Free Republic

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death last year, employers offered black workers time off to deal with the news, and UCLA suspended a professor who refused to grade his supposedly traumatized black students more leniently than their nonblack peers. Such gestures may have been well-meaning, but they were also nonsensical and reeked of condescension. Are black psyches really this fragile, and are blacks so starved for exemplars that miscreants must be treated like martyrs? Should Floyd’s death matter more to them than the huge number of black homicides that don’t involve police? And why would people who aren’t black...

A damning investigation in Sweden has found that doctors are ignoring the physical harm and irreversible damage caused by giving puberty blockers to primary school children diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Wherever you stand on trans issues, no one could fail to be shocked by the revelations coming out of Sweden about the life-changing injuries and harmful side effects inflicted on children by cavalier doctors at the Karolinska University Hospital, all in the name of the great gender debate. The youngsters treated at the Stockholm hospital had all been diagnosed with gender dysphoria – the unshakeable feeling that their physical characteristics...

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the Republican who maintained the enduring support of his blue-state constituents through boom times, the Trump presidency, and the COVID-19 pandemic, will not seek a third term in 2022, he said Wednesday.A moderate who has kept his distance from the controversies of the national Republican Party and cast himself as a thrifty and thoughtful manager, Baker, 65, would have entered the race as its front-runner. His decision means he will forgo a shot at history: No Massachusetts governor has served three consecutive four-year terms.

One of the most breathtaking twists during the high-drama trial of Kyle Rittenhouse was the moment that Judge Schroeder banned NBC from the courthouse after one of their journalists got caught running a red light while stalking the jury bus. “Last evening, a person who identified himself as James Morrison and claimed he was a producer for NBC News…and under the supervision of someone named Irene Byon in New York…he was following at a distance and went through a red light,” said Schroeder. “He stated he had been instructed to by Ms. Byon to follow the jury bus.” The judge...

COVID-19 deaths in Germany reached its highest level in nine months on Wednesday with 446 deaths. Germany’s infectious disease agency said the country saw 67,186 new cases along with the 446 new deaths from the virus, Reuters reported. That is the highest recorded daily death toll in Germany since Feb. 18 as lawmakers grapple with how to slow the spread of the new wave of infections.

The Supreme Court takes up its most important abortion case in years on Wednesday, and the question will be how the Justices maneuver their way out of a thicket they should never have entered 50 years ago. Will the Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, settle for an incremental ruling that upholds a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks, or will it overturn its misguided precedents and return the regulation of abortion to legislatures in the states? These columns have long supported a policy of legal abortion before viability, albeit uneasily as technology has revealed the development...

Two American cities, San Francisco and Chicago, seem to be competing to see which one can descend farther into the dystopia of gang rule, with honest citizens held captive to anarchy in the streets, afraid to leave their homes and finding nowhere to buy life's essentials if they do venture out. Master filmmaker John Carpenter got it wrong when he predicted which American cities would fail in his 1980s and '90s dystopian fantasies Escape from New York and Escape from L.A.Monica Showalter covered the descent of the City by the Bay yesterday in her piece titled "The Fall of San...

In a rare display of bipartisan unity, the United States Senate voted 68-29 to confirm resident Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division, Johnathan Kanter. The confirmation of Kanter to lead the powerful Antitrust division means that, along with Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission and Timothy Wu serving on the National Economic Council, critics of big tech now control key antitrust enforcement positions. While Kanter’s confirmation was widely expected by those who closely follow Washington’s war on big tech, his ascension to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division provides further evidence that lawmakers seek to...

A piece of history from the long war between Islam and Christendom was recently unearthed: a mass grave of 25 Crusaders who were attacked from behind and/or beheaded in the thirteenth century. According to one report:A team of international archaeologists uncovered the gruesome scene at Sidon Castle on the eastern Mediterranean coast of south Lebanon. Wounds on the remains suggests the soldiers died at the end of swords, maces and arrows, and charring on some bones means they were burned after being dropped into the pit. Other remains show markings on the neck, which likely means these individuals were captured...

https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/live.aspxSCOTUSBlog page

The recent rollout of the Omicron Covid strain has prompted me to point out a few salient facts which may have escaped the notice of others. An advantage of viewing life from the cheap seats is a certain degree of perspective which is denied those who move and shake the times, or even those who watch closer to the field of play. Now, I realize that the aforementioned Omicron should actually be named the Xi strain, Xi being the next Greek letter in the on-deck circle for the never-ending cavalcade of Covid mutations in the batting order. However, the coach...

Bill Nye The Science Guy is getting roasted online for his TikTok video touting the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” agenda as “cool” — and featuring a cameo from President Biden himself. “Consider the following… #infrastructure is #cool,” Nye captioned the more than 1-minute clip Tuesday. The TV scientist is referred to as a “science icon” before he descends into a speech about the recently signed bill, emphasizing the importance for repairing America’s infrastructure and providing funding for climate change. Biden joins Nye about halfway through — and is introduced as “Amtrak Joe.”

In early October, Bright Sheng, a professor of music at the University of Michigan, played the 1965 rendition of Shakespeare’s Othello for his undergraduate class. The film starred Laurence Olivier, who was wearing black makeup, as the titular character. Having no concern for context or artistry, the university community revolted, deeming the film (and Sheng by association) racist. As a result, Sheng was temporarily removed from the classroom, and placed under investigation. Michigan administrators knew that Sheng had done nothing wrong. He showed his class a movie that cannot, in any sense of the word, be considered obscene, and Sheng...

Fox News’s Bill Melugin has broken a big and very disturbing story about COVID testing in Los Angeles County. It turns out that the county gave all COVID vaccination data rights to a company that has links to China and that freely admits that it saves and disseminates personal information it obtains through its work. The LA County Sheriff is refusing to let his employees participate, but the County isn’t backing down. Instead, it insists that everything is under control.Los Angeles County employs more than 100,000 people. On August 4, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors mandated that all...

Well known but his real political positions aren't. If he gets nominated we will be doing what the democrats do: putting up our pretty boy against theirs(Lamb). Pennsylvania will be difficult to keep. The more well known the better our chances. The worst he can do as a senator is stab us in the back like Toomey. Like JD Vance I think we'll have to take our chances. I sent JD Vance a few bucks. This guy needs none. Celebrities need the limelight. It's their job to make sure the money is there. What do we have to lose? Suburban...

This week, governments around the globe spun into full-scale panic thanks to the revelation of the so-called omicron variant of COVID-19. As of this writing, we know that omicron is likely more transmissible than prior variants. We have no evidence, however, that omicron is more deadly. To the contrary, Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chairwoman of the South African Medical Association, explained that the symptoms associated with omicron were "mild," explaining, "we don't see severely ill patients." Were that true, that would make omicron a cause for optimism. That's because delta is already highly infectious and herd immunity seems to be a...

Can you believe it’s Feather Day already?Detail from a Scandinavian Barbizon School paintingIt seems like yesterday was just Thanksgiving. On the other hand I’ve already forgotten half the things I remembered to be thankful for. I do recall however that learning how to think rather than what to think was on my list. I rather doubt that entry will make the grade, so to speak, for a place on the lists of future generations. The quality of education seems to be devolving at an ever increasing speed. We’ve whizzed right past the “what to think” stage all the way to...

In the upside-down morality of the left, it is perfectly acceptable for criminal gangs to target high-end stores free of consequences. At once ascribing poverty, immoral historical legacies, and contemporary systemic racism, we are supposed to believe that what is happening is actually a form of justice. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no moral or humanitarian justification for the now-daily shoplifting and burglary sprees witnessed time and again in various California cities and across the country. Are the black youths hungry? Are they robbing a grocery store? Are they impoverished, thereby stealing the jewelry to sell?...

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the Republican who maintained the enduring support of his blue state constituents through boom times, the Trump presidency, and in the face of mass death during the COVID-19 pandemic, is telling allies he will not seek a third term in 2022, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.

In a social media feed yesterday, I came across a 1979 60 Minutes segment on the propaganda surrounding the 1976 swine flu scare. Many of us had already heard about how the event was reminiscent of today's COVID-19 con, but actually watching the segment drives home how striking the parallels between the two disease scares are. Exaggerations of the bugs' severity, media propaganda and fear-mongering, an effort to vaccinate the whole nation, serious vaccine-coincident side-effects, and an apparent government cover-up of the latter were all elements of the '76 fiasco just as they epitomize what's occurring today.The segment opened with...