Free Republic

Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing coming out of their respective conventions: Almost no one cares about Covid anymore. Infections are running rampant after the Democratic confab in Chicago, with staffers on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, reporters and other convention-goers all stricken — and in at least one case claiming the positive test was “worth it.” Cases also cropped up after the Republican National Convention in July. And yet the single most-animating issue of the 2020 election is an afterthought for the major-party nominees coming out of two of the 2024 campaign’s biggest milestones — even as...

Floods caused by the annual rains have left "a trail of destruction" across Somalia, a United Nations spokesman said, citing inundated homes and farmland as well as the shutdown of health facilities. "According to early estimates by our partners, more than 460,000 people have been impacted, including nearly 219,000 men, women and children who have been displaced due to this (flooding)," Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. At least five people, including three children, have been killed in the flooding, Mohamed Moalim of the Somalia National Disaster Management Agency told The Associated Press.

Half of Californians are not particularly worried about the swine flu, and most people trust that the state has the resources to keep them healthy if an influenza outbreak occurs, according to a recent Field Poll survey released Monday. Despite repeated messages from federal and state officials that the swine flu - a form of influenza Type A, subtype H1N1 - could be a serious public health threat, 49 percent of survey respondents said they were not very concerned about the virus or not concerned at all. Bay Area respondents were especially worry-free - 54 percent said they were not...

The Polanski Case: A Gallic Shrug By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN Published: October 3, 2009 BERLIN — The move by prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington to have the Swiss authorities arrest Roman Polanski in Zurich when he arrived there last weekend for a film festival surprised not only him. OUTRAGED “A youthful error,” the French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, above, said of the director Roman Polanski’s crime. Having fled the United States in 1978, just before his sentencing for sex with a 13-year-old girl, the Oscar-winning film director, a French citizen, lived openly in Paris and traveled around Europe for more than...

President Barack Obama’s rapid race into socialism is creating an escalating tax revolt. With a never-ending stream of stimulus packages and new entitlement programs, the Americans who will be stuck with the bill are shouting a clear message: “Enough!” Many organizations are calling for a Tax Day Tea Party (http://taxdayteaparty.com/) on April 15. To Democrats, “the rich” aren’t paying their “fair share,” but many of the top 20 percent of wage-owners who pay 83 percent of the income taxes are taking to the streets. Yes, Obama is my president, and as Warren Buffett said, “We’re all in the same boat.”...

h/t to FReeper Morgana for this idea. Does anyone here remember "A Day Without Homosexuals"? Of course not, because nobody missed them. The Obamalefties think that they can just take us for granted. Think that we will just continue producing stuff and allowing them to take it and distribute it anyway they like. Let us choose a week and simply stop producing for that week. We need to decide on a week over summer. If you can't afford to take that week off, then simply do what the French do - a "greve de zele" (work slow-down, which is pretty...

Say good-bye to another ma-and-pa store. After almost 80 years, the grocery Michael Dimperio took over for his father in 1968 is ending its run. Dimperio's Market, Hazelwood's most tenacious retailer, will close in mid-January. The would-be robber who fired a bullet into a filing cabinet in the 1980s didn't discourage the Dimperios, nor did the thief who pushed Mr. Dimperio and broke his glasses several years later. It took shoplifters years to chip away at their hearts' work until finally they decided to close. The decision leaves the neighborhood with no full service grocery and could have been avoided...

Back in 1963, when I was a junior in high school, summer jobs were not so easy to come by -- the negative aspect of Baby Boomer demographics. Finally, a friend managed to line me up with a job busing tables at a local Catholic retreat house. I served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, washed dishes, and did my best to keep a low profile. It wasn't much, but the start of my career of gainful employment. A strict rule of silence was enforced then on Catholic retreats. The participants, entirely male, did not speak to each other, and particularly at...

Meet Joe Dirt Stuart K. Hayashi In 2001, comedian David Spade came out with a movie titled "The Adventures of Joe Dirt." It now appears that the film was about Joe Conason, the author of "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" and an editorialist for the liberal-biased Salon.com. In the person of Brad Pitt, you've already Met Joe Black. Now Meet the Real Joe Dirt. His book purports to expose how right-wingers harness the corporate media to brainwash society. Instead of demonstrating such, however, Joe is too busy flinging his Dirt around. In two...

JUNE 24, 13:12 ET Bush, Mineta Say No Amtrak Shutdown By LAURENCE ARNOLD Associated Press Writer AP/STEPHEN. J. CARRERA [21K] WASHINGTON (AP) — With Amtrak on the brink of a nationwide shutdown, a senator said President Bush and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta assured him Monday they will keep the nation's passenger railroad operating. Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said Mineta ``gave me his word'' that the administration will find a way to resolve Amtrak's immediate financial crisis. Torricelli discussed Amtrak with Bush and Mineta on Monday during a visit by the president to New Jersey. AP/Mike Derer [23K] He...