Free Republic

The fish’s eyes (pointing up here) are capped by bright green lenses. (© MBARI 2004) NATURE ===================================================================================== Thousands of feet beneath the surface of Monterey Bay off California, scientists recently captured footage of a fish with a bulbous, translucent head and green orb-like eyes that peer out through its forehead. This bizarre creature, known as a barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma), is very rarely seen. Researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have only spotted the species nine times, despite having sent their remotely operated vehicles (ROV) on more than 5,600 dives in the fish's habitat, MBARI tweeted on...

[Catholic Caucus] Marital Nullity, Farewell. Doors Open for “Catholic Divorce”Pope Francis is known for speaking without restraint during in-flight press conferences, saying everything and the opposite of everything. But he also wings it when he meets with the Italian bishops behind closed doors.Proof of this are the two hours of confidential conversation he had with the Italian bishops gathered in plenary assembly at the end of November (in the photo). Officially, nothing has been leaked to outsiders. But there was just one topic on which the pope lambasted the unfortunate audience. The same one that on November 26, at the...

“God highly exalted Him” (Philippians 2:9). Christ’s resurrection and ascension were the first two steps of His exaltation. The first step on Christ’s progress from humiliation to exaltation was His resurrection. In Acts 13 Paul preached on the resurrection of Christ, declaring: “[God] raised up Jesus. . . . And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore He also says . . . ‘Thou wilt not allow Thy holy one to...

It’s just the flu, bro. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aZte37vtFTkYT7b0b04Qz?si=8xP9XBlVTGKHXxWuavc_rw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A4rOoJ6Egrf8K2IrywzwOMk Joe Rogan interviewed Dr. Peter McCullough about Covid related matters. It was a fascinating, but not surprising, account of the suppression of Covid treatments in favor of mass vaccination. This suppression was by governments and academia. The question of “why” came up. Why did this suppression of treatments and push for mass vaccinations occur. They referenced some recent books on “mass psychosis” that studied Nazi Germany and suicide cults. One of the characteristics of a good mass psychosis is apparently foregoing all other options and having a singleminded pursuit of one option - the...

With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading through multiple countries with verified cases in Israel too, many have been reassured by statements made by doctors dealing with a widespread outbreak in South Africa... However, in comments made to UK members of Parliament today, Dr. Paul Burton, chief medical officer at Moderna, struck a warning note. “I do not think Omicron is a milder, less severe version of the current virus,” he told the Parliamentary committee on science and technology, as quoted by The Guardian. “The idea it will push Delta out of the way and take over may occur...

Have you ever had a friend or loved one say to you, out of the blue: “Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?” You may simply be quiet, deep in thought, so you answer, “No, I’m not mad. You didn’t do anything to hurt me. I’m just quiet right now.” They press you, saying, “Was it something I said?” “No, you didn’t say anything. Everything is all right.” Finally, to convince that person, you have to hug them. “Look, I love you! I’m not upset. But if you keep this up, you’re going to get me upset!”...

Chris Wallace announced he was leaving Fox News, and then he joined CNN’s new streaming service. He even said he was “delighted to join Jeff Zucker and his great team.” Oh, the network of Chris Cuomo? And Jeffrey Toobin? And Don Lemon? Ratings-wise, this is like leaving the Super Bowl champs and joining the Detroit Lions. Wallace said he’s excited “to go beyond politics to all the things I'm interested in.” He’s 74, and we’ll see what he wants to do. It sounds like it won’t be just politics. Maybe he'll bake cupcakes? A Fox source told Brian Stelter his...

People in Scotland have been asked to limit socialising to three households at a time in the run-up to Christmas amid concerns over the Omicron variant. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the advice would not apply on Christmas Day and that plans should not be cancelled. But she said people should reduce their social contacts with other households "as far as possible". Shops and hospitality venues will also be told to bring back physical distancing and screens. Ms Sturgeon said that Scotland is facing a "likely tsunami" of new infections of Covid-19 in the weeks ahead, with a "very significant"...

Martin Mawyer, president, Christian Action Network Every day I go through the painstaking process of sorting through the news stories that reflect the state of American culture, religious values, national security and – let’s be honest – sanity. Many of them leave me fuming. Whether it’s the Salvation Army shaming white donors into apologizing for being racists, or school boards putting people in jail for speaking out, or innocent bystanders being gunned down “just for fun,” there’s an anger-inducing news cocktail ready to be swallowed each and every morning. So why did this headline from the UK’s Daily Mail outrage...

President Biden and his Department of Justice were unsuccessful in arguing to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to lift an injunction against his vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt posted the one-page order to Twitter on Monday afternoon. "The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Department of Justice's motion for stay pending appeal in our lawsuit against the vaccine mandate on healthcare workers, meaning our injunction will stay in place." The legal battles within the United States over mandating a Coronavirus vaccine have been ongoing through the final weeks of 2021.

[Catholic Caucus] It Really Is A Sin-Nod In The Worst Way Some took umbrage with me for calling those papal gabfest sessions "sin-nods" as opposed to synods. Well, let's just say there are some occasions where I wished I was in error, for that is literally what happened a few days ago with this "synod of bishops". Earlier this month, the sin-nod removed a link to New Ways Ministries from its website. How it got there in the first place will remain a mystery for now. Anyway, the bishops restored the link earlier this week and APOLOGIZED to the...

She just won’t go away. Speculation is running hot that Hillary Clinton — a spring chicken at age 74 compared to the 79-year-old President Joe Biden — is maneuvering to run for president again in 2024. Just this past Sunday, Clinton warned that former President Donald Trump is planning to run again, claiming there would be catastrophic consequences for America if he wins. “I think that could be the end of our democracy,” she said in an interview with the Today Show. “Not to be too pointed about it, but I want people to understand that this is a make-or-break...

The omicron variant now represents about 3 percent of domestic COVID-19 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday, showing the new variant is starting to rise in the U.S. The CDC estimated omicron was 2.9 percent of sequenced U.S. cases for the week ending Dec. 11, up from 0.4 percent one week earlier. The number is expected to rise quickly given the sharp spikes in omicron in other countries. For example, officials in Britain have estimated omicron will be the dominant variant there within days. The U.S. trajectory appears to be somewhat behind.

A series of deadly tornadoes ripped across at least six states on Friday, killing more than 80 people in what experts have called a "historic" weather event. The twisters have devastated communities — and experts say these kinds of weather events may only get deadlier as climate change moves coastal populations inland to vulnerable areas. Many experts have pointed to climate change as part of the reason for the catastrophic events, echoing past warnings that global warming will undoubtedly fuel extreme weather. KCBS meteorologist Evelyn Taft told CBS News on Monday that the stark contrast in temperatures of the Northeast...

Liz Cheney is going to New Hampshire. She's getting her political operation in order. And she's raising money like mad from icons of the Republican Party. The Wyoming congresswoman is clearly exploring her political options and power well beyond her congressional district, even if she's not talking openly about a run for president. "I've never had a conversation with her about 2024," said Eric Edelman, a former ambassador, Pentagon official and adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney. "If there was going to be a Never Trump candidate, I can't think of anyone better." Eight months after she voted to...

Repeated immunization with antigen causes systemic autoimmunity in mice otherwise not prone to spontaneous autoimmune diseases. --- Systemic autoimmunity appears to be the inevitable consequence of over-stimulating the host's immune ‘system’ by repeated immunization with antigen, to the levels that surpass system's self-organized criticality.

An old tweet hasn’t aged well for the CNN producer who was arrested last week and charged with “using a facility of interstate commerce” to allegedly lure young girls to his home for depraved sexual indoctrination “training” sessions. The cable news network was still dealing with managing the fallout from the firing of Chris Cuomo when John Griffin, who claims he worked “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the disgraced star anchor, was taken into custody by the FBI which acted after a grand jury delivered an indictment that he used social media to “communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters”...

Now more than ever we need substantive debate about decisions that affect the health of hundreds of millions of people, including views counter to official positions. The attacks on free speech and science are unrelenting. Academic publisher Elsevier’s suppression of an article documenting the myocarditis risk of the COVID-19 vaccines, with no excuse or pretext offered, is incredible enough. Viewed alongside Twitter’s censorship of the American Heart Association, YouTube’s suppression of a panel discussion of vaccine mandates on Capitol Hill, and the Orwellian call by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins for critics of the government’s COVID-19 policies to...

I admit I’m a Carrie Bradshaw fan. I was in my twenties in 1998 and living in Chicago when Sex and the City debuted on HBO. It captured, pretty accurately, what life was like in a big city when you’re young and beautiful. What was never accurate was the amount of money Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda had to play with; that was always a fantasy. But the weird encounters with guys who would do stupid things like break up with you on a post-it-note or ask you to do sexually bizarre things you would never ever consider, frienemies who...

Cornell University on Saturday blamed off-campus maskless gatherings for the cancellation of all in-person student activities, both formal and informal, on the Ithaca campus. Upon revealing 300 hundred new cases of coronavirus, including the omicron variant, among students at the campus, Cornell took measures to lock down all in-person campus activities due to “off-campus student social gatherings where masking and other public health measures were not followed.”