Free Republic

A decade ago, gene expression seemed so straightforward: genes were either switched on or off. Not both. Then in 2006, a blockbuster finding reported that developmentally regulated genes in mouse embryonic stem cells can have marks associated with both active and repressed genes, and that such genes, which were referred to as "bivalently marked genes", can be committed to one way or another during development and differentiation. This paradoxical state—akin to figuring out how to navigate a red and green traffic signal—has since undergone scrutiny by labs worldwide. What has been postulated is that the control regions (or promoters) of...

Lee Daniels, director of "Lee Daniels' The Butler," can't seem to keep his charges of racism straight. I always thought that a sure sign of racism was how much rural whites love to see black people "perform." But now Daniels is claiming that he had to stock his latest film with white actors out of the fear that, unless he did, rural whites would not want to see a film starring only black people: The new movie “The Butler” has a unique political feature: Portrayals of five U.S. presidents. (Robin Williams plays Dwight Eisenhower, James Marsden portrays John F. Kennedy,...

There's a new biography of Charles Manson out this month -- which seems like the last thing America needs, in light of the reams of print that have already been devoted to the wannabe pop star who led his "family" to commit nine murders in the summer of 1969, terrifying Los Angeles. And yet Manson: The Life of Times and Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn is riveting, a thoroughly researched biography that manages to be a breezy page-turner. Even those who've already read extensively about the Manson murders and their aftermath may find new insight into the pint-sized West Virginia-born...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said he opposed boycotting the Sochi Olympic Games despite new Russian anti-gay laws, instead urging nations to wave rainbow flags during the opening ceremonies to show support for gay rights. “That'd be pretty embarrassing for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Schumer said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” “Let our athletes participate but still make a stand.” In June, Putin signed a law banning gay “propaganda” and imposing fines on those holding gay pride rallies. The law has generated an international backlash ahead of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has called...

Organizing for Action, the advocacy group born from President Obama’s reelection campaign, has a simple message for its 35 million Twitter followers as it seeks political support for the White House's climate agenda. That’s one of several OFA climate-related tweets Monday ahead of a series of events the group is holding Tuesday in support for Obama’s climate plans. The group, in a press release, said OFA volunteers are “holding events nationwide [Tuesday] to hold members of Congress accountable for their positions on climate change.” Obama’s plans rest almost entirely on administrative actions that don’t need congressional approval, including carbon regulations for power...

A handicap ramp in front of a Fountain family's house is in the middle of a neighborhood squabble. Vincent and Heidi Giesegh say their neighbors are threatening legal action if they don't remove the ramp. They say the next door couple is worried that the ramp will hurt the value of their home. The Giesegh's say they need it for their 16 year old daughter Kirsten who has Cerebral Palsy. "As she goes into her spastic modes, we could just tumble down the stairs and both of us could get massively hurt," said Heidi Giesegh. The Giesegh's neighborhood doesn't have...

This summer, thousands of fast food workers around the nation walked off the job, demanding to be paid $15 per hour for work that traditionally pays about half that. As Wendy's striker Kaye Smith told NY1 recently, "I have to live with my mom ... because I wouldn't be able to support myself on $7.25, you know?" We can debate whether her living arrangements are Wendy's responsibility any more than they are that of New York's landlords or grocers. Either way, Smith's is a novel concept of unskilled jobs in America. Fast food wages have never been expected to support...

After an extensive investigation lasting well over a year, NPR's ombudsman has concluded the network's series on South Dakota's efforts to put Native American in foster care was fundamentally flawed. The network and the ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, who is paid to critique NPR's news coverage, have split sharply over his findings. The series, which appeared in October 2011 on All Things Considered, alleged that the state of South Dakota took Native American children and separated them from their families and tribes at an alarming rate. The series won national awards and helped inspire federal and state reviews of such policies....

How activist misinformation wastes time, money, and harms AmericansDavulcuHealth activists, nutrition nannies, medical paternalists, and just plain old quacks regularly conjure up a variety of menaces that are supposedly damaging the health of Americans. Their scares ranging from the decades-long campaign against fluoridation to worries that saccharin causes cancer to the ongoing hysteria over biotech crops to fears of lead in lipstick. The campaigners’ usual “solution” is to demand that regulators ban the offending substance or practice. Here are five especially egregious examples.5. Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day, in order to reduce everybody's...

Work to refinish part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial where a disputed inscription was recently removed may not be done until after the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. A disagreement arose over the past 10 days over how to sandblast and refinish the stone where an inscription was recently chiseled away.

Mystery solved. The “angel priest” who appeared at the scene of a Missouri car crash, anointed and prayed with the teenage victim, then vanished has been identified as Rev. Patrick Dowling of the Jefferson City Diocese. A press release provided to FoxNews.com by the diocese said Father Dowling had been travelling Highway 19 between Mass assignments in northern and central Missouri when he arrived near the crash scene Aug. 4.

Terry McAuliffe is bringing his radical pro-abortion agenda to a whole new level. McAuliffe is joining forces with the standard-bearer for late-term abortion (i.e. the killing of a viable baby), Wendy Davis, literally fundraising off the brutal destruction of human life and endangering women (though it’s not the first time). Davis is the pro-abortion legislator who inspired a mob to literally shut down the Texas legislature earlier this year in order to prevent a bill from passing that would ban late-term abortions and ensure that abortion clinics abide under reasonable health standards. Now, she is joining forces with McAuliffe to...

With streaming television becoming more and more popular, and providers like Aereo making an end-run around cable and satellite providers, a lot of attention is being paid to the future of bundled cable. In a world of growing choices and a weak, jobless economy, how long can something last that charges customers a ton of money for dozens of channels they never watch? Bundled cable is, in my opinion, one of the greatest hustles ever perpetuated against the American people. The worst part is how it works as a kind of affirmative-action program for left-wing programming that likely wouldn’t survive...

San Francisco -- Transgender students in California public schools will be allowed to participate in school groups and use school facilities based on their gender identities, turning a policy that several school districts already follow into statewide law. AB 1266 will ensure that schools respect students' gender identity concerning sports teams, locker rooms, restrooms and all other "sex-segregated" programs and facilities. The bill, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday, was introduced by state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). State law already prohibits discrimination in schools on the basis of gender identity, but backers of the measure say the extra...

Savage! stream here: http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/citadel/?sid=5864 find a station here: http://streamingradioguide.com/radio-show.php?showid=9262 Savage's website http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/ *if you want on or off the list please message me

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Edwards Air Force Base, California Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley. Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing and is currently operated by the 95th Air Base Wing. The base is strategically situated next to Rogers Dry Lake, a desert salt pan; its hard playa surface provides a natural extension to Edwards' runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the base a perfect site for...

When Sarah Palin first warned about death panels and ObamaCare, the president and his allies were quick to laugh. Sending grandma off to an icy, watery grave was the stuff of Inuit legends, never the intention of liberals fighting to pass a law that could and would have serious implications for America’s senior citizens, despite the AARP’s inexplicable endorsement. Reading Charles Blow’s column in the New York Times yesterday, however, one can appreciate the origins of Palin’s concerns. Considering progressives’ descriptions of children as burdens, not blessings, it’s understandable that they would feel similarly about another “useless” subsection of our...

A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed under a resort in central Florida late Sunday, forcing guests out of their rooms as one three-story building collapsed and another slowly sank. Guests at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, called for help before the collapse, saying they heard loud noises and windows cracking. All guests inside the buildings -- an estimated 35 people, authorities said -- were evacuated before the first structure crumbled. A roughly 15-foot-deep crater swallowed much of one building, Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Cuellar said. Aerial video from CNN affiliate WFTV...

The action follows concerns raised by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, after details of the technology used in the bins emerged in the online magazine Quartz. Mr Memari told the BBC that the devices had only recorded "extremely limited, encrypted, aggregated and anonymised data" and that the current technology was just being used to monitor local footfall, in a similar way as a web page monitors traffic. He added that more capabilities could be developed in the future, but that the public would be made aware of any changes The bins, which are located in the Cheapside area of...

On Monday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco that she would be launching a series of speeches about American foreign policy in the “next few months.” According to Philip Rucker, White House correspondent for The Washington Post, Hillary planned to emphasize restoring faith in government – an ironic theme, considering that she was a member of the current administration presiding over the rapid decline in faith in government.

Corona resident Cecilia Reyes, whose 22-year-old son Noel Polanco was fatally shot by an NYPD detective during a traffic stop last year, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against New York City and the officer who gunned down the National Guardsman, according to court documents. A member of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit Apprehension Team, Hassan Hamdy was one of several officers in two unmarked vans driving in the center lane eastbound on the Grand Central Parkway Oct. 4 at 5:15 a.m. when Polanco was seen in his black 2012 Honda Fit Hybrid near Exit 7 in East Elmhurst, the NYPD...

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill into law Monday afternoon allowing the state’s transgender public school students to choose which bathrooms they use and whether they participate in boy or girl sports. The law would cover the state’s 6.2 million elementary and high school kids in public schools. Supporters say the law will help cut down on bullying against transgender students, The families of transgender students have been waging local battles with school districts around the country over what restrooms and locker rooms their children can use

"I knew it was you all along, Richard Nixon!" — Officer Barbrady, South Park As might be inferred by the title, a Nixon Mask is a rubber mask with the cariactured features of Richard Nixon, specifically a large nose, and creepy wide grin. Its status as the best-selling political mask of all time (and in many ways the inspiration for all political masks), as a symbol of famous counterculturists like Hunter S. Thompson and Bob Dylan, and as a hilarious remnant of the seventies have made it a classic go-to prop when a strange/hilarious mask is needed.

TALLAHASSEE — Trayvon Martin’s father has been named honorary captain of the FAMU football team after delivering an inspirational speech to the team Sunday. Florida A&M coach Earl Holmes said Tracy Martin, whose son’s shooting death in Sanford drew national attention, called him recently and the coach recently invited the grieving father to address his players. “[We] talked and I told him I’d love him to talk to the team. He came out and he was very, very encouraging,” Holmes said of Tracy Martin. “ . . . [He] got a standing ovation from our guys. He talked about just...

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge ruled on Monday the New York Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" crime-fighting tactic was unconstitutional, dealing a stinging rebuke to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who vowed to appeal the ruling. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin called it "indirect racial profiling" because it targeted racially defined groups, resulting in the disproportionate and discriminatory stopping of tens of thousands of blacks and Hispanics while the city's highest officials "turned a blind eye," she said. "No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life," Scheindlin wrote in her...

August 12, 2013 (LifeIssues) - Let’s be honest. To truly be successful advocates for life, we can’t just spend our time “preaching to the choir.� We must step outside our comfort zone to reach those who are on the other side. This is no easy task when you’re faced with individuals who hurl obscenities, act combative or are willfully defiant. But if we’re to change hearts and minds, we must first try to understand the motives of those who are for abortion. Not all pro-abortion advocates are the same, but I believe there are five general traits that exist...

Willie Robertson BATON ROUGE, LA, August 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The star of the top-rated reality show on television, Duck Dynasty, may make Louisiana's pro-life voters happy, happy, happy. Willie Robertson is considering running for a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, according to political insiders. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Republican who has ties to the multimillionaire duck call entrepreneurs, so he can take a post in Governor Bobby Jindal's administration. The bandana-clad Willie is known for his role as the down-to-earth one on the highest rated program in A&E's network history. Willie...

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Psalm 89:34

The most popular Confederate flag, besides the Battle flag--the soldier's flag, was probably the Bonnie Blue flag that a song was made about.

We encounter an incredible diversity of cultures, lifestyles, and faiths. Unfortunately our conflicting identities and beliefs often exclude others. Is there truth to real acceptance and inclusion? Join in discussion with renowned international speaker and Christian philosopher Ravi Zacharias. Extended Q&A following the dialogue with Dr. Zacharias and Michael Ramsden, speaker and Director at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University.

The mystery priest who recently showed up at a crash site, anointed a victim and then vanished has been identified. A press release provided to TheBlaze from the Diocese of Jefferson County reads:

If you’re graduating from college this year, count yourself lucky. Just 56 percent of college students complete four-year degrees within six years, according to a 2011 Harvard Graduate School of Education study. Among the 18 developed countries in the OECD, the U.S. was dead last for the percentage of students who completed college once they started it ― even behind Slovakia. College dropouts tend to be male, and give reasons such as cost, not feeling prepared, and not being able to juggle family, school and jobs, according to the Harvard study. An American Institutes for Research report last year estimated...

The Virginia Tea Party Patriots have invited me to speak before them along with the Executive Director of the Black American Leadership Alliance(BALA) and Congressmen Peter King on the dangers of amnesty. As a member of the BALA, I have committed myself to fighting against amnesty as we were lied to in 1986, when we were told it was a one time deal! The Pro-Amnesty Forces have been using all types of misleading tactics and bald-face lies to achieve their goal of open border and amnesty for all. The Pro-Amnesty are using every underhanded tactic to get the Senate Bill...

Two recent events — one on the east coast and one on the west coast — raise painful questions about whether we are really serious when we say that we want better education for minority children. One of these events was an announcement by Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., that it plans on August 19th to begin "an entire week of activities to celebrate the grand opening of our new $160 million state-of-the-art school building." The painful irony in all this is that the original Dunbar High School building, which opened in 1916, housed a school with a record...

I was out in the desert this weekend at our second home, where, borrowing the words from an old song "nothing is heard of a discouraging word" except if someone is discussing their round of golf. While waking my dogs for their morning ride in my golf cart I got to 'thinking of what's going on in this country and all I could think of was What Happened? And when did it happen? Let me start in the middle of this discussion to try to illustrate my point. This part of my essay should be subtitled: “me and the Presidents”...

MANY American newspapers were doomed to decline from the moment the Internet arrived on personal computers. But The Washington Post, just sold off unexpectedly to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, was never really one of them. This is something the sentimental send-offs for the Graham family and its stewardship tended to ignore. As disruptive as the Internet has been for journalism, The Post was uniquely positioned to succeed amid the chaos. And it has struggled, in part, because the paper’s leaders failed to step into an online-era role that should have been theirs for the taking. The nature of that role is...

"Comprehensive immigration reform," like virtually any initiative containing the magic word "comprehensive," looks good on the surface. But the details of the comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate in June by a 68-32 margin reveal a lot gone wrong underneath. Oblivious to this, top union leaders are gearing up for an all-out blitz this fall to secure passage of similar legislation in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (in photo), they are obsessed with providing 11 million or more persons living illegally in this country with amnesty and eventual citizenship, and with enabling millions...

The King County Sheriff's Office confirmed Monday morning that a shooting occurred on a Metro bus in downtown Seattle. The suspect, who was shot by officers, is now in custody. The Seattle Police Department tweeted that the shooter fired at a Metro driver....

Leica DM4000M microscopySuper sucker. Copper needles could help remove oil from the ocean. Researchers looking for a better way to clean up oil spills are taking a cue from the humble cactus. A new study shows that synthetic needles based on those of the desert plant can take up oil droplets from the ocean much as the cactus takes up water from the air.Cactus needles have a curious effect on water. When tiny water droplets in the air land on them, the needlesÂ’ conical shape distorts them, nudging them into a clamlike shape. Because water droplets like to be circular,...

Against all logic, some prominent conservatives continue to promote the absurd proposition that right-wing candidates who fail to win over GOP voters in Republican primaries would magically succeed on November ballots. This assumption enables them to retain a naive faith in the claim that "true conservatives" who can't mobilize their own base to win nominations will somehow triumph in general elections by drawing support from moderates and liberals. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has most recently voiced this idea. "You know, if you look at the last 40 years, a consistent pattern emerges," Mr. Cruz observed in a July interview with...

Whether it was finding the solid ground in writing the Declaration of Independence that would justify and drive a revolution or defining the core rights that would guide the crafting for our Constitution, our Founding Fathers held firmly to core principles that would help them navigate through unchartered waters. Every improvement is the result of change, but not every change is an improvement. Our Founding Fathers had to find a compass to give them a true north as they sorted through the choices and changes our emerging country faced. After more than two centuries, it is understandable that our citizens...

In a fiery address over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz's father told a crowd of Christian conservatives in Iowa that the United States is edging toward socialism under President Barack Obama, as he joined his son in denouncing Obamacare. According to ABC News, Texas pastor Rafael Cruz also offered a veiled comparison of Obama to Cuban leader Fidel Castro as he spoke of being a Cuban immigrant who fled the perils of socialism at the time of Castro's communist revolution and later became a U.S. citizen. In an apparent reference to Obama's 2008 campaign theme of "hope and change," Cruz...

What's the real story for the overall trend in new jobless claims in the U.S.? It has been several months since we last featured an update of our statistical analysis of the trends in new jobless claims in the U.S., which is mostly by design on our part. When we last left off, the overall trend, which we identified as Trend L, was largely flat, but characterized by extreme volatility, with unusual outliers in the data popping up with an alarming frequency. Some of that was understandable. We saw the state of California mishandle its processing of new jobless claims,...

The House assistant Democratic leader said on Sunday that his party will campaign on President Obama’s controversial healthcare law in 2014. “We will be running on ObamaCare in 2014,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “In fact, we set it up to run on it in 2014,” he continued. “We fully expect to run on it; we expect to win on it. The American people will be the winner.” Clyburn noted that major provisions of the law are expected to go into effect on Oct. 1 and Jan. 1, 2014, leaving Democrats...

President Obama promised he would unite the world…and he’s right.Representatives from dozens of nations have bitterly complained about an awful piece of legislation, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), that was enacted back in 2010.They despise this unjust law because it extends the power of the IRS into the domestic affairs of other nations. That’s an understandable source of conflict, which should be easy to understand. Wouldn’t all of us get upset, after all, if the French government or Russian government wanted to impose their laws on things that take place within our borders?But it’s not just foreign...

Thousands of spectators decked out with Dominican flags and blowing whistles lined Sixth Ave. for the boisterous annual celebration. Almost every candidate for New York citywide offices showed up to court the large Dominican vote.

At Accuracy in Academia and our big sister group Accuracy in Media we endeavor to give both of those institutions constructive criticism. Ergo, it amuses us to see them turn on each other. Usually, reporters speed-dial their favorite tenured professors when they want a learned sound bite. Professors, in turn, hector their students to read the New York Times. Completing the symbiotic relationship, journalism schools train journalists. Thus, the powers-that-be at the Poynter Institute must have reacted with shock and awe when they found out how little assignment editors thought of that training: Today, 96 percent of journalism educators believe...

Via Email, Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets quantifies various growth and investment scenarios. Pettis maintains 6% or higher growth is not plausible and that even 3-4% growth may be optimistic. What follows is from Pettis ... Consumption and Investment Growth Under Rebalancing Under specified rebalancing assumptions for China it is possible to calculate arithmetically the annual growth rate for consumption and investment under different GDP growth scenarios. This allows us to decide whether these scenarios are plausible or not. Table: GDP, consumption, and investment growth in a rebalancing China To read the table, let us start by assuming, as...

A primary challenger to South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the incumbent Senator may be vulnerable in 2014 because his embrace of the Senate's immigration bill has angered South Carolinians who are against amnesty for illegal immigrants. Nancy Mace, who is the first female graduate of The Citadel, appeared on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 and said it was unfair to legal immigrants to award those whose first step was breaking the law. "Amnesty does not sell down here," Mace said. "People are very upset with it." The 35-year-old wife, mother, and small-business owner said,...

Speaking to a group of Veterans, President Barack Obama tried to make his case for ending the sequester. “We’ve got these reckless, across-the-board budget cuts called the sequester that are hitting a lot of folks hard,” Obama said. One can only assume these are the same “across the board” and “reckless” cuts that he proposed as part of the 2011 Budget Control Act, and let go into place by refusing to compromise on entitlement spending early this year. The President went on to say that without the repeal of these “reckless” cuts (which were passed with bi-partisan approval, and signed...