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Joe Scarborough opened today's Morning Joe by mentioning that rather than watching President Trump's press conference yesterday, he listened to the Rolling Stones to calm his nerves. Had Scarborough listened by chance to the Stones's "19th Nervous Breakdown?" Because poor Joe suffered a real-time, live-on-the-air, breakdown this morning, literally screaming and pounding the table as he railed against President Trump and an unnamed "network" [obviously Fox News] regarding the coronavirus. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, authorities are shutting down churches, and pastors are being arrested. What does the law say about all of this? In the fluid pandemic situation, religious freedom is being tossed around, both as the basis for continuing public gatherings and as a focus of derision from those using the crisis to argue that religious people are the problem. Some defiant pastors have held large gatherings, while some government officials have threatened to permanently close churches that wonÂ’t comply with stay-at-home orders.How would all these scenarios play out in a legal contest? There are basically three relevant rules:...

Why would grocery store workers continue to show up for work, make entry-level wages while exposing themselves to risk – as the government pays the very people who put them at risk to stay home? A wise man once said that civilization is never more than nine meals away from anarchy. Regardless of how much money the government is willing to spend on relief programs, getting the money where it needs to be is not as easy as it seems. With unemployment claims at staggering numbers, many laid-off workers have had difficulty accessing state platforms and systems to apply for...

For weeks, the Trump administration played up the dangers of the coronavirus as it sought to persuade Americans to disrupt their lives and stay home. Now, as President Donald Trump aims for a swift nationwide reopening, he faces a new challenge: convincing people it's safe to come out and resume their normal lives

Citing an American report on cats testing positive for the cornavirus, Israeli veterinarian Dr. Rafi Kishon says that there is no danger of the virus being transmitted from cats to humans. Kishon said that "this is a different strain of the coronavirus. It is common among cats and is easily transmitted from one cat to another but cannot...

The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia has confirmed that former Vice President Joe Biden is the subject of an "active, ongoing investigation" into allegations of sexual assault.The department is actively investigating the complaint brought against Biden brought by his former staffer Tara Reade.

The European Union warned Israel Thursday against applying sovereignty over portions of Judea and Samaria, vowing to “closely monitor” Israeli moves in the area. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell noted the deal between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz for the formation of a unity government, expressing a willingness to cooperate with the new Israeli government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, while cautioning the Jewish state against altering the status quo in Judea and Samaria. “The European Union takes note of the political agreement that could...

Governor Cuomo said, 'That's a good question, I don't know,' when questioned New York health commissioner Howard Zucker appeared to defend the policy 'Either he's lying or they have absolutely no idea what's going on on the ground' The question was redirected to New York health commissioner Howard Zucker who appeared to defend the policy, saying positive-testing people 'should be admitted back'. The startling revelation comes after the state disclosed last week at least 3,316 people in nursing and adult care facilities died with the virus while at their residences or in hospital. He turned to New York health commissioner...

I know. "Agenda 21" sounds like one of those conspiratorial rabbit holes like, say, Area 51 or the Bermuda Triangle. It is not. It is as real as is the havoc it has helped wreak. As to whether that havoc was intended, I think not, but I could be wrong. After the last month or two, I would not be surprised to learn that Lucifer himself conceived Agenda 21. At its core Agenda 21 asked all countries to "integrate land-use and transportation planning to encourage development patterns that reduce transport demand." This meant specifically adopting "urban-transport programmes favouring high-occupancy public...

Across the country, hospitals shut down 'non-essential' procedures in preparation for a surge of coronavirus patients that never appeared. When the lockdowns began last month, we were told that if we didn’t stay home our hospitals would be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, intensive care wards would be overrun, there wouldn’t be enough ventilators, and some people would probably die in their homes for lack of care. To maintain capacity in the health-care system, we all had to go on lockdown—not just the big cities, but everywhere.So we stayed home, businesses closed, and tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs....

Two U.S. Supreme Court justices this week challenged "erroneous precents" the court has used in some of its rulings, including the Roe v. Wade decision that created a right to abortion. Even the author of the majority opinion in Roe, Harry Blackmun, admitted the ruling was on shaky ground. He warned that if the "personhood" of the unborn were to be established, their right to life would then be guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Since the 1973 ruling, abortion rights have been upheld several times by stare decisis, the legal doctrine that obligates courts to follow historical cases. But the...

I've had enough conversations with others about this and the sentiment is always the same. Its not just that the reported covid numbers dont make sense but how are they even possible? They aren't. They cant be. Seriously. How is it that this virus started on the other side of the planet 5 months ago and this country had its first case 3 months ago and now we have 10 times more cases then where it started??? There was a thought that since the virus can survive for what...a week...that it came over on Chinese imported goods. But that sounds...

On Tuesday, the results of a study on the benefits of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus were released. The study analyzed the impact of hydroxychloroquine with and without the antibiotic azithromycin and compared that to patients receiving standard care. The study found there were "more deaths" among those given hydroxychloroquine than those who just received standard care.As you could expect, the media pounced on the study. The Washington Post,  CNN, Salon, TIME Magazine, and plenty of others were just itching to claim that Trump had been wrong or even irresponsible for touting hydroxychloroquine in the first place....

The tests indicate that the number of infections in the county is around 40 times as high as the number of confirmed cases. Preliminary results from antibody tests in Los Angeles County indicate that the true number of COVID-19 infections is much higher than the number of confirmed cases there, which implies that the fatality rate is much lower than the official tallies suggest. "The mortality rate now has dropped a lot," Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said at a press briefing today. In contrast with the current crude case fatality rate of...

The results of clinical trials are making their way to publication showing hydroxychloroquine to be effective in many, although possibly not all, situations. The American media is silent on these studies. The results of clinical trials are making their way to publication showing hydroxychloroquine to be effective in many, although possibly not all, situations. The American media is silent on these studies. Instead, the American media headline a non-experimental and biased study showing the drug to be ineffective and, even, a cause of death. The non-experimental study concerns a large number of COVID-19 patients (sample size 368) at Veterans Administration...

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued guidance Tuesday reminding colleges that financial assistance provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was never intended for illegal immigrant students. As reported by Politico, the rule states that only students who qualify for federal financial aid, which includes U.S. citizens and some legal immigrants, are eligible for the more than $6 billion in emergency aid funding intended to go directly to students impacted by the pandemic. The $6 billion is part of the more than $14 billion Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which is part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act....

Smile! Happy days WILL return! Music used in this mashup: Chic - Good Times Iron Maiden - Rime of the Ancient Mariner Link to Video

The coronavirus, COVID-19, which originated in China and is responsible for the global pandemic, has a unique structural feature that none of its closest viral relatives yet identified have, a furin polybasic cleavage site. Cleavage sites similar to that found in COVID-19 are present in some naturally-occurring coronaviruses, but in completely separate evolutionary pathways from COVID-19. It has also been demonstrated that such coronavirus cleavage sites can be modified by genetic engineering to alter viral pathogenicity, sometimes increasing it. Scientists in China have used site-directed mutagenesis to alter the cleavage site of an infectious bronchitis virus by introducing basic amino...

The hysteria drummed up by the mainstream media over COVID-19, in conjunction with the draconian lockdown measures being employed by many governors, is costing thousands of American lives.  In light of horrific job losses and a crashing economy, calls to suicide hotlines are up over 40 percent nationwide.  Although an increase in suicide calls does not necessarily translate to an increase in deaths, the fact that 132 Americans die by suicide daily is concerning.  A 40-percent uptick would mean an increase of 53 deaths per day, if the calls indeed correlate to suicides.  This translates to 1,590 deaths per month. Heart attacks are a major problem...

Crisis and upheaval have brought out the best in some (think of Ulysses Grant) and the worst in others (think of Vidkun Quisling).  This holds true of Christian churches and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).  In previous columns, my colleagues and I have raised red flags about the SBC, including corruption and leftward drift.  One sees this in executive leadership (see this about president J.D. Greear), in missions (see here and here), in the management of seminaries (see here), in the workings of the SBC's publishing company (see here and here), in its political advocacy (see here), in its gatherings (see here),...