Free Republic

A new report from the Tablet online magazine alleges that former President Barack Obama is the power behind much of what happens in President Joe Biden’s White House, controlling key decisions through an army of Obama administration alumni. The lengthy article, “The Obama Factor,” consists of a lengthy introduction by author David Samuels, followed by an interview with civil rights historian and Obama biographer David Garrow. The article covers a wide range of topics, including many areas that few journalists bothered to explore during his 2008 campaign and subsequent presidency, such as the fact that much of Obama’s first memoir,...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Sunday called Israel’s government “racist” and suggested that there should be strings attached to US aid to Israel. Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation”, Sanders was asked by interview Margaret Brennan if he thinks democracy is in peril in Israel. “I do. I am very worried about what Netanyahu is doing and some of his allies in government and what may happen to the Palestinian people,” replied the Senator, who is Jewish. “And let me tell you something, I mean, I haven't said this publicly. But I think the United States gives billions of dollars...

A great song that sums up the times. The following songs are songs by Bill Strings: Billy Strings - Watch It FallBilly Strings - Heartbeat of AmericaBilly Strings - Dust In A BaggieBilly Strings - Meet Me At the Creek

Cracks in the universe: the search for cosmic strings Galaxy-sized filaments of raw energy may be threaded through spacetime, according to some theories. Will we ever find traces of them? Cathal O’Connell takes up the hunt. Share Tweet Tatyun / Getty Images Our universe exploded into being, expanded at a fantastic speed and cooled. Perhaps too quickly. Some physicists believe the rapid cooling might have cracked the fabric of the universe.These hairline fractures may still be threaded through space-time. Dubbed cosmic strings, mathematical models see them as invisible threads of pure energy, thinner than an atom but light-years long. The...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) supported a visa waiver for the daughter of a fugitive Ecuadorian banker in exchange for significant campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. On Tuesday, NBC 4 New York reported that Menendez, with express written support from Clinton, intervened on behalf of Estefania Isaías, who was banned from traveling to the U.S. due to accusations of visa fraud. Isaías is the daughter of Roberto Isaias, who lives in Miami and is currently fighting extradition to Ecuador for banking crimes and under investigation for...

There's an old Indian story about six blind men who go to visit an elephant. One touches its leg and decides that elephants must be like trees. A second examines its trunk and declares they are like snakes. A third feels its side and concludes they are like walls. You can imagine the rest. Everyone is right yet they are all wrong and it all ends in an argument. Only a major leap of the imagination, inspired by a lot more careful feeling around, could reveal the true nature of the animal that combines so many different characteristics. Six blind...

WASHINGTON – Dallas' top Democratic donors will cut big checks to share dinner later this month with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most will be motivated by a desire to protect the party's congressional majority. Lisa Blue will have an extra reason: to say thanks for Pelosi's efforts when her husband, Fred Baron, was dying of bone marrow cancer. His only option was an experimental drug whose manufacturer refused to give permission to use it for Baron's condition. "He was a big fan of hers, and now I am as well," Blue said. Baron, the "King of Toxic Torts," built a...

Joe Carter at The Evangelical Outpost has an outstanding article on the "God of the Gaps." Joe explains in easily understandable terms that the notion "actually encompasses four different views based on distinctions between a “science gap” (a gap in our current scientific knowledge) and a “nature gap” (a break in the continuous cause-effect chain of natural process) that may or may not be bridged by miraculous-appearing theistic action." As technology advances, our science gaps close, but more science gaps often rise up to take their place. For example, we once thought that an electron was a sub-atomic particle that...

Strings attached Wanted: Proof that the mother of all theories is correct. Pathik Guha reports But is that physics? That seemed to have been the caveat raised by Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate physicist, against the string theory, popularly known as the Theory of Everything. Though the experts, not particularly fond of hypes, don’t like the name that much, the string theory is one of the attempts to unify the two seemingly irreconciliable concepts — relativity and quantum mechanics — which between them explain everything from an apple’s fall to a picture’s formation on a TV screen. Albert Einstein, always...

If anyone is interested, here is a link that has approx 3 hours of streaming video (Real and Quick Time) of PBS's The Elegant Universe. It begins with Newton and ends up with Witman's unifying of the 5 string theories. Very well done IMO...Good educational piece for the sciences.