Free Republic

As a scientist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Frances Kelsey single-handedly prevented thalidomide, a drug now infamous for causing horrific birth defects, from reaching patients in the United States. Today, 70 years later, we Americans are fortunate to have thousands of people like Dr. Kelsey working across the federal government to protect us not just from dangerous pharmaceuticals, but also from banks that might cheat us out of our hard-earned money and from employers who think nothing of risking their workers’ lives. Instead of being celebrated, though, our public servants find themselves the target of escalating political...

SEATTLE — Only 10 active Houston Texans players stood for the national anthem with the rest of the team kneeling down. The Texans had indicated there would be some type of protest following comments by owner Bob McNair. McNair has issued two apologies and is attempting to explain his comments after a story in ESPN The Magazine this week revealed that he said "we can't have the inmates running the prison" during a meeting of NFL owners about players who protest by kneeling during the national anthem. There were reports the Texans would consider staying in the locker room for...

Here’s something you won’t read about in the US history books. The first legal slave owner in America was black and he owned white slaves. Anthony Johnson (BC 1600 – 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th century Colony of Virginia. Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab (Muslim) slave traders. He was eventually sold as an indentured servant to a merchant working for the Virginia Company. Sometime after 1635, Antonio and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. Antonio changed his name to Anthony Johnson. In 1651 Anthony...

Dylan Leonard Brown is all of 30, with a master’s in psychology and an expansive résumé that includes three years working as an estate manager for a former ambassador and overseeing a household staff of 12, along with three properties, one yacht, numerous automobiles and a multimillion dollar annual budget. Mr. Brown also planned around 100 events every year, including a three-day colloquium on human trafficking and an orchestral concert. (The ambassador was an amateur composer, so Mr. Brown hired an orchestra and choir, auditioned soloists and hired street canvassers to hand out fliers at the Gay Pride Parade in...

“All things belong to us, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” Paul made that tremendous, seemingly unqualified promise to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:21–23). Christians are free. Yet there is a paradox that balances that truth. Though free, all Christians are slaves. It is a new kind of bondage: we are “servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). As willing slaves, we must voluntarily restrict our own liberty for others’ sakes. Isn’t that what Jesus Himself taught? “If anyone wants...

I recently read the new biography of Trotsky by Oxford don Robert Service, published in 2009 by Pan Books. It is well-written and surprisingly interesting. The book does a great public service in describing the life of the actual Trotsky, whose previous “biographies” were little more than hagiographies written by his toady worshippers (people like Isaac Deutscher). The last time that I had taken any interest in Trotsky was when I was a teenager and had fleeting delusions of believing in “socialism.” Reading the new book as an adult and as an economist, I found it a useful opportunity to...

The Priests Aboard Titanic Four Stories of Faith, Courage, and Providence By: Louise Perrotta April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic. The luxury liner hit an iceberg and sank five days into its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York. Only 700 people survived, out of 2,200 passengers and crew. Titanic, called the first disaster of the media global age, has been commemorated in countless books, dozens of movies and TV series, and even a Broadway musical. The fascination lives on, and this year’s anniversary is being marked by numerous productions, exhibits,...

Over the weekend came the exciting news that West Virginia officials have been so diligent in their work that the state now has saved $1 billion — at least on paper. “West Virginia is already reaping benefits from recent efforts to rein in public retiree health benefit costs, officials say: They expect to shrink the projected funding shortfall further, by more than $1 billion, and a Wall Street credit rating agency appears ready to praise the state’s handling of its last major liability,” reported Lawrence Messina of the Associated Press. Now $1 billion might not seem like much in other...

In America, the federal government seems to control everything. Light bulbs, shoe leather, refrigerators, even the water strength in your shower. Your banker, your doctor, your lawyer, your computer all are regulated beyond belief. What is it in America that the feds can’t control? The answer is simple: human nature. We need to eat, and we need to move about; and that means we will use the free market in order to do so, with or without the government.Every capable human engages in market exchanges, even in those countries where it’s illegal. Through all of history, humans have advanced civilization...

High-strength marijuana plants have been found just yards from the mansion of slain al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden who was killed by US commandos deep inside Pakistan on Sunday. CNN reported from close to the 9/11 mastermind's mansion in the military garrison town of Abbottabad today that the marijuana plants were growing alongside other crops including cabbages and potatoes. Despite being a short walk from a military training academy dubbed 'Pakistan's Sandhurst'--800 yards away-- the illegal crop had remained undiscovered, it said

In April 2008, The Orange County Register published a bombshell of an investigation about a license plate program for California government workers and their families. Drivers of nearly 1 million cars and light trucks—out of a total 22 million vehicles registered statewide—were protected by a “shield” in the state records system between their license plate numbers and their home addresses. There were, the newspaper found, great practical benefits to this secrecy. “Vehicles with protected license plates can run through dozens of intersections controlled by red light cameras with impunity,” the Register’s Jennifer Muir reported. “Parking citations issued to vehicles with...

Move over Wall Street traders -- seems there's a new vampire squid in town. Civil servants? Passage Tuesday of a controversial bill sending billions of dollars to states to shore up payrolls for public school teachers further stoked the debate over whether government employees, their unions and their benefits packages are bankrupting the country. "[The bill] will make the teachers unions happy, but it won't make teaching in schools better," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., at a press conference Tuesday during which he and other Republican leaders criticized legislation earmarking $26 billion in aid for school districts and other state...

The radical left economist Paul Krugman recently opined that the United States is headed into a jobless recovery despite the three-quarter trillion dollar “stimulus” package that the Obama administration said would keep unemployment below 8%. According to one report, the “unemployment rate, now 9.7 percent in the United States and 11.9 percent in California, will continue to rise.” But these unemployment statistics only reflect those who are actually collecting unemployment checks. They do not reflect how many people have run out of unemployment benefits and thus fallen off the official radar screen. Krugman’s prescription, of course, is to have another...

Recession, Depression, What, Michelle Worry? Mrs. Obama Demands Small Army of Attendants “In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much,” she said. “See, that’s why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service,”— Michelle Obama. We were wrong. Michelle Obama, as we reported on July 7, is not served by twenty-two attendants who stand by to cater to her every whim. She is served by twenty-six attendants, including a hair dresser and make-up artist. The annual cost...

Have you seen the video Oprah Winfrey produced on YouTube, led by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher? It was shown on TV as if it were news. But in a way, it is news. No, the brainless blather of so-called stars is of little importance in itself. But what is noteworthy is that so many celebrities spent so much effort and money, and that over a million viewers watched the video on YouTube, and that many more saw it on TV, and that it was considered news − when all it represents is shameless adulation of President Obama to the...

As millions of Americans are adjusting their lives and their pocketbooks to the new reality of exploding gas prices, our elected representatives continue toiling endlessly on our behalf. A house subcommittee last week voted down a GOP led measure that would allow the U.S. to open up off shore areas for oil exploration. "The United States can't drill its way out of this problem", our servants endlessy intoned, as they effectively denied Americans the app. 86 billion barrels of oil that lie off our coasts. Oh well, they're the experts. And after all, based on the latest Rasmussen poll only...

(02-08) 09:45 PST WASHINGTON D.C. -- A political odd couple, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House spokesman Tony Snow, today slammed critics of Pelosi's bid to use a government plane that can fly her nonstop between Washington and her home district in San Francisco. "This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker,'' Snow told reporters. E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.

Three former aides to U.S. Rep. John Conyers say the lawmaker used them as baby sitters and personal servants while they were supposed to be working in his Michigan offices. The aides said that Conyers had them tutor and care for his two sons; help his wife, now-City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, with law studies; and drive him to political and private events. The accusations come from Deanna Maher, former chief of Conyers' office in Southgate; Sydney Rooks, Conyers' lawyer from 1997 to 2000; and Dean Christian Thornton, a legislative aide fired in January, according to the Detroit Free Press. Maker...

Pharmacists who "just say no" when asked to fill prescriptions that violate their personal ethics are targeted by proposed state legislation that would mandate all prescriptions be filled. Some local druggists are not happy about the bill, authored by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, which would be the first in the nation to require filling emergency contraception prescriptions, even if the pharmacist feels it violates his or her personal morals. The owner of Napa's Family Drug on Old Sonoma Road, Thomas Gracia, has mixed feelings. "I think people should be able to get the prescriptions that they need," he said. "However,...