Free Republic

Discord has acquired the Gas social app. The poll-based app has become popular among teens in recent months, allowing friends to share compliments with each other. The app is designed for anonymous compliments and positive affirmations or, as kids say, gassing your friends up. Gas has polls that ask users to vote for things like the most beautiful person they’ve met or the classmate that isn’t afraid to get in trouble. It has soared in popularity among high schoolers since launching in August. One of the co-creators of TBH, a very similar teenager app acquired and shut down by Facebook,...

Apparently the world’s supply of a favorite hot dog condiment doesn’t cut the … err … mustard. And, as a result, we may be looking at an international mustard shortage sooner than we think. According to Business Insider, a year of poor mustard seed production is the cause of what may result in a lack of mustard on American grocery store shelves in the near future. Experts say you can thank climate change for the large drop in mustard seed production, with Canada (the world’s second largest producer) and France watching the most recent growing season’s yields fall 28 percent...

NYC Vows to Start ‘Phasing Out’ Hot Dogs to Save the Planet as Part of Their Own $14B Green New Deal Madison Dibble about 2 hours ago Hot dogs may become harder to find following the approval of New York City’s version of the Green New Deal as local politicians pick of the sword to take on climate change. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.) slapped his signature on his city’s blueprint for combatting climate change. Following in the footsteps of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the city passed a Green New Deal to mobilize the city’s resources to combat...

CNN's John King: "Before we go to break, I want to make a quick point. We were having a discussion about the Chicago mayoral race. My friend Andy Shaw used the term 'in the crosshairs' in talking about the candidates. We're trying, we're trying to get away from that language. Andy is a good friend, he's covered politics for a long time, but we're trying to get away from that kind of language."

Last week, news stories proclaimed that Fox News Channel was the most trusted television news source in the country. The stories were referring to a poll done by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, which asked Americans whether they trusted each of the country's major television news operations. The only one with a positive review was Fox News. CNN did next best, followed by NBC News, then CBS News, and finally ABC News. But if you take a closer look at the numbers, the exact opposite is true. PPP's poll, taken in mid-January, found that 49 percent of Americans say they...

UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he looks forward to "a new era of strong and effective partnership" with the United States under President Barack Obama who shares many of the same goals as the United Nations. Ban, who just returned to New York from a 10-day Mideast trip aimed at getting a cease-fire in Gaza, congratulated Obama on his inauguration "with great optimism." "More than ever before, the challenges we face as a community of nations are global in scope," Ban said in a statement. "Economic uncertainty. Climate change. Pressing issues of peace and security, including disarmament and...

I've had a commenter advertise the Fred Thompson Forum, but the actual site is pretty silly. There seems to be a bunch of posters pretending to be ignorant "neocons" who support Fred Thompson (with over the top names like I LOVE HANNITY and Neocon4Fred), while links and facts to Ron Paul are casually put into the discussion and his supporters are made to seem sane in comparison. The biggest tell is that's theres a poll up about whether Fred Thompson can beat Ron Paul, and Fred Thompson is losing -- on a supposed Fred Thompson fan site. Plus, the reader...

And last but not least, this woman felt the need to put on a puppet show - for an audience of adults.

'Dukes of Hazzard' nixed in Cincinnati By LISA CORNWELL, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 19, 1:35 PM ET CINCINNATI - The Dukes of Hazzard are getting driven out of town over the Confederate imagery in their good ol' TV show. The stars of the series, John Schneider and Tom Wopat, have segued into musical careers since the show ended production in 1985. Schneider says the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra canceled a planned "Dukes"-themed appearance after contracts were signed because some in the community found the show racist and offensive.

Party's fiberglass pachyderm prohibited from Brookfield parade By LISA SINK lsink@journalsentinel.com Brookfield - Democrats can rejoice: This city's Independence Day parade will feature donkeys but no elephants. "Sparky," a 5-foot-tall, 100-pound fiberglass elephant purchased as the mascot for the Republican Party of Waukesha County will not be allowed in Brookfield's Fourth of July parade today, ending its four-year parade run. But the Wisconsin Donkey and Mule Society will return as a parade unit. That's because the donkey and mule society is not affiliated with the Democratic Party. The elephant mascot, however, violates Brookfield's ban on political parties as parade entries....

THIS five-foot martial arts sword capable of beheading a man was recovered by shocked cops in a house raid. The terrifying Batleth weapon is identical to one wielded by Klingon aliens in the Star Trek sci-fi films. Officers seized the three-handled sword — which has huge pointed blades at either end — at a home in Gloucester. It was shown yesterday at the start of a five-week national knife amnesty. Cops hope 30,000 blades will be handed in, with owners free from prosecution. Local Insp Mac McGarry wielded the sword, which he said had been sharpened to kill. He said:...

Tonight NewsChannel 8 reports on the inflight entertainment you see on United Airlines flights from Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to Portland. In the interest of full diclosure, it should first be noted, KGW's network, NBC, is paid to develop United's inflight programming. But now, United admits it's added a 13-minute segment that's not produced by NBC... though it may be difficult to distinguish it. That 13-minute segment is called "Today's Military". It looks a lot like an NBC News program, profiling ten members of the US Military, all over the world... including Oregon National Guardsman Andrew Canfield....

Best-selling author and Muslim dissident Ibn Warraq argues that freedom of expression is our western heritage and we must defend it against attacks from totalitarian societies. If the west does not stand in solidarity with the Danish, he argues, then the Islamization of Europe will have begun in earnest. The great British philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty, "Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being 'pushed to an extreme'; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of angry Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning the Danish flag and calling for vengeance Friday against European countries where caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published. In Washington, the State Department criticized the drawings, calling them "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims." While recognizing the importance of freedom of the press and expression, State Department press officer Janelle Hironimus said these rights must be coupled with press responsibility. "Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," Hironimus said. "We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hollywood director Rob Reiner warned the California Hospital Association Friday to withdraw or rewrite a ballot proposal it's pushing for 2006. "If the initiative remains in its current form, I will have no other option but to actively and aggressively oppose it," Reiner said in a letter to C. Duane Dauner, the association's president.Reiner championed a 1998 ballot proposal slapping a 50-cents-a-pack tax on cigarettes to fund health and education programs for children up to 5 years old, now known as First 5 California. In his letter, Reiner argued the hospital proposal, which calls for a...

It is the adults who should be afraid this Halloween. Not of ghouls and goblins, but of permanently scarring their children. In a recent study of six- and seven-year-olds in the Philadelphia area, Penn State psychologist Cindy Dell Clark found that most parents underestimate just how terrifying the holiday can be for young kids. Halloween has been scaring the heck out of kids of all ages for centuries. Two thousand years ago, Celts living in what is now the United Kingdom celebrated their new year at the end of October. During these days of transition from the end of summer...

Merry-go-rounds, seesaws and tall metal slides are gone. East Valley schools also forbid tackle football, jumping off swings and hanging upside down from monkey bars. Students can still play tag — but they must "power walk" or skip at some schools because running is too dangerous. Pioneer Elementary School in Gilbert prohibits tag altogether. And that’s just the beginning of the rules that principals, playground aides and lawmakers have created in recent years to keep schoolchildren safe. Johnson Elementary School in Mesa banned flip-flops this semester to protect children from twisted ankles and stubbed toes. Sonoran Sky Elementary School in...

Banner yet waves KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: July 27th, 2005 12:01 AM If you live at the serene and well-tended Brookside Gardens Apartments off of McKinley Avenue and 100th Street East, you can have a planter on your deck, and a barbecue, patio furniture and one quarter of a cord of wood – but not the American flag displayed for all to see. I guess it’s not scenic, Old Glory. Or perhaps it’s distracting. Or pushy. U.S. Flag Codewise, Deanna Wallace, 46, has had hers properly hung – field of stars to the viewer’s left – inside the...

Press questions police action 25/07/2005 07:22 - (SA) London - The British press on Monday questioned the police handling of investigations into the bomb attacks on the London transport system in the wake of the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man. Editorials focused on the shoot-to-kill policy of the police after 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead on Friday by police who mistook him for a suicide bomber. "Now public trust in the police in ethnic communities, which holds a key to identifying terrorists, has understandably been badly shaken," The Guardian said in an editorial. "It was...

If nothing else, Ted Nugent isn't going to have to relinquish his "Motor City Madman" nickname any time in the near future. In a speech given to the National Rifle Association's national convention in Houston, Nugent brandished a pair of assault rifles while urging NRA members to recruit other gun-packing nuts into the gang. He went so far as to urge NRA members not to associate with non-members, and to become "hardcore, radical extrimists." Siezed by a Second Amendment furor, Nugent then whipped up the crowd condoning shoot-to-kill vigalante justice. The spectacle, urged members to pull their heat and kill...