Free Republic

With so many complex policy issues, how do we decide which are worthy of our support or deserve to be opposed? Environmentalism, my specialty, is rife with policy initiatives that are often based on emotional appeal, rather than well-reasoned articulations of facts. As a boy, I read Isaac Asimov’s science fiction classic “Foundation” series that featured psychohistory and symbolic logic. I was fascinated by how the Foundation applied symbolic logic to political documents and treaties to interpret what was really being said. In one situation, the Foundation reduced the fine print of a five-page treaty to two statements: “Obligations of...

Dave forwards to the HB a comment from a friend, who shall remain anonymous: I have a personal relationship with Christ but my Christ is not an ass and He wants everyone to do what makes them happy including gays being allowed to marry This statement is rich with false assumptions and error but will reward us for paying some attention to it because it captures the “spirit of the age” (Zeitgeist) perfectly. If we understand what this statement says and implies and why it is fundamentally and thoroughly false we may avoid being taken “captive by philosophy and empty...

Kevin Loria October 30, 2014While conducting a totally separate experiment, a group of scientists from Johns Hopkins and the University of Nebraska accidentally discovered something unexpected and potentially disturbing. A virus was living in the mouths and throats of a good portion of the people in the study, a virus that the researchers didn't think was capable of infecting humans. Worse still, it seemed to be slowing some of the subjects' mental abilities, especially their ability to process visual information. The surprising part about this for researchers was that a microscopic organism that we thought could only infect algae —...

It's not just that there's a lack of a Christian way of thinking -- a "Christian mind" -- but there is hardly a mind at all. Some years ago I read an article in Newsweek about a husband and wife team of scientists who studied ducks. In order to observe their habits, they built a blind by a pond, then settled in to watch. During their investigations, they observed among the ducks incidences of what they called gang rape. While it was not written in so many words, the bottom line of the article was this: If gang rape takes...

Christian Worldview Join Dr. R.C. Sproul as he examines today's most popular worldviews and demonstrates that only the Christian worldview answers life’s ultimate questions.... (Offer ends June 15, 2014)

We all have regrets. We look back at forks in the road behind us and wonder where we might be now had we chosen more wisely back then. Every misstep, however, is an opportunity to learn, to follow more faithfully in Jesus’ footsteps. How gracious that our Lord not only covers our folly, but is able to grow wisdom out of it? Below are ten things the now me would seek to impress into the stubborn mind of the then me.10. Cultivate gratitude, put to death grumbling. I am persuaded the path to future blessing follows on the trail of giving...

If you move the view to the side, however, you can see the top and bottom parts of the brain, demarcated largely by the Sylvian fissure, the crease-like structure named for the 17th-century Dutch physician who first described it. The top brain comprises the entire parietal lobe and the top (and larger) portion of the frontal lobe. The bottom comprises the smaller remainder of the frontal lobe and all of the occipital and temporal lobes. Our theory's roots lie in a landmark report published in 1982 by Mortimer Mishkin and Leslie G. Ungerleider of the National Institute of Mental Health....

Roger Sperry won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for his work on what is now commonly known as right brain-left brain thinking. Sperry theorized that some very specific activities were controlled by one side of the human brain or the other — for example, the right side controlled creative tasks, while the left side was where logic, language and reasoning lived. People were fascinated by the idea, and in the three decades since, bookstores, television, the Internet and college psychology classes everywhere have been filled with endless discussions of the differences between right-brain, left-brain, and whole-brain thinkers. (Ironically, Sperry’s...

Maybe even literally.You could also say that once they've cleared their mind this is THE place where their best ideas come from.I guess it's easier than reading the constitution.

Freepers! Marco Rubio is just great and what a sense of humor. This is exactly how to respond to liberal hubris and their synthetic, hibrow, intellect. You need this water bottle if only to get Marco notice from now on. He is going to be Yuge and you need to support him.

In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness. Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants. “I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises. “They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.” “They told...

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From the mouth the heart speaks. From our eyes our actions trigger. From our emotions our imaginations peak. From our thoughts we must figure. Jesus is the way that's what we must seek. Follow HIM every day and life gets bigger.

excerpts from the interview with Bradbury.... [Q]: What forms of censorship do your regard as the most dangerous today? Bradbury: There are none in our country. We have too many groups for censorship to be possible. We have Catholics and Jews and Protestants, and Republicans and Democrats, and women's libbers, and lesbians and homosexuals and bisexuals, and young and old...We're all watching each other...The main problem is the idiot TV. If you watch local news, your head will turn to mush. [Q]: There seems to have been a decline in standards of journalistic objectivity, to put it mildly. Bradbury: It's...

excerpts from the interview with Bradbury.... [Q]: What forms of censorship do your regard as the most dangerous today? Bradbury: There are none in our country. We have too many groups for censorship to be possible. We have Catholics and Jews and Protestants, and Republicans and Democrats, and women's libbers, and lesbians and homosexuals and bisexuals, and young and old...We're all watching each other...The main problem is the idiot TV. If you watch local news, your head will turn to mush. [Q]: There seems to have been a decline in standards of journalistic objectivity, to put it mildly. Bradbury: It's...

Oxford scientists believe that applying a small current to a specific part of the brain helps people learn. Nick Collins tested their deviceI’ve got rubber pads strapped to my head and someone is about to fire an electric current through my brain. It’s meant to make me cleverer, but this doesn’t feel too smart to me. My palms are sticky, my fingers are trembling and it’s hard to tell if that’s sweat pouring down my temples or water from the sponge that will conduct the charge through my skin.

The clown who sent in yesterday's death threat has written in again this morning, pretending to be someone else. His reference to "Mr yahoo" is to himself, writing under a different name, yesterday. His IP is 196.201.207.191, which traces to Djibouti, but he has claimed to be in New York and other places while I've been there. In this he is probably lying, but I am told that it is possible that his Djibouti IP is spoofed, and he is actually elsewhere. Anyway, there are several points here: 1. If I were a Muslim, these regular death threats would be...

Defense officials worried that Petraeus’s comments are harbinger of weakened ties While almost a week has passed since Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the United States Military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) testified before the Senate and dropped his bombshell about Israel, concern within the defense establishment has only grown. While the assumption among the top IDF brass is that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen does not support Petraeus’s widely-reported claim that Israeli intransigence was a problem for the US military in the Middle East and was fomenting conflict, the comments still worry Israel for a number...

One of the more thought-provoking columns I make sure I read every week is called Spiritual Wealth. It's written by my good friend Alex Green, who is Investment Director of the Oxford Club. Alex gave me permission to share one of his columns with you, with the request that I also tell you about his new book. I'm delighted to do both. See the end of today's column for details on how you can receive his column every week and learn about The Secret of Shelter Island, his inspiring and informative new book. According to A.C. Nielson Co., the average...

European settlers of America included Puritans, all who came here in order to live by a moral code free from government interference, and Pirates, who came here in order to make their fortunes. These attitudes are ingrained in our culture so that every American is a Puritan, or a Pirate, or a mix of both. Liberal Pirates now control our national government.