Free Republic

Wisconsinites are signaling they're done playing political games and aren't buying into the idea that they're 'Safer at Home.' MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin stay-at-home orders were supposed to expire Friday. Instead, thousands of disgruntled Wisconsinites descended upon the capitol in protest after the Evers administration extended the Dairy State’s so-called Safer at Home order another month. Endless blaring honks turned to white noise as vehicles backed up East Washington Avenue before circling the capitol, with many waving signs and flags out of windows and sun roofs. One man drove a Yukon decked out with Trump 2020 gear, pulling a trailer...

Now we have better data and experience that beg a more sophisticated approach as our nation grapples with balancing public health and the economy. “First, do no harm.” It’s a saying almost as old as the idea of medicine itself. I heard it a lot in medical school. And it’s a saying that our state and national leaders need to think long and hard about right now. In many respects, I am proud of the way our leaders and experts have stepped up to find ways of fighting the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. They acted quickly, on limited information, and based...

‘It’s great that dog grooming, gin, guns, and garden supplies are essential,’ says Pastor Kevin Martin, chuckling at the irony, ‘but the body and blood of Christ are not.’ It was a parishioner who called local news and possibly the police on Rev. Kevin Martin for continuing to hold services during coronavirus shutdowns, even though he had explicit state permission to do so while taking extra health precautions.Members of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Raleigh, N.C. were filmed by local television as they walked with their spouses and children into the church to worship and receive critical spiritual care at...

Across the country, hospitals shut down 'non-essential' procedures in preparation for a surge of coronavirus patients that never appeared. When the lockdowns began last month, we were told that if we didn’t stay home our hospitals would be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, intensive care wards would be overrun, there wouldn’t be enough ventilators, and some people would probably die in their homes for lack of care. To maintain capacity in the health-care system, we all had to go on lockdown—not just the big cities, but everywhere.So we stayed home, businesses closed, and tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs....

An essential principle of the United States is that it is a free country, with individual liberties guaranteed, and government power limited. That concept is now being tested. A deadly worldwide pandemic has led to draconian lockdowns, forced closings of businesses, and even mandatory “stay at home” orders, some with Orwellian, friendly sounding names like “Safer at Home” or “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” – but still mandatory and enforced by police. The unprecedented, far-reaching orders have been issued by unelected county health officers as well as by governors of states. Are these orders legal? Do state governors have the legal...

Tuesday, during an interview with nationally syndicated talker Hugh Hewitt, Attorney General William Barr touched on constitutional protections in a time of crisis related to what powers the executive branches of both state and federal governments. Barr acknowledged that amid this coronavirus pandemic, some “temporary and reasonable restrictions” were acceptable. However, he did argue those had to be targeted, adding it was a view “a better job” was needed to be done regarding those restrictions. “I do think that executive glance, whether it be in the federal system or the state system, you know, one of its capacities is to...

Abolishing group gatherings is fine if such limits apply to everyone, but if they only apply to churchgoers thatÂ’s a moral and legal problem. The COVID-19 panic has prompted local and state government officials to temporarily shut down businesses, large group gatherings, and anything else they deem unsafe. Unfortunately, some local officials have taken this too far by targeting religious people. In some states, people of faith have filed lawsuits alleging local authorities have violated their free exercise and free speech rights.Even during a global health scare, we must fiercely protect our First Amendment rights. LetÂ’s go through some recent...

The move to reopen beaches has so far been a good one, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, Mayor Charlie Latham said Monday. “There is [sic] a lot of people that are upset that we’ve opened, but we’re not requiring anybody to go to the beach,” the mayor said during an interview on Fox & Friends. In answer to critics who said allowing people back on the beaches was the wrong move during the pandemic, Latham said social distancing rules were still in place and people were not allowed to lay out. “You’re not allowed to have coolers. You’re not allowed to...

Our leaders are making decisions based on training, experience, intelligence, and wisdom, and they have our best interests in mind. But this does not mean they are always correct. I had a patient once with a liver lesion. At the community hospital where I worked, I reviewed her MRI with the radiologist carefully and we concluded it was a possible liver cancer. Unfortunately, I shared her care with a university hospital. In their opinion, the lesion was definitely cancer and they so informed her. She promptly drank herself to death. Of course, it could be argued that the university care...

We are seeing a massive backlash against the coronavirus lockdowns all over the United States, and it is likely that the protests against these lockdowns will only intensify in the days ahead.But some elected officials are doubling down and are insisting that “shelter-in-place” orders will remain in effect in their jurisdictions for quite a few months to come.I honestly do not know how that is possibly going to work, because after just a few weeks millions upon millions of Americans have become deeply frustrated with these lockdowns.Trying to confine people to their homes for the foreseeable future is likely to...

It is untenable to lock down much of the country until a proven-safe vaccine is available in a year or more. Thus, we need to adapt and prepare for life in the time of coronavirus. By the time we get back to normal, normal will be different. The Chinese coronavirus is a once in a generation plague, perhaps once in a century. Humanity is better equipped to respond to it than at any time in history, but there is still no easy way through this pestilence. A time of death and economic hardship was inevitable once the Chinese communists tried...

Our nation's leaders are demanding that American children pay for this crisis through debt-financed spending, while depriving them of the education they need to make that even remotely possible. One of the many significant but underappreciated effects of U.S. politicians’ response to coronavirus is their pre-emptive mass school shutdowns. It is likely these shutdowns will harm the next generation far beyond the trillions in government spending these children will someday be forced to pay off for previous generations.For one thing, the school shutdowns will cripple children’s economic future by depriving them of up to an entire year of learning. That’s...

On April 11, The Washington Post ran an article about plans being made to reopen the economy. The article complains that state governors (rather than the White House) are leading the planning, which has resulted in a “mind-boggling level of disorganization,” according to a Centers for Disease Control director. The incessant bleating of prominent health leaders over the lack of federal control in this crisis only underscores how little they understand or respect this country’s Constitution and the freedoms it seeks to protect. Although the White House certainly has emergency authority to mandate all number of efforts to respond to...

My 12-year-old daughter was playing basketball alone at the court, when a city truck drove over to her. City workers told me that they were taking down the rim to keep groups from gathering. My family lives on a small mountain in a suburb of Little Rock, Arkansas, and behind our home is a city green space with a small basketball court and walking trail. Throughout our city are several of these basketball courts and trails. The court by our house is fairly ignored. Because it is at the base of a hill, it floods during rainstorms, so my husband...

It has long been a cultural phenomenon that when people are confined to their homes due to dramatic weather events, babies start springing forth nine months later. Nearly half the worldÂ’s population is confined to their homes with two primary tasks: 1. Do not catch nor spread COVID-19. 2. DonÂ’t go nuts from boredom or cabin fever.In trying to accomplish No. 2, people are playing more board and card games. Others are catching up on sleep and preparing more homecooked meals. These are very good things.Husbands and wives are also finding themselves with plenty of time for other activities, and...

What the media and policymakers are not telling us is that the longer we delay the development of herd immunity, the more elderly or high-risk people will become infected and die. COVID-19 is severe. There is no doubt about that. We are now also learning that it is not a matter of if but when many of us will get coronavirus, whether we develop symptoms or not. Our only hope is to “flatten the curve,” relieve stress on the medical system, and wait for a vaccine.So, we isolate ourselves and stay at home. As a result, the economy is being...

Not that I've heard of, anyway. Are US Courts even open? Is this supposed quarantine authority the executives around the country are using and abusing, unlimited in scope and length, not subject to revision by any court or legislature, ever? When did we consent to that?

Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano, a former judge, recently penned an article with the provocative title “Coronavirus fear lets government assault our freedom in violation of Constitution.” Although Napolitano is right to be concerned, President Donald Trump and other federal, state, and local officials appear to be acting within the bounds of the Constitution in responding to the severe threat posed by spread of the new coronavirus disease, which health officials call COVID-19.

How a handful of Democratic activists created alarming, but bogus data sets to scare local and state officials into making rash, economy-killing mandates. As U.S. state and local officials halt the economy and quarantine their communities over the Wuhan virus crisis, one would hope our leaders were making such major decisions based on well-sourced data and statistical analysis. That is not the case.A scan of statements made by media, state governors, local leaders, county judges, and more show many relying on the same source, an online mapping tool called COVID Act Now. The website says it is “built to...

Pushed to the breaking point by the closure of restaurants, movies, beaches and other favorite sources of amusement, some teens are coughing on grocery store produce. One incident occurred in the Washington DC exurb of Purcellville, Virginia. Police investigating the case said that "there is a national trend by teenagers to cough on food, video it and post the video on the web." Malcolm Tendt, admitted "camera man" in the Virginia prank, defended his peers, asking "what are we supposed to do for fun? None of the guys doing the coughing are really sick. The geezers who see us in...