Free Republic

VIRGINIA BEACH-Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson is warning that, according to God, storms and possibly a tidal wave will pound America's coastline this year.

History has not dealt kindly with imperial ambitions, and America, however benevolent her intent, cannot hope to be an exception. Something remarkable happened on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Commentators began to declare, in somewhat exultant tones, that America had at last become a true empire. America was of course also a benevolent empire, they insisted, but that nod to altruistic tradition could not hide their excitement that America had at last joined the greatest empires of the past. Implicit in these giddy declarations was the assumption that empire was an exalted state of power and...

After analyzing data from clinical trials, GlaxoSmithKline has sent letters to doctors warning that its antidepressant drug Paxil appears to increase the risk of suicide attempts in some young adults. The company said it had changed the labeling on the drug to reflect the finding of the study, which analyzed clinical trial data involving some 15,000 people. The study found that reported suicide attempts were rare but significantly more common in adults who took the drug for depression than in those who received placebo pills. The Glaxo researchers reported only one suicide in the trials, a number so small it...

There is good news today for those who suffer from depression: The largest study ever done on treating depression has found that patients who didn't get well with the first medicine they tried had a good chance of succeeding the second time around. The study found little difference among the five drugs tested: Celexa, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Effexor and Buspar -- and wasn't designed to compare them. All proved similarly effective and relatively safe. The clear message, doctors said, was that antidepressants should be given a 6-to-12-week chance to work and that if one doesn't help, another should be tried."It's important...

Although proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) have received a setback in this week’s Dover, PA decision, I do not believe that the world-is-flat defenders of Darwinism can continue for long keeping people from discussing the possibility that the world is actually a globe that revolves around the sun. Future discoveries may show ID proponents to be wrong, but inquisition should have died with Galileo. Darwin’s theory that life began from a confluence of accidental events and evolved over eons into many thousands of life forms, including man, through a series of random mutations that were passed on through inheritance (if...

The Food and Drug Administration warned pregnant women and their doctors away from the antidepressant Paxil yesterday because of an increased risk of heart defects in newborns. With the warning, the agency for the first time placed a popular antidepressant -- one in the same drug class as Prozac and Zoloft -- into its second-highest category for risk of birth defects. The agency did not say Paxil could never be used by pregnant women, but it did say the FDA "is advising patients that this drug should usually not be taken during pregnancy." The advisory is based on early results...

Excuse me for infiltrating your kingdom, but I need to vent. I just had to pay $2.41 a gallon for gas and I can't afford this. I blame Bush and his illegal wars for this travesty. And since you are part of the remaining 40% of dummies who still support that assclown, I blame you, too. I hope so much the Democrats take back Congress in 2006 so this nazi will be impeached and tossed in the clink. How you idiots can't see this man is pure evil, I don't know. Hopefully, both he and KKKarl Rove will be in...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated a new warning label be added to antidepressants more than a year ago, cautioning physicians to pay close attention to patients taking the drugs for signs of suicidal behavior. Now the agency issued its second (much stronger) warning, urging the monitoring of adults who use antidepressants for signs of suicidal thoughts and deepening depression.FDA's New AdvisoryThe new warning, which is applicable to children and adults, was in the wake of recent studies that linked suicidal behavior in adults to their use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most commonly prescribed class of...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Alert Friends of Christopher Candle Light Vigil What: Candle Light Vigil in support of Christopher Pittman and all of South Carolina’s children. Who: Christopher’s young friends who live in Chester, SC and other supporters from around the southeast who are concerned about the persecution of children as adults will gather in Chester for a candle light vigil in support of justice for South Carolina’s children and in support of Christopher Pittman. When: Saturday, March 19, 2005 at 6:30 pm Where: New Hope United Methodist Church 2149 West Chester School Rd. Chester, SC 29706 Background: Concerned citizens...

U.S. Seizes Batches of Two Glaxo Drugs Over Quality Friday March 4, 11:33 AM EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that officials had seized batches of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (GSK) diabetes drug Avandamet and the controlled-release antidepressant Paxil CR because of concerns over manufacturing quality. The FDA said in a statement that the manufacturing practices for the two drugs failed to meet standards for safety, strength, quality and purity. However, the agency said it was not aware of any harm to consumers and did not believe there was a significant health hazard. Patients taking...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Authorities say three years ago, Christopher Pittman, then 12, shot his grandparents as they slept because they had scolded him for fighting. But Christopher's father, Joe Pittman, thinks his son killed because his sense of right and wrong was clouded by the anti-depressant Zoloft. Joe Pittman spoke out against the drug in a Food and Drug Administration hearing early this year. The boy, who had threatened suicide, was put on the drug three weeks before the slayings, and his dose was doubled just two days earlier. Joe Pittman's hands shook as he read his son's confession...

I believe National Treasure implies that Freemasons are a POSITVE influence on our country. Anybody that knows the TRUTH about Freemasonry rather than the propaganda they wrap themselves in will NOT be takin in by the positive portrayal in this movie. Please America, wake up, don't buy into the guys who brought "Seperation of Church/State" to America, model ISLAM as the highest truth (the Shriners), label the Holy Bible as "Furinture" in a lodge, and outlaw the name of "Jesus" in any lodge. I know I will get flamed by 10,000 Masons and Mason supporters on this, but if you...

Looking back, Mark and Cheryl Miller would have done a lot of things differently with their 13-year-old son, Matt. They probably would never have left Lenexa, Kan. They would have sent him to a different school, and they certainly would have chosen a different therapist. But most of all, they wouldn't have given him Zoloft. ''It's not a pleasant thing living with the thought that you had a hand in your son's death,'' Mark Miller told me recently. ''Making him take those pills was done out of love for Matt, but it was still the wrong thing to do.'' We...

Drugs Linked to More Suicides Among Children, Unpublished Analysis Says Six months after the Food and Drug Administration withheld an internal finding that antidepressant medications were associated with an increased risk of suicide among children, a second staff analysis has arrived at the same conclusion. The agency has not publicly disclosed either report, despite growing pressure from critics and Congress. Agency officials say they do not plan to discuss the data until a scheduled meeting in September, which would come nine months after British authorities warned physicians not to prescribe Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa and similar drugs to depressed children, and...

Live Convention Video, 7 - 11 p.m. ET• Sen. John F. Kerry• Max Cleland• Kerry's daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry• former Green Beret Jim Rassman• Madeleine Albright• Sen. Joe Biden (Del.)• Wesley Clark• Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.)• Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.)• Rep. Ed Markey (Mass.)• Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (Calif.)• Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.)• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.)• Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.)• John Sweeney, President of AFL-CIO• Gov. Mark Warner (Va.)

WASHINGTON, July 24 — The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices. The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice Department acknowledges that this position reflects a "change in governmental policy," and it has persuaded some judges to accept its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia. Allowing consumers to sue manufacturers would "undermine public health" and...

Amid an international debate about the side effects of drugs taken for depression, a large-scale analysis of British medical records has found little difference in rates of suicidal behavior among patients given some of the most commonly prescribed medications. The risk is highest when patients begin taking the drugs, as doctors have long suspected, and tapers off quickly after that. The study, which is being reported today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found no evidence that withdrawal from the drugs put patients at an increased risk of suicide. The analysis, conducted and financed by the Boston University...

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued so many people based on so little legal authority that it's almost hard to get worked up about it anymore. But it's worth making an exception for his recent lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, because it threatens to damage good science and public health. Mr. Spitzer is going after British-based Glaxo for "concealing" information about its popular antidepressant medicine, Paxil. According to America's new self-anointed drug czar, Glaxo's crime is that it publicized one study showing Paxil had positive results in adolescents, but didn't advertise four studies that showed inconclusive results or suggested Paxil...

HAMPTON - Gloria Dion wants her money back after being subjected to what she calls the worst Jewel concert ever. Dion, along with her two daughters Nicole and Kaitlin, went to last Saturday’s 8 p.m. Jewel concert at the Hampton Beach Ballroom Casino. The singer performed two concerts that evening at the Casino. People who saw the first said Jewel was at the top of her game and said it was a "rocking show." Those who had tickets to the second show saw something quite different, according to Dion. "People were literally walking out of the show," she said. "As...