Free Republic

SO I was chatting with Chris Coons, the new Democratic senator from Delaware who had a rare win over the Tea Party when he beat loony Christine “I’ve Dabbled in Witchcraft but I Am Not a Witch” O’Donnell in the midterms.... [Lots more garbage] Money quote: Democratic lawmakers worry that the Tea Party freshmen have already “neutered” the president, as one told me. They fret that Obama is an inept negotiator. They worry that he should have been out in the country selling a concrete plan, rather than once more kowtowing to Republicans and, as with the stimulus plan, health...

EVER wonder why you come away with a sense of exhilaration after a hard day of trolling the internet? It could be because you're drunk with power. A new study has found that anonymity gives people the same feeling of abandon as power and alcohol intoxication. Researchers at Northwestern University in the US found that all three states led to extreme behaviour — both good and bad. "Although these pathways appear to be unrelated on the surface, they all lead to disinhibited states through a common psychological and neurological mechanism," said Jacob Hirsh of the university's Kellogg School of Management....

urgeons in Sweden have carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant. Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient. Crucially, the technique does not need a donor, and there is no risk of the organ being rejected. The surgeons stress a windpipe can also be made within days. The 36-year-old cancer patient is doing well a month after the operation. Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Spain led the pioneering surgery, which took place at the Karolinska University Hospital. In an interview with the BBC, he said he now hopes to use...

In the spring of 1961, President Obama’s father revealed a plan for his unborn son that might have changed the course of American political history. The elder Barack H. Obama, a sophomore at the University of Hawaii, had come under scrutiny by federal immigration officials who were concerned that he had more than one wife. When he was questioned by the school’s foreign student adviser, the 24-year-old Obama insisted that he had divorced his wife in his native Kenya. Although his new wife, Ann Dunham, was five months pregnant with their child - who would be called Barack Obama II...

Aircraft may produce holes in clouds and cause an unusual phenomenon that results in increased rain or snowfall in the area immediately around the world's major airports, a new study suggests. A flying plane "can freeze the water drops in a cloud and produce a ribbon of ice crystals" behind it, said Andrew Heymsfield, lead author of the paper, to be published in the journal Science on Friday, and a cloud physicist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The icy ribbon may then expand across a few miles and result in a narrow band of rain...

If Philadelphia has a run of abnormally hot weather this summer, it will be considered less unusual than it would have been a year ago. That’s because “normal” now has a new definition. A set of updated national climate averages due to be released this week shows that average summer temperatures in the city are nearly 2°F warmer than the benchmarks meteorologists have been citing for the past decade. The updates come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which will impliment its new 30-year “Climate Normals” on July 1. When weather forecasters use terms like “above normal” or...

Less than 2 hours before he hiked his last steps in the Tyrolean Alps 5000 years ago, Ötzi the Iceman fueled up on a last meal of ibex meat. That was the conclusion of a talk here last week at the 7th World Congress on Mummy Studies, during which researchers—armed with Ötzi's newly sequenced genome and a detailed dental analysis—also concluded that the Iceman had brown eyes and probably wasn't much of a tooth brusher. The Iceman, discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991 some 5200 years after his death, has been a gold mine of information about Neolithic life,...

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to end the 45-cent-a-gallon subsidy the government gives refiners and the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol from Brazil and other countries. The proposal to end the ethanol incentives passed 73 to 27, and came in the form of an amendment that was tacked onto an underlying economic development bill that is not expected to pass the Senate. The White House said it was against a "straight repeal" of the federal incentives for ethanol.

State Rep. Mark Cusack continued Monday to dodge questions about an alleged tryst he had with a legislative aide in the House chamber. Cusack, 26, a Braintree Democrat who has been a legislator for six months, is under investigation by the office of House Speaker Robert DeLeo for allegedly engaging in “inappropriate actions” with a female staffer in the House chamber after a late-night budget session. Cusack allegedly lied, identifying himself as an another legislator when he and the woman were discovered by a court officer in the chamber after hours. “If that is true, I am sure Mark will...

For the first time, scientists have found complex, multi-celled creatures living a mile and more below the planet’s surface, raising new possibilities about the spread of life on Earth and potential subsurface life on other planets and moons. Nicknamed “worms from hell,” the nematodes, or roundworms, were found in several gold mines in South Africa, where researchers have also made breakthrough discoveries about deep subterranean single-cell life. The two lead researchers, Gaetan Borgonie of the University of Ghent in Belgium and Tullis Onstott of Princeton University, said the discovery of creatures so far below ground, with nervous, digestive and reproductive...

Google Inc. said hundreds of users of its email service were tricked into sharing their passwords with "bad actors" based in China, potentially further complicating relations between the Internet giant and the country with the highest number of Internet users. Google, which has blamed China for a previous attack on the company's computer networks, said its security and abuse detection systems recently discovered that users of its popular Gmail service had fallen for what are called "phishing scams." Such exploits trick users into sharing their passwords, and that the campaign "appears to originate from Jinan, China" and targeted specific individuals....

In late spring 2005, Mitt Romney gathered with a dozen top policy and political advisers in a conference room near the governor’s suite on the third floor of the State House. For two years, they had grappled with the abstruse complexities of health care reform, sifting data, evaluating input from experts, and testing theories to craft a plan that would expand coverage to nearly everyone in the state and not break the bank. This was a bold move for a first-term Republican governor, some of whose more conservative advisers doubted the wisdom of a foray deep into policy turf long...

The Boston Globe is negotiating a contract to print and deliver its long-time rival the Boston Herald, according to executives from both companies. Under terms outlined today, the Herald would pay the Globe an undisclosed sum annually to print and distribute the tabloid in the Boston area. Because the Herald would no longer be delivering its own papers, the deal would result in the layoffs of the newspaper’s truck drivers. Herald publisher Pat Purcell told drivers during a meeting today that he will propose severance packages for affected employees and emphasized the need for expedited negotiations about the reorganization plan....

Many of us, myself in particular, were repulsed and outraged by the revelation that the US military was forced to bury Osma bin Laden according to Islamic precepts, and that it was the priority of the Obama administration that it be done right -- much preparation was made prior to the kill. They couldn't decide on releasing the pictures prior to the kill, but studying Islamic texts and preparing for an Islamic burial, that was what the Obama administration deemed important. Brennan explained that the burial took place earlier this morning and that “it was determined that it was in...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will seek to blunt a major criticism Republican primary voters harbor against him by delivering a health-care speech in Michigan on Thursday that lays out a plan to replace the new national health-care law with other, more targeted changes. Possible 2012 presidential hopeful, former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, left, greets business leaders, Tuesday, May 3, 2011, in Nashua, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) Republicans are highly critical of the Massachusetts health-care law that Mr. Romney signed, with its requirement that nearly every resident secure insurance coverage. As the former Bay State governor gears up...

Jack Wheeler is a rock-solid conservative who is a polymath, Arabist, and world traveler who played a major role in aiding the overthrow of the Soviet regime in Afghanistan. I first found out about him from Agora Press, where he was one of the few authors willing to go on record documenting the corruptocracy of the Clinton Administration. I currently subscribe to his publication, To The Point News, which is hosting the Platinum Rendezvous in Las Vegas from Friday, May 6th to Sunday, May 8th, bringing in speakers from around the globe, including Sarah Palin. I decided to, even though...

From intelligence agencies around the world, the verdict on President Obama’s newly-released certificate of live birth from Hawaii is in: the certificate is a rank forgery on the same level as the Niger “yellow cake” uranium and Iraq Oil Ministry forged documents. Intelligence and law enforcement services are experts on fake documents since they have to deal with large numbers of counterfeit documents, such as birth certificates, passports, identity cards and driver’s licenses, as well as currency. Intelligence agencies are also experts at forging their own documents for their clandestine agents. Within 24-hours of the release of the long form...

Just a teaser..

he U.S. military dramatically stepped up its assault on Libyan government ground forces this weekend, launching its first attacks with AC-130 flying gunships and A-10 attack aircraft, which are designed to strike enemy ground troops and supply convoys, according to senior U.S. military officials. Gallery: Conflict and chaos in Libya: As international airstrikes continue against forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, rebel fighters push forward. Cast Your Vote Their use, during several days of heavy fighting in which the momentum seemed to swing in favor of the rebels, demonstrated how allied military forces have been drawn deeper into the chaotic...

You have probably heard various opinions about how to deal with people who write insulting or provocative remarks on various Internet forums (also known as "trolls" or people who "flame"). The most common is "Don't Feed the Trolls", which says that all the people in the forum should avoid responding to the troll. However, as you will see below, "Don't feed the trolls" is also a wrong and ineffective approach for dealing with trolls. Luckily, I discovered a much better way to handle criticism in the book Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, which is an internationally best-selling self-help book...