Free Republic

Heavy Metal Clocks, Pb-Pb Dating Model: Radioactive Dating, Part 8 by Vernon R. Cupps, Ph.D. * …that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. (Ephesians 4:14) This final article of the series examines the common-lead method of radioactive dating, sometimes referred to as the Pb-Pb method. This method reaches the pinnacle of radioisotope dating methods in terms of complication and convolution. Since we do not want to be tossed to and fro by every teaching that cunning...

In excerpts from the interview published Monday, Vaughn said he supports the right for people to have a gun in public “full stop, not just in your home” and that the Second Amendment is “not about duck hunting” but “to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government”:

Ireland’s focus on recognition rather than rights, and the celebration of gay marriage as a means of validating gay people’s sense of worth, echoes the discussion about gay marriage in nations across the West. Time and again, the language used has been that of therapy rather than autonomy. In her excellent 2004 essay ‘The liberal case against gay marriage’, Susan M Shell noted the way that early agitators for gay marriage seemed to be primarily concerned with ‘relieving adult anxiety’, what some of them referred to as their ‘elemental fear’ of not being ‘valued’ (1). Activists spoke of how ‘the...

Support is growing within the Church of England to rewrite its official liturgy to refer to God as female following the selection of the first women bishops. Growing numbers of priests already insert words such as “she” and “mother” informally into traditional service texts as part of a move to make the language of worship more inclusive, it has been claimed. But calls for a full overhaul of liturgy to recognise the equal status of women have already been discussed informally at a senior level.

Freedom by its very nature is often offensive. We may not agree with what is said or done, but America has always reserved the right, within legal limits, to let citizens exercise their freedom of speech, even if it offends the sensibilities of others. The freedom to express my opinions as a columnist is certain to offend some readers. Readers have the freedom to email me directly, write a letter to the editor, or write a comment online. Many do: “I don't think you are going to like God's judgment coming down on People Like You!” “You really drink the...

Mika Brzezinski just can't contain her liberal bias. On today's Morning Joe, Mika admitted that the the MSM has a double standard when it comes to reporting controversial things that Democrats and Republicans have done or said. Yet she promptly turned around and applied that same double standard to Bernie Sanders and Rick Santorum. Discussing Bernie Sanders having written in 1972 that women fantasize about being raped, Mika agreed that if Rick Santorum had written the same thing, the press would go crazy. However, Mika claimed that wouldn't be because Santorum's a Republican, but rather would be due to "his...

Classical economics went wrong at its first turn, say Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler. Man is not homo economicus, the rationally calculating actor that the dismal scientists from Adam Smith down through Milton Friedman supposed our species to be. No, we are emotionally driven, contextually influenced, socially conditioned: Humans, not Econs. Sunstein and Thaler famously lay out their Human vs. Econ divide in Nudge, their 2008 bestseller that popularized a new sub-discipline, behavioral economics. Behavioral economists recognize that people make hasty decisions for non-rational reasons, relying on rules of thumb, heuristics, and past experiences that bias their judgment and prevent...

If you love your child, and I know you do, it’s time to say “bye bye” to the social pacifier that is free universal preschool. I understand. It’s tempting. Whether you’re a destitute single mother or an affluent married father, you’re a parent. And parents often feel wiped out. Especially in this economy. Sure, Michelle Obama has christened this the era of a “huge recovery,” but she’s not in the trenches like you—juggling the stress of being a provider and a caregiver for a 4-year-old. No matter how vulnerable you feel when you hear a certain Disney sing-a-long on repeat,...

A massive air-conditioning unit being lifted by a crane to the top of a midtown Manhattan office building broke free Sunday, fell 28 stories and landed in the middle of Madison Avenue, injuring 10 people. Two were construction workers, while the others were pedestrians and occupants of passing cars. All were struck by debris that caused minor injuries.

Author’s Note: Please watch this video before reading the column. Dear Scott Burgess: I am in receipt of your message saying that I am “A douche bag and an embarrassment to our university.” It’s been several weeks since you’ve written and I have been busy. But now that I have the time I wish to respond to your concerns that my weekly political column is causing embarrassment to our university and to higher education in general. Back in 2013, a reader named Edward wrote to tell me that I was the biggest embarrassment to higher education in the entire country....

So, though no fault of your own, you are a young conservative male coming of age in a time when the deck is so heavily stacked against you that it’s like Michael Moore was leaning on it. Sure, it’s entirely the fault of a liberal elite led by President Nine Iron and a culture that bought into its lies long before you were born, but suck it up. It isn’t an excuse for failure – you may have an uphill climb at a higher angle of incline than I did, but tough luck. I can’t make the environment for you...

.... The Washington Post Morning Mix Ugly plane ride drives Muslim chaplain to tears Share on Facebook Share on Twitter More Options Resize Text Print Article Comments 64 By Sarah Kaplan June 1 at 6:36 AM Cans of Coca-Cola Co. and Diet Coke soda are displayed for sale at a convenience store in Redondo Beach, California, U.S., on Monday, July 15, 2013. (Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg) A dispute over a can of soda 30,000 feet above the ground left a woman in tears, spawned a hashtag and provided yet more kindling to the raging debate about Islamophobia in the U.S. It started...

It’s lottery season. "Lottery," to you, might bring to mind ping-pong balls bouncing around in a glass tube, as millions anxiously wait to see if they'll win millions of dollars. But nationwide, millions of parents must anxiously wait out a different kind of lottery: to see if their children will be selected to have a chance at a better opportunity. The expansion of charter school programs in some of the nation’s biggest metropolitan areas have given more parents and students access to a different educational track and an alternative option to an underperforming public school system. But despite expansions in...

In Russia this April, a Baptist pastor was jailed for professing his faith. Pavel Pilipchuk's five-day detention was brief, but excessive. It followed his refusal to pay a heavy fine for organizing street evangelism in the city of Oryol, around 200 miles south of Moscow. By not informing city officials of his plans, the pastor had violated Russia's law regulating public demonstrations, a local court ruled. Pilipchuk's plea that "Christian hymns and conversation are not demonstrations" fell on deaf ears. So did his appeal to Russia's constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. Freedom of speech and assembly are also increasingly under...

This month Congress will consider whether to renew the charter of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank). Ex-Im Bank is a New Deal-era federal program that uses taxpayer funds to subsidize the exports of American businesses. Foreign businesses, including state-owned corporations, also benefit from Ex-Im Bank. One country that has benefited from $1.5 billion of Ex-Im Bank loans is Russia. Venezuela, Pakistan, and China have also benefited from Ex-Im Bank loans. With Ex-Im Bank’s track record of supporting countries that supposedly represent a threat to the US, one might expect neoconservatives, hawkish liberals, and other supporters of foreign intervention to be...

During the past few days the legacy media and the internet have been flooded with news articles, editorials and blog posts with titles like “Overhead costs exploding under ObamaCare.” This all-too-predictable phenomenon has been breathlessly reported by outlets as different in their ideological perspectives as the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Kos. Sadly, when liberal and conservative publications are equally enthusiastic about breaking a story, it usually means the latter have been duped into promoting progressive propaganda. This case is no exception. The basis for these reports is a “study” produced by a couple of notorious lefty data diddlers....

Well, this is reassuring — and we’ve certainly never heard it before! There’s just one catch (well, maybe a few catches): note, first of all, that Ahmidiyya leader Shahzad Amjad, at least as far as this story goes, doesn’t offer a single specific example of how the Islamic State is misrepresenting the teachings of the Qur’an and Muhammad. Second, it is risible for Amjad to present himself as a representative of mainstream Islam, when the Ahmadiyya represent no more than three percent of Muslims worldwide, and are violently persecuted as heretics by Sunni Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia. In Pakistan,...

Every time he looks in a mirror, Laith Ahmed is worried. As of Monday, the young Iraqi's hopelessly hairless chin could land him in an Islamic State group jail. The jihadist group has handed out leaflets in their stronghold of Mosul in recent weeks announcing that full beards become compulsory on June 1 and explaining why shaving is punishable. "My facial hair is just slow to come out for my age," said the 18-year-old, who like others in this story did not give his real name for fear of retribution. "I'm scared because they deal ruthlessly with anyone who opposes...

A group of devout Muslims from across Turkey prayed before the city’s historic Hagia Sophia on the 562nd anniversary of the Turkish conquest of Istanbul, demanding that the site be turned back into a mosque. Men and women from across the country gathered before the Hagia Sophia museum early May 31, as part of an event organized by the Anatolian Youth Association (AGD) with the motto “Break the chains, Open Hagia Sophia,” and prayed the morning prayer with a call for the reconversion of the museum into a mosque. Designed as a Christian basilica in the sixth century by Anthemios...

Suppose you are the pastor of a large suburban parish and suppose further that several members of your parish want to invite a well-known speaker to talk about the threat from militant Islam. You check the Internet and find that the speaker is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the head of a hate group. Upon further checking, you find that this speaker has had speaking invitations rescinded by four different bishops. You doubt that the man is really a hater and you’re disposed to hear what he has to say. At the same time, you realize that...