Free Republic

It's such a long read - I'm just going to link the article

Hockenheim Race Date: 20 Jul 2014 Circuit Name: Hockenheimring First Grand Prix: 1970 Number of Laps: 67 Circuit Length: 4.574 km Race Distance: 306.458 km Lap Record: 1:13.780 - K Raikkonen (2004) Friday Sunny 32C Saturday Sunny 33C Sunday T-Storms 28C

This will be fun. It was announced Wednesday that Alabama and Southern California will square off to kick off the 2016 season with a neutral site game. The game will be played as a part of the eighth annual Cowboys Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on September 3.

Brazil, Neymar Are Most Commonly Seen in Anguish; Bosnia Is Most Likely to 'Grin and Bare It' One of the most common complaints during this otherwise splendid World Cup is the amount of time players spend embellishing injuries. All too often during matches, seemingly fit men fall to the ground in agony. They scream, wince, pound the grass with their fists and gesture to the sidelines for a stretcher. Some of them clutch a limb as if it was just freed from the jaws of a wood chipper. But after a few moments, just as the priests arrive to administer...

Contrary to what those who defend the right to own high-powered assault rifles believe, not all guns are created equal. Due to a combination of availability, portability and criminal usage the following five types of guns are the country's most dangerous. Using firearm trace data from the ATF, as well as FBI homicide records, we determined the types of guns most often recovered from crime scenes and/or used in murders. The numbers are stark: According to the FBI's 2012 Crime in the US data, nearly 70 percent of homicides for which the FBI received weapons data involved the use of...

Major League Baseball has hired openly gay former ballplayer Billy Bean as their new Ambassador For Inclusion. Bean's job will be to assure all MLB stakeholders of an inclusive and equitable workplace and provide awareness and educational resources that help mandate the league's workplace code of conduct. "It's ironic that I am returning to baseball to help erase the same reason I left," Bean told Outsports in an exclusive interview. Bean left baseball in 1995 shortly after his then-partner passed away. Bean skipped his partner's funeral to play in a game for the Padres, lest someone discover he was gay.

All right, where's Vin Scully? He's the most iconic baseball announcer in the game's history, but has obviously been snubbed by the East coast liberal establishment. Where did Scully's career begin? With the Brooklyn Dodgers, but that STILL doesn't buy him a seat with the terrible announcers from back East at THIS All Star game. This is an outrage!

I have been able to do many (free) basic repairs on bikes in this poor inner city, thank God, but now my neighbor needs a new rear wheel for a BMX bike as the old rim was run over by a car. It has the smaller type sprocket on both the crank ("chainring?") and the rear wheel, and when i tried to put the old hub in a freewheel rim then it would not fit. And with the smaller type crank then a the larger, standard type rear sprocket is not feasible. I have looked a lot online, and see...

Germany were intent on enjoying themselves as they arrived back in Berlin to celebrate winning the World Cup - even pre-rehearsing a hilarious routine to delight supporters. Around half-a-million fans flocked to Brandenburg Gate in the country's capital on Tuesday morning to greet their heroes, and were in for a surprise. Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels, Erik Durm and Christoph Kramer looked to be striding out on to the podium alone, but captain Philipp Lahm was behind them, unseen.

Sad, a bygone Era...:-|

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Alice Coachman Davis, the first black female to win Olympic gold, died Monday. She was 90 years old. Coachman Davis suffered a stroke in April, and died at an Albany hospital Monday morning.

this is the jaw-dropping moment a sharp-suited footballer shows off his skills again three deadly LIONS. Kevin Richardson, known as the Lion Whisperer, has spent 20 years building an amazing report with some of the world's most feared animals. And with the World Cup approaching, he decided to play football against the real three lions in a fascinating battle on the plain. Kevin, 40, showed of his silky skills to evade the wild predators, whose powerful jaws could pop a leather football with the smallest of bites.

Germany has honoured a Bangladesh farmer and diehard fan for making a 3.5-kilometre-long (2.2 mile) flag of the country in support of Philipp Lahm's World Cup team, officials said on Sunday. The massive flag was on display Saturday at a stadium in the western town of Magura, which the German charge d'affaires, Ferdinand von Weyhe, visited to pay tribute to the farmer. "The 3.5-kilometre-long German flag circled the stadium four times and hundreds of people have turned up to see this amazing sight," said Ishrat Hossain, a German embassy spokeswoman. She said Von Weyhe handed the farmer, 65-year-old Amjad Hossain,...

Joachim Low's men already lead tournament hosts 5-0 at halftime in their semi-final and agreed not to humiliate them further in the last 45 minutesGermany's players made a half-time dressing room pact not to "humiliate" Brazil ‎during their World Cup mauling. Defender Mats Hummels ‎revealed he and his teammates spoke in the dressing room in Belo Horizonte after storming into a 5-0 interval lead. They agreed not to 'show-boat', and, after their historic 7-1 semi-final win, Manchester United target Hummels explained: "We just made it clear that we had to stay focused and not try to humiliate them. "We said...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says that the Washington Redskins' name 'ought to be changed' and that it's 'an offensive name,' reports TMZ. Holder made the comments in an appearance on ABC News.

Pam Oliver is no longer Fox's top NFL sideline reporter. And after this coming football season, she will no longer be a sideline reporter at all. Oliver confirmed the news to Sports Illustrated on Sunday night that she will move to the network’s No. 2 team for her 20th NFL broadcasting season. Erin Andrews has been elevated to the No. 1 sideline spot, joining the team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Oliver’s last season working as a reporter on the NFL will be spent with the No. 2 Fox team of Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch.

Red Klotz, who owned, coached and played for a number of teams that toured with and lost to the Harlem Globetrotters — most famously the Washington Generals — died Saturday in his sleep in Margate, N.J., the Press of Atlantic City reported. He was 93. Klotz was a prep basketball standout in Philadelphia, twice being named that city’s high school player of the year before going on to play at Villanova. He was on the Baltimore Bullets’ 1947-48 NBA championship team. At 5 feet 7, he is tied with six others as the third-shortest NBA player ever, and was the...

Germany won the World Cup. Host Brazil won a world of new friends. The now four-time champions, the first European team to win the World Cup on Latin American soil, earned the honor of lifting the most recognized trophy in sports with a tooth-and-nail 1-0 victory in a final as terrifically entertaining as the tournament itself. For a 32-day showcase of football at its best, the winning goal was beautifully appropriate. Mario Goetze controlled the ball with his chest and then volleyed it into the Argentine goal, making difficult skills look so simple. Scored in the 113th minute, the mortal...

Floyd Mayweather has been cashing multi-million checks for his fights for more than a decade. He banked at least $25 million for each of his past nine bouts going back to 2007 when he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in the most watched fight in the history of boxing pay-per-view events. Mayweather has earned almost $400 million in the ring since he turned pro in 1996 after the Olympics, but he has never had a year like this past one. Mayweather earned $105 million during the past 12 months for 72 minutes of work in the ring for fights against...