Free Republic

A new high-speed railway in northern Sweden has already claimed the lives of 200 reindeer since it opened three months ago, forcing the farm owner to move to safer pastures. The train line, which runs between Umeå and Lycksele, has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of reindeer over the last three months, when the unfortunate animals have wandered onto the tracks. Finding a dead reindeer or one that is injured and needs to be euthanized is a daily occurrence for reindeer owner, Per-Mikael Jonsson, who is forced to put down many injured reindeer fearing that their internal damages...

At first I thought his complaint might have something to do with the scene that you can only see in the director’s cut where the Abominable Snow Monster took Hermey’s dental school lunch money and gave him an atomic wedgie while Yukon Cornelius laughed until icicles came out his nose, but instead, the apparent problem is with Santa himself. As it turns out, St. Nick is no saint: Santa Claus doesn’t just drop off presents for kids — he also encourages the soul-crushing of generation after generation of Christmas-reveling children. Or says one author, at least. Appearing on Fox News,...

<p>HELENA, Mont. — A Montana resident says an energy company has identified the cause of a brief power outage as "deer with wings."</p> <p>Lee Bridges says she was outside with her dogs around the time the power went out when a NorthWestern Energy truck pulled up, giving her a chance to ask the driver what caused the problem.</p>

Conan O'Brien unveiled a never-before-seen version of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' featuring Sarah Palin on Wednesday night's "Conan." (Video at source link).

Twas the night before Kwanzaa, and throughout the White House,Not a Kenyan was stirring, not even his spouse.No stockings were hung from the chimney with care,Because greenhouse emissions would heat up the air.The children were each tucked away in their beds,No nightmares of Public School troubling their heads.

Back in May I wrote an article that asked the question, "Was Jesus A Socialist?" As I wrote in the article it is my understanding of the Scriptures, and of God's many rules and regulations to the Israelites, that Jesus was a capitalist. Thus I believe if He were walking among us and actually voting in our elections today, He would most certainly be a conservative capitalist. Ok, so now we find ourselves at the doorstep of Christmas and unfortunately more children have probably heard of Santa than have heard of Jesus. So in the spirit of the season, and...

A North Carolina woman sees Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in this pork chop. It might not be worth as much as a grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary, but a North Carolina woman believes she's found a well-known Christmas character in her pork chop. Sue Church stopped by the FOX8 studios on Tuesday morning to show us a pork chop that resembles Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Some have suggested the meat actually resembles the antler-wearing dog in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The aforementioned grilled cheese sandwich fetched $28,000 in an eBay auction in...

Imagine if 4,000 people – mostly academics proclaiming to be “friends and colleagues” of Professor Eric Rudolph – published a letter defending that terrorist’s association with John McCain, praising his role as a distinguished faculty member in education at a premier university, and willfully ignoring his past as a domestic terrorist. While this particular scenario is easy to dismiss as absurd and unfeasible, that is exactly what has happened regarding Bill Ayers’ association with Barack Obama.

Unbelievable.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALDfwXIYUX0

Rudy Giuliani: The Knight and ‘The Queen’ According to The London Times, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gives kisses before he leaves every morning, but to neither his estranged wife, nor his girlfriend. Instead, says The Times, “Sir Rudy” gives a peck on the cheek to the two homosexual men he’s living with. “We always get a little kiss, it’s cute,” says wealthy car dealer Howard Koeppel, with whom Giuliani has been sharing an apartment since June. When Giuliani was recently knighted, Koeppel tells The Times that he told “Sir Rudy” to call him “Queen Howard.” Koeppel (63) and...

FLORENCE, Colorado (AP) -- Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph laments in a series of letters to a newspaper that the maximum-security federal prison where he is spending the rest of his life is designed to drive him insane. "It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis," he wrote in one letter to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

Donald E. Rudolph Sr., who received the nation's highest military honor for bravery as a young Army sergeant during World War II in the Philippine Islands, died Thursday from complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 85. "He was a wonderful patriot," said Itasca County Veterans Services Officer Marvin Ott, who spoke with Rudolph's wife, Helen, on Friday. Rudolph had been ill for several years, Ott said. President Harry S. Truman presented Rudolph with the Medal of Honor on Aug. 23, 1945, for "bravery beyond the call of duty."

The pendulum swings both ways. Last year in Denver, it was Mayor John Hickenlooper proposing to replace the city's traditional "Merry Christmas" sign with one that said "Happy Holidays." The mayor wisely backed off in response to the public outcry, as did the Parade of Lights, this year, reversing its policy barring religious floats. Earlier this month, Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert, issued a directive instructing the architect of the Capitol to drop the name "Capitol Holiday Tree" - adopted in the late 1990s under the authority of no one who's now willing to admit to it -...

A nurse critically injured when Eric Rudolph detonated a bomb outside an abortion clinic described him Monday as "a monster" who should be put to death. "The full responsibility for this would have been the death sentence," said Emily Lyons. She spoke at a sentencing hearing for Rudolph, who avoided a death penalty under a plea agreement in which he confessed to deadly bombings in Birmingham and Atlanta. "When it was your turn to face death, you weren't so brave again," Lyons told the federal courtroom "You want to see a monster, all you have to do is look in...

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Earl Lazenby had delivered mail for years to the aging brown home with overgrown plants in the yard and a National Rifle Association sticker on the front door. The home's owner was always friendly, sometimes chatting with Lazenby at the grocery store in this Atlanta suburb. But what Lazenby didn't know was that William Crutchfield was deep in debt and looking for a way out. Crutchfield apparently watched with envy as Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph was headed to prison for life and aspired to the same fate — allowing him to live off the government while behind...

Is the popular children's Christmas Special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" really a hidden lesson in gay tolerance? Think about it: Rudolph is born different. His macho father can't accept it. He even tries to get Rudolph to "stop" having a shiny red nose. His mother is more understanding, but unwilling to stand up for her son against society and her husband. She is reduced, somewhat, to half hearted attempts at chiding Rudolph's father and getting Rudolph interested in "does," such as Clarice, the girl next door: Rudolph gets ostracized from others at "school" (reindeer games) for his differences and...

MANSFIELD TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Roy Decker can look at the photos and letters now, more than 16 years later, and spot the clues with ease. Right there, in sweeping cursive, the writings of his former Army roommate and future FBI's Most Wanted fugitive are eerie now. Right there is the Hitler reference, with future serial bomber and alleged Nazi sympathizer Eric Robert Rudolph referring to himself in a 1989 letter to Decker as "Der Furher (sic), Adolf Rudolph." Right there, on the snapshot taken by Decker at their Army camp in Kentucky in 1988, is the portrait of future survivalist...

Eric Rudolph's "manifesto" is 11 pages of hate, intolerance and self-justification. Sometimes eloquent, often blunt, it is at once an attempt to influence history and a thinly veiled call to arms. And to those who tracked the serial bomber and whose lives he shattered, it may be the only window they will ever get into the mind of a man who was once at the top of the FBI's most wanted list. "This is an unapologetic letter from an arrogant, defiant commander of an extremist army of one. ... I think this is both a call to action and tooting...

ATLANTA - Abortion clinics around the country are bracing for attacks after Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph issued his manifesto justifying the use of violence to stop "the worst massacre in human history." "When one of these extremists puts out a call to action, oftentimes, others do try to follow in their footsteps," said Vicki Saporta, head of the National Abortion Federation, which represents 400 U.S. clinics. "He clearly is speaking to the extremists who believe in justifiable homicide." Rudolph will get four life sentences without parole after pleading guilty Wednesday to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta...

AP) - Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty Wednesday to a 1998 abortion clinic bombing that killed a police officer, the first in a string of bombings that he has admitted to as part of a plea deal. Rudolph arrived at the federal court in Birmingham in a car surrounded by 10 marked and unmarked police vehicles. He was expected to plead guilty to three other bombings later Wednesday, including the blast at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Outside the courthouse before Rudolph arrived, Emily Lyons, who was critically injured in the Birmingham bombing, said she was "nauseated" that Rudolph's plea will...