Free Republic

New TSA Policy : Amish to be Selected for Extra Scrutiny Washington : In response to recent complaints by CAIR and other Muslim groups,the TSA has decided to make a dramatic shift in its screening policies. According to Haye Bin Dover, the agency’s newly-appointed Special Deputy for Political Correctness and Dhimmitude , TSA screeners will now select Amish air travelers for extra scrutiny. “They have these funny little chin beards “, Mr. Bin Dover said disapprovingly. “The men could stand a good shave too.” “These Amish speak some sort of “Pennsylvania Dutch” . If our friends from the Hamburg Cell...

Mainland China has opened its first halfway house for Internet addicts, offering shell-shocked teenagers counselling, books -- and the use of computers. The shelter can hold four minors for one-night stays and help bridge gaps between children and parents, the Shanghai Daily said. "None of the teenagers are forced to come here," the newspaper quoted Wang Hui, the house's chief social worker, as saying. "We wander around in nearby Internet bars at night and bring them to the halfway house if the teen agrees." Computer and online gaming has exploded in China in recent years, with an estimated 14 million...

NEW YORK -- The New York Times has restaurant, play and movie critics. Now, there's a critic to help readers navigate the fragrant world of perfume. Chandler Burr, a magazine writer and author, will debut in the Aug. 27 issue of the newspaper's style magazine. If Burr follows in the tradition of other opinionated Times critics, perfume makers beware: scents had better be up to snuff.

This would be like if the Bengals, instead of drafting Carson Palmer, successfully lobbied the NFL to give them a two-touchdown handicap in every game. Under this football-socialism, the Bengals would still suck, and the level of talent in the NFL as a whole would stagnate. So will the American economy stagnate if its losers don't work harder at winning, instead of lamely trying to get paid for more losing.

Press converence at White House on CNN. LOL. All the news chick could say was, "Wow!"

Did anyone see her on Letterman last night. What an idiot! If we let her win Speaker of the House we deserve to go down the tubes.

The devil got his due yesterday. An American penny with a mark thought to resemble the devil sold for $170.10 through an online auction yesterday. A Winnipeg man topped 13 other bidders when he bought the coin, which has a mark on its surface that looks like a demon's face, complete with horns, to the right of former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Dieter Hoch said he bought the penny on behalf of a friend who lives in Germany. Hoch said his friend -- a holistic medicine practitioner -- wanted to add the demon coin to his collection of strange and...

In a scathing rebuke of Bryant Gumbel's recent comments on HBO's Real Sports last week that NFLPA head Gene Upshaw is a "personal pet" of outgoing NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, former Minnesota Vikings running back and longtime player rep Robert Smith accused the TV host of both desperation and jealousy.

Six Flags Inc. will start marketing its Denver property for sale this week. The city wants the site to continue as an amusement park, but some see it as a mixed-use development. The owner of Denver's Six Flags Elitch Gardens amusement park is seeking $170 million for the 75-acre site, according to a real estate developer who has seen the offering. Six Flags Inc., which operates 30 parks in North America, is saddled with more than $2 billion in debt and is considering selling Elitch Gardens and five other parks. It plans to send out marketing materials on the properties...

Here we are at "Snakes on a Plane" and ... what was that? That over there. It moved. It looks like a wire, but it moved. Hey, something almost touched that guy's foot. It's a snake! I know it! They're coming now! Pick your feet up! They're here! Mister Pilot, please stop hitting at that snake slithering over the control panel. Put that clip board down, sir. If you keep hitting at that snake something bad is going to happen. I'm sure of it. Don't ... don't. If you don't stop, man, I'll come up to that movie screen and...

AP - Wed Aug 16, 8:11 PM ET Ayla, a service monkey for the disabled, throws out the first pitch prior to a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park in Boston, Wednesday evening, Aug. 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

It was Friday, Aug. 18, 1967, and the town was alive because the Red Sox were in an honest-to-God, late-summer pennant race for the first time in 17 years. The fourth-place Red Sox (3 1/2 games back) were playing the fifth-place Angels (four back) in the first of four and it was baseball as baseball was meant to be until that awful moment in the bottom of the fourth with Tony Conigliaro batting against California righthander Jack Hamilton. The sound. Rico Petrocelli will never forget the sound. ``It was a `squish,' " recalls Petrocelli, the on-deck hitter, ``like a tomato...

It's now or never for the New York Yankees. The Yankees open a five-game series at Fenway Park on Friday with their alter egos in the American League East, the Boston Red Sox. Just 1 1/2 games will separate the two teams when that series begins. Since the All-Star break, the Sox have slipped considerably, going 16-17 with problems surfacing with their starting pitching, relief corps and hitting (with the exception of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez). The Yankees, meanwhile, seem to have righted themselves after a long year of struggles with injuries and under-producing pitchers such as Randy Johnson....

ATTN: Bianca Ryan Fans !! website goes live in just 9 hours !! For those of you who have been following Bianca on America's Got Talent.. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about here is a clip of her FIRST performance... Live VOTING tonight after the show ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVU27eLOclU&feature=PlayList&p=929515AEC5F91609&index=1

Someone on a mailing list I am on said the FBI has not issued an arrest warrant for UBL because there isn't enough evidence. I have pointed out that we have Bin Laden's confession as to his involvement- but was wondering what other hard evidence I could provide. Blair issued evidence in 2001 but I wasn't able to find articles past then. Of course, I haven't scoured the internet. Don't have time this morning. But, I figured some freepers might have something handy.

Chinese to steer Viking long ship By Christopher Hope, Industry Editor (Filed: 16/08/2006) The world-famous Rover name has been sold to the Chinese, 18 months after the Longbridge plant stopped making Rover and MG cars in the west Midlands. In March BMW chief executive Helmut Panke admitted the Rover name was up for grabs BMW, the German car maker which owns the historic brand, is understood to have agreed to sell the marque - which features the iconic Viking long ship - to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation for more than £11m. The two companies are planning to announce the transaction...

PARTY-LOVING Princes William and Harry hugged drunkenly for the camera during a booze-fuelled night out with chums. Royal heir William, 24, looked dazed and wide-eyed as the flash went off — while brother Harry leered merrily over his shoulder. Harry was also snapped canoodling with pretty blonde Natalie Pinkham, while saucily groping her BOOB with one hand. Meanwhile William was caught trying a more “tactful” approach with another party girl as they chatted in the background. The fun-loving shots were taken in a trendy London nightclub.

With Johnny Depp buckling his swash again this summer in the Disney franchise Pirates of the Caribbean, many critics yearn for the 2003 Gore Verbinski innovative original. But as new as Depp’s fey pirate portrayal may have been, a significant creation in that film was the concept that bloodthirsty pirates on a rampage could be stopped cold by the mere invocation of the word “Parlay” (from the French, parler, to talk). But, while we may be willing to suspend our disbelief in such an idea for a rousing movie, we should think twice about such devices in the real world....

Proverbs 26:11 – “As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that returns to his folly.” Ted Kennedy, already his own caricature, provided us with a startling illustration of both the Biblical proverb and his own absurdity this weekend in a Washington Post Op-Ed calling for reform of the judicial nomination process, a piece of writing that could only be called “Bork-barrel” politics. In his Op-Ed, Kennedy accuses Supreme Court justices John G. Roberts Jr and Samuel Alito of having deceived the good Senator and his colleagues during the confirmation process, but the Senator’s words ring...