Free Republic

The science about the climate crisis is unequivocal, but a recent report shows a rise in misinformation about the topic. When researchers set out to study the effects of disinformation on global populations, they discovered something surprising: a huge resurgence in climate denial in 2022. In the past year, climate science has been clearer than ever. Three recent reports from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have warned that we must make urgent changes. If not, we are on a "highway to hell," as UN Secretary General António Guterres said last week. At the same time, there has has...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common latent virus with over half of Americans infected with it by the age of 40, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1 CMV typically lays dormant in people who do not have compromised immune systems. For those who are beset with the active virus, they can have more serious symptoms affecting various parts of the body including the eyes, lungs, liver, esophagus, stomach, and intestines. And for babies born with CMV, they can have brain, liver, spleen, lung, and growth issues. Hearing loss is the most common problem in this patient group...

Pasadena, CA. Today, three federal appellate judges in the Ninth Circuit issued a final ruling in favor of a Christian man, Mark Mackey, who was arrested for reading the Bible aloud in front of the California Department of Motor Vehicles in Hemet, CA in 2011. Read the ruling here. The CHP Officer, Darren Meyers, erroneously cited Mr. Mackey for violating a state law that forbids the interference with an open business through obstruction and intimidation. The Ninth Circuit rebuked the officer’s fabricated claims in his police report: Upon arrival, Meyer encountered Mackey reading his bible aloud in a dirt patch,...

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Spain and Portugal said on Saturday the euro zone's debt crisis is a global problem, calling on the United States and other G20 powers to help contain the fallout. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged the G20 countries least affected by the crisis to provide "urgent stimulus plans" to shield the global economy. Europe's debt crisis looks set to dominate the summit of Group of 20 leading economies in France from November 3-4.

OUR national debate about fiscal policy has become skewed, with far too much focus on the deficit and far too little on unemployment. There is too much worry about the size of government, and too little appreciation for how stimulus spending has helped stabilize the economy and how more of the right kind of government spending could boost job creation and economic growth. By focusing on the wrong things, we are in serious danger of failing to do the right things to help the economy recover from its worst labor market crisis since the Great Depression. . . . By...

Los Angeles – A controversy is erupting over Sarah Palin's June speaking engagement at a campus of California State University. A student protest group and other critics want the university to reveal how much they're paying her, which they suspect might be more than $100,000. A professor has started a Facebook gripe group. And a state senator is pressuring university officials to disclose Ms. Palin’s compensation or be prosecuted under state law. ... Controversial speakers stir the pot “Most sensible people understand that colleges should give a forum to controversial speakers in order to make students and others think and...

* Democrats reject two dozen Republican amendments * Republicans force Democrats to take difficult votes * Senate nears vote on final package of changes to law (Updates with the need for changes to be approved by the House) By John Whitesides WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The final package of changes to a landmark healthcare reform law must be approved again by the U.S. House of Representatives after the Senate parliamentarian struck two minor provisions on Thursday. Senate Democratic aides said the parliamentarian upheld two Republican challenges on points of order under budget reconciliation rules, requiring the House to approve...

HOLLISTER, Calif. (AP) — The man who opened fire in front of the Pentagon had a history of mental illness and had become so erratic that his parents reached out to local authorities weeks ago with a warning that he was unstable and might have a gun, authorities said Friday. It's still unclear why John Patrick Bedell opened fire Thursday at the Pentagon entrance, wounding two police officers before he was fatally shot. The two officers were hospitalized briefly with minor injuries. Bedell was diagnosed as bipolar, or manic depressive, and had been in and out of treatment programs for...

Attorney Taitz battles Attorney Generals — Discovery to Begin! September 12, 2009 by John Charlton IN TWO SEPARATE CASES, AGs WORK TO FORESTALL by John Charlton(Sept. 12, 2009: 9:45 PM Eastern DLST) — Just minutes ago Niel Turner issued a public announcement, based on his personal communications with Attorney Orly Taitz, who is presently in Washington, D.C.; regarding Taitz’s two cases, Captain Pamela Barnett vs. Obama, and Captain Connie Rhodes, M.D., vs. McDonald.In the more recent case, Rhodes vs. McDonald, in GA Federal Court, which regards Capt. Rhodes request for an emergency stay of her deployment to Afghanistan, on the...

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - Two attorneys who squared off in the legal battle that decided the 2000 presidential election will team up Wednesday to file a federal lawsuit claiming that the ban on same-sex marriage imposed by the passage of Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution. Theodore B. Olson and David Boies plan to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of two gay men and two lesbian women, arguing that the proposition violates the U.S. constitutional guarantee of equal protection and due process. The complaint will also ask for an injunction blocking Proposition 8...

NEW YORK - The stunning collapse in oil markets accelerated Friday, sending a barrel of crude plunging below $78 as investors grow more pessimistic about resolving a mushrooming global economic crisis. Oil hasn't been this cheap in 13 months — a rare silver lining for consumers amid a rapidly imploding financial landscape.

Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean - who once drew criticism by dismissing the GOP as a "white Christian party'' -- told a San Francisco audience that his party should open its arms to a new group of converts: young evangelical Christian voters. "We ought to reach out to those folks ... and not be afraid,'' Dean told an audience of about 125 at a $50-a head Democratic National Committee fundraiser Wednesday night at the Palace Hotel. ... ... "People don't want to go to church anymore ... and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who's...

AUSTIN, Texas - A judge dismissed a conspiracy charge Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out far more serious allegations of money-laundering, dashing the congressman's hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader. Texas Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which DeLay's attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed. When he was indicted in September, DeLay was required under House rules to relinquish the leadership post he had held since 2003. While Monday's ruling was a partial...

WASHINGTON — Toward the end of a steamy summer week in 2003, reporters were peppering the White House with phone calls and e-mails, looking for someone to defend the administration's claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ..... Wilson's accusations were based on an investigation he undertook for the CIA. But he was seen inside the White House as a "showboater" whose stature didn't warrant a high-level administration response. "Let him spout off solo on a holiday weekend," one White House official recalled saying. "Few will listen." In fact, millions were riveted that Sunday as Wilson — on NBC's...

Brian Flemming's "Bat Boy: The Musical" was praised by critics but appalled some fundamentalists with its references to incest and other dark themes. Flemming's latest project is just as likely to disturb conservative Christians. The 39-year-old Angeleno has made an hourlong documentary titled "The God Who Wasn't There." In it, the former born-again Christian argues that the biblical Jesus never lived, but is a mythological figure like Paul Bunyan. Initially released theatrically June 17, the documentary grew out of Flemming's research for a fictional thriller-in-progress titled, "The Beast." In that film, which he hopes to release next year, a teenage...

WASHINGTON - The Sept. 11 commission's final report concludes the hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government" over a long period but does not blame President Bush (news - web sites) or former President Clinton (news - web sites) for the mistakes, according to administration officials familiar with the findings. The report, being released Thursday, describes the patience and determination of the hijackers and said they explored weaknesses in airline and border procedures, even taking test flights to see when cockpit doors were open. White House officials and congressional leaders were briefed on the report's findings, and Bush is...

If you read the dissenting opinions in GEORGE W. BUSH, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. ALBERT GORE, JR., ET AL., you will note that they all end with the following sentence: I respectfully dissent. All of them, that is, except for one dissenting opinion - that of Justice Ginsburg. Hers ends as follows: I dissent. To me, this appears to be a full-on, open-handed, brutal slap in the face. In other words, I dissent, and I sure as hell don't respect you. BITE ME!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Flush with tax revenues from a booming economy, the federal government posted a record $237 billion surplus for the budget year that ended in September, the Clinton administration announced Tuesday. It marked the third straight year of surpluses, something that hasn't happened since the late 1940s. Social Security taxes provided nearly $150 billion of the surplus. "This is the third surplus in a row - the first time our nation has done that in 51 years, since 1949 when Harry Truman was president," Clinton said on the South Lawn during an event to push his education initiatives. ...

The following caption was attached to the below picture: Palestinian protesters come to the aid of a comrade who was shot near a barricade in the West Bank town of Ramallah October 10, 2000, while others assist another wounded Palestinian (L). Israeli troops fired rubber-coated bullets during clashes with about 100 Palestinian stone-throwers who held running battles with the soldiers for several hours. Now here's the question - does the comrade appear to be a Palestinian to you? Or does he look more like, oh say, maybe a Russian?

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnian Serb leaders are rolling back on terms of a U.S.-brokered accord that American officials hailed as a major step toward fulfilling the goal of a united, multiethnic country. Last month, U.S. officials said the three members of Bosnia's collective, multiethnic presidency agreed to a declaration proposed by Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to end ethnic strife and work more closely together. The declaration, unveiled in New York, is aimed at getting Muslims, Serbs and Croats working together — from the president's office down to a new border patrol. On Thursday, ...