Free Republic

More Generation Z candidates are lining up to run for office this year amid frustration over the country’s aging political class. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) became Congress’s first member belonging to Gen Z — the age bracket considered to begin with people born in 1997 or later — after 2022’s midterms. Now, at least two fellow Gen Z Democrats are vying to join Frost this year as they look to broaden their generation’s presence in the House, where the median age of voting members is around 58 years.

Dampwood termite worker head capsule and brain. Credit: Sean O'Donnell, Drexel UniversityNew research on dampwood termites (Zootermopsis angusticollis and A. nevdensis) shows select members of the colony will experience brain changes in anticipation of cognitive demand.In a dampwood termite colony only a select few will, quite literally, see the light. The insects are unique due to their mating flights and the adaptability of their role within the colony, which is based on the overall needs of the group. King and queen termites must leave the nest and are the only members to go outside—briefly —to partner off and tunnel into...

Earlier this month, an experiment on China’s Chang’e 4 lander got cotton plants to sprout on the moon for the first time. Well, they’re already dead.

Kerry also admitted U.S. helped arm jihadists As President Obama reflects on his legacy, a recording of Secretary of State John Kerry conversing with leaders of Syrian opposition groups is casting more light on his approach to ISIS, indicating his administration believed that allowing the Islamic State to grow would serve the White House’s objective of ousting Syrian President Bashar Assad. The recording was leaked to the New York Times and reported Sept. 30, but the Conservative Tree House blog this week featured portions of Kerry’s statements that were virtually ignored at the time. Regime change was Obama’s only objective...

Health Ministry to launch new unit to oversee production in 2012; imports would be tenfold more expensi Dr. Ronni Gamzi, director-general of the Health Ministry, decided on Thursday to establish a unit within the ministry to manage the supervision and supply of medical marijuana and to serve as an agency for this purpose according to the demands of an international agreement on the subject. The unit will begin operating in January, 2012. It was also decided that medical cannabis will continue to be grown in Israel for at least two years, because imports would be tenfold more expensive.

Since the beginning of the last recession (December 2007) the private sector workforce has shrunk by 6.6% while shedding more than 7.5 million jobs. Over that same time period, the federal government workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 11.7% while adding 230,000 jobs. This trend has continued throughout the Obama Administration. Since President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the private sector workforce has shrunk by 2.6% while shedding 2.9 million jobs while the federal workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 7% while adding more than 144,000 jobs.

The growing demographic picture of millions of Muslim immigrants and their descendants in Europe is beginning to bear bitter fruit in a quiet “under the radar” jihad against Israel. Muslim lobby groups representing this sector are rapidly gaining a hold on Europe's relations with the State of Israel and the Middle East, contends writer Soeren Kern in a long, well-referenced article entitled “Europe's Muslim Lobby” published last week in Hudson New York. Kern notes in the report that in Britain alone there are 3 million Muslims. In France there are more -- 4.1 million -- and in Germany, home to...

Comparisons between the Obama White House and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter are increasingly being made—and by Democrats. Walter Mondale, Mr. Carter's vice president, told The New Yorker this week that anxious and angry voters in the late 1970s "just turned against us—same as with Obama." As the polls turned against his administration, Mr. Mondale recalled that Mr. Carter "began to lose confidence in his ability to move the public." Democrats on Capitol Hill are now saying this is happening to Mr. Obama. Comparisons between the Obama White House and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter are increasingly being...

Comparisons between the Obama White House and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter are increasingly being made—and by Democrats. Walter Mondale, Mr. Carter's vice president, told The New Yorker this week that anxious and angry voters in the late 1970s "just turned against us—same as with Obama." As the polls turned against his administration, Mr. Mondale recalled that Mr. Carter "began to lose confidence in his ability to move the public." Democrats on Capitol Hill are now saying this is happening to Mr. Obama. But within a few months, liberals were already finding fault with his rhetoric. "He's the great...

Comparisons between the Obama White House and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter are increasingly being made—and by Democrats. Walter Mondale, Mr. Carter's vice president, told The New Yorker this week that anxious and angry voters in the late 1970s "just turned against us—same as with Obama." As the polls turned against his administration, Mr. Mondale recalled that Mr. Carter "began to lose confidence in his ability to move the public." Democrats on Capitol Hill are now saying this is happening to Mr. Obama. Mr. Mondale says it's time for the president "to get rid of those teleprompters and connect"...

A special Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) survey has found that more Israeli Jews are becoming increasingly religiously observant than the reverse. 21% of those surveyed said they are currently more religious than they were in the past, while 14% say they are less religious. Five percent of respondents defined themselves as “chozrim b'teshuva,” a term often used to refer to those raised in non-religious households who choose to become religious as adults. Hareidi-religious respondents were most likely to define themselves as chozrim b'teshuva – a full 22% of them said they were chozrim b'teshuva, compared to 17% of the...

The Johannes Mehserle murder trial looks like it will wrap up in Los Angeles this week and that has people in Oakland bracing for possible trouble once the verdict is read. While city leaders are calling for calm, people who use Lake Merritt found messages preaching the opposite. The sidewalks that circle the lake were spray painted this weekend. Some were mundane such as "Justice for Oscar Grant." Others seemed to point to trouble with the words "LA Better Get It Right Or Else." One appeared the threaten the Mehserle's life. Workers were out Monday morning trying to remove the...

THERE are senior and experienced federal Labor MPs who say quietly and privately that they can see the possibility "that we could lose the election". This is incredible not only because the people are not newcomers unused to dealing with falls in polling and tough periods of politics, but also because no Labor MP at all would have even thought it possible six months ago. The incredible nature of this situation is heightened for Labor because where there was once certainty about how to defeat the Coalition there is now tension within the ranks about what should be done. ........

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's health care tab would increase even more under legislation in the House, according to a government report released Wednesday. The analysis by the Health and Human Services Department looks at the impact of the health care bill drafted by House Democratic leaders. It concludes that total national health care spending would increase by an additional 2.1 percent from 2010-2019, mostly because newly insured people would seek medical care.

I did some research this week end, and this is my humble presentation. I don't think all them folks in Detroit deserve the poverty Democrats have dished up. My Thesis comes from an argument over some uninformed retiree whose blamed Bush for this economic nightmare: Arguing over ‘Bush #2’, I countered, “Without the Bush tax cuts, the current poverty levels would have been higher”.Now I'm going to back that up with real evidence, Mr President. January 29, 2007 Ten Myths About the Bush Tax Cuts http://www.heritage.org/research/taxes/bg2001.cfm Despite surging economic growth and 5 million new jobs since 2003, critics also charge...

While Ben Bernanke may be right that the recession is "very likely over at this point," his caveat--"it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was" is borne out by hard economic data. When asked about who should be mainly responsible for helping people who are laid off, 51% of the unemployed said the government, 33% said workers themselves and 17% said their previous employer. The surveyors also asked about the most important service government...

(AP) — AKRON, Ohio - Standing on brown earth on a flat field hundreds of yards from the nearest road, Don Carey is surrounded by tiny plants. He walks along a three-quarter-acre plot in a desolate spot in this rural township in northeastern Portage County and looks at the thousands of tobacco plants he is growing. Carey, 49, decided in April, when federal taxes on tobacco skyrocketed, to grow his own.

Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, "Do you think they know what they're doing?" The question caught me off guard because the man is a well-known Obama supporter. As we talked, I quickly realized his asking suggested his own considerable doubts. Yes, it's early, but an eerily familiar feeling is spreading across party lines and seeping into the national conversation. It's a nagging doubt about the competency of the White House. It was during George W. Bush's...

Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, "Do you think they know what they're doing?"

China looks abroad to grow its own food By Richard Spencer Last Updated: 2:31AM BST 10/05/2008 Chinese farming companies may be backed by the government to buy and lease tracts of land in Africa and Latin America to grow crops to feed its 1.3 billion people. A proposal before the state council, or cabinet, proposes extending a business strategy known as the "go-out policy" to farmland. As food prices rise, the Chinese government is anxious about food security, though it may not be willing to risk the accusation of colonialism that such a move would attract. The country has long...