Free Republic

The World Health Organization recently granted emergency use approval to China's Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, but the countries that have put the Chinese-made vaccines in the arms of their residents are reporting mixed results, at best. "In the Seychelles, Chile, and Uruguay, all of whom have used Sinopharm or ... Sinovac in their mass vaccination efforts, cases have surged even as doses were given out," The Washington Post reports. And in Bahrain, one of the first countries to embrace the Sinopharm shot, The Wall Street Journal adds, "daily COVID-19 deaths have leapt to 12 per million people in recent...

What should be clear to all is that a just society should never penalize those who are unwilling to undergo medical procedures.The University of Notre Dame set out to vaccinate its student body against COVID-19 in April 2021. To accomplish its goal, Notre Dame’s administration promised to end some of the draconian restrictions on campus if it could achieve 90 percent student compliance.The administration changed course from strongly encouraging the experimental vaccines to mandating them within days, making Notre Dame one of the first universities to require the experimental COVID-19 vaccine for the following school year’s admission. To encourage students...

China’s president has called for better international communication to repair the country’s coronavirus-hit image and win a battle of narratives with the US and its allies. Xi Jinping’s remarks at a study session of the Politburo, the ruling Communist Party’s top echelon, on Monday came amid a deepening feud with Washington and with negative perceptions of China at record high levels in many parts of the world. It is not the first time Xi has called on party cadres and state-controlled media to “tell China’s stories well” to the world and present the country in a positive light. Do you...

“It pains me to say this,” tweeted Team Biden staffer Aaron Keyak recently, “but if you fear for your life or physical safety, take off your kippah and hide your” Star of David. Keyak’s official White House title is “Jewish engagement director,” and his tweet revealed much about Team Biden’s views on anti-Semitism and cultural politics in 2021 — none of it good. Keyak, an Orthodox Jew, is a longtime Beltway swamp creature and Democratic Party hack. During the 2020 campaign, it was his job to tell Jewish voters that then-President Donald Trump was their No. 1 enemy, that his...

In the first taste of a feverishly anticipated report the Pentagon will release later this month, U.S. intelligence officials say they haven’t found evidence that recent documented sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), better known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs), have extraterrestrial origins.According to senior administration officials with knowledge of the forthcoming report, however, the briefing only appears to confirm the UAP aren’t products of U.S. military or government technology, per a New York Times preview published June 3. That the Pentagon can’t conclusively eliminate other possible explanations for observations of the mysterious aircraft means the popular alien theory remains...

Recently, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library launched a lecture series titled “Time for Choosing,” a name consciously echoing the famous 1964 speech that launched Reagan’s political career and put him on a path to the White House. The concept — marquee names, history-rich backdrop — is a throwback to a time when politics involved ideas and philosophies and wasn’t just about riling “the base” or “owning” the opposition. The program also gives Republicans a chance to paint their visions while wrapping themselves in the mantle of one of the GOP’s most beloved and sainted figures.

[Catholic Caucus] Summorum Pontificum: Francis Is Playing With FireThe Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum which liberated the Roman Mass is under attack by reactionary forces who want to abrogate or to dilute.Paix-Liturgique.org (May 31) predicts that in future we may find ourselves in a situation similar to that which prevailed in the post-Conciliar years, "though under worse conditions for the Church as institution.” The webpage also stresses that in 2021 the Catholics of the Roman Rite are many in numbers, young, convinced and successful.Today, the Novus Ordo Church has nothing in common with the solid machine it was in the first...

ROME – Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, Germany, has offered his resignation to Pope Francis, despite being eight years shy of the mandatory retirement age of 75, saying he wants to take his share of responsibility for the “catastrophe of sexual abuse” by representatives of the Catholic Church. Under church law, a bishop may offer his resignation, but it’s always up to the pope to the decide whether to accept it. In the meantime, Marx said in a message to reporters that Francis has asked him to remain in office. “It is important to me to share the responsibility for...

Scripture makes no allowance for being a participating member of a church body from arm's length. Administering the sacraments isn't possible without physical presence.After in-person services were canceled last year during “two weeks to flatten the curve,” pastors turned to “online church.” Motivated by love, they recreated Sunday gatherings as best they could, even sometimes encouraging Christians to attempt “communion” with whatever crackers and juice they had in their kitchens. For weeks under lockdown in Washington state, I tuned in. I sang the worship songs along with my children. I paid attention to the sermon. But no matter what well-meaning...

Heidi Swartz, Facebook VP, Deputy General Counsel, Employment Law and Investigations: “Project Veritas released a video last week alleging that they had uncovered a new effort to sensor vaccine concerns globally. It was based on leaked documents about a health integrity program that we have in place that combats vaccine hesitancy by taking a hard stance against vaccine information -- misinformation. This isn't a new effort. This is a program we've proudly spoken about publicly in our blog.” Swartz: “They [leakers] threatened our open culture, as Mark [Zuckerberg] said, they make it harder for us to achieve our goals. They...

WASHINGTON, Monday, June 3. The official details of the action at Fairfax Court-house, on Saturday morning, you will see do not in any way justify the lengthy dispatches forwarded to some of your cotemporaries. It was a most brilliant exhibition of courage on the part of our troops, but one in which we suffered the loss of six killed and missing, to one rebel killed and five taken prisoners. Considering the disparity of forces, this was a lucky escape on our part. The manner of stating the affair as a charge at two-forty, does injustice to our men, for in...

America stood triumphant 32 years ago. The Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1989, and the Cold War soon ended. But 32 years ago today also marks a tragedy, as the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party then under the direction of the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, moved tanks into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and massacred hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy Chinese demonstrators. That year, one communist empire proved too weak to survive, while another proved too brutal to allow itself to be tossed into the ash-heap of history.

The horrors of experimentation on aborted babies are too easily purged from our thoughts, but they should stoke our national conscience.This article is about gruesome subject matter.Child sacrifice strains the limits of moral relativity, yet too often abortion gets a pass. There are various arguments why, but at least it’s a debate. In contrast, most Americans are only semi-conscious of the use of aborted babies for medical experiments. Our tax dollars pay for it through the National Institutes of Health, but more often than not, we never hear about it. In a recent Newsweek editorial, David Daleiden reminded the public...

George Soros Gets a COVID Loan — We need to ask ourselves how Harvard University can be publicly shamed into returning COVID relief money, but a Soros group gets a pass? – Your Money 4 SorosDating Apps Become Vaccine Tracking Devices Amid Reports of Vaginal Bleeding — The particularly aggressive effort to evangelize the vaccine to our nation’s youth, who enjoy a virtually negligible death rate from Covid-19 itself, is as bizarre as it is undeniable. - SheepoleChinese Virologist: Coronavirus is 'an unrestricted bioweapon', blasts medical experts for cover-up — Chinese virologist who was among first to tout Wuhan lab...

As we read Hebrews 11, we find a single common denominator to the lives of the people mentioned. Each had a particular characteristic that denotes the kind of faith God loves. What was this element? Their faith was born of deep intimacy with the Lord. The fact is that it’s impossible to have a faith that pleases God without sharing intimacy with him. What do I mean by intimacy? I’m speaking of a closeness to the Lord that comes from yearning for him. This kind of intimacy is a close personal bond, a communion. It comes when we desire the...

Just a heads up. Pres. Trump will be on Fox Business with Stuart Varney, Mon. June 7 at 9:00 AM

“Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abed-nego” (Daniel 1:6-7). You can’t always prevent personal loss, but you can respond to it in ways that glorify God. It was a quiet January morning in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California until suddenly and without warning the earth shook with such a violent force that many department stores, apartment houses, homes, and freeway overpasses crumbled...

To the Ethiopian government, the fighters are terrorists who have defied the authority of Abiy in the federal capital, Addis Ababa. But almost everyone the AP spoke with in Hawzen supported them and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, the party of the region’s ousted and now-fugitive leaders. “The people elected us, so we are not terrorists,” said fighter Nurhussein Abdulmajid, standing confidently in the middle of the road with a gun on his shoulder, as a crowd listened. “He (Abiy)’s the one who is the terrorist. A terrorist is someone who massacres people.” The battle for Hawzen is...

<p>ORLANDO, Fla. — A 12-year-old boy accused of joining a 14-year-old girl in a shootout with an assault weapon and shotgun against Florida deputies from a home they had broken into earlier this week will be held for 21 days at a secure detention facility pending a hearing, a judge ordered Thursday.</p>

Facebook Is SatanHappy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I spend most of my time each day researching soup.The 21st century has seen an avalanche of changes in the way we produce and consume media. We’re going to be focusing on the social variety of media today, so please excuse me for not going into the whole “Netflix killed Blockbuster” rant that’s always lurking in the back of my mind. And yes, I watched the documentary, so I know that Netflix didn’t really kill Blockbuster. I reserve my right to believe otherwise.Social media has become a fact of our lives...