Free Republic

Scandinavian countries are well-known for their broad social safety net and their public funding of services such as universal healthcare, higher education, parental leave, and child and elderly care. High levels of public spending naturally require high levels of taxation. In 2018, Denmark’s tax-to-GDP ratio was at 44.9 percent, Norway’s at 39.0 percent, and Sweden’s at 43.9 percent. This compares to a ratio of 24.3 percent in the United States. So how do Scandinavian countries raise their tax revenues? A first breakdown shows that consumption taxes and social security contributions—both taxes with a very broad base—raise much of the additional...

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (29 February) confirmed four new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Singapore, bringing the total to 102. Three more patients have been discharged from the hospital. This brings the total of those who have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged to 72, more than half of the total confirmed cases. On Friday, MOH said that most of the 30 remaining patients in the hospital are stable or improving. Seven remain in critical condition in the intensive care unit. As of noon, the ministry has identified 3,033 close contacts...

[The agreement was signed this morning a little after 0800 eastern] Since 2011, Qatar has hosted Taliban leaders who have moved there to discuss peace in Afghanistan. It has been a chequered process. A Taliban office was opened in 2013, and closed the same year amid rows over flags. Other attempts at talks stalled. In December 2018, the militants announced they would meet US officials to try to find a "roadmap to peace". But the hard-line Islamist group continued to refuse to hold official talks with the Afghan government, whom they dismissed as American "puppets".

The system, called ribosome synthesis and evolution (RISE), is an important step toward using ribosomes beyond their natural capabilities. The key feature of RISE is the ability to evolve ribosomes without cell viability constraints. The result could be new ways to synthesize materials, like nylon, or therapies, like new antibiotics that could address rising antibiotic resistance. The ribosome is like the chef of translation, cooking up the synthesis of a diverse array of biopolymers, or proteins, that enable life. Researchers have already used the ribosome's ability to build proteins to develop new biopharmaceuticals, like insulin. But teaching ribosomes to cook...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 119 Psalm 119[a] ‎נ Nun 105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,     a light on my path. 106 I have taken an oath and confirmed it,     that I will follow your righteous laws. 107 I have suffered much;     preserve my life, Lord, according to your word. 108 Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth,     and teach me your laws. 109 Though I constantly take my life in my hands,     I will not forget your law. 110 The wicked have set a snare for me,     but I have not strayed from your...

The Constitution grants Congress plenary authority over immigration policy, but liberal judges have increasingly usurped the law. On Monday the Supreme Court will consider if immigrants whom Congress has deemed deportable can seek sanctuary in the courts. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) establishes rules and procedures by which immigrants may be removed from the country. To prevent federal courts from getting clogged, Congress created special immigration courts with multiple levels of administrative appeal and limited federal judicial review of cases. In Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, a Sri Lankan man caught after crossing the Mexican border illegally is...

This is President Donald Trump, daring the Deep State snakes on the Senate Committee on Intelligence (SCI) to kill his nominee for Director of National Intelligence (DNI): Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump I am pleased to announce the nomination of @RepRatcliffe (Congressman John Ratcliffe) to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Would have completed process earlier, but John wanted to wait until after IG Report was finished. John is an outstanding man of great talent! 78.8K 4:24 PM - Feb 28, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 34.4K people are talking about this Make no mistake about it, this is...

Last year, I spoke to a Soviet-born scholar who teaches in an American public university. I’m using a quote from our discussion in my forthcoming (September) book, Live Not By Lies. This morning, she sent me this e-mail, which I reproduce here with her permission: I know from your blog that the work on your new book is going well and I’m glad because, boy, it’s so needed. I’m observing some disturbing developments on my campus, and we are really not one of those wokester schools for spoiled brats one normally associates with this kind of thing. This academic year...

“The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lighteneth both their eyes” (Proverbs 29:13).

Biden promises he will: “Double the number of psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals in our schools so our kids get the mental health care they need.”

Democratic candidate Joe Biden is failing. The gaffe train is moving a mile a minute and only seems to be picking up steam. During a campaign stop in South Carolina on Friday, the former VP told a crowd of supporters that he was looking forward to appointing the first African American woman to the U.S. Senate. "Well, I'm looking forward to appointing the first African American woman to the United States Senate," Biden said as the crowd erupted in cheers. Biden supporters must be so used to the candidate's gaffes by now that they are no longer fazed by them....

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Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Loyd Pettegrew.John Keats wrote in his “Ode on a Grecian Urn” that Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all — Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” These days truth is in precious short supply in much of journalism. In “Why Right and Wrong are Just as Objective as Science,” David Weinberger argues that facts and values are indivisible—value judgments are built into all frameworks of facts. Two major facts are currently dominating the MSM news waves – the Coronavirus and the 2020 Election. Both of these events and...

Several House Republicans left a closed-door coronavirus briefing on Friday after Rep. Rosa DeLauro spoke critically of the Trump administration’s efforts to protect the American public from the global epidemic. According to a transcript, DeLauro, D-3rd, said she supported the administration’s declaration of a public health emergency that allows states like Connecticut more flexibility in spending federal public health money. “That said, I have grave concerns about the lack of transparency and unwillingness to allow public health experts to speak freely about what is happening,” DeLauro said. There are reports that Vice President Mike Pence, appointed by President Donald Trump...

Steyer grabbed the mic, bent his knees and stuck out his behind to the rhythm of the 1999 hit, that taught a generation of how to 'drop it like it's hot.' . . . Kat Taylor, speaking to the crowd she stayed with the musical theme and started singing, holding up her smart phone and reading the lyrics, that mentioned 'reparations' and other policy proposals the candidate supports. Once it was Steyer's turn he talked about falling in love with the people of South Carolina - though joked he had only met the Democrats.

... Harsh measures horrify civil libertarians, but they often save lives, especially when they are imposed in the early days. The best-known modern example is Cuba’s AIDS epidemic. In the 1980s, Cuba and the United States were both hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. In Cuba, the virus first infected thousands of soldiers, doctors and nurses who had served in Africa. The Castro regime’s response — roundly condemned by other countries — was to make H.I.V. tests mandatory, and to force everyone infected into quarantine camps. The camps were not hellholes: they had bungalows, gardens, theater troupes, medical care, more...

LPublic Document Case heading, cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten Many Second Amendment supporters have heard of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. It went into effect on 26 June, 1934.  It was the first national gun law to have a substantially limiting effect. It was the first federal statute challenged in the Supreme Court on the basis of the Second Amendment, in United States v. Miller. The story of that challenge may be read, in short form, on an AmmoLand News article from 2013.Far fewer people are familiar with the National Firearms Act of 1938. The NFA of...

Two weeks ago, I was happily sailing on a huge cruise ship in the Indian Ocean. My wife Collen is a travel agent and I was tagging along with her and her group on a Celebrity Cruise Line ship as it sailed from Dubai to Singapore and back with 2,300 souls aboard. Everyone on board our ship knew what was happening that same week to the unlucky people stuck on the Diamond Princess cruise liner docked offshore Tokyo. Because a passenger who left Diamond Princess nine days earlier in Hong Kong had tested positive for the new coronavirus sweeping China,...

This will be a weekly post. Count is now 191 judges confirmed. 138 District Court judges 51 Circuit Court judges 2 Supreme Court justices

MADISON — It’s been pretty clear that the New Green Deal would be a disaster for business and for consumers. Now a new study confirms just how disastrous the environmental/wealth redistribution plan would be for Wisconsin. Wisconsin families would be shackled with $40,000 in new costs, and the Dairy State’s struggling agricultural sector would be crippled, according to the multi-state analysis authored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and Power the Future. Will Flanders, research director for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, contributed to the study.The Green New Deal — as championed by liberals such as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez...