Free Republic

They eat human brains and eyeballs, turn snails into pulsating zombies, grow up to 25 feet long in people’s intestines and eat the tongues of fish. Symbiotic relationships may be common in nature, but that doesn’t mean that all parasites are beneficial – many are downright horrifying

….the finance sector is worse than parasitic. In the title of his recent book, The Predator State, James Galbraith aptly names the problem. The financial sector functions as the sharp canines that the predator state uses to rend the nation. In addition to siphoning off capital for its own benefit, the finance sector misallocates the remaining capital in ways that harm the real economy…:

Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed a requirement that immigrants prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for federal healthcare programs. Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that current law and the healthcare bill under consideration are too lax and leave the door open to illegal immigrants defrauding the government using false or stolen identities to obtain benefits. Grassley's amendment was beaten back 10-13 on a party-line vote. The bill, authored by committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), would require applicants to verify their names, places of birth and Social Security numbers. In addition, legal immigrants...

I am haunted by the specter of the people on that overpass during hurricane Katrina. They stood there and waited for help. It never occurred to them to help themselves by walking north. When no help was forthcoming, they began to chant, “We want help. We want help. We want help.” It was very clear to ME that they perceived that the way to get help was to “demonstrate” and demand it—to create a disturbance until someone took notice of them and helped them so they would be silent. It was so similar to a child throwing a tantrum that...

JERUSALEM – Restrictions on access to abortion would turn women's bodies into vessels to be "used" by fetuses, according to President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein. "A restriction on access to abortion turns women's reproductive capacities into something to be used by fetuses. ... Legal and social control of women's sexual and reproductive capacities has been a principal historical source of sexual inequality," Sunstein wrote in his 1993 book "The Partial Constitution."

As Congress's debate over health-care legislation lumbers toward a defining test for the Obama presidency, partisans on both sides of another issue -- immigration -- escalated their own proxy war this week, concluding that the fates of the two issues have become politically linked. Trying to beat back a furor over whether President Obama's centerpiece initiative would subsidize health care for illegal immigrants, liberal supporters of an immigration overhaul on Monday called a main proponent of that claim a "hate group," citing its founder's ties to white supremacists and interest in racist ideas, such as eugenics. The counterattack comes as...

Six Democratic members of Congress enjoyed a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress had approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for a formal review of the Citigroup’s sponsorship of the trip by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and five others. The NLPC says the trip violated House rules. The purported purpose of the Nov. 6-9 junket was to attend the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference on the island of...

Parasitic infections and other diseases usually associated with the developing world are cropping up with alarming frequency among U.S. poor, especially in states along the U.S.-Mexico border, the rural South and in Appalachia, according to researchers. Government and private researchers are just beginning to assess the toll of the infections, which are a significant cause of heart disease, seizures and congenital birth defects among black and Hispanic populations. Click on the image to see diseases associated with developing countries that are becoming common in the U.S. . One obstacle is that the diseases, long thought to be an overseas problem,...

While he conceals his birth origin, Obama and Congress practice “Obfuscation-101.” Obama and democratic House leaders conceal the fact that their health care bill covers unlawful immigrants. Last week, our intrepid albeit dishonest U.S. House of Representatives unveiled their health care reform legislation entitled, "America's Affordable Health Care Act of 2009." They might have added, “America’s Affordable Health Care for 20 million unlawful Mexicans Act.” The Federation for American Immigration Reform said, “Despite the language in section 246 of the bill that states: "nothing—shall allow Federal payments [for] individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States," the bill...

Congressmen Howard Berman (D-CA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), announced the reintroduction today of the DREAM Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation will restore the States’ rights to determine residency requirements for higher education benefits - giving states the option to provide in-state tuition. The American DREAM Act seeks to facilitate access to postsecondary educational opportunities for immigrant students...who currently face barriers in pursuing a college education. It also provides a path to U.S. legal residency for students, and military personnel. Pero I have also been critical of the legislation for it’s inclusion of a military path to...

The Maryland State Board of Education on Tuesday said Frederick County officials are prohibited by federal law from seeking a count of how many illegal immigrants are in the county school system...the state board said county officials haven't shown sufficient reason to look into the legal status of all of the students in the school system and that asking immigration status might discourage some parents from enrolling their children in schools.... "I think that in the end, the real winners are the children who immigrate to Frederick County from other countries eager to take advantage of public education," Marita Loose,...

State workers' pay can be cut to the federal minimum wage when lawmakers miss California's annual budget deadline, a Sacramento Superior Court judge has tentatively ruled. Assuming the ruling stands, it's a win for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a fight that started last summer when Controller John Chiang refused to cut paychecks that paid about 200,000 hourly state workers $6.55 per hour, the federal minimum. Exempt or salaried employees would get $455 a week. "(The tentative decision) is encouraging, and it's important so that the state has the ability to control spending in tough economic times," said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron...

Police in Baltimore today made what is believed to be the first arrest in a civil disobedience program aimed at supporting homeowners who refuse to vacate their foreclosed homes. An activist with ACORN — the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now — faces criminal charges after breaking into a home in southeast Baltimore on Thursday to protest the foreclosure crisis sweeping the country.

The airwaves and the Internet wires have been burning with all manner of rhetoric over the past three months, but perhaps the three that most bear retaining in the minds of Americans is: Elections have consequences. Usually elections revolve around familiar "wedge" issues, abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, and taxes, but this time part of the electorate has raised the ante. This time, they have made a statement on what form they would wish for society as a whole. The fundamental form of society is important. A society can allow people to live without fear, to achieve their full potential,...

PHOENIX — A 2006 voter-approved law denying certain benefits to those here illegally resulted in nearly 400 students' being denied financial aid or resident tuition at the state's three universities last semester. New reports from the schools focus only on those who sought lower resident tuition or financial aid but were denied because they could not provide required documentation that they are Arizona residents and/or in the country legally. Arizona's community colleges also reported turning down hundreds of students for lower in-state tuition rates or assistance. More than 850 applicants for adult-education programs or state-subsidized child care also were denied...

...What this election has truly accomplished is to draw sharp lines between the four factions currently existing in America. For years we have been tricked into thinking the Republicans and Democrats are on opposite ends of a tug-of-war rope, pulling against each other, when actually they are holding hands and skipping heartily together toward collectivism, socialism, and The State As Savior. All the arguments of Conservative versus Liberal, Democrat versus Republican, and Right versus Left are smoke and mirrors to distract us from the eternal truth that the only struggle is between government control and individual liberty. The old terms...

Must see video! Idiot Obama supporter really believes she will have "no more mortgage payments" and won't even have to pay for gas in her car!

The U.S. government is considering direct financial assistance to facilitate a possible merger between General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Chrysler LLC, a private sector source familiar with Treasury discussions told Reuters on Monday. The Treasury Department is weighing aid of at least $5 billion, which could include capital injections and government purchases of bad auto loans, according to the source, a financial policy executive who spoke anonymously because the discussions are private. Emergency financing, at least initially, most likely would be focused on GM and Chrysler and not Ford Motor Co (F.N), which is struggling but still better off financially...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has surpassed its goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees this year and expects more, perhaps tens of thousands, next year, the State Department said on Friday. The United States expects to admit a minimum of 17,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal 2009, which begins October 1, the department's senior coordinator for refugees said. Thousands more Iraqis and their family members could arrive via a special visa program for people who worked for the United States or its contractors. "I think you'll see the U.S. government admitting over the course of fiscal 2009 tens of thousands...

About 15 tons of it on a recent day, imported from China, neatly pressed into mats and ready to ship to farmers and nursery growers who swear by the horticultural benefits of Blacker's hairy wares. The mats stored in southern Miami-Dade County are part of a world marketplace for human hair. Uses range from the obvious, such as false eyelashes and wigs, to the more obscure: it's a common raw-material source for l-cysteine, an amino acid frequently used in baked goods such as pizza dough and bagels

The Washington Post had a good story on the dealings of the electronics retailer Circuit City. Unfortunately, it was buried in the business section where no one will see it. It should have been plastered at the top of the front page. The basic story is that last March, the wise men who run Circuit City came up with the brilliant idea of laying off their more senior salespeople, who get $14-$15 an hour, and replacing them with new hires who get around $9 an hour. It turns out that this move was not very good for business. One of...

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Was A Parasite Magnet Singer had 51 parasites found in his body after tour WASHINGTON (AP) - Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine never realized when he hit the road, how much of it he brought back with him. Mustaine says he went to see a health practitioner who did an analysis of his body. She told him he found 51 parasites in his body, many of which were varieties of worms. He couldn't believe it. He says he's sure he picked all that up staying in less-than-clean hotel rooms and other hazards of being on tour. It doesn't...

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Writing in the journal, Hotez...

Augusta, GA: A plane crash that took 10 lives in October probably could have been prevented if alleged known faults inherent with the plane had been addressed prior to the fateful flight. Two lawsuits have been launched in recent weeks at the behest of the families of two skydivers killed in the October 7th airplane crash that left no survivors. A party of nine skydivers was returning from a sky diving event in Star, Idaho when the plane went down in rugged terrain west of Yakima, in the Cascade Mountains. The pilot was also killed, and there were no survivors...

Zombie: Moronic Convergence in San FranciscoFri, Nov 2, 2007 at 3:15:32 pm PDT Last weekend in San Francisco, the moonbats, antisemites, and terror supporters turned out for another extended temper tantrum, and the indefatigable Zombie was there with a camera: San Francisco Anti-War Rally, October 27, 2007. They were supporting the troops in their own special way again. Here we see a couple of foreign policy experts displaying their treatise on war and the 9/11 attacks.

Prince William County, Virginia, supervisors early this morning voted to move forward with a nationally watched plan to crack down on illegal immigrants by increasing local police enforcement and restricting certain public services. The unanimous vote, which came at 2:30 a.m., followed a 12-hour session of emotional public testimony...More than 1,200 people gathered at the county government complex in Woodbridge... As the meeting began shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, supporters and opponents of the measures scuffled in the street before police pulled the two sides apart, threatening to make arrests. A charged atmosphere persisted into the early morning... With Prince...

A Minnesota judge on Thursday rejected Sen. Larry Craig's bid to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport sex sting, a major setback in Craig's effort to clear his name and hang onto his Senate seat.

The Arkansas State Legislature will have a meeting to discuss the cost of illegal immigration to Arkansas. Details are below: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 10:00 AM-? Room 171, State Capitol Little Rock, Arkansas Here's a story from the AR News Bureau about the last study done in August. Arkansas News Buerau

It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday. Julie Myers, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the figure during a hearing before a Senate committee Wednesday. She acknowledged it was based on "very rough calculations." An ICE spokesman later said the $94 billion did not include the cost of finding illegal immigrants, nor court costs -- dollar amounts that are largely unknowable. He said the amount was calculated by multiplying the estimated 12 million people by...

Parasite is a growing concern for healthcare professionals One in 3,800 donors in the L.A. area tested positive for Chagas, a deadly disease that is mainly found in Latin America. By Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer March 15, 2007 - Information on Chagas disease A little-known but potentially deadly parasite from Latin America has become one of the latest threats to the blood and organ supplies in the United States, especially in Los Angeles, where many donors have traveled to affected countries, health officials say....... according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The parasite, which is...

A human body is not the individual organism its proud owner may suppose but rather a walking zoo of microbes and parasites, each exploiting a special ecological niche in its comfortable, temperature-controlled conveyance. Some of these fellow travelers live so intimately with their hosts, biologists are finding, that they accompany them not just in space but also in time, passing from generation to generation for thousands of years. The latest organism to be identified as a longtime member of the human biota club is Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium that causes tooth decay. From samples collected around the world, Dr. Page...

What exactly does a noncitizen have to do to get deported around here? I guess Peter “Borat” Berdovsky, native of Belarus, won’t answer that because it’s not a hair question. And the Russky Rastaman is now officially a victim - a victim of Chernobyl, as his lawyer/foster father put it in court yesterday, before they went out outside to discuss his hair, which he doesn’t appear to have washed since leaving his native Third World hellhole. The subcontractor on the moronic Turner Broadcasting terror stunt arrived here as an exchange student, then sought asylum as a political refugee - stop...

A state report quietly released last spring shows illegal immigrants made up the largest single group of those giving birth at taxpayer expense in the state and in San Diego County in 2004. The May report, "Medi-Cal Funded Deliveries," states that of the 14,350 taxpayer-funded births in the county that year, 5,814, or 40.5 percent, were to illegal immigrants. That is an 18 percent increase over the 4,916 Medi-Cal-funded deliveries to illegal immigrants in San Diego County in 2001, as shown in an earlier state report. On Friday morning, Vista resident Silvia stopped to talk with a visitor as she...

HARTFORD -- Susan Schaefer LaRose quit her sales job in May after 18 years with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., frustrated by long work weeks that frequently encroached on weekends and vacations. And then she sued. Her lawsuit, part of a series of class action claims filed last month against nine major drug companies, seeks tens of millions of dollars in back pay for the thousands of drug company salespeople across the country. "I was told when I started with Eli Lilly that I was exempt from overtime," said Schaefer LaRose, a 50-year-old mother of two from Chittenango, N.Y.,...

A potentially fatal disease rarely seen here has popped up in Houston four times in the past two months. It's linked to tapeworms and their eggs. He ate at mobile kitchens until he found out food contaminated with eggs from a tapeworm almost killed him. "He's scared now. He's scared of any food from outside," said Marjorie, his daughter & translator. The tile worker immigrated from El Salvador 20 years ago said early symptoms were subtle. "It was a mild headache but it wouldn't go away," Marjorie explained. "It was just there and it wouldn't go away with Tylenol." Doctors...

Democrats pledge array of investigations By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is promising an array of oversight investigations that could provoke sharp disagreement with Republicans and the White House. Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., pledged that Democrats, swept to power in the Nov. 7 elections, would govern "in the middle" next year. But the veteran lawmaker has a reputation as one who has never avoided a fight and he did not back away from that reputation on Sunday. Among the investigations he said he...

Mummy DNA Reveals Birth of Ancient Scourge Image: © ALADIN ABDEL NABY/REUTERS/CORBIS Centuries of silence cannot keep ancient Egyptian mummies from sharing their secrets with scientists. From archaeologists determining cultural practices to chemists studying embalming, mummies have revealed libraries of information. Now such mummies are also yielding evidence about the diseases of the past by giving up the facts encoded in their preserved DNA, and new research may have pinned down the ancient homeland of a modern scourge. Leishmaniasis--a disease caused by microscopic parasites, like malaria, and transmitted by sand flies--results in painful skin sores and in its most vicious...

Shock and AweI visited the 9/11 memorial in Wesley Bolin Plaza Tuesday and I was stunned by what I saw.  Here's how the Governor describes the memorial.According to governor spokeswoman Shilo Mitchell , Napolitano described the memorial as being " unique, bold, educational and unforgettable," she said. " The memorial uses the sun to articulate words and thoughts."The memorial is an elevated flat ring with phrases cut through the metal.  Throughout the day, the sun shines through the ring and phrases become visible on the side walk.                        What kind of phrases?  Politically correct phrases that bash America.  That's what...

VIENNA, Austria -- Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog droppings urged residents Thursday to record how many turds they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census. The Vienna Dog-Dropping Initiative said it would compile the figures and present them to city officials on Monday as part of its stepped-up effort to pressure the Austrian capital to deal with the problem.

LONDON (Reuters) - Muslims criticised the government on Friday for publishing the names of 19 men who police sources say are under arrest for allegedly plotting to blow up passenger planes bound for the United States. The government instructed the Bank of England to publish the names on its Web site on Thursday, just hours after police arrested 24 people in connection with the suspected plot. Police have not named the 24 but a police source confirmed they include the 19 named by the central bank. Although the bank did not give the addresses of the 19, it listed their...

They Don't Support the Troops by Lisa De Pasquale Posted Jul 27, 2006 The constant mantra of the radical left is that while they don’t support the war, they do support the troops. Other than making hollow and flippant claims of support, the anti-war left has done little for the troops or their families. To the contrary, their actions show how little respect they have for the military. In a recent interview with CodePink’s Troops Home Fast cofounder Diane Wilson, she dismisses the troops by comparing their real sacrifices and efforts to CodePink’s faux fast, which includes liquids like...

CAMP AL QA’IM, Iraq (July 24, 2006) -- Iraqi nurses and Iraqi Army corpsmen will soon be able to treat patients for diseases caused by lack of clean drinking water, thanks to U.S. military physicians serving in this region along the Iraqi-Syrian border. Navy doctors provided the Iraqis with two days of training which will enable them to treat patients for parasites – such as hook worms – which have caused a variety of health problems in locals here, to include mental retardation and anemia in children. The Iraqi medical personnel were also given training in crucial life-saving skills for...

This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon. Companies disclose little about any of this. But a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate filings reveals that executive benefits are playing a large and hidden role in the declining health of America's pensions. Among the findings: • Boosted by surging pay and rich formulas, executive pension obligations exceed $1 billion at some companies. Besides GM, they include General...

On paper, Toxoplasma gondii looks as if it ought to be the most famous parasite on earth. This single-celled pathogen infects over half the world's population, including an estimated 50 million Americans. Each of Toxoplasma's victims carries thousands of the parasites, many residing in the brain. As if that were not enough of an accomplishment, Toxoplasma is equally adept at infecting all other warm-blooded animals, as disparate as chickens and kangaroos. Scientists are now discovering some of the secrets of Toxoplasma's success. Researchers in Sweden report that the parasite fans out through the body by manipulating mobile cells that are...

WASHINGTON — Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday allowed a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500. The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate. Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.

By Howie Carr Boston Herald Columnist Friday, June 9, 2006 - Updated: 03:38 AM EST First of all, I’m with Lt. Gov. Muffy Healey on this pension-reform thing. But her proposal is going nowhere, and the reason can be summed up in four words: Kiss in the mail. Does anyone seriously believe that the public sector wants a private-sector pension plan? They would prefer to stick with the current “defined-benefit” plan, which is also known as the “kiss in the mail,” or “free money.” Can’t beat free money. Plus, we’re not talking about workers here, we’re talking about state workers....

Bill Day wants a second chance. Day is chief executive of WhenU.com Inc., a New York advertising company that used to smuggle its ''spyware" computer programs onto millions of Internet computers. Spyware programs have long infuriated Internet users by installing themselves without permission, generating a flood of unwanted pop-up advertisements, and even preventing users from uninstalling the offending programs. ''That's the legacy that we're trying to overcome," Day said. Battered by public outrage, WhenU hired Day in late 2004 to chart a new course for the company. Spyware is a $2 billion industry, according to Internet infrastructure and security company...

You've got to hand it to Americans. If ever there was a group of people more patient, more willing to turn the other cheek, more forgiving and tolerant – I just don't know who it would be. Every day now, it seems, hundreds of thousands of ungrateful human parasites rally in American cities condemning their host country's lack of hospitality. Think about this. Somewhere around 20 million foreigners have entered this country illegally and stayed here – taking advantage of America's health-care system, educational system, welfare system, taxing its criminal justice system and competing for jobs with those at the...

LOS ANGELES — The protests that drew national attention to the future of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are relaunching even though sweeping reform legislation has stalled on Capitol Hill. Weeks ago organizers picked Monday for dozens of demonstrations nationwide, a signal that what began as a string of disparate events — attracting tens and even hundreds of thousands of people — has become more coordinated. “We don’t have a leader like Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez, but this is now a national immigrant rights movement,” said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee...

OGI, Nigeria — Whatever secrets the turgid brown depths of the Sacred Pond of Ogi may keep, there is one they betray quite easily: why it is so infuriatingly hard to wipe even one disease off the face of the earth. Ogi is one of the last areas of Nigeria infested with Guinea worm, a plague so ancient that it is found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert. For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet — or...