Free Republic

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., took to Twitter early Tuesday to announce that she has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and excoriated several Republicans locked down with her during last week’s riot at the Capitol who did not wear masks. Jayapal posted that she was "locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one." Her office issued a statement that said some members and staff were informed by Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of the U.S. Congress, that those secured...

Driving into DCTuesday morning January 5, 2021 I was struck by a couple things as I drove into the DC Metro Area: 1. The wealth, and 2. Residents dutifully wearing masks and staying six feet apart.After briefly stopping at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, I noticed our founding forefather’s estate seemed modest in comparison to many suburban DC homes. Regarding masks, everyone in DC proper seemed to be wearing masks and keeping their six foot distance like obedient subjects of a dictitorial King…that is, until a millon or so Trump supporters arrived.Who were these Trump supporters? Most of them 50+ year...

Wearing masks can create a sense of anonymity for an aggressor, while also dehumanizing the victim. This prevents empathy, empowering violence, and murder... Masks are like a handful of sand in an automobile engine, increasing the “friction” at . . . Every. Single. One. Of these billions of daily contact points. We understand that people will say things online that they would never say face-to-face. Masks create a similar sense of anonymity for the aggressor, empowering interpersonal violence, and hostility across our nation... The face is the window to the soul and covering the face with a mask erodes empathy...

A shocking COVID-19 Crackdown story has emerged from New Mexico to remind us that injustice is an immortal human-created monster that always should be exposed and fought. According to New Mexico based WISNews10 and KOAT, 78-year-old Gary Hein had to sue his state-run nursing home system and its overlord, the New Mexico Department of Health, just so he and his own wife could embrace. Hein and his spouse, 80-year-old Ann Severine, have been together for over three decades. Gary resides in the “Independent Living” portion of his Santa Fe nursing facility while Ann, who suffers from dementia, lives in the...

A COVIDIAC NEW YEAR: Lost in a MaskeradeAre we really happy here / With this lonely game we play? / Looking for words to say / Searching but not finding understanding anywhere / We’re lost in a masquerade.-George Benson__________Remember me? I used to write regularly for this newspaper until the advent of COVID-19 and the overnight installation of police states by Democrat governors (and their counterparts throughout the Western world) on the pretext of “containing the spread of the virus”—an effort that has proven about as successful as containing the spread of malicious gossip. Having joined the Thomas More Society...

The usual solemn and joyous occasion that surrounds the Swearing-in Ceremony in the Pennsylvania Senate was anything but on Tuesday. The raucous session began with a dispute over mask wearing that led to the passage of a temporary rule proposed by Senate Democrats to mandate everyone in the chamber have a face covering, which a couple Republican Sens. John DiSanto of Dauphin County and Doug Mastriano of Franklin County had resisted wearing until that point. But that was only a precursor to the real fireworks that the Senate Democrats set off. Pa. Senate GOP leader to deny seating an incumbent...

Senator Roy Blunt advises I need to no longer worry about wearing a mask.Any comments.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) warned New Yorkers on Monday to limit their social gatherings to curb the spread of the Chinese coronavirus, stating that increased infections, resulting in lower hospital capacity, will trigger regions to close down. Cuomo provided an update on Monday, stressing the importance of sufficient hospital capacity, categorizing it as the “redline.” “You are limited ultimately to your hospital capacity,” he said, noting that no region, currently, has less than 30 percent capacity. When any region gets within “striking distance” of 15 percent, it is “going to be a red zone, closed down for that...

Boston University and Holy Cross will both wear masks for Tuesday's men's college basketball game, a Boston University spokesperson told ESPN. The game is believed to be the first in men's college basketball this season in which both teams will be wearing masks on the court. Stadium reported Monday morning that Boston University has mandated that all of its opponents wear masks during games on BU's campus. The Terriers and Holy Cross also play each other on Monday, but that game is on Holy Cross' campus, meaning only BU will be wearing masks during the game.

A group of anti-maskers was captured on video storming through a grocery store and the Westfield Century City mall Sunday in protest of COVID-19 health mandates, at times harassing employees and customers Videos on social media showed the group without masks walking through a Ralphs grocery store and arguing with customers. In one video, a man can be seen rejecting an offer of a mask, stating, “I don’t need that; I don’t wear masks.” One man said he tested negative and called a customer at the grocery store a “mask Nazi.” An unmasked woman tried to ram her shopping cart...

According to Wired, a new bovine burp mask fitted with a catalytic converter catches methane expelled from cattle and converts it to CO2 and water. Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.~~~SNIP~~~There are 1.6 billion cattle on Earth, and their burps and farts are becoming a big problem. Cows expel methane, a colourless and odourless gas which is approximately 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to warming the planet.Zelp, a UK-based company, has developed a potential solution in the form of a burp-catching face mask for cows, designed to reduce methane emissions from cattle...

Israeli police were summoned after two passengers on a return flight from the UAE refused repeated requests to put on protective masks. The two ignored calls by the airplane crew to conform to flight rules ...

A grand jury indicted officer Andre Maurice Pringle on one count of second-degree assault and one count of misconduct in office. A Baltimore police officer was indicted on a charge of assaulting a man on crutches who allegedly refused to properly wear his face mask. A grand jury indicted officer Andre Maurice Pringle on one count of second-degree assault and one count of misconduct in office after he shoved and slammed Brandon Walker on the ground outside of a Shoppers grocery store on April 19. The incident happened after Walker allegedly entered the store with his face mask on top...

COVID is over on Feb. 8 The end of social distancing, and the secondary knock-on effect of exposing masking as an unenforceable charade, is approximately 40 days away. How apropos that we must wander in the desert of dystopia 40 more days, but here it is. What is the most precise way of determining when social distancing will end? The return of full-sale concert arena events. Note that this also portends the end of masking, as there is zero chance concert security is going to bust a fully-sold arena for mask violations. And the first one is a shocker. Michael...

CONCORD — New Hampshire's Republican governor said Wednesday that he is canceling his outdoor inauguration ceremony next month because of public safety concerns — namely, armed protesters who have been gathering outside his home in the weeks since he issued a mask order. "My first responsibility is ensuring the safety of my family and our citizens" Gov. Chris Sununu said in a news release. "For weeks, armed protesters have increasingly become more aggressive, targeting my family, protesting outside my private residence, and trespassing on my property — an outdoor public ceremony simply brings too much risk. We do not make...

Christmas Eve was supposed to be nice. I made every effort — procuring the traditional Costco spiral ham and cheerfully doing all of the other Christmasy things Mrs. Claus pulls off each year. What I failed to factor in was the threat of arrest and an epic violation of my right to free exercise of religion. Rookie mistake. Our state is governed by a petty tyrant. We’ve had a mask mandate since June and because he has unchecked power and was just reelected, he extends mandates in perpetuity. He has done his best to suck joy out of everything. Unlike...

Dr. Fauci, the media darling of the Covid pandemic, is nothing more than a liar and politically-minded bureaucrat. He acts like he is trying to save America, yet all he does is bend to the political winds of the time. When lockdowns are popular, he supports them. If they fall from grace, he cautions against them. He was against masks, then he wasn’t. He set one number for herd immunity, then he changed it. Every statement he has made he has gone back on, and often he changes his mind multiple times! But the worst instances of that flip-flopping are...

The Democrat governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, has implemented rules for sports that apparently would force children as young as five in hockey leagues to wear masks while playing. The Minnesota Department of Health, in its “COVID-19 Sports Practice Guidance for Youth and Adults,” writes: Starting Jan. 4, 2021, practices for organized youth and adult sports may resume. Practices cannot exceed pod sizes of more than 25. Spectators are not allowed; however, this does not prevent a parent, guardian, or support person from being present if necessary due to a participant’s age, disability, or medical condition. … Face coverings must...

Protest in Utah next Monday morning when Republican Governor Spencer Cox takes office. Cox endorsing the coronavirus restrictions of outgoing Republican Governor Gary Herbert that included a ban on social gatherings of more than 10 people... "Initial examination does not show a link between the unfortunate incident and the vaccination" That's part of the statement from Israel's Health Ministry following the death of a 75-year man two hours after he had received the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine... Why did the World Health Organization change its views on masks earlier this year from being against the mask to supporting it?... South...

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of the United States have mistreated the citizens of the country by destroying their means of making a living and limiting their freedom of movement. Government powers have been used to shut down enterprises, knowing full well that people's livelihoods depend on their operation. Government edicts have prohibited people from moving freely in small localities and even between states. Individual citizens have the right to move about and do work for the purpose of maintaining themselves and their families as long as their work is not harming others. The government's judicial system...