Free Republic

It's all fun and games until someone starts with the machine gun fire. Yep, 18 of them were suspended after blanks were fired in front of beachgoers off the coast of Crab Island, Florida. As reported by Task & Purpose: The May 16 incident at Crab Island in Destin, Florida, led to at least two 911 calls and several social media posts. Videos posted on social media showed men in military uniforms with Ranger tabs and blank adapters on their weapons firing at least two bursts into the air. In one of the videos, a woman who is off camera...

A Somali pirate from Minnesota has been sentenced to federal prison for his role in holding an American journalist hostage for nearly three years. What we know In a press release on Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Abdi Yusuf Hassan, of Minneapolis, and Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed, of Somalia, received a 30-year prison sentence for hostage taking, terrorism and firearm offenses related to the 977-day captivity of American freelance journalist Michael Scott Moore. Officials said Hassan and Mohamed played "significant roles in Moore’s captivity" and abused their positions within the Somali government. Hassan served as the Minister of Interior...

Denmark will pay for an “integration plan” and a prosthetic leg for a Nigerian pirate after granting him residency, two years after he attacked the Danish Navy off the coast of Africa. Nigerian Lucky Frances will receive taxpayer-funded aid in attaining employment and education to help him “integrate” into Denmark after being brought to the country in 2021 when he lost his leg in a firefight with the Danish navy after his band of pirates attacked the Esbern Snare frigate off the coast of Africa... Not only did the African pirate avoid imprisonment for attacking the Danish sailors, despite being...

A New York porch pirate targeted homes in broad daylight under the guise of delivering food as she canvassed residential neighborhoods for her next target, police said. Juliana Saggaram, 33, of East Elmhurst, Queens was arrested Wednesday after she used her position as a DoorDash driver to freely approach two homes and swipe packages. Saggaram conducted the scheme twice in 48 hours before she was caught in the act on Sept. 3 in Manhasset, when a 54-year-old victim reported the stolen package. The alleged thief had stopped at a nearby Chipotle for a DoorDash order to use the food order...

We hadn't heard of Stephanie Winn (@SomeTherapist) before but are delighted to have discovered her. If your child comes out to you as a pirate, you should celebrate! It's wonderful news that he's discovered his true self. Plus, his coming out means he trusts you with the privilege of knowing something sacred and ineffable he discovered deep within himself. Make sure he feels… pic.twitter.com/Cvimsmc3Sq — Stephanie Winn (@sometherapist) September 12, 2023 If your child comes out to you as a pirate, you should celebrate! It's wonderful news that he's discovered his true self. Plus, his coming out means he trusts...

‘Tis the season for porch pirates. When online shopping deliveries increase for the holidays, so do the number of porch pirate thefts. Porch pirates are thieves who steal delivered packages from other people’s porches. You see it happen all over social media, as victims post videos of porch pirates in the act. “I noticed the Ring doorbell that a lot of people have was showing video after video after video of people stealing packages off porches,” said Scott Ryan. Those videos are what lead Ryan to take action. “I built what I call the Amazon Wall,” he said. The wall...

The hanging of Albert Hicks on Bedloe’s Island on this date in 1860 marked perhaps the last execution for piracy in U.S. history.* This was a century and more past the Golden Age of Piracy. By the mid-19th century, the picaresque buccaneer had long ago hornswaggled his last doubloons and retired from Atlantic sea lanes into literary nostalgia. According to the Espy file, there had been only a single piracy death case, a double execution in Virginia in 1852, over the preceding quarter-century. Hicks, who alternately went by William Johnson, wasn’t exactly Captain Kidd: think less freebooter, and more hijacker....

Aye maties, 'tis the day we've all been waiting for: International Talk Like a Pirate Day. But avast! Before you grab your grog and parrot, let's get ye educated! The idea for the day was born in 1995 on a YMCA racquetball court in Albany, Oregon. John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur and his friend Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers began throwing around insults, just like pirates. They selected Sept. 19, simply because Summers had recently divorced, it was his ex-wife's birthday, and he figured "the date was stuck in my head, and I wasn't going to do anything with it anymore," he...

Captain Raphael Semmes of CSS Alabama struck his colors to the USS Kearsarge. Captain John Winslow's Kearsarge had pounded the Alabama into a smoldering, sinking wreck in a one hour battle off the coast of Cherbourg France. As she sunk, about 70 of her crew were rescued by the Kearsarge and about 30 by other ships in the area. Alabama had lost about 40 men killed during the battle. Captain Semmes escaped aboard a British ship. During her career as a commerce raider, CSS Alabama had captured or destroyed 65 U.S. flagged ships, and captured about 2000 of their crews....

As another lawsuit hits the actor, accusing him of creating a ‘toxic’ work environment, his status as the industry’s most wanted leading man shows no sign of returning. The descriptions sound like a typical day at sea for Captain Jack Sparrow: “volatile”, “reckless”, “vices”, “chaos”, “hurricane”. The Pirates of the Caribbean character is, after all, a drunken pirate who sails through fiascos and misadventures. It is Johnny Depp, however, not Sparrow, who is accused of presiding over such mayhem in a drama playing out not on screen but in court. Oh, how I loved you, Johnny Depp. Now I see...

Don't politicize the Parrot. That's the sentiment of some on social media who are upset the Pirate Parrot appeared along with team President Frank Coonelly at the Republican Committee of Allegheny County's annual Spirit of Lincoln Dinner on Thursday night. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, headlined the event in Green Tree, which drew more than 500 people. Before it started, Washington Post reporter James Hohmann posted an image to Twitter of the Pirate Parrot standing in a hallway outside a ballroom at Green Tree's DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. The Parrot was giving a thumbs-up.

Fresh translations of samurai accounts of ‘barbarian’ ship arriving at the height of Japan’s feudal isolation corroborate a story long dismissed as fantasy An amateur historian has unearthed compelling evidence that the first Australian maritime foray into Japanese waters was by convict pirates on an audacious escape from Tasmania almost two centuries ago. Fresh translations of samurai accounts of a “barbarian” ship in 1830 give startling corroboration to a story modern scholars had long dismissed as convict fantasy: that a ragtag crew of criminals encountered a forbidden Japan at the height of its feudal isolation. The brig Cyprus was hijacked...

Last week, Johnny Depp paid an unexpected visit to fans at Disneyland, showing up in his full Captain Jack Sparrow costume at the iconic Pirates of the Caribbean ride. A number of fans shared videos of the actor entertaining tourists. But today we have an official video from Disney, which shows some of the behind-the-scenes preparations for Johnny Depp's big surprise. If that wasn't enough, we also have a new IMAX poster, TV trailer and photos of the new Funko Pop toys featuring Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Salazar and Will Turner. This video debuted on Disney Movie Trailers YouTube channel,...

While interviewing Bernie Sanders on "Meet The Press" on October 11, 2015 Chuck Todd asked the following question: “Are you a capitalist?” Bernie answered “No. I’m a democratic socialist.” To properly understand his answer, it is helpful to go back 104 years to the candidacy of Eugene V. Debs who, in 1912, ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket. In that election, there were four candidates for President: William Howard Taft (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive), Woodrow Wilson (Democrat), and Eugene V. Debs (Socialist). On some of the platform planks, there was an overlap between the Socialists and the Progressives....

In "honor" of Talk Like A Pirate Day, What's your best or favorite pirate joke? Mine? A pirate walks into a bar with a ship's wheel attached to his belt buckle. The bartender asks him what that's all about. "I don't know", says himself. "But's it's driving me nuts!"

Divers in Madagascar have found a silver bar weighing about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) that they believe was part of the treasure of pirate Captain Kidd. The bar was presented to Madagascar's president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, in a ceremony Thursday on the island of Sainte Marie, near the country's northeast coast. The bar was found in a bay off the island, the diving team said. The team was led by Barry Clifford, an American undersea explorer who has been searching for pirate treasure for many decades. Clifford believes there could be more treasure on the bay floor where he found the...

Underwater explorers in Madagascar say they have found what is thought to be the treasure of notorious Scottish pirate William Kidd. Soldiers on Sainte Marie island have been guarding the 50kg silver bar after divers brought it to shore. Madagascar's president as well as UK and US diplomats received the suspected treasure at a ceremony on the island. Capt Kidd was executed in 1701 for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean.

A man accused of stabbing a supermarket worker with a pair of scissors told police he was a pirate from 1776. Police say they arrested Joseph Pradel after he stabbed Jacque Vino, an employee at Weis Market in Plains Township, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. And according to police, who say Pradel was under the influence of a controlled substance at the time, the suspect told them that he was a pirate who had come to America on the Santa Maria in 1776. When asked if he regretted his alleged actions by a WNEP reported, Pradel replied: ‘Nah.’ Court papers say Mr...

Larry Harcar was swaggering down his street last week in full "Pirates of the Caribbean" regalia: Bearded, in black and with a toy gun and sword. It's what he likes doing this time of year — for entertainment, he told authorities. The fun ended when Harcar, 49, found himself face down on the ground with two loaded pistols pointed at his head. The guns were in the hands of two startled neighbors from three doors away, the Broward Sheriff's Office said, who were fearful of the "pirate's" appearance. The costume drama began Wednesday afternoon, when Harcar was spotted by Ahmed...

Ahoy, mateys! Aye...it be that day once more. The day when ye can hoist the Jolly Roger and set sail for adventure (or mystify your co-workers & friends by how you are speaking). September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Given the seriousness of all the crap going on around us, it's nice...even for a little bit...to be silly and have a little fun.