Free Republic

I want to share with you some scenes that greeted me at my local Kroger today. These are scenes from a panicked populace. Like locusts, they are stripping the shelves bare. Kroger Toilet Paper aisle.Kroger Deli Meat aisle.Kroger bottled water aisle.

You could not concoct a worse scenario for a pandemic catastrophe than what is unfolding Syria.  Start with a regime that depends on troops sent from Iran, where satellites detect trenches being bulldozed for bodies felled by the plague of COVID-19.  Add the bombing of hospitals by that same regime and secretiveness to the point of punishing doctors who speak out about the coronavirus.  Then consider millions of refugees living in close quarters in camps and others fleeing their chaotic and impoverished homeland into Turkey, whose leader wants to send them into Europe. Snowy Syrian refugee camp near Turkey border last December.(YouTube...

A private university in Kentucky is the latest Christian school to draw criticism for adhering to biblical sexual ethics. Asbury University – like so many others in Christian academia – is being hard-pressed by the culture to adopt pro-LGBTQ doctrine. Ever since Asbury University reportedly declined to renew the contract of two "LGBTQ-affirming" educators – professor Jon Roller, founder of the school's Worship Arts Program; and assistant professor of music education and voice Jill Campbell – it has been under major scrutiny. "Jon was told in his tenure meeting, 'You do not belong here,'" worship leader Derek Chilton – who...

In a dramatic sign that the coronavirus crisis is improving in China, the last two of 16 temporary hospitals in the epicenter city of Wuhan have been shut down, according to a report. The final group of 49 patients walked out of the Wuchang temporary hospital in the capital of Hubei province on Tuesday afternoon to cheers, according to the Xinhua news agency. The 784-bed facility — which was converted from Wuchang Hongshan Stadium — opened Feb. 5 and received a total of 1,124 patients, according to the news outlet, which said 833 were discharged and 291 were transferred to...

If they weren't already gone, there goes the bars & restaurants.

In this era fraught with coronavirus worries and new advice coming seemingly every day, I'd like to propose a new replacement for the germ-filled handshake. Let's revive Mr. Spock's Vulcan salute from Star Trek, a simple and sanitary gesture that's just as useful as a handshake greeting, and 10 times more charming. Even if you're not a huge Star Trek fan, you likely know the gesture. Actor Leonard Nimoy, who died in 2015, invented it himself. The actor would raise his hand with the palm facing forward, thumb extended, and his middle and ring finger parted. It's often accompanied with...

The coronavirus is a very contagious disease.  In January, information coming from the Wuhan region suggested that an infected person could infect two to three others — a frightening exponential growth rate.  That may have led to Angela Merkel announcing up to 70% of Germany's population — around 58 million people — might catch the coronavirus.  Merkel said this even though 70% of China's population — 1,006,363,300 — people did not get infected.  Had Merkel paid attention to Nobel laureate Michael Levitt, she might not have said anything so foolish and frightening. Levitt is an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a structural biology professor at Stanford.  Although he's not a virologist...

Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, indicated his opposition Saturday to the coronavirus relief bill supported by President Trump and approved by the House of Representatives. ... In a statement, Mr. Johnson criticized language in the legislation that would require government employers and companies with fewer than 500 people on their payroll to provide paid sick leave to workers who contract COVID-19, the infectious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. “Although mandating that all employers must pay for sick leave might sound good, we need to consider the unintended consequences of this legislation. I fear that rather than offering a...

At a press conference announcing a state of emergency on Friday, NBC News reporter Kristen Welker asked President Trump if he takes responsibility for a lag in coronavirus testing, something she said Dr. Anthony Fauci called a "failing." Fauci, who was at the press conference, corrected the reporter and said the failure he was talking about was the CDC's system, that it was not designed for what was needed. Fauci said looking forward, "the system will take care of it." "Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was in fact a failing. Do you take responsibility...

On Friday Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) tweeted that it is easier to get an AR-15 rifle than a coronavirus test. He did not outline the steps for getting a coronavirus test, but the process for getting an AR-15 involves: Going to store to find rifle Showing proper ID to a retailer Undergoing an FBI background check Undergoing waiting period (where applicable) For example, there is a 10-day waiting period in California. On February 19, 2018, Breitbart News reported CBS News’ claim that it was easier to buy an “assault rifle” than anti-diarrhea medicine in bulk in Florida. They made this...

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has been tested for the coronavirus after experiencing a fever and flu-like symptoms, the organization said on Saturday. “Last night, Chairwoman McDaniel began experiencing a fever and flu-like symptoms, and she went to her local hospital in Michigan for treatment. Flu and strep tests were administered and came back negative,” Communications Director Michael Ahrens said. “Her doctor determined a test for COVID-19 was necessary given her symptoms,” he said. The RNC said it is contacting everyone she remembers coming into contact with recently, and she and her family are self-quarantining at home. The...

From almost the very beginning of the COVID-19/coronavirus crisis in January and early February, it’s often been asked whether it might be the “Chinese Chernobyl.” Could the crisis expose the weakness of the mix of oppression, information control, and social disgust that underpin the Chinese Communist regime and trigger its collapse? Others have suggested that it might instead be “president Xi Jinping’s Tiananmen,” meaning he will use all the tools at his disposal to tighten down and prevent, well . . . a Chinese Chernobyl. It is too soon to know what may happen. But it’s not too soon for...

Support each other no matter what ethnicity you are. pic.twitter.com/fbq5kP4tFw— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) March 14, 2020

The coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19, are spreading across the United States faster than we can track or test. This week the confirmed caseload jumped from 309 to at least 2,170 cases in 49 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A testing shortage has experts fearing the true number is likely thousands of cases higher. Public life in America has methodically ground to a halt. This week companies instituted mandatory work from home policies, hundreds of schools and colleges closed or switched to online classes, professional sports suspended play indefinitely — even Disney...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A man in Nelson County who has a confirmed case of the coronavirus has refused to self isolate, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday. Beshear said that the state has taken the steps to "force a self-isolation." "It's a step I hoped I never had to take, but we can't allow one person who we know has this virus to refuse to protect their neighbors," he said. The 53-year-old man left against medical advice, according to Beshear. It's unknown what facility the man left. Nelson County Judge Executive Dean Watts said the sheriff's office is involved...

As confirmed cases of COVID-19 rise in Florida, including the state’s third death as of Saturday afternoon, many area churches have announced their doors will be closed and Sunday’s worship services will be held online instead to protect churchgoers from the spread of the virus. The elders at Christian Family Chapel, CFC, sent a message to its church family that services and campus activities are cancelled for Sunday, March 15. “As we said previously we are making these decisions not out of fear but in consideration for those in our body who might be at a greater risk-health wise or...

Thanks to Senators Rand Paul (R., Ken.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), as well as an amen chorus of Trump loyalists in the House, the president seems poised to fulfill one of the fondest dreams of Clinton and Obama Democrats: Government policy that regards international terrorism as a mere crime, a law-enforcement issue to be managed by federal judges rather than a national-security threat from which the officials Americans elect must safeguard our country. I doubt the president realizes these ramifications of declining to reauthorize three PATRIOT Act security measures that are set to expire. Successfully camouflaging themselves as “FISA...

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the person who first tested positive for COVID-19 in Dallas County, a 77-year-old man, is leaving the hospital in "great shape."

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. ( Collossians 2:16-17)I told you last time, I would explain why I believe the command to observe the Sabbath, is the only one of the Ten Commandments not re-iterated in the New Testament. I do believe that the principle of the Commandment still stands; that we are to enter into the Rest of God, and to cease from our...

Mark Dice video