Free Republic

The citizens' convention has defined the 10 issues on which it will work as a priority, such as "extreme forms of psychological suffering". The participants in the citizens' convention on the theme of the end of life will get to the heart of the matter by examining, from January, ten "priority issues" including the question of "extreme forms of mental suffering", they said, announced on Sunday. Thes some 200 French people drawn by lot, gathered at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), for which it was the second week of work, "agreed on the first 10 priority issues on...

Republican Rep.-elect George Santos comes to Congress in January with a degree from Baruch College and stints at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, according to his campaign biography. But a New York Times investigation revealed Monday that nobody by Santos' name, or a deviation of it, graduated in 2010 from Baruch. Nobody at Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs had a record of Santos working at their offices....

The first reports that several women experienced menstrual disturbances after coronavirus vaccination came early in summer 2021. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) promptly introduced questions about menstrual disturbances into ongoing population studies. The first results indicated that coronavirus vaccination can affect menstruation in women between the ages of 18 and 30. A new study from the NIPH published in Vaccine also shows an increased incidence in girls between 12-15 years of age. "4.7 percent of the participants reported that their last period before vaccination was heavier than they usually experience. After vaccination, 7.3 percent reported that the first...

Solar space heating is tricky. Air is harder to keep warm than water, and while most of us need a shower on a hot day—we tend to want space heating when the sun is not doing enough for us. Nevertheless, from a Mad Max style partially solar heated home, through a DIY solar heater from old campaign signs (yeah, politics and hot air...) to a soda can solar panel, we've seen plenty of attempts at harnessing the rays of the sun to actively heat the air inside our homes. Here the folks at Fair Companies present one Seattle man's attempt...

(Olympia, WA) -- Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson are announcing efforts to pass two new legislative plans they say will curb gun violence in the state. At a news conference Monday, both Inslee and Ferguson unveiled two measures, the first calling for a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons. The second would work to ensure gun makers and dealers take steps to prevents weapons they are selling, from getting into the possession of "dangerous individuals."The Firearm Industry Responsibility & Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act works to ensure that firearms makers and sellers...

Kari Lake's election case will be going to trial, after attempts to throw it out by Governor elect Katie Hobbs were squashed on Monday. Lake was the Republican nominee for governor in Arizona and has launched legal action to have her defeat overturned or have the election rerun because of problems at polling stations. The two phases that will be moving forward to trial are her chain of custody challenges and intentional malice regarding widespread printer breakdowns - leading to her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs. She tweeted this evening: 'Our Election Case is going to trial. Katie Hobbs attempt...

Osteoarthritis is a common chronic condition that usually causes joint pain and can be severe enough to require knee and hip replacements. In the United States, the number of total knee replacement (TKR) and total hip replacement (THR) surgeries is estimated to reach 572 000 per year by 2030. No medications are currently known to prevent or reverse osteoarthritis. A team of researchers from China, Taiwan and Australia aimed to determine whether metformin use was associated with a lower risk of TKR or THR as evidence to date has been sparse and inconclusive. They analyzed data from 69 706 participants...

The number of homes in America with the traditional 'nuclear family' of a married couple with children is now the lowest it has been since 1959, according to Census data. The Census Bureau's count showed that 17.8 percent of the United States' 130 million households featured married parents with children under the age of 18. That's only down from 18.6 percent from last year but down much more significantly from over 40 percent in 1970. There are currently just 23.1 million American homes with those 'nuclear families,' which is the fewest since 1959. The reasons given for the drop include...

An altered gut microbiome is an unexpected cause of fever afflicting many patients undergoing chemotherapy, according to scientists who've also discovered that poor appetite during cancer treatment may trigger biological forces that can likewise adversely raise body temperature. The new research shines a spotlight on the role of the gut microbiome and how it can promote neutropenic fever. Neutropenic fever in anyone undergoing cancer treatment is considered an emergency because these patients are immune-suppressed and the underlying infection can morph into life-threatening sepsis. The team discovered that when they transferred gut microbiota from patients who developed neutropenic fever to irradiated...

The woman in these pictures is a visual artist. Modest. Kind. Smart. Courageous. (Like the best conservatives.) She is an unwavering but careful opponent of authoritarian tyranny murdering her sisters. I hope to say more about her later. I only met her yesterday.

If I mention the Bruce Willis movie, "Die Hard" you probably know what I mean. What other movies are like this? One that comes to mind for me is the first Rocky film from 1976. Christmas not mentioned but the story takes place during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. There are Christmas movies trees and decorations in several scenes. There's also the classic Frank Capra movie, "It's a Wonderful Life". I could be wrong, but I don't think Capra intended that to be a Christmas movie but obviously it gets associated with the holiday with what happens at the end...

What comes in your mind when your hear the word ‘Holocaust’? Most of us will think immediately of the Jewish holocaust committed by Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Many of us are aware of such holocaust of the Native American peoples, millions of African lives lost during Slave trading, the genocide of the Armenian peoples in the Ottoman Empire. However, we are sure that very few knows that World’s biggest holocaust did happen in India. You must be shocked or surprised, but this is indeed true. Our Liberal and Secular cabal go gaga over Mughal rule and...

After months of speculation, authorities have revealed the cause of death for TikTok star Cooper Noriega, who was found dead in a Los Angeles parking lot on June 9, 2022. According to the Los Angeles County Medical examiner, the 19-year-old had perished due to “combined effects of alprazolam, fentanyl and lorazepam” in what authorities are ruling an accidental drug overdose. An investigation found evidence of “recent clonazepam use.” Just hours before his death, Noriega had posted a video of himself lying in bed with the caption, “who else b thinking they gon d!€ young af.” The young star had also...

Ukraine wields US-supplied offensive arms against Russia – for the first timeMonday, Dec. 19 saw the first Ukrainian strikes inside Russia with advanced US missiles that President Joe Biden promised the Ukraine leader a week earlier. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Ukrainians used their fresh supplies of AGM-88 Harm missiles to strike power and water supply plants in the Russian town of Belgorod in retaliation for Moscow’s unceasing Iranian-made drone assaults on its vital facilities including power – in a bid to freeze Ukraine into submission.The American AGM-88 is a high-speed anti-radiation missile designed to disarm the radar systems...

Kari Lake has been vocal about contesting the results of the 2022 gubernatorial election in Arizona. Now her case is going to trial. "BREAKING: Our Election Case is going to trial. Katie Hobbs attempt to have our case thrown out FAILED. She will have to take the stand & testify. Buckle up, America. This is far from over" Lake tweeted. Last week Kari Lake appeared in virtual court alongside representatives for Governor-elect Katie Hobbs and other election officials. The emergency hearing was ordered on Monday by Judge Peter A. Thompson of the Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County, and marks...

Below is a translation of a long blog post by the Russian volunteer Murz whom we’ve covered extensively during the past several months. In this post, Murz, who has been previously critical of the way the Russian Army is conducting the “special operation”, goes over the potential of a Ukrainian offensive in winter and shows that Russia is completely unprepared for it in terms of armoured vehicles, communication, defensive lines, artillery, and manpower.This is perhaps the most critical of his texts and was shared by Igor Girkin as “recommended for reading”. The author has a certain way of constructing sentences...

Who is the real blasphemer?

The world's largest whales are more than just astonishing creatures. Much like the ocean, soil and forests, whales can help save humanity from the accelerating climate crisis by sequestering and storing planet-heating carbon emissions, researchers say. In a paper published Thursday in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, climate researchers suggest that whales are important, but often overlooked, carbon sinks. The enormous size of these marine mammals, which can reach 150 tons, means they can store carbon much more effectively than smaller animals. And because whales live longer than most animals, some for more than 100 years, the paper...

[Catholic Caucus] No Vatican II Nostalgia: Young Clergy Rejects FrancisThe Austin Institute has found that younger Catholic priests and priests ordained in the US in recent years tend to be significantly more Catholic than older clergy (Wsj.com, 18 December).The priests commented on Catholic teachings such as the sinfulness of contraception, masturbation, homosexual acts and suicide, the invalidity of women's ordination and the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation.Priests ordained in 2010 or later are the most faithful of all - and the least happy about Francis, who is still nostalgic for the decadence of the 1960s. About half (!)...

A state commission today approved plans to phase out fossil fuel-burning furnaces beginning as soon as 2025 as part of New York’s aggressive program to address climate change. The plan adopted today by the state Climate Action Council requires energy-efficient electric heat pumps or other non-combustion heating systems in every new home built in 2025 or thereafter. For existing homes, residents whose fossil fuel-burning heating units give out after 2030 will have to replace them with a zero-emission system. Those are just two of the many policies in a 445-page plan adopted today by the state Climate Action Council, a...