Free Republic

The State Farm General Insurance Company will no longer accept new applications for property insurance and other policies in California, citing “historic” increases in construction costs and inflation,” the company said Friday. Beginning Saturday, the Illinois-based insurance group will cease to accept applications for business and personal lines property and casualty insurance. The move doesn’t impact personal vehicle insurance. “State Farm General Insurance Company made this decision due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market,” the company said in a release. “The Department of Insurance is focused on the safety...

Afirst-of-its-kind product containing human fecal matter has just been approved by the FDA for the treatment of potentially life-threatening bacterial imbalances in the gut. The challenge: The trillions of microbes that live in your gastrointestinal tract, known collectively as your “gut microbiome,” play an important role in your health, helping your body digest food, produce vitamins, and ward off infections. Every year, 15,000 to 30,000 people die from C. difficile infections in the US. If the balance of these microbes is thrown off, you may experience health issues. Taking antibiotics, for example, can kill off the helpful bacteria that compete...

Certain types of antidepressants may put people at an increased risk for developing a deadly superbug infection, a new study suggested. Researchers from the University of Michigan revealed that individuals who suffer from depression and those taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine and fluoxetine had a much higher chance of contracting Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) – a life threatening infection that can cause severe diarrhea and inflammation of the colon. One of the most common infections acquired by patients at hospitals, C. difficile has been occurring with more and more frequency, resulting in the deaths of 14,000 individuals in the United...

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

It was recently observed that Ron Paul was to the left of Obama on national security and the best evidence for that statement can be found when one year ago Ron Paul joined forces with Barney Frank​ on a proposal to gut national defense via a panel of experts, quite a few of whom were tied to George Soros​. In July 2010, Barney Frank and Ron Paul co-authored a Huffington Post article rolling out their Sustainable Defense Task Force. The Task Force “consisting of experts on military expenditures that span the ideological spectrum” would recommend a trillion dollars in defense...

STUTTGART, Germany — Mercedes-Benz said it is rolling out a second diesel offering for its flagship S-Class lineup this month, a new 2006 S420 CDI. The latest edition to the S-Class lineup develops 320 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque from a 3996cc CDI engine with twin turbochargers. The engine is mated to a standard seven-speed automatic transmission with steering-wheel gearshift controls. The S420 CDI sprints from zero to 62 mph in 6.6 seconds and has a top speed of 155 mph. The company said the more powerful diesel model replaces the V8-powered S400 CDI. Standard features include automatic climate...

Experts debate space-based BMD assets [More Usual Suspects] By JESSICA TAYLOR UPI, July 25, 2006 WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- A new report claims U.S. anti-ballistic missile defenses must be deployed in space to be effective, but critics disagree. Several analysts say the study is based on false pretenses and the deployment of defense mechanisms into space is not in national security interests. The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, a Washington think tank, has issued a study saying the implementation of plans for space missile defense is critical for U.S. national security and an effective system against at least some...

A critical element of the “General’s Revolt” that has not received enough attention is the involvement of the Center for Defense Information (CDI). The CDI is a Washington-based advocacy group that, like the Institute of Policy Studies or the National Resources Defense Council, is usually described with a bland, harmless-sounding tagline that hides more than it reveals. The CDI claims to be an organization making available continuing, objective information and analyses of our national defense when in fact for the past three decades it has been the Left’s point organization for attacking military and defense policy. The CDI was founded...

The latest retired general to voice his concerns over the strategy to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq has been Anthony Zinni.  Naturally, the good general has co-authored a book with (surprise!) Tom Clancy, criticizing the war with Iraq.  The anti-Semitic undercurrent of the general’s interview on 60 minutes is discussed at length in Richard Baehr’s excellent piece  in The American Thinker.  Most Americans know that Gen. Zinni was the former Commanding General of CENTCOM, but few know his previous military background in that theater of operations, nor do they completely understand his current political leanings on the subject of...