Free Republic

The study, led by scientists at the University of Bath and including collaborators from Bristol, Cambridge and Germany, used fossils and analysed genetic differences between modern snakes to reconstruct snake evolution. The analyses helped to pinpoint the time that modern snakes evolved.Their results show that all living snakes trace back to just a handful of species that survived the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, the same extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.The authors argue that the ability of snakes to shelter underground and go for long periods without food helped them survive the destructive effects of the impact. In...

Diet-induced changes in the human bite resulted in new sounds such as "f" in languages all over the world, a study by an international team led by researchers at the University of Zurich has shown. The findings contradict the theory that the range of human sounds has remained fixed throughout human history. Human speech is incredibly diverse, ranging from ubiquitous sounds like "m" and "a" to the rare click consonants in some languages of Southern Africa. This range of sounds is generally thought to have been established with the emergence of the Homo sapiens around 300,000 years ago. A study...

Boris Johnson under pressure to explain whether position has changed after tweet blaming Moscow is deleted. Boris Johnson is facing embarrassing questions over his claims that Russia had produced the Salisbury nerve agent after it emerged that the Foreign Office had deleted a tweet blaming Moscow for the attack. With the foreign secretary already under pressure over his remarks two weeks ago that a Porton Down scientist had been “absolutely categorical” that the novichok had originated in the country, Jeremy Corbyn accused Johnson of “completely exceeding the information he had been given” after the emergence of the deleted tweet. But...

But Obama has had a committed group of electeds aiding and abetting his treasonous assault on our freedoms and it’s not ipse dixit when I say that. John Boehner, Mitch McConnell in the Senate, the RNC, and Karl Rove are as responsible for our decline as the Socialist Leftists and Barack Obama, if not more so. And I will tell you why.

Link only, per FR posting rules

A troll 'beauty' contest, is there a more perfect oxymoron? That was the name of the game Saturday evening at Norsk Hstfest, where a dozen local elementary and middle-school students donned grotesque masks, scary wigs and trashy threads as each vyed for such titles as "Longest nose", "Best horn", "Biggest wart", "Best eyebrows" and several other characteristics atypical of a traditional beauty contest. "We wanted to do the contest to recognize the efforts these kids put toward creating their costumes," said Tracey Lawson, who helped coordinate the event. The troll costumes were made at the Scandinavian youth camps, held the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain says the absence of ailing Ted Kennedy in pushing health-care reform has made a "huge, huge difference" in whether legislation gets passed. McCain praised Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, as a master negotiator who could bring together parties with different points of view and make the right concessions to reach agreement. McCain said health-care reform might be in a very different place today if Kennedy had been able to participate in the discussions.

I will not link to his site but the slimeball Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs IS BLAMING AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR VIOLENCE BEING PERPETRATED AGAINST THEM. This racist bigot has posted hateful things about arabs & muslims for years (not just terrorists but all muslims). Violence is wrong! Now surprise surprise when a black man is beaten & hospitalized in St. Louis by SEIU thugs and a cancer patient and business man are assaulted in Tampa by SEIU thugs it's their own fault. This man has a DEFECT and it's sick that any conservative EVER listened to him just because...

During the 2008 presidential race, America's Independent Party leaders warned against the notion that somehow John McCain represented any sort of real alternative to Barack Obama. The proof of that assertion continues to mount. Even on matters that affect the very physical survival of our nation, the Senator from Arizona sets no bounds on compromise.

AP photos (source)

The following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyed of the Egyptian National Research Center. Al-Majd TV aired this interview on January 16, 2005 Dr. 'Abd Al-Baset Sayyid: The centrality [of Mecca] has been proven scientifically. How? When they traveled to outer space and took pictures of the earth, they saw that it is a dark, hanging sphere. The man said, "Earth is a dark hanging sphere – who hung it?" Interviewer: Who said that? Dr. 'Abd Al-Baset Sayyid: [Neil] Armstrong. Armstrong was basically trying to say: Allah is the one who hung it. They discovered that...

[snip] Chrysler’s TC by Maserati (1989–91) Arrogance, thy name is Lee Iacocca. In the late 1980s, the Chrysler chairman and perpetual huckster turned a friendship with Alejandro de Tomaso, then president of Maserati, into the most shudder-worthy example of corporate avarice ever to roll off an assembly line. Chrysler’s TC by Maserati was little more than a Milan-built K-car with a few pricey underhood components and some styling hackery, a wrinkly grandmother dressed up in custom running shoes and ill-fitting hot pants. The Maserati trident plastered on the grille just added insult to injury. [snip]

Poll: Independents reject Obama, agree with Libertarian PartyPolling shows independents aren't buying Obama’s promises of prosperity through Big Government WASHINGTON -- Despite a deep financial crisis and the election of a left-wing president, political independents still see “big government” as a greater than “big business” by an unchanged two-to-one margin, America’s third-largest party notes today. “Independent voters believed Candidate Obama when he said he would be mainstream. Their trusting votes gave him a narrow victory,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “But now that the real Barack Obama has revealed himself, they’re not following his bootlegger turn toward...

I have bad news for you. I have it on good authority that the congressional Republican leadership, if that is not an oxymoron, plans to give Barack Obama a pass on all of his major appointments. They'll give them a bye. They'll close their eyes, cover their ears and speak no evil against some of the most dangerous nominees for high posts in an administration in American history. I'm talking about kooks and crazies like Cass Sunstein, the so-called "regulatory czar," who once proposed what can only be characterized as a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet including a notion for...

HUMAN EVENTS has learned from staff sources that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa) is about to announce his switch to the Democratic Party. Developing….

Re Randy Barnett's Proposed "Federalism Amendment", here's an amended version that I think would be an improvement: Section 1: Secession. Any State or Indian tribe may, by an act of its legislature, secede from the United States. Section 2: Nature of the Union. From the perspective of the United States, the States are sovereign and are the parties to the Constitution, which is a compact among the States. Section 3: Nullification. (a) When a national majority the States of the United States declares a decision by any federal court to be inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution, the said decision shall...

The American Republic is 226 years old. The Roman Empire lasted 13 centuries before collapsing. The Roman emperors attempted to stave off the collapse by providing bread and circuses to the masses. Feeding Christians to lions worked only for so long. I picture Caligula “Mad Money” Cramer exhorting the masses that the worst was over and not to worry about the Vandals and the Huns. Nero “Mustard Seed” Kudlow probably saw a recovery on the horizon as Barbarians were at the gates of the city. Cleopatra “Money Honey” Bartiromo was proclaiming that the stupid masses didn’t know what was best...

This past election showed that Republicans in America are in trouble.  The culprit may simply be the public's fatigue with an eight year Republican administration (not to mention the fact that McCain ran a singularly inept campaign).  President Obama's startling ascendency, though, a career trajectory that took place despite the absence of any meaningful resume and the presence of some very eyebrow-raising associates, indicates that the Republican Party's problems run deeper than fatigue and campaign ineptitude. So let's start with a question:  When was the last time America had more registered Republicans than registered Democrats?  1955?  1928?  I don't know...

Apparently, the briefs were written by the ICR’s own James J.S. Johnson, whom FindLaw describes as a “family lawyer.” Mr. Johnson is not listed in Martindale-Hubbell (which is where you should go to read peer reviews on anyone you’re thinking of hiring as a lawyer), but he does write some crazy, crazy stuff for ICR’s website. (ICR’s local counsel in Texas seems to be the firm of Adams, Lynch & Loftin, P.C., but they do not appear to be actively involved in the litigation so far.) I should add that “family law” generally means as “divorce law,” and in general,...

(snip) ...... “It was communicated back to us very clearly from within the party that not only was Senator Lieberman not acceptable, but any pro-choice nominee was not acceptable, [and] it would lead to a floor fight at the convention with an alternate nominee for vice president put into play. “Blowing up the party wasn’t one of the menu items of things that were going to improve our situation,” he said. Schmidt also criticized his party’s political performance in the early days of the Obama presidency. “As a matter of reality, in the first 100 days, [the Republican Party] has...