Free Republic

A self-proclaimed “vaping addict” is calling for the devices to be banned after her right lung collapsed twice and she suffered permanent scars. “You never think this type of thing will happen to you — but it happened to me. It felt like my lung was on fire,” Wisconsinite Karlee Ozkurt, 20, told SWNS. “I fell into the trap of thinking vaping was cool,” Ozkurt confessed. “But it’s stupid. I didn’t realize until it was too late.” Ozkurt’s plea follows a recent study that found that 11.3% of American high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days...

On Wednesday, August 16, Texas authorities announced that they had arrested 43-year-old Alvin woman, Abigail Jo Shry, for allegedly threatening federal Judge Tanya Chutkan. According to Newsweek, Shry threatened to kill Judge Chutkan since she is presiding over the trial of former President Donald Trump. Abigail Jo Shry reportedly expressed that she is willing to harm anyone attempting to oppose Trump. "If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you...You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it." Donald Trump has been indicted due to allegations that he attempted to interfere with the 2020...

TROUBLED pop queen Whitney Houston is dabbling with a strict Hebrew sect in a bid to sort out her life. The singer was in Israel with wayward husband Bobby Brown yesterday to find out more about the Jewish group. The pair also prayed at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Whitney, 39, who had a No1 hit with Saving All My Love For You, became interested in the Black Hebrews after her sister-in-law Pat joined them. They are an African-American community that moved to Israel in 1969 and settled in the southern town of Dimona. Followers are banned from eating...

Hunter Biden said his obsession with naked selfies was a result of “body dysmorphia,” according to a rambling screed found in the notes of his hard drive. “I loved to be reassured that my 9-inch very big penis was actually big. It may sound funny to you but its [sic] body dysmorphia … I know my penis is almost twice the size of an average man’s penis,” the first son wrote on July 12, 2018. The note was found in the hard drive of a laptop Biden left at a Delaware computer store in April 2019.…

Gillum claimed in a statement that he was innocent and that the charges were political, even though he is being charged by the Department of Justice, which is overseen by the Biden administration. “The Indictment alleges that between 2016 and 2019, defendants Gillum and Lettman-Hicks conspired to commit wire fraud, by unlawfully soliciting and obtaining funds from various entities and individuals through false and fraudulent promises and representations that the funds would be used for a legitimate purpose,” the statement says. “The Indictment further alleges the defendants used third parties to divert a portion of those funds to a company...

*** Open-use drug havens such as San Francisco’s Tenderloin and L.A.'s skid row have become notorious and contentious, but those places have nothing on East Hastings, part of a neighborhood called Downtown Eastside. In every direction, there were needles in arms and butane lighters melting chunks of fentanyl, heroin and meth — the stench of burning chemicals was unavoidable. For many residents and business owners in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown, only a block away, East Hastings means theft, garbage, graffiti and a near-constant blare of sirens. I came to Vancouver to see what can be learned as we debate safe consumption...

Eric Coomer is the former Director of Security and Product Strategy for Dominion Voting Systems. After the 2020 election debacle, where votes in at least five states had very suspicious results while running Dominion computer systems, center-right journalists made common-sense observations that the results appeared rigged. One journalist, who had infiltrated a conference call filled with Antifa-sympathizing callers, remembered that on the call “Eric from Dominion” was going to ensure that Trump did not win re-election. The mainstream media has spent a year bullying and suppressing the thousands of eyewitnesses, filed affidavits, investigations and proceedings meant to uncover the big...

Carl Hart is a Columbia University professor of psychology and neuroscience. He chairs the psych department and has a fondness for heroin – not only as a subject of scholarly pursuit but also as a substance for personal use. At 54, the married father of three has snorted small amounts of heroin for as many as 10 days in a row and enjoyed it mightily – even if, as he recalls in his new book “Drug Use for Grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear” (Penguin Press), he’s experienced mild withdrawal symptoms “12 to 16 hours after the last...

A raw series of text messages show Joe Biden offering fatherly comfort as his son, Hunter, lamented from a rehab facility about being a “f–ked up addict who can’t be trusted” and had damaged his dad’s political career. The intimate family exchange took place on February 24, 2019, two months before Joe launched his campaign for the White House. “Good morning my beautiful son. I miss you and love you. Dad,” the elder Biden wrote at 6:57 a.m. Hunter responded with a lengthy diatribe about his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and his father’s political advisers, and he also complained bitterly about...

Crime-ridden San Francisco has introduced new sanitized language for criminals, getting rid of words such as “offender” and “addict” while changing “convicted felon” to “justice-involved person.” The Board of Supervisors adopted the changes last month even as the city reels from one of the highest crime rates in the country and staggering inequality exemplified by pervasive homelessness alongside Silicon Valley wealth. The local officials say the new language will help change people’s views about those who commit crimes.

New data from the U.S. government shows just 14 percent of adults overall in smoke cigarettes, but experts say there is still much more work to do to bring the number lower.

The actor, 46, posted a lengthy statement on his Instagram Thursday where he reveals he is now continuing outpatient care after wrapping up his stay this week. Affleck also thanks fans and family for the well wishes he has received while in treatment. Affleck entered rehab on Aug. 22 after his ex-wife Jennifer Garner was seen arriving at his house twice throughout the day before driving the Justice League star to a treatment center, PEOPLE confirmed. He had been staying at the center, with only brief breaks to workout at home and attend business meetings, ever since. Affleck previously entered...

Scott Adams, the creator of satirical comic Dilbert, is mourning the loss of his 18-year-old stepson who died of a Fentanyl overdose. The 61-year-old cartoonist revealed the heartbreaking news through a video on his Periscope, which was shared Monday. Fighting back tears, Adams explained he received a call from his ex-wife over the weekend telling him that “the little boy I raised from the age of two was dead.” Adams then said coroners found a fentanyl patch on his stepson Justin’s arm, and it is believed that he died of an overdose. Adams also explained Justin was trying to “score...

Addiction is one of the many works of the devil that Jesus came to conquer and overcome. Through the nightmare of addiction, evil seeks to destroy those who find themselves in its awful throws of torment. The addict can experience complete recovery by adhering to God's Addiction Recovery Plan and following The Biblical Path to Freedom.

The problem of alcohol and drug addiction has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and around the world. Alcoholism runs rampant across the globe, drug abuse continues to consume its victims, and addiction to prescription drugs appears to be at an all time high. Many rehabilitation facilities have waiting lists for admittance, detoxification centers abound, the morgue slabs are full, and funeral homes continue to profit on the crisis of addiction stalking both old and young alike. Is there an answer? Is there a remedy to this destructive force that has been unleashed upon our planet?

Past Month Alone, Serious NYC E-Cig Explosions Have Dealt Serious Injuries To People—3rd Degree Burns & Permanent Disfigurement; People From Brooklyn,Queens, LI Have Also Been Victims Of Ticking-Time-Bomb E-Cigs; Critical Focus By Feds & Possible Recalls Must Be Weighed With E-Cig Sites Pushing Holiday Gift Buys, Schumer Concerned Explosions Will Continue To Rise; FDA Recorded Dozens Of Serious Explosions In 2015 & 2016; 2017 Could See Even More   Schumer: Feds Must Consider Recalls For Exploding E-Cigs; Enough Is Enough   U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today called on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take a hard look...

VANCOUVER, Washington -- A 2-year-old girl is in critical condition and fighting for her life after deputies say her own father nearly beat her to death. But one man is being credited with giving her the chance to survive. Don Gilbert is still in shock after he intervened when the girl's father, 32-year-old Kyle Holder, started attacking his daughter at a motel in Vancouver, Washington, authorities say. Deputies say Holder and his girlfriend were in their motel room and their 2-year-old daughter was sleeping when suddenly, Holder grabbed the girl and threw her out the window onto the concrete. Law...

I have wondered about Beck for a while, but loved his exposure of the communist network in the US. Since he left FOX...he seems to have changed...and the immediate disregard to the Bundy situation really made me sick. Beck didn't even give the guy the benefit of the doubt and touted the NYT version. I know he has risen to fame since 2001, ghost written several books, had rallies, etc....but to have a network, now? A base in NY....a major website (so buggy and full of cookies it puts me off). Does anyone else find this strange? And claims to...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was caught on video Monday bum-rushing a female Councillor as the council voted to strip the admitted crack smoker of most of his mayoral powers.

(Stephen Chikhani and Nadia Lockyer made sex tape; cuckholded treasurer Bill Locker poses with his wife) California state Treasurer Bill Lockyer's differences with his estranged wife, former Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, might not be so irreconcilable after all. The 71-year-old mainstay of state Democratic politics this week withdrew divorce papers he had filed last July against his 41-year-old wife, whose methamphetamine addiction and extramarital affair ended her political career and could have stained his. "He and Nadia have agreed to try and work things out, to try and reconcile," said Tom Dresslar, Bill Lockyer's spokesman. "He's proud of...