Free Republic

The object of war is to kill or maim as many people as possible, by whatever means. However, outright killing is often less efficient than wounding because more of the enemy’s resources are consumed in caring for the wounded than burying dead bodies. The overall goal of war is to conquer and subdue a people. In the process of conquering, the enemy must be psychologically and physically broken to the point that they give up their will to fight and their will to assert self-determination. The current pandemic war has all the markings of more traditional militaristic war except that...

The Foegen Effect: How Mask Wearing Can Make You SickIt took a long time, but my study on masks has finally appeared in the prestigious journal Medicine. What is my study about?It is about whether masks decrease case fatality from COVID-19 (because less viral material is transmitted) or increase it. Increase sounds illogical? Ask yourself if you would wear the mask of a Covid patient. You probably wouldn’t, otherwise you could become infected by inhaling the viruses he or she breathed into the mask.My study, based on the U.S. state of Kansas, provides the answer: case mortality was significantly lower...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition from Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matters protesters outside their St. Louis, Mo., home. The court declined to hear the McCloskeys’ appeal as they attempted to end a probationary period tied to a suspension of their law licenses instituted by the Missouri Supreme Court in February. The McCloskeys, who are white, were photographed pointing guns at racial justice protesters marching past their palatial suburban home in late June 2020. While the state’s chief disciplinary counsel had pushed for a suspension of their licenses, the...

Heavy marijuana use among youths is leading to more addiction and antisocial behavior. ... Mass shooters at Rep. Gibby Giffords’s constituent meeting in Tucson, Ariz. (2011), a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. (2012), the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. (2016), the First Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas (2017), and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (2018), were reported to be marijuana users. It could be a coincidence, but increasing evidence suggests a connection. THC, the chemical that causes a euphoric high, interacts with the brain’s neuron receptors involved with pleasure. Marijuana nowadays on average is about four...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday scrubbed a recommendation from its website for travelers to wear face masks due to the threat of Monkeypox, a rare disease that had been transmitted mostly through sexual contact. A spokesperson for the CDC did not immediately respond to a request for clarification about the agency’s position on face mask-wearing to prevent the disease. The CDC added the mask recommendation last week under its “Traveler’s Health” section, warning cases of monkeypox have been reported in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. “Some cases were reported among men who...

The Tempe, Arizona, cops who refused to rescue a drowning man were following their training, a local police union said. Members of the Tempe Police Department receive "no training in water rescues," the union said. Sean Bickings, 34, died on May 28 after he jumped into a lake and drowned while police stood by. The Tempe, Arizona, cops who refused to rescue a man drowning in an area lake were following their training by not jumping in to save him, according to the local police union. Members of the Tempe Police Department receive "no training in water rescues" and do...

Consumers desperate for relief from the scourge of sky-high gasoline prices won’t get it soon. In an update to their outlook for oil prices over the next 12-18 months, the team at Goldman warned that they now expect oil prices to rise to nearly $140 a barrel as early as this summer. But to American consumers, it will feel more like oil is trading at $160 a barrel as limited capacity at the refineries that process crude into petroleum products like gasoline and jet fuel continue to struggle to ramp up their processing capacity swiftly enough to satisfy growing demand....

Patients with a particular kind of cancer and a particular kind of mutation received a new therapy called dostarlimab and had results not seen in a cancer trial before. To be sure, the trial — led by doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering and backed by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline — has only completed treatment of 12 patients, with a specific cancer in its early stages and with a rare mutation as well. But the results, reported Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine and the New York Times, were still striking enough to prompt multiple physicians to tell the paper...

GenevaNorth Korea, which is under sanctions for developing nuclear weapons in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolutions, has taken over as head of a UN body aimed at striking disarmament deals amid scorn from critics. This year North Korea has tested a flurry of ballistic missiles -- also banned by UNSC resolutions -- and appears to be preparing to conduct a new nuclear test for the first time since 2017. It gained the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament because it rotates alphabetically among its 65 members. "The DPRK remains committed to contributing to global peace and disarmament and...

Acancer treatment has shown astounding results in a small clinical trial. All of the treated patients, who had a specific form of mid-stage rectal cancer, have since experienced complete remission. Though the findings are based on a sample size of just 18 people, they could hold important implications for treating these particular cancers. The results of the Phase II trial were published over the weekend in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study involved researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as well as Yale University, and it was sponsored by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. The trial...

A Norwegian feminist faces up to three years in prison for saying that biological men can’t be lesbians. Yes, really. Christina Ellingsen, of the global feminist organization Women’s Declaration International (WDI), is under police investigation for making the claim in a tweet in which she criticized the trans activism group FRI. “Why [does] FRI teach young people that males can be lesbians? Isn’t that conversion therapy?” Ellingsen allegedly tweeted. She also questioned the legitimacy of FRI’s advisor Christine Jentoft identifying as a lesbian despite being born a biological male. “Jentoft, who is male and an advisor in FRI, presents himself...

In a speech to the graduating class of the US Naval Academy, President Biden revealed that in 1965 Sen. Senator J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del) signed a letter recommending him for admission to the Naval Academy. Biden said he decided not to go to the Academy because his desire to play starting quarterback on the football team was blocked by Roger Staubach—the greatest player to ever play for Navy and later MVP for the Superbowl winning Dallas Cowboys. Biden played football in high school, but graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 with no varsity football experience. In a speech...

State and local election officials in Michigan and other political battlegrounds are gearing up to deal with a new element in this year's elections: a large influx of Republicans seeking to become poll workers, recruited by the Republican National Committee and other conservative organizations to play an active role in administering the midterm elections. The development -- and a recent story in Politico detailing GOP recruitment sessions and how some of these would-be poll workers cling to debunked claims about fraud in the 2020 election -- have raised alarms that Republican election deniers could infiltrate official election operations and undermine...

If the Democrats have a motto, it probably ends with “…for thee, but not for me.” Their recent behavior in Georgia explains why that phrase should hang around Democrats’ necks like an albatross. Like so many thorns in our sides here in Georgia, it all starts with Stacey Abrams. No doubt you’ve heard the stories of how her Fair Fight Action PAC took in $1.34 million and used it to pay off the medical debt of 68,000 Georgians, along with 40,000 others in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Fair Fight Action hasn’t stopped crowing about it — even buying ads...

So much for Title 42, the court-reinforced order to keep illegal border crossers out of the U.S. to protect the public here during the pandemic.Actually, they're letting them in ... and letting them in. There's no limit.Here's news from just one border city, McAllen, Texas, reported by Fox News:The Texas border city of McAllen says more than 7,000 COVID-positive migrants have been released into the city since February, and more than 1,500 in the past week -- the latest example of growing concern about the potential impact of the border crisis on efforts to control COVID-19 in the U.S.In a...

Singer Kid Rock said he won’t apologize for drunkenly criticizing Oprah Winfrey and Joy Behar while appearing on Tucker Carlson Originals. During a 2019 honky-tonk in Nashville, Kid Rock said “f*** Oprah Winfrey” and “f*** Joy Behar” while on stage, according to TMZ. Carlson questioned Kid Rock on the rant during an episode entitled “Life of a Rockstar” in which Carlson received a tour of Kid Rock’s Nashville Ranch. Kid Rock said he wouldn’t apologize to anyone. “I don’t apologize to anybody. I’m not an Oprah Winfrey fan. I got drunk and f****n’ next thing, I’m on stage ‘f*** Oprah,'”...

Uri Geller reckons aliens will stop Vladimir Putin if he tries to fire his nuclear weapons. The spoon bender thinks they will use advanced technology to scramble the Russian dictator’s warheads. Uri, 75, said: “With one click of a button we can stop the traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and we can knock out radar systems. “We can do anything with cyber today – you can imagine what extraterrestrials can do” Uri thinks aliens could visit us in the next five years – and will come in peace. He predicts they will land at an iconic...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating fake accounts on Twitter for potential violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, expanding the Lone Star State’s push to look under the hood of the prominent social media platform to learn how it operates. Inauthentic accounts at Twitter have received fresh scrutiny in recent weeks, as billionaire Elon Musk has expressed reservations about his looming acquisition of the platform in light of the number of automated and anonymous accounts potentially representing a greater share of users than the company has suggested. Mr. Paxton issued a civil investigative demand to Twitter this...

The numerous casualties of bats at wind turbines (WT) have a negative impact on the populations of affected species and potentially far-reaching consequences for the biodiversity in rural areas. Until now, it could only be assumed that the death of bats had further consequences. Now, a team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) show in a paper in the scientific journal "Conservation Science and Practice" that natural food chains are interrupted, which can have far-reaching negative consequences for agriculture and forestry. The study demonstrates the extent to which the functional importance of bats for...

Conservative radio host Tara Servatius of The Tara Show has had it with...Trump. [She said]...Trump's recent candidate endorsements have been nonsensical...