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Morning "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1 We here behold the Saviour in the depth of his sorrows. No other place so well shows the griefs of Christ as Calvary, and no other moment at Calvary is so full of agony as that in which his cry rends the air--"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At this moment physical weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and ignominy through which he had to pass; and to make his grief culminate with emphasis, he suffered spiritual agony surpassing all expression,...

His photo has been widely shared on social media claiming he is a 13-year old who died of coronavirus in Great Britain. A post on Facebook claimed he was a “schoolboy…with no health conditions” who became “UK’s youngest coronavirus victim.” The post went on to read: “Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, from Brixton, sadly died without any family members close by due to the highly infectious nature of Covid-19.” But it isn’t true. The same photograph of the same boy has circulated in news stories about deaths as far back as 2017. According to AFP, the real boy was apparently named Conor...

Under the CARES Act, Congress has invited millions of Americans to stop paying their mortgages. The impact of this massive unfunded mandate is that the U.S. financial system is headed for a potential default when the cash flow expected from millions of Americans does not arrive.

Oklahoma City (KOKH) The first indications of how the Coronavirus is affecting the economy in Oklahoma are just starting to be seen and what leaders are seeing is not pretty.

...He said that the fact that Reade last week filed a criminal complaint against Biden gave her “an additional level of credibility” because now if her allegations are proven to be false, she could be sent to prison. McHugh went on to reveal that Reade before the assault happened, she had allegedly filed a complaint with the Senate about his sexual harassment, but said he has been unable to find that document. “It appears to be at the University of Delaware with Biden’s senatorial papers, but it looks like they’re sealed,” he said. “So that’s a question mark.” McHugh noted...

Special Reports SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Antimalarial Drugs as COVID-19 Therapy by J. Scott Turner On chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. ( APRIL 10, 2020 ) An End to Globalization by Michael O'Sullivan Friction and volatility in a multipolar world. ( APRIL 10, 2020 ) Enter the Coronavirus by Henri Lepage On the pandemic and a looming global recession. ( APRIL 10, 2020 ) History and Risk by Vaclav Smil Historical perspectives and risk assessments. ( APRIL 3, 2020 ) The Cell Biology of SARS-CoV-2 by Anthony Futerman On the characteristic biological features. ( APRIL 3, 2020 ) COVID-19 and the Global Economy...

The first modern income tax was levied in Britain between 1799 and 1816 to fund the Napoleonic wars, but it did not become permanent until 1874. Similarly the United States adopted a like measure during the Civil War, but it was not institutionalized until the ratification of the 16th amendment to the Constitution in 1913. Related: tax protester Sixteenth Amendment arguments. When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. ~ Frédéric...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by H. L. Mencken. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. H. L. Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements, mainly for the Baltimore Sun back when it was part of America. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent...

“The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die” (Proverbs 15:9-10).

"Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course." – Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III But embracing adversity does not require the abandonment the principles that brought us this far. A gentle reminder: once we’ve forgotten how you got here we are doomed. “If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned.” — Justice George Sutherland (1862-1942)Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

...Major news outlets are blaring news of the economy’s demise non-stop, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has openly worried that the coming downturn could be worse that the 2008 financial crisis. However, to scholars of American politics, this fits with a consistent pattern of polarized partisan perceptions. Over the last 20 years or so (and particularly over the past 10), partisans’ economic perceptions have consistently tracked partisan control of the White House. As Figure 1 demonstrates, Democrats have generally felt positively about the economy only when a co-partisan controls the White House—the opposite is true of Republicans...Other research has suggested...

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data. 

We’ve reached that point in the Wuhan pandemic when we start talking about how the world will change after the crisis passes. The impact on everything from the media to globalism is being reassessed, and prognostications about the future, both good and bad, are being promulgated. But those hoping for improvement are likely to be disappointed, just as those who said “this changes everything” were after the terrorist attacks on 9/ll. To quote Adam Smith, “there is a lot of ruin in a nation,” as stubborn inertia created by entrenched vested interests and received wisdom protect the status quo. The...

PRC moral turpitude forces us to consider the unthinkable.We often ascribe a basic level of humanity to even the cruelest leaders, but People’s Republic of China leader Xi Jinping’s actions have forced us to rethink this assumption. Although the emergence of the novel coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2 was probably not due to China’s actions, the emphasis that its authoritarian system places on hiding bad news likely gave the disease a sizable head start infecting the world. But most ominously, China’s obsession with image and Machtpolitik raises serious questions about its lack of moral limits.At some point the Chinese Communist...

Concerned Women for America (CWA) General Counsel Mario Diaz, Esq. takes us on a journey to understand America’s founding documents and the principles which guard our liberty. Part I focuses on the Declaration of Independence by way of introducing us to the concepts that undergird the U.S. Constitution.

New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio abruptly added 4,000 deaths to the city's roster of Wuhan virus deaths. He did this even though there are no tests proving that these 4,000 people died because of the virus. The mayor claims he made changes to increase statistical accuracy, but he may have been acting upon baser motives. One problem with getting a handle on the Wuhan virus is that we have no accurate count telling how many people have become sick with or died from it, whether at home or abroad. Different countries use different tests; different tests have various...

One small town in Southeast Kansas looked at a restrictive cruise night ban from their local government and said, “No, enough!” And a little help from the Kansas Justice Institute made it stick. The cruise night ban was issued even though it was not planned for anyone to leave their cars. Samuel G. MacRoberts, litigation director and general counsel for KJI, the legal arm of the Kansas Policy Institute, which also owns the Sentinel, sent a letter to the city on April 9, noting that the city’s order to prohibit car parades or cruise nights was worded in such a...

Our tune today is Just Like Taking Candy From A Baby by Wade Ray (1951). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

This may be the new normal for quite a while. The US may have to endure social distancing measures -- such as stay-at-home orders and school closures -- until 2022, researchers projected on Tuesday. That is, unless, a vaccine becomes quickly available. That's according to researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who published their findings in the journal Science on Tuesday. Those findings directly contradict research being touted by the White House that suggests the pandemic may stop this summer. The team at the Harvard School of Public Health used what's known about Covid-19 and other...

As the Trump administration tries to figure out when to reopen the economy, and Democrats try to blame President Donald Trump for every coronavirus death, there’s another question lurking in the background. What if we learn that trillions of dollars in economic costs from the coronavirus shutdown bought us little or nothing in terms of public health? As the disease progresses and our understanding of it increases, that possibility grows. Consider these facts: Death projections were wildly exaggerated. On March 16, epidemiologists at Imperial College London predicted that 2.2 million could die here if the country didn’t impose draconian lock-down...