Free Republic

There seems to be a major undertaking by John Fetterman’s Senate campaign to make the candidate appear softer than what’s currently put out by his Elephant Man aura. The attempt climaxed this week with an exhausting profile in New York Magazine that would leave readers wondering — is Fetterman coming out as transgender? Seriously. That’s how hard the 5,000-word feature and its author, Rebecca Traister, worked to turn this hulking meat sack of a Pennsylvania Democrat into something resembling a soft touch. A recurring theme throughout the piece is that Fetterman’s opponent, Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, has aggressively and unfairly...

Quasi Modo, a 10-year-old mutt whose spinal birth defects left him with a hunchback, is the winner of this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog Contest Friday night. The pit bull-Dutch shepherd mix and his owner took the $1,500 prize, besting 25 other dogs competing in the contest that applauds imperfection, organizers said. Before becoming a champion, Quasi Modo was abandoned at an animal shelter before being adopted by a veterinarian in Loxahatchee, Florida, according to the dog’s biography posted on the contest’s website.

<p>CALIFORNIA'S schoolchildren are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. World history, that is. And math. Science and language arts, too. No wonder those backpacks they carry are so darn heavy.</p> <p>Concerned state lawmakers want to lighten that load before today's kids become tomorrow's chiropractic patients. Their solution? Lighter-weight books.</p>