Free Republic

A Missouri university is hosting an online forum that will explore whether the term 'professionalism' is racist - and according to the event's synopsis, it is. The February 1 presentation at Washington University's St. Louis campus centers around a term defined by Merriam-Webster as 'the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person.' An explainer for the upcoming virtual event reads: 'The term “professionalism” has at times been used to silence and marginalize people of color, when attributes of appearance, language or interactions that have nothing to do with job knowledge or constructive collegial...

The federal government is making 400 million N95 masks available for free starting this week at thousands of locations. By early February, the aim is to have the program fully operational, giving Americans a chance to acquire the higher-quality masks at no cost. Here’s what Chicagoans need to know about the rollout of free N95 masks: Why do I need N95 masks? Respirators — including N95 masks, KN95s and KN94s — are designed to achieve a close facial fit and efficient filtration of airborne particles. When will the masks be available? Some locations will begin making the masks available this...

Eric Clapton’s career “had almost gone anyway” until his campaign against conventional medicine took off. The 76-year-old musician went on the Real Music Observer YouTube channel to discuss how his life has changed since reluctantly taking AstraZeneca’s therapy in 2021. Clapton has since become outspoken about his anti-vaccination stance. He claimed that he’d been duped into getting the COVID-19 jab by subliminal messaging in pharmaceutical advertising — and urged others not to fall for it. “Whatever the memo was, it hadn’t reached me,” he said, referring to the “mass formation hypnosis” conspiracy theory, which gained traction in 2021 as part...

New research suggests giving extra cash to low-income mothers can change their infants’ brain development. Brain measurements at age 1 showed faster activity in key brain regions in infants whose low-income families received $300-plus monthly for a year, compared with those who got $20 each month, U.S. researchers reported Monday. The same type of brain activity has been linked in older children to learning skills and other development, although it’s unclear whether the differences found will persist or influence the infants’ future. The researchers are investigating whether the payments led to better nutrition, less parent stress or other benefits to...

Opening statements are set to start Monday in Manhattan in a third criminal case against Michael Avenatti, the once high-flying celebrity lawyer who rose to fame by representing adult-film star Stormy Daniels in her bid to terminate a hush-money deal that silenced her allegations of an affair with former President Donald Trump. The former lawyer, a pugnacious Trump critic who once considered a presidential run of his own, fell from grace after being hit with three federal indictments in a six-week period in 2019. Prosecutors allege that Avenatti -- who helped negotiate the $800,000 advance for her September 2018 book...

A California mother is taking legal action against a school district, claiming that two teachers secretly manipulated her 11-year-old daughter into believing she was a transgender boy. Jessica Konen filed a legal claim against Spreckels Union School District last Wednesday - with that claim a likely precursor to a lawsuit. She alleges that Buena Vista Middle School teachers Lori Caldeira and Kelly Baraki 'planted a seed' in her daughter's head that she was bisexual, then went on to convince the youngster that she was actually a transgender boy. Konen also claims that Caldeira and Baraki - who ran the school's...

How convenient when a bureaucratic body has the power to switch COVID standards at the drop of a hat in order to allow it to continue moving forward and not shut down as the rest of us have been forced to do. COVID Standards around testing and quarantine rules are going from asinine and impossible to achieve to almost gone in the blink of an eye. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last week he was doing away with all COVID precautions from vaccine mandates to mask wearing, and instead, would rely on the judgement of its citizens to protect...

Center for Vaccine Development director Dr. Peter Hotez said Monday on “At This Hour” that it made “no sense” to lift mask mandates for schools right now. Bolduan asked, “What do you think about lifting school mask mandates right now?”

It used to be that 90% of the time, you accessed stuff only on your computer’s local network. Then in 1993 at the University of Illinois, Marc Andreessen developed Mosaic, the first internet browser, which allowed users to wander around the World Wide Web 90% of the time. He moved to Silicon Valley and founded Netscape. Mr. Andreessen is now a general partner at a top-decile venture-capital firm, better than 90% of its peers. Andreessen Horowitz recently raised $9 billion in new funds.

Whoopi Goldberg pulled no punches Monday as she went off on comedian Bill Maher for saying he no longer wanted to live in a "paranoid world" when it came to the coronavirus pandemic. "I don’t want to live in your paranoid world anymore, your masked paranoid world. You know, you go out, it’s silly now, you know, you mask, you have to have a card, you have to have a booster, they scan your head. Like you’re a cashier, and I’m a bunch of bananas. I’m not bananas. You are," Maher told a laughing audience during his show "Real Time...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has requested an all-member briefing on the evolving situation in Ukraine, her office confirmed to The Hill, amid growing concerns of a Russian military incursion. Pelosi’s office didn’t immediately provide further details of the request, which was first reported by Punchbowl News.

A California lawmaker known for tightening restrictions on school vaccine laws will propose a bill Monday to close a loophole in the state’s requirement that children receive COVID-19 shots. State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) will announce Monday morning a bill to add COVID-19 vaccines to California’s list of required inoculations for attending K-12 schools, a move that would override Gov. Gavin Newsom’s scaled-back mandate from last year.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court agrees to hear a pair of cases that challenge the race-based affirmative action policies for admission at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The cases likely will be argued next term.

I didn't attend this rally because I try to avoid Washington, DC, the same way Native Americans should have avoided contracting smallpox, but there was an anti-vaccine mandate rally that set off one woman. She rolled up in a van with children's handprints all over it. Was this a pre-school vehicle? Was it her own? Who knows? All I know is that the new version of Ms. Frizzle is cracked out—and the school bus has been severely downgraded. Free speech can be a triggering event to liberals—and this woman couldn't stand that there were those opposed to the vaccine mandate....

Prof. Yehuda Adler not encouraged by recent forecasts predicting pandemic will soon begin to ebb as he believes Israel is still not out of the woods with mounting cases stretching the healthcare system's resources thin. Public and media discourse about abolishing the COVID-19 Green Pass gummed up Israel's vaccination campaign, a leading physician said on Monday as the country struggles to contain a mounting coronavirus outbreak stoked by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. "From the moment (abolishing the Green Pass) became the talk of the day, the vaccination drive collapsed. Children are almost not getting vaccinated at all" Prof. Yehuda...

In BriefThe Facts:A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has revealed that 17,371 people in England and Wales died solely from COVID. The data represents numbers recorded from the beginning of 2020 up until the end of September 2021. These people had no other causes listed on their death certificates.Reflect On:Why are journalists not discussing what this could mean? The majority of people who have died with COVID have had multiple other causes listed on their death certificates. Why haven't we taken a more focused protection plan to protect the vulnerable?Pause - set your Pulse...Take a breath. Release the tension...

A quote from President Joe Biden exclaiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t want” him to beat Donald Trump in the 2020 election has come back to haunt him as the fate of Ukraine hangs in the balance. “Vladimir Putin doesn’t want me to be President,” he tweeted in February of 2020. “He doesn’t want me to be our nominee. If you’re wondering why — it’s because I’m the only person in this field who’s ever gone toe-to-toe with him.”

Ray Epps, the “mystery man” who is implicated in the very launch of the Capitol riots, has denied being an FBI informant or agent before the partisan House committee on January 6. As far as the mainstream media is concerned, they would just as soon wash their hands of the matter. “Case closed,” they say. “Time to move on. Nothing to see here!” But for unknown reasons, Ray Epps is a free man. He is not only walking free while MAGA grandmas sit languishing in jail, awaiting trial on relatively minor charges, but he has inexplicably found defenders in the...

When President Biden warned of a bleak and deadly winter, he was referring to the Covid-19 outbreak that he promised to “shut down.” While he has failed to curb the virus, his policies have unfortunately been more successful reining in our once thriving energy industry.At the one-year mark of his administration running the Departments of Interior and Energy and determining regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency, anyone paying a bill sees the results. Oil prices have nearly doubled since Biden’s inauguration. Despite the longing of green activists worldwide, we are in fact, a fossil fuel-driven economy, and all prices have...