Free Republic

Civil War movie. I saw this last night and I highly recommend it. I'm not a Civil War enthusiast nor do I claim to be an expert in either Civil War or wars in general. However, this movie moved me. "and that's all I have to say about that". :) (posting this in General/Chat. Don't want to break any rules or ruffle any feathers)

Hi - I come to you humbly asking for your thoughts and prayers for our daughter. She just went abroad as she starts her Junior year from Gettysburg College and is in Melbourne, Australia. She has been there just over 2 weeks.Things were going great until she called this morning to say she was in the ER because she hasn't felt well, has had a headache for 2 days, and feels like she has been hit by a truck.Long story short, she is being treated for a bacterial infection and the hospital is bringing in infectious disease doctors. Her temp...

Hi, I've never felt led to post a vanity prayer request before.My husband's boss got news that his 18(ish)-year-old son was in a car accident and is now fighting for his life. Word is that there are internal injuries and bleeding in the brain.I don't know his name or any other details. My husband's boss is a wonderful man (ex-military!) and would covet prayers for the healing of his son. Thank you so much.

Secret Handshake Reveals Principal's Stretched Resume Principal Resigns; Cites Personal Reasons POSTED: 2:01 pm EST January 10, 2006 CLEVELAND -- Busted! A charter-school principal in Cleveland has resigned, after failing to recognize a secret handshake. That's what tipped off the head of the school's advisory board that the principal might have lied about his background. *snip*Thomas denied that. He said he resigned for personal reasons.

Night-Vision Goggles Help Seatbelt Campaign POSTED: 12:36 pm EDT June 2, 2005 ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The "Click It or Ticket" campaign is getting some high-tech help in suburban Washington. Maryland State Police are using a military tool to make sure drivers buckle up. Officers had night vision goggles on Rockville Pike outside the nation's capital last night to look inside darkened cars. Police said they can see from a distance whether drivers have their seat belts fastened. *snip* Maryland authorities said they issued 111 citations Wednesday night as part of the campaign.

BALTIMORE -- There is a new effort to unravel Maryland's political mystery -- who is MD4BUSH, the Internet name of whoever communicated with Gov Ehrlich's aide Joe Steffen about Mayor Martin O'Malley's personal life. I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller said Steffen is behind the new push to find the answer. *snip* In his letter, Steffen's lawyer specifically seeks MD4BUSH's account information at Free Republic.com, which would include an e-mail address and server records that could reveal clues about the locations from which MD4BUSH logged in. *snip* Miller said Free Republic.com's operator has suggested he'd like to reveal information about...

Toddler Shot By Loaded Gun Put Out At Missouri Yard Sale Shooting Investigation Continues UPDATED: 12:54 PM EDT August 16, 2004 RICHMOND, Mo. -- A toddler was shot last week at a family yard sale in Missouri. Natishia Weber said she took her children to a relative's yard sale Thursday, not giving a second thought that her 21-month-old daughter, Danielle, was safe playing with friends in a tent. An Iowa farmer stopped by a short time later and picked up a .22-caliber rifle that was for sale. Thinking it was unloaded, he pulled the trigger. A bullet richocheted off a...

Mystery Creature Lurks In Baltimore County POSTED: 5:19 am EDT July 19, 2004 UPDATED: 5:46 am EDT July 19, 2004 GLYNDON, Md. -- A mystery animal is on the loose in Baltimore County and not even the experts can pin down what it is. A Glyndon man found a way to secretly record the beast while it grazed in his yard. For a while it was just lurking in the woods watching the Wroe family until the Wroes started watching it. SNIP The beast is not shy and visiting most often under bright sun. While no one here knows what...

ORCHARDS, Wash. -- If you want to work with cops -- you might want to sober up before applying. Authorities in Orchards said Robert Gulley stopped by state patrol headquarters to pick up an application. According to Trooper Maureen Crandall, Gulley smelled of booze, was slurring his words and had glassy eyes. The unemployed radio technician was ticketed for alleged drunken driving as he drove away from the patrol office. Gulley told the Columbian newspaper he picked a bad time to pick up his police application.

State: 'Bucky' To Be Tranquilized, Examined POSTED: 5:34 am EST February 19, 2004 UPDATED: 1:17 pm EST February 19, 2004 HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- A couple said Maryland state officials told them a wild deer living on their enclosed porch must be destroyed. Kevin and Starla Hall found the young deer on a street in their neighborhood Sunday. The deer seemed injured and confused, so the Halls took him in and named him Bucky. The Halls have been searching without success for a refuge or a petting zoo where Bucky can continue his rehab. But the Halls say the state's Natural...

WHY ARE WE STILL THERE?????????? It is time to take a serious look at our involvement there. Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night on the TV are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still there? The land is too large to secure all of it. The bad people causing this damage can roam anywhere, and we can't possibly police the whole place. Why are we still there? We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there? Their government is...

SACRAMENTO -- Starting next month, the nation's first genetically altered household pet -- a fish -- will start appearing in stores -- except in California. The "GloFish" is altered to glow in the dark, but environmental and public interest groups call it "Frankenfish." They oppose an exemption to the state's ban on lab-engineered species that the state Fish and Game Commission will take up Wednesday State wildlife officials say the Florida-grown Zebra fish poses no danger. Officials say the fish, which scientists turned green or red by inserting genes from other species, are less tolerant of cold water and would...

Monkeys Demand Equal Pay 12:27 p.m. EDT September 17, 2003 A fair shake is a fair shake -- whether you're a human or a monkey. A recent study shows brown capuchin monkeys refused to play along when they saw another monkey get a better payoff for performing the same work. The monkeys were trained to trade a granite token for a piece of cucumber. When the reward was the same for both monkeys, they took the cucumber 95 percent of the time. But it was a different story when one monkey was given something better -- namely, a grape. Then,...

Tennessee Town Outlaws Body Odor POSTED: 12:44 p.m. EDT August 26, 2003 MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- No B.O. on the J-O-B. That's the new policy for city workers in Murfreesboro. The City Council has adopted a regulation that workers may not have "an odor generally offensive to others." It seems one city employee has what's described as a problem with personal hygiene, despite repeated counseling. The new rules don't spell out exactly what constitutes offensive body odor. But Councilman Toby Gilley said, "We'll know it when we smell it."

Md. Teacher Finds Botched PSAT Question Student Test Scores Increased Due To Erroneous Question POSTED: 9:00 p.m. EDT May 14, 2003 The nation's largest testing company has increased the PSAT scores of nearly 500,000 high school juniors after the company concluded it was wrong about the correct answer to a grammar question posed on the exam last October. Students were asked if anything was grammatically wrong with the following sentence: "Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured." The correct choice on the multiple choice exam was originally listed as...

British Doctors Remove 20,000 Brains Without Permission Practice Explicitly Outlawed In 1999 POSTED: 11:48 a.m. EDT May 12, 2003 LONDON -- British doctors and morticians removed at least 20,000 brains for research from 1970 to 1999 without obtaining families' consent, according a government report published Monday. The figure includes only those brains still held by hospitals and universities in England, and many more could have been taken and destroyed, Dr. Jeremy Metters, Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, said in the report. Removing organs without families' permission was explicitly outlawed in 1999. A law passed in 1961 said organs should only...

Md. Researcher: Women Murdered Due To Pregnancy Some States Have 'Double Homicide' Laws When Pregnant Mothers Are Killed BALTIMORE -- In California, Scott Peterson is preparing to go to trial for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci. It's a disturbing story, but apparently not all that unusual. WBAL-TV 11 NEWS anchorwoman Donna Hamilton reported that the No. 1 cause of death for pregnant women has nothing do to with medicine. Research: Homicide Kills More Pregnant Women A fertilizer salesman, an actor and a former NFL football player have all been accused of killing their wives or girlfriends during pregnancy -- or...

Remembering Your First Car Car Prices Skyrocket Over 25 Years Greg Ng, Staff Writer POSTED: 4:35 p.m. EDT April 22, 2003 UPDATED: 9:23 p.m. EDT April 22, 2003 BALTIMORE -- Twenty-seven years and $6,313.90 ago, my father bought a car. Among his first modes of transportation was the family's Volkswagen Beetle, and then a motorcycle -- but that one might not count because he got rid of it. So we'll start with this one. It's certainly the first car I remember as my parents had me four years after my father bought the car -- though, I've turned out to...

Willie McCool was 22,000 feet over Smith Point that day in 1993 when he heard a loud pop. One of the engines on his EA-6B Prowler had stalled, and the plane fell in an uncontrolled spin toward the Chesapeake Bay. McCool, then a test pilot at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, flipped a switch to begin recovery procedures. The plane kept plummetting. The three crew members with him blanched. Other Prowlers experiencing the same problem in similar circumstances had crashed. One of the crew called out altitudes as the plane approached the 10,000-foot threshold where they would have to bail...

RULES FOR ENTERING TEXASThe following list of rules apply to each person as they enter Texas: Know them and learn them. 1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot. 2. Let's get this straight, it's called a 'gravel road.' I drive a pickup truck because I need to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way. 3. They are pigs, cattle, and oil wells. That's what they smell like to you; they smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it?...