Free Republic

A group of University of Texas at Austin students are suing the school for creating a 'hostile environment' by forcing members of its marching band to play in a separate group because they refuse to play the school's spirit song, 'The Eyes of Texas', at football games. 'The Eyes of Texas' was first sung in 1903 at a student-organized minstrel show, a popular form of entertainment in the early 20th century that featured white performers in blackface, in downtown Austin. It's been a source of campus-wide debate for more than a year after a summer of Black Lives Matter protests...

Major backlogs in processing patient data during the pandemic are forcing the healthcare sector to reassess its relationship with fax machines. As coronavirus cases surged in the city of Austin, Texas, last June, beleaguered public health officials instructed anyone with symptoms to act as though they had Covid-19. The reporting and tracing of new cases had slowed to a crawl, officials explained, partly due to an unexpected culprit: the fax machine. The machines had kicked into overdrive as the pandemic tightened its grip on the city, spitting out printout after printout of results from Covid-19 tests. "We were probably getting...

HEATHER BRESCH, the former president and CEO of the drugmaker Mylan, worked directly with the CEO of Pfizer to keep prices of the company’s EpiPen product artificially high, according to new documents released as part of an ongoing lawsuit.The documents also show Bresch approving a scheme to force customers, captured by the company’s monopoly, to purchase two EpiPens at once, regardless of medical need. The EpiPen is an auto-injectable device that injects epinephrine into the body and can be the difference between life or death for a person suffering a severe allergic reaction.The documents were released as part of an...

Joe Biden on tornadoes: ".they don't call them that anymore. Mumbles something about wetlands in Nevada

The liberal media has to find a new way to keep its COVID-19 scare strategy going: Have “health journals” sound the alarm on the “climate crisis.” The Guardian is leading the charge. It screeched in its story’s headline: “More than 200 health journals call for urgent action on climate crisis.” The journals are reportedly “publishing an editorial calling on leaders to take emergency action on climate change and to protect health.” The editorial demanded action to keep global temperature increases below “1.5C” and “halt the destruction of nature.” Too bad for The Guardian that Hoover Institution Visiting Fellow Bjorn Lomborg...

The galactic center in radio wavelengths. (MeerKAT/SARAO) ______________________________________________________________________________ As our eyes on the sky grow ever more sensitive, we're going to find more and more things we've never seen before. Such is the case for a newly discovered source of radio signals, located not far from the center of the galaxy. It's called ASKAP J173608.2-321635, and astronomers have been unable to figure out what kind of cosmic object best fits its weird properties. Their paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, and is available on preprint server arXiv. "We have presented the discovery and characterization of ASKAP...

Ontario County Sheriff Kevin Henderson says he’s being pressured to resign, claiming that County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Marren asked him to quit under threat of retaliation. What exactly started all this remains unclear. The sheriff only stated this is regarding his office’s handling on internal matter, adding his undersheriff has voluntarily resigned.

Two Washington counties are implementing outdoor mask mandates beginning Tuesday, forcing individuals attending large outdoor events to mask up and recommending them to do so in any outdoor situation where they cannot keep a six-foot distance. The orders cover large events in both King and Pierce counties. Under the rules, those five and older must wear a mask outdoors if they are attending a large gathering, which is described as any event with over 500 people.

The price of bitcoin fell Tuesday after breaking through $52,000 late Monday, reaching its highest level since May.The price action comes on the day El Salvador is set to adopt the largest cryptocurrency by market cap as legal tender, becoming the first country to do so. Bitcoin dropped as much as 16% on Tuesday morning. It was last down by about 9.8% and trading at $46,741.00, according to Coin Metrics. Ether fell about 12% to $3,438.00.Crypto adjacent stocks MicroStrategy and Coinbase also fell about 7% and 3%, respectively. Coinbase users were experiencing delayed or canceled transactions at “elevated rates” in...

As one of only two people who survived 9/11 by surfing down the Twin Towers collapse, Pasquale Buzzelli has a mixture of survivor’s guilt and gratefulness. “Here I am given this gift, and I wanted to make the most of it,” he told 60 Minutes Australia. At the same time, he struggles to make sense of why he survived and others didn’t. Perhaps it was a mixture of luck, divine intervention, and quick wits to pick a place to weather the collapse: curled up in the corner of a stairwell against two concrete walls.

Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) said Tuesday he would not support the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill if Democrats would not increase the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which primarily benefits wealthy Democrat states.

Group of Orthodox Jews hit with steep penalties after celebrating Jewish New Year in violation of local COVID ordinances and refusing police orders to leave house of worship Australian police on Tuesday issued fines to worshipers at a synagogue in Melbourne where a group of Orthodox Jews held Rosh Hashanah services in apparent violation of pandemic lockdown ordinances. According to local reports, some 100 worshipers gathered inside the synagogue at around 5 a.m. and refused to leave until nightfall. Police surrounded the synagogue after receiving calls of a suspected mass gathering held in breach of COVID-19 restrictions. A police source...

Back during the spring of 2020, in the earliest dark days of the Wuhan “pandemic,” astute data analysts noticed a significant pattern that might offer hope of stemming the threat posed by the disease. While the virus was rampant and spreading rapidly throughout the world’s most advanced cultures, it was not nearly as prolific in the third world, particularly in subtropical and tropical regions where Malaria is widespread. It didn’t take them long to establish a strong causal relation between usage of the anti-parasitic drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and a resistance to contracting the virus, as well as rapid, nearly miraculous...

[Note: Not my comments - From the link] Stew Peters NAMED NAMES. Celebrity Politicians like Trey Gowdy are influencing bad behavior by would-be stars like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, using "issues" to provoke "hype", while using their power to do absolutely NOTHING as America falls. People are out here dying, elections are being stolen, freedom is being stripped from their constituents - all the while, these supposed "representatives" are fundraising and grandstanding.

U.S. Quarantine Stations are part of a comprehensive system that serves to limit the introduction and spread of contagious diseases in the United States. They are located at 20 ports of entry and land-border crossings where most international travelers arrive (see map below). They are staffed with medical and public health officers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and managed by CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. These health officers decide whether ill persons can enter the United States and what measures should be taken to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. DGMQ currently staffs 18...

PARIS -- On Sept. 20, Canadian voters will head to the polls to decide their next federal government. The Canadian media seems overly focused on a debate over gun control, which is like fussing with the wallpaper while the bulldozer is revving up outside the house. This election comes down to one thing and one thing only: Will Canadians vote to transform their democracy into a sanitary authoritarian regime by reelecting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? Trudeau called for the snap election just two years into his current term on the premise that Canadians deserve a say over how his government...

WASHINGTON/ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Thursday will present a six-pronged strategy intended to fight the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus Delta variant and increase U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations, the White House said on Tuesday. The United States, which leads the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths, is struggling to stem a wave of infections driven by the variant even as officials try to persuade Americans who have resisted vaccination to get the shots. Rising case loads have raised concerns as children head back to school, while also rattling investors and upending company return-to-office...

Looking for the Wrong People: Vatican Synod Wants To Listen To FORMER CatholicsThe Vatican published on September 7 a preparatory document and handbook for the “Synod on Synodality,” a two year succession of worldly meetings and empty discussions. The "final document," expected in October 2023, is likely already written.One of the main goals is "to live a participative and inclusive ecclesial process" that offers everyone" [except marginalised Catholics], especially those who for various reasons find themselves "on the margins," the opportunity "to express themselves and to be heard.”The topics listed in the handbook are those imposed by the oligarchs: Covid-19,...

The Russian team has once again been crowned world champions of Tank Biathlon, after defeating Kazakhstan, China, and Azerbaijan in the final round of the 2021 competition at the 7th International Army Games, held near Moscow. The competition, which started on August 22 and finished on Saturday, saw 19 countries from around the world take part, including Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Tajikistan, Myanmar, and Qatar. 18 of the teams had participated before, with Mali being the only debutants. Tank biathlon is a sport based on the winter biathlon, where skiers must race through a cross-country trail and shoot rifles at targets. In...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the state's controversial election integrity bill Tuesday after a months-long battle with Democrats opposed to the legislation.