Free Republic

From the “fresh melt water will disrupt the planet” department, except that this ongoing alarm has already been debunked by NASA, see: NASA refutes Mann and Rahmstorf – Finds Atlantic ‘Conveyor Belt’ Not SlowingIllustration depicting the overturning circulation of the global ocean. Throughout the Atlantic Ocean, the circulation carries warm waters (red arrows) northward near the surface and cold deep waters (blue arrows) southward. Image credit: NASA/JPL Melting Greenland ice sheet may affect global ocean circulation, future climateUniversity of South Florida and international scientists find influx of freshwater could disrupt the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, an important component of global...

Two of the most dangerous apocalyptic Muslim groups-that strongly believe in establishment of a global Islamic state and believe in annihilation of non-Muslim nations-are the Islamic State and the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They both share the same fatal ideology and mission with some minor differences. They believe that this is the end of the times for non-Muslims, and that they should prepare the world for the coming of the Imam Mahdi (also known as Muhammad al Mahdi) who would establish Islamic rule around the world and clean up the planet from those who do not...

The Romans have censored themselves to make visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani feel more comfortable during his historic stop in Italy. Rouhani -- the first Iranian leader to visit Europe in almost 20 years -- met Tuesday with Pope Francis at the Vatican, but another stop on his agenda was the famed Capitoline Museum, where classic Italian nude sculptures were covered with plain white boards to avoid offending the Muslim president.

A decision by Italian officials to cover up ancient nude statues to not offend Iran's visiting president is drawing ridicule in Rome. Ahead of a news conference Monday with Premier Matteo Renzi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, wooden panels were erected around some Roman statues in Rome's Capitoline Museums. When images of the cover-up made the Italian media Tuesday, politicians from across the spectrum decried and derided the decision. The museum said Tuesday that the premier's office wanted the statues along Rouhani's path to the news conference covered up. Renzi's office declined to comment. ...

"...Daniel Yergin, founder of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said it is impossible for OPEC to knock out the US shale industry though a war of attrition even if large numbers of frackers fall by the wayside over coming months. Mr Yergin said groups with deep pockets such as Blackstone and Carlyle will take over the infrastructure when the distressed assets are cheap enough, and bide their time until the oil cycle turns. "The management may change and the companies may change but the resources will still be there," he told the Daily Telegraph. "It takes $10bn and five to...

Ted Cruz demolishes Sierra Club president on global warming hoax

Last year, 42 North American drillers filed for bankruptcy, according to law firm Haynes and Boone. It's only likely to get worse this year. Experts say there are a lot of parallels between today's crisis and the last oil crash in 1986. Back then, 27% of exploration and production companies went bust. Defaults are skyrocketing again. In December, exploration and production company defaults topped 11%, up from just 0.5% the previous year, according to Fitch Ratings. That's a 2,000%-plus jump. It's just the beginning, says John La Forge, head of real assets strategy at Wells Fargo. If history repeats, people...

Dear Northeast Freepers: Please check-in to let us know that you're safe. If you want to share your blizzard experiences- whether funny or scary - we're listening. If you need something, please say so. Maybe we can help or get word to someone who can. ~Signed, Your Friends at Free Republic.

As the planet warms because of excess heat trapped by human-emitted greenhouse gases, the atmosphere can hold more moisture.

It's well known that many Republicans in Washington do not like Sen. Ted Cruz, but the full extent of that antipathy is coming to light this week as several current and former lawmakers say they prefer Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, although they have little regard for either man. Some GOP consultants and strategists started the rumblings in recent days. Then Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told Republicans in his state to oppose Cruz because of the senator's opposition to ethanol subsidies. But the story broke wide open on Wednesday when former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee...

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday accused Donald Trump of making it more difficult to defeat Islamic State extremists. Speaking to the US website Mic.Com, the Tory Party leader said the billionaire was making the "fundamental mistake" of trying to blame all Muslims for the violent ideology of a minority while praising Islam as a religion of peace. Trump, currently leading national polls to be the Republican Party nominee ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, sparked international censure in December after he demanded all Muslims be barred from entering the US following the Paris massacre. The property...

It has become apparent this afternoon and evening, through multiple conversations with the weather observers at Reagan National Airport, that the snowfall totals submitted to the National Weather Service for that location have not been measured properly. As of 8 p.m., 17.8 inches of snow had been recorded at National - Washington, D.C.'s official weather monitoring location. That reflects just a 0.3-inch increase in the three hours since 5 p.m. during which time light to moderate snowfall was being reported at the airport. The National Weather Service has clear guidelines on how to measure snowfall for one simple reason: snowstorms...

Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) announced that 2015 had the hottest global average temperature ever measured, shattering the previous record held in 2014. The news was widely reported in the media, including the New York Times, which declared that global warming, which had paused since 1998, is back and with a vengeance. The clear implication was that the sooner we stop using fossil fuels and putting all that carbon dioxide in the air, the better

I was water-skiing with my children in a light drizzle off Hyannis, Mass., last month when a sudden, fierce storm plunged us into a melee of towering waves, raking rain, painful hail and midday darkness broken by blinding flashes of lightning. As I hurried to get my children out of the water and back to the dock, I shouted over the roaring wind, "This is some kind of tornado." The fog consolidated and a waterspout hundreds of feet high rose from the white ocean and darted across its surface, landing for a moment on a moored outboard to spin it...

Federal managers are using illegal secret settlements that pay disruptive, incompetent or dangerous employees not to work for months on end before quitting on an agreed-upon date as an alternative to endless termination paperwork, legal appeals and costly battles with civil service unions. Government employees accused of wrongdoing often spend months on paid leave, while publicly agencies cryptically speak of lengthy "investigations," even when establishing misconduct can be as simple as talking to a few people or reviewing some documents. Eventually, the agencies will say, just as vaguely, that the person is "no longer employed." Evidence obtained by The Daily...

In Roman Britain the weather was warmer than it is now, and this warmer climate allowed extensive vine growing throughout Britain's Roman period, and for a long time after. By 1086 when the Domesday survey was carried out there were thirty nine vineyards officially recorded in England, although the actual figure may have been much higher. Then temperatures began to drop in the second half of the sixteenth century causing a retreat of vine growing from the north and east of Europe.

January 20, 2016 FoxNews.com The world’s first farmers and their slash-and-burn agriculture may have set off global warming. A new analysis of ice-core climate data, archaeological evidence and ancient pollen samples is being used to suggest farming some 7,000 years ago helped put the brakes on a natural cooling process of the global climate, possibly contributing the warmer climate seen today. But the study is expected to raise a few eyebrows, given there were far fewer people on Earth back then and industrialization -- and the coal-fired power plants that come with it -- was still a long ways off....

In our planet's early history, 720 to 640 million years ago, thick sheets of ice covered the majority of the surface, as the Earth was locked in a deep freeze. But explosive underwater volcanoes changed the chemistry of the Earth's oceans and were key to breaking the planet from its icy state, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Southampton believe underwater volcanoes helped to thaw out "Snowball Earth", and even led to runaway chemical chain reactions, which created the conditions for an explosion of life on Earth. While much of the driving forces behind glaciation during...

Last March 2015, I wrote about what I see as a sell-out by the Vatican of the faithful Catholics of China, the real Bishops and the great Martyrs against Communism. It is a reminder of the Ostpolitik of John XXIII and Paul VI which sold out the great Cardinals Mindzenty and Slipyj and millions of others behind the old Iron Curtain. I have reposted the article one below this and a post from the great Cardinal Zen, Emeritus of Hong Kong. It is a wake-up call for these Romans who would cede to the atheistic communists the authority to suggest...

Some interesting tidbits from Pope Francis' statement on migrants and refugees. Via Andrew Stuttaford at the National Review. "Migration movements are now a structural reality, and our primary issue must be to deal with the present emergency phase by providing programmes which address the causes of migration and the changes it entails, including its effect on the makeup of societies and peoples." "At this moment in human history, marked by great movements of migration, identity is not a secondary issue. Those who migrate are forced to change some of their most distinctive characteristics and, whether they like or not, even...