Free Republic

Perhaps no state claims the sense of pride that is evident in Texas. Author Mark Davis talks about this shared sentiment in his new book "Lone Star America." This week, he spoke with Townhall about how Texas is excelling and taking the lead on just about every issue from jobs to energy to the Second Amendment. He shared some insight into policies that allow Texas to thrive economically, as well as his thoughts as to which Texans could be in the White House in 2016. Why write this book now? In 30 plus years of doing radio talk shows, conservatives...

Governor Perry has been criticized for his now-rescinded order mandating HPV vaccine for preteen girls. Here’s another side to the story that up until now has never been made public.

Up to now I’ve thought Michele Bachman was the most impressive performer in the GOP field, going toe-to-toe with the “big boys” in the field, out-arguing them on several occasions, and introducing serious constitutional arguments that the rest of the field (even Perry) are too timid to attempt. She’s right to go after Rick Perry on the issue of mandating the use of the Gardisil vaccine, along with the issue of “crony capitalism,” both of which get at the issue of a potential president’s sense of the reach and limits of state power. Perry is a mixed bag on this...

Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country. ...SNIP... Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff. His current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government. The governor also received...

When Rick Perry joked last night that the $5,000 he had received from Merck wasn’t enough to buy him off, the line failed to charm the audience as he’d expected. Turns out, the line also significantly low-balled how much he’d received from Merck. “Merck PAC—the company’s D.C.-based political action committee—has given Perry $28,500 since 2001, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings. The bulk of that money came prior to 2007,” the Los Angeles Times reports today. Even so, that doesn’t make Merck one of Perry’s top donors: the LA Times notes that he’s received over the years donations totaling more...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

A month ago, I was “fringe” for spotlighting Rick Perry’s Gardasil problem. As I said then, it’s not just a “single-issue,” one-off problem. It’s about his instincts, judgment, non-apology apology, and ethics. For everyone still catching up, here’s my column from a month ago. Now, Gardasil is the search word of the day. And there’s a new development. After successfully highlighting Perry’s troubling abuse of executive power during last night’s debate, Michele Bachmann risks blowing it with some factually inaccurate assertions. She’s RIGHT on the principles, wrong on some of the details. She needs to stay on message and stick...

ATLANTA (AP) — The sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer in women is poised to become one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men, according to a new study. The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol, probably due both to an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking, researchers say. The only available vaccine against HPV, made by Merck & Co. Inc., is currently given only to girls and young women. But Merck plans this year to ask government permission to offer the shot to boys....

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that no one is out to get you. With these words, I will relate a story about what is going on in the United States regarding those who wish to control the lives of our young people and the future generations of our nation... In 1985, Planned Parenthood people were among the participants in an exercise that produced a document called Inventing the Future: Alternatives to Adolescent Pregnancy. The document was the result of creative thinking on the part of the participants on how they would want things to operate in the future. It...

A bill concerning the mandatory vaccination of US middle-aged schoolgirls against cervical cancer is considered controversial and some states even try to pull it back. The vaccine is only produced by Merck Sharp & Dohme (Merck & Co) and is called Gardasil. This is the world’s first vaccine against cervical cancer and other diseases caused by certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil for mass-prescription on June 8, 2006, after a lot of clinical tests. The tests also indicated that Gardasil’s administratin to girls should occur before they become sexually active....