Free Republic

When Owen Beck was 17, doctors amputated his right leg to stop the spread of bone cancer. His parents, desperate to find a drug that would relieve their son's excruciating phantom limb pain, brought him to Charlie Lynch's medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, carrying a recommendation from a Stanford University oncologist. The marijuana not only eased the pain but also alleviated the nausea caused by chemotherapy. Called to testify as a character witness in Lynch's federal marijuana trial, Beck did not get far. When he mentioned his cancer, U.S. District Judge George Wu cut him off and sent...

On July 17, Nobelist and Academy Award winner Al Gore issued a stirring challenge to our nation to produce 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and carbon-free sources within 10 years. Gore asserted, "The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses." This massive push for no-carbon electricity production would help prevent climate change and cut our dependence on foreign oil. Of course, great-souled visionaries...

At the end of the day, we have two different accounts of the views of Benedict XVI with respect to Islam, one (Weigel's) that sounds very much like the view of the George W Bush administration, and another (Fessio's) that is consonant with the direr pronouncements of Magdi Allam. Too much might be made of this opposition. The pope is more than the theologian Joseph Ratzinger, whose views on the petrified character of the Koran are a matter of record: he is the head of both the Catholic Church and the Vatican State, whose pastoral as well as diplomatic requirements...

Speaking at the White House, Pope Benedict XVI April 16 embraced America's "quest for freedom...." Benedict explained: "Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience - almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad." April 16 was Pope Benedict's 81st birthday. The White House greeting, carefully scripted by US and Vatican officials, included the Army Chorus' moving rendition of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" -- anthem of an earlier war for freedom which...

Energy Analyst Robert Bryce Explains Why Trying to Make All Our Own Power is a Foolish IdeaIn his forthcoming book Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence� (PublicAffairs) Robert Bryce, managing editor of Energy Tribune and author of Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego and the Death of Enron, grapples with what he detects as a growing belief, both among policy elites and the public, in “energy independence.�That’s the notion that America should disengage from world energy markets and seek self-sufficiency in energy production. To Bryce, this is not only impossible, but dangerous to even attempt. As he writes in...

Good morning, and welcome to Super Duper Tuesday Week...It's also the culmination of Mardi Gras, and oh yes, there was a big football game of some sort yesterday...Hollywood Writer's strike is expected to end this week...

The truth is that many of the theories we come up with are bogus. They are based on the assumption that voters make cold, rational decisions about who to vote for and can tell us why they decided as they did. This is false. In reality, we voters — all of us — make emotional, intuitive decisions about who we prefer, and then come up with post-hoc rationalizations to explain the choices that were already made beneath conscious awareness. “People often act without knowing why they do what they do,” Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, noted in an e-mail...

Maybe Dallas wouldn't be ranked as the 34th most dangerous city in America if Dallas police weren't devoting precious resources to raiding friendly poker games played by veterans. In his latest video for Reason.tv, Drew Carey examines a paramilitary-style raid on a poker game at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1837 in Dallas, which has now been forced to close its doors. "Poker is about as American as baseball and apple pie," Carey says in theReason.tv video. "It was born here in America. Mark Twain loved it. He's a great American. Until recently, Supreme Court justices had a monthly...

In the 1980s, conservatives and feminists joined to fight a common nemesis: the spread of pornography. Unlike past campaigns to stamp out smut, this one was based not only on morality but also public safety. They argued that hard-core erotica was intolerable because it promoted sexual violence against women. "Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice," wrote feminist author Robin Morgan. In 1986, a federal commission concurred. Some kinds of pornography, it concluded, are bound to lead to "increased sexual violence." Indianapolis passed a law allowing women to sue producers for sexual assaults caused by material depicting women in...

Reason: George Bush, not the most conciliatory person in the world, has said on plenty of occasions that we are not at war with Islam. Hirsi Ali: If the most powerful man in the West talks like that, then, without intending to, he’s making radical Muslims think they’ve already won. There is no moderate Islam. There are Muslims who are passive, who don’t all follow the rules of Islam, but there’s really only one Islam, defined as submission to the will of God. There’s nothing moderate about it. Reason: So when even a hard-line critic of Islam such as Daniel...

VATICAN, October 5, 2007 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - By denying the existence of natural law, secularism is undermining the very foundations of democratic society, Pope Benedict XVI argued in an October 5 private audience with members of the International Theological Commission. Disregard for natural law, the Holy Father said, has caused "a crisis for human-- even more for Christian-- civilization." In response to that crisis, he continued, Church leaders should mobilize "both lay people and followers of religions other than Christianity" to reclaim a common moral tradition. The International Theological Commission had gathered in Rome this week to discuss a forthcoming document...

There's a very interesting story over at the Cybercast News Service, if you can stomach it. (CNSNews.com) - Science must ultimately destroy organized religion, according to some of the leading atheist writers and intellectuals who spoke at a recent atheist conference in Northern Virginia. God is a myth, and children must not be schooled in any faith, they said, at the "Crystal Clear Atheism" event, sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International. I'm not going to rehash the article for you -- you can click on the link and read it for your self. It's pretty alarming when you actually read...

Pope Benedict Encourages "Child-Poor" Europe to Open up to Life Called attention to the demographic implosion in Europe By John-Henry Westen MARIAZELL, Austria, September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his homily delivered Saturday at Mariazell during a Mass to mark the 850th anniversary of the Marian shrine's founding, Pope Benedict XVI called attention to the demographic implosion in Europe for a second time on his pastoral visit to Austria.  "Europe has become child-poor: we want everything for ourselves, and place little trust in the future," he told the assembled crowd. On Friday, Benedict addressed political leaders in the nation pointing...

These are perilous times for drug warriors. With self-reported illicit drug use flat or declining, there is a danger of complacency—or, worse, smaller budgets. At the same time, it's important to claim a victory now and then; otherwise taxpayers may begin to worry that their money is being wasted in a futile effort to stop people from using politically incorrect intoxicants. In its description of the latest numbers from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the Office of National Drug Control Policy walks that thin line between gratitude and apathy, panic and hopelessness: YOUTH DRUG USE AT A FIVE...

As we all look forward to more sputtering news conference antics from Sen. Larry Craig, here's hoping that the Idaho politician will eventually draw on traditional Republican principles and stand up for his right to engage in consensual sex in toilet stalls with men. Craig, a critic of the Patriot Act who weakened some of its worst provisions during last year's renewal vote, clearly understands the need to keep the government from snooping willy-nilly on its citizens. At first flush, the news that the 62-year-old senior senator from the Gem State pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to misdemeanor charges of disorderly...

In 1985 a prominent liberal legal figure argued that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to an abortion, was a “heavy-handed judicial intervention” that “was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict.” The writer was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court—and also now a strong supporter of Roe. Ginsburg isn’t the only backer of abortion rights to have taken issue with the 1973 decision. In 1995, for example, the University of Chicago’s Cass Sunstein, a superstar among liberal law professors, wrote in the Harvard...

Our most celebrated atheist, the biologist Professor Richard Dawkins, has briefly turned his attention away from bashing people who believe in God. Instead, he is about to bash people who subscribe to 'new age' therapies which he says are based on 'irrational superstition'. In a TV programme to be shown later this month, Dawkins looks at a range of ludicrous therapies and gurus, including faith healers, psychic mediums, 'angel therapists', 'aura photographers', astrologers and others. Not surprisingly, he is horrified by such widespread irrationality, not to mention an exploitative industry that fleeces people while encouraging them to run away from...

The United States plans to sell Gulf countries at least $20 billion worth of military hardware in the coming years, and will sign 10-year military aid packages with Egypt and Israel, valued together at $43 billion. According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Washington is "working with these states to give a chance to the forces of moderation and reform."Oddly, on Friday the New York Times published a story roundly criticizing the Saudis for their "counterproductive" attitude in Iraq. Senior U.S. officials were quoted as saying that the kingdom had tried to discredit Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by handing...

I really think that this is one of the big stories of the day. Maybe because it is something I've been saying for years ... about liberals, that is. It looks like we have a high-powered brain scientist serving as the latest advisor to the Democratic party. Drew Westen conducted research which leads to his conclusion that politicians – liberal politicians -- should try and appeal to people's emotions, rather than bogging them down with data and facts. Where did we first find out about this research? Why, at the ultra-left wing "Take Back America" convention, that's where. The study...

On Complementarity: A Tale of Two Friends Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were great friends. Of this extraordinary friendship a mutual friend would write, “Their relations were marked not only by profound mutual respect but also by great affection, if not love.”1  It is a friendship that history records as one of most contentious, yet fruitful, and splendidly illuminating of all time. For the two friends engaged in a great debate over many decades — a public one, with “all comers” invited. History will likely record it as one of the greatest extended public debates on issues in science,...

Last month, President Bush declared Nov. 30 "National Methamphetamine Awareness Day."The official statement from the White House implored, "I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs and activities."There's no question that meth is a particularly nasty, vicious drug, both in how it's manufactured and in what it does to the people who use it. I think some skeptics have raised legitimate questions about the accuracy of some of the more hysterical media proclaiming we're in the midst of an "epidemic," but there's no question that the drug is widely available, and that...

In Maryland, like in many other states, candidates carrying the designation of "libertarian" emerged on the ballot. In Maryland, the libertarian Senate candidate was Kevin Zeese, a former official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He wants the government to leave him alone so he can smoke dope. Generally speaking, libertarians are supposed to favor limited government and low taxes. Yet, the libertarian magazine Reason has astonished many observers by publishing an article that seems to be endorsing global taxes and the world government such a scheme would entail. In an article about the collapse of...

Finally, a leader has spoken about the real, essential differences in the struggle between the West and Islam, as it emanates from a contest within Islam itself over the most important things. With startling—indeed alarming—clarity, Pope Benedict XVI told his audience in Regensburg, Germany, that not only is violence in spreading faith unreasonable and therefore against God, but that a conception of God without reason, or above reason, leads to that very violence. To ensure everyone knew what he was talking about, the pope quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who was besieged by Islamic forces attempting...

The first post-election update to our War on Terror tracking shows increased confidence regarding the United States’ position. Forty-five percent (45%) of respondents now say the United States and its allies are winning the war—a five-point increase since the last survey, taken immediately preceding the 2006 mid-term elections (see crosstabs). This is the highest level of confidence measured in all of 2006. In fact, with just a single exception, it is the highest level of confidence recorded since December 2005. The current results clearly show the impact of Election 2006. Democrats and unaffiliated voters are more optimistic than in the...

Table of Contents Authors’ Foreword PrologueDramatis Personae The SceneThe Dialogue The so-called “Cartesian Split” What is “all that there is?” Pure, blind chance? First reality and second realities What is knowledge? Does science “have it in” for God? Is Intelligent Design science? What is matter? What lies at the beginning of “all that there is?” Aristotle’s Four Causes What is “randomness?” First Adam, Second Adam Is science “killing the soul?” The Public Square: a “values-neutral zone?” What is science? What is the universe? What is life? What is reality? Endnotes Appendix Nuts and Bolts Numbers Big and Small Combinatorics,...

Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of life and the greater antiquity of the Earth, more than half the American population believes that the entire cosmos was created 6,000 years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue. Those with the power to elect presidents and congressmen?and many who themselves get elected?believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that light from distant galaxies was created en route to the Earth and that the first members of our species were fashioned out of dirt and divine breath, in...

One repeatedly hears that some conservatives and Republicans will either vote Democrat or not vote at all -- out of anger at the Republican Party. According to these Republican holdouts, the Republicans have governed as Democrats-lite by greatly increasing government spending and doing little about illegal immigration. Accordingly, it is better to have liberal government under liberals than liberal government under Republicans, and the Republicans need to be taught a lesson so that in the future they will govern as authentic Republicans. Conservatives should file this thinking under the heading "Cathartic," but not under "Smart." One of the great realizations...

Studies show how the brain lets the emotions override common sense when reaching some tough decisions. Our correspondent reports on the 'ultimatum game' ...George Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, and one of the pioneers of neuro-economics, said: “The new science of neuro-economics is lending support to a very ancient view of human behaviour. That is the idea that there is a conflict and interaction between passion, and reason and self-interest. “The now standard view of people as rational maximisers of self-interest is a very recent view. Neuroscience is telling us that that was...

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new. . . "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." --Basileus and Autokrator Manuel II Paleologos Reason and ObservationIt is with an odd mixture of grim delight, sorrow and wistfulness that we Orthodox Christians hear the words of the antepenultimate Orthodox Emperor of New Rome, spoken by the Pope of Old Rome, and behold them used as an excuse for the persecution of Christians, Latin, Orthodox, and...

... How does a faith address the paramount concern of human mortality, and what action does it require of its adherents? I addressed these issues under the title Jihad, the Lord's Supper, and eternal life (September 19), explaining that jihad does for Muslims precisely what Communion does for Christians. It is not a doctrine but a sacrament, that is, a holy act that transforms the actor. ...Pope Benedict XVI is a man of vast erudition and insight, but his September 12 speech fell far short of its purpose. Since then the pope has offered so many qualifications that it is...

POPE BENEDICT XVI, who inflamed the Islamic world with a single quote, has now met with Muslims to calm the furor. Looking back at last week's storm, it's clear that the media were quick to pounce on the pope for "decrying" the religion of Islam as both "evil and inhuman," yet were more sluggish in reporting that the incendiary remark was a quotation, taken out of context, and from a 14th century text to boot. The pope's remarks were not a slander of Islam, but rather an invitation to debate.

by Edward Hudgins In a long, scholarly dissertation on “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections,” Pope Benedict quoted a Byzantine emperor as saying “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” While the Pope was not endorsing this view of Islam, Muslims across the world immediately took to the streets in violent, murderous rampages to prove the old emperor right. As a matter of record, whatever else he was, Mohammad was a man on...

by Edward Hudgins September 19, 2006 -- In a long, scholarly dissertation on “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections,” Pope Benedict quoted a Byzantine emperor as saying “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” While the Pope was not endorsing this view of Islam, Muslims across the world immediately took to the streets in violent, murderous rampages to prove the old emperor right. As a matter of record, whatever else he was, Mohammad...

IN A BRILLIANT lecture at the University of Regensburg last week, Pope Benedict XVI made three crucial points that are now in danger of being lost in the polemics about his supposedly offensive comments about Islam. The pope's first point was that all the great questions of life, including social and political questions, are ultimately theological. How we think (or don't think) about God has much to do with how we judge what is good and what is wicked, and with how we think about the appropriate methods for advancing the truth in a world in which there are profound...

...My guess is that not many of the outraged Muslims have actually read the [Pope's] lecture -- it's not the sort of thing one lightly skims between effigy-burnings. ...``The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature.'' Think fast: Who wants to spread faith with violence? Not missionary nuns in Somalia. Who wants to slit the throats of infidels? Not the Southern Baptist Convention. ...the pope was as critical of the West as of Islam, if not more so. While Islam suffers faith without reason, he...

There are moments where it becomes painfully apparent that the media elites think that the only thing redeeming about Western culture is its ability to regret its existence. ...You'd think that [Pope Benedict's] call for a religion based on love and peace, not force, would ring well in peace-loving liberal newsrooms. But this lecture was ignored by the secular press until Muslim riots and threats broke out. Then, predictably and incredibly, the media demanded apologies -- but only from the pope. ...They did not ponder how Muslim violence, from assassinating a nun in Somalia to blowing up Canadian solders in...

There is a historically fairly predictable pattern to the unfolding strategies and views of great wars. They often start with a morally ambiguous view of the enemy, a more limited conception of the war's magnitude and a restrained application of violent tactics. Eventually, moral clarity is obtained, war objectives expand -- often to grandiosity -- and tactics become ferocious. For example, at the start of our Civil War during the 1861 battle of First Manassas, spectators came out by carriage with picnic lunches to observe the event. By 1865, Gen. Sherman executed a campaign of civilian terror and material obliteration...

The violent Muslim reaction to Pope Benedict's reference to Muhammad involves far more than the issue of freedom of speech. The ultimate issue is one of theological truth on the one hand, and the true nature of Islam on the other. Pope Benedict's "indirect" disparagement of Muhammad--who was will denigrated by St. Thomas Aquinas, the touchstone of Roman Catholicism--is by definition a disparagement of Islam. Be this as it may, the Pope now calls for "dialogue." When Islam substitutes dialogue for the sword it will cease to be Islam. Islamic leaders from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad have ever declared war on...

"...What the researchers wanted to study was the contrast between rational and emotional appeals in political persuasion. The questionnaire's appeal was rational. It asked people who wanted a more egalitarian society to vote their views on policy matters. The letter's appeal was emotional: "We beg you in the name of those early memories and spring-time hopes to support the Socialist ticket in the coming elections!" it said. When the election was over, the Socialist vote increased by 35 percent over the previous election in the sections of the city that received the rational appeal. In the sections that received the...

Islam, which if an apology must be offered, is the only kind he should utter: The Holy Father thus sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful, and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions. On Sunday, he reiterated: Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction sparked by his speech about Islam and holy war and said the text did not reflect his personal opinion. "These (words) were in fact a quotation from a medieval...

Pope Benedict XVI’s return to his old university at Regensburg in Germany for a speech entitled Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections was not the most obvious trigger for a new front in the clash of civilisations. The Pope began with a mild joke at the expense of his own religion, recalling that critics used to ask why the university had two departments devoted to God when He did not even exist. Then he strayed into controversial territory. Arguments about whether religion is based on rationality are not quite on the level of how many angels it is...

In what has suddenly been made into a highly controversial speech, the day after September 11, at Bavaria’s University of Regensberg, Pope Benedict describes Christian belief in a God whose words and acts are bound by reason, truth and the law of non-contradiction. Benedict contrasts this with Islamic belief in a God not bound by anything—including his own words. Benedict further contrasts Christian belief with that of secular humanists who see reason as being completely unbound of God. In response, both Islamists and secularists have demanded the Pope apologize. He must not. Benedict’s speech is a work of enlightened genius....

Where are the Hurricanes? I blame global warming...http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1155133659.shtml Scott Kirwin Aug 9, 2006 Nearly a year ago the country was being slammed by hurricanes. As Americans suffered some claimed that the ferocity of Katrina and Rita was due to global warming. A search of Dean's World shows that this site is one of the few that argued against that idea over the course of 2005. So here we are, a year later. Where are the hurricanes? Where is the fury of Mother Nature? Where are her righteous swirls of rain and wind that shall smite the evil non-Kyoto Protocol signing...

The day after Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle, while he was still recovering from surgery to repair his fractured face, The Cincinnati Post scolded the Ohio native for not wearing a helmet. "Riders should wear helmets," the paper proclaimed, "and if they're not going to, perhaps the government should step in and make them." The Post pined for the days when "all states required helmets," bemoaning the fact that 30 states now let adult motorcyclists decide for themselves what, if anything, to wear on their heads. The laws were changed, the editorial explained, because of "pressure from...

I have long been a critic of former Vice-President Al Gore, but as a recent convert to the view that humanity is contributing significantly to the current increase in average global temperatures, I was trying to keep a somewhat open mind about his new global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth. As a film, An Inconvenient Truth is a competently made documentary centered on Gore's famous global warming slide show interspersed with shots of him brooding on the fate of the earth. This is the sort of movie that appeals to science lecture powerpoint junkies (of which I am one). Gore...

Toxic Tides: Another reason to worry about hurricanes Sid Perkins When Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne struck Florida in the summer of 2004, they killed 116 people, left thousands homeless, and caused billions of dollars in damage. Now, scientists suggest that the storms may also have triggered an intense, widespread Gulf of Mexico algae bloom that afflicted the state's western coast throughout 2005. DANGER ZONE. The red-and-yellow patch of Gulf of Mexico water off Tampa Bay shows the origin of last year's huge red tide, which may have been fueled by nutrient-rich groundwater discharges boosted by 2004 hurricanes. Hu,...

The collapse of reason By Cathy Young  |  May 29, 2006 AT A TIME when conservatives dominate all three branches of government and hold an increasingly large share of the Fourth Estate, the academy remains the last liberal stronghold. You would think, then, that liberal intellectuals would offer some thoughtful and productive critiques of conservative policies. But instead, argues one leading liberal intellectual, the academic left is making itself irrelevant by embracing ideological extremism and trying to purge its ranks of those who are not politically correct.

It is time to rescue Freud from his detractors. He deserves a place alongside Einstein, Newton, Darwin and Kant as one of the authors of modernity and one of the greatest intellectuals of all time. (snip) There would have been no sexual revolution without his insistence that the repression of our deepest primal sexual urges can be profoundly costly. Without his introducing us to the world of the subconscious and how it responds to our deep twin urges, we would have understood ourselves immeasurably less well, even if some of his secondary theories have not stood the test of time....

In joint Iraqi-U.S. dental assessment and care clinic, medics evaluated and treated patients of all ages. BAGHDAD, May 1, 2006 — A smile can light up one’s face and now, after a joint Iraqi Army and U.S. Army dental clinic, more than 200 Iraqis have a reason to smile. "[We are] concentrating on dental support. It allows us to give something back to the community." U.S. Army Special Forces medic Iraqi Army troops, along with U.S. Special Forces medics, civil affairs and 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division soldiers, recently traveled to a school in Amu Shabi, Iraq, to...

It's a widespread belief, one reinforced by public officials including President Bush: ``Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do.'' But it's being challenged in a five-year study that concludes millions of undereducated Americans are without work in a labor market oversaturated by illegal immigrants. Steven Camarota, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors reduced immigration, released the findings Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The study calls into question the theory that America is desperately short of underskilled workers, Camarota said. More importantly, he added, the research concluded that illegal immigration had a direct effect on...