Free Republic

In a not-so-surprising twist in the presiding judge’s life of the ongoing sham Trump trial in New York City, unhinged Judge Arthur Engoron has taken to an unconventional pastime—posting half-naked photos of himself on an alumni newsletter he oversees. Research group Marco Polo first reported this revelation.

“I still believe that love is all you need,” Paul McCartney continues to proclaim, “I don’t know a better message than that.” And yet John Lennon took that love-uber-alles ethos to such an extreme in the 1970s that even his old rose-tinted mate was retorting, “Too many people preaching practices.” So it’s no surprise that the sardonic duo in Steely Dan rolled their eyes when they heard the ‘Smart One’s’ prayer for peace with ‘Imagine’ and a string of pious talk show appearances in the early 1970s. Steely Dan’s bold response to Lennon’s all-white evangelism signified that the prominent days...

The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 has surpassed last winter’s peak, underscoring the severity of the threat the virus continues to pose as the extremely contagious Omicron variant tears through the United States. As of Sunday, 142,388 patients with the virus were hospitalized nationwide, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, surpassing the peak of 142,315 reported on Jan. 14 of last year. The seven-day average of daily hospitalizations was 132,086, an increase of 83 percent from two weeks ago. The Omicron wave has overwhelmed hospitals and depleted staff who were already worn out...

Numbers showing the majority of Alberta's COVID-19 hospital admissions are in vaccinated individuals don't tell the entire story, regardless of what some conspiracy theorists believe. Albertans with at least one shot took over more hospital beds than those without this week. But the raw numbers are incomplete, and a dive into the data shows being vaccinated may be more important now than ever before. As of Thursday, 217 unvaccinated Albertans were in hospital with COVID-19, compared to 282 patients with at least one shot. But almost 90 per cent of the province has one dose, which means the "rate per...

This was CNN cognitive dissonance on steroids -- with a booster shot of hypocrisy. Picture this. In its 7 am hour, New Day brought on CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner who called the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration a potential "superspreader" event that is "completely unnecessary" and "unwise." Reiner called omicron "the most contagious pathogen that any of us have ever seen," estimating the true number of daily infections at one million.But the very next hour of New Day contained a long, hyper-excited, promo for . . . CNN's Times Square New Year's Eve special! CNN entertainment correspondent...

As US regional health authorities reacted with alarm to a jump in child Covid infections that caused some school districts to announce returns to remote learning, a leading public health official questioned the need for schools to close, saying: “We know how to keep schools open, we know how to keep them safe.” Over the past three weeks, as Omicron-related cases soared in New York City and elsewhere, the number of children hospitalised in New York with Covid-19 quadrupled, the state health department said. The California state epidemiologist Dr Erica Pan wrote on Twitter: “Unfortunately New York is seeing an...

What we are witnessing is a spectacle of political leaders guided by vanity, not principle. They have enjoyed two years of public acquiescence to the unprecedented use of unchecked power in peace-time. They have confused public compliance with their brilliance in managing COVID, which they persist in likening, two years on, to the Bubonic Plague. What so many leaders — including Bennett, as well as Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson — fail to understand is that there is now a directly inverse relationship between public trust and their increasingly tyrannical tendencies. The public’s good faith has been exploited for brazen...

The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) warned Tuesday there is too much at stake to celebrate Christmas this year, cautioning it is better to either cancel or postpone the annual festivities than risk the death of a loved one. W.H.O. director-general and Ethiopian biologist Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva the “fastest way” to “get back to normal” is for people to cancel or delay Christmas events, the Daily Mail reports. Dr Ghebreyesu continued to say, “an event cancelled is better than a life cancelled. It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve...

“Because I’m vaccinated I’m pretty relaxed,” said Kristen Gallagher while waiting to get tested. “The only reason I’m doing it now is ’cause last night I saw the line and I was terrified.” Another woman said she is already vaccinated and recovered from a breakthrough case, but she was recently exposed to the virus, so she is getting tested. “I’m so scared, so I decided to make an appointment to get tested, just in case,” she said. No long lines have been reported at testing sites in Broward County, but 7News cameras captured a steady flow of drivers pulling into...

Stock futures tumbled Monday and global shares dropped amid a surge in Covid-19 cases and as President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion tax-and-spending package looked dead after Sen. Joe Manchin said he wouldn’t support the plan. Contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 350 points, or 1%, S&P 500 futures declined 1.1% and Nasdaq futures were down 1.23%. Futures came off earlier lows after Moderna (ticker: MRNA) said a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine increased neutralizing antibody levels against the Omicron variant. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 1.385% after falling Friday to 1.401%, the...

The rally was in response to the Alberta government’s move to immediately remove isolation requirements for those who come in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, with isolation rules disappearing even for those who test positive for the virus on Aug. 16, despite surging daily case numbers. Routine testing for those with symptoms of the novel coronavirus will also end by the end of August.... A handful of counter-protesters showed up at the rally, leading to a brief physical confrontation between the two parties.... Chief public health officer Theresa Tam urged people to continue isolating, getting tested for COVID-19...

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said on this week’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show” that Republicans who deny the severity of the riot inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6 was “the biggest threat to our national security and our democracy that we’re facing now.” Capehart said, “Your reaction to statements that were made durning hearings early last week about the January 6 insurrection?” Referencing Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) saying last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that some people inside the Capitol behaved as if they were on “a normal tourist visit,” Capehart said, “I can’t remember...

A Fulton County [GA] Schools employee has tested positive for coronavirus, the district said Monday, and the entire district will close tomorrow.

Chelsea Clinton may be, like her mother, a little hard to pin down as a personality, but three things seem inarguable after reading that email: She has a big heart, she writes an excellent policy paper and she is verbose. The voice you hear there addressing “Mom” and “Dad” — both wonky and sweet, impassioned and didactic, a little self-conscious — is pretty much the same one we hear in her new book for children, “It’s Your World.” It’s clear that she indeed wrote it herself, all 400 or so earnest, methodically compiled pages. The book is meant to help...

It took two weeks for everyone in America to get indignant about the oil spill. Many people suddenly were convinced of the health hazards of chemical dispersants. Dozens of Congressmen became experts on the proper variety of well casing to use when drilling for oil. But when the oil stops gushing and the summer ends, are we going to realize this damage has all been vastly overblown? It doesn't get much attention, but there's been a steady trickle of good news about the aftermath. Yesterday NOAA said it was re-opening one third of the closed Gulf fishing area, where oil...

In Washington, everybody knows about unintended consequences: the outcomes you fail to anticipate when you change the way something works. But there's another phenomenon that works somewhat in reverse: Preregulatory paranoia, or the fear that new rules meant to make the system better will instead produce mayhem and disaster. SNIP SNIP Still, the overheated claims and counterclaims about healthcare reform have produced widespread confusion about what the new legislation will actually do. Here are a few of the most overblown concerns: SNIP SNIP 1) The government will take over one sixth of the economy. That would be alarming if it...

I got to Staples Center some time after the parade of Ringling Bros. elephants and just before a bikini-clad woman who held aloft a sign that said, "Go Vegetarian for the Man in the Mirror." I suppose it goes without saying that not all memorial services draw the same crowd. Speaking of crowds, this one was way smaller than the city had planned for. There were hundreds of people on the street rather than hundreds of thousands, which means that a few million tax dollars were spent to have police officers stand around with their arms folded.... maybe the only...

The online 'computational knowledge engine' calculates answers, unlike Google, which searches for information that already exists.How long does it take to get to Saturn at, say, the speed of light? With Wolfram Alpha, the online "computational knowledge engine" that launched Monday, the answer -- 75 minutes -- can be found in a fraction of a second. Web users can submit customized questions to the service, and Wolfram Alpha will try to work out the answer on the fly. The chance that a healthy 35-year-old woman will contract heart disease in the next 10 years? One in 167. The temperature in...

Congress can enforce its own orders against recalcitrant witnesses without involving the executive branch and without leaving open the possibility of presidential pardon. And a Supreme Court majority would find it hard to object in the face of two entrenched legal principles. First is the inherent power of Congress to require testimony on matters within its legislative oversight jurisdiction. So long as Congress is investigating issues over which it has the power to legislate, it can compel witnesses to appear and respond to questions. That power has been affirmed over and over in prosecutions for contempt.In modern times, this congressional...

Ann Coulter's bigotry exposed once again March 4, 2007 ... Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference before a crowd on Friday, Coulter said, "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I — so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards." "Ann Coulter's use of an anti-gay slur yesterday was un-American and indefensible," Edwards said in a posting on his Web site, www.johnedwards.com.