Free Republic

Some biologists might shudder at the thought of eliminating Darwinism from their scientific work. A “Darwin-ectomy” sounds more painful than a tonsillectomy or appendectomy. To hard-core evolutionists, it might sound like a cephalectomy (removal of the head)! If Darwinism is as essential to biology as Richard Dawkins or Jerry Coyne argues, then removing evolutionary words and concepts should make research incomprehensible. If, on the other hand, Darwinism is more of a “narrative gloss” applied to the conclusions after the scientific work is done, as the late Philip Skell observed, then biology would survive the operation just fine. It might even...

Leading Science Magazine Questions Reality by Jerry Bergman, PhD The New Scientist cover story from August 3-9, 2019, reads, “Reality: The Greatest Illusion of All.” It is subtitled, “How Evolution has Blinded us to the Truth About the World.” I have often come across this theme in my reading. It usually goes like this: ‘The world, especially all forms of life, look very much like they were designed, but this is an illusion because we know that all life and the universe itself evolved.’[1] The author of the New Scientist article, University of California Professor Donald Hoffman, extends this logic...

Much of today’s incivility and contempt for personal liberty has its roots on college campuses, and most of the uncivil and contemptuous are people with college backgrounds. Let’s look at a few highly publicized recent examples of incivility and attacks on free speech. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were accosted and harassed by a deranged left-wing mob as they were leaving a dinner at Georgetown University. Sen. McConnell was harassed by protesters at Reagan National Airport, as well as at several venues in Kentucky. Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife were harassed at...

" Kentucky is the state that gave us Rand Paul. He is the biggest highlight, however he is not alone like Ben Sasse in Nebraska. Thomas Massie is also a strong Conservative. This primary has a chance to unseat a major swamp creature. Aside from this one race, there wasn’t much action to be had. Mitch McConnell shows that Kentucky does not have a rich history in holding bad politicians accountable. So if there are any Conservative victories in Kentucky, they should be celebrated vocally."

" Georgia is another state in the deep South that does very little to advance Conservatism in the country. Conservative Picks has thus far shown that the South is not as Conservative as stereotyped. Arkansas sends a bunch of RINOs and so too does Georgia. However, what is remarkable about Georgia is that none of the Republicans except for the awful Senator Iksakson are career politicians. He’s the only one exceeding 12 years other than Democrats, of which, he might as well be. Still, that is something to say about Georgia. The state has a lot of newer faces and...

Publishers are moving away from 'macho' heroes in non-fiction books for boys and moving towards an 'alternative type of hero' who to those who 'checks their privilege'. It comes following impressive sales of books that empower young women, such as Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls which has sold more than a million copies worldwide. The publishers aim to move away from the 'stereotypical idea of masculinity' and action-men style heroes such as Prince Charming and will instead focus on stories of real-life heroes such as Usain Bolt and James Harrison, a blood donor"

Seventh Circuit imposes nationwide injunction on effort to withhold grants from 'sanctuary' locales President Donald Trump's efforts to punish so-called sanctuary cities around the country, as well as the state of California, suffered a serious legal blow Thursday when a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a nationwide injunction against administration rules requiring localities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in order to win public safety grants. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a nationwide injunction preventing Attorney General Jeff Sessions from imposing the new conditions on grant money as a way to penalize municipalities around...

(Screenshot) In four separate incidents over Easter weekend, agents from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector arrested a total of 20 aliens illegally entering the U.S. in New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The illegal aliens hailed from several countries, including Guatemala, Hatti, Romania and Germany, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported Monday. In the early morning hours of Friday, March 30, agents from the Champlain Border Patrol Station located nine individuals who had just illegally crossed into the United States from Canada near the West Service Road in Champlain, N.Y. On Saturday, agents from the Newport Border Patrol Station...

Should doctors and nurses be forced to participate in interventions they find morally abhorrent or unwarranted? As one example, should ethical rules require pediatricians to medically inhibit normal puberty as demanded by parents to “treat” their child’s gender dysphoria — even if they are morally opposed to the concept and/or the supposed treatment? Some say yes. Thus, influential bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel argues that medical professionals are obligated to accede to the patient’s right to receive legal interventions if they are generally accepted within the medical community — specifically including abortion. Emanuel stated doctors who are morally or religiously opposed, should...

"Like many people with autism, Greg Demer is bright but has difficulty communicating. He has a passion for the history of military aircraft, but he can’t quite keep up a conversation with new people. When he meets someone, he’ll quote from movies or ask them about their favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. His mother, Linda Demer, worried that he wouldn’t be able to make complicated decisions about his finances and health care once he turned 18. So, in 2005, a judge in Los Angeles, where they live, granted her conservatorship over Greg. “I wanted to protect him,” she said of...

Denmark’s conservative parties have backed a motion to erect a 70-kilometre-long fence along the country’s border with Germany in a measure to protect pork exports. The government and parliamentary ally the Danish People’s Party agreed on Thursday on a number of proposals aimed at preventing the African swine fever virus from spreading amongst the country’s large pig population. Those measures include a fence to run along a large stretch of the border with Germany. “I do not want to take any risk. We have an export industry worth 11 billion kroner (1.5 billion euros) annually which could be put at...

"Being stopped from being allowed to interview Tommy Robinson, a person who has not committed any crime and is in all other aspects a free citizen, is bad enough; however, what is exponentially worse is that U.K. authorities forcibly separated Mr. Sellner and Ms. Pettibone and imprisoned them – while admitting their incarceration was entirely because they were going to speak to someone. Think about that."

"On Saturday, former Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz told Kent Terry, the brother of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry he asked AG Sessions for the Fast & Furious documents and the Attorney General said NO."

"On the eve of Tea Party favorite State Sen. Chris McDaniel’s announcement on Wednesday of his challenge to incumbent establishment GOP Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) for the Republican party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi, President Trump tweeted his endorsement of Wicker."

"One last thought lands me in unusual political waters for a school superintendent. I believe it is time for all of us, public school leaders included, to have the courage to call for a ban on rapid-fire assault weapons. Enough is enough. We need to stop framing this as a rollback of constitutional rights, and we need to stop framing it as some sort of partisan political issue. Instead, we need to start framing this as protecting kids. Period. We need to be done with the fallacious, slippery-slope argument that a ban on these people-killing weapons will be a ban...

"Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is working with Ivanka Trump to craft a paid family leave plan that will appeal to fellow Republicans, Politico reported Sunday. “We still have to work on members of my own party. I think there will be significant initial resistance to it, because it’s just not an issue that’s been identified with the Republican Party,” Rubio told the news outlet."

The majority of debate between pro-lifers and abortion advocates has centered around the 20-week abortion ban that failed in the Senate Monday. Another important bill, however, recently passed the U.S. House and would prevent babies who’ve been born after botched abortions from being murdered shortly thereafter. The U.S. House approved the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in January, and it requires health care practitioners to give the same care to a child born alive after a botched abortion as they would provide to any other child birthed at the same gestational age. They must also ensure that babies born after...

"CHELSEA CLINTON AND DOUG BAND. Band established the Clinton Foundation on Oct. 23, 1997. Band and John D. Podesta (who worked simultaneously for Obama and the Clinton Foundation) used the U.S. State Department as their fund raising booking agent for The Clinton Foundation—information the Clintons tried desperately to hide from the public, but has reached the light of day thanks to corruption watchdogs including Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch, Citizens United and DCLeaks."

A Nevada federal judge raised the possibility of a mistrial Monday in the 2014 standoff at the Bundy ranch, citing the failure of prosecutors to provide the defense in a timely fashion with a slew of documents. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro also dismissed the jurors, who had returned Monday to the Las Vegas courthouse for the first time since Nov. 29, and told them to return Dec. 20. She said the government’s failure to share documents, information and witness names with defense attorneys in a timely fashion was “sufficient to undermine the confidence in the outcome of the trial,”

The U. S. military has more than 44,000 troops across the globe that the Pentagon claims it cannot track, according to a recent report. “We are not at a point where we can give numbers other than those officially stated,” said Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman.