Free Republic

The next Democratic debate isn’t in Paterson, New Jersey, but it should be: that unlikely city is blazing new trails in multiculturalism and diversity. On Wednesday, the City Council voted unanimously (with two members not voting) to grant preliminary approval to the Islamic call to prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers in the city. This followed the swearing-in earlier this month, on the Qur’an, of course, of Paterson’s new police chief, Ibrahim “Mike” Baycora, the first Muslim police chief in an American city. Celebrate diversity, right? Sure. The problem is that it is by no means certain that this diversity will...

Coronavirus (Covid-19) has, to date (February 25th 2020) infected over 77,000 Chinese citizens, mostly in Hubei Province, since it was first identified in December 2019. It has so far spread to more than 30 countries. It has claimed more than 2,600 lives and been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO). We’ll focus just on data for China in the following series of maps. They are designed to look like small maps you might find on a news media web site. Relatively simple, and with just the basic facts. Many of the issues I’ll note are equally...

The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen wants local restaurants to take dogs and cats off their menus as the country clamps down on the wildlife trade scientists suspect led to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Reuters reports a new city regulation states only nine meats that are permitted for consumption, including pork, chicken, beef and rabbit, as well as fish and seafood. “Banning the consumption of wild animals is a common practice in developed countries and is a universal requirement of modern civilization,” the notice said. Apart from dogs, the new Shenzhen act bars snake, frog and turtle meat from the...

PARIS (AP) — A Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan, and who faced death threats from Islamic extremists, said she is going to request asylum in France. Asia Bibi will receive her diploma Tuesday as a Citizen of Honor of the city of Paris, a title she was awarded in 2015. She will meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, officials said. Bibi has lived in Canada since she was released by Pakistan last year. She expressed her desire to live in France in an interview on French radio RTL on Monday....

The poll of 1,512 Catholic registered voters was conducted between Jan. 28 - Feb. 4, 2020, and surveyed U.S. Catholic opinion on a range of subjects, including political affiliation, preferred presidential candidate, the morality of abortion, and religious practices.WASHINGTON, D.C. — While the Catholic Church teaches that procuring an abortion is always immoral, a majority of U.S. Catholics do not believe abortion is intrinsically evil and say it should be legal in all or most cases. According to a RealClear Opinion Research poll sponsored by EWTN and published on Monday, 47% of Catholics in the U.S. believe abortion is “intrinsically...

As Nevada went to the polls last Saturday, the FiveThirtyEight forecast considered Sanders the slight front-runner in South Carolina, with a 1 in 2 (46 percent) chance of winning it. It gave Biden a 2 in 5 (40 percent) chance. Since then, in a reminder of how fluid primaries can be, Biden’s chances have skyrocketed. As of Thursday at 5:38 p.m. Eastern, Biden has a 14 in 15 (94 percent) chance of winning the Palmetto State, while Sanders’s odds are down to 1 in 20 (5 percent). The first hint of Biden’s comeback came two days ago: Biden had only...

Catholic campaigners spark international revolt for women's ordination ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Catholic feminists in Western Europe are mounting an open "revolt" on March 1 demanding the ordination of women, while asserting that the creation of female priests is "only an interim solution" to their ultimate goal of abolishing the hierarchical priesthood. Jesus broke with all hierarchies and would not "even want to build a priesthood," says Lisa Kötter, co-founder of German über-feminist movement Maria 2.0. Likewise, in an unprecedented backlash to Pope Francis' slamming the door on women's ordination in Querida Amazonia, feminist theologians in Spain are saying their "frustrations...

A Newburgh man who is classified as a level three sex offender – the most dangerous level – was arrested on Wednesday after he approached two nursery school employees and two children on the grounds of the school in New Windsor. Town Police charged Mark Edward Nelson, 61, with criminal trespass. He was released without bail due to the bail reform laws that prevent him from being remanded to jail. Police said when Nelson approached the women and children as they exited through a side door adjacent to the playground in a darkened area. He attempted to make contact with...

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk told Breitbart News that conservatives shouldn’t disregard a socialist opponent to President Donald Trump, as it is difficult to run against the false promise of “free” stuff. Kirk spoke to host Matthew Boyle at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland during an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily. “Do not discount a socialist running for the President of the United States. It is hard to run against ‘free,'” warned Kirk of Sen. Sanders’ chances of winning the 2020 presidential election against President Trump. “And by the way, President Trump...

Mike Gecawicz is a student at the University of Maine, where he studies new media. He spent his summer break in a headphones factory in Dongguan, China — a city of eight million sometimes called "the factory of the world." Gecawicz's father works in headphones and headsets, and helped connect him with a factory owner in Dongguan. He spent a previous summer in the same factory as a camp counselor for the workers' kids. "I'm not entirely sure why they wanted me to come and do this," Gecawicz said in an interview with Business Insider. "Part of it for me...

In a post-impeachment political environment, Democrats keep peppering their potential 2020 nominees about what they would do if President Trump doesn't accept November's general election results. Joe Biden, who appears to be holding together his firewall ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary, faced an iteration of the question during a televised town hall in Charleston late Wednesday. "Sir, what is your plan if Trump loses but refuses to concede based on allegations by his supporters of irregularities, and he refuses to step down as president based on those allegations?" the voter inquired on CNN to some laughs from the studio...

(Reuters) - Turkey has decided to no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land and sea, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Syria's Idlib where nearly a million have been displaced. Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down, the Turkish official added. Earlier on Thursday, a local Turkish governor said an attack on Turkish military in Idlib killed nine soldiers.

No one has tested positive for the new coronavirus in Pennsylvania, but the state’s health secretary said Wednesday preparations are underway to deal with the “very serious health issue.” “Since the start of this outbreak, we’ve taken a proactive approach to prepare and carefully monitor the health and safety of Pennsylvanians that were returning from China,” Department of Health Secretary Rachel Levine said at a Capitol press conference. “It is critical now that we be prepared for the possibility of community spread of COVID-19.” There are more than 80,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization....

Rule number one in government: Never get into a bidding war with Democrats on how much money you want to spend. They have no limit to how much they will spend and will mortgage the future of our children to do so. Trump should heed this lesson as he fights with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the level of funding to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Trump’s mistake was even offering another $2.5 billion in emergency funding to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS. Everyone is forgetting that HHS already has a record high discretionary spending budget...

Dr. Zhong Nanshan, China’s “top respiratory specialist” according to state-run media, on Thursday floated a completely unsubstantiated theory that the Wuhan coronavirus did not originate in China. China’s Global Times amplified the spin by claiming “some other experts” support Zhong’s theory that the virus “might have multiple birthplaces co-existing around the globe.” In other words, it came from everywhere but China. No one involved in spreading this theory seems to have offered an explanation for why all of the early cases came from the city of Wuhan, beyond vague suggestions that some X-factor at the wet market might have caused...

<p>The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case in Lagos State, Nigeria. The case, which was confirmed on the 27th of February 2020, is the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the beginning of the outbreak in China in January 2020.</p>

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has come under fire for his inability to stop praising authoritarian communist regimes. "When dictatorships, whether it is the Chinese or the Cubans, do something good, you acknowledge that," Sanders said during the Democratic debate in South Carolina on Tuesday. The socialist septuagenarian has been particularly enamored of late with the "massive literacy program" implemented in Cuba under Fidel Castro, citing them as evidence that it's "unfair to simply say everything [in Cuba] is bad." Regrettably, the candidate's narrow focus on the educational achievements of his fellow communists is...

Saudi Arabia on Thursday halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over coronavirus fears just months ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, as the Middle East recorded more than 220 confirmed cases. The extraordinary decision by Saudi Arabia prevents foreigners from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure the world's 1.8 billion Muslims pray towards five times a day. It also said travel was suspended to Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina

U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday in a day of chaotic trading as investors sought shelter from potential economic consequences of coronavirus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.4 percent, about 1,190 points. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 4.6 percent. The S&P 500 declined 4.4 percent. It was the biggest one-day point drop in the history of both the Dow and the S&P, although far from the largest decline in percentage terms. As the indexes rise over time, each point up or down represents a smaller movement. All three indexes are down for the year and 10 percent below their recent highs,...

Mike Judge’s workplace satire “Office Space” was a bona fide box-office flop when it grossed a measly $10.8 million in 1999. But once the comedy was discovered on DVD and cable, “Office Space” became a cult sensation, spreading concepts like “flair” and “assclown” across pop culture. Servers at T.G.I. Friday’s might want to raise a glass to “Office Space,” because according to a 2004 New York Magazine interview with Judge, the restaurant not only got rid of its dorky striped shirts but also the mandatory flurry of pins and buttons — known as “flair” — a few years after the...