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Seven weeks ago, on March 1st, I republished a seventeen-year-old column of mine from the SARS outbreak: The appearance of the virus itself was a surprise but everything since has been, to some extent, predictable. Because totalitarian regimes lie, China denied there was any problem for three months, and thereafter downplayed the extent of it. Because UN agencies are unduly deferential to dictatorships, the World Health Organization accepted Beijing's lies. This enabled SARS to wiggle free of China's borders before anyone knew about it. I mentioned all this three weeks ago, but only in the last couple of days has...

Roger Stone on Friday night said he believes he will die in jail unless he’s pardoned by President Donald Trump. Stone, a longtime friend and former adviser to Trump, was sentenced on Feb. 20 to three years and four months in prison. Stone was convicted on charges including lying to a congressional committee that was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Stone in recent weeks moved for a new trial, pointing out anti-Trump social media posts made by the jury forewoman, and tried getting the presiding judge to recuse herself after she praised the “integrity” of the jurors....

Sweden's top flight, the Allsvenskan, is set to start on June 14, the Swedish Football Association's (SvFF) chairman Karl-Erik Nilsson has said. While the Swedish football season traditionally finishes in November, the new league campaign had not yet kicked off because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although Sweden did not implement a lockdown like many other European nations to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, public gatherings were banned, leading to a proposed April start being postponed. The Svenska Cupen was already in full swing, however, with the competition at the quarter-final stage. The SvFF confirmed in a statement on Friday their...

I had admired Mr. Dennehy — who died on Wednesday, at 81 — as a smart, risk-taking and undersung actor onstage and onscreen. He was a heartbreakingly sensitive lout as the parvenu Lopakhin — a brute with a touch of the poet — in Peter Brook’s production of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” (1988) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His performance as the serial murderer John Wayne Gacy in the 1992 television film “To Catch a Killer” was a penetratingly human portrait of a monster, and it haunted my nightmares for a long time. But nothing I had seen Mr....

Chang was called on to ask a question. President Donald Trump asked where he was from, a question seemingly to find out which media Chang worked at. Chang responded to the question by saying he was from Taiwan, where he was born. However, his response 'covered up' the fact that he works for Dragon Television, a broadcaster owned by China’s state-run Shanghai Media Group. Chang violated Article 33 of the Act Governing Relations Between People of Taiwan Area and Mainland Area according to Chiu. Under the law, people are prohibited from holding any positions in China’s political parties, military, or...

was unaffected by the coronavirus, appeared virtually on a late-night television show to flaunt her mansion and personal stockpile of gourmet ice cream. "I like it better than anything else," the speaker mused, in the middle of a viral outbreak that has killed tens of thousands of Americans and left millions unemployed. The PPP was part of the CARES Act, the relief bill passed after the government shut down businesses they deemed nonessential. Small businesses, which employ a majority of the workforce, were depending upon the PPP for funding to retain workers and keep their businesses afloat as the government...

Heather Mac Donald, New York Times bestselling author and Thomas W Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that our fearful response to the disease – the total shutdown of societies – is more dangerous than the disease itself. Brendan O’Neill: Do you think this is hysteria? Or do you think there is some justification to these extraordinary measures? Heather Mac Donald: I am, of course, absolutely in sympathy for people who are losing family members to this virus. But to be honest, I wake up every day and think maybe this will be the moment when I understand the...

Someone asked me overnight why I didn’t write something about the Land O Lakes label, and all I could think of was why in the world would I write about that? For those who are unaware, on Friday, management at Land O’ Lakes responded to pressure from Native American activists and removed the image of an Indian woman from its labels after using it for more than 100 years. God and Butter | Don't Worry, Be Mappy In a statement, a spokesman said it would now focus on the farmers that actually own the company: “As Land O’Lakes looks toward...

Germany traced its earliest community transmission of COVID-19 back to a salt shaker in a company canteen. The country's methodical search for transmission chains has so far resulted in some of the lowest death rates in Europe. But experts say more deaths in Germany are inevitable. One January lunchtime in a car parts company, a worker turned to a colleague and asked to borrow the salt. As well as the saltshaker, in that instant, they shared the new coronavirus, scientists have since concluded. That their exchange was documented at all is the result of intense scrutiny, part of a rare...

...Southeast of the ancient city of Laodicea, the mountainous region of Hierapolis contained hot mineral springs that were believed to have healing qualities...To the Northwest were the mountains of Colossae, out of which flowed streams of ice cold water that came from melting snow. Streams from both of these regions flowed down into pools outside of Laodicea, where they combined to form stagnant ponds of tepid water—neither hot (and good for bathing) nor cold (and good for drinking). Either hot or cold is good but lukewarm is no good for anybody. Just consider coffee. Is there anything better than a...

President Donald Trump said he will give a commencement speech at West Point, a U.S. military academy in New York.....Trump told reporters in Washington Friday that cadets will be spread out to comply with social distancing guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence was traveling to Colorado Springs Saturday to deliver remarks at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation.....No spectators are allowed because of the pandemic....Pence was slated to give his speech online but it was changed to an in-person commencement on Tuesday. The speech will be live-streamed online starting at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. It will also...

There is one positive result of the pandemic crisis—the curtain has been pulled back on the abortion industry, and most of America does not like what they see. In response to COVID-19, governors across the country have banned non-essential medical procedures, which include abortion in several states. Following these statewide bans, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers made their outrage known, going so far as attempting to recruit backup from the Supreme Court. Killing your baby is “constitutionally protected,” they protest, even amid a global pandemic that requires cooperation across multiple sectors to successfully squash. The irony of them battling...

NBC News anchor Chuck Todd said Democratic leaders could take blame for holding up billions of dollars in coronavirus relief just hours before a small business loan program ran out of cash. "The side that looks like they're holding up money, I think, is bad politics," Todd told radio host Hugh Hewitt, in remarks flagged by HotAir...."I think that small business money issue is something that's more front and center with the public than the issue of reimbursing the states," he said....

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that she might ease some of the COVID-19 related restrictions May 1, the day her current stay-at-home order is set to expire.

Were Sam Blumenfeld (AlphaPhonics) & Alex Newman (Crimes of the Educators) wrong that miseducation was deliberate, just because they were John Birchers (New American)? I know a duplicitous guy who writes for the New American (John Birch Society). I looked up his articles; they were transparently manipulative, clumsily so. But not Blumenfeld or Newman. (My John Birch acquaintance is a real stinker, he divorced and remarried, on the pretext that his Catholic marriage to his wife was performed by a priest of "schismatic" Catholic group SSPX. But SSPX has been rehabilitated and now has full sacramental faculties. So where does...

I thought I would share what recently happened to me. About 10 days ago, I come out of a liquor store and in the parking lot I met an individual I have not seen for about 10 years. He was not wearing a mask but was wearing the surgical gloves. We talked a little, caught up on our families. As we parted I said I was going to go out as much as I can. He said he was going to huddle at home. I replied, "Not me. I'm a citizen, not a subject." Then we parted ways. Today my...

Kent International Inc., which imports bikes from China and also makes them at a plant in South Carolina, said sales of its low-priced bikes had surged over the past month. Kent is already out of stock on five of its top 20 models and expects that to rise to 10 by the end of the month, chief executive and chairman Arnold Kamler said. He noted supplies were flowing in from China, which has reopened much of its manufacturing base over the past month. Kamler said sales at most of the major retailers he supplies were up 30% last month and...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) joined the growing list of Democrats who are calling on President Trump to not blame the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organization for the United States' epidemic of COVID-19. Schiff tweeted on Friday that states across the country are doing everything they can to get the protective personal equipment and medical supplies, but "that’s no substitute for national leadership. Stop blaming China, the WHO, or the states. Start acting like a President."

In normal times, the vice presidency is not supposed to be worth a warm bucket of, um, spit. But these are not normal times. A global plague has shut down much of American society. The virus is particularly deadly to the elderly, and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will turn 78 later this year. In November, voters will want more than anything a VP who is ready on a moment’s notice to lead the country out of a crisis. So the Democratic veepstakes is suddenly much more important than it otherwise would be.