Free Republic

'Mass media, for better or worse, shapes our public morality' A former British Broadcasting Corporation executive is charging that the organization is exhibiting "Christophobia," an "inherent antagonism" to Christianity. The U.K.'s Christian Institute noted the comments from Robin Aitken, who worked at the BBC for 25 years and published a book in 2018 accusing the broadcaster of abandoning its Christian heritage

On Jan. 10, Chinese scientists uploaded the genetic sequence of a novel coronavirus, later named SARS-CoV-2, to an open-access website, GenBank. The virus had been linked to a growing number of mysterious pneumonia cases, and its rapid spread was beginning to raise alarms. A few hours later, Barney Graham woke up and saw the sequence. Though it was a Saturday, he got right to work.Days before, his lab at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had partnered with the biotech company Moderna to design an experimental vaccine for the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. All...

Any of the government’s efforts to ban Bitcoin would be “foolish,” said Hester Peirce (aka “Crypto Mom”), a very Bitcoin-friendly commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), during a MarketWatch virtual conference earlier this week. “I think we were past that point very early on because you’d have to shut down the Internet,” Peirce said, adding, “I don’t see how you could ban it. You could certainly make the effort. It would be very hard to stop people from [trading Bitcoin]. So I think it would be a foolish thing for the government to try to do that.”The...

Welcome to the weekend your host with his formerly stained fingers at the keyboard with another post looking in all kinds of directions. Lets go to conventional politics the kind backed by and controlled by Big Business. Mike Pence lining up his loyalists and among them Kellyanne Conway... Now the story of the "Alberta Wall" the three layers of fencing erected around Grace Life Church just outside the city limits of Edmonton in Canada. Its the coronavirus crackdown enforced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a private security company.... At one time the "Conservative Christian" Premier of Alberta William...

Comparative data on differing Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) responses across the nation is finally being released, and things are not looking too good in states where rates of compliance with mask wearing and vaccination are highest. In Michigan, for example, which currently leads the nation in Chinese virus vaccine compliance, hundreds of new positive "cases" have emerged among people who got jabbed in order to save lives. At least three deaths have also been reported among people who were vaccinated. The Michigan state government is scrambling to spin the news any way it can, including by linking the deaths to other...

Brian Robson was 19 years old when he became homesick while working for Victorian Railways in 1965. Realising that a plane ticket home would cost him £700 - 17 times his monthly salary - he cooked up a plan to get himself home. The now 75-year-old bought a small wooden crate and convinced two Irishmen he knew as Paul and John to stow him aboard a freight plane, he told the Irish Times. The "quite horrific experience” took four days and saw Brian repeatedly stored upside down.

Four dead gray whales have washed ashore San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days and experts said Friday, April 9, 2021, one was struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three died. "It's alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species," says Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center.(The Marine Mammal Center via AP) Four dead gray whales have washed ashore San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine...

McALLEN, Texas — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) led several Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee on a two-day visit to McAllen this week where they witnessed the ongoing border crisis, and all the members — as they recapped their visit — said the Biden administration was at fault for surging numbers of illegal migrants. Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 170,000 migrants crossing the southern border illegally in March, a 72 percent increase from February. As Breitbart News reported, in the first two full months of President Joe Biden’s time in office, February and March, apprehensions were at a combined...

25. To a woman solicitor, 1987: “I thought it was against the law for a woman to solicit.” 26. To a civil servant, 1970: “You’re just a silly little Whitehall twit: you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you.” 31. On stress counselling for servicemen in 1995: “We didn’t have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun. You just got on with it!” 65. “People think there’s a rigid class system here, but dukes have even been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans.” 2000. 78. On marriage in 1997: “You can take...

Explanation: An intense band of zodiacal light is captured in this serene mountain and night skyscape from April 7. The panoramic view was recorded after three hours of hiking from a vantage looking west after sunset across the Pyrenees in southern France. At 2838 meters altitude, Mont Valier is the tallest peak near center. In the sky above, the familiar stars of Orion and the northern winter Milky Way are approaching the rugged western horizon. At the shoulder of Orion, Betelgeuse is one of three bright yellowish celestial beacons. It forms a triangle with fellow red giant star Aldebaran located...

Myor Lori Lightfoot reported making $497,000 in 2019, her first year in office, according to a tax return released by the mayor’s office. Lightfoot, who took office on May 20 that year, made $111,120 in city wages for the portion of the year she was mayor and $352,645 from Mayer Brown, her former law firm, the return shows. The mayor’s effective tax rate was 30.7%. Lightfoot’s adjusted gross income the year before was $813,000 from Mayer Brown, according to her tax filing. During the mayoral campaign, Lightfoot reported an average adjusted gross income of $971,626 from 2014 through 2017, from...

“Believing Is Better Than Seeing” (John 20:19-31) The doors were locked. The disciples had locked themselves in, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, who had just had Jesus killed a couple of days earlier. And since they were Jesus’ disciples, if it became known where they were, the authorities might come after them, too. So the disciples were afraid and were staying behind closed doors. But if a sealed tomb couldn’t keep Jesus in, a locked door couldn’t keep Jesus out. He passes right through and stands in their midst. “Shalom aleichem,” he says, “Peace be with you,”...

(President Trump's Operation Warp Speed Update) (Over 60% of of those over 65 are now fully vaccinated - 78% have at least a first shot. 45% of adults have at least one) Total Vaccine Doses Delivered: 237,791,735 (16,189,250 J&J) Administered: 183,467,709 (5,972,101 J&J) People Vaccinated, At Least One Dose: 117,142,879 Fully Vaccinated: 70,692,645

BEIJING—Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest e-commerce company, was fined 18.3 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) by Chinese regulators on Saturday for anti-competitive tactics, as the ruling Communist Party tightens control over fast-growing tech industries. Party leaders worry about the dominance of China’s biggest internet companies, which are expanding into finance, health services, and other sensitive areas. The party says anti-monopoly enforcement, especially in tech, is a priority this year. Alibaba was fined for “abusing its dominant position” to limit competition by retailers that use its platforms and hindering “free circulation” of goods, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced. It said...

[video at link: These soldiers were hesitant to get vaccinated. Hear what changed their minds 02:50](CNN)A group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that he issue a "waiver of informed consent" to make getting vaccinated against Covid-19 mandatory for all US military service members.CNN obtained a copy of the letter, which was sent on Wednesday from a congressional aide.Currently the Department of Defense cannot make vaccinations mandatory because they have only been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. A waiver from the President could bypass that rule.SNIP The Department of Defense...

Some states, particularly in the south, have seen their Wuhan coronavirus numbers dropping and have dropped government-mandated restrictions.We observed how NBC committed an “act our journalism,” asking questions about why some of the states who still had strict restrictions had numbers that were surging while some of the states who had lifted restrictions were still seeing their numbers drop.The number of folks vaccinated is now over 114 million with at least one shot, with over 68 million being fully vaccinated according to the CDC. So that sounds like great news toward more opening up, right?Business Insider ran a piece on...

Rapper DMX, whose real name was Earl Simmons, died yesterday following complications from a heart attack. The 50-year-old music star was widely reported to have been hospitalized for a drug overdose that induced the heart attack, but a female member of his family told MTO News that he did not take drugs prior to the heart attack. He did, however, receive a Covid vaccination days before.Editor’s Note: We generally do not post single-source stories. The source for the information—MTO News—is a heavily trafficked site (over 10 million visitors per month) with contacts in the rap world. Though we have not...

A fourth vaccination site in the United States has paused giving shots after a batch of adverse reactions. The Epoch Times Injections at the Cumming Fairgrounds in Forsyth County have been halted after eight people experienced adverse reactions post-vaccination, the Georgia Department of Health said Friday. One person was evaluated at the hospital and released while the others were monitored onsite and later sent home. All eight received Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. “The reactions were consistent with common reactions in adults being vaccinated with any vaccine, but...

Former President Trump is expected to speak to GOP donors Saturday night at an event at Mar-A-Lago where he currently resides and has been doing most of his work in the political arena. At this event, he is expected to give a hopeful message for the GOP, and predictions of future victories come in 2022 and 2024.“JUST IN: Trump predicts that GOP will take legislature in 2022, White House in 2024.”JUST IN: Trump predicts that GOP will take legislature in 2022, White House in 2024 https://t.co/qvpvExlmzN pic.twitter.com/JjkUSgjunJ— The Hill (@thehill) April 11, 2021At the Republican National Committee’s donor summit Saturday,...