Free Republic

High-energy particle accelerators cost taxpayers large sums but stand little chance of discovering anything of practical value. Promoted as quests for understanding of the universe, particle accelerators serve mostly as job programs for physicists, postdocs, and politically connected laboratories and contractors. Yes, abstract experiments of bygone days produced great discoveries, and yes, the quest for abstract knowledge is inherent to human nature. But most experiments from the bygone golden age of physics were done at private expense, not using tax subsidies. Albert Michelson and Edward Morley did not demand that Ohio taxpayers provide them with a decade of luxury while...

The sense that tighter credit and falling housing prices create some kind of "crisis" -- George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton have both said that of mortgage economics in recent weeks -- is an example of the modern urge to declare everything an emergency. Two years ago, the real estate market was overheated: Many were borrowing unrealistic amounts against the paper run-up in equity of their homes, and first-time buyers largely were shut out of the housing market. It's healthy when an overheated market cools off --now, first-time home purchases are possible again for young buyers. Those who are complaining...

This past Friday was international Park(ing) Day. Thousands of people in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Seattle and other cities spent the day occupying street parking spaces by setting up lawn chairs or pingpong tables to prevent cars from parking. The stated purpose was a protest of car culture and lack of urban greenspace, but the primary impact of Park(ing) Day seems to have been to make drivers even more stressed out. A running TMQ concern is my theory that parking issues, not bioterrorism or global warming, will be the downfall of Western civilization. It is not just in your...

Gordon Brown returned to Downing Street from Buckingham Palace as Britain's new Prime Minister and declared: "I will try my utmost." tanding outside No 10 with his wife Sarah, he promised to be "strong and steadfast" and to govern beyond narrow political interests. Mr Brown told reporters: "This will be a new Government with new priorities. "At all times I will be strong in purpose, steadfast in will, resolute in action in the service of what matters to the British people." The 56-year-old said he would try to meet "the concerns and aspirations of our whole country". Mr Brown promised...

Each year, families and individuals pay taxes to the government and receive back a wide variety of services and benefits. A fiscal deficit occurs when the benefits and services received by one group exceed the taxes paid. When such a deficit occurs, other groups must pay for the services and benefits of the group in deficit. Each year, govern­ment is involved in a large-scale transfer of resources between different social groups. Fiscal distribution analysis measures the distribution of total government benefits and taxes in society. It pro­vides an assessment of the magnitude of government transfers between groups. This paper provides...

U.S. Representative Chris Carney, D-PA10, is coming under fire for blaming the high price of gasoline on oil company profits, while taking campaign contributions from at least one of those “big oil” companies. But an earlier statement from Carney may prove more problematic for the freshman Congressman. As a candidate in Pennsylvania’s 10th district, Carney vowed “I will not accept money from energy or big oil companies.” It took Carney only 49 days to break that pledge. In May, 2006, Carney was guest speaker at the Bradford County Democratic Committee. At the committee’s Spring Dinner, he railed against his opponent,...

Just so there's no confusion: for those who don't know by now, I work for Sam Brownback. And yes, I'm also a supporter of his on a personal level. And while the impetus of this story was an incident that occurred last night that involved Senator Brownback, there's a larger point that I have to make, so I ask you to stick in there. I also want to make clear that I am writing this post just as a regular old diarist at RedState, and not on behalf of the campaign or the Senator. Sean Hannity has, in the past,...

Since the human-chimp split about 6 million years ago, chimpanzee genes can be said to have evolved more than human genes, a new study suggests. The results, detailed online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradict the conventional wisdom that humans are the result of a high degree of genetic selection, evidenced by our relatively large brains, cognitive abilities and bi-pedalism. Jianzhi Zhang of the University of Michigan and his colleagues analyzed strings of DNA from nearly 14,000 protein-coding genes shared by chimps and humans. They looked for differences gene by gene and whether they...

he White House is letting it be known on Capitol Hill that top presidential adviser Karl Rove will play no part in President Bush's forthcoming big push to pass a compromise immigration bill. Rove, renowned as architect of Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was named deputy chief of staff at the beginning of the second term and assigned additional duties dealing with issues beyond politics. However, he has been under intensive attack this year in the Democratic-controlled Congress with demands that he be subpoenaed to testify under oath about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Consequently, he probably would not...

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality. You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor. Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow...

actual quote from news story: "CBS Chairman and CEO Les Moonves met with Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson on Thursday morning to discuss Imus' future with the company."

We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects. Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed...

Denver’s now in a head-to-head competition with New York City to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention after the Republicans today picked a key competitor — Minneapolis-St. Paul — to hold their presidential-nominating bash. The GOP selection of the Twin Cities automatically takes them out of the running for the Democratic event under DNC’s bid rules — and that suits Denver backers just fine. "It helps Denver immensely," said Debbie Willhite, executive director of the Denver 2008 Host Committee. "We’re very happy for Minneapolis-St. Paul. And we look forward to the rest of the selection process that will bring the...

If Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has his way, someday a superfast hovering train will whisk tourists from family-friendly Disneyland to the what-happens-here-stays-here city, Las Vegas. But so far, the Nevada senator's fascination with magnetic levitation -- the futuristic technology that would power the train across the desert at 300 mph -- has managed only to levitate a steady stream of money out of the federal budget: $54 million and counting. Few others are climbing aboard. The Transportation Dept. rejects MagLev for its steep price tag, which a 2005 study says eclipses the cost of current high-speed rail by "fourfold...

I was looking around the internet for some funny jokes about the US army but couldnt find much. Does anyone have any funny jokes about this subject to pass along? im obviously not looking for anything tasteless, just a few zingers to tell a former army man. Thanks to all who contribute.

Step aside, Nino. Expect to hear that phrase repeated often, as liberals increasingly strive to find ways to keep conservative justices - especially this conservative justice - from voting on cases. One of the week's big news stories was the dramatic account of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, accosted outside a Boston Mass, using a Sicilian hand gesture to explain what he would say to people who question his very public commitment to Catholicism. The implicit question wasn't whether it was alright for a judge to be a practicing Catholic. Instead, it was whether Scalia was improperly committed to positions...

SAN FRANCISCO - An owner of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player filed a federal lawsuit against the computer maker, claiming the device causes hearing loss in people who use it. The portable music players are "inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss," according to the complaint, which seeks class action status. The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeks compensation for plaintiffs' hearing loss and upgrades that will make the iPods safer. Apple has sold more than 42 million of the devices since they...

Things that make you think a little: There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January.That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq. When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following: a. FDR led us into World War II. b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost .. an average of 112,500 per year. c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea...

As a phrase born in the nineties, “the clash of civilizations” had an orotund, Ivy League–lecture-hall ring—vaguely worrisome but with the fuzzy comfort of all grand historical abstractions. This reductionist idea was then reduced still further to signify only the most salient of clashes: Western Christendom versus Islam. Even after 9/11, though, it was hard for me to buy completely that it’s our culture Muslims irreconcilably loathe—that is, feminism and show business and laissez-faire conversation—rather than America’s support of Israel and the various geopolitical alliances to which our oil addiction leads us. But the events of the past two weeks—all...