Free Republic

Karl Popper (1902-1994) was a British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics. Because he is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century, what Popper had to say about Darwinism is of utmost importance to the desperate cultural struggle fought between creationists and methodological and ontological naturalists. This is because the America of the Founding generation is firmly grounded in the Genesis account of creation, Old and New Testament morality and Christian theism, yet the original meaning and intent of U.S. law — as now controlled and defined by anti-creation naturalism —...

A recent CNN article titled “The World's Rivers are Drying Up from Extreme Weather. See How 6 Look from Space” purports to argue that rivers -- for example, the Colorado, Yangtze, Rhine, Po, Loire, and Danube -- are dwindling due to “a painful lack of rain and relentless heat waves.” The article concludes that “the human-caused climate crisis is fueling extreme weather across the globe,” which is responsible for making these rivers shrink in both length and breadth and, potentially, become virtually impassable.While it is true that these rivers are indeed in low-flow conditions, it has long been argued that...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochulon Sept. 25 inked an executive order that will use telehealth to alleviate staffing shortages amid the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Three details: The order enables physicians from outside New York, from Canada or from any other country approved by the Department of Health to treat New Yorkers through telehealth. The executive order also allows nurses, licensed practical nurses, licensed nurse practitioners, midwives and social workers who are in good standing from any state to provide services in New York. Medical technicians will be able to use mobile health platforms to provide care for patients...

In 1888 Mark Twain (born this day, Australian time, in 1835) said, “Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense.” Now POTUS 45 is an upmarket version of Archie Bunker in the White House. He knows what Nixon’s Silent Majority still wants and he cuts through and communicates it. This old majority’s grip on power is not as strong as it was. But Donald Trump has been underestimated in politics ever since he came down the Golden Escalator. “It is a blessed thing to have an imagination that can always make you satisfied, no matter how you...

As civilization crumbles around us, Bradbury and his fiction offer several primordial lessons we would be prudent to reconsider. In 2013, British writer Neil Gaiman wrote a story entitled “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury.” It was about exactly what the title says: A man, losing his memory, tells the audience that he can only vaguely remember a writer who hailed from Waukegan, Illinois, who wrote wonderful and macabre fairytales of space and the otherworldly. Gaiman’s story is closer to home than what we might care to remember because, on the century of his birth, the world at large has...

Dearest Jeffrey, I have arrived at my regiment’s headquarters, Starbucks Store 8396. There was confusion at first as I thought it was the Starbucks in the Safeway parking lot, but it was actually the Starbucks within the Safeway proper. I shall write again. #secondcivilwarletters

At 13.8 billion years ago, our entire observable universe was the size of a peach and had a temperature of over a trillion degrees. That's a pretty simple, but very bold statement to make, and it's not a statement that's made lightly or easily. Indeed, even a hundred years ago, it would've sounded downright preposterous, but here we are, saying it like it's no big deal. But as with anything in science, simple statements like this are built from mountains of multiple independent lines of evidence that all point toward the same conclusion — in this case, the Big Bang,...

Christopher de Bellaigue stresses how, over the centuries, many Muslim leaders have been paragons of enlightenmentChristopher de Bellaigue, a journalist who has spent much of his working life in the Middle East, has grown tired of people throwing up their hands in horror at Isis, Erdogan and Islamic terror, and declaring that the region is backward and in need of a thorough western-style reformation. As he argues in this timely book, the Islamic world has been coming to terms with modernity in its own often turbulent way for more than two centuries. And we’d better understand it, because it’s an...

Republican leaders are currently thrashing about - holding secret meetings, issuing confidential memos and making public denunciations - as they approach a state of near panic over what Donald Trump is doing to their party. It's enough to make some believe that Mr Trump may not have the Republican establishment's best interests at heart.

An elementary school suspended a boy who arrived at school last week with what he alleged was a powerful ring that appears in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' fantasy books. Aiden Steward was suspended from Kermit Elementary School in Kermit, Texas, over a Thursday incident, The New York Daily News reported. While speaking to another boy, 9-year-old Steward said he would able to use the One Ring and turn the fellow student invisible, according to the newspaper.... Jason Steward told the newspaper 'I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his...

Our stories are changing. Wonder and Beauty slowly eke from our world, unnoticed and unmourned. I used to think it was a natural cessation from the Neverland of youth; a necessary immigration from the immature trappings of youthful imagination to the logical constraints of a moribund maturity. However I've found that this is not just my perspective, draining of imagination and wonder as I age. Our stories, our heroes are changing. Our children seem less prone to idealism, more immune to wonder; and this points to a tidal shift in the culture itself. If you watch or read any contemporary...

Economic anxiety defines the Detroit bankruptcy, and not just in Michigan and the Midwest. Detroit is the urban nightmare, symbolic of America's downward cultural spiral since the 1960s, when optimism about what Americans could accomplish was the national elixir. The automobile was the national icon: powerful, beautiful and reliable. Detroit's advertising slogans reflected America's immeasurable self-confidence. Cadillac boasted that it was "the standard of the world." Buick promised that "when better cars are built, Buick will build them." Packard, then Detroit's ultimate expression of luxury, smugly advised, "Ask the man who owns one." The car was the example of infinite...

... what then makes for good entertainment and what qualities does that entertainment have? What causes me to like something when I watch it? What excites me enough to drop money on something and go watch it? ...

The latest from Newsbusters shows the left is trying a different angle attacking Ann Romney... (National Organization for Women President) TERRY O'NEILL:  What would we be saying if Hillary Clinton [sic] had said this: that Ann Romney has never, has not worked for pay outside the home a day in her life?  That's my understanding that's an accurate statement, and that raises the exact issue that Hilary Rosen was trying to get to, which is do Mr. & Mrs. Romney have the kind of life experience and if not, the imagination, to really understand what most American families are going through right...

Liberals are not insane, as many conservatives believe. Most liberals (I am not speaking here of the political or intellectual class) are ordinary human beings pursuing everyday human lives -- just like the rest of us. Here is a brief summary of why most liberals are liberal and what we can do to help at least some of them understand conservative thought: Enter text here. 1) Indoctrination, not education Polls consistently find that over 70% of college professors identify themselves as liberal. The percentage of liberal faculty members is even higher if one removes responses from those teaching the "hard"...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

President Obama today signed into law The Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, which expands efforts to identify countries that don’t share our love for the First Amendment. He also took time to honor the man the bill is named after, journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic extremists in 2002 in what the President — with nary a teleprompter in sight — called a moment that ‘captured the world’s imagination.’ The Obama administration has pushed to have Pearl’s professed killer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, tried in civilian court.

In one of the many new age music albums, there is a song called "Fly Away" and the constant refrain is "Fly Away, Fly Away, Fly Away," and the refrain really describes what you can do with this new invention. The catch is of course with this, you can only fly away in your imagination. TFT INSTRUMENTS Company has designed a new flight simulator that can be used for entertainment (with both movie studio sets/movie productions), airports, and shopping centers.

Oh, to escape the daily grind, And yet right now that cannot be. I’ll close my eyes and use my mind To dream of what I long to see. Unlock imagination’s door And clear my mind of other things. Look forward to what is in store, To what my fantasizing brings. The grass so green, trees reaching high And wildflowers line the way Of path beneath the sunlit sky. Such beauty words cannot convey. So red and plump, I cannot pass, Delight in taste of berries sweet. Remove my shoes, the luscious grass Feels velvety beneath my feet.

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the methodology used by the Department of Homeland Security in issuing a controversial "right-wing extremism" threat assessment to law enforcement in April as "complete speculation." "Our worse fears about what went into this memo have been confirmed. The government department that was supposed to be tasked with identifying domestic terrorist threats is apparently using news stories, kooky websites, and conjecture instead of actual hard intelligence reporting and analysis," said Wilson. "This is a disgrace, and calls into question what it is that the so-called 'Extremism and Radicalizaton Branch of the Homeland...