Free Republic

Let’s get real. It doesn’t matter if you think Monsanto is evil. Genetically modified  food is safe—no matter what logical fallacies will lead liberals like Bill Maher to believe. If Monsanto has anything to do with it, it must be evil. That seems to be the prevailing opinion on the monolithic biotech company. Following that logic, if they produce corn or soybeans or another crop that has been genetically modified (GM), those too must be evil. That’s Bill Maher’s reasoning at least—reasoning that lures liberals away from science and towards denial. Making the leap from Monsanto’s business practices—whatever you may...

Is this possible? The Wonkblog site shows zero accounts created so far for California, Nevada, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, and Washington.

Eating bacon can significantly lower a man’s sperm quality, Medical Daily reported. In a study presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s 2013 Annual Meeting in Boston, researchers from Harvard University gathered data from 156 men who were undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVR) with a partner. Each couple was asked questions about their diet, including how often they consumed processed meat, red meat, white meat, poultry, and fish.

An iconic Michiana company is closing. Tuesday, FOX28 talked with owners of the Bonnie Doon plant and downtown Mishawaka location. They tell us there are many reasons for the shutdown such as the declining economy and the rise in production costs. But the number one factor? The anticipated cost of the Affordable Care Act.

Kathleen Pender, who has a piece at the San Francisco Chronicle blog SFGate in which she shares her own vision of an Obamian socialist utopia. In Pender’s world, as in Obamas, there are givers and takers. She explains in several easy steps how to become a taker in the free-for-all bloodsport of Obamacare: People whose 2014 income will be a little too high to get subsidized health insurance from Covered California next year should start thinking now about ways to lower it to increase their odds of getting the valuable tax subsidy. ‘If they can adjust (their income), they should,’...

Oh, oh, oreo. Ever feel like you could eat the whole bag yourself? According to a new study — you’re not a glutton, you’re addicted. A student at Connecticut College found lab rats that ate oreos were just as strongly associated to them as lab rats that were injected with cocaine or morphine. (Via WNCN) And, this sounds even more dangerous — eating Oreos activated even more neurons in the “pleasure centers” of rats’ brains than those addicted drugs did. (Via YouTube / Oreo)

School “zero tolerance” policies claimed another victim as Massachusetts high school student Erin Cox was suspended from her volleyball team after giving an intoxicated friend a ride home from a party. Police determined that Cox had not consumed alcohol, and agreed that the honors student had only come to a party featuring underage drinking in order to make sure a friend got home safely. But Andover High School decided to punish Cox anyway, determining that she had violated the school district’s zero tolerance policy against drug and alcohol use. Cox was demoted from her position as captain of the volleyball...

Pro-life advocates and a member of Parliament at the Australia March for Life were assaulted by thousands of pro-abortion activists over the weekend. Bryan Kemper, one of the speakers at the event and the leader of the American pro-life group Stand True, offered LifeNews more on what happened: Right now in Australia the March for Life is going on and the pro-lifers are being attacked by thousands of pro-aborts. Near riot situation we are being attacked as we march. Prayers please. Very bad. I’ve been hit many times already. They are surrounding us. Police won’t arrest them. I am in...

A growing consensus of IT experts, outside and inside the government, have figured out a principal reason why the website for Obamacare’s federally-sponsored insurance exchange is crashing. Healthcare.gov forces you to create an account and enter detailed personal information before you can start shopping. This, in turn, creates a massive traffic bottleneck, as the government verifies your information and decides whether or not you’re eligible for subsidies. HHS bureaucrats knew this would make the website run more slowly. But they were more afraid that letting people see the underlying cost of Obamacare’s insurance plans would scare people away. HHS didn’t...

(CNSNews.com) -- Bureaucracies in the Obama Administration have thus far published approximately 11,588,500 words of final Obamacare regulations, while there are only 381,517 words in the Obamacare law itself. That means unelected federal officials have now written 30 words of regulations for each word in the law. What is commonly known as the Obamacare law includes both the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA). Since these bills were signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010, various agencies in the administration have published 109 final regulations spelling out...

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (CBS Sacramento) – According to a recent study, women may enjoy a spicier sex life after they receive breast implants. Although the study size was small, researchers found that women experienced a significant boost in their arousal and sexual satisfaction after they had the surgery. However, researchers also found that women who were left with stretch marks after the procedure did not experience any improvement in their sex life.

Vermont has the highest rate of illicit drug use in the country with 15% of people saying they've used within the past month (compared to 4.2% in Utah, where illicit drug use is the lowest), according to 2010-2011 surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Northeastern state ranked high for almost every type of drug, from marijuana to cocaine. This trend is a consequence of factors including weather, politics, and proximity to big cities, according to Barbara Cimaglio, the Vermont Department of Health's deputy commissioner for alcohol and drug abuse programs. "You have everything from the...

The healthcare.gov website has been online for two weeks. But folks are having trouble signing up. One person who says she's been trying for two weeks straight to sign up is CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. ..... Snip .....

A cure for marijuana abuse could be on the horizon thanks to a new finding. Researchers found that increasing the levels of a naturally-occurring acid in the brain could stop addicts who are trying to give up from relapsing. The scientists discovered that kynurenic acid reduces the kick monkeys and rats get from THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. … Kynurenic acid, which can be produced from bananas and turkey, is thought to cause fewer side effects than other treatments that have been considered because it occurs naturally in the brain. …

A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital. Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

Unless you’ve been bamboozled by the frantic fictions of the right wing, you know that the Affordable Care Act, familiarly known as Obamacare, has begun to accomplish its first goal: enrolling millions of uninsured Americans, many of whom have been living one medical emergency away from the poorhouse. You realize those computer failures that have hampered sign-ups in the early days — to the smug delight of the critics — confirm that there is enormous popular demand. You have probably figured out that the real mission of the Republican extortionists and their big-money backers was to scuttle the law before...

FULL TITLE: Horrific impact of deadly 'cannibal heroin' that 'eats' addicts alive: Drug that originated in Russia is now on the streets of the U.S. It is feared a deadly drug known as 'cannibal heroin' which eats flesh from the inside out is about to take off in the United States. Krokodil, which is similar to heroin and originated in Russia 10 years ago, turns users into zombies as their bodies begin to rot leaving addicts with reptilian skin. Following reports over the past month of cases of krokodil abuse in both Arizona and Chicago, Illinois, the drug is now...

Liftware is a handheld device which actively counteracts the shaking of a persons hand by up to 70% allowing them to more easily feed themselves. It is basically an electronic self-stabilizing spoon.

Surgeons in Los Angeles have for the first time performed a life-saving procedure on a tiny fetus inside its mother’s womb after practicing on a grape. Using a hair-fine wire, a miniature needle, a tiny balloon and a catheter, they successfully carried out the operation on the unborn child’s heart—which is about the size of a walnut. It was a medical first for the surgical team at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, and according to the LA Times, it appears to have been a success. … Practicing for such a critical and exacting procedure, remarkably, involved using...

Dr. Ben Carson, the former director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, drew a parallel between Obamacare and “socialized medicine” and cited Communist leader Vladimir Lenin’s support for government-run health care as the “keystone to the establishment of a socialist state.” Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Dr. Carson said that Obamacare “was never about healthcare. It was about control,” and making all Americans “subservient to the government.” He then commented on why the Democrat-dominant Congress in 2010 moved swiftly to pass the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. “And why did they...

I am a retiree on a pension. My 2014 employer provided enrollment form arrived today. According to the booklet provided, if I remain on this plan (AnthemPPO) my monthly premium will increase 66.5% for health and hospital, and 67% for dental, or $180 and $18/mo respectively, to keep the coverage that I now have. I went online to an ACA calculator and with our income, our monthly premium worked out to, with subsidy, $150/mo. That's less than the increase for the employer provided coverage AND it's for the silver plan which is probably as good as what I now have....

**SNIP**Unlike Americans who tell pollsters they don’t like the new law and find it confusing, the business professionals dealing with the day-to-day reality of the new health insurance landscape accept the Affordable Care Act as straight forward approach to begin cutting the rising cost of health care for people and companies. At the conference, sponsored by the Sun Life Financial Inc., these health care and corporate professionals pointed to reductions in the expense health care puts on small businesses with less than 50 workers. And they think people who work for small companies – as well as part time workers--...

Harvest is in full swing across the country, and farmers in many states are surprised at the abundance of corn they’re getting from their fields. Dairy farmer Ben Steffen, who also grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 1,900 acres near the southeastern Nebraska town of Humboldt, said his first corn field brought in 168 bushels an acre, above the average of 140. … The best crops in the U.S. are in areas that received adequate rain combined with cooler temperatures at the time corn pollinated, a welcome sight after last year’s dismal harvest due to the drought withering corn and...

The left has been doing this for years, but you never hear them screaming, that they should be labeled as politically sponsored. If you think about it, it is a very effective and CHEAP was to get your propaganda into the minds of the sheep, in a specific window of time. No one is recognizing this as a propaganda tool... The left hides behind "artistic free speech" to get what they want.

Hold your nose and don't spit out your coffee: Doctors have found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills that can cure serious gut infections — a less yucky way to do "fecal transplants." Canadian researchers tried this on 27 patients and cured them all after strong antibiotics failed to help. It's a gross topic but a serious problem. Half a million Americans get Clostridium difficile, or C-diff, infections each year, and about 14,000 die. The germ causes nausea, cramping and diarrhea so bad it is often disabling. A very potent and pricey antibiotic can kill C-diff but...

The lemon-lime soda seems to help the body better metabolize alcohol, according to Chinese researchers. Plain soda water had a similar effect.If you're searching for the magical elixir to cure a hangover, Chinese researchers may have found it. The solution: lemon-lime flavored soda Sprite. But if you prefer to skip the sweet stuff, soda water is a good alternative, findings showed. Some of the adverse effects of alcohol are thought to be caused not by the alcohol itself but by the process of the body trying to break down the alcohol. After drinking, the body goes through two stages of...

This link was tweeted (and retweeted by Dana Loesch) and is purported to be a contractor for Healthcare.gov posting source code on Java boards seeking help with his code. I do some Java scripting and it sure looks like it could be from Healthcare.gov to me. At least it can't be ruled out. PS - Not a frequent poster of articles. Forgive me if I have sinned.

Question : "Do I need to have insurance?--Yes. The ACA requires all Americans have health care coverage "that meets basic minimum standards."..."That's flat-out FALSE ," ....I see people panicking -- they feel they must buy health insurance by December 15, ..... What Chief Justice Roberts said was, "The mandate can be regarded as establishing a condition -- not owning health insurance -- that triggers a tax -- the required payment to the IRS." ..... Under the Unaffordable Care Act, as redefined by the Supreme Court, whether or not you buy health care insurance is a purely economic decision. You can...

FULL TITLE: The photograph that shamed Mexico: Health director suspended after shocking image of indigenous woman giving birth on a clinic LAWN when nurses denied her treatment went viral A disturbing photograph of an indigenous woman from Mexico delivering a baby on a patch of grass outside a medical center has set off a firestorm online and sparked a national debate that led to the suspension of the head of the clinic that has turned the mother away. The shocking image, taken by a passerby, shows 29-year-old Irma Lopez , who is of Mazatec ethnicity, squatting after giving birth, her...

Pro Familia, Germany’s leading family planning group, published articles years ago that appeared to advocate for pedophilia, university researchers say. The findings by researchers at Gottingen University were published Wednesday by the newspaper Tagesspiegel, The Local.de reported. An institute at the university has been involved since May in finding past statements by politicians and others that seem to make light of sexual relations between children and adults. …

This is on the Obamacare website . . . . When you apply for coverage, the Marketplace will determine whether coverage is affordable for your income level. If coverage is not considered affordable to you, you will not have to pay the fee that other people who do not have coverage may face. Oh? To me? You mean that I can determine for myself whether or not the premiums are affordable, and whether or not I have to pay the fee? Yeah, right. LOL!!!! Of course, what they really mean is that they are going to tell you whether or...

Marketplace Application Checklist When you apply for coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplace, you’ll need to provide some information about you and your household, including income, any insurance you currently have, and some additional items. Use the checklist below to help you gather what you need to apply for coverage. Open enrollment starts October 1, 2013 for coverage starting as early as January 1, 2014. Open enrollment ends March 31, 2014. Social Security Numbers (or document numbers for legal immigrants) Employer and income information for every member of your household who needs coverage (for example, from pay stubs or W-2...

Liberals don't just indulge in magical thinking - the entire point of liberalism is to live inside magical thinking. As a result, liberals allow themselves to believe that their chosen method of power, namely soft-totalitarian socialist-communism, is not just powerful, but infinitely powerful. Because magical thinking is not just a partial break from personal responsibility, it is an absolute break that requires an absolute power to protect them from every having to come out of it. So, when the limits of their power finally are broken by the realities of the actual world they live in, they literally cannot grasp...

Snake handlers dwell at the edge of the spiritual frontier — a community of people who are willing to die for their faith three times a week in church. Members of the Pentecostal Holiness Church take up venomous serpents to prove their faith in God. The practice is still widespread in Appalachia, though mostly hidden. Pastor Jamie Coots warns about the scent in the snake room behind his house in Middlesboro, Ky. "It's strong, so I'll go ahead and tell you that," he says as he unlocks the squeaky door. We're greeted by the rattles of dark-complexioned pit vipers lying...

<p>Jews make up only 0.2% of the world population, yet comprise 22% of Nobel laureates. What's the deal?</p> <p>Jews have a reputation for being smart. The fact that all three recipients of this year's Nobel prize for Chemistry are Jewish is yet another brick in the wall of that long-lived perception.</p>

Thank you for contacting me with your views on the health reform legislation passed by Congress in 2010. Three years after its passage, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) remains one of the most controversial bills ever considered in Congress. While I support improving our health care delivery system to bring down costs and increase access to affordable health insurance, and have put forth several detailed proposals, the PPACA is not the answer. As written, this legislation would lead to higher health care costs, increased taxes, trillions of dollars in new federal spending, $715 billion in cuts to...

Children born as a result of IVF are a third more likely to get cancer, a major study found. Scientists said those born after fertility treatments were 33 per cent more likely to have childhood cancer. They were 65 per cent more likely to develop leukaemia and 88 per cent more likely to develop cancers of the brain and central nervous system. The study suggests fertility treatment may change the way certain genes function when they are passed from parent to child in a process known as ‘genomic imprinting’. These faults in genes are linked to childhood cancers, the Danish...

The three adult children of radio host Casey Kasem have filed a legal petition to gain control of his health care. The filing says Kasem is suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease and is being isolated from his children, friends and family members by his wife. The petition for conservatorship filed Monday brought a long-running family feud into the courts. The applicants, Julie, Kerri and Mike Kasem, contend that Kasem’s wife Jean refuses to tell them the name of their father’s primary care physician and they are unable to check on his condition. …

Divided government requires bipartisan negotiation By Eric Cantor, Published: October 8 Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, is the House majority leader. For three years, Congress and the White House have been building to this moment. Not the debt limit or Obamacare specifically, but this clarifying moment of Washington dysfunction. President Obama has led us here by continually thwarting the will of Congress and dismissing its role in our constitutional republic. This must end. .... snip ....

Receieved this email, looks like another effort to discredit anti-Obamacare people that go with it. B careful, check to see that Dhimmitude is in the bill before you forward or post. Interesting that "Obama Care" exempts any Muslim believer from the government mandate to purchase health insurance, and also from the penalty tax for being uninsured; just one more example of his growing list of exemptions even though it is unlawful to "piecemeal" parts of the law that Congress has passed and he has signed into law. What does this word mean? Dhimmitude The word "Dhimmitude" is found in the...

I'm just curious but has even ONE person in the entire country even signed up for ObamaCare? I mean you just know there are liberals out there who would love to proclaim that enrolling in ObamaCare is doable but as yet NOT ONE has made any such proclamation. Oh yeah. A certain Chad Henderson of Georgia made that claim last week and for a day was hailed by the MSM until it was discovered he was lying. So far I have read NO names of successful ObamaCare enrollees. Does that mean that a 2000 page law with 20,000 pages of...

Eating five times a day can help keep weight down, a new study has suggested, as scientists reject the idea that three daily meals is the key to staying healthy. Researchers say a daily routine of breakfast, lunch, dinner along with two further snacks a day can help shed pounds. But breaking the routine can lead to weight gain—for instance, skipping breakfast is associated with putting on weight, according to the study published in the International Journal of Obesity. …

This is a clip of a donor heart being sustained in preparation to being transplanted. It's rather an amazing sight that makes you appreciate the very existence, the consciousness in which you are currently viewing this. Looking at this particular heart, it seems a bit large from what I've otherwise seen.

European lawmakers are trying to tighten rules governing the multi-billion dollar tobacco market by imposing bigger and bolder warnings on cigarette packs, banning most flavorings like menthol and beefing up regulation of electronic cigarettes. … Treatment of smoke-related diseases costs about €25 billion ($34 billion) a year, and the EU estimates that there are around 700,000 smoking-related deaths annually across the 28-nation bloc. …

I'm sorry for the vanity, but I just can't stop myself from venting my anger, sitting here as I am with CNN's "Crossfire" on TV in front of me. I thought Stephanie Cutter was one world-class you-know-what during the campaign last November. But, now, she is supposedly qualified to be in this show? She asks questions and then answers them herself. She interrupts, badgers, rudely mocks . . . I mean, she's a real piece of work. She's horrible! I mean, she really ought to be on MSNBC. That's how bad she is.

Workers at the office assemble a panel of co-workers to represent them on a committee to make decisions concerning the general welfare of the employees. This committee is elected on condition that they faithfully the interests of their peers. The committee wants to work toward overhauling the current soda machine selection at the office. The current machine is expensive and makes soft drinks unaffordable for lower income workers. The poll shows that most workers think the soda system is in need of reform. Encouraged by the response, the committee makes plans to replace the machine. They conduct another poll asking...

In a historic effort to become the first city in America to ban late-term abortions beginning at 20 weeks after fertilization, the campaign “ABQ Voters For Late-Term Abortion Ban” launches today. On November 19, the citizens of Albuquerque will cast their votes on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, which is supported by 54% of the people, according to a recent ABQ Journal poll. A grassroots coalition gathered 27,000 signatures in just 20 days to place this ordinance on the ballot. “While putting forth this ordinance has been a local grass-roots effort, this election has important national implications. We...

This past week, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed Bill SB 274. This law now allows children in California to have more than two legal parents, a measure opposed by some conservative groups as an attack on the traditional family. Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said he authored the measure to address the changes in family structure in California, including situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent. The law will allow the courts to recognize three or more legal parents so that custody and financial responsibility can be shared by all those involved in...

CHICAGO -- Human trafficking has grown so much, the crime is challenging illegal drugs as the most profitable criminal enterprise in the country. In Chicago, police are working to solve more than 220 missing person cases. A growing number of those are children being trafficked for sex. Police realize they can't fight this problem alone. That reality has given birth to a unique partnership. Fighting this crime wave takes more than a gun and uniform. You need a street perspective, and that's where community activist Andrew Holmes and former cop Carlos Rodriguez come in. Both now work as private investigators...