Free Republic

**SNIP** Perhaps the biggest blow to the high-speed rail project came in 2010, when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives. They proceeded to block any further federal funding for high-speed rail, undermining the California project’s financial plan. Ironically, Gov. Newsom’s decision to pause high-speed rail comes just as Democrats have retaken the majority in the House, making possible a Green New Deal and billions in high-speed rail funding. California ought to show the country how to overcome these obstacles. If we believe climate change is real, then we are obligated to do something about it, and not...

“Right now, the feedback looks like we are going to a 6.8 caliber round,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said recently. The service has a list of its top six modernization priorities and “soldier lethality” is one of the items. The most high-profile program in that category is the squad automatic rifle. Army Secretary Mark Esper at the Association of the United States Army annual conference — while promising the service is speeding up the way it does acquisition — singled out the program as one that would see prototypes in the near future. “The bottom line is...

Until the Super Soaker came along in 1990, water guns hadn’t changed much in over a century. But the Super Soaker was 28 years ago, and a group of German engineers and designers think it’s finally time for water guns to evolve again. They’ve created the self-filling Spyra One that fires quick bursts of water instead of a steady stream, which promises to improve accuracy and distance. The Super Soaker was a staple of my childhood, as it was for millions of other kids, but most of my summer afternoons were either spent refilling the blaster, or endlessly pumping air...

California’s high speed rail project is an embodiment of virtually everything wrong with state government. Already $1.7 billion over budget and seven years behind schedule on the Central Valley portion alone, the bullet train reeks of cronyism, inefficient central planning, misplaced priorities and squandering of finite resources. Yet, it persists, despite obvious problems. On Nov. 14, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, requested an emergency audit of the bullet train. The request came as high speed rail authorities reported that environmental reviews of the 800-mile project won’t be completed until at least 2020, two years later than planned. Against a backdrop of...

Ahmedabad (India) (AFP) - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday inaugurated India's first bullet train project -- a $19 billion line in the home state of Indian leader Narendra Modi. The initiative is a major step toward reviving India's accident-prone delapidated rail network but is also seen as emblematic of fast warming relations between New Delhi and Tokyo. Both want to combat China's growing influence. The line, using Japanese trains and technology, will link Ahmedabad to India's financial capital Mumbai and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2023. The 500 kilometre (310 mile) journey will be cut...

GOP establishment consultant Rick Wilson, one of the most vile “Never Trumpers” who once said the donor class should “put a bullet in” Donald Trump, thinks supporters of President Trump saw the assassination attempt on House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) as a “blessing.” “A lot of clickservatives saw yesterday as a grim blessing,” Wilson tweeted the morning after a gunman who hated Trump and Republicans opened fire on Republicans who were practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game. After saying that Trump supporters were “dead right” about the “media double standard,” Wilson claimed “the thing they really loved… even at...

An Illinois mom behind a viral Facebook post spoke to Fox 2/News 11 Wednesday. Her son, Hunter, 4, has been suspended from his preschool for bringing a shell casing from a fired bullet to school. He'd been at the preschool for about a year, she said, and now was in tears. Neither she nor Hunter's dad knew it, but he found something he thought was pretty neat and he took it to school Tuesday to show his friends. [Snip] Well....when I was escorted to the office for a sit down. I was handed a tiny .22 empty brass casing. Not...

This picture shows the “bullet hole” in the window of the class room at the Temple Adath B'nai Israel complex in Evansville, Indiana.  Rabbi Gary Mazo has been going “ballistic”, claiming that this is evidence of a hate crime designed  to intimidate and silence Jews. The damage is supposed to have been done on a Sunday, the 26th of February.  It was discovered Monday, and reported to the authorities on Tuesday. Image from tristatehomepage.comYou can see the damage to the window in a close up. It is clearly *not* a bullet hole. The horizontal measurement of the cone is...

Video Leftist "human rights" group "Adalah" has called on the Justice Ministry to investigate the death of the Arab terrorist who murdered Police Officer Erez Levi last week. One of several officers present to supervise the demolition of the illegal Arab settlement Umm Al-Hiran in the Negev, Levi was standing with his comrades when Abu Al-Qia'an, 47, intentionally rammed into him. Other officers immediately fired on Al-Qia'an and killed him. The incident is defined as a terror attack, since video footage shows the terrorist driving with his lights off in the police officers' direction, then turning his lights on and...

The woman's window was in line with the shooter and the vehicle he was shooting at.  The video shows where the shot was fired from, and where it went.  Video showing path of bullet  A shooter is responsible for every bullet that they fire.  It is important to know your target, and what is behind your target.  Some say that every bullet has an attorney attached to it.  There is good reason for this.  When you shoot, you are unleashing deadly force.  It is a grave responsibility. You need to be sure of your backstop. Do not unleash it...

Watch an axe splitting a bullet in super slow-motion. Thanks to film technology and the Internet, we’re able to answer the big questions in the universe. For instance: "Can an axe blade split a .45 Caliber bullet?" No need to wonder no more, and watch a marksman settle this question. See the video here.

Former Major League Baseball player Yamaico Navarro has been arrested in Japan for concealing a bullet in his luggage. [...] The 28-year-old Navarro told police the bullet was from his home in the Dominican Republic but that he was not aware it was in his bag. ...

Your nightly weird. Convicted national security leaker Chelsea Manning was found guilty Tuesday of violating prison rules and will receive three weeks of recreational restrictions at the Kansas military prison where she’s serving her 35-year sentence, her attorney said.The transgender Army private was accused of having a copy of Vanity Fair with Caitlyn Jenner on the cover and an expired tube of toothpaste, among other things. Her attorney, Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a news release that Manning was convicted of all charges after a closed four-hour disciplinary board hearing in which she had...

The University of Michigan made headlines this week for initially canceling a screening of the blockbuster film American Sniper because some Muslim students said that it being shown would make them feel “unsafe.” The college has since reversed this decision, but it’s not the only time something like this has happened. Here are seven other things that a school or its students have declared hazards to campus safety: 1. Bill Maher When the University of Berkeley announced that Bill Maher would be its graduation speaker last October, more than 6,000 students signed a petition demanding that he be banned because...

A military reservist who returned from service in Afghanistan last year was injured along with his family when a bullet from the war exploded. A 25-year-old soldier in Lindenhurst, north of Chicago, was attempting to light a tracer round in his backyard with a blow torch when the ammunition exploded and alarmed residents on his street.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - Police say a woman fired a shot into a Michigan restaurant’s drive-thru window after workers got her burger order wrong a second time.

Almost fifteen years ago now an ammo maker made claims about its super-lethal round -- the the Black Talon "Devastator" ammo -- and then the all the usual people who freak out about such things freaked out. Hollywood especially. They were bewitched by the Devastator for years. A major plot point in Lethal Weapon 3 concerned these Very Very Scary "cop-killer" rounds. If I understand it correctly (and I think I do), an armor piercing bullet has a very hard, non-deformable tip so that it can better penetrate armor. When a bullet deforms upon impact, it mushrooms into a bigger...

Lansing woman shot at in road-rage incident on I-80/94 11 hours ago • Times Staff GARY | A Lansing woman was shot at in a road-rage incident Sunday on I-80/94, with one bullet hitting the back of her car, Indiana State Police said in a news release. The 33-year-old woman told police she was on 25th Avenue in Gary driving her Chrysler 300 slowly because of potholes. She said a car behind her was following too closely, so she braked to get the car to back off. The braking apparently angered the other driver. The woman said the driver got...

Dec. 13 (UPI) -- While Walter Santiago was driving after picking up his sick 13-year-old granddaughter from middle school, something flew in through the open driver's side window and hit him in the head. It turns out it was a bullet. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office believes the shot was probably fired from long range and that the bullet that struck the 62-year-old grandfather in the head just above his left temple came from a high-caliber handgun. "Fortunately for me the bullet was losing velocity when it hit me," Santiago said. "I feel very fortunate and very angry that this...

“Arthur Mann joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914. His daughter-in-law says he was shot down by the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen – Arthur’s parachute caught in a tree. He also fought in the trenches – when Arthur was shot, the bullet bounced off this tin and saved his life. He also survived gassing, but this experience badly affected his long-term health. He died in 1953″ Explore Europeana 1914 – 1918