Free Republic

Once upon a time, academics would debate each other when they disagreed. They would publish papers or write letters. Seminars got heated, but people didn’t take the disagreements personally. Today, academics demand that their opponents be fired.University of Chicago Professor Harald Uhlig has learned this lesson the hard way. In a series of Tweets, Uhlig questioned the sensibility of Black Lives Matters’ goal of defunding police. He worried: “Too bad, but #blacklivesmatter per its core organization @Blklivesmatter just torpedoed itself.” Instead, he wrote: “We need more police, we need to pay them more, we need to train them better.” He...

What’s going on with Hillary Clinton’s toe? The former Secretary of State was spotted wearing a black surgical boot during a Vancouver stop along her book tour, two months after she says she took a tumble down some stairs in high heels while holding a cup of coffee. Clinton ambled onto the stage in some sort of black outfit to promote her book What Happened – which details why her election loss is everyone’s fault but hers, when onlookers were confronted with the orthopedic device she’s worn since October. While recounting her harrowing incident, Clinton said ‘I was running...

Cameras caught top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin apparently shoving away a woman who tried to hug her after Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate. It’s not immediately clear who the woman was. The video shows the woman hugging and briefly chatting with Clinton on the stage after the debate. She then moves toward Abedin.

BOSTON (AP) — Police say a woman had her toe bitten off at a New Year’s Eve party in Boston. Officers responded to a city hospital at about 5 a.m. Wednesday for a report of an apparent assault in which the victim’s little toe on her left foot was bitten off. The victim told police she made a sexual advance to another woman at the party in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood at about 3 a.m., which upset the other woman’s boyfriend and led to a fight.

Most pet owners would be irate if their dog bit off one of their toes, but Jerry Douthett, of Rockford, Mich., is nothing but grateful: this canine feat may have saved his life. A Michigan man loses a toe to his dog, resulting in a diabetes diagnosis.Douthett was alerted to the seriousness of a bone infection in his foot, resulting from previously undiagnosed Type II diabetes, when his terrier Kiko bit off his big toe while he was passed out drunk, according to The Grand Rapids Press

“Darwin’s finches” are a variety of small black birds that were observed and collected by British naturalist Charles Darwin during his famous voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle in the early 1800s. Years later, Darwin argued that subtle variations in their beak sizes supported his concept that all organisms share a common ancestor (a theory known as macroevolution). The finches, whose technical name is Geospiza, have since become classic evolutionary icons...

David Klinghoffer of the anti-evolution Discovery Institute has an opinion column in the Jerusalem Post, attacking Jewish groups like the ADL for protesting against Pope Benedict’s reinstatement of Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson. Klinghoffer calls it “whining:” The wages of whining. But the real purpose of Klinghoffer’s column is to attempt to redirect Jewish anger toward the Discovery Institute’s main target: the theory of evolution... But Klinghoffer’s false equivalence is even more thoroughly destroyed by the fact that the Nazis banned Darwin’s books:...

We will see and hear the term “Darwinism” a lot during 2009, a year during which scientists, teachers, and others who delight in the accomplishments of modern biology will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. But what does “Darwinism” mean? And how is it used? At best, the phrase is ambiguous and misleading about science. At worst, its use echoes a creationist strategy to demonize evolution. snip... In summary, then, “Darwinism” is an ambiguous term that impairs communication even about Darwin’s own ideas. It fails to...

<p>“The commonly cited case for intelligent design appeals to: (a) the irreducible complexity of (b) some aspects of life. But complex arguments invite complex refutations (valid or otherwise), and the claim that only some aspects of life are irreducibly complex implies that others are not, and so the average person remains unconvinced. Here I use another principle—autopoiesis (self-making)—to show that all aspects of life lie beyond the reach of naturalistic explanations. Autopoiesis provides a compelling case for intelligent design in three stages: (i) autopoiesis is universal in all living things, which makes it a pre-requisite for life, not an end product of natural selection; (ii) the inversely-causal, information-driven, structured hierarchy of autopoiesis is not reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry; and (iii) there is an unbridgeable abyss between the dirty, mass-action chemistry of the natural environmental and the perfectly-pure, single-molecule precision of biochemistry.”</p>

A non religious or Biblical presentation that gives proof Creation is both logical and reliable. This proof however is right before our eyes ever day. I recently wrote an article commenting on a group of aggressive atheists who I feel were making much ado about nothing. Although many readers misunderstood the point I was making it inspired me to write this article based on the responses of that article.

The nine august justices of the United States Supreme Court — or at least the five conservative Republicans — chose the wrong time to make a sea change in constitutional law, admitting the Second Amendment to our pantheon of civil liberties. By demonstrating how willing they are to toss aside decades of jurisprudence in pursuit of a conservative agenda, they sent a chill into the souls of women all across the nation and resurrected fears that Roe v. Wade is next on the chopping block.

Earliest Shoe-Wearers Revealed by Toe Bones Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Shod? Look at the Toes Jan. 25, 2008 -- People started wearing shoes around 40,000 years ago, according to a study on recently excavated small toe bones that belonged to an individual from China who apparently loved shoes. Most footwear erodes over time. The earliest known shoes, rope sandals that attached to the feet with string, date to only around 10,000 B.C. For the new study, the clues were in middle toe bones that change during an individual's lifetime if the person wears shoes a lot. "When you walk barefoot,...

According to string theory, the universe is composed of tiny, vibrating strings rather than point-like particles. Depending on a particular string's mode of vibration, it would take on the characteristics of some particular particle -- an electron, for example, or a photon of light... In its latest incarnation it is known as "M-Theory," in which one-dimensional strings are replaced by higher-dimensional membranes, or "branes" for short. Although some of these branes may be microscopic, others could be large, or perhaps even infinite -- with important implications for cosmology... While string theory begins with matter, loop quantum gravity begins with space...

When played together, they compose the symphony of the universe. Or at least, that's the theory. There's a problem, though. The strings have too much range. So much, in fact, that for string theory to agree with the established laws of physics and mathematics, there must be not three but at least ten dimensions (including time) that are curled up and tucked away. And because each of these multidimensional landscapes requires a different string tuning, there are potentially billions and billions of different versions of string theory relating to billions and billions of different universes. Then there's the problem of...

20 EU states warned to toe Brussels line By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 05/04/2006) The European Commission launched a barrage of legal proceedings against more than 20 member states yesterday, demanding that they obey EU laws on everything from energy monopolies to subsidies for airlines. Fearing for the health of the single market after an outbreak of protectionism in various countries, the Brussels commission challenged a French decree blocking foreign ownership of firms in 11 "sensitive sectors", from cryptology and arms to casinos. The decree, which came into force on Dec 31 last year, was part of the policy...

I'm back from a 2-week stay in the hospital. Under house arrest for six weeks while they pump Vancomycin into my veins. Osteomeyelitis caused by a podiatrist visit; I'm a diabetic. I'll be on FR with somewhat reduced frequency. Regards to all and maybe I'll keep my left big toe. --Boris

Toe think again... relic of The Bruce YAKUB QURESHIA bone, said to be the toe of Robert The Bruce, is the centrepiece of a new exhibit. Picture: Donald MacLeod HE STOLE into the abbey in the dead of night, intent on stealing a personal memento of Scotland’s greatest king. Not a thief nor a grave robber but a respected town dignitary and "man of science", Joseph Paton found himself irresistibly drawn to the body of this icon of Scotland’s 14th-century fight for independence. Reaching forward, he snapped off a toe from the remains of Robert the Bruce and held aloft...

The interim CIA report by investigator David Kay on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq is inconclusive as to whether Saddam Hussein was planning to rebuild his arsenal, but it is quite clear that the imminent, massive buildup for such weaponry, upon which the invasion of Iraq was predicated, had not, in fact, happened. Barring some discovery of massive relocation of such weapons to Syria, it is clear that the claims of President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the ubiquity of such weapons were not accurate. That does not mean that...

Iran has proved to be the undoer of presidents, having cost Jimmy Carter his job in 1980 and nearly depriving Ronald Reagan of his legacy in 1987. The road to the White House in 2004 may again run through Tehran, this time for George W. Bush. There is no way Bush can transform Iraq into a winning situation. The failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the growing national question of whether we were lied to and the ongoing open season on American troops have combined to deprive Bush of credit for his amazing success on the battlefield in much...

It is incredible how rapidly President Bush’s job approval ratings have fallen in the aftermath of the ouster of Saddam Hussein. In 60 days, they have dropped from the high 60s and low 70s to the mid-50s! In the Clinton administration, despite daily pounding and actual impeachment, his job rating did not drop below 60 percent from early 1996 until the end of his second term. Bush seems to have no firewall to arrest his drop. His ratings seem to depend on yesterday’s news. Because the empowerment of the Republican Party in all three branches of government masks the demographic...