Free Republic

President Joe Biden rode his bike in front of reporters again on Sunday, this time peddling along the beachfront in front of media cameras on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The president, wearing a polo and shorts, rode along the beach front, stopping to visit with some families and children and take selfies with supporters.

Lyft has been called "the woke alternative to Uber," a reputation the company apparently decided to embrace on Friday when it announced it would be offering free rides to people attending a prominent gun control rally later this month. The rally in question, the March for Our Lives, was organized by students in the aftermath of the shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine's Day. It is scheduled to take place on March 24 in cities around the country. --SNIP-- Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green announced the policy in...

OCALA, Fla. — A Palatka, Florida, man says he snapped a picture of a raccoon on top of an alligator in the Ocala National Forest on Saturday morning. Richard Jones said he and his family were walking along the Oaklawaha River watching alligators when his son walked through some palm fronds to get a good picture.

Want to take a ride on a real camel in northeast Fresno to get an experience of the Middle East? The Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno is offering camel rides -- and more -- at its first bazaar, which will be from 4 to 10 p.m. Oct. 27 at the center, 2111 E. Nees Ave. The center is making arrangements to bring the camel from the Los Angeles area. Huda Munjy, chairwoman of the bazaar and a board member at the center, says the camel rides are to provide the community with an experience they can enjoy and remember for...

The Space Shuttle Discovery flying piggyback on a Boeing 747 for its “Last Hurrah” flight around the Washington Monument and the White House was a grim reminder of misplaced and misspent priorities. The storied 30-year space shuttle program, which began with the launch of Columbia, April 12, 1981, ended last July, when Atlantis landed back on Earth. Since then, the price of a Russian taxi ride aboard the Soyuz to reach the International Space Station has skyrocketed from $55.8 million per seat — with a guarantee of no less than six trips to 12 round trips — to $63 million...

Van Jones, President Obama's disgraced green jobs czar, is back with a radical progressive plan to rescue America ... from his old boss. The problem, posits Jones, is that his fellow community organizer in the White House hasn't spent enough, regulated enough or taxed enough to achieve their perverse version of the "American Dream." What the country needs to "get the economy back on track," according to Jones and his league of leftists, is more government-created make-work. Oh, and a hefty side of Big Labor pork.

On Wednesday, word broke that the first rock-and-roll theme park had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and is closing its doors for the rest of the year. (Guess that means no Rocktoberfest parties there, damn!) Since it opened in April, the 55-acre, seven-years-in-the-planning, $400 million park apparently performed way below expectations, despite the undeniable attraction of that Eagles “Life in the Fast Lane” ride. Projections of 30,000 visitors a day and 3 million for the year didn’t pan out, and the park cut its operating hours in August. But operators still hope to reopen next year, despite the fact that...

8/17/2006 - MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania (AFPN) -- Among the sounds of jets starting their engines and Romanian air force maintainers prepping their aircraft for departure, an American fighter pilot climbing into the back seat of a MiG-21 Lancer was a rare sight on the flightline here Aug. 11. Pilots from the 22nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron here for Exercise Viper Lance 2006 have the opportunity to ride shotgun in Romanian fighters during the exercise. "My flight in the backseat of a Lancer is a good opportunity to look at different aircraft and it's a real privilege and an honor,"...

A Los Angeles Times editor, hoping to give his journalists a break from reporting the often grim news in America's second-largest city, offered an unusual morale booster Monday: pony rides. Managing Editor Doug Frantz ..."I hope it boosted morale..." Like many major U.S. newspapers, the Times, forced to compete with news Web sites on the Internet, has seen circulation decline.

Hookworms hitched rides with nomads Ben Harder Horseback-riding herders known as Scythians or Scythes once traveled far and wide across Eurasia. Their dead have the parasites to prove it. FEEDING THE WORMS. Researchers found hookworm eggs in the remains of two nomads buried in Central Asia 2,300 years ago. Lancet A man and a woman who were buried separately about 2,300 years ago and recently excavated in Berel, Kazakhstan, were infected with hookworms during their lifetimes, researchers have determined. Hookworms weren't then and still aren't typically found in the steppes of central Asia. "This finding demonstrated that Scythes, a nomadic...

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2006 – The Blue Knights International Motorcycle Club is sponsoring a Purple Heart Ride April 23 to raise money for servicemembers and their families. Members of the Maryland IX Chapter of the Blue Knights will be riding to the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., near the nation's capital, to demonstrate their support for members of the armed forces who have valiantly served the country and have been wounded, according to an Armed Forces Foundation news release. Money from the ride will go to the Armed Forces Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving quality of...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 24, 2005) -- The current operational tempo of the Global War on Terrorism means many Marines are deploying to combat zones on a yearly basis. Back-to-back combat tours can cause headaches for Marines and heartaches for their families, but for Sgt. C. Alexander Wolf, it’s just another day at the office. Wolf, the signals intelligence chief for 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), is on his fourth deployment to the Middle East, dating back to 2003. The Kokomo, Ind., native, works for the Wing’s intelligence division, whose duties range from intercepting and analyzing electronic communications signals to...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Sept. 29, 2005) -- One team of Marines operating with 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, bound together after facing the effects of a deadly improvised explosive device here. While conducting routine operations with the tanks May 1, the gun truck, known as “Black Three,” was hit by an IED. Marines from Headquarters Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Tank Bn., 2nd Marine Division affected by the explosion, Lance Cpls. Jamby Perez and Brandon Wells, and Sgt. Brent Sheets, were riding in the vehicle when the blast occurred. “It went off right beside our truck,” said Sheets, the truck’s...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2005 -- Dan Hartman's "Free Ride" could be the theme song to the Anheuser-Busch Company's latest offer to the military. This month, the brewery announced that once again it will open the gates to its SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place theme parks for free as a way of saying thanks to servicemembers and their families. The company's latest promotion, dubbed "Here's to the Heroes," offers a free single-day admission to servicemembers, including Guardsmen and Reservists, and as many as three "direct dependents," according to Fred Jacobs, senior director for communications at Busch Entertainment Corp. The offer...

The temperature was just above zero when Metro Transit police officer Ken Vande Steeg asked Garrett Carter of south Minneapolis to get off the train and buy a ticket. Carter complied, stepping onto the cold platform at the Fort Snelling light-rail station. Carter's offense: He had a free-ride coupon, but hadn't exchanged it for a ticket from the vending machine. Had to be done, Vande Steeg said. The coupon buys one ride. On the Hiawatha line, which depends partly on the honor system for fares, enforcement is tightening. Officers still have some discretion, issuing warnings instead of citations when riders...

Happy 4th of July!! GO DUBYA!!

Amusement Park Operator Killed in Wash. LANGLEY, Wash. (AP) - An amusement park operator was killed Saturday when his hair got caught on a roller coaster car, pulling him up as high as 40 feet before he fell, back-first, onto a fence. Doug McKay, 40, was spraying lubricant on the tracks of the Super Loop 2, a ride at the Island County Fair on Whidbey Island, when his long hair got caught on a car full of fairgoers, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Smith said. ``It basically scalped him, and he fell and landed on the fence,'' Smith said. McKay, co-owner of...

<p>ATLANTA -- A ride at Six Flags over Georgia really lived up to its name on Tuesday.</p> <p>The drop ride is called ``Acrophobia,'' which means a fear of heights.</p> <p>About 30 people were stuck at a height of 200 feet on the ride for more than an hour because of a power failure at the Atlanta park.</p>