Free Republic

Some residents of small-town Sardis, Miss. say they are very troubled at officials’ decision to knowingly crown a registered sex offender as “Grand Marshal” of their annual Christmas parade, according to a report from KAIT. Carolyn Whaley, who owns The Eclectic Emporium on Main Street where the Christmas parade passed by on Tuesday, says “everyone in Sardis knows that Michael Saripkin, the Grand Marshal, is a sex offender,” KAIT reports. “Everybody knows that; it’s a small town,” Whaley said. “It doesn’t bother me. He’s a very nice, friendly man. He has donated more money, helped the fire department, helped the...

Military equipment has been unearthed in the ancient city of Sardis in the western province of Manisa's Salihli district. Officials believe they might have been used in an ancient war between the Lydians and the Persians. The ancient city of Sardis, which was the capital of the Lydian Kingdom in the ancient ages and had been home to many civilizations from seventh B.C. to seventh A.D., is now undergoing excavation works. This year's works continue in an area called the "Palace" region... The military equipment is believed to have been used in the war that caused the end of the...

Johnny Peel's Wednesday morning commute turned into a rescue mission that could've been on reality television. Peel, 22, was headed from home in Sardis, Miss., to his job as a mechanic in Bartlett about 8 a.m. when he saw a man on a mechanic's wheeled creeper underneath a moving SUV along Interstate 55 near the Goodman Road exit in Southaven. Inside the moving SUV were two children. The rest is a rescue story not to be believed. Peel rescued Robert Finney, 48, of Hernando, and his two sons, ages 7 and 9, just moments before their Mitsubishi Montero would have...

Cyrus the Great Cylinder, The First Charter of Human Rights By 546 BCE, Cyrus had defeated Croesus, the Lydian king of fabled wealth, and had secured control of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, Armenia, and the Greek colonies along the Levant. Moving east, he took Parthia (land of the Arsacids, not to be confused with Parsa, which was to the southwest), Chorasmis, and Bactria. He besieged and captured Babylon in 539 and released the Jews who had been held captive there, thus earning his immortalization in the Book of Isaiah. When he died in 529, Cyrus's kingdom extended as...