Free Republic

A person infected with measles was at a New Jersey funeral home two times earlier this month, the state Department of Health announced Thursday. The department confirmed the measles case Thursday, saying the individual may have exposed people at a funeral home in the Fords section of Woodbridge in Middlesex County on May 11 and 14. Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that can cause serious medical complications. As a result, the department recommends that anyone who visited Flynn and Son Funeral Home, 23 Ford Ave., Fords, on Monday, May 11, between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., and on...

I am mostly recovered from a nasty virus that I caught from my six month old grandson.  At times I was sleeping, or attempting to, 20 hours a day,  I could handle necessary chores, but simply trying to avoid coughing enough to breath comfortably, left me weak, and feeling too tired to exert myself.  Walking a couple of hundred yards was exhausting.  I had to go to the store a couple of times for off the shelf medicine and some ice cream, which I normally eat little of.   I became acutely aware of how vulnerable I was.  I could...

Nootropics, the new staple ‘brain enhancers’ in Silicon Valley that purport to increase productivity and perception, exist in an unregulated legal gray area in the U.S. In Colombia, you can pick up even the shadiest kinds over the counter. I did just that. In the months before a recent trip to Colombia, off to visit an expat friend living there, I had been hearing about nootropics. Or “smart drugs,” as they’re referred to. Brain enhancers. Mental magic. Depending on which site you’ve read that’s proclaimed them the new “It” drug for bio-hackers of every stripe, all roads lead to the...

When Chief Justice John Roberts fractured the Constitution and prostituted his own integrity by rewriting the individual mandate in order to find the Affordable Care Act constitutional, it understandably drew both public and media attention away from the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision that, although the Obama Administration’s Medicaid expansion plans were constitutional, the federal government would NOT be permitted to withhold Medicaid funding from states which refused to implement the expansion. In short, the Obama Regime is not allowed to extort state compliance with its massive increase in Medicaid outlays by refusing to pay the Medicaid funds legitimately owed each...

The city’s air is polluting children’s brains. Big Apple kids exposed to high levels of airborne filth and economic hardship have lower IQs that will haunt them into adulthood, according to an exhaustive, first-of-its-kind study by Columbia University. (snip) Researchers reached the alarming conclusion by tracking the development of 276 minority children from Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx for seven years — starting while their moms were pregnant. The kids who were exposed to the most pollutants and came from the poorest families scored 6.6 points lower on the overall IQ test than others in the group. ......

ATLANTA, GA - The CDC and the New Jersey Department of Health have confirmed a death from Lassa fever which was diagnosed earlier today in a person returning to the United States from Liberia. The patient traveled from Liberia to Morocco to JFK International Airport on May 17th. The patient did not have a fever on departure from Liberia, did not report symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, or bleeding during the flight, and his temperature was taken on arrival in the U.S. and he did not have a fever at that time. On May 18th, the patient went to a...

A newly released analysis ranks “2015’s Best and Worst States for Military Retirees” based on a state’s ability to support retired veterans. WalletHub looked at 20 key factors when determining the rankings. The three major categories in the ranking included economic environment, quality of life and healthcare. However, WalletHub took other factors into consideration as well, such as job opportunities, housing prices, veteran-owned businesses and veteran homelessness. Top 5 States for Military Retirees: 1. Wyoming 2. Montana 3. South Dakota 4. Maine 5. Florida Bottom 5 States for Military Retirees: 51. Indiana 40. Rhode Island 49. District of Columbia 48....

A few years ago, this column discussed certain disturbing findings regarding psychiatry and its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry: The major psychoactive drugs are no better than placebos; the “chemical imbalance” theory of mental illness is mostly nonsense; and psychoactive drugs are being given to children as young as two. The first finding was buried in clinical trials of antidepressants, in which side effects of real drugs (such as dry mouth) could be emulated in an otherwise non-active agent (aka removing “unblinding bias”). In these cases, there was absolutely no difference in efficacy between the antidepressant and the placebo. As...

Although there are many, one of the pro-choice mantras for abortion supporters which you commonly hear is something like “keep your laws out of my vagina.” Like some we saw in Texas during the debate on HB2, where abortion advocates even used children to support killing children. Now the pro-life feminist group, New Wave Feminists has put together a little video to help educate the pro-choice masses about carrying such “stupid looking” messages: VIDEO ON LINK!!!! After all, Knowledge is power !!

A Michigan District Court judge has charged a woman with felony murder, premeditated murder and first-degree child abuse, according to the Redford Township Police Department, after she delivered a baby and heartlessly put the baby in a bag to suffocate. 25 year-old Kimberly Pappas is accused of delivering her baby at work, wrapping him up in a bag and sticking him in a desk drawer, suffocating the newborn. According to WDIV TV Investigators said she gave birth to a baby boy in the toilet, pulled him out to cut the umbilical cord, then wrapped him in a bag and hid...

A little over a week ago George Zimmerman was involved in a shooting. You probably recall the story since it was all over the web. And as with the link I just provided, that’s how it was described in headlines across the spectrum. George Zimmerman was involved in a shooting. And why would anyone be surprised? You know what a bad guy he is, right? He was probably just trying to gun down some other helpless citizen. But as it turns out, the story is a bit more complicated than the initial headlines indicated. Local police and one judge have...

In February I posted a video showing Florida abortionist James Gordon Gengelbach outside the Bread and Roses abortion clinic in Clearwater telling a pro-life demonstrator that he is not allowed to take and or post his picture online. He threatened to call his lawyer as well. Gengelbach Payback hell abortion IMAGE ON LINK This week, the abortionist told a group of demonstrators that showed up at his home, “We know who you are, we know where you live, we know where you work, paybacks are gonna be hell.” Kinda sounded like a threat. “Paybacks are gonna be hell!” , the...

Did you read that title? Now you know the crux of this battle. To abortion advocates the “problem” has always been the baby! Thus- the reason why Everyday Feminist blogger, Laura Kacere wrote: Abortion Isn’t a Bad Thing So we shouldn’t be talking about it like it is. It’s not just the phrase that’s the problem, but the sentiment behind it. Beneath the desire to keep abortion rare, people say, is a desire to reduce unintended pregnancies, which is completely legitimate. Unintended pregnancies are hard, can put undue stress on everyone involved, and can be reduced in pretty simple ways,...

LifeNews has repeatedly chronicled cases of people who were prematurely declared dead or said to be in supposedly persistent vegetative states who ultimately recovered. We have also covered miraculous cases where an act of God appears to be the only reason or only answer as to why a patient has recovered. File this story under “act of God” or “answered prayers.” Taylor Hale, then 14, suffered traumatic brain injury when she fell off hood of car while horsing around with friends in 2011. She spent a week in medically induced coma to help her brain heal, but she suffered a...

A man who drove his wife to A Woman’s Choice abortion clinic in Raleigh, North Carolina has attacked a group, which refers to themselves as abolitionists against abortion, after he perceived they were accusing his wife of having an abortion. Abolitionists claim they hold to the tenants outlined by Abolish Human Abortion (AHA), and do not want to be linked in any way to the pro-life movement because they favor incremental strategies to end abortion. In the first video of the man, who drove his wife to the abortion clinic, he initially speaks with the abolitionists calmly, explaining that he...

RIO DE JANEIRO — The site chosen for the finals of next summer’s Olympic sailing races could not be more spectacular. Located at the mouth of Guanabara Bay, at the foot of Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain, in full view of the crowds on Flamengo Beach, it is one of the most scenic places on the planet. But there is one not-so-little problem. “It is dirty,’’ said Brazilian Olympic windsurfer Ricardo Winicki. “It is one of the dirtiest places. And one of the most beautiful.’’ So notoriously grimy are the waters that Brazilian authorities are fighting to defend their selection...

The Republicans are once again investigating how al Qaeda won a major victory by destroying the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and killing American Ambassador Chris Stevens. Hopefully, this time they will abandon conspiracy theories and consider the possibility that American stupidity allowed the massacre to occur.

Formaldehyde is a simple and ubiquitous molecule, used in countless products and industrial processes. The compound is synthesized by virtually every life form, and does not accumulate in the environment. However, since formaldehyde (along with everything else) is a “chemical,” greedy fear entrepreneurs are more than willing to scare the public. In so doing, they not only extract millions of dollars in dubious donations, they routinely slander and libel dozens of perfectly fine products. Unfortunately, when industry attempts to fight back, the prevailing media narrative is nearly always rigged against it, based on the puerile notion that the fear entrepreneurs...

With rising obesity, America faces an increased number of type 2 diabetes cases. With an aging Baby Boom generation, the country is bracing for an increase in Alzheimer's disease. Could the two be related? Previous studies have hinted at such a link. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say they have nailed down the connection. Their study, using mice, found that elevated glucose in the blood – a primary consequence of diabetes -- can rapidly increase levels of amyloid beta, which shows up in brain plaques in Alzheimer’s patients. The buildup of these plaques is...

In a news story titled “Nearly half of Obamacare exchanges are struggling over their future,” The Washington Post reports the following: Nearly half of the 17 insurance marketplaces set up by the states and the District under President Obama’s health law are struggling financially, presenting state officials with an unexpected and serious challenge five years after the passage of the landmark Affordable Care Act. Many of the online exchanges are wrestling with surging costs, especially for balky technology and expensive customer-call centers — and tepid enrollment numbers. To ease the fiscal distress, officials are considering raising fees on insurers, sharing...