Free Republic

Q uestions about the health benefits of vitamin supplements have been percolating in the medical establishment for decades — even as the multivitamin industry has grown to a multi-billion powerhouse in the U.S. This week, the respected journal the Annals of Internal Medicine put its well-heeled foot down. "We believe that the case is closed — supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful," the journal said in an editorial. "These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough." Here's Dr. Edgar Miller...

Coal industry lobbyists and politicians have been urging the Obama administration to ease up on its regulatory agenda and craft carbon dioxide emission rules that would allow the coal industry to survive. All the while, reports indicate that hundreds of coal plants are slated to be shut down in the coming years. The unveiling of President Obama’s plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants earlier this summer stoked the fears of coal supporters who have already been hit hard by stricter environmental regulations. However, the industry is not going down without a fight. Coal lobbyists met with...

On June 19-21, 2013, there will be dueling Seven50 Summits at the Palm Beach Conference Center, West Palm Beach, Florida. The Seven50 plan is an effort by the Southeast Florida Regional Partnership, funded by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with the mission to “[C]reate and implement the Seven50: SE Florida Prosperity Plan, a blueprint for a vibrant and resilient economy; socially inclusive, sustainable, and affordable communities; and environmental sustainability.” … The City of Vero Beach, FL has pulled out of the plan. Mayor Craig Fletcher attended a briefing given by proponents of Seven50...

As the North American natural gas boom continues, state legislators across the country have targeted hydraulic fracturing for new regulations, proposing a range of 50 bills involving bans, moratoriums and increased disclosure requirements, according to a new Colorado State University study. Much of the new legislation tries to address issues such as water use, air and water quality monitoring and fluids disclosure, as many non-industrial communities grapple with the impacts of hydraulic fracturing and the changes it brings. For example, Illinois passed new rules in May requiring drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use, and on water testing. And...

Immigration bill calls for slew of regulations, new bureaucracy By Ben Goad and Kevin Bogardus - 04/18/13 05:00 AM ET The sweeping immigration reform bill unveiled Wednesday would bring a raft of new regulations and add more layers to the federal bureaucracy. The 844-page Senate bill calls for a dramatic expansion of the country’s worker verification system, an overhaul of visa programs and a new set of proposed regulations allowing undocumented workers to become “registered provisional immigrants.” The bill would establish penalty systems for employers and create protections for vulnerable immigrant workers in order to achieve the largest overhaul of...

When Hillary Clinton took office, much of the world had been alienated from the United States by the policies of the Bush administration. Expectations were high that President Obama's team would change the tone, and Clinton delivered. She put a glamorous, smart, politically astute face on American policy. Yet Clinton produced no diplomatic breakthroughs nor any new strategic doctrine. And when it comes to issues of war and peace - in the Mideast, South Asia, and North Asia - she leaves a minimal legacy.In large part, that's because policy-making was tightly controlled by the White House. It's hard to know...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama opened his second inaugural address by quoting the statement from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." He then went on to say that if men were in fact created equal, then homosexual “love” must be equal as well. “What makes us exceptional, what makes us American," said Obama, “is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by...

The scene could hardly have been more bizarre: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade was pelted with rotten tomatoes and shoes as she was being driven to the opening of a U.S. Consulate General in the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria....Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ostensible reason for being in Alexandria was to take part in the flag-raising ceremony for our Consulate General. This is a disgrace. Alexandria was once home to a flourishing Jewish community. Jews flourish there no more. Her symbolic presence there embodies everything wrong about this administration's foreign policy. Until recently, it was hard to...

The following news headline appeared on the internet last week: "Scientists warn global warming will fuel spread of ticks that carry Lyme disease." The corresponding article begins this way: Another effect of climate change may be crawling up your leg this summer as you frolic in the woods. Scientists say our warming world is speeding the spread of ticks that carry potentially debilitating Lyme disease. Okay, given that many in the climate change fraternity -- including, famously, Phil Jones of East Anglia University -- have been forced to concede that global warming has been on "pause" since 1995, how exactly...

This is an incredible story showing how far the federal government is from rational thought. Here’s what happened in Tombstone: Between May and July 2011, the Monument Fire engulfed a large part of the eastern portion of the Huachuca Mountains. Record-breaking monsoon rains followed. With no vegetation to absorb the runoff, huge mudslides forced boulders to tumble down the mountain sides, crushing Tombstone’s mountain spring waterlines, destroying reservoirs and shutting off Tombstone’s main source of water. In some areas, Tombstone’s pipeline is under 12 feet of mud, rocks and other debris; while in other places, it is hanging in mid-air...

"Hillary doesn't have to audition for the part of Caesar's wife. She knows when to be out of the room." -- Anonymous State Department source. Since it has been a few days, readers might want to refresh their memories by revisiting "In at the beginning." The State Department & the Gunwalker Scandal. Part 2. The 90% Myth. "I have not backed off" an AWB. The last four paragraphs: My sources say that this battle of the "statistics" was taken very seriously by all players -- the White House, State and Justice. Yet, WHY was this game of statistics so important...

The 65th meeting of the U.N. General Assembly kicked off this week with a call from its new president, Joseph Deiss, for the 192-nation body to reclaim the “center of global governance,” in order to achieve sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. Pundits and politicians who pooh-pooh global governance are finding it increasingly difficult to pretend that the U.N. is not on an aggressive mission to create a: “…framework of rules, institutions, and practices that set limits on behavior of individuals, organizations, and companies.” (U.N. Development Report, 1999, page 34) Specifically, the Convention on the Biological...

Executive Order--Stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and the Great Lakes By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Purpose. The ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes provide jobs, food, energy resources, ecological services, recreation, and tourism opportunities, and play critical roles in our Nation's transportation, economy, and trade, as well as the global mobility of our Armed Forces and the maintenance of international peace and security. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and resulting...

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley this week equated an obscure Florida pastor and his congregants who plan to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday with the Muslim terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on September 11, 2001. “[T]here are a balance of interests here. But this, in our view, has the potential to inflame public opinion around the world in a way that will jeopardize American lives and American interests. It does not represent our core values as Americans. We hope it does not happen. We hope that between now and Saturday, there’ll be a range of voices...

State water officials Thursday morning stopped exporting water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the threatened Delta smelt, a tiny native fish that appears to be on the brink of extinction. The action, announced in a press release by the California Department of Water Resources, could mean water shortages for some cities and farms served by the California Aqueduct, ....

This paper discusses the origins of the “Visioning Process”. This is not only a common land-use planning tool used in specific areas of our country, but it has become institutionalized by many local governments and non-governmental organization (NGO) activists across the United States, as well as around the world. It is specifically designed to build consensus from a diverse group of stakeholders. A brief explanation of the Visioning Process:  Elected officials and their staff see Visioning as an opportunity to get a better fix on what their citizens want from government.  Civic minded volunteers are recruited to this...

<p>GENEVA — Governments spearheaded by China, Brazil, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia are trying to place the Internet under the control of the United Nations or its member governments, a move that the United States and other developed countries are determined to resist. The issue has cropped up in preparatory talks for a world summit on the information society to be held from Dec. 10 to 12 in Geneva, with the stated goal of advancing the management and worldwide use of the Internet, especially in poorer nations. Delegates from rich and developing nations remained divided on the matter at the end of the latest round of talks on Friday, senior diplomats said. "We will continue to fight hard to ensure that Internet governance remains a balanced enterprise among all stakeholders and continues to be private-sector-led," said the chief of the U.S. delegation, Ambassador David A. Gross. Pierre Gagne, executive director of the world summit, earlier identified control of the Internet as one of two key issues in the talks, adding that control and financial issues "will probably be the last issues to be resolved" at the summit. Many developing countries argue that governments need to play a greater role in managing and setting policy for the Internet, while the United States, the European Union and Japan, among others, say government interference could stifle the development of the dynamic medium. The Internet, at present, is loosely managed by a private organization in California named the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which coordinates such matters as Internet servers and domain names. Countries with developing and emerging economies would like to hand over that authority to a U.N. agency, such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The Internet medium is too important to be left in the hands of one major power, some argue, and others say problems such as cybercrime and protection of intellectual property rights require greater government involvement. Yoshio Utsumi, secretary-general of the ITU, which will host the December summit, said in an interview that Brazil is "a very strong advocate" of his agency taking over the Internet. China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Senegal and many other African countries were also "keen" for the United Nations to have a role, he said. But, he said, the differences of opinion were "too big" to be settled before the delegates meet in Geneva next month. Other diplomats said there might be no decision even then. Russia has proposed that the final declaration address Internet security in both "civil and security fields," but many countries fear that any reference to military security could limit freedom of expression, Mr. Utsumi said. There also is pressure for a strong statement in support of free expression on the Internet but sources said that is being resisted by China and other countries that want to maintain strong oversight of the medium. Nitin Desai, special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the core purpose of the summit is to establish a common vision for the information society, to utilize new technologies to overcome poverty and to find ways to make Internet access affordable to all. The president of Senegal has proposed the creation of a "global digital solidarity fund" to help poor countries establish Internet access. The ITU estimates that fewer than 1 percent of low-income country residents are Internet subscribers. The United States and other industrialized countries say the existing mechanisms are sufficient and argue that funding a new international bureaucracy would not be an effective way to spread information technology. Poor countries would be better served by establishing an environment in which the private sector would develop the needed infrastructure, the industrialized countries say.</p>

The deadliest weapon in the world today is not a nuclear bomb or an infectious agent, but a machine gun. Small arms kill half a million people a year, picking off American soldiers in Iraq, turning Liberian thugs into powerful warlords and allowing 12-year-olds in eastern Congo to terrorize their neighbors. The ease of obtaining AK-47's helps turn grievances into wars. Controlling small arms is complex. Guns are easily concealed, trading and retrading in a quasi-legal netherworld. ... THIS IS AN EXCERPT