Free Republic

In Russia, 30-year-old Valery Spiridonov will be flying to the United States to meet the doctor who plans to perform the world’s first head transplant on him. During the operation, Italian surgeon, Dr. Sergio Canavero, intends to completely remove Spiridonov’s head and reattached it to a healthy body. Spiridonov suffers from a rare form of spinal muscular dystrophy called Werdnig-Hoffman disease. Now, Spiridonov says Canavero will be announcing the plans soon: Today, the 31-year-old is wheelchair reliant due to a muscle-wasting disease, announced his neurosurgeon would explain how the plan was progressing in September. Mr Spiridonov says he is ready...

So, wearing “Don’t Tread On Me” paraphernalia may constitute racial harassment in the workplace. From a 2014 complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the folks who decide sift through hostile work environment claims at federal agencies, a person wearing such patriotic gear triggered “Sheldon D.” (not his real name) back in 2014. Lawyer Eugene Volokh blogged about this ridiculous case in The Washington Post, where the offended party cited the Gadsden flag as racially insensitive to blacks because its creator, Christopher Gadsden, owned slaves. So did Thomas Jefferson. So did George Washington. You don’t see massive protests against...

n possibly one of the biggest marketing blunders of the millennium, a Canadian Oil Sands group has managed to alienate groups from almost every walk of life with their recent Facebook meme that prompted people to choose Canadian oil over Saudi oil—because, as the meme read, “In Canada, lesbians are considered hot! In Saudi Arabia, if you’re a lesbian, you die!” The ad went on to query, “Why are we getting our oil from countries that don’t think lesbians are hot?” You might be thinking that the Coke/New Coke marketing blunder was bad, but the hot-lesbian ad, particularly in today’s...

Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing in Detroit, Michigan. He was last seen alive in a parking lot outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant the previous afternoon. To this day, Hoffa’s fate remains a mystery, although many believe that he was murdered by organized crime figures. By the time of his disappearance, Hoffa had a long and murky career in union politics. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he became the main focus of government investigations into corruption. In 1962, Hoffa faced misdemeanor charges in Tennessee. He managed to get a mistrial but was convicted two years...

The day Gil Levin says he detected life on Mars, he was waiting in his lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, watching a piece of paper inch out of a printer. Levin snatched the sheet and scrutinized the freshly inked graph. A thin line measuring radioactive carbon crept steadily upward, just as it always did when Levin performed the test with microbes on Earth. But this data came from tens of millions of miles away, where NASA's Viking lander was — for the first time in history — conducting an experiment on the surface of Mars. "Gil, that's life,"...

Vice President Joe Biden claimed Wednesday that Donald Trump’s ignorance of foreign policy has prompted world leaders to assure him that he won’t really assume the presidency. “Every place I go, whether I'm reaching across the table to try to solve a problem with Xi, the president of China, or I'm down in New Zealand with the prime minister, they go, ‘Tell me, Trump—that can't happen, can it?” Biden said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I'm not joking.” The Vice President said that their fears were well founded given that Trump “knows nothing about foreign policy.” Like President Barack Obama told...

* Protesters at a Black Lives Matter demonstration demanded segregation * An organizer pointed at individual white people and ordered them to move * She said their positions in the crowd should be taken over by black people * The demonstrators urged black people not to vote for Hillary in November Black Lives Matter activists ordered white journalists and supporters to the back of their march outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Several videos of the protest have been posted on social media which show the female leader of the protest standing on the back of a truck while...

Just as Elon Musk’s revolutionary Hyperloop technology was starting to look like a serious business model, there are signs that one of the most promising companies commercializing the technology may be facing some serious internal problems. Hyperloop One is one of the two most prominent companies trying to develop commercial versions of the Hyperloop. The company is now facing an explosive lawsuit from one of its co-founders, which may end up permanently derailing the firm’s ambitions. Hyperloop One is based in downtown LA and claims to be building a fifth mode of transportation based on Elon Musk’s original concept. The...

While many criticized Donald Trump’s speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention as largely doom and gloom, it was what the audience shouted back at the presidential nominee that has Glenn Beck worried. I said, ‘The winning campaign will be led by a leader who convinces you to chant back, ‘Yes, we will,’” Beck told his radio listeners, referencing the famous slogan associated with President Barack Obama’s successful campaign. “But how foolish was I because I had half the puzzle piece.” He continued, “Little did I know the power of one individual that could convince those people who are...

Full Title: Are Theresa May and Angela Merkel in the ILLUMINATI? Conspiracy theorists are convinced the leaders are in secretive sect because of similar hand gesturesPrime Minister Theresa May has found herself in the middle of a bizarre internet conspiracy theory involving claims of a secret EU Illuminati society. Mrs May used the hand signal - already frequently used by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker - on July 11 when speaking at Westminster before her elevation to 10 Downing Street. The hand signal is listed on the illuminati hand signs conspiracy theory website illuminatiRex...

Texas senator went from an enthusiastic reception to almost being booed off the stage as the mostly pro-Trump Republican National Convention attendees gradually began to realize that Cruz wouldn’t endorse their nominee in his convention speech.

Urban Outfitters putting out a controversial T-Shirt comes as no surprise to anyone. With a track record that includes selling a mock blood stained Kent State sweatshirt and a shirt that resembled the uniforms worn by gay prisoners at Nazi concentration camps, the brand are often called up for questionable design. Their latest foray into the political sphere is as lucrative and risky. Ordinarily you tend not to see multi-million dollar worldwide brands weighing in on political debate but the American presidential race has proved to be a tempting source of revenue for this clothing brand, who are currently selling...

This year, February 27, Pokémon (pocket monster) turned 20. It was created by Japanese game designer Satoshi Tajiri for Nintendo as a video game for the old Gameboy handheld video game platform. My sons still own theirs. It was introduced to the United States in 1998. Nintendo was quick to capitalize on its popularity. The video game soon spawned a celebrated trading card game, books, movies and a television series. The tag line of Pokémon is: “Gotta Catch Em All.” Since then, at least a few of the Pokémon characters have gained international recognition. One of the most recognized characters,...

What killed the dinosaurs? It’s a question as old as – well the dinosaurs themselves, and one that everyone from school children to scientists have been asking for decades. Movies like Jurassic Park and the Land Before Time only heighten that sense of wonder and raise the stakes behind that question. Now according to a new scientific study, it seems that black gold may have been the source of the dinos’ demise. Japanese researchers at Tohuku University and the Meteorological Research Institute authored a recent study in the research journal Scientific Reports suggesting that a meteor impact 66 million years...

Ah, I remember my own days in the military fondly, but one of the biggest adjustments we had to make was learning that there was a set of instructions for doing everything from operating heavy machinery to washing your socks. Hey… that’s just military life for you. There’s always a manual to be referred to and if you get confused, there’s a manual listing all of the manuals. Take for example the rules about getting a sex change operation. You’ll want to make sure that you’ve checked in with the correct sources and… Wait a minute. What was that again?...

Looking for some comments and any advice. I lost my only son to this horrible addiction to heroin just a few months ago. 4/2/16 Now I've been contacted by a nephew (in-law) who shares the same problems. I want to help him if I can. The thought I had was in addition to gathering his papers from another location, driving him with those papers to the Secretary of State office and paying for the new ID, that he needs to get a (for sure) new job. I would also give him a five dollar bill. And tell him he is...

The scene of spontaneous activism and protest, recurring and expanding worldwide with the help of social media, is totally unprecedented. In London, in Paris, Rome and New York, and even in smaller towns like Lennoxville, Quebec and Buda, Texas; (FILE PHOTO) men and women of the Islamic faith have begun to appear in droves to protest the recent spate of terror attacks. (PHOTO - DAKAR PRESSE) "Ce n'st pas NOUS! Vive TOUS les religions du monde" Yells Aisha Mehmet-Kassam. "This is not US! Long live ALL religions!" (PHOTO - PANORAMA) "Siamo TUTTI Italiani! Avvitare i Terroristi" With fists in the...

This radio personality gets more than he bargained for when he decided to punch a set bear trap. We don’t really know who pitched this idea, but these radio personalities at Rover’s Morning Glory in Cleveland decide that Dieter should put his arm in a bear trap. Bear traps are mostly in disuse now, and the bear trap itself was made as a huge hulking trap to hold a half-ton-bear or more. A 200-pound man is definitely no match against the raw power of the double long springs that power this beast of a bear trap from the past. See...

In an analysis of moral turpitude crimes, the Fourth Circuit recently found that embezzlement is not tantamount to theft for purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act. In the case at bar, it involved a man who was under threat of removal from the United States for having committed an "aggravated felony." But it also shines a light on a rather peculiar question. Just when is embezzlement theft? Is all property from fraudulently-obtained consent a form of theft? Mena v. Loretta Lynch The case at bar follows Francisco Mena, a Dominican Republic native who was served with removal orders following...

In the wake of Britain’s controversial “Brexit” vote, the United Kingdom gets a new prime minister tomorrow. But Theresa May, the U.K.’s former Home Secretary, will succeed David Cameron without ever being elected. Why? It turns out that it’s possible for someone to take the most powerful role in Britain without winning the public’s vote. The reason: Parliamentary democracy. Unlike the United States, which has a presidential system of democracy and directly elects officials, Britain elects a parliament once every five years. Each member of the British House of Commons belongs to a political party, and the party that wins...