Free Republic

Politicians in Washington hardly let a few minutes go by without mentioning how broke the government is. So, it's a little surprising that they've created a stash of more than $1 billion that almost no one wants. Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007. And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate. The pile of idle...

Rep. Anthony Weiner has achieved something by behaving so spectacularly shamefully. Unless I miss my guess, he has revived the concept of sexual morality. Even for a jaded nation, this is one sex scandal too far. We've had it. Our capacity to remain non-judgmental on sexual matters -- as we've been tirelessly instructed to do for 40 years -- seems to have reached its end point. The national reaction to Weiner's conduct, in contrast to previous sex scandals (and there have been too many to count in the past two decades), has been not amusement (though jokes made the rounds)...

Jared Lee Loughner’s rants about grammar and mind control track closely to the writings of a conspiracy theorist who believes that is how the government controls the populace, one leading group says – and the man tells POLITICO he agrees with some of Loughner’s statements. The far-right activist, David Wynn Miller, said in a telephone interview that he didn’t know Loughner, but agreed with his statement in a YouTube video that “the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.” “Absolutely I would agree with it,” said Miller, 62, a former tool-and-die maker from Milwaukee...

"Some UFOs are intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft, and this is the biggest story of the millennium." These words are not the rantings of a deranged individual looking for attention or a comfortable straitjacket. Stanton Friedman is a maverick of sorts. Employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist for companies like General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse and Aerojet General Nucleonics, he worked on highly classified programs involving nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets. In 1958, UFOs caught his attention, and Friedman has since lectured about this subject at more than 700 colleges and professional groups in all 50 states and...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Park Police have identified a woman arrested for tying herself to a White House fence as actress Q'orianka (kohr-ee-AHN'-kuh) Kilcher. Authorities say the 20-year-old Kilcher tied herself to the fence Tuesday and her 41-year-old mother, Saskia, poured a black substance over her.

Vodka eyeballing. It’s the latest drinking fad on YouTube, and it could cause blindness. Hundreds of online videos that originated in the U.K. show teens pouring vodka directly into their eyes, straight from the bottle. The videos are getting hundreds of thousands of hits, MyFoxDC.com reported. Substance abuse expert Mike Gumbel claims kids aren’t eyeballing to get drunk faster, but do it when the effects of alcohol have already set in and impaired their judgment. Eyeballing is more of a prank than a way to become more intoxicated. “They’re not doing it to get more drunk, they’re doing it as...

Bravery isn't the first word that comes to mind when looking at these images of a Japanese log-rolling ceremony. But that is exactly what these young men are apparently proving during the bizarre Ki-otoshi ceremony, where they ride the giant logs as they are yanked down steep hills by ropes. Skidding and bumping over the rough terrain, at times the logs literally drop down the steep inclines

I pledge my allegiance to God, my country, the flag of the USA and not to one person!!!!

EVIL al-Qaeda chiefs are raping young male converts to shame them into becoming suicide bombers, it emerged yesterday.

Sam The Eagle presents Stars & Stripes Forever. (See link.)

Snow wasn't the only thing that fell Saturday: so did pants - and jaws - on the subway. Hundreds of brave New Yorkers dropped their bottoms in Saturday's sub-freezing temperatures before taking to the rails for the eighth annual No Pants Subway Ride. "They couldn't have picked a better day to do this?" asked John Ocskai, 18, of Long Island, wearing a pair of spiffy gray boxers. "This is my first time. I was shocked it was still going on." Dana Sterling, 33, was shivering even before she stripped down to her three pairs of undies. "I'm cold already," Sterling...

A woman who allegedly defecated inside the sanctuary of Tullytown's St. Michael the Archangel Church in February believed her feces would rid the parish of a hex, a police officer testified Tuesday. The hex had something to do with 528 dead children the woman believed were buried between St. Mike's and a nearby Dunkin' Donuts on Levittown Parkway, the officer added. That, as far as Tullytown police officer Nate Aldsworth could tell, was Sandralee Banks-Kastrup's motivation for allegedly wreaking havoc this winter on the parish and its community. Aldsworth testified Tuesday morning at the preliminary hearing for Banks-Kastrup, a 40-year-old...

That photo of 11 weirdos in '70s clothes you may have seen on the Internet really is the original Microsoft team, snapped Dec. 7, 1978, on the eve of the company's move from Albuquerque, N.M., to Seattle. Almost 30 years later, a few weeks before Bill Gates's departure from Microsoft, the group (looking better) reconvened. Bob Greenberg (center of old photo, in red sweater), then a programmer and now a tech and financial consultant, had won a photo portrait in a contest and used it to commemorate the soon-to-be disrupted group. The picture was shot in a shopping mall. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported. The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them." Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics. State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach...

There is a bizarre story about a district attorney's stolen sport utility vehicle and the accused thief behind bars. The suspected crook claims she stole the vehicle from a New Orleans hotel to pay for a medical procedure for her husband. However, the story doesn't end there. WAFB's Keitha Nelson has more. Tony Falterman is the district attorney for Ascension, Assumption and St. James parishes. Falterman's keys could open a lot of doors, and in the wrong hands, change thousands of lives. He says, "My keys are the most important thing in my life." So, when Falterman's SUV was stolen,...

A place to talk goof about the 2007 emmys

Salem, Mass. (AP) -- A self-proclaimed high priestess of Salem witches and a second person were accused of tossing raccoon parts on the doorsteps of businesses, allegedly as part of a Wiccan community feud. Sharon Graham, 46, and a fellow Wiccan, Frederick Purtz, 22, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of littering and malicious destruction of property. Graham also was charged with intimidating a witness. They were accused of putting a racoon head and entrails on the doorsteps of Angelica of the Angels and the Goddess' Treasure Chest in May. The historic seaport, famous for holding witch trials in the...

See for example this thread first. WARNING! MATURE (or maybe *very* immature) topics. You have been warned. He was not an everyday masher Then again, he's not quite a flasher Sex in public, so, fine... but with a traffic sign? So I guess that makes him a "gate crasher" ??

"Film critic and talk show host Michael Medved has decided to put in print on Townhall.com the attack he has frequently broadcast on radio against those of us who are opposing the North American integration being pursued by the Bush Administration activity under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.".... ....."Serious readers for centuries are alert to recognize that ad hominem attacks generally mask an inability to counter an argument on logical or evidentiary grounds. In the days of Lenin, communist agitators took the ad hominem attack to a new level, perfecting techniques to discredit their...

About 25 revelers celebrated their freedom of speech and welcomed the Fourth of July on Monday night with the "2nd Annual Old Time American Flag Burn." Around a burn barrel at Seabright State Beach, organizer Brent Adams, 41, of Santa Cruz, declared flag burning not a protest, but a celebration of the Constitution's First Amendment. "It seemed like a good idea to burn some flags just because we can," added fellow organizer Sha Lar, 32, of Santa Cruz. The festivities were especially relevant after a constitutional amendment allowing Congress to ban flag desecration died in the Senate last week. That...