Free Republic

The Heritage Foundation conducted a panel discussion webinar on February 1 concerning the disfavoring of houses of worship in applying restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Katheryn Jean Lopez, Editor-at-Large of National Review, moderated the discussion, which included Garry Leist, Pastor of Calvary Chapel, Dayton, Nevada, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Vice-President of Agudath Israel of America, and Matt Sharp, State and Government Relations Director of the Alliance Defending Freedom. Emilie Kao of the Heritage Foundation, who is also an IRD board member, introduced the panel by noting the victory for religious liberty won at the Supreme Court last November...

The Biden administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions, including on Florida, fearful that coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard-fought progress on the pandemic.Outbreaks of the new variants ... have lent urgency to a review of potential travel restrictions within the United States, one federal official said.

Here it is – The Bill to Destroy Gun Ownership Blog/Regulation Posted Jan 30, 2021 by Martin Armstrong Spread the love Firearms BILLS-117hr127ih Here we have it. They are going after EVERYONE who has a gun or ammunition. They are deeply concerned about a revolution and they want to know every person who has a gun or ammunition. The object of this bill will be to identify every person who has a gun. They will be able to revoke a license and confiscate the gun under rules to be created by the Attorney General. Biden swore he would end the...

After Joe Biden's inauguration, he ordered everyone on federal lands to wear a mask. That night, he and his family posed for pictures at the Lincoln Memorial -- none of them wearing a mask. California Governor Gavin Newsom told Californians it's "essential" to avoid "mixing with people outside of your household." Then he had dinner with lots of people outside his household, without masks. You can see the mask-less governor and the Biden family in my new video. Newsom did apologize for attending "a friend's birthday party." Maybe you heard about that. But you might not know that the restaurant...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday teased a loosening of coronavirus restrictions coming soon for parts of the Empire State — but said the return of indoor dining for hard-hit New York City restaurants isn’t in the cards just yet. “I think we’re at a new place now, and we can start to adjust that valve and start to open up more economic activity and reduce some of the restrictions,” said Cuomo during a press briefing at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo.

What we’re witnessing is the dangerous normalization of a dystopian concept of “freedom” in which government dominates your life “for your own good.”When the Australian state of Victoria issued a 48-hour warning on New Year’s Eve that its border with the neighboring state of New South Wales would be indefinitely closed, it likely secured the award for the most egregious measure by a western government to curb COVID-19. The state government instructed residents to return home by 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 1. Those who did not arrive at the border by the midnight curfew were turned away by police. Thousands...

Atilis Gym co-owner Ian Smith has made a name for himself for standing up to New Jersey’s COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, despite Governor Phil Murphy’s repeated attempts to shut him down through citations, fines, arrests, having their business license stripped, and their doors locked and barricaded. This week, Murphy escalated the fight. “As of this morning, without warning, and without permission, and in the middle of litigation, Governor Murphy took it upon himself to empty our bank account entirely, to the tune of $165,000,” explained Smith on a video posted to social media. He said it still wouldn’t stop him....

And no talking in supermarkets.. The British government has reportedly discussed upping COVID restrictions even further by only allowing people to leave their homes once per week. Claiming that the National Health service is at breaking point, the government is said to be considering implementing stricter rules, including compulsory mask-wearing outdoors, and banning so called ‘extended bubbles’, where people are allowed to meet one person from another household. Most chilling, however, is the revelation that cabinet ministers have privately debated preventing people from talking to each other in the street and in supermarkets, and even preventing people from leaving home...

LONDON (AP) — The British government on Wednesday extended its toughest coronavirus restrictions to three-quarters of England’s population, saying a fast-spreading new variant of the virus has reached most of the country. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government’s top infection-warning level, Tier 4, would be expanded beyond London and the southeast to cover large swaths of central, northern and southwest England. Under Tier 4, people are advised to stay home, mixing of households is prohibited, nonessential shops are shut and restaurants and bars can only offer takeout.

This can't be a mistake. No one can be this dumb. No one can be this clueless. Not even Democrats. Not even moronic Democratic governors. Not even nanny-state government bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci just asked Americans to cancel Christmas. He said, "...it's just one of those things you're going to have to accept." He reported he would not even allow his own three daughters to come home for Christmas this year. He wants all Americans to "painfully" isolate. He says he and his wife will be spending the holiday alone. I have a message for Dr Fauci: "First,...

With the holidays approaching, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has announced new efforts to combat the spread of Covid. The state’s health department issued an advisory Thursday urging residents to limit holiday gatherings to no more than ten people, down from 25. In addition, Hogan issued an emergency order banning non-essential travel in Maryland and establishing new requirements for those who do cross the state’s borders. Under the terms of the order, anyone traveling to Maryland from another state must self-quarantine for ten days or get a negative Covid test. (This requirement does not apply if traveling from DC, Virginia, Delaware,...

Downing Street is reportedly considering a third lockdown in England after Christmas, after more regions were added into Tier 3, putting two-thirds of the country under the harshest of coronavirus restrictions. Wales has announced a third lockdown, while Northern Ireland goes into shutdown the day after Christmas, Boxing Day.

Human rights group warns that majority of world’s countries have implemented “disproportionate, illegal, indefinite or unnecessary” restrictions.. An international human rights group has warned that the majority of nations across the globe have implemented COVID related restrictions that have severely eroded the liberties of their citizens. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), based in Sweden, reports that 61 per cent of countries have used restrictions “that were concerning from a democracy and human rights perspective.” ‘These [restrictions] violated democratic standards because they were either disproportionate, illegal, indefinite or unnecessary in relation to the health threat,” the group...

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer believes the state’s stricter COVID-19 rules, which were extended into next week, are successfully slowing the spread of the virus.

A California Superior Court judge issued an injunction against Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s planned COVID-19 restrictions on a Catholic priest and his parishes earlier this week, citing the recent Supreme Court decision in favor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Judge Gregory Pulskamp slapped down Newsom’s mandates on Thursday in a case brought against state, local, and municipal officials by the Thomas More Society on behalf of Father Trevor Burfitt and his several churches. The complaint, which can be read here, argued that Newsom and those under his authority were discriminating against religious institutions in the name of...

Firefighters in Silicon Valley were sent out to enforce statewide business restrictions as the state faced a Thanksgiving shadowed by an out-of-control coronavirus surge and health officials begged people to avoid large family gatherings that could become “superspreader” events. Black Friday sales that typically draw enormous crowds also are in the spotlight. The holiday season leading into Christmas can account for a large chunk of store profits. But stores must follow COVID-19 safety orders such as requiring employees and customers to wear masks and observe social distancing, health officers warned. Compliance officers were to fan out throughout the county starting...

Welcome to the new normal. The head of the World Health Organization has suggested that coronavirus restrictions will continue even after a vaccine has been made widely available. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the comments on Twitter after news broke of several new vaccines said to be effective in fighting COVID-19 coming closer to fruition. “Since the beginning of the #COVID19 pandemic, we knew that a vaccine would be essential for bringing the pandemic under control. But it’s important to emphasise that a vaccine will complement the other tools we have, not replace them,” said Ghebreyesus. He went on to add...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) warned on Sunday that certain areas of New York City are heading toward tighter coronavirus restrictions, including the most restrictive “red zone” which prohibits all gatherings deemed “non-essential.” The Democrat governor stated some areas, namely Staten Island, Long Island, and parts of Manhattan, are “in the warning track” and could soon face additional restrictions due to concerns over rising infection rates and hospital capacity.

With the state and country’s COVID-19 surge worsening, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine on Tuesday said four new “targeted and strategic” state orders will begin Friday in an attempt to lower the number of new cases and prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed. The four new orders are: ● Masks must be worn whenever a person is away from home. That includes outdoors if a person cannot be socially distant — 6 feet away — from other people. But the order applies in every situation indoors, whether a person can stay socially distant or not, and...

In announcing new statewide restrictions aimed at reducing the spike in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Jay Inslee on Sunday urged people not to hoard “supplies.” “Buying up everything really hurts everybody,” Inslee said, “and there’s no necessity of it right now.” But while the man didn’t specifically call out toilet paper, the toilet paper sure did call to shoppers. At some Seattle stores on Sunday, in a throwback to earlier days of the pandemic, people were already buying up stacks of bathroom tissue, which seems to turn to spun gold when things look grim. Costco ran out of the stuff over...