Free Republic

Kenneth Eugene Smith has become the first person in history to be executed with nitrogen gas. The convicted killer, 58, had a tight gas mask placed over his nose and mouth before a stream of 100 percent nitrogen gas suffocated him inside the execution chamber at the William C. Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama. Smith was officially pronounced dead at 8:25 local time, following a 22-minute ordeal where he appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. He shook violently and pulled on the restraints on the gurney, continuing to breathe the nitrogen gas heavily until he succumbed and passed out....

For the first time, a government official may have lost her position because of comedy. Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin removed Carolyn Parrish, a member of Parliament from suburban Toronto, after he saw video of her stomping on a George W. Bush action figure in a segment of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular satirical news program, "This Hour Has 22 Minutes." The episode also sparked some trouble within the government-owned CBC, because the news service broadcast the sketch as a news story before it was even aired on "22 Minutes." According to Ruth-Ellen Soles, a spokeswoman for the...