Free Republic

On Tuesday, a real zinger was dropped onto the medRxiv preprint server that could potentially explain many of the commonly observed pathogenic features of SARS-CoV-2. The authors provide solid evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein activates the envelope (ENV) protein encoded by HERV-W in blood cells, which is in turn directly responsible for many pathological features of the disease. HERV-W is named for the fact that many retroviruses in the group use a tryptophan tRNA in the primer binding site. Apparently, the shape of the letter W somehow reminded the naming committee of the shape of the ring structure of...

Wisconsin has become the 16th state to call for a convention of the states to consider making a variety of changes to the U.S. Constitution, a move that drew bipartisan opposition in the state Senate but not enough to block its approval. The resolution had passed 15 states, mostly in the South, before Wisconsin became the first since Mississippi in 2019 to approve it. Congress must receive requests from 34 states to convene a convention of the states.

Liberals like to mock people offering "thoughts and prayers" in response to deadly shootings. But liberals themselves invariably trot out a largely useless approach to such tragedies. They focus on guns, not the criminals who use them. CNN then aired a clip of NYC Mayor Eric Adams announcing that he is going to: "Reinstitute a newer version of a plainclothes, modified plainclothes, anti-gun unit."Just consider that bureaucratic gobbledygook. Nothing new. No "change." Just a dusted-off, repackaged, "newer, modified version" of a solution that didn't work before and won't work now. And Prokupecz reported that it's "unclear" how many officers will...

When news broke yesterday that the New York Supreme Court ruled against face mask mandates for students, the vast majority of people other than teachers and Governor Kathy Hochul’s office rejoiced. But the victory was short lived as the New York State Education Department sent a memo to all school districts essentially telling them to ignore the court and keep slave masks on the kids. Some districts have indicated they’re recognizing the Supreme Court decision, but most have followed the guidance of the state education department. Here’s the memo: “The State Education Department understands that Nassau County Supreme Court has...

OSHA announced Tuesday that it was canceling its emergency policy mandating large businesses require employees to be vaccinated or face masking and testing, after the Supreme Court put the policy on ice earlier this month. In its notice announcing the retreat, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the court’s ruling dealt a death blow to the mandate, which was issued as an emergency temporary standard, or ETS. “Notwithstanding the withdrawal of the Vaccination and Testing ETS, OSHA continues to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace,” the agency said.

New York State Supreme Court rules Governor's mask mandate is unconstitutionalGov. Kathy Hochul said, “We strongly disagree with this ruling, and we are pursuing every option to reverse this immediately.”https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1485828608522432514

Popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson compared covid vaccine mandates enacted by Joe Biden’s cabinet to medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany.“I thought that we had a kind of consensus on that” Carlson said on Friday.“I mean, after watching what the imperial Japanese army and the Nazis did in their medical experiments, I thought that American physicians agreed that compulsory medical care was unethical, it was immoral and it could never be imposed on anyone. When did we forget that?” Carlson’s guest, the virologist and one of the original researchers of the mRNA technology Dr. Robert Malone, responded saying: “Apparently...

A grandmother outsmarted some would-be thieves on Long Island. Police say they intended to scam her out of thousands of dollars, but she wasn’t having it. The quick thinking of a 73-year-old Seaford grandmother — who only wants her first name used, Jean — is being credited for taking down an alleged predator. “I knew he was a real scammer. I just knew he wasn’t going to scam me,” Jean told CBS2’s Kiran Dhillon. The former 911 dispatcher says Thursday morning, she received a call from someone claiming to be one of her grandsons. The caller said he had been...

Animal rights activist Ellen Kessler, a gubernatorial appointee to the State Board of Veterinary Medicine, submitted her resignation from the board at 3:26 p.m. Monday. Kessler's letter, released by the governor's office, said her resignation would be effective at the close of business on Feb. 11. "I realize that some of my actions have caused anger and discomfort and that I was unprofessional in my judgment," Kessler wrote. "I apologize to you and the citizens of our great state and wish you the best of luck as you continue to make Colorado the best in the nation." Kessler, appointed to...

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle Mark 16:15-18 Friends, today we reflect on the significance of the conversion of St. Paul. Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus was an answer to this question: when would God gather the nations and through Israel bring his rule to the whole world? When Paul met Jesus he realized that the promises of God had been fulfilled, that the expectations of the prophets had been met—but in a most unexpected and extraordinary way. He knew from his tradition that God, through Israel, would deliver the world from sin, gather the...

CNN host Jim Acosta appeared to compare the derision he endured at the hands of former President Donald Trump to being physically abused on Monday. During Monday's handover between his fill-in hosting gig and "Don Lemon Tonight,"a Acosta said he still had "marks on my back" from his tenure at the White House, seemingly referring to the tumultuous relationship he had with Trump, as well as the criticism he often received from the latter.

Perhaps I should have called this post “Why ballet at Princeton?” A document sent by the leaders of the Princeton University Ballet (PUD), the student-run ballet club, seems to argue by implication for ditching ballet altogether. The document begins: Ballet is rooted in white supremacy and perfectionism. We are all entering this space with a mindset that what we see as perfect is a white standard. Unlearning that will be difficult but rewarding. Before we begin detailing our action plan, we want to acknowledge that our leadership and those who composed this plan are all white. The last sentence comes...

Americans like Joe Biden as a person, but not as a president, according to a new poll released Tuesday. Roughly six in 10 Americans consider the commander-in-chief “likable” and “intelligent” but more than half question his ability to manage the government and his capability as a “strong and decisive leader,” the Gallup survey found.

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar said Tuesday on “New Day” that Fox News host Tucker Carlson is a “propagandist” whose “BS” should not be on television. Keilar said, “As tensions are ratcheting up between Russia and Ukraine, one Democratic congressman says his office is getting phone calls, repeatedly getting these phone calls, and they’re from fans of Fox’s chief propagandist Tucker Carlson, saying that the U.S. should be siding with Russia over Ukraine. What you may say? Well, you wouldn’t be surprised if you watched his pro-Russia stance every night.”

A Pennsylvania woman who came into contact with laboratory monkeys last week after a truck carrying them crashed has said she developed unusual symptoms. On her Facebook page and during media interviews, the woman, Michelle Fallon, said she developed symptoms after the accident. Fallon wrote that she sought emergency room treatment at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. that "it is the President's policy that justice and equity for illegal aliens living in America requires that we, in effect, make the entire country a 'sanctuary' where they can be free from fear that they will be arrested or deported. This requires that we shield them from laws that declare their actions crimes and their presence here unwarranted." "In the first year of the Biden Administration, I am proud to report that this sanctuary approach has successfully allowed immigrants accused and...

Anti-malware outfit Sophos has weighed in on Log4Shell, saying that the galvanization of the IT world to avert disaster would be familiar to those who lived through the Y2K era. The Log4Shell vulnerability turned up in the common-as-muck Apache Log4j logging library late last year. As a remote code execution (RCE) flaw, miscreants wasted no time in exploiting it following its disclosure.However, the IT community promptly responded by patching it. "As soon as details of the Log4Shell bug became clear," explained Sophos, "the world's biggest and most important cloud services, software packages and enterprises took action to steer away from...

About 70% of patients admitted to the hospital are unvaccinated, as are more than 90% of those who die there. Like hospitals across the country, Luminis Health Doctors Community Hospital is facing a two-pronged crisis in this surge, with thin staffing and more covid-19 patients than ever before. Employees who remain have no choice but to shoulder bigger burdens. Among the heaviest, they say, is the emotional weight of so much preventable death.

One of the most prolific families of ransomware now has additional Linux and VMware ESXi variants that have been spotted actively targeting organisations in recent months.Analysis by cybersecurity researchers at Trend Micro identified LockBit Linux-ESXi Locker version 1.0 being advertised on an underground forum. Previously, LockBit ransomware – which was by far the most active ransomware family at one point last year – was focused on Windows.LockBit has a reputation as one of the most sneaky forms of ransomware. And now the Linux and VMware ESXi variant means that the ransomware could potentially spread itself even further, encrypting a wider...

Having a newborn or young child who isn't old enough for most major vaccinations has always been a stressful time for parents. But dealing with this during a global pandemic — when children under the age of 5 still aren't eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 — is a complication of a higher order. Historic Figures That Got Real Life Photos Taken There were more than 769,000 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. on Friday and cases in children have dramatically spiked. If you have family members who want to see the baby but aren't fully vaccinated against COVID-19, what...