Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure legislation has the political class seemingly locked in a debate about what “infrastructure” means. Biden and Democratic leaders—backed by a majority of the U.S. population—believe that “infrastructure” is more than just roads and bridges and encompasses all the structures that help modern society function. Their new bill reflects that understanding, including improvements to water pipes and the electrical grid, universal broadband access, charging stations for electric vehicles, physical upgrades to schools and universities, and—perhaps most innovatively—home care for the elderly and disabled, support for families with children, and expanded access to health care. Republican elected...

I often buy a gallon of milk at the convenience store across the street from my job, and take it up to break room to use on cereal or in my coffee. Since my office is a few floors up, I can either take the elevator (which is interminably slow) or walk up the steps (and have everyone else staring at me when I arrive huffing and puffing). I was pondering this choice on one recent trip, when I was struck by a blinding flash of the obvious that saving work is exactly what the elevator is for. My mind...

News out of China reports China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) has laid plans to erect its second largest soybean processing plant in the country's southwest region. The company's second largest plant is expected to begin construction in the month of September and once complete will have annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes (44 million bushels). Interesting enough is the location, away from the country's major soybean production region and nearer port facilities but equally interesting is how competitors of COFCO, both Sino Grain and Jilin Grain Group are also laying plans to open "new" facilities. Allendale research...

Timothy Ivy for The New York TimesBIG SPLASH Paterson hopes that having the Great Falls designated as a National Historical Park will provide a major economic boostTimothy Ivy for The New York Times HYDRO POWERED Mayor José Torres of Paterson hopes the park will revitalize his city. Paterson, NJ MORE than 200 years ago, during the Revolutionary War, Alexander Hamilton was traveling with Gen. George Washington when the men stopped with their entourage to have a meal in front of a magnificent waterfall. As they ate and drank, the precocious 23-year-old Hamilton saw in the power of the falls an...

The coordinated world economic plan appears to be focused at the American consumer pulling all nations out of a near depression. But fundamental changes will prevent this from happening. First, as reported by The Wall Street Journal’s “Lean Factories Find It Hard to Cut Jobs Even in a Slump”, American factories are running so efficiently that foreign low cost labor is becoming far less relevant than factories being close to their customers.

I recently found a postcard that an ex girlfriend once gave me. It's a picture of Charlie Chaplin in his movie Modern Times. I was a film student in college and my ex knew that I am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin's work. In my liberal days, I was even an admirer of his philosophies and politics. The postcard depicts probably the most famous scene in the film - his Big Brother-esque boss makes him fix the "big industrial machine," and consequently, the Little Tramp gets caught up in the giant gears. The entire movie, and that scene in...

An extraordinary burst of global warming that occurred around 55 million years ago dramatically reversed Earth's pattern of ocean currents, a finding that strengthens modern-day concern about climate change, a study says. The big event, the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), saw the planet's surface temperature rise by between five and eight degrees C (nine and 16.2 F) in a very short time, unleashing climate shifts that endured tens of thousands of years. ...

US, Australia, India, China and SKorea To Sign New Climate PactSydney (SPX) Jul 27, 2005 A group of countries including the United States, Australia, China, India and South Korea have agreed a secret pact on greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto climate protocol, a report said Wednesday. The alliance, which is yet to be announced, will bring together nations that account for more than 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, The Australian newspaper said. A government source told AFP that the general thrust of the report was correct, but that the line-up of countries involved had not...

Environmentalists -- notorious for making doomsday predictions about man's industrial activities while appealing to "science" -- are now turning to religion to halt the "sins" of industrialization and development. Over a year ago in a full-page article ("Keep Faith With Nature" -- Calgary Herald, Jan. 16, 1999), eco-activist Harvey Locke exhorted: "we need to restore a sense of the sacred to creation if we are to save it." He urged greens to "reach out to those who have religious and spiritual impulses and strive with them to protect the full diversity of life on Earth." Other prominent environmentalists since, such...