Free Republic

Ron Reagan is the direct namesake of the man whom many on the right consider to be “The Greatest American Hero.” Much to their dismay he has spent his broadcasting career taking aim at the very politicians who have sought to attach themselves to his father’s (the late President Ronald Reagan) conservative legacy in order to justify everything from extreme corporate deregulation to the war in Iraq. For decades Ron Reagan has forged a path that embraces left wing ideals and touts science and progression over alleged antiquated religious rhetoric, a position that infuriates the Republican Party and warms liberals...

It's campaign season, which means there is plenty of mud being tossed back and forth between candidates, especially on campaign commercials. These commercials are notorious for taking complex political debates and boiling them down into misleading sound bites. This "dumbing down" of political debate is always unfortunate, but it becomes tragic when sound bites endanger the lives of vulnerable human beings. Case in point: a couple of candidates have released campaign commercials featuring Michael J. Fox. Mr. Fox, who starred in the Back to the Future movies, is suffering from Parkinson's disease, and after seeing him on TV, every decent...

ALAN Mackay-Sim and his small team of researchers investigating the human sense of smell have tended to get up the noses, pardon the pun, of the serious scientists working in the field of stem-cell exploration. Most of the real players were to be found studying embryonic stem cells at such long-established research centres as Monash University and the University of Queensland, although the work of those other Australian scientists targeting bone marrow and neural stem cells was also highly regarded. But no one quite knew what to make of Mackay-Sim's Griffith University team that somehow had taken an odd turn...