Free Republic

The student editors of the Columbia Law Review issued a statement on Wednesday urging Columbia Law School to cancel exams in the wake of the police operation that cleared the university’s unauthorized encampment, saying the "violence" had left them "irrevocably shaken" and "unable to focus." The statement, which represents the majority opinion of the editorial board and was endorsed by five other law journals, including the Columbia Human Rights Law Review & A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual, accused the police of "brutalizing" students—though no major injuries have been reported—and claimed that canceling exams was a "proportionate response" to the "distress our...

It's called 'Trauma-Informed Schools,' and it's infecting even one of the reddest legislatures in the country. For conservatives, Democratic infiltrations of state agencies to swing coming elections represent an immediate threat. But another infiltration accomplishes similar ends by longer-term means: creating "Trauma-Informed Schools" for teachers to shape children's personalities by instructing them to locate past trauma in problems like racism, sexism, and even climate change — problems that only big government can solve. Today this project is spreading through schools, pushed by nonprofits with funding from the Biden administration for "social and emotional learning" but also with the encouragement of...

President Joe Biden's latest addition to a prestigious board of intelligence advisers is a liberal climate scientist who said she experienced an "acute mental health crisis" and "could not get out of bed" following the 2016 election of former president Donald Trump. Biden on Thursday tapped Brown University climate scientist Kim Cobb to serve on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, the White House announced in a press release. While past presidents have used the board to probe high-profile national security threats and intelligence failures, it's unclear whether Cobb will be able to stomach such sensitive and unsettling information. That's because...

Trauma from environmental and climate disasters can cause long-term changes in cognitive functioning, according to research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS Climate. Researchers from the University of California San Diego and California State University used existing data from survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. In the 2023 study, researchers found that among a subset of people directly exposed to the fire, electroencephalography (EEG) scans showed noticeable differences in brain activity and cognitive function. ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT Study: Trauma from climate disaster can change brain function BY ZACK BUDRYK - 01/20/23 1:53 PM ET...

Please remember all women who were duped into thinking that their pregnancy was just a "clump of cells" and not a human baby and went on to have an abortion since it was freely available under Roe v Wade. Please don't believe that all women who had abortions are hoes, especially in the early days. Many women believed the propaganda and succumbed to it, only to regret it later.

Amy Schumer implied she was stepping away from her active career for a 'month' break as she shared an Instagram snap with her son Gene on Thursday morning. The 40-year-old comedian wrapped her arms around her two-year-old little one in the peaceful photo, and wrote: 'Out of office reply for the next month. Thanks.' Her latest post follows a social media share on Wednesday morning where she admitted she was 'still triggered and traumatized' by the 'disturbing' moment when Will Smith stormed onto the stage and slapped Chris Rock during Sunday night's 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Amy followed up...

"When I hear a firecracker, I panic." As the new year brought the news that a million people in the United States have died of opioid overdoses since 1999, Andrew Doran wrote a piece in The American Conservative that deserves nationwide attention. The piece is titled "American Orphans in the Wasteland." While it's not about opioids, it's about the kind of trauma that exists in our country. In the case of Kevin Howard and Taylor "Doc" Hudson, they are vets who saw too much while fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Doran describes how, for men like Kevin and Doc,...

Recently I decided to get something off my chest that had been eating me for a long time (Sexual MOLESTATION–The Secret CRIME). What I didn’t fully realize when I wrote it was that this crime is secret for a reason: It’s not just the secret of the “victim” or “perpetrator,” it’s also secret because once exposed, few want to acknowledge it. In effect, all goes silent. Note: When I say “crime,” I am not necessarily referring to a legal crime–what I disclosed about my adult experiences with molestation were not legal crimes–but they were moral crimes. Once disclosed, the perpetrator...

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Exodus 20:5 KJV The legacy and shame of sexual sin has been passed down through my family, as is true in millions of others. I’m sure if the numbers of those affected were truly known, it would shock the world. This is the underbelly of a darkness that affects us to our core. And that which is left unexamined,...

In Part I, I introduced my story: I explained how I got into hard rock/ heavy metal music; mentioned some of the music I loved (and still do); noted the sea change in America–from relative innocence to corruption, ushered in through huge music festivals such as Woodstock and Altamont; I broached darker elements in the music, and outright Satanic messages and images. Today I will show how sex, drugs, and rock & roll worked together–by building on existing issues in my life, thereby opening up a “gateway” to hell. I remember going to my first rock concert while in high...

Recently I realized that I think way too much about what I’m going to say to people who cause me, to be honest, just a mild inconvenience! It’s a clue to an issue that isn’t fully worked out yet. I remember being at a park one day when I was a boy. My brother was there, too, and another boy. I was smiling, and I believe it was the other boy who asked me, “Why are you smiling?” I was just happy to be alive. Apparently that boy had already had his happiness snatched away. Mine would get snatched soon...

@AOC just shared on IG Live that she is a survivor of sexual assault. She says that this is part of the reason she has waited to tell her story of her experience during the Capitol insurrection. As a survivor, she is used to not being believed. @AOC @AOC says 1 week before the insurrection she was getting texts that she needed to be careful, specifically on the 6th. In a deeply relatable move, AOC says she was singing Nina Simone and feeling great after Ossoff and Warnock won in Georgia. (Just before the insurrection began.) Then after 1pm, AOC...

People who live through traumatic experiences in childhood often suffer long-lasting consequences that affect their mental and physical health. But moreover, their children and grand-children can also be impacted as well. In this particular form of inheritance, sperm and egg cells pass on information to offspring not through their DNA sequence like classical genetic heredity, but rather via biological factors involving the epigenome that regulates genome activity. However, the big question is how the signals triggered by traumatic events become embedded in germ cells.“Our hypothesis was that circulating factors in blood play a role,” says Isabelle Mansuy, professor of neuroepigenetics...

We tend to think if the road is hard, we are on the wrong road. With adoption, the opposite is usually true: The road is hard because we are doing it right. Myka Stauffer of YouTube fame has “re-homed” her autistic, adopted Chinese child, Huxley. Stauffer became widely known in large part due to the video documentation of her adoption journey. Huxley’s emotional gotcha-day video has more than 5 million views.Over the following two years, Stauffer posted regular updates of Huxley’s progress, including his autism diagnosis and references to his therapy. A few months ago, fans started noticing Huxley’s increasing...

Four years ago, I wrote about my decision to live as a woman in The New York Times, writing that I had wanted to live “authentically as the woman that I have always been,” and had “effectively traded my white male privilege to become one of America’s most hated minorities.” Three years ago, I decided that I was neither male nor female, but nonbinary—and made headlines after an Oregon judge agreed to let me identify as a third sex, not male or female. Now, I want to live again as the man that I am. I’m one of the lucky...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Hahnemann University Hospital says it is no longer accepting trauma patients just days after announcing the institution's planned closure for September due to unsustainable financial losses. The hospital says it notified the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation (PTSF) Friday night of its trauma center decision. "After reviewing our plan of closure and in consultation with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, we felt this move is in the best interest of patient safety," Dr. Alexander E. Trebelev, Chief Medical Officer at Hahnemann, said in statement released Saturday afternoon. "Unfortunately, we are facing clinical and operational challenges. We cannot continue...

In February, Bonnie VanDeraa approached the finish line of the Sweetheart 5K in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With a determined look in her eye, and loads of cheers from the crowd, she focused on putting one foot in front of the other. This race was a major milestone for her; it was the first she’d complete without the aid of a walker in more than a year. At that point, VanDeraa had been running for a little more than five years, starting after she signed up for that same race back in 2014 with a coworker. Following that, she completed a bunch...

Since her husband was murdered in 1996, Mary Franklin has been devoted to helping others who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. That’s why she’s proposing Trauma Spa, or T Spa, to give women access to mental health treatment who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Franklin met with Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday, seeking a $400,000 grant to fund T Spa, a 12-week pilot program that would collect data by treating up to 300 women who suffer from PTSD due to a loved one’s murder.

On the eve of the midterms, President Donald Trump’s approval is falling, young voters are energized, and Republicans look poised to lose their House majority. It’s enough to make Democrats nervous, miserable wrecks. Haunted by memories of 2016, liberals around the country are riven with anxiety in the campaign’s homestretch. They’re suspicious of favorable polls and making election night contingency plans in case their worst fears come true. Some report literal nightmares about a Democratic wipeout. “We're kind of just in the bed-wetting phase now," said Democratic pollster John Anzalone, a Hillary Clinton campaign alumnus who spent election night 2016...

Liberal celebrities just can’t let it go. Hillary-loving singer Katy Perry gave an interview to Vogue for the May issue and recounted the “trauma” caused by the “scary” Donald Trump winning last November. As though she were suffering PTSD, Perry mourned, “I was really disheartened for a while; it just brought up a lot of trauma for me. Misogyny and sexism were in my childhood.”  She compared, “I have an issue with suppressive males and not being seen as equal. I felt like a little kid again being faced with a scary, controlling guy.” Perry added, “But it's an awakening...