Free Republic

The race for the US presidency is a nail-biter, so two Kamala Harris supporters have taken matters into their own manicured hands and launched a line of nail polishes themed around viral moments from the Democratic campaign. "We wanted something that was playful and fun, something that was approachable" for people who are not highly engaged in politics, said Amy Rosenthal, co-founder of "Colors for Kamala". She wants the brand to provoke "regular human conversations with people who might not agree with you at all about politics, but you know what? They like the same (shade of) red". Rosenthal and...

An Irondale man was taken into custody Wednesday on a federal indictment accusing him of detonating an explosive device outside the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, is charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device. Charging documents against him say he also placed stickers on state buildings at the same time of the bombing depicting different graphics advocating for various political ideologies. Some included the phrase “Support your local antifa.” Antifa, short for Anti-Fascist, does not describe a particular group, but rather describes individuals who adhere to what they consider...

First of all, did you even hear about the explosive device planted and detonated outside the Alabama Attorney General's office back in February? The 'news' media offered some perfunctory coverage at the time, but consider the circumstances and context: Just a few days prior, the state's Supreme Court had issued a highly controversial ruling involving frozen embryos, with possible implications for in vitro fertilization. The subsequent uproar garnered national attention, as many journalists were eager to jump all over a story they perceived as politically beneficial to both their preferred political party, and to their unlimited abortion agenda. The GOP-controlled...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemingly painted a colorful link between getting her nails done and the overturn of Roe v. Wade in her latest Instagram post. Speaking to her 8.6 million Instagram followers, the progressive firebrand emphasized that there is "no act too small" and encouraged her viewers to search for ways to reclaim lost autonomy even when they feel "powerless." Ocasio-Cortez then explained how she was using her manicure as "a personal act of reclamation" and "bodily autonomy." "Sometimes people will say, ‘There’s nothing I can do, I can’t do, I feel so powerless,'" she said in her Instagram story...

Authorities in Florida arrested 22-year-old Garrett Smith Thursday morning after finding him with a homemade explosive device at a rally in support of a suspect in the January 6 Capitol riot, police said. Describing Smith as a "sleeper," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the incident is particularly worrisome. Detectives said they don't know what Smith intended to do with the explosives. He has no criminal history, there is no intelligence from other agencies and he has no social media... ...He was wearing "all black clothing, a face covering, and carrying a black backpack," according to the sheriff's office... ..Gualtieri...

A Florida man was arrested Thursday with a homemade explosive near a rally held by the Oath Keepers, police said Friday. Deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spotted Garrett Smith, 22, running from the direction of the protest while carrying a backpack around 7:24 p.m. on January 6, the anniversary of the riot at the U.S. Capitol. About 85 members of the Oath Keepers were holding a rally in the parking lot of the Pinellas County Courthouse to support Jeremy Brown, a member of the far-right militaristic movement who was arrested for participating in the riot at the U.S....

A man in black bloc behaving suspiciously near a right-wing rally outside the Pinellas County Courthouse in Florida on Jan. 6 was apprehended by deputies after he tried fleeing on foot. Garrett James Smith, 22, was arrested and found carrying an active pipe bomb, Antifa propaganda and a written document on what to bring for his direct action. He had recently returned from Portland, Ore. "He was running fast, he was running away from something," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a press conference on Friday. Smith was purportedly targeting dozens of the attendees of a rally protesting the...

A Lithuanian man has had more than a kilogram of nails, screws, nuts and knives removed from his stomach by doctors, local media report. He had been swallowing metal objects for a month after quitting alcohol, doctors said. Some of the objects retrieved during a surgery in Klaipeda University Hospital were 10cm (4in) long, according to Lithuania's LRT public broadcaster. Surgeon Sarunas Dailidenas called it a "unique case". In its article (in Lithuanian), LRT published a KUH photo showing a surgical tray full of metal objects after the emergency three-hour operation. The man was brought by ambulance with severe abdominal...

Florida police have arrested a man after finding more than two dozen pipe bombs, including some that contained nails, screws and metal pellets. Police had been called after an explosion and found several bombs near a street and others in a trash bin. After officers identified Haasze as a suspect, he approached officers and surrendered. The 34-year-old told them he made the bombs for celebrations and to remove tree stumps and that he never intended to hurt anyone.

On the big day, she actually wore a combination of two CND gel polishes on her fingernails: one layer of Unmasked, a pinky nude, with two coats of the sheer white shade Negligee over the top. For her pedicure, her artist painted on two coats of CND Shellac in the shade Cashmere Wrap, a warm taupe nude.

Many — including the defiant pastor, Rev. Jack Roberts — arrived with their plates covered, with officers instead recording their VIN numbers, the paper said. Even more desperate measures appeared to have been taken to keep the faithful away — with “piles of nails” blocking each entrance, according to photos shared by the Courier Journal. It was not clear who had left the nails, which were eventually cleared by church volunteers in time for the main arrivals, the paper said. Kentucky State Police troopers then left large signs on every car left in the church lot, the paper said —...

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote that his state’s Democratic governor should “take a step back” regarding Easter church service coronavirus measures. This week, Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear announced Easter weekend measures for Kentucky churches and other mass gatherings that included recording license plates of church attendees and turning them into health departments so they can make the attendees “self-quarantine” for two weeks. “Taking license plates at church?” Paul tweeted Friday night. “Quarantining someone for being Christian on Easter Sunday? Someone needs to take a step back here.” It seems that the governor didn’t bother to listen to Rand...

An Australian runner found an unpleasant surprise while running on Monday near his home in New South Wales. Paul Roberts, 42, was doing run-walk intervals at Lake Macquarie State Conservation Park. when he saw what looked like a man-made pile of leaves along the trail. Though not heavily populated, the trail does get foot and bike traffic, which is why Roberts was shocked when he kicked off the top of the leaves and found wine corks with nails through them. These are similar to historic weapons known as caltrops. At first, Roberts said he didn’t think much of his initial...

The FBI on Monday announced terrorism charges against 23-year-old Harlem Suarez of Key West, Florida, who portrayed himself online as a member of ISIS and allegedly wanted to carry out a terrorist attack on American soil.Toward this end, law enforcement says Suarez thought he was purchasing an operational backpack bomb for deployment in Florida, but it was actually a dud sold to him by FBI operatives. He was also allegedly trying to get his hands on an AK-47 rifle.According to NBC News, Suarez told informants of a plan to pack the bomb with nails, bury it on the beach, and...

A South Florida man has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Key West. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Harlem Suarez, a/k/a “Almlak Benitez,” 23, of Key West was posting extremist rhetoric on his Facebook page which promoted the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a foreign terrorist organization. That caught the attention of the FBI. The criminal complaint states Suarez told an undercover FBI informant that he wanted to make a “timer bomb.” Suarez bought galvanized nails, which were to be hidden in a backpack and remotely detonated by cell phone,...

When actress Tippi Hedren visited a Vietnamese refugee camp in California 40 years ago, the Hollywood star's long, polished fingernails dazzled the women there. Hedren flew in her personal manicurist to teach a group of 20 refugees the art of manicures. Those 20 women - mainly the wives of high-ranking military officers and at least one woman who worked in military intelligence - went on to transform the industry, which is now worth about $8bn (£5.2bn) and is dominated by Vietnamese Americans. "We were trying to find vocations for them," says Hedren, who is perhaps best known for starring in...

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered emergency measures on Sunday to combat the wage theft and health hazards faced by the thousands of people who work in New York State’s nail salon industry. Effective immediately, he said in a statement, a new, multiagency task force will conduct salon-by-salon investigations, institute new rules that salons must follow to protect manicurists from the potentially dangerous chemicals found in nail products, and begin a six-language education campaign to inform them of their rights. Nail salons that do not comply with orders to pay workers back wages, or are unlicensed, will be shut down. The...

When most of us look at our hands, we might notice that we need to trim, clean, or stop biting our fingernails, and that's about it. But if you ask a dermatologist, they can see a whole lot more. Everything from poor diet and stress to serious kidney problems can be revealed by a glance at your fingernails. There are about 30 different nail signs that can be associated with medical issues, though many may indicate more than one problem, according to Dr. Amy Derick, a clinical instructor of dermatology at Northwestern University. Here are eight of the things a...

6/26 UPDATE: Dozens of incriminating posts get scrubbed from Twitter account of Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend on eve of her trial testimony. The government’s star witness in the George Zimmerman prosecution is a 19-year-old Miami woman who has used her Twitter account to occasionally comment about the murder case and this week tweeted followers a photo of her new manicure with the caption “Court nails.” Rachel Jeantel is expected to soon testify about a phone conversation she had with Trayvon Martin moments before the unarmed teenager was shot to death

Sudan is a kind of diabolical Groundhog Day. In the film by that name, Phil Connors (Bill Murray) re-lives the same day over and over again until he learns the lessons needed to change his life and save the lives of others. In Sudan today, people of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State are re-living the horrific nightmare from which they thought they had finally awakened after the signing of Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. But in this case, it is the United States government that has failed to learn the lessons needed to change conditions and save the...