because of my nationality. However, the question goes beyond amenities to visitors. One French intellectual described anti-Americanism to me as ''a cancer that is sweeping across the country.'' It...

Urban Legends and Folklore IQ and Voter Preference in 2004 Presidential Election Netlore Archive: In which the results of the 2004 U.S. presidential election are correlated with purported average IQ of voters in each state Description: Net hoax Circulating since: Nov. 2004 (this version) Status: False Analysis: See below IQ and Voter Preference State Average IQ 2004 1 Connecticut 113 Kerry 2 Massachusetts 111 Kerry 3 New Jersey 111 Kerry 4 New York 109 Kerry 5 Rhode Island 107 Kerry 6 Hawaii 106 Kerry 7 Maryland 105 Kerry 8 New Hampshire 105 Kerry 9 Illinois 104 Kerry 10 Delaware 103...

I just think this is Awesome and obviously reflects all the dedicated and vigilant work of FReepers everywhere: Our little grassroots site is AHEAD OF A publically traded COMPANY! WOW!!