Free Republic

The 2024 hopeful told podcaster Patrick Bet-David that his cowboy boots were 'just standard, off the rack Lucchese' and that he stood at 5'11'' But a trio of expert shoemakers have come forward to say he is using lifts to make himself look taller. Politico Magazine on Tuesday gave what had been merely online speculation some legitimacy, with all three boot and shoemakers pointing out how the odd fit of the candidate's boots likely means he's getting a boost. (comments by 3 boot makers/experts) DeSantis' spokesman Bryan Griffin did not appreciate Politico Magazine's investigation. Griffin said. 'The governor doesn't pad...

Three professional bootmakers told Politico Magazine they believe Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is likely wearing lifts in his boots following his viral interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David, who brought up allegations that he has heels inside of them. In the article published Tuesday, Politico Magazine’s Derek Guy noted that three bootmakers, including Zephan Parker, who owns the Houston, Texas-based Parker Boot Company, said that DeSantis’s boots are altered to accommodate lifts. “I’ve dealt with these politicians many times,” Parker told the outlet. “I’ve helped them with their lifts. [DeSantis] is wearing lifts; there’s no doubt.”“3 Expert Shoemakers Say Ron DeSantis...

The Napoleon complex has been scientifically proven. New research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences suggests that people who are relatively short and unhappy about it may engage in antagonistic behaviors in an attempt to offset their height disadvantage. The researchers used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a crowd-sourcing site, to recruit 367 adults, a mix of men and women from the US, for the study. The participants were asked to complete the Dirty Dozen Dark Triad questionnaire, which is designed to assess levels of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism — a personality trait defined as being manipulative, cynical and lacking...

If they don't take action after this, every one of Fox News's executives, directors, and advertisers is complicit in Tucker Carlson's racist, murderous rants. Acyn Torabi @Acyn · 3h Tucker: How shocked are we that 17 year olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is assuring Muslims of her support, threatening action against any "anti-Muslim rhetoric" that "edges toward violence." Lynch, speaking at a dinner held by the Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy group, announced Thursday night the Justice Department will investigate the police department in Texas that arrested a 14-year-old Muslim boy who brought a device that looked like a bomb to school. Ahmed "Clock Boy" Mohamed was never charged, but several congressmen asked Lynch for the civil-rights investigation she promised Thursday. ... "When we are ruled by fear, we are not making ourselves safe," Lynch said....

Short man robs bank in supermarket FALLBROOK, Calif. — A diminutive man in sunglasses robbed a North County supermarket banking desk Friday, authorities reported. The thief, who appeared to be in his early 30s, handed a demand note to a teller at the U.S. Bank office at the Albertsons store in the 1100 block of South Mission Road in Fallbrook shortly after 10 a.m., according to the FBI. The bandit fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Witnesses described him as a roughly 5-foot-4-inch, 110-pound white man with short brown hair, freckles and protruding ears. The same man is believed...

An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he’s giving up. “I can’t stomach what’s going on in Washington anymore,” he says. “The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life.” My friend is falling into exactly the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into — such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they’re free to take over everything.Republicans blame the shutdown of Washington and possible default on the nation’s debt on the president’s “unwillingness to...

Being short isn't easy. Short people make less money, have a harder time finding a mate, and are less likely to be elected to public office, statistics show. A new study suggests that it gets worse: The shortest short people -- men under 5 feet 5 inches and women under 5 feet -- are roughly 50 percent more likely than the tallest people to have a heart attack or die from heart disease, according to an analysis published in the European Heart Journal.

(Video link below) PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. - One woman's pregnancy could come close to breaking a state record. Expectant mother Cristianne Ray may soon set the bar, and it's all because she falls much shorter than average. Cristianne's already made it to week 35 of her pregnancy, making weekly trips from Puyallup to Seattle to see specialists. "I don't know, it's been different. I've grown a lot," she said. "My doctor, every time I see her she says, 'oh my gosh, your stomach's so big.'" Any pregnant woman may feel that way, but Cristianne gained almost 40 percent of her...

SIDNEY, Neb. -- A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years of probation instead. His crimes deserved a long sentence, District Judge Kristine Cecava said, but she worried that Richard W. Thompson, 50, would be especially imperiled by prison dangers. "You are a sex offender, and you did it to a child," she said. But, she said, "That doesn't make you a hunter. You do not fit in that category."

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers traumatised by battle with the Palestinians have a new, unconventional weapon to exorcise their nightmares -- marijuana. Under an experimental programme, Delta-9 tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient found in the cannabis plant, will be administered to 15 soldiers over the next several months in an effort to fight post-traumatic stress disorder. Raphael Mechoulam of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, the chief researcher behind a project he described as a world-first, said the chemical could trick the brain into suppressing unwanted memories. For soldiers haunted by flashbacks of traumatic battle experiences, he said, the drug, administered in liquid...

Washington, DC: Three out of four illicit drug users in the United States are marijuana smokers, according to survey data released today by the Department of Health and Human Services.According to the department's annual "National Survey on Drug Use and Health," an estimated 19.5 million Americans currently use illicit drugs (as defined as use within the past month). Of these, 14.6 million - or 75 percent - self-identify as marijuana smokers.By comparison, only 2.3 million Americans reported using cocaine, approximately one million reported using LSD, and fewer than 120,000 said that they currently use heroin. In addition, an estimated 97...

It's Time To Rethink and Reform Drug Laws Thoughtful conservatives such as William F. Buckley are joining the call for sweeping reforms, including legalization, taxation and regulated sale of marijuana. America's war on drugs is now in its 90th year. Federal law first restricted access to cocaine, heroin and related drugs in 1914. Marijuana was outlawed in 1937. Now, after nine decades of largely futile and often counterproductive efforts at drug prohibition, the time has come to reevaluate and reform America's drug laws. All wars have casualties, and this one is no exception. According to a recent report from the...

Doctor Who Recommended Medical Pot Gets Restraining Order vs. Ashcroft A federal judge awarded a West Slope doctor who recommends medical marijuana a temporary restraining order against Attorney General John Ashcroft. Mollie Fry, whose clinic in Cool was raided by federal agents three years ago, will appear in a San Francisco court next week to hear whether a judge will make the order permanent. "I feel beaten and I'm asking him to stop beating me," Fry said. The temporary restraining order, approved by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, elated Fry. "We need to continue to struggle against those who...

THE average cannabis joint is no stronger than it was 25 years ago, say EU experts. They have analysed official data from across the EU and concluded there have been no significant changes in cannabis potency. Levels of the drug's active ingredient - D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - has remained virtually constant. Cannabis resin (hashish) produced overseas comprised about 70 per cent of the UK market, with the rest being marijuana, around half of which was imported. On the typical British joint, the report said: "The absence of any decline in the amount of herbal cannabis or resin used may suggest there...

The wonderful thing about having Canada as a neighbor was always knowing that its Molson-drinking, "eh"-affixing, health-care-socializing denizens were a mostly harmless bunch. Not any longer if you're U.S. drug czar John Walters. Wally is exercised about BC Bud, a high-grade, high-potency, high-price marijuana that will get smokers giggling quicker than the more mundane stuff grown in Mexico or that hollow out behind Uncle Billy's shed in Eastern Kentucky. Walters apparently has it figured that if the old-fashioned stuff could make the characters in "Reefer Madness" act so insanely, this nuevo-reefer must be, well, as bad as crack. "Canada is...

A warm welcome for Lucy 'Just because she's not average doesn't mean she's not normal' 01/15/2003 By ESTHER WU / The Dallas Morning News It's never easy being the new kid in school. But for Lu Chiu-Ting, whose English is limited to a few phrases, including "OK, bye-bye," "potty" and "telephone," school is particularly challenging. At 29 inches tall, the 9-year-old is about half the size of her classmates and can barely see over the top of the school desks. But to third-grade students at Southlake's Florence Elementary School, Chiu-Ting, or Lucy, as she is now called, is a...

Tony Sanchez called Republican Gov. Rick Perry "a petty person" Thursday after Perry criticized Sanchez with words that sounded like a reference to the Democrat's height. The exchange opened when reporters in Aldine asked Perry to respond to Sanchez's call for a criminal inquiry into the state's homeowners insurance crisis. Perry said Attorney General John Cornyn and Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor already are investigating. "Again, Mr. Sanchez is a little late. He's short," Perry said, pausing as if he were at the end of a sentence. "He's short on ideas. He's short on solutions. He's long on criticism. That's about...

Mad Daschle COVER STORY | He advanced quickly from senior-class president to foreign-policy aide for the Senate's most outspoken anti-Israel lawmaker to one of Washington's youngest congressmen. Today, he's one of the most powerful men in the world, able to derail many presidential plans, yet little is known—and even less is written—of his early climb. Here's a view of the lower rungs | by Bob Jones in Aberdeen, S.D. OF ALL THE PICTURES IN his high-school yearbook, Tom Daschle looks happiest with his fellow senior-class officers. It was clearly a triumph for him: No one would have expected the...

DA$CHLE WON'T RELEASE TAX RETURNAt a May 14 press briefing, Daschle told a reporter it would be "a very serious ethical violation" if the Republican Party used a White House photographer or governement property in offering contributors a photo of President Bush taken on September 11. Immediately after Daschle gave this answer, Human Events Assistant Editor David Freddoso asked him if it was a conflict of interest for his wife to lobby for major government contractors and whether he would release the joint tax return he and his wife file detailing the income she receives from that lobbying. Below...