Free Republic

It may sound harmless, but the Canadian Senate’s decision to fast track and pass a bill prohibiting “Conversion Therapy” is terribly dangerous and, to date, without precedent worldwide. How on earth did this happen? An article on Canada’s CTV news referred to “the harmful practice” of conversion therapy, noting that this will now be banned for people of all ages, part of a promise made to “the LGBTQ2S+ community” by the current government. As to why the bill was fast-tracked, Sen. Leo Housakos, a member of Canada’s Conservative (?!) Party, explained, “I think we have to get to the reflex...

Update (0800ET): During an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla appeared to contradict his own company's data by claiming that his company's jab will "not lose any efficacy against omicron" because the "mode of action is not on the spike...it's working on a different element of the virus."However, data out of South Africa appears to show that even patients who have been vaccinated are testing positive for omicron. And keep in mind, the lab-only results Pfizer shared today aren't nearly as reliable as trial data involving actual human patients."The ultimate proof is coming from real world data...

LONDON (AP) — No U.K. government minister will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday, calling it “effectively” a diplomatic boycott. The announcement came after the White House and the Australian government confirmed diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Olympics in February to protest Chinese human rights abuses. China has vowed to react with “firm countermeasures.” When asked in the House of Commons on Wednesday whether Britain would join in the diplomatic action, Johnson said “There will be effectively a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing." “No ministers are expected to attend and no...

Missouri State Attorney General Eric Schmitt ordered an end to mask mandates in school districts and public health agencies Tuesday....

BOTH sides have rested in the criminal trial against Josh Duggar. Duggar was charged in April of 2021 on counts of receiving and possessing child pornography, to which he pleaded not guilty. What is Josh Duggar's final verdict? There is not yet a verdict for Josh Duggar. After defense rested on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, final arguments in the trial were scheduled for Wednesday, December 8. Following closing arguments will be a jury deliberation. Prosecution rested its case on Monday, December 6, before Duggar's attorneys took the stand. Forensic computer analyst Michele Bush told Duggar's attorneys the computer where child...

A study out of South Africa, rushed to preprint before peer review to give the world hard data about the Omicron scariant, revealed that the Pfizer and Moderna Covid jabs offer essentially zero protection against the mutated coronavirus. Those with natural immunity from previous infections faired far better.According to CNBC:They found a 41-fold drop in the ability of the antibodies to neutralize the omicron variant compared with the original virus, a dramatic reduction from its performance against the original ancestral strain as well as other variants, according to a preprint of the study that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. Vaccine-induced antibodies...

Senator Roger Wicker Wicker believes the U.S should not rule out military intervention, including a nuclear strike, when it comes to combatting Russian aggression against Ukraine

Darwin-Free Science Is Possible November 29, 2021 | David F. Coppedge Scientists can just report the evidence without evolutionary stories. Here’s a good example and a bad example. Seals and sea lions, both pinnipeds, have whiskers. Sea lions have ear flaps and can ‘walk’ with their front flippers. (Corel Pro Photos) Good Example: Sea Lions Sea lion whiskers can move like human fingertips: here’s how we found out (Robyn Grant, The Conversation). This is an enjoyable story of good old-fashioned experimental science. Grant, a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Physiology and Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University, tells how her team answered...

If you only watched corporate media’s coverage of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Organization abortion case before the Supreme Court last week, you’d think very few people still believed in Christianity and its values, prominent among which is the belief that life is divinely created and precious. But a recent poll suggests the majority of Americans do express a belief in God.In a survey of some 6,500 American adults, Pew Research Center found that many Americans still hold religious convictions including a deep and abiding belief in God, belief in heaven and hell, and the belief that God is not...

Covid-19 hospitalizations are once again rising in the United States. Among the 30-plus states that have seen increases in Covid-19 hospitalizations over the last two weeks, six stand out. Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and Illinois have accounted for the majority of the country’s increase in hospital beds filled, according to an NBC News analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data.

The Nez Perce Indians of northern Idaho received the state’s first large-scale battery from Tesla in November.About the size of a standard shipping container, the Tesla Megapack will store power from solar panels, enabling the tribe to reduce its dependence on local dams. For decades, the Nez Perce have demanded the destruction of four hydropower plants along the Lower Snake River with claims the concrete barriers hamper a near-extinct salmon population.The Tesla Megapack, installation company RevoluSun CEO Josh Powell told Public News Service, “allows people like the Nez Perce to control their energy where it’s being produced where they have...

I started to write about this story a couple of days ago, but stopped because I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I’m still not sure, but here goes anyway, for what it is worth. On Saturday afternoon there was a demonstration in Washington by a small group of identically clad and masked men, many of them carrying American flags. They reportedly were members of a group called the Patriot Front, which is said to be white supremacist: A beautiful night at the Lincoln Memorial interrupted by demonstrators chanting “reclaim America.“ The crowd gave them the finger and exchanged...

Pandemic groupies are more disappointed than a Bulwark staffer’s bride because it just doesn’t look like the variant du jour is going to be scary enough to convince normal people to continue this endless freak-out. But that’s not stopping the communist mayor of New York City from trying to impose vaccine mandates on everyone. Now, more people are going to leave that garbage town forever. Good.So, will Trump run? This is the question that people keep asking and the answer keeps changing. Or, rather, the speculation, since nobody knows anything about whether he runs or not. And that includes Trump.Why...

The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court unanimously approved its nearly 300-page report on court reform Tuesday. Established in April by executive order, the commission was tasked with producing a report that examined the contemporary debate over court reform, historical cases of when there were calls for court reform, and an analysis of the main arguments for and against certain proposals to reform the court, such as expansion, term limits, ethics reform, and more. No specific recommendations were given in the report, and on the issue of court packing, the commission noted that the "profound disagreement among Commissioners" mirrors "the...

There’s something rotten in American journalism schools. From a tendency toward bias to outright activism, journalism in higher education is not what it should be: a place to guide young writers through a liberal education that teaches them how to think, report, and write clearly. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s attempted hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones this year is the latest in a line of incidents that show how far journalism schools have drifted away from what they should be. In 1904, famed editor and newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer published an essay in The North American Review defending...

A global social media movement asking #WhereIsPengShuai has yet to find convincing answers. The Chinese tennis star and Grand Slam Doubles Champion Peng Shuai disappeared after she publicly accused a former vice premier of China of sexually assaulting her. The social media posts in which she made the accusation were removed within 20 minutes of posting. But Peng's fans were faster than Chinese censors, saving her posts and demanding answers about her disappearance. Since then, Peng has been seen in what looks like staged appearances. Once at a restaurant and tennis event, and once in a video call with the...

he CNBC headline. “A Harvard nutritionist and brain expert says she avoids these five foods that ‘weaken memory and focus.” She is also the author of “This Is Your Brain on Food,” an Amazon #1 bestseller in obsessive-compulsive disorders. I haven’t read the book, but it would be pointless based on her article, which appeared on many other news outlets. I am well aware of the extensive junk science in the field of nutrition, and her article is just another reflection of it. It is the standard attempt: to extrapolating rodent’s studies to humans; to equate correlations as a cause-and-effect...

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Saying immigration has become the top security concern in Texas, state Land Commissioner George P. Bush kicked off his “Secure the Border” tour Tuesday in El Paso. “We’re covering roughly 1,277 miles from El Paso to Brownsville highlighting the efforts of law enforcement and exposing the weakness, unwillingness of the federal government to do its job and support these individuals who keep watch every day and make sure we remain a country of laws,” Bush said. The land commissioner, who is running for state attorney general, met with Border Patrol union leaders and pledged...

A New York state judge has temporarily suspended the enforcement of New York City’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers. New York Supreme Court Justice Frank Nervo on Tuesday set a hearing on the requirement for Dec. 14, and said the city couldn’t enforce the rules in the meantime. The ruling comes shortly after Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city would also require private-sector workers to be vaccinated by Dec. 27. That policy affects about 184,000 businesses. New York City’s vaccine mandate for public employees was announced Oct. 20. The order ended a testing option for the city’s more...

On Sunday, longtime GOP Sen. Bob Dole died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 98. Utah leaders expressed their condolences later that day, some taking to the internet to share stories or lessons learned from the senator. And on Monday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ordered flags across the state to be lowered to honor Dole. Dole’s political career started in the 1950s as a Kansas representative. He would go on to represent Kansas in Congress for 36 years, serving four terms in the U.S. House before winning a Senate race in 1968. He launched three runs for the...