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A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface. The hunter would maneuver the entire boat in order to aim the gun. In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. “Since Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 there has been a punt gun salute every Coronation and Jubilee in Cowbit, Lincolnshire, England” - Wikipedia

In a country run by moonbat lawyers, getting good grades doesn’t need to be about studying hard. Suing is easier and more remunerative: Megan Thode isn’t the first Lehigh University student who was unhappy with the grade she received in a course. But she may be the first to sue to get it changed. The C+ that Thode was given scuttled her dream of becoming a licensed professional counselor and was part of an effort to force her out of the graduate degree program she was pursuing, said her lawyer, Richard J. Orloski, whose lawsuit seeks $1.3 million in damages....

An attorney for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s wife says she signed a plea deal with federal prosecutors related to accusations her husband misused campaign funds. Tom Kirsch tells The Associated Press former Chicago alderman Sandi Jackson agreed to plead guilty to one count of tax fraud.

It seems as though MSNBC’s liberal agenda doesn't concern itself simply with secular politics. They want the Catholic Church to "lean forward" into fundamentally changing themselves to reflect liberal values. In service of this pulpit-pounding, MSNBC's Jansing & Co. program brought on two liberal Catholic women over two days. At no point did she turn to a traditionalist, orthodox Catholic to defend the church's traditional teachings. On February 14, fill-in host Richard Lui interviewed Sister Louise Akers, of the Sisters of Charity to rail against the Church, in what she views as, “the last bastion of sexism.” Lui began the...

Michael Moore is upset with the Republicans who voted against cloture on the Chuck Hagel confirmation: This from a man who knows a thing or two about weenies I’d say, from the looks of him.       So, exactly how many weenies did it take to block a Senate vote on the confirmation of a non-kosher Secretary of Defense? 40, this time. And what do you call 40 weenies, if you’re Michael Moore? A snack. All I can say is be careful there, my little friend, for a man is known by the company he keeps. I’d like to tell you...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he would strive to be like Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat famous for expanding the U.S. welfare state through the "Great Society," if he were elected president. According to the Miami Herald, Bush made those comments Wednesday night in San Antonio, Florida at Saint Leo University, while speaking about education, immigration, and energy policy. Bush did not address Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs, about which Ronald Reagan once famously quipped, "We had a war on poverty, and poverty won." Instead, he was referencing Johnson's mastery of the so-called sausage-making process in Congress....

Matt Lauer and New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan appear on NBC’s “Today” show in New York in this handout photo taken Feb. 11. The cardinal talked about Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement earlier that morning that he will resign as pope at the end of the month. The 85-year-old pontiff said he no longer has the energy to exercise his ministry over the universal church. (CNS photo/Peter Kramer, NBC via Reuters) VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Parrots may squawk in the Vatican Gardens during a conclave, but the cardinals are not allowed to tweet.For most of the 117 red-vested princes of...

As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security expands its outsourcing of detention across the nation, potential contractors are being forewarned to abide by the Obama administration’s kinder, gentler approach to detaining illegal aliens. DHS Immigration & Customs Enforcement most recently embarked upon the outsourcing plan in Georgia, where it will continue to push the administration’s reform agenda to create a civil, rather than penal, processing system. According to contracting documents that WND located through routine database research, the Georgia outsourcing endeavor requires providers to offer detainees, among other perks, “abundant natural light throughout the facility [and] ample indoor and outdoor...

On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, a.k.a. “The Iranian Jackal,” much new information about the hunt for the terrorist most wanted by Mossad and the FBI has emerged. It’s a story of high-tech surveillance and old-fashioned espionage, and it’s just starting to be truly told now. Imad Mughniyah was 20 years old when he made his debut on the international terrorist scene in 1983, with a series of spectacular and deadly bombings aimed at Western forces in Lebanon. The 1983 Beirut suicide bombings included those on April 18 at the U.S. Embassy (63 killed); on Oct....

Some commentators inside and outside Iran have interpreted Khamenei’s stance as further proof that he has lost touch with reality. A closer look at the context, however, might show that Khamenei’s stance is very much based on reality: his reality. Khamenei does not see Iran as a nation-state but as a vehicle for a revolution with global ambitions. “I am not a diplomat,” he said amid cheers from a crowd of supporters. “I am a revolutionary.” The regime that Khamenei heads is not meant to act in the interests of Iran as a nation-state, but in the interests of the...

Arizona, as with many states, has numerous definitions of what is legally considered a firearm. The definition of “firearm” is found in several different places in the Arizona legal code. This makes it difficult for citizens and lawyers to determine what is legal and what is not. People have faced prosecution for possessing items that most would not consider to be firearms, such as BB guns, airsoft replicas, squirt guns, or antique guns that are not legally firearms under federal law. One man was prosecuted for possession of a firearm for a collection of parts that experts testified could not...

Syrian rebels have captured a military airbase in the north and geared up for a major battle against regime forces as the opposition says it refuses to accept President Bashar al-Assad in talks on the 23-month conflict. The rebels on Friday said they overran the base in the town of Sfeira, east of Aleppo international airport, and captured a large stockpile of ammunition. Activists reported intermittent clashes around the Aleppo airport itself as well as around Nayrab airbase and another military complex, as the two sides squared up for a major fight. "The army shelled the area around Aleppo international...

If Good Morning America's giddiness over the prospect that Hillary Clinton might run for president is any indication of how the MSM will treat the story, it's gonna be a long-g-g-g four years. The excited GMA crew was looking for any harbinger—from falling meteorites to the number of baskets scored by an ABC reporter in a charity game—that Hillary might throw her pantsuit into the ring. A correspondent even joked—at least we hope she was joking—that GMA might have to run a segment every week with the latest is-Hillary-running news. View the video here.

There is certainly no ‘waste not, want not’ badge for Girl Scouts of America, at least not in Southern California where over 13,000 boxes of the organization’s famous cookies were bulldozed to bits in a warehouse as bulldozer operators gleefully yelled ‘Goodbye girl scout cookies!’ After the May incident, when the cookies were sent off to a landfill, leaders of area food banks are up in arms about the so-called service organization's wastefulness. Bruce Rankin, Executive Director of Santa Monica’s West Side Food Bank, watched footage from CBS 2 in Los Angeles, and was shocked as two heavy-duty construction vehicles...

"America’s muddle in Afghanistan is not merely an unwise policy, two prominent American authors — one a serious analyst (and former badass warrior) the other a bestselling novelist (who created one of our biggest badass heroes) worry that it is an affront to American manhood as well." ************* "West proposes we change from a counterinsurgency protocol (winning hearts and minds in order to recruit allies against the terrorists while building a civil society) to a counter-terror strategy (kill them whenever and wherever we can find them and let the Afghan government build its own society)."

GRAPEVINE — After an intensive four-day manhunt, fugitive Alberto Morales was shot and killed near Grapevine Lake late Friday night, according to Grapevine police. Morales — considered armed and extremely dangerous — had been at large after stabbing a Miami-Dade County detective with a pair of eyeglasses Monday night as he was in transit to Las Vegas for a trial.The violent escape happened in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Grapevine.

While the President and the rabid left continue to pursue a ban on semi-automatic firearms, manufacturers are fighting back by refusing to sell to government agencies that support the President’s plan. Illinois Gov. Rahm Emannuel tried to pressure Bank of America to stop doing business with firearms companies. Viewed as perfectly acceptable behavior by a large portion of America, firearms manufacturers copied the tactic and returned the favor. Larue Tactical, Olympic Arms, Templar Custom, Extreme Firepower and now RAM Arms have vocalized that they will not sell their products to government agencies that support the President’s position on gun rights....

BOONEVILLE – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating two more bald eagle deaths in Arkansas. The eagles were found in Logan County just south of Booneville. Earlier this month, an eagle was found shot near Highland in Pike County. That bird death is still under investigation. The two eagles in Logan County were found near the Golden City Church in early December and have been undergoing necropsies for the cause of death. Tests revealed that the two birds died of poisoning. State and federal officials are asking for help in solving...

Many high school students enjoyed free lunch given to them by a local rabbi and while they were eating they listened to a lecture from the rabbi. Students at Great Neck North High School can hang out at fast food restaurants, go to the houses without supervision or do almost anything they want for lunch. But listening to a Torah lecture in an Orthodox Jewish synagogue should require parental consent, according to the school.

The roster of state workers raking in six-figure pay skyrocketed last year by an astonishing 12 percent to nearly 7,700 employees, according to a Herald review — a budget-busting bombshell that has fiscal watchdogs howling “enough.” The review comes as Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing for massive $1.9 billion in tax and fee hikes amid a sputtering state economy and a climbing jobless rate. The highest pay — more than $700,000 — went to those in the University of Massachusetts system. Yet, nurses, state troopers, office workers, prison guards and managers also swelled the ranks of the six-figure club, including:...