Free Republic

Last week, a Native American botanist argued that the genetic modification of crops is a form of rape. Perhaps the next step in the #MeToo movement involves returning to the low crop yields before the Green Revolution, which saved billions of lives by making food more available through genetic modification, among other things. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY-Syracuse, called corn "one of our deepest and oldest relatives." In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio, she humanized corn as the "Corn Mother,"...

Tariffs on Chinese goods ‘could go to 50 per cent or 100 per cent’, Michael Pillsbury says. But the American leader is not pursuing ‘cold war 2.0’, and US-China decoupling would be a ‘consequence of no agreement’ by Beijing, he says. The United States is set to ramp up the pressure on China if a trade deal is not agreed soon, a key White House adviser said... Described by US President Donald Trump as “the leading authority on China”, Michael Pillsbury said in an interview in Hong Kong on Thursday that Trump had been “remarkably restrained in the pressure he...

TGIFF! Its Fiddle Friday and we feature Dale Potter with There's an Old Spinning Wheel (1982). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

She has won awards and accolades, and has been feted internationally for her scientific work, but now a woman hailed as one of Greece's youngest and brightest minds has come under more intense scrutiny than ever before. The rise and possible fall of Eleni Antoniadou, 31, has become the subject of intense discussion among Greeks. For years she has been giving interviews portraying herself as a researcher working for Nasa; an expert on regenerative medicine; a maker of cutting-edge artificial organs; a passionate activist against organ trafficking; and a trainer of astronauts. But it seems that not a single Greek...

The following message from T. Boone Pickens was written prior to his passing on September 11, 2019. Mr. Pickens’ website and social media accounts are now being maintained by T. Boone Pickens Foundation team members. ========================================================================================= If you are reading this, I have passed on from this world — not as big a deal for you as it was for me. In my final months, I came to the sad reality that my life really did have a fourth quarter and the clock really would run out on me. I took the time to convey some thoughts that reflect back...

Three Democratic candidates for president — Julián Castro, Cory Booker, and Marianne Williamson — have declared support for the idea of slavery reparations. A number of others have said they’d vote for a bill sponsored by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D., Texas) to create a “commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans.” Still other candidates have been vague (Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke), while Elizabeth Warren has called for a “national, full-blown conversation about reparations in this country.” Oh, a conversation. A Washington Post piece examining the tensions between black Americans on the question offers a glimpse...

Hundreds of thousands of young people worldwide on Friday are participating in the Global Climate Strike as organizers say it is expected to be the biggest day of protests ever surrounding the issue of climate change. The protests kicked off in Australia, where organizers said more than 300,000 people gathered in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and other cities. Melbourne hosted the largest demonstration, with more than 100,000 climate activists attending, CNN reported the organizers as saying. The strike has been largely organized and shared by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who started #FridaysForFuture climate strikes on her own in August 2018...

I wrote the other day about the intention within bioethics to destroy Catholic healthcare. Today, a court ruling from California proves my point. A Catholic hospital known as Dignity Health refused to perform a hysterectomy on a transgendered male, as against Catholic moral teaching. The patient sued for discrimination, but the case was dismissed on the basis that the hospital was legally following its faith principles. Alas, a Court of Appeals reversed, reinstating the case to the active docket. Why am I not surprised? Dignity Health’s faith-based policies require that the institution “protect and preserve the bodily and functional integrity”...

Heavy rainfall from now-downgraded Imelda wreaked havoc Thursday for much of Southeast Texas, where officials are dealing with impassable roadways, downed trees, power outages, hundreds of high-water rescues and in one small town, a hospital evacuation. At least two deaths have been linked to the storm. A man pulled from a submerged van in east Harris County died, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a tweet. In Jefferson County, a man was electrocuted and drowned while trying to move his horse, according to authorities there. As of Thursday evening, Houston police recovered more than 200 abandoned vehicles from city roadways, and...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who vowed to take on "bully" President Trump, has officially dropped out of the packed 2020 presidential race. He announced the end of his campaign on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday morning. "I'm gonna end my presidential campaign, continue my work as mayor of New York City and I'm gonna keep speaking up for working people and for a Democratic party that stands for working people," de Blasio said during his morning appearance. In an opinion piece for NBC News, de Blasio conceded that after several months of campaigning, he had "reached the point...

It is past time for Democrats to deal with the reality that Joe Biden is a sorry leader of a sad sack of presidential candidates. And unless Barack Obama comes to the rescue of his former vice president, Biden, 76, is toast. While 76 is not old, Biden is an old 76. Besides appearing frail, he mumbles and meanders, as old folks are wont to do. It is the way he answered a key question about race at the last candidates’ debate. He sounded more like the late Boston Mayor Tom “ Mumbles” Menino talking about the city’s budget than...

If The Titanic Sank Today."This brilliant cartoon illustrates a point covered here, made available by the very medium I wish to both praise and criticize. Let me preface this: I am not a Luddite. I am and have always been mostly an early adopter as a consumer, in the vanguard of change. So this is not an expression of nostalgia for "the good old days". These are just my thoughts on The Internet and computer technology in general, and the effects these things have had on our world. The Internet isn’t in and of itself a bad idea...it’s a great...

Wednesday, the entire leadership team for Latinos for Trump was suspended from Twitter, according to a press release. “On September 18th, Twitter management suspended the accounts for the entire leadership team of Latinos for Trump organization, who operates under Americanos. As a company that claim’s [sic] its purpose is ‘to serve the public conversation,’ the unjustified suspensions of these accounts is not only contrary to their stated purpose, but also silences the voice of a significant minority group,” the release said. Twitter censorships is a topic with which we are familiar at LauraLoomer.us. The company suspended our own Laura Loomer,...

Morning "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon." Judges 7:20 Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" This is precisely what all Christians must do. First, you must shine; break the pitcher which conceals your light; throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle, and shine. Let your light shine...

Multiple barges have hit the I-10 bridge over the San Jacinto River, shutting down the freeway in both directions. Around 11:50 p.m., officials received a report that nine barges had broken away from their moorings at the Southwest Shipyard because the water was so rough. At least two of those hit the bridge. TxDOT has been unable to inspect the bridge because the water was too high after remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda left large swaths of southeast Texas, including Houston, flooded. The barges are stacked up, and there is possible structural damage. The freeway is shut down eastbound at...

Video of @ShootersGrill Lauren Boebert telling @BetoORourke “hell no” he won’t take her guns. She traveled 3 hours Thursday to say that to him. I asked Beto after if he understands the emotions he is stirring up across the country1 minute video

Liberals seem to be so desperate to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020 that they are now digging up Roy Cohn from the grave to slam him despite the fact that the famed attorney has been dead for 33 years. This latest effort in the form of a documentary called, Where's My Roy Cohn? prominently features Trump, a fact that was hyped over and over again by Politico senior staff writer Michael Kruse in the September 19 Politico magazine. Kruse's article makes sure to establish a Trump-Cohn connection in its title, "The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy...

A strategy paying dividends Ultimately, Iran’s summer brinkmanship paid off. First, Tehran demonstrated that it poses a highly credible military threat to the Strait of Hormuz. Second, it exposed Trump’s extreme reticence about engulfing the United States in another Middle Eastern war. Third, rather than bring European powers closer to the U.S. sanctions strategy on Iran, Tehran’s threat to commerce in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes sent the Elysee into a diplomatic frenzy, paving the way for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s surprise visit to the G-7 in Biarritz to discuss a French proposal for a $15 billion...

The end-of-summer winds make people restless. - Sebastian Faulks Your Friday musical interlude: The summer wind came blowin' in from across the sea It lingered there, to touch your hair and walk with me All summer long we sang a song and then we strolled that golden sand Two sweethearts and the summer wind   Like painted kites, those days and nights they went flyin' by The world was new beneath a blue umbrella sky Then softer than a piper man, one day it called to you I lost you, I lost you to the summer wind   The autumn...

During an MSNBC climate change forum on Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that he believes he “would be positively disposed to” expanding asylum categories to include people who are pushed out of their homes due to climate change. .... “I think that is absolutely something that we have to look at, and I think I would be positively disposed to that. But it has to exist all over the world. … I mean, it’s not just people in Latin America who would gravitate to the United States. It is people all over the world. And...