Free Republic

By the summer of 1563, all of Britain had plunged into chaos over religion and the Reformation. King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic church back in the 1530s, sparking a near civil war within the kingdom. Protestants killed Catholics, Catholics killed protestants, and extreme social tensions lasted for decades. Universities were at the heart of this conflict; rather than focus on real subjects like science and mathematics, students and professors became radical social activists and turned their schools into ideological echo chambers. Sound familiar? One of the few students who actually wanted to learn was a Scottish teenager...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy slowed sharply from January through March, decelerating to just a 1.1% annual pace as higher interest rates hammered the housing market and businesses reduced inventories. Thursday’s estimate from the Commerce Department showed that the nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of economic output — weakened after growing 3.2% from July through September and 2.6% from October through November. The slowdown reflects the impact of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive drive to tame inflation, with nine interest rate hikes over the past year. The surge in borrowing costs is expected to send the economy into...

Heeere we goooo. Fingers toes and eyes crossed for a successful test flight of the 33-Raptor engine Superheavy booster and Starship first time into space. Both vehicles are planned to splash down...the booster in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship off of Hawaii.

If virtually everyone is expecting a recession, and most people start acting accordingly, do you think that will make an economic downturn less likely or more likely? Needless to say, the answer to that question is obvious. Right now, banks all over the country are getting really tight with their money, large corporations are laying off workers at a frightening pace, and consumers are cutting back on their spending. In other words, it really is starting to look a lot like a recession out there, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh in the months ahead....

Children of politically liberal parents are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety , lack a sense of life meaning, and have substance abuse issues, according to a family physician with more than 30 years of experience. Dr. Leonard Sax, who also holds a Ph.D. in psychology, told the Washington Examiner that left-of-center parents are much more likely to be "aggressively permissive" in their parenting style, leaving children without proper authority. These "permissive parents," whose parenting style is also known as "gentle parenting," do not want to be seen as "controlling" or "coercive" to their children. For example, "gentle...

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard on Thursday dismissed concerns of a credit crunch in reaction to the turmoil in the financial system following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other institutions in recent weeks. Bullard said he does not expect lending standards to rise to a level that would push the economy into a recession. "It's too soon to tell what kind of tightening we are seeing," Bullard told reporters following his speech on the economy and monetary policy at the Arkansas State Bank Department's Day with the Commissioner event. However, he said, "credit tightening will not...

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has been discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was being treated for depression, his office announced Friday. He will return to the Senate when it returns from recess on April 17, his office said in a news release, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting. “I am so happy to be home,” the freshman Democrat said in a statement. “I’m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves. Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs.” Fetterman checked himself in last month “to...

Where’s Fetterman? It’s a good question. The new senator from Pennsylvania has been on a lengthy absence following physical and mental health struggles. We, of course, wish Senator Fetterman a full recovery and recommend a peaceful retirement for his own sake – something those who advise him should have recommended long before subjecting him to a grueling senate campaign. In an information vacuum, such as the one surrounding John Fetterman’s long absence, things are bound to get crazy … and they have. Oh god yes, Fake Fetterman conspiracy, let's go pic.twitter.com/rRuw2wPcpw — Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) March 24, 2023 That’s right,...

Five weeks after Sen. John Fetterman’s hospitalization for clinical depression, his staff says the stay is coming to an end soon, though no certain timeline was offered for his return. “John will be out soon,” spokesperson Joe Calvello said. “Over a week but soon. Recovery is going really well. We have an amazing team at Walter Reed.” Fetterman’s public acknowledgment in mid-February that he was suffering from depression and decision to seek treatment were heralded by many of his colleagues as a courageous disclosure about an often stigmatized topic. Intense scrutiny over his recovery and inpatient care has continued, though,...

1929: The biggest economic crisis of the 20th century brought an abrupt end to the euphoria of the Roaring Twenties. Driven from their land, the farmers of the Great Plains were forced to abandon everything they had. They became migrants in their own country, and were treated as such by the vast Californian estates. They became the symbol of an America confronted by its own reality. Built on the work of the iconic photographers of the Great Depression - Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein - this full archive documentary analyzes the consequences of the economic collapse in the...

Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus issued a strong warning for everyday Americans. During an appearance on "Cavuto Live," Marcus discussed the devastating collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, urging Americans to "wake up" and understand that the U.S. economy is in "tough times."

Depression is a leading cause of disability around the world and contributes greatly to the global burden of disease. Nutrition is essential for the maintenance of normal emotional states. Nutritional therapy is rising up in many disease treatments, but little is known in the depression field. Unbalanced nutrition is implicated in the etiology of depression, potentially hindering treatment. For example, many essential amino acids (EAAs) in serum are changed in patients with depression, such as tryptophan, threonine, leucine, isoleucine, and valine. However, whether EAA contributes to depression and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Now, researchers, led by Feifan Guo,...

A top aide to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said that he is “well on his way to recovery” as he remains hospitalized to receive treatment for clinical depression and will return to work in the Senate “soon.” Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, tweeted three pictures of the freshman senator during a meeting on Monday with him at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they discussed a number of items Fetterman is expected to work on in the coming months. “Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business,”...

A majority of the nation’s business economists expect a U.S. recession to begin later this year than they had previously forecast, after a series of reports have pointed to a surprisingly resilient economy despite steadily higher interest rates. Fifty-eight percent of 48 economists who responded to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics envision a recession sometime this year, the same proportion who said so in the NABE’s survey in December. But only a quarter think a recession will have begun by the end of March, only half the proportion who had thought so in December. The findings,...

The aide said that the hospital stay could rage from weeks to more than a month, but added that the stay would "likely" last less than two months.

WASHINGTON, DC — Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed Medical Center in the nation's capital to seek treatment for clinical depression after coming to the realization that he was a member of the United States Congress. "It just suddenly dawned on him," said a member of Fatterman's staff under the condition of anonymity. "This entire time, ever since winning the election in November, he thought he was on some type of fun fantasy trip. Once he realized he was now just another slimy politician, he got kinda bummed out." Already struggling with the continuing effects of a...

A spokesman for the first-term senator from Pennsylvania, who suffered a near-fatal stroke last year, said his depression had grown severe in recent weeks, as he has worked to adjust to life in the Senate.

A Pennsylvania family found shot dead in their backyard last week in what police say appears to be a suicide pact, included a mother and daughter who loved bowling and were devout Christian conservatives, people who knew them said. Morgan Daub, 26, and her parents, James Daub, 62, and Deborah Daub, 59, were found dead on the ground in the backyard of their home in York County, Pennsylvania, on the morning of Jan. 25, after police responded to a request for a welfare check from a neighbor. The West Manchester Township Police Department has since said that notes left inside...

The latest numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the U.S. economy grew by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, and 2.1 percent for 2022. While the White House was quick to take credit for the state of the nation’s economy, they might want to think twice. This latest report should have alarm bells ringing, not trumpets sounding. That’s because economic growth is slowing down. Even the areas which contributed positively to gross domestic product (GDP) are not necessarily signs of prosperity. For example, business investment grew at only 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter,...

Consumer spending slowed and household finances weakened across all income levels last month. But households earning $100,000 a year or more reported shaving more off their spending than less well-off households did, according to a report released this week by Morning Consult, a decision intelligence company. The report also found that real monthly spending among U.S. adults fell by 4.3% from November to December. Even so, 21.3% of U.S. adults said their monthly expenses exceeded their monthly income in December, up from 19.2% in November. On average, households earning $100,000 a year or more said they spent about 10% less...