Free Republic

The slippery slope is real.  Once the state gets in the business of killing off its citizens via euthanasia, the brutal logic of economics works its way through the system.  In Canada, which legalized euthanasia just over a year ago, one of the most important forums for political discussion, Maclean's Magazine, published an article arguing that doctors ought to be paid a premium for killing off euthanizing terminal patients. And of course, it was all so reasonable in tone.  It really is a lot of work for the doctors, you see. Most providers need to meet with their patient a couple times...

The city of Baltimore widely publicized their “Nobody Kill Anybody Weekend” this past weekend in the local press. Unfortunately local criminals refused to listen. At least two people were shot dead over the weekend. Baltimore is another bankrupt and crime-ridden Democratic city.

Late last month, about 100 researchers from around the world gathered at Logan International Airport in Boston. A fleet of buses appeared to whisk them to a remote and luxurious ski resort in northeastern Maine. They met to talk, drink, and cogitate off the record for five days about a messy solution to one of the world’s most challenging problems. They had gathered to discuss how to provide humanity one last line of defense against catastrophic global warming: solar geoengineering. The idea behind solar geoengineering is simple. For the last four decades, humanity has struggled to reduce the amount of...

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology announced that the equipment at several cold-weather temperature stations was being replaced to make it "fit for purpose."  What the bureau didn't mention is that once the equipment was in place, temperatures from those stations dropped. Climate Depot: A record of the Thredbo Top station for 3am on Wednesday shows a temperature reading of -10.6C. This compares with the BoM's monthly highlights for June and July, both showing a low of -9.6C. The BoM said it had taken immed­iate action to replace the Thredbo station after concerns were raised that very low temperatures were not making...

Believe it or not, Fresno State has discovered that Hate Speech can emanate from the Left. "A history professor at Fresno State University who tweeted that President Trump 'must hang' will not be returning to teach in the fall," the Associated Press reports. "University President Joseph Castro said in a statement Friday that Lars Maischak, an American history instructor, wouldn't be teaching when classes resume." "But Castro said two of Maischak's courses would be converted to an online format to fulfill a contractual obligation. Castro said Maischak's contractual assignment expires on December 20, 2017." "Maischak's three-year contract runs through May...

HELLO MUDDAH (A LETTER FROM CAMP PRADA)Tune: “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” (A Letter from Camp Granada)Hello Muddah, it’s your “daughtah” That you sent here to Camp Prada; Camp is very entertaining, But they say we’ll have to undergo retraining. I went hiking with Joe Cooley, Only now Joe goes by “Julie”; You remember Leonard Skinner-- He’s now “Lena,” and they took his fidget spinner. All the counselors hate my gender, Say I just need to surrender; So they coach us to be sissies, And they say we must sit down when we go piss, please. Every morning we play soccer,...

The shift to the left by Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York demonstrates the power of a party base that is abandoning the Jewish state. Both were once rock-solid supporters of Israel. But both have other priorities these days — they are thinking about running for president in 2020. Their problem is that no one who plans to compete in future Democratic primaries can ignore the growing power of their party’s left wing, which has grown increasingly hostile to Israel. The influence of the far left is the only thing that might explain...

Market breadth, a measure of how many stocks are rising versus the number that are dropping, has turned “exceedingly negative,” according to Brad Lamensdorf, a portfolio manager at Ranger Alternative Management. Lamensdorf writes the Lamensdorf Market Timing Report newsletter and runs the AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF HDGE, -0.64% an exchange-traded fund that “shorts” stocks, or bets that they will fall. “As the indexes continue to produce a series of higher highs, subsurface conditions are painting an entirely different picture,” Lamensdorf wrote in the latest edition of the newsletter. He noted that the year-to-date advance in equities — the S&P...

But Sunday, as he promoted his book on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Flake took his assault on Trumpism back years further — all the way to the pre-dawn of Trump’s political rise, to “when the birtherism thing was going on,” as Flake put it to host Chuck Todd. “Some people did stand up, but not enough,” the senator said. “That was particularly ugly.” “Did you do enough?” Todd asked. Flake smiled. “On that, I think I did.” Flake was a congressman in 2011, when Trump flirted with a presidential run against President Barack Obama. The current president did so “spouting...

‘The Circle’: Tom Hanks Takes a Swing at Liberal Groupthink at Apple and Google Tom Hanks produced the movie The Circle that takes a look at the liberal groupthink of a large Silicon Valley technology company. In any major liberal organization, such as at Apple or Google, the liberal ideology becomes groupthink: Think like they do or be banished. The movie, The Circle, portrays Emma Watson as a new employee who is indoctrinated into the groupthink of a large fictitious company called The Circle. The company has similar appearances as a cross between Apple and Google. Tom Hanks plays the...

I missed this when it was announced roughly two weeks ago but it’s worth pointing out even now. Two activists confessed to multiple acts of sabotage against the Dakota Access Pipeline using cutting torches and other tools. The two women, who are part of an Iowa’s Catholic Worker social justice movement, made the announcement before a small group of journalists and then started prying letters off a sign for the Iowa Utilities Board, which got them arrested. From the Des Moines Register:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) -- It's official: Tebowmania is a hit for the St. Lucie Mets, and for the Florida State League. Bolstered significantly by Tim Tebow's presence on the roster, the Class A Mets affiliate in the FSL has already set a single-season home attendance record with about a month left to play. The team record was toppled on Friday night, when 3,399 fans pushed the attendance for the season to 108,057. Over the Mets' first 29 seasons, the record attendance mark was 105,379. St. Lucie is seeing nearly a 50 percent jump in average attendance per game...

Beefore coaxing veteran quarterback Jay Cutler out of retirement this weekend, the Miami Dolphins reportedly considered a number of other options after starter Ryan Tannehill re-injured his left knee during practice last week. One of those options was Tim Tebow, according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. It actually kind of makes sense. Cutler is seen as a natural choice for Miami coach Adam Gase, who was Cutler’s offensive coordinator in Chicago during the 2015 season. That ended up being one of Cutler’s best statistical years — he threw for 3,659 yards while completing 64.4% of his passes with...

Most Americans are at least somewhat aware of what is happening at American (and European) universities with regard to conservative speakers. Universities disinvite conservative speakers, never invite them or allow the violent (or threatened violent) prevention of them. No non-left-wing idea should be permitted on campus. But we may have hit a new low. Let me explain. For years, I have been conducting symphony orchestras in Southern California. I have conducted the Brentwood-Westwood, Glendale and West Los Angeles Symphony Orchestras, the Pasadena Lyric Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. I have studied classical music since high...

The micro-brains are created by genetically altering skin cells, which causes them to revert to stem cells that are capable of becoming any type of cell. They are then triggered into growing into neurons. The structures currently only grow to around 2mm (0.08 inches), but they could help scientists to see how dementia takes hold of brain cells and spreads. The work may eventually allow the team to grow replacement brain parts for transplanting into Alzheimer's patients. Speaking to The Telegraph, Professor Edik Rafalov of the university said: 'This is kind of science fiction. 'We're trying to help neurons to...

LifeSite News reports that The Pontifical Academy of Science (PAS) has announced yet another population control conference. You can read the article here. The bottom line is that the invited speakers at this conference include various climate alarmists who zealously preach the pretext of man-made climate change to justify their agenda of population control (including birth control and abortion) which must be carried out by global governance in order to save the planet. One of the speakers at the coming conference even said “sometimes politicians have to take citizens to task “with coercion” to overcome their own resistance to change.”...

"We have a majority in the House and Senate and it feels like nothing's getting done," 32-year-old James Hulsey said just before Ryan recently toured his workplace. Sensing the angst, Ryan has been much more visible in his southeast Wisconsin district as Republicans failed to deliver on their yearslong promise to scrap the health care law and new polling numbers show the speaker is less popular among Republicans in Wisconsin than President Donald Trump. Trump won Wisconsin by less than a percentage point, but he carried Ryan's district by 10 points. In the remaining months of the year, Ryan and...

[]Full tite: FBI: 'Improvised explosive device' caused blast at Bloomington Islamic center **SNIP** A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked a Bloomington Islamic center before dawn Saturday...The blast was reported at 5:05 a.m.Even before the FBI update, congregants said the blast appeared to be a hate crime. Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, who was in the building when the explosion erupted...The building was once the site of Northgate Elementary School and Concordia High School. It also served as a worship space for Maranatha Community Church. The Dar Al Farooq Center bought it in...

President Trump is on vacation, but that hasn’t stopped him from watching early morning cable TV and tweeting angrily in response. On Monday, President Trump went after Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who was on CNN earlier in the morning to discuss the ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. Blumenthal also expressed concern that the Trump administration has “weaponized” investigations into leaks of classified information. On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the agency will be aggressively investigating leaks to the media. Blumenthal’s remarks touched off a trio of tweets from Trump, who began...

Project Description Since 2012, we have been investigating the use of algorithms, automation and computational propaganda in public life. Political bots are manipulating public opinion over major social networking applications. This project enables a new team of social and information scientists to investigate the impact of automated scripts, commonly called bots, on social media. We study both the bot scripts and the people making such bots, and then work with computer scientists to improve the way we catch and stop such bots. Experience suggests that political bots are most likely to appear during an international crisis, and are usually designed...