Free Republic

Where did this headline come from, you may ask. All in good time, my little pretty. All in good time. We must start with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, coming out of the United Nations. A few months ago, this column examined the dubious and somewhat contradictory notion of “sustainability,” shortened from the original 1987 version “sustainable development.” The best working definition of this term, which is then invoked countless times in hundreds of documents, is “Sustainability calls for a decent standard of living for everyone today without compromising the needs of future generations.” Good luck finding any further clarification...

Editor’s Note: Stephen Bloom is a Christian attorney with more than 20 years experience in private practice. He is a frequent media guest, speaker, and writer on Christianity and the law, a Lecturer in Management and Business at Messiah College, and a Consultant to the United Methodist Stewardship Foundation of Central Pennsylvania. He is a legal columnist for Good News Daily, former host of the "Practical Counsel - Christian Perspective" radio program, and founder of the Estate Planning Council of Cumberland County. Bloom has been actively involved in the leadership of numerous community and ministry organizations, including his church, where...

Precautions and Alternatives From the Editor: This is the second in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The RFFM.org re-posting of the column discusses how living wills can cancel out the wishes of patients and loved ones regarding end of life issues. Also, readers can learn how to seek out alternatives to living wills and find ways to ensure their end of life issues are respected and adhered to. Included are examples of how living wills have been used to disregard patients rights....

From the Editor: This is the second in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The RFFM.org re-posting of the column discusses how living wills can cancel out the wishes of patients and loved ones regarding end of life issues. Also, readers can learn how to seek out alternatives to living wills and find ways to ensure their end of life issues are respected and adhered to. Included are examples of how living wills have been used to disregard patients rights. The following was...

Can Ambien Wake Up PVS Patients? The Guardian gives credence to a case report concerning three patients purportedly diagnosed in PVS for more than three years who were "aroused transiently every morning after zolpidem," a sleeping pill. That would be Ambien. The report, by Clauss and Nel, of Royal Surrey County Hospital and of Family Practice of Pollack Park South Africa, was published in this month's issue of Neurorehabilitation. There are 26 million annual prescriptions for Ambien, most of which are probably not to patients in a persistent vegetative state. Recall that Ambien is oft reported to cause odd behavior...

/begin my translation China: Smoking Problems Among Young Kids 05/12/05| A small kid in tattered clothes is lighting up like an old pro. He must have done it for quite a while. It appears that he is a kid panhandling in front of a Buddhist temple. We can see an incense burner and a plastic bottle for collecting money, and on the left side, we see the appeal for help written on a board. Inhaling after lighting it up   Judging from the way he carries the cigarette between his fingers, he looks as experienced as any chain-smoking grownup. Inhaling again There is a wide...

** PROTEST ANNOUNCEMENT ** CHARGE OF THE CIGARETTE LIGHTER BRIGADE WEDNESDAY, DEC. 18TH AT 12 NOON CITY HALL (East Gate) (Time subject to change.  Please check back for confirmation ) The NYC Council will be voting on Mayor Bloomberg's sweeping smoking ban this date. Some council members can still be swayed NOT to vote for this bill (see latest news ) It's up to you to convince them once and for all that it's wrong, and not in their best political career interests, to support one man's personal war on smokers. Thousands of businesses and two million New Yorkers...