Free Republic

Shortly after I became a daily visitor to the internet, I discovered Steven Den Beste.  To this day, I stand in awe of his intelligence.  Steven was one of the most widely read writers, at that time, blogging prolifically on science, politics, warfare, engineering and anything else that crossed his mind.  A phenomenally analytic and literate mind possessing the ability to reduce the complex to the simple and expose the complexities of apparently simple subjects. Den Beste impressed a wide variety of people and drew enormous attention to his website, USS Clueless.  As one would expect, he also drew the ire and contempt...

Henry Kissinger was reported to have said, “Control the food and you control the people.” Controlling people is as simple as controlling food, water and energy through a variety of controls. “No Farmers No Food,” the bumper sticker distributed by The Adopt a Farm Family ministry, is a message of warning. The Adopt ministry was started by Mary Myers, wife of Peter Myers, former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture who served in the Reagan Administration. She confided to me that God had instructed her to “watch over the food.” At that time there appeared to be no reason for concern. Now...

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."

You can consider Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) as definitely not enthused by former Vice President Al Gore's speech Thursday on U.S. energy policy. Voinovich had an initial one-word response — "ridiculous" — to Gore's speech at Washington's Constitution Hall, in which the Democrat called for the United States to end its dependence on carbon-based fuels and begin using renewable energy to produce electricity within the next 10 years. Voinovich elaborated that ruling out carbon-based fuels such as coal would be unreasonable because of the country's vast energy and economic needs. Instead, he said the country should take a multi-pronged approach...

I've been reading Michael Dowd's Thank God for Evolution, and at the same time reading about what's going on at the Altenberg 16. It is pretty clear where the next wave of science and theology is going, and sadly, it looks like its going to be another 150 years of chasing our tail. As is starting to be admitted, Darwinism got us nowhere. The point of Darwinism was to remove God entirely from the process of diversification of life, and perhaps even from Creation itself. The hope of Darwinism has always been the three pillars of natural selection: * Heredity...

"You are looking at a pristine natural habitat destroyed. You're looking at dead fish floating in the water. You're looking at shorebirds and migratory birds and waterfowl covered in oil," said Kathy Phillips, an environmental activist for Assateague Island, whose title is "coastkeeper." She was imagining a major oil spill washing up on the island's shores. "People on this coast don't have any idea of what it involves," she said. Actually, we're not looking at any of that. And neither is she. It's all in her fevered head. And what the hell is a "coastkeeper" anyway?

Anyone familiar with the threat posed by the advancing American Fifth Column understands all too clearly that our Constitution is under attack. Whether it is the insistence that the Constitution is a living document meant to conform to the will of the times or the institution of political correctness – a shadow set of laws effectively usurping the laws of our Constitutional Republic – the American Fifth Column is slowly, incrementally, systematically, chipping away at the wisdom as set forth by our Founders and Framers. With news that a non-governmentally charged commission is introducing a measure that would impose “group...

My wife just took up an interest in physics. What would be a good book for her to start with? I've never posted a vanity thread before, but I'm sure there is no better people to ask than my fine freeper friends. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!

For a preview of America’s future if global warming advocates get elected (oh wait, BOTH candidates believe in this delusion) you have only to see what’s going on in Australia. Andrew Bolt describes what’s happening. First from a deluded teen ager: "A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events." ..."The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of...

"Psychiatrists have detected the first case of “climate change delusion. Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children’s Hospital say this delusion was a “previously unreported phenomenon. A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events.” More . . .

Can you believe in God and evolution? Yes, if you keep the two separated in logic-tight compartments. Belief in God depends on religious faith. Belief in evolution depends on empirical evidence. This is the fundamental difference between religion and science. If you attempt to reconcile religion and science on questions about nature and the universe, and if you push the science to its logical conclusion, you will end up naturalizing the deity because for any question about nature - the origins of the universe, life, cells, humans, whatever - if your answer is "God did it," a scientist will ask,...

Chuck Thacker is something of a hero in the world of technology yet outside of it, he remains a virtual unknown. Show people a photo of say Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and I bet quite a few people on the street will know who they are. Certainly they will have heard of them and probably have one or more of their products but Chuck Thacker is a different kettle of fish. And that's a shame given the influence he has had on so much of our lives. In short, Chuck is the man who essentially gave us the...

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may...

Remember Suzan Mazur, the credulous reporter hyping a revolution in evolution? She's at it again, publishing an e-book chapter by chapter on the "Altenberg 16", this meeting that she thinks is all about radically revising evolutionary biology. I can tell that Massimo Pigliucci — one of the 16 — is feeling a little exasperation at this nonsense, especially since some of the IDists have seized on it as vindication of their delusions about the "weakness" of evolutionary theory. He's got an excellent post summarizing some of the motivation behind this meeting, which is actually part of a fairly routine process...

Barack Obama's speechwriters continue their sales job, today giving BHO a speech to read about public service. And, on his site you can find a "Plan for Universal Voluntary Public Service" (barackobama.com/issues/service), where he informs us that "this will be a cause of my presidency". I can hardly wait! Further: Obama will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots today to 250,000 and he will focus this expansion on addressing the great challenges facing the nation. He will establish a Classroom Corps to help teachers and students, with a priority placed on underserved schools; a Health Corps to improve public health outreach;...

As one of the supposed anti-science conservatives liberals are always yammering on about, I was glad when President Bush vetoed the increase in federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. I wrote about the adult stem cell success stories, and since June of last year, there have been even more exciting treatments.

"From 1970 to 2000, there was a widespread view that although natural selection is very important, it is relatively rare," said Jonathan Pritchard, a geneticist at the University of Chicago. "That view was driven largely because we did not have data to identify the signals of natural selection. . . . In the last five years or so, there has been a tremendous growth in our understanding of how much selection there is."

The useful conclusions from this have nothing to do with the correctness of this paper’s data, reasoning, or conclusions. (1) Anthropological global warming (AGW, caused by us) is more difficult to prove than global warming The data showed clear indications of global warming in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hence the difficulty of demonstrating AGW as a substantial driver of current warming, since the natural warming trend was established before massive global industrialization. Proving causation requires more than showing a trend, since the trend was already there. This is a repeated fallacy of general media articles about global...

Are we to believe that in the early 1900s, we could move “238,845,587 cubic yards of material” in Panama, creating the canal where the French failed, but we cannot get oil out of the ground in Alaska in the same time? Are we to believe that we can build a railroad in the 1800s from Omaha to Sacramento in less than ten years, but it will take us longer to drill a hole in the ground and start pumping oil? ANWR is only 50 miles from Prudhoe Bay. Last I checked, Omaha was a little further than that from Sacramento....

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research made a splash last week with their press release claiming that energy usage in Al Gore's Nashville-area compound had actually increased ten percent since 'green' renovations had been completed.  TCPR was made news last year when they first brought Gore's conspicuous consumption to light. Although Team Gore denies any connection between TCPR's 2007 report and the subsequent renovations, the timing is, as they say, suspicious. Your humble Heretic, of course, couldn't pass up an opportunity to highlight the latest release, joining countless others in the blogosphere.  I guess it is basic human nature that...

As a woman who loves sports, I've always found the concept of breasts bothersome. If all goes according to plan, they will fulfill their intended function for about three of the 70 years that I have them. The rest of the time, they alternate between getting in my way and embarrassing me. They are a favorite target of Frisbees and soccer balls. Finding sports bras is a chore. {snip} The idea of an energy-generating bra isn't as crazy as it might sound. A company called Triumph International Japan recently unveiled a solar-powered bra that supposedly will generate enough energy to...

Global Intrigue + More Will Escalate Food Prices Drastically: What Will A Loaf Of Bread Cost Next Year? RFFM.org Guest Commentary by Joyce Morrison The mere thought of a food shortage in America is unthinkable…or is it? Headlines read, “Planting season weather perplexing for farmers.” “Weather may cut yields,” “Further spike in food costs feared due to floods,” “Food shortages,” -- these are headlines preparing us for the fact we will no longer have the cheapest, safest food in the world. All spring the breadbasket of America has been deluged with floods, wind storms, tornados, heavy rain and hail. Illinois...

The earth warmed strongly between 1915 and 1940, cooled between 1940 and 1975 and then warmed strongly again between 1975 and 1998. The earth has been cooling in the opening years of this century even as carbon dioxide levels have risen appreciably since 1998. Many influential people in the industrialized world believe that global warming is a transcendent issue and human activity, especially the activity of the energy complex, is to blame and carbon management, at any cost, is imperative........... Cooling will create greater stress on energy, food and health care than warming. This stress can only be relieved by...

Citing extensive United Nations research as well as personal observations, former Mets manager Willie Randolph has concluded that last year's historic late-season collapse of the New York Mets was caused by anthopogenic global warming. "This is a settled issued," declared Randolph. "The Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change has investigated every possible explanation for our cataclysmic stretch run choke. The only logical conclusion is that global warming caused severe imbalances in the microclimates in and around Shea Stadium." Pressed for details Mr. Randolph explained that temperature readings in left field were .0002 of a degree (Celsius) higher than readings in right...

There is a considerable demand for a feature on cell phones that would record conversations. Given today's technology and cheap memory, it would be very easy. Moreover, It would be legal in the approximately 37 states and the Federal government that allow recording of conversations when a person involved in the conversation approves of it. It would be an excellent tool for recording conversations with "customer service" who record us all the time, and for any official or contractual conversations where matters of law might be involved. Manufacturers of cell phones seem to have gone to considerable lengths to insure...

In the wake of becoming the most well-known global warming alarmist, Al Gore won an Oscar, a Grammy and the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, he is pulling in the green. His personal wealth has increased during this time period by an estimated $100 million thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria. Ever the hypocrite, his personal carbon footprint is huge and continues to increase. In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%...In the past year, Gore’s home...

So much buffoonery, so little time. Who was the Buffoon of the Week and who just missed out? Let's take a look. BUFFOON ALSO-RANS: The California Supreme CourtThe Brave New Justices of the CSC ruled that gay marriage is not an oxymoron, but a legal right in California. By doing so, not only did the court overturn the laws of California and the will of the people, they overturned the collective wisdom of thousands of years of civilization as well. As Pat Buchanan put it, "Homosexual marriage is not in the California constitution, else someone would have discovered it in...

Some weeks ago, I wrote about microbes in the air and their possible role in helping clouds form, in causing rain and in altering the chemistry of the high atmosphere. This week, I want to go in the opposite direction and plunge down into the earth. For many bacteria live deep in the oceans and deep in the earth, far from light, far from what we normally think of as good, comfortable places to live. For example: the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This is a seam on the sea floor in the northwestern Pacific, not far from the island...

Remember, we just TRIPLED our funding for fighting the global AIDS epidemic, to $50 billion over 5 years. Fifty billion dollars we don’t have, for what experts are now calling a myth: The threat of a global AIDS epidemic is over, the World Health Organisation’s top HIV expert has admitted. Kevin De Cock, who has spent most of his career leading the battle against the disease, said the understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Rather than being a risk to populations anywhere, the threat is largely confined to gay men, drug addicts and prostitutes and their...

I just watched this interesting story on 60 minutes. The late billionaire's money is being used to probe life's medical mysteries through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, America's second largest charity. Lesley Stahl reports. I went to the Hughes Medical Institute Web site and found this page which describes the goals of the new Janelia Farm. Quote: "Janelia Farm's overall objective is to pursue fundamental problems in basic biomedical research that are difficult to approach in academia or industry, because: They require expertise from disparate areas. They are too long-term for standard funding mechanisms. They are outside the current priorities...

You guys have been awesome helping people out with rebuttals to "An Inconvenient Truth". Now I need help ... my 15-year-old daughter will be watching "The 11th Hour" in science class ... I guess they figured they'd get less protest from parents than they would with "An Inconvenient Truth" since it's not quite so well-known. I sent her the link to "Hannity's America" showing what a hypocrite diCaprio is ... but I have no idea what's in the movie. Can you guys help with this so she can get her rebuttal package ready before they watch the movie?

Taking beer-making to a whole new sphere, Japan's famous Sapporo Holdings Ltd. plans to launch a beer in November that's literally from out of this world. The brewery will collaborate with scientists at the Okayama University in Japan to concoct this unearthly beverage from a third generation of barley grains that spent five months on the International Space Station in 2006. Does the barley taste any different? Apparently, no. In fact, scientists have not found a difference in the genetic make-up of the earth-grown and space-grown barley yet, according to Manabu Sugimoto, an Okayama University biologist who has been part...

On 23 March 1989 Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton, UK, and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah, US, announced that they had observed controlled nuclear fusion in a glass jar at room temperature, and — for around a month — the world was under the impression that the world's energy woes had been remedied. But, even as other groups claimed to repeat the pair's results, sceptical reports began trickle in. An editorial in Nature predicted cold fusion to be unfounded. And a US Department of Energy report judged that the experiments did "not provide convincing evidence that...

Four New RFAs Issued Governor Paterson on May 8, 2008 announced the availability of $109 million in funding for stem cell research initiatives, with the issuance of four new Requests for Applications. excerpt http://stemcell.ny.gov/about_NYSTEM_staff.html

The global warmers are becoming increasingly desperate to prop up their failing prophesy in every way possible. Behaving just as Leon Festinger predicted in When Prophecies Fail. As the earth shows no net warming in a decade and cooling into its 7th year, as new models suggest cooling may continue because of natural ocean cycles, as the sun stays quiet now 12 years since the last solar minimum, usually a signal of cooling, as more and more peer review calls into question the importance of CO2 and of the the accuracy of the models and the entire greenhouse theory because...

The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine’s announcement that 31,072 U.S. scientists have signed a petition challenging the assertion that humans are causing, or will cause catastrophic global warming, has sparked outrage among fanatic environmentalists. Even though many eminent scientists are among the petition’s signers, the Institute is being denigrated as “an obscure group” and has been mockingly labeled the “Oregon Institute of Science and Malarkey.” “Who has ever heard of this outfit?” international environmental expert Al Gore jeered. “The idea that these ‘flat-Earthers’ merit a hearing is ludicrous. I have a Nobel Prize for environmental science. I think most...

(Washington, DC) Former Vice President Al Gore made tsunami-size waves in a wide-ranging and controversial interview broadcast yesterday on National Public Radio. In his rambling remarks, Gore linked global warming to a disparate series of events ranging in size and destructive scope from the recent Typhoon in Burma killing tens of thousands, to the trend toward dry air under the capitol dome that has wrecked havoc on Hillary Clinton’s nasal passages. Regarding the recent typhoon in Burma, Gore stated: “It’s… important to note that the emerging consensus among the climate scientists is that even though any individual storm can’t be...

Bo (woof) In Commentary: It’s always good to see humans returning the favor of our unending loyalty and support to them. This story about “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” warms my heart, much like the pacemaker she just received warms hers. (COLUMBIA, Mo. - After years of helping authorities look for murder victims and survivors of natural disasters, a search-and-rescue dog named Molly has been rescued herself. Surgeons at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine on Thursday installed a pacemaker in the 5-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever’s heart. She needed the surgery after being diagnosed with a complete electrical heart...

An experimental drug has blocked the progression of prostate cancer in an animal model with an aggressive form of the disease, new research shows. The agent, OSU-HDAC42, belongs to a new class of drugs called histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, compounds designed to reactivate genes that normally protect against cancer but are turned off by the cancer process.

I’ve written several columns about my skepticism regarding Darwinism. Each time I do I receive snooty comments attesting to my stupidity and my ignorance. The Darwinists never seem to want to discuss any of the points I have tried to make, just to ridicule the very thought that there may be some kind of guiding intelligence behind the structures, the amounts of information, the complexities, the fine balance and the mysteries of life and our universe. If anything is subject to ridicule, it is the answer that the world’s leading proponent and defender of Darwinian dogma, Richard Dawkins, gave to...

Unless some other candidate enters the race I will be voting for you in November. However, that is only because neither of the likely Democratic candidates has the experience to be the nation's Chief Executive Officer. Your acceptance of the nonsense about purported "global warming", which Meteorologist John Coleman calls "the greatest scam in history", indicates a level of gullibility that is undesirable in presidents. I can understand how American leaders would believe that Saddam Hussein still had significant amounts of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hussein had used such weapons in the past and there was no evidence he had...

Dartmouth English professor Priya Venkatesan is suing her students for “mental harassment” and the college’s administrators for “failure to safeguard my emotional health.” Venkatesan maintains that some of her students were so resistant to her exposition of “French narrative theory” that the classroom became a “hostile working environment.” “They argued with my ideas,” she charged. “They questioned my authority.” The professor’s suit mentions a specific incident wherein students assailed her contention that science is “a patriarchal construct that suppresses feminine ways of knowing.” One of the students took issue, citing empirical evidence in his argument. When he was applauded by...

It is really amazing to watch. You can make money on this: whenever politicians or church leaders glom on to a concept, it’s over. John McCain has fastened on the global warming hoax like a remora. It’s not just bad for the economy, for freedom and for the environment, it’s also incredibly bad timing for “Maverick” John McCain. Holman Jenkins points out in the Wall Street Journal: And yet every journalistic tendril senses that the fuss over warming is about to cool. Global mean temperatures have been flat for a decade. The biofuel folly has chased away any easy belief...

[Fax sent in CAPS] DEAR SENATOR MCCAIN: THANK YOU, FOR YOUR SERVICE IN VIETNAM AS WELL AS THE UNITED STATES SENATE. I WAS ALSO MEDEVACED OUT OF VIETNAM AND SPENT MANY MONTHS IN MILITARY AND VA HOSPITALS. IF I MAY, SENATOR, I WOULD LIKE TO STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU KEEP ONLY THE SLIGHTEST OPEN MIND TO THE INCREASING DATA THAT IS BEING RELEASED ON A DAILY BASIS SHOWING THAT MUCH OF THE CARBON SCARE IS BASED ON COMPUTER MODELS THAT ARE VERY, VERY SUSPECT, AT BEST. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY FRAGILE ECONOMIC TIME FOR AMERICA'S ENERGY NEEDS AND SO MUCH...

Today's article on smoking restrictions and the "wellness" movement makes no mention of a politically incorrect truth: some people smoke because they find net positive benefits in it. Nicotine is not just an addictive drug, it is a powerful drug which affects the mind in ways that are often positive. Now let me add that I do note advocate people taking up smoking. I have no financial interest in tobacco, have never owned a tobacco stock, and if tobacco companies have advertised on American Thinker, I have not noticed it. (I would not get rid of their ads if they...

More than half of the task force members who will oversee the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s most important diagnostic handbook have ties to the drug industry, reports a consumer watchdog group. The Web site for Integrity in Science, a project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, highlights the link between the drug industry and the all-important psychiatric manual, called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The handbook is the most-used guide for diagnosing mental disorders in the United States. The guide has gone through several revisions since it was first published, and...

Artorius Engineers are back at the Artorius Space Flight Center (KAFC) in Hangar 18, trying to determine why the Drone can't acquire lift. We will get it right, we have to, next week is the test launch of the Artorius Surface to Air Missile prototype, and we need a working drone for targeting purposes. Stay tuned, we will have video of that, too..

There is a movement on the horizon that has the potential to change the educational system in America and influence your kids, you and the youth you serve. For decades now, Neo-Darwinism has maintained a stranglehold within public education, suppressing all other theories on the origins of life—especially those that hint of a "designer".

Five weeks ago, we adopted a healthy 6 month old cat from our local PetSmart. He had been in foster care since he and his kitty siblings were found when they were six to eight weeks old. He was in fine condition, and we met his foster mom who seemed honest and sincere in trying to find the right home for a kitty she clearly loved. Anywho, the cat developed a cold within a few days of coming to live with us. I think he was shaking the cold when he started having much worse troubles. He stopped eating, and...

Postmodernism At Work The following two statements are parts of comments made on the Free Republic forum in response to Pamela Hewitt's "Problems of Evolution." "Nothing in Science is ever “proven”, just provisionally accepted pending further data." (—allmendream) All science is tentative, and nothing is ever proved! (—Coyoteman) Normally, I would not bother with such mindless statements, but they just happen to perfectly exemplify the post-modernist nonsense that is being taught in today's colleges and universities. It is why we are living in the age of gullibility. Do not suppose this is just ignorance, however. These things are being taught...