Free Republic

After more than 40 years of studying humans and other primates, Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky has reached the conclusion that virtually all human behavior is as far beyond our conscious control as the division of cells or the beating of our hearts. (Of course, he had to.) Therefore, we mustn’t harshly judge such heretofore disdained folks as drunk drivers, serial criminals, Hamas terrorists, and those who bring 29 items to the “8 items or less” checkout lane. Sapolsky said: “The world is really screwed up and made much, much more unfair by the fact that we reward people and punish...

We sympathize with those voters who feel locked out of a political system that seems closed-off, self interested and remote. We hear every week from readers who feel Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is their best chance to demolish a crony system that isn’t even interested in their concerns, much less committed to addressing them. These are two, distinct issues to consider, even though in the heat of the moment they might seem of a piece. First, yes: Many of us are so removed from the workings of the federal government that we don’t even know where to begin to...

An argument that questions the credibility of economists in general is that there are a number of disagreements among many economists, and not all of them can be right at the same time. In the case of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, these disagreements come from Krugman himself, as he holds contradictory opinions on a large number of topics. For instance, we learn that when deficits are high, interest rates are low. However, we also learn that when governments run up a deficit, interest rates rise. So deficits cause interest rates not only to go up, but also to go...

Pickens County GOP Chair Phillip Bowers — a co-chairman of the rival Gresham Barrett campaign — says that Haley, a Christian who was born to Sikh immigrants, “can’t seem to make up her mind about her faith.”… “It’s not my place to question her faith, but I do question her honesty,” the county party chairman writes. “If anyone finds the truth, please let me know.” “Again, I’m not questioning her faith,” he repeats, “but I absolutely can’t stand a liar.”