Free Republic

In the first week of public comments on a federal proposal to encourage male circumcision in the U.S., most people are telling Uncle Sam to leave the foreskins alone. “His body, his choice” and “Foreskin is not a birth defect” are among the hundreds of negative comments in the Federal Register against a proposed policy by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise that males of all ages be circumcised for health reasons. The strongest objections were for infant circumcision, since it is a “human rights” violation for a male to permanently lose a piece of his body...

Once upon a time, there was a saying among the young: “The answer is more beer. What is the question?” Substitute the word “government” for the word “beer” and you have what could be the rallying cry for academics today. “As for spurring economic growth in general, there is a near consensus among serious economists about many of the policies that are necessary,” MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence wrote in an article which appeared in Foreign Affairs last summer. “ The basic strategy is intellectually simple, if politically difficult: boost public-sector investment over the short and...

The Food and Drug Administration is going to try its hand at shaming consumers into making healthier choices when they go out to eat. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the FDA announced a controversial and expansive rule that will require certain establishments with 20 or more locations -- including chain restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, and movie theaters -- to post calorie information on their menus and menu boards. A separate rule was also issued requiring operators of 20 or more vending machines to post calorie information. Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act, a provision included in the law...

As my dear friends’ fifty something daughter faces up to five hours of surgery this week to remove leaking silicone breast implants, I just wanted to use up a few lines of type to express my shock and awe at what has become the PRACTICE of Medicine in this country. And indeed, PRACTICE, becomes an apt word as I meditate on what is happening to my friends and relatives at this time of the year. When she was twenty, my new friend was implanted with silicone because her breasts were “little.” She wanted to be appealing to men, I guess....

The Justice Department (DOJ) is banning smoking and all tobacco products in federal prisons, according to a final regulation to be published Monday.All federal prison inmates will be prohibited from smoking, unless they receive a religious exemption. Staff will also still be able to smoke in designated areas. The government said they are moving forward with the regulation, which goes into effect in 30 days, out of concerns of the health of their inmates.The rule will affect the estimated 80 percent of prison inmates that smoke.“The revised regulations generally prohibit smoking in and on the grounds of Bureau institutions and...

The federal government formally completed regulations that will force vending machines and restaurants to display calorie information, which can lead to businesses being fined thousands of dollars for not including the number of calories in a mayonnaise packet. The regulations, which originated in Obamacare, total 319 pages and will cost industry $1.7 billion to comply. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the final rules last week just before the Thanksgiving holiday, arguing the rules are “an important step for public health.” The final rules increased costs by $542 million from the proposed rules, totaling $531.1 million for vending machines,...

Dear Blue Cross CEO: Just yesterday, I received your glossy brochure encouraging me to apply for Obamacare insurance through your company. No doubt this is because my husband lost his job recently, and we are now on COBRA. COBRA also tried to entice us to use Obamacare, saying we could have less costly insurance through the government exchanges. Your brochure went to great pains to tell me about the possibility of subsidies if our household income was below certain levels. Since my husband is now unemployed and I have been either mom or grandma-on-call for the past 30+ years, our...

(CNSNews.com) – The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed corporations to reduce their health care costs by rewarding employees for voluntarily participating in workplace “wellness” programs to help them lose weight or stop smoking. But now three of those programs are the target of discrimination lawsuits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which says they are neither voluntary nor legal. EEOC recently filed its third wellness lawsuit, claiming that Honeywell International, Inc.’s ACA-approved wellness program violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Honeywell recently informed employees and their spouses who were enrolled in the company’s health benefits plan that...

I am in the process of writing a book which argues that the Sexual Revolution has been a rich person’s hobby horse from the beginning. The rich and powerful like the idea of separating sex from child-bearing. While this idea is sometimes wrapped up in a disguise of helping woman and the poor, the fact remains that the rich and powerful pioneered and implemented these ideas, quite often at the expense of women and the poor. So I wondered, when I picked up a book, The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution, celebrating...

I was a part of my family member's business, and as an employee of this small family business was able to get myself and 4 kids covered by a private insurance company with a great ppo plan though pricy. Every year, this coverage grew more expensive by a couple hundred a month, until this year when it has gone up by $500 a month. I can't afford it and the business will be closing in 2015. I don't want to join CA Covered because it's ObamaCare. What do any CA FReepers do for insurance when they aren't getting it paid...

Paleo is my shepherd, I shall not want carbs It maketh me to lie down with leafy greens, it leads me to drink gallons of water it refreshes my gut flora It guides me along nutritional paths for health’s sake Even though I walk through the valley of chocolate I will fear no eclair For thou art with me thy whey protein and thy reduced portions they comfort me You prepare a table before me in the presence of my trainers You anoint my head with fish oil my cup overflows. Surely glucagon and Omega-3s will follow me all the...

Thanks to the FDA’s calorie labeling regulations announced Tuesday, major changes will soon be coming to the food and restaurant industries. The regulation itself is nothing new; it became law in 2010 as a provision attached to the Affordable Care Act, but final rules were delayed for the past few years, thanks in large part to heavy opposition from grocery stores, pizza chains, vending machines, convenience stores, and movie theaters. Although some concessions were made, none of these industries were fully spared. By November 2015, these establishments will be forced to post calorie information on menus and menu boards, which...

A consultant considered an architect to the federal health care law who said a “lack of transparency” and “stupidity of the American voter” were critical to getting it passed reportedly received $481,050 from the state of Michigan, and a recently elected state representative said he wants an investigation. Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who created an econometric model intended to project health care spending and costs under different assumptions, along with his team, was granted a $481,050 contract by the state of Michigan, according to the Washington Post. He was paid that to help set up state...

The White House announced Friday that Susan E. “Susie” Morrison will serve as the next White House Executive Pastry Chef. Morrison is the seventh person and first woman to serve in the role and begins “just in time to spearhead the always highly anticipated Holiday Gingerbread House,” the White House said. The position was most recently held by William Yosses, who departed earlier this year to create the “Kitchen Garden Laboratory,” a wellness through cooking advocacy group.

Let’s face it: school lunches are not exactly culinary masterpieces. But some fed-up students have been sharing some down-right disgusting-looking meals using the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama on social media. It’s not a new thing. These posts have been around when school started up in August. But as students get ready for the year’s biggest food holiday, the trend is picking up steam. …

WASHINGTON — As Americans shop in the health insurance marketplace for a second year, President Obama is depending more than ever on the insurance companies that five years ago he accused of padding profits and canceling coverage for the sick. Those same insurers have long viewed government as an unreliable business partner that imposed taxes, fees and countless regulations and had the power to cut payment rates and cap profit margins. But since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the relationship between the Obama administration and insurers has evolved into a powerful, mutually beneficial partnership that has been...

The parents of Eliza O’Neill, the little girl with an incurable and deadly brain disorder, are making one final desperate push to raise funds for the clinical trial that will test a gene therapy for the disease—and perhaps offer hope for Eliza. The O’Neills have already raised $1.3 million through a viral video and hope that by Eliza’s fifth birthday on Sunday they’ll hit their $1.8 million goal. While there is no guarantee that Eliza will be among those chosen to participate in the trial, which could start sometime in the middle of 2015, its organizers say that at this...

Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist that said that Obamacare had to be made deliberately deceptive, in order to be passed, was considered the most influential expert of the Democrat Party in 2007.   This was no self promotion, but a pronouncement by one of the most influential and prominent of the old media outlets, the Washington Post: On the other side was an economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has become possibly the party's most influential health-care expert and a voice of realism in its internal debates. In a precursor to the revelations recently that Gruber aided in...

The disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act was the catalyst for my party’s midterm thumping. ....I have been a registered Democrat since age 18, a Democratic candidate for statewide office in Colorado and a party precinct captain in that caucus state. I’ve volunteered for numerous Democratic candidates and contributed to party causes and campaigns..... ObamaCare is a failure. For anyone who thinks this is a misprint because no Democratic activist would make such a comment, let me add that it is too big, too complicated and too expensive.

The federal government has invested over $10 million developing and promoting a video game about a young teen that must escape a town full of fat people, as a method to fight obesity.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) paid for the development of two video games that promote healthier eating, including “Escape from Diab,” a “nightmare” fictional city where people are only allowed to eat junk food.“The story centers around five children who must get healthy enough to escape the evil King Etes,” explains Archimage, Inc., a computer game company that received $9,091,409 to develop the games. King Etes is...