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Since coronavirus restrictions closed all state liquor stores in Pennsylvania, residents of Delaware County are driving to a nearby state to get their booze. Pennsylvania residents are crossing from Delco to neighboring Delaware en mass, to one store in particular, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. The Total Wine and Spirits store located in Claymont, Delaware has been packed with out-of-state customers.

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"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength." (Proverbs 17:22 NLT) Everywhere you look -- from newspaper headlines, to TV "alerts," to those too-long White House briefings, to people wearing masks in public places, there is hardly any news that isn't negative. Stories of people not getting the coronavirus, much less stories about people who have recovered from it, are usually buried, if covered at all. This negative attitude produces its own kind of infection. In a 2016 article for Forbes magazine, neuropsychologist Dr. Fabian van den Berg warned that constant negativity causes stress....

In A. A. Milne’s classic Winne-the-Pooh children’s tales, Eeyore, the old gray donkey, is perennially pessimistic and gloomy. He always expects the worst to happen. Milne understood that Eeyore’s outbursts of depression could at first be salutatory but then become monotonous. The outlook of the pessimist (“if you think it’s bad now, just wait”) always enjoys advantages over both the realist (“so what, life goes on”) and the optimist (“oh, come on, it can’t be that bad”).When the pessimist frequently errs in his gloomy prognostications, he can plead that they were intended to be didactic, if not therapeutic. Only by...

A statement widely attributed to the great British thinker G. K. Chesterton describes the modern period as perfectly as any single idea can: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything." One of these substitute gods has been nature. Indeed, of all the false gods, nature is probably the most natural for people to worship. Every religion prior to the Bible had nature-gods – the sun, the moon, the sea, gods of fertility, gods of rain and so on. That is why the further Western society gets from biblical, i.e., Judeo-Christian, religions, the...

Inside an old factory building north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered to hear from Ammon Bundy. The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Gov. Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Mr. Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But Mr. Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government. “If it gets bad enough, and our rights are infringed upon enough, we can physically stand in defense...

Live Easter Sunday @ 1pm eastern.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused a federal health department watchdog as having produced a "fake dossier" with a report that confirmed hospitals nationwide faced "substantial challenges" including shortages of equipment and staff.

Colleges across the nation are scrambling to close deep budget holes and some have been pushed to the brink of collapse after the coronavirus outbreak triggered financial losses that could total more than $100 million at some institutions. Scores of colleges say they’re taking heavy hits as they refund money to students for housing, dining and parking after campuses closed last month. Many schools are losing millions more in ticket sales after athletic seasons were cut short, and some say huge shares of their reserves have been wiped out amid wild swings in the stock market. Yet college leaders say...

Tuesday of Holy Week JOHN 13:21-33, 36-38 Friends, today’s Gospel is from John’s account of the Last Supper, where Jesus acknowledges Judas as his betrayer and tells him to get on with it.

They whiled away the week on a sex- and drug-fueled romp: dancing on white-sand beaches and frolicking on a paradisaical Caribbean island with prostitutes from Europe, some snapping selfies with famous reggaeton artists. But unbeknownst to several children of Venezuela’s ruling elite, the coronavirus was spreading among them. For some of Venezuela’s high-flying “Bolichicos” — the privileged offspring of the socialist revolution — the party hasn’t stopped amid a widening pandemic in a country already gripped by crisis. To date, the virus has claimed only seven confirmed fatalities in Venezuela. But the potential is high for the pandemic to overwhelm...

The coronavirus pandemic is bringing out the best in people – and the bad and the ugly. The best is coming from front line responders, medical personnel, and many others who put themselves at risk to save lives. Then there are President Trump, Vice President Pence, and the tireless officials and experts working around the clock to blunt the impact of the virus. Also, the many corporations pitching in to find a vaccine, manufacture safety equipment and help stricken communities in a myriad of ways. A welcome development is the Some Good News (SGN) Network on YouTube, anchored by actor...

Our selection today is Texas Belle by Andy Parker & The Plainsmen (1948}. THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Governer Coumo should be arrested for banning HCQ and allowing so many to needlessly die, I submit that he does not have the authority to ban a legal drug. This is an outrage, where is the media? Doesn't anyone care about these people? There is a treatment that works for most people, maybe nearly all if used early. I am so disappointed in our country. Since when does American sit around and let this happen?

President Trump said Monday he is “going to get involved” in settling a heated dispute between Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly and former USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier, who was fired last week after writing a letter about a worsening coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship that was later published by the San Francisco Chronicle.During a press conference at the White House, the president praised both men and said he doesn’t want Capt. Crozier’s career to be ruined because of a “bad day.”“I’ve heard very good things about the gentleman, both gentlemen,” Mr. Trump said. “I may just get involved … you have two good people and they’re arguing. And...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a plan Tuesday intended to secure elections during the coronavirus pandemic through mail-in voting and increasing online voter registration.The plan, first reported by Mother Jones, calls on states to ensure every eligible American has the ability to vote by mail, sending voters a ballot with pre-paid postage. Warren urged Congress to pass a bill proposed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last month intended to ensure mail-in voting during the pandemic. Warren also advocated for Congress to send states $4 billion to address election needs, a major increase from the $400 million...

Solitary confinement as a punishment is closer to a form of torture, with serious consequences for neurological health. Teams of researchers are investigating further the deep effects of this practice and studying the possibility of regulating it to maintain physical activity as well as sensory input and circadian rhythms, in order to prevent profound changes in the brain.

Last week, Boston Medical Center announced it was furloughing 700 employees, 10 percent of its workforce. After Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear ordered the suspension of “elective” surgeries, Appalachian Region Healthcare, the largest hospital chain in eastern Kentucky, laid off 500 employees. Nurse anesthetists are being laid off in Pennsylvania and in other states, even though they are critical to intubating COVID-19 patients. Hundreds of health care workers in Huntington, West Virginia, were laid off, even though there are barely any COVID-19 patients in the state’s hospitals. Family practice physicians and specialists are seeing their practices disintegrate. According to a HealthLandscape...

There is nothing worse than the government bailing out private industries. I've spent a career opposing corporate welfare giveaways. When an industry gets in financial trouble because of its poor business practices, the owners, shareholders and executives should bear the cost -- not the taxpayers. The coronavirus crisis is a bit different because the government has ordered many industries to, in effect, shut down for many months. In the case of the major airlines, such as United and Delta, the government has precluded many passengers from boarding planes and even shut down many flights. That's why the government took steps...

DOJ puts White House Correspondents' Association on notice that press room is government property and only tradition gives group power to determine access. TThe Justice Department has rejected a CNN political analyst's legal claim he deserved access to President Trump's coronavirus briefings, warning the White House press room is ultimately federal property and not the legal domain of journalists. The DOJ's letter rejecting CNN and Playboy journalist Brian Karem's demands to access the briefings appeared to serve notice to the journalist-run White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) that its power to regulate who attends White House press briefings was based only...