Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision said. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to approve an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III. It would be the first time that the U.S. government has acknowledged its potential medical...

It’s not just prissy European tennis players who can’t stand it. Every single person who visits New York City is disgusted by our unofficial new scent: marijuana. And the truth is, so are most sane New Yorkers. As The Post reported on Friday’s front page, everywhere you go in the five boroughs now reeks of pot. Expense-account restaurants such as Nobu 57 and ritzy stores like Saks Fifth Avenue have the musty whiff of a college dorm room. Puffing stoners are turning the subway’s 123 into CBD. Even the US Open in Flushing Meadows is practically an open-air drug market....

A new video of an allegedly intoxicated Vladimir Putin discussing the Russia-Ukraine war has been viewed over 820,000 times on Twitter. -snip- Anna Nemtsova, a journalist based in Moscow, tweeted that Putin's alleged intoxication is a first during his time in office. "We've seen many staged photo&video shoots in 20 Years including half-naked Putin on a horse or diving for some Greek jugs,Putin flying w migratory birds or kissing a boy on the stomach but drunk speeches about Russian missiles striking neighbouring state must be Putin's own act," she tweeted. CBC journalist Evan Dyer called it "very strange to see...

Deputies demanded the suspect show his hands and get on the ground. "He began to follow the commands when suddenly a skunk came running around the corner, approached Simonson, and released its well-known and malodorous spray before fleeing the area," the sheriff’s office said. Simonson was taken into custody without further incident. After deputies read him his rights, they said Simonson claimed that he was "wide awake and bored," so he went for a ride on his bicycle and noticed an open church window. Deputies said he claimed to have gone home before returning on foot, removing a screen from...

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said he was “sobbing” as he watched the Jan 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol happen, according to a new book. In Atlantic journalist’s Mark Leibovich’s new book, “Thank You For Your Servitude,” Ryan said he felt “disturbed” about what was taking place in a building in which he spend most of his political life, according to CNN. Ryan, who was Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) running mate in the 2012 presidential election, retired from his position as House Speaker in January 2019. He stepped into the role following former House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio)...

You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to know that the Highland Park shooter is sick in the head. His evil act is unfathomable, but he does fit a familiar pattern of mass killers: alienated young male stoners who appear to be in the grip of a distinctively American madness. Those who knew the 21-year-old suspect, Robert Crimo III, say he habitually smoked cannabis, a habit he appeared to share with young mass shooters, including at Uvalde, Dayton, Parkland and Aurora. Obviously weed didn’t make them commit their evil acts, but it may have scrambled their brains enough for empathy...

Sad. 25% of male Puffers going full schizo from the Wacky Weed. Explains a lot, really.

On the heels of Dr. Seuss being muzzled for racist depictions in a few books, another beloved childhood memory is also being called problematic ... one Pepe Le Pew. The Looney Tunes character fell into the crosshairs of NYT columnist Charles M. Blow -- who wrote an op-ed titled "Six Seuss Books Bore a Bias" ... where he argued racism is deeply embedded into American culture (especially pop culture) and fed to kids at a young age.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently shared a video of an encounter between a skunk and one of Colorado's deadliest predators with an outcome many wouldn't expect. The video below captures a skunk walking by a mountain lion at night. The clip then cuts to another scene that shows the mountain lion seemingly trying to decide whether or not to pounce on the small creature. The skunk (now seen through the brush on the left side of the clip) bluff charges the lion multiple times as the lion can be seen sinking backward and baring its teeth. Eventually, the skunk wanders...

President Donald Trump has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who was the first to sound the alarm to Congress last September about an “urgent” complaint he’d received from an intelligence official involving Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s president. Trump formally notified the Senate and House intelligence committees of his intention to fire Atkinson and remove him from his duties, to take effect 30 days from Friday, according to two congressional officials and a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO dated April 3. “This is to advise that I am exercising my power as President to remove from...

The anonymous author of a tell-all tome on the Donald Trump administration raises questions about the president's mental fitness to hold office. The author, who is described a 'senior official in the Trump administration,' claims Trump stumbles, slurs and is easily confused. 'I am not qualified to diagnose the president's mental acuity,' Anonymous writes, according to a copy of the book obtained by The Washington Post. 'All I can tell you is that normal people who spend any time with Donald Trump are uncomfortable by what they witness. He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing...

With the condescending sneer of Schumer's evil, dark-hearted jab at President Trump for picking up senate seats in Indiana and South Dakota indelible in the hippocampus, I invite all to browse through the list of those who fought and died in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn who's home states are Indiana and North Dakota. IndianaNorth Dakota

Imagine being sprayed by Pepé Le Pew and an army of his malodorous friends. You'd rush home and soak in a tub of tomato juice to try to get rid of the smell, right? Now imagine a stench that has nothing on what those white-striped stinkers can douse — that's one weapon being used for crowd control in Israel, and it's coming soon to the United States. The Israel Defense Forces have been waging war against rioters with a nonlethal — albeit truly putrid — product called skunk water, or just skunk since 2008. The spray, which was developed by...

Dan Rather warned Wednesday night that if you think Tuesday was a shock with the Cohen guilty plea and Manafort's conviction, then "stay tuned." The former news anchor said other things Mueller is working on will "make yesterday pale by comparison." "Always keeping in mind that Mueller knows so much more than he has shown," Rather said in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon. "If you think [Cohen guilty plea, Manafort conviction] was a shock to our democratic system, just stay tuned. Because the other things Mueller is working on, and sooner or later we'll find out what they are,...

In December of 2006, I embarked on my ninth USO Tour to entertain our troops, my eighth to the Middle East since the 9/11 attacks. My father served in Vietnam and my then-boyfriend (and now husband, Chris) is a pilot in the Air Force, so bringing a ‘little piece of home’ to servicemembers stationed far away from their families was both my passion and my privilege. Also on the trip were country music artists Darryl Worley, Mark Wills, Keni Thomas, and some cheerleaders from the Dallas Cowboys. The headliner was comedian and now-senator, Al Franken. Franken had written some skits...

This brave fellow takes a risk with a skunk in need and comes out smelling like a rose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NoSSCmaHn4

Police departments in the United States are reported to have bought a foul-smelling liquid developed in Israel to repel protesters. What is "skunk" and how is it used, asks Yolande Knell. It is a truly putrid stench. Palestinians who have been sprayed describe it as "worse than raw sewage" and "like a mixture of excrement, noxious gas and a decomposing donkey". Invented by Israeli firm Odortec, skunk water was first used by the Israeli military against demonstrators in the occupied West Bank in 2008. Since then armoured vehicles equipped with water cannon spraying jets of the stinky liquid have become...

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) – Police in Fairfield, Connecticut, are investigating the discovery of two dead skunks with a sign reading “Obama Stinks.” Article at link I think

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Something stinks in upper Manhattan. Residents claim skunks have invaded Inwood and Washington Heights, roaming the streets surrounding Fort Tryon Park and stinking up the neighborhood. “I tell my friends down in midtown or Hells Kitchen that there’s a skunk problem up here and they don’t believe it,” resident Mark Bailey said. “They’re in front of every building…they’re not just in the parks, they’re all over.” [...]

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. (WYMT) - Employees at a Middlesboro gas station say a customer put a skunk in the bathroom! Police arrested the man accused of doing it, 35-year-old Kevin Kibert, and charged him with criminal mischief. Employees at Lee's Food Mart say earlier this month, a man took a garbage bag into the bathroom and left. "When he came out of the restroom, he looked at another employee and said, 'I'm sorry man.' My employee went to see what he was sorry about and Kevin had evidently left a baby skunk in the restroom," said store manager Pamela Hobbs. She...