Free Republic

In addition to my career as a PhD chemist, I am one of a select few who enjoy the privilege of moderating content on reddit.com’s science forum. The science forum is a small part of reddit, but it nonetheless enjoys over 4 million subscribers. By comparison, that’s roughly twice the circulation of The New York Times. The forum, known as /r/science, provides a digital space for discussions about recent, peer-reviewed scientific publications. This puts us (along with /r/AskScience) on the front line of the science-public interface. On our little page, scientists and nonscientists can connect through discussions on everything from...

He was bullied for his outspoken opinions and didn't care much for Republicans. Karl Pierson, 18, who stormed his Colorado high school brandishing a shotgun and bearing hatred for his debate coach, critically injured a 15-year-old fellow student before shooting himself to death Friday afternoon as he was cornered by heavily armed police. "He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff," said junior Abbey Skoda, who shared a class with Pierson during her freshmen year, The Denver Post reported. "I also heard he was bullied a lot." After undergoing surgery Friday, the injured girl was listed in critical,...

Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that President Barack Obama had shaken hands with Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe. However, the UK Telegraph's Josie Ensor reported that Obama "was asked to take his seat just before reaching Mugabe." Complicating matters, another article in the UK Telegraph also claimed that Obama had shaken hands with Mugabe--in very similar terms to those used in the NBC article. Breitbart News caught the discrepancy--and suddenly the NBC News article was corrected, with no notice. Before: On his way to the rostrum, Obama also shook the hand of Robert Mugabe, the strongman ruler of Zimbabwe, and hugged...

Nelson Mandela: Israel Is Terrorist and Islamic Arabs Are Innocent By Julio Severo If you believe the leftist Christian press, Nelson Mandela was… a Christian! Sheer indoctrination by the mainstream secular media? No doubt. The secular press has portrayed Mandela as a hero. A major Protestant news site in Brazil published a list of nice quotes by Mandela. By reading exclusively these nice quotes, you could say that he was a hero and even a Christian. Yassir Arafat and Nelson Mandela Yet, what about the other quotes? Since the mainstream media and even the Christian press will not show...

Mandela's final act of peace: Obama shakes hands with Fidel Castro's brother (before selfies with David Cameron and Danish PM) President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro today, an unprecedented gesture of friendship which occurred, fittingly, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. The handshake between leaders of the two Cold War enemies took place during a ceremony which honored the former South African President's powerful legacy of reconciliation... He was later spotted in the VIP stands posing for a 'selfie' camera phone picture with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning Schmidt...

Obama is urging the world to act on Mandela's legacy by fighting inequality, poverty and racism. He says progress in the U.S. and South Africa mustn't cloud the fact there's still work to be done. He says South Africa shows us that we can change.

Elian Gonzalez, the focus of a bitter international custody dispute after he was rescued at sea as a child, left Cuba on Friday for the first time since 2000, when the U.S. government returned him to the island. Gonzalez, who also turned 20 on Friday, traveled to Quito, Ecuador, as part of a 200-member Cuban delegation to a weeklong youth conference there. "Fidel Castro for me is like a father," Gonzalez said in the recent interview. "I don't profess to have any religion but if I did my God would be Fidel Castro. He is like a ship that knew...

I just saw a video shot of the White House and the flag is being flown at half staff. I can only assume this is due to Mandela's death. I am curious if it customary to fly the flag at half staff for death of foreign leaders.

Republican men in Congress “aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be” when it comes to running against female candidates and appealing to female voters, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday. “We’re trying to get them to be a little more sensitive,” Boehner said at his weekly Capitol press conference. “You look around the Congress, there are a lot more females in the Democratic caucus than there are in the Republican caucus. And some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be.” The Speaker was responding to a question about an article in Politico reporting that...

Nelson Mandela, the revered statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid, has died, South African President Jacob Zuma announced late Thursday. Mandela was 95. "He is now resting. He is now at peace," Zuma said. "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father." "What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human," the president said in his late-night address. "We saw in him what we seek in ourselves." Mandela will have a state funeral. Zuma ordered all flags in the nation to be...

Former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, has died. In an announcement today, a spokesman stated that he “departed… in the presence of his family.” “He is now resting, he is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” he added. Mandela was 95.

It happens every year. Someone on the left goes so overboard in their hatred for America that they can’t even let Thanksgiving pass without their wacky comments. This year, Huffington Post author Nicole Breedlove didn’t disappoint. Her piece bashed America under the headline: “Happy National Genocide (Thanksgiving) Day!” Breedlove doesn't miss a beat—slamming everyone from Columbus and to the Pilgrims while invoking images of the Holocaust and 9/11. She began her piece talking about how her family “always gave thanks that all the Native Americans weren’t wiped out when Columbus ‘discovered’ America.” Because, of course, liberals assume Columbus personally killed...

Cher told her fans on Wednesday that she does not celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, she appears to deplore the American holiday, calling in the “beginning of a great crime.” Cher said that the American settlers were guilty of taking land from native Americans who had no concept of property ownership and also intentionally infected them with smallpox. “You don’t celebrate the holiday I thought?” a fan asked Cher. “I DON’T,” Cher replied emphatically. She said that, to her, Thanksgiving is a day to see family, eat food together and watch a movie. “Not 2 celebrate the beginning of a GREAT...

True story. A couple of years back, I was walking home at night on North Capitol Street here in Washington, D.C., when two dudes randomly assaulted me before running away without stealing anything. At the time, I didn't think it was all that strange—I've lived in urban areas all my life, and plenty of people I know have been victims of anonymous street crime.

Elian Gonzalez, the object of a 1999-2000 custody squabble involving Washington, Havana and family members on both sides of the Florida Strait, holds a piece of U.S. legislation directly responsible for what he endured then, Cuban official media said Monday. "They were very sad times for me, which marked me for my whole life. I was never given the chance to have a moment to think about my mother, who as a result of that (U.S.) Cuban Adjustment Act died at sea," the now-19-year-old Gonzalez said last weekend during a Union of Young Communists event. ~snip~ The 1966 Cuban Adjustment...

CBS This Morning's Charlie Rose sets up the segment with the words that should put a chill down the spine of every American, "CBS News is learning that another promise by the government isn't holding up. Some who get their insurance through work are losing their coverage." Eight Americans already feeling the sting of that broken promise work for Nancy Clark, a small business owner in New Hampshire who was featured in a White House online ad promoting ObamaCare. "The healthcare law is about me. It's NancyCare," Clark gushes. Reality intruded last month when her insurance company boosted premiums by...

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday declared that a nearly 200-year-old policy which had governed Washington's relations with Latin America was finally dead. Known as the Monroe Doctrine after it was adopted in 1823 by former US president James Monroe, the policy had stated that any efforts by European countries to colonize land in North or South America would be views as aggressive acts and could require US intervention. “The doctrine that bears (Monroe’s) name asserted our authority to step in and oppose the influence of European powers in Latin America,” Kerry told an audience at the Organization...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said over the weekend that he's getting lots of pressure to run for president again, but that "it's not on my radar." McCain said previously that he's considering running for reelection when his Senate seat is up in 2016, when he will be 80 years old.

Piers Morgan used a fake news site to mock Sarah Palin on Twitter on Thursday. He linked to the satirical news site The Daily Currant saying that Palin claimed Jesus celebrated Easter. "And she's back!" Morgan gloated, with absolutely no mention that the article was fake. When critics told him the website was satire, Morgan answered that he knew it was. Yet he praised the notion that it was believable. "That's the beauty of it," Morgan wrote when someone tweeted that it was "hilarious even if its fake. Why? I believed it." That wasn't the first time Morgan has derided...

A sculpture in memory of Olympia activist Rachel Corrie will be dedicated Wednesday in the Activities Building at The Evergreen State College. The Olympian reports ( http://bit.ly/16sYebN ) the bronze and steel representation of a dove on the tip of a pyramid is called "Reflecting on Peace and Justice." Corrie was killed in 2003 in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli military bulldozer as she attempted to stop it from demolishing a Palestinian home.