Free Republic

he only hope is to arm our children with backbone and teach them about self-discipline, responsibility and holistic medicine I recently wrote that our ancestors endured great hardship when they landed in America. They hacked down forests and tried to survive in the new land. Now, they would roll over in their graves if they knew North Americans had become a nation of wimps. Readers of my column confirmed my damning verdict. J.W. from B.C responded, “Thanks for your refreshing honesty, calling a spade a spade. We do take a pill for every damn ache and pain. I don’t think...

Just what was that mysterious substance Marco Rubio popped into his mouth during the latest Republican debate on CNN? While attention was focused on another debater, a video shows Rubio subtly slipping something out of his right pocket and popping it in his mouth. Pundits have made all sorts of suggestions: "It was a Hillary Clinton anti-choking throat lozenge." "The pills keep his body from rejecting the control chip in his brain." "Don't be ridiculous guys, robots can't take pills." "Who would want a president that needs pills to keep him in control of his own head?" Armchair analysts have...

Millions of fake pills from China, some with no active ingredients and others with the wrong contents, have been uncovered and confiscated by customs officers in France. ... “Drug research in China has fallen under a cloud since 2006 because 13 of the top 20 global drug makers have set up research and development centers in China. Yes, it’s cheaper to do research there, but, as one auditor said, ‘with cheaper research comes greater risk,’” she wrote. ... There also are whole factories in China with up to 15,000 people employed for the purpose of counterfeiting products.

I recently marked a particular anniversary of my birth.  I won’t say my age but it’s a prime number multiplied by ten, older than 30 and not yet 70.  I didn’t mark the day in any particular way.  Yeah there was a “happy birthday” from my wife and kids, but no huge celebration.   I didn’t want one. Passing that milestone makes one somewhat introspective and brooding about the arc of one’s life.  I was just twenty, for God’s sake!  What happened to all those years?  I still feel like a big kid.  I still watch Looney Tunes (love Road...

GOT DRUGS? The D.E.A. is calling on Americans to empty their medicine chests and turn in their private stash of potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals. But what's more American than self-medication? And how else to make it through election season? Republicans oppose such sweeping confiscations and the "Pledge to America," taking a limited-government approach, promises to seize only any "unspent stimulus." Nancy Pelosi explains in song why Congress is not covered by ObamaCare. They have their own plan that gives them special benefits and heavy drug use may be the reason that Congress is so ineffective. "Take Ten Pills and You're Fine"...

The Alamo flea market sits right off South Texas’s lengthy Highway 83; a sprawling, dusty, labyrinth of a place. Under canopies in the converted parking lot, vendors in dark sunglasses stand behind tables heaped with piles of clothing, barking in Spanish and hawking their wares. The air is hot and muggy, thick with the scent of grilled corn and chili. Customers browse simple items—miracle-diet teas, Barbie dolls or turquoise jeans stretched over curvy mannequins—but there are also shoppers scanning the market for goods that aren't displayed in the stalls. Tables lined with bottles of medicine like Tylenol and NyQuil have...

The face looks really familiar!

Metro Transit officials confirm there is a major investigation underway at its light rail Hiawatha maintenance shop. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned the investigation started in December and is still in progress. Metro Transit says it does involve staff at the maintenance facility, but would not specify which employees were under investigation. Sources tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS it does involve managers as well as hourly employees. Those same sources say part of the allegations that lead to the investigation include the exchange of pills and firearms for coveted overtime shifts at the maintenance facility.

New York City schools are offering young girls a full menu of birth control options, free of parental counsel, thanks to an unpublicized project by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration. School nurses handed out 12,721 doses of the Plan B One-Step “morning-after” pill in 2011-12, up from 10,720 in 2010-11 and 5,039 in 2009-10, the New York Post reports. Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union, was stunned by the report. “I’m in shock,” she said. “What gives the mayor the right to decide, without adequate notice, to give our children drugs that will impact their bodies and their psyches?...

Cardinal Dolan, the head of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archdiocese of New York, is slamming a program that will give morning after pills to girls in NYC schools as young as 14-years-old.The New York City Department of Education is furnishing morning-after pills and other birth control drugs to students at 13 city high schools and without parental permission. School nurses supplied with the drugs, which can cause a very early abortion, are dispensing “Plan B” and other oral or injectable birth control to girls as young as 14 without telling their parents — unless the parents...

<p>AURORA, Colo. -- Dr. Lynne Fenton, the University of Colorado psychiatrist who was treating James E. Holmes, according to a court filing by his attorneys, was disciplined by the Colorado Medical Board in 2005.</p> <p>Fenton was also reprimanded for failing to maintain a medical chart or to enter appropriate entries for the charts relating to herself, her husband or the employee, 7News reported.</p>

The world will recognize the Depression we have tried to cover up. This is not a US-centric story. The Eurozone will get the unemployment and tax consequences too. Germany will be forced to choose between propping up the entire rest of the Euro (which it can't) and detonating it and going back to the Deutsche Mark (which it will be forced to.) There is a very high probability of war that comes out of this, although the exact trigger is not something I can forecast. War is the classical solution to these problems, and it is unlikely to be different...

So you state that President Obama is depressed?  How did you come by this information?  From a direct source still working within the White House on a daily basis.  As I had stated previously, tensions at the White House have reached a critical stage.  The infighting among staff is off the charts.  More recently, the president has increasingly withdrawn emotionally from the day to day demands of his job – he has become what was described to me as “empty”.  Empty?  That is correct – empty.  ....   But still…(interrupting) I would also add what you well know.  I have...

Doctors treat millions of children with Ritalin every year to improve their ability to focus on tasks, but scientists now report that Ritalin also directly enhances the speed of learning. In animal research, the scientists showed for the first time that Ritalin boosts both of these cognitive abilities by increasing the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine deep inside the brain. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers neurons use to communicate with each other. They release the molecule, which then docks onto receptors of other neurons. The research demonstrated that one type of dopamine receptor aids the ability to focus, and another...

On June 24, 2009, President Obama made the following statement on an ABC Obama Infomercial, “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but just taking the pain killer.” This is the wise counsel of a man who has never known life and death on an intimate level. This comes from a man who has led a sheltered existence and never considered serving his country other than a partial term in the senate and a few months in the White House. Are you prepared to have this spoiled untested man make life and death considerations for your loved ones. Life...

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians struggling to cope with the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the trauma of war are turning to painkillers and tranquillizers at a rate that risks triggering a wave of addiction. There is also evidence of mounting recreational drug use as Gaza drifts in limbo, with no clear political future. Gaza residents reported health problems after a 22-day Israeli offensive last January, with most citing psychological problems and stress, according to a survey published by the United Nations Gender Task Force on April 21. "With increased trauma and stress and limited access to professional psychosocial services, there...

Istanbul Police said 222 kg of heroin, 184 kg of hashish, 2 kg of cocaine and thousands of synthetic pills were confiscated in 141 operations in several parts of the metropolis.

Bo (woof) In Commentary: Drugs. I don’t clearly remember how I’ve become addicted to them. It may have been my parents pushing them on me or maybe it was me demanding them. It’s all so hazy now. All I know is that I ‘need’ to have each and every one of my pills to keep me going every day. That’s why this story on an owner pilfering his dog’s drugs is so upsetting. (DES MOINES, Iowa - A Des Moines man who was arrested for driving while intoxicated apparently took his dog’s pills by mistake. Authorities say (con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/02/478/)

Vitamin pills 'increase risk of early death' By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent Last Updated: 12:01am BST 16/04/2008 Popular vitamin supplements taken by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and could increase the risk of a premature death, researchers report today. They warn healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay that they are interfering with their natural body defences and may be increasing their risk of an early death by up to 16 per cent. Antioxidants, including vitamins A,...

AP Medical Writer Taking a blood pressure pill at bedtime instead of in the morning might be healthier for some high-risk people. New research suggests that simple switch may normalize patterns of blood pressure in patients at extra risk from the twin epidemics of heart and kidney disease. Why? When it comes to blood pressure, you want to be a dipper. In healthy people, blood pressure dips at night, by 10 to 20 percent. Scientists don't know why, but suspect the drop gives arteries a little rest. People with high blood pressure that doesn't dip at night - the non-dippers...