Free Republic

..........."Romney and Santorum (like Gingrich and Obama) both go 4-for-4 on the ethanol lobby's scorecard. Paul goes 2-for-4 because he would cut oil subsidies and allow 15-percent ethanol blends to be sold, but opposes the mandate and other subsidies. Rick Perry went 0-for-4."

You’re not going to lose a lot of bets by inferring that a candidate who says he is “suspending” his campaign is in fact about to drop out. But Rick Perry’s reconsideration of his role in the Republican nomination race appears to have been genuine and he is pressing forward for the time being. Why did Mr. Perry decide to remain in the race? Knowing the answer is crucial to understanding whether Mr. Perry has any chance of mounting a comeback — and how his decision might reverberate upon Mitt Romney and the other Republican candidates. Let me posit two...

Every once in a while, I can’t resist indulging in a sleeve of hot, crispy McDonald’s French fries. Not even Michelle Obama can resist the attractive allure of the crispy spuds. However, that doesn’t stop her from trying to curb the desires of her fellow Americans. I can only assume that the First Lady’s stint in office will long be characterized by her perpetual battle against America’s increasing waistline. Her attempt to halt the increasing health concerns of overweight Americans is certainly a noble cause, but her methods (unsurprisingly) are not always acceptable within the confines of a classical liberal...

Perry,Iowa — After witnessing the Perry rally in Perry, Iowa, I have a sudden urge to rush out, purchase a firearm, and start rearing eagles. And if it had that effect on me, you know it was potent stuff. The Perry rally at the HotelPattee was far, far nicer than the Santorum rally. Santorum stood on the stairs and addressed a tepid crowd of people without amplification, only four of whom were holding signs, while someone vacuumed in the background. Perry had a country music performer entertaining crowds in a nice room that Santorum seemed unaware was part of the...

GOOD INSIGHTS ON WHY MILLIONS OF KIDS CAN'T READ. (A FOLLOW-UP FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN EARLIER POST TITLED "FAKE READING THEORY IS THE SLAVE TRADE OF OUR ERA.") The country continues to be plagued by illiteracy. The reason is simple. The country continues to be under the heel of some of the most reckless and reprehensible “experts” imaginable. They make little children memorize the SHAPES of words, which most little children simply can’t do. Ergo, these children experience major reading and cognitive problems.  Don Potter, the phonics guru and as well a teacher in Texas, recently sent me this illuminating...

There are years that are remembered for changing the course of human history:1492. 1776. 1945. Then there are years that were predicted to change the course of history. 1844, when Judgment Day didn't materialize. 1910, when Halley's Comet didn't wipe out humanity. And remember Y2K? But rarely does a year arrive with such a mixture of anticipation and dread as 2012. We speak not of the presidential campaign but of the Maya calendar, and the projection that it — or, more accurately, a cycle within it — will end on Dec. 21, 2012. That date has kicked up a swirl...

Those who have implied that the President’s health care law will establish “death panels,” have encountered excessive criticism. Yet, more and more information is being released identifying that rationing of care will in fact occur, and that it will be done by government bureaucracies.For example, a phone call into The Mark Levin Show on WLS 890 from a Chicago neurosurgeon last month revealed that a Health and Human Services (HHS) document, associated with the Obama Administration’s federal health law, will inhibit patients over the age of 70 from receiving neurological care. Instead of receiving “advanced neurosurgical care,” “units,” (meaning patients),...

The Internet is a dangerous place. It's full of resources, both good and bad; full of citations linking one to another, sometimes helpfully, sometimes not. Today we're going to point the skeptical eye at ten of the worst web sites in terms of quality of science information that they promote. To make this list, they not only need to have bad information, they also need to be popular enough to warrant our attention. Many of these sites promote some particular ideology, but I want to be clear that that's not why they're here. Sites that make this list are only...

April 07, 2009 • Speech to Texas Home School Association Thank you, Tim [Lambert, President, Texas Home School Coalition], for those kind words, and thank you for all you do to equip, inform and defend home school families in our states. It is an honor to be here with some of our state’s most gifted students and most committed teachers: the members of the Texas Home School Coalition. My parents didn’t home school me, but the size of our rural community made it seem that they were practically in the classroom with me, given the way that news of my...

January 13, 2010: Gov. Perry: Texas Knows Best How to Educate Our Students - Texas will not apply for Federal Race to the Top Funding Gov. Rick Perry today announced that Texas will not submit an application for federal Race to the Top education funds. Despite tremendous education successes, Texas’ application would be penalized by the U.S. Department of Education for refusing to commit to adopt national curriculum standards and tests and to incur ongoing costs. “Texas is on the right path toward improved education, and we would be foolish and irresponsible to place our children’s future in the hands...

Another Asian Fukushima Imminent? Taiwan imports 99 percent of its energy, which is vital to its rapidly industrializing economy. The island nation's electricity demand was recently growing at almost 5 percent per year, but this is slowing to about 3.3 percent per annum to 2013. Nuclear power has been a significant part of the electricity supply for two decades and now provides 17 percent of the country's overall energy needs. But this has come at a potential cost. The country's three nuclear power plants (NPPs) comprise four General Electric boiling water reactors and two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors. Taiwan launched its nuclear power project...

Atheist militant Richard Dawkins has produced a children's book entitled "The Magic of Reality" and in doing so has joined the Millstone Swim and Dive Club. Spreading his venom for God to kids under the guise of Scientism is about as putrid as it gets. Children using simple God-given logic conclude the existence of a creator. It requires an abandonment of logic to attain self omniscience and declare there is no God. The materialist's faith in the escape hatch of "there just wasn't enough evidence for me" won't wash on judgement day. Here's a book idea: The ghost of Christopher...

Ben Breedlove, 18, succumbed to a heart condition on Christmas night

On November 11 I wrote a defense of Mona Davids related to the stunning fact free story written by intrepid New York Post reporter Carl Campanile on November 10. The next day I get an email from Anthony Krinsky, author of the Edobserver blog telling me I had just been made famous by him. Wow, I said to myself, how did this happen? Krinsky wrote a post debunking what I had written as well as the tenets of Mona's organization New York City Parents Union. As I was reading this I was quite curious as to how the 5-10 people...

Flightradar24 shows live airplane traffic from different parts around the world. The technique to receive flight information from aircraft is called ADS-B. That means the Flightradar24 can only show information about aircraft equipped with an ADS-B transponder. Today about 60% (about 30% in USA and about 70% in Europe) of the passenger aircraft and only a small amount of military and private aircraft have an ADS-B transponder.

A mysterious metal ball reportedly fell from space , landing in a grasslands area of the African nation of Namibia. So far experts claim the object is not of alien origin. It has two bumps on each end, appears to be hollow and weights about 13 pounds.

I went recently to San Francisco to give a talk to a conference of scientists. The scientists were experts in gathering together mountains of biological data—genome sequences, results of experiments and clinical trials—and figuring out how to make them useful: turning them into new diagnostic tests, for example, or a drug for cancer. The invitation was an honor, but a nerve-wracking one. As a journalist, I had no genome scan to offer the audience. We science writers do have one ace in the hole, though. Instead of being lashed to a lab bench for years, carrying out experiments to illuminate...

A mysterious metal ball reportedly fell from space , landing in a grasslands area of the African nation of Namibia. So far experts claim the object is not of alien origin. It has two bumps on each end, appears to be hollow and weights about 13 pounds. Namibia's National Forensic Science Institute Director Paul Ludik said the sphere is 3.6 feet around and is made out of a "sophisticated" alloy that is not unknown to modern science, although it has no identifying markings to link it with a country or a company. So far that's about all we're told. But...

What do solar energy companies have in common with Second Lieutenants on the first day of the Somme? Yes, that's right. (H/T GWPF) In Germany, especially, the attrition rate has been amazing. According to Reuters, no fewer than 5,000 German solar companies have gone bust in the last year, shedding around 20,000 jobs. Workers in Germany's once booming solar energy industry face a shakeout of major proportions following declines in the price of solar panels over the past year. Cuts in subsidies for solar energy, weaker demand for panels and fierce competition from cheaper Asian rivals are eating into what...

Shell’s Interest Indicates Major Shift for LENR Posted on December 16, 2011 by Steven B. Krivit Shell’s Interest Indicates Major Shift for LENR Royal Dutch Shell, plc, one of the largest energy companies in the world, is interested in exploring low-energy nuclear reaction research as a possible game-changer in the energy business. Two Shell scientists, Anitha Sarkar and Gilles Buchs, with the backing of the Shell GameChanger program, are looking for opportunities to work actively with LENR experts, according to a brief introduction the researchers prepared. Edward Beardsworth, a venture capitalist at Jane Capital Partners in San Francisco, introduced the...