Free Republic

DATE: December 19, 2009 FROM: Sr. Mary Ann Walsh O: 202-541-3200 H: 301-587-4762 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Federal government must not expand its role enabling abortions Bill should not go forward unless and until problems remedied Protection of life, conscience rights; fairness to legal immigrants; affordability top issues WASHINGTON--The Senate health reform bill should not move forward in its current form, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City said December 19, as senators proceeded closer to a vote. Cardinal DiNardo chairs the bishops' Committee on Pro-life Activities....

OF FOPS, FOOLS and ENTITLED ELITES Keeping Congressional Districts & Senate Seats in the Family From the ranks of the English and French upper classes and nobility came the “fops”. These over-dressed dandies were more concerned with style than substance. With almost 10% of Congress related to another person who’s “served”, are politicians the new nobility? Is the American political elite class the American fopocracy? Are American political elites the new American 'fopocracy'? There's some evidence to think so. There's also gathering evidence that Americans are ready to show some of their members the door. What is a 'fop'?...

WASHINGTON -- The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment insurance has fallen to the lowest level since early January, a sign the labor market is slowly improving. The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped to a seasonally-adjusted 514,000 from an upwardly revised 524,000 the previous week. The fifth decline in six weeks was below Wall Street economists' forecasts of 525,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, fell for the sixth straight time to 531,500. Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a measure of layoffs and the...

The House approved a 30-day stop-gap spending bill Friday designed to keep the government operating through October and buy more time for the cash-strapped Postal Service to meet a $5.4 billion payment due next week for its retirees’ health benefits. Adopted 217-190, the measure allows the Postal Service to pay only $1.4 billion on Sept. 30 and effectively amortize the remaining $4 billion after 2017. With $32 billion in the fund, the agency insists it is still able to meet its obligations, but the issue has been handled with such a political sleight-of-hand that conservatives worry it could come back...

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon, after the usual motley crew of assorted losers, twits, and dumb-bells spinning political sewage in the morning. If there's EVER a reason to go to church other than worship God, it's to avoid morning political shows. Anyway, I wondered if Webster's or Wikipedia would be accepting of the following premise: We need an appropriate photo to accompany the urban/slang definition of 'Tool'. Here are my suggestions. Which one best fits your mental image when the word 'Tool' is used in a defamatory way: 01) Obama (dumbo or salt-vampire) 02) Biden 03) Gore 04) Sean Penn...

All but invisible in Latin America a decade ago, China now is building cars in Uruguay, donating a soccer stadium to Costa Rica and lending $10 billion to Brazil's biggest oil company.

Conservative web journalists and radio talk show hosts are beside themselves at the stupidity of the Obama administration, and rightly so. We, too, bewail the squander of America's wealth, the weakening of her military, the traitorous, despicable mishandling of the CIA, the celebration of moral wickedness, the encroachment of constitutional liberties, the blind commitment to environmental myths, and so much more. While Bush conducted a war on terrorism (though he didn't really take off the gloves), Obama appears to be conducting a war on the war on terrorism. All of these things, though, are mere symptoms of a deeper problem,...

Conservative web journalists and radio talk show hosts are beside themselves at the stupidity of the Obama administration, and rightly so. We, too, bewail the squander of America's wealth, the weakening of her military, the traitorous, despicable mishandling of the CIA, the celebration of moral wickedness, the encroachment of constitutional liberties, the blind commitment to environmental myths, and so much more. While Bush conducted a war on terrorism (though he didn't really take off the gloves), Obama appears to be conducting a war on the war on terrorism. All of these things, though, are mere symptoms of a deeper problem,...

Jesus Fish/Darwin Fish --snip-- Atheists use their Darwin fish to protest against the Christian faith. That they use evolution to counter biblical faith shows how foundational the issue of origins is to the gospel, and that church leaders who dismiss it as a ‘side issue’ have their heads in the sand...

June 26, 2009 — Evolution of rape?  No way.  Sharon Begley won’t let the evolutionary psychologists get away with their tales about how rapists, molesters, and cheaters can’t help themselves because evolution made them that way.  The Science Magazine blog Origins seems to be cheering her on. Science writer Sharon Begley, who in 2007 returned to her old job at Newsweek after 5 years of writing the “Science Journal” column for The Wall Street Journal, has long reported skeptically about anything smacking of biological determinism.  In the 29 June issue of Newsweek, she pens a 4300-word critique of evolutionary psychology,...

June 16, 2009 — What kid hasn’t played with maple seeds to watch them spin in the air like helicopters? Scientists watch them, too. A team from the Netherlands and California found out how they stay in the air for so long without engines to drive them. One would think in an era of advanced aeronautical engineering the physics would all be worked out, but the abstract explains that the seeds know more than the engineers do...

1. Definition of “Atheism” There is confusion and debate about the term “atheism” and its definition. The term “atheism” finds its etymology in the Greek combination of “a” and “theos”. What “atheos” means is, as with any term, subject to context (and perhaps personal interpretation). Note that if an atheist states, “I do not believe in God”, this is technically not a statement about God’s existence or lack thereof. Does atheos mean “no God”, “without God”, “lack God belief” or “God does not exist”? Early Christians were referred to as “atheists” because they did not believe in the Greek or...

The human ear is an amazing device. In a recent press release, an MIT engineer said that the ear is “like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels.”[1] In fact, its design inspired the development of a new space and energy-saving radio receiver chip...

Atheism, for Good Reason, Fears Questions --snip-- That theists and open-minded agnostics and atheists on the pro-Darwinist side of this debate are finally engaging the same fundamentalist atheist dogma that intelligent design proponents have engaged for several decades is a good sign. Fundamentalist atheists are of course fighting back ferociously, because they understand, as perhaps the accomodationists don’t, the profound implications of an understanding of the natural world that is not causally closed. Teleology is obvious in nature. Atheists and materialists intrinsically deny the reality of teleology-- Aristotelian final causation-- in nature, yet nothing in the natural world can be...

Radiometric dating is often used to “prove” rocks are millions of years old. Once you understand the basic science, however, you can see how wrong assumptions lead to incorrect dates. Most people think that radioactive dating has proven the earth is billions of years old. After all, textbooks, media, and museums glibly present ages of millions of years as fact. Yet few people know how radiometric dating works or bother to ask what assumptions drive the conclusions. So let’s take a closer look and see how reliable this dating method really is...

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) was the organizer, propagandist, and military leader of the communist seizure of power in Russia following the revolution of 1917. He was communist dictator Lenin's heir apparent, until Stalin usurped this position. Intolerant, tactless and impatient, Trotsky had an unbounded faith in Marxism, which was reinforced by his uncritical acceptance of Darwinism...

UK researchers believe they may have “broken new ground” in the ongoing quest to find out how living cells first evolved. The New York Times proclaimed, “An English chemist has found the hidden gateway” to the origin of life.[1] But despite the claim that the scientists “have developed an experiment that sheds new and fascinating light on how life on Earth might have begun,”[2] what they really demonstrated was that the molecules of life can only come from living cells...

June 15, 2009 — Sex brings pleasure to many, but pain to Darwinists. Why? Because they can’t figure it out. Nick Lane is a case in point. In New Scientist, he wrote...

Darwin-Only Advisors Hunker Down to Re-Strategize June 12, 2009 — Strict Darwinian materialists are a minority in the United States, yet they enjoy autocracy in educational policy, complete control of scientific institutions, and nearly complete unquestioned support from the mainstream media. Nevertheless, they have to face living in a country that is predominantly religious. Once in awhile they suffer setbacks, like the recent changes in textbook policy in Texas that will require more scrutiny of the claims of evolution. What do they say amongst themselves when strategizing how to handle the public?...

On 6 June at around 6pm a Mr Goa was driving through the Chinese city of Taiyuan near the Yi-Fen bridge when he saw a totally unexplainable object or UFO hovering in the sky above him. Mr Goa pulled up at the side of the road and observed the object for around 40minutes. He managed to take a number of photos (below) with his mobile phone. Mr Goa noted that the object changed shape from a diamond to an orb and while it generally stayed in the same area it swung from side to side before shooting up into the...

June 9, 2009 — “The findings add to a growing body of evidence in the past two decades that challenge some of the most widely-held beliefs about animal evolution.”  That statement is not being made by creationists, but by science reporters describing work at Oregon State University that cast new doubt on the idea that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs.  The main idea: their leg bones and lungs are too different.     Science Daily’s report has a diagram of the skeleton showing...

CORVALLIS, Ore. Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs.

Biomimicry: why the world is full of intelligent design Forget human ingenuity - the best source of ideas for cutting-edge technology might be in nature, according to experts in 'biomimicry' We humans like to think we're pretty good at design and technology – but we often forget that Mother Nature had a head start of 3.6 million years. Now, the way that geckoes climb walls, or hummingbirds hover, is at the centre of a burgeoning industry: biomimicry, the science of "reverse-engineering" clever ideas from the natural world....

According to Benjamin Wiker’s provocative new biography, The Darwin Myth: the Life and Lies of Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin was an honorable and likable man, a family man. He loved his siblings; he was devoted to his wife; he loved his children and grieved deeply over his daughter’s death. But Darwin was also someone who presented to the public an elaborate and even deceptive story about himself and his work to advance a philosophical agenda. While there are many biographies of Charles Darwin, Wiker’s deserves attention because...

“Junk” DNA: Darwinism’s Last Stand? We are often told that the evidence for evolution is “overwhelming.” If “evolution” is defined as “change over time” or “minor changes within existing species,” this is a truism. But what if “evolution” means Charles Darwin’s theory? According to Darwin, all living things are descendants of a common ancestor that have been modified by unguided processes such as random variation and natural selection. Despite the hype from Darwin’s followers, the evidence for his theory is underwhelming, at best. Natural selection—like artificial selection—can produce minor changes within existing species. But in the 150 years since the...

une 4, 2009 — According to evolutionary theory, the extra processing required for living in social groups should make brains bigger. Not so, found a couple of scientists who looked into the question. There’s no general correlation. --snip-- Another evolutionary myth has been falsified, and Seth Shostak has been embarrassed again. Keep up the good work...

No Seal of Approval for Evolution by Frank Sherwin, M.A.* The recent discovery of an incomplete northern Canadian fossil is causing waves in certain evolutionary circles.1 Some scientists claim that Puijila darwini is a flipper-free pinniped (a group that includes walruses, sea lions, and seals) that is supposedly a long sought-after Darwinian transition between a land and freshwater animal. But although a BBC headline proclaimed it a "missing link," this status is made doubtful by the article's uncertain verbiage. Terms such as "probably," "very likely," "suggest," "hint," "apparently," "may have," and "appears to have" are used to describe this animal...

June 3, 2009 — Movements since the late 19th century have employed science as justification for tyrannical ideas. Ziauddin Sardar wrote in Nature, “Misplaced faith in science, as rational dogma, as the enemy of pessimism, as a theory of salvation, often serves as the glue that binds modernity and fascism together.”1 Could that happen again? Sardar, the editor of Futures, was reviewing a new book by Christine Poggi, Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism (Princeton, 2009). He began,...

101 evidences for a young age of the earth...and the universe Can science prove the age of the earth? There are many different categories of evidence that the cosmos and the earth are much younger than is generally asserted today...

DNA Fence Posts Hold Back Cancer. . . and Evolution by Brian Thomas, M.S.* New research has uncovered a tiny protein that, when it breaks down, leads to cancer. This useful protein attaches to DNA in certain places and serves as a marker or “fence post.” These fence posts keep certain zones of DNA accessible to the cell regulatory mechanisms that activate gene expression to produce other proteins. If the protein posts are knocked down, these regions of DNA become inaccessible and the cells become cancerous. But how could cells have evolved if the necessary restructuring of their DNA, and...

You Can Trust a Scientist – Can’t You? May 31, 2009 — After the flap over the “missing link” Ida last week (05/19/2009), paleontologist Christopher Beard warned about how such stunts damage scientific credibility. “The only thing we have going for us that Hollywood and politicians don’t is objectivity,” he told Science magazine.[1] Can the public trust the objectivity of scientists as a class? Do they get more credibility points than other groups of professionals? Do the processes of scientific publication warrant a higher level of trust? A study reported on Science Daily may shake that trust...

Multifunctional Genes Indicate Ingenious Programming by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Computer programs are written in coded computer languages, and sometimes the same piece of code can be reused in different programs to perform new functions. This way, programmers save time and energy by not having to invent new code. For this to work, however, the programmer must intentionally specify how each program will use the recycled code to perform the designated functions. Genes can be compared to computer codes. The same gene or set of genes can be used to build...

May 29, 2009 — A battle of websites is rising, and New Scientist is gloating.  Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project (and a candidate to lead the National Institutes of Health) has launched a website promoting theistic evolution called Biologos.org.  The intelligent-design think tank Discovery Institute has offered a counter-site called FaithAndEvolution.org.     Amanda Gefter wrote for New Scientist, “Christians battle each other over evolution.”  Gefter, who subscribes to Stephen Jay Gould’s “NOMA” strategy (non-overlapping magisteria), believes that science and religion must remain separate spheres.  She thinks the latest website battle betrays religious motivations behind the...

Texas Evolution Lobby Making Power Grabs to Promote Their Censorship Agenda A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article from last month, “Education Board in Texas Faces Curbs,” revealed how the Texas evolution-lobby has been seeking to use both censorship and power grabs to promote their agenda. First, they sought to censor from Texas students any instruction on scientific weaknesses in evolution. Having lost that fight before the Texas State Board of Education (TSBOE), they have tried to use other tactics to punish the board for adopting science standards that teach evolution objectively, or to grab power away from the democratically elected...

The prospect of a gun rights group demonstrating their right to openly carry firearms in Hazle Township Community Park on the same day as the annual “Celebration of Life Walk” sponsored by the Hazleton Chapter of the American Red Cross is threatening cancellation of the 10th annual Red Cross fundraiser. Joyce Bradbury, executive director of the Hazleton Chapter of the American Red Cross said a significant number of walk participants called the Red Cross headquarters to cancel their participation in the event in light of the gun group’s plans. Most of the cancellations came from school student groups, Bradbury said....

Anti-God Ads Hit Dallas by Christine Dao* In the heart of the Bible belt, billboards stating “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone” have been posted in parts of Dallas, home of the Institute for Creation Research. The boards are sponsored by the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (DFWCoR), an atheist nonprofit group which joins together smaller local anti-theistic organizations to “increase the growth, visibility and acceptance of nontheists throughout the Metroplex.”[1] Two ads have been posted in the D/FW area, one just a few miles from ICR headquarters, and will remain up through April. According to Fred Edwords...

10. Tesco’s Whistling Carrots In 2002, Tesco ran a fake newspaper ad announcing the ‘whistling carrot,’ a carrot genetically modified to contain airholes on each side that caused the carrot to whistle when it finished cooking. 9. Lebanon Circle Magik Co.’s Mummified Fairy Lebanon Circle Magik Co., a studio specializing in sculptures and curios, posted a picture of what appeared to be a mummified fairy on its homepage in 2007. The site explained that the fairy had been found by pedestrian in rural Derbyshire, leading to an explosion of online speculation about whether the fairy was real. Even after owner...

American International Group’s unpaid CEO Edward Liddy said the company’s board has been in close consultation with the Federal Reserve since November about whether to hand out the $165 million in bonuses it issued to its top employees last week. The disclosure took Capital Markets subcommittee chairman, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., by surprise and he asked Liddy to clarify his statement. Since the bonuses were disclosed last week, the Obama administration has said they found out about the payments just before they were handed out by AIG, which is the recipient of $170 billion in government funds and is slated...

Tired, Frustrated Obama Inspires Zero Confidence, Scares MillionsMarch 9, 2009 **SNIP** OBAMA: By the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system, and the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if coming in the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. REPORTER: Right. OBAMA: You know, I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system. RUSH: Now, that's an inspiring thing to say. I have more than enough to do without having...

Dear IRS, I'm sorry to inform you that I'm not going to be able to pay the taxes owed on April 15th, but all is not lost. I paid these taxes, accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gas tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, Medicare tax, city tax, school and county property tax up to 33% the last four years. Real estate tax, Social Security tax, road use tax, toll road tax, state and city...

GROWING numbers of Muslim men are “marrying” up to four wives in Britain, a leading Muslim peer warned last night. Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi fears a sharp increase in polygamy in the UK is becoming a threat to community cohesion. And she accused Labour ministers of turning a blind eye to the practice, which is common in some Islamic countries. The Government must make it clear to Muslims that “in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman,” she said. Most Muslim polygamous arrangements are not illegal because the “weddings” are private religious ceremonies that are not...

Barack fools us -- Whole world will pay for America's electoral mistake By MICHAEL COREN, TORONTO SUN A young student friend e-mailed me on Tuesday night. "Have locked myself in my room because the place is full of little idiots -- who cannot spell Barack Obama's name and could not name one of his foreign or domestic policies -- running around screaming obscenities about George Bush, conservatives and how Sarah Palin is a bitch. I love democracy!" Even so, the people spoke. A victory for the hysterical Oprah Winfrey, the mad racist preacher Jeremiah Wright, the mainstream media who abandoned...

Republican lawmakers today signed petitions protesting a possible transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Colorado, saying the state shouldn't be a dumping ground for terrorists. "The type of terrorists these would be, I'd be ill at ease if I lived in Florence or Canon City or Pueblo West," said Republican Sen. Ken Kester of Las Animas "I don't think we need 200 or 300 terrorists in Colorado. They will infiltrate the other convicts that are there." President Barack Obama announced Thursday he would close the Guantanamo Bay prison, located on an American naval base in Cuba, that has held suspected...

Jim Hansen is the 'grandfather of climate change' and one of the world's leading climatologists. In this rare interview in New York, he explains why President Obama's administration is the last chance to avoid flooded cities, species extinction and climate catastropheRobin McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009 Article historyAlong one wall of Jim Hansen's wood-panelled office in upper Manhattan, the distinguished climatologist has pinned 10 A4-sized photographs of his three grandchildren: Sophie, Connor and Jake. They are the only personal items on display in an office otherwise dominated by stacks of manila folders, bundles of papers and...

One of these day's I'll have to find other subject matter to write about, but stupidity isn't particular. Here we have "larger than life art," according to our giddy narrator, from Chicago elementary school kids, bringing this sky-view image of Barack Obama to life. See video here:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Barack Obama will be "nerd-in-chief" when he takes office as U.S. president this month, according to Marvel Comics, which is putting him on the cover of its next "Spider-Man" comic.

The contemplated monument shall be like him in whose honor it is to be constructed, unparalleled in the world. . . . [It] should blend stupendousness with elegance, and be of such magnitude and beauty as to be an object of pride to the American people, and of all who see it. -- Design objectives for the Washington Monument, 1832 Why wait? As its first order of business in the coming year, the 111th Congress must establish the Barack H. Obama Presidential Monument Commission, to approve the design and fund the construction (with a target completion date of Jan. 21,...

A Birmingham City Council committee agreed this afternoon to fund a celebration in honor of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. The celebration will be held in Boutwell Auditorium, with big-screen TVs broadcasting the event. Members of the council's Joint Committee of the Whole were still debating the cost of the celebration this afternoon, but they said the cost would be paid from the city's budget. Also this afternoon, the committee said it would delay beginning street paving projects Mayor Larry Langford has advocated.

President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden have officially invited the Lesbian and Gay Band Association to march in the Inaugural Parade. One of the association’s web sites reports that the group will also march in September as part of the homosexual “Southern Decadence” festival infamous for its public lewd acts. The Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) is a network of lesbian and gay bands comprised of concert and marching bands from various American cities. According to a December 10 press release from the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the group’s appearance in the Inaugural Parade on January 20 will...

The head of a new congressional panel set up to monitor the gigantic U.S. government bailout says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis, despite the billions it has already spent in that effort. Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of the oversight panel, said in an interview Monday that the government instead seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan.