Free Republic

Conservatives on social media are having a field day mocking the Democratic National Committee for featuring a handful of "beyond parody" moments during its leadership vote over the weekend, which critics say underscores that Democrats have "learned absolutely nothing" from their 2024 election losses. **SNIP** Conservatives and critics took to social media over the weekend to highlight what they viewed as the most out of touch speeches and comments from party leaders, including the election of left-wing activist David Hogg as one of its three co-chairs. Hogg is an outspoken gun control advocate and the co-founder of March for Our...

Irene Ryan in character as "Granny" singing a burlesque-style number as "Granny" for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

A bullet failed to silence her, now Malala Yousafzai is lending her voice to the women of Afghanistan. In just a few years since the Taliban retook control of the country, women's rights have been eroded to the point where even singing is banned. ... The speed of change in Afghanistan, if not the brutality, has surprised Malala, who since that near-fatal shooting in 2012 has campaigned for equality. "I never imagined that the rights of women would be compromised so easily," .. "A lot of girls are finding themselves in a very hopeless, depressing situation where they do not...

Approximately 40% of stroke survivors experience aphasia, a difficulty with comprehending or producing spoken or written language caused by a cerebrovascular accident. In half of these cases the language impairment still persists one year post-stroke. Aphasia has wide-ranging effects on the ability to function and quality of life of stroke survivors and easily leads to social isolation. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Helsinki, singing-based group rehabilitation can support communication and speech production of patients and increase social activity even at the chronic phase of stroke. The burden experienced among the family caregivers participating in the...

Policymakers across the world banned choral singing during the COVID-19 pandemic after taking wrongful interpretations of a high-profile outbreak as facts, a new study suggests. The study, set to be published in Public Health, a British journal, revisits what was widely reported as a “super-spreader event” in March 2020 at Skagit County in northwest Washington State. Among 61 Skagit Valley Chorale members who attended the March 10 rehearsal at a local church, 53 were diagnosed with COVID-19 within a few weeks, including two who died. In a report that had since been used by governments across the world to justify...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – When Southern California’s theme parks reopen as early as April, it could be with one very significant and silent difference: no screaming on rides. The California Attractions and Parks Association (CAPA), a trade group which represents theme parks statewide, is backing a plan that would tamp down on shouting on rides, such as rollercoasters, in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus... California’s reopening guidelines calls for businesses to limit activities that can spread the virus, such as singing and shouting. That means that visitors to parks such as Disneyland, Universal Studios, Six...

When Gabriel Rench recounts being arrested in front of city hall in Moscow, Idado, while singing hymns with his church last September, one detail especially continues to irk him. “They literally took my hymn book away from me and proceeded to handcuff me,” Rench, 41, said of the officers, who then led him away to the county jail, where he remained for several hours. Moscow, a town of about 25,000 people approximately 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington, made national news last fall when local police arrested three people and cited five others for attending a “peaceful protest” against the...

Kyle Rittenhouse flashed a hand sign adopted by some white supremacist groups and was “loudly serenaded” with a song reportedly adopted by the far-right group the Proud Boys as the 18-year-old drank at a Wisconsin bar last week, prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday. Kenosha County prosecutors asked a judge to modify the rules Rittenhouse has to follow while he’s free on $2 million bail as he awaits trial on murder and other charges for shooting three men, two of them fatally, with an AR-15-style rifle during chaotic protests Aug. 25.

Friday Silliness ThreadSpecial End of America editionIt’s been a great 250 years or so. Americas have sent men to the moon and probes to the far reaches of the Solar System. At the smallest scale American alchemy created new transuranic elements and some awesome bombs! Our culture dominates the landscape worldwide! American achievement is simply too vast to list even a fraction of all the great things Americans have done. Sadly if this stolen election succeeds then we all know they will steal the Senate election in Georgia.They have to become the law in order to continue to stay above...

Democrat-dominated Santa Clara County, California, used spies to infiltrate North Valley Baptist Church and fined the church $10,000 when they caught worshipers singing during indoor religious services. .... the church was fined $5,000 for holding a religious service on Sunday morning and another $5,000 when the spies caught the Christians praying again on Sunday evening. Various left-wing protests have taken place in the county. And while it's not clear if the county sent spies in to also "monitor" the lefties (highly doubtful), angry protesters have sung, chanted, shouted, and spittled as they express their hatred for the police and contempt...

Early Saturday morning, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking a preliminary injunction on behalf of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry against Governor Gavin Newsom’s unconstitutional COVID-19 orders prohibiting all indoor worship services, including home Bible studies and fellowship, while encouraging mass gatherings of protestors throughout the state. The lawsuit challenges both the total ban on in-person worship (including in private homes) in the counties on the “County Monitoring List,” and the ban on singing and chanting in the remaining counties. In addition to in-person worship at Harvest Rock Church, the church also has many “Life...

Golden State Christians have been ordered by California's governor to stop singing in church. This is a direct assault on the First Amendment, as I warned folks about in my new book, "Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left From Killing a Nation." "Californians are still free to attend their house of worship. But they’re forbidden from singing or chanting," read the lead paragraph in a story published by the Sacramento Bee. The new guidance for places of worship was issued on July 1. "Discontinue singing (in rehearsals, services, etc.), chanting, and other practices and performances where there is increased...

The passing of 74-year-old death row inmate Richard Stitely due to COVID-19 hit Gov Gavin Newsom (D-Calif) hard this week. "I could have saved him," the teary-eyed Governor lamented. "Normally, death row prisoners live for decades. Poor Richard's untimely demise after only ten years was a sad twist of fate. If only I had released him like I have released so many others—more than 3,000 I think—to spare them from the coronavirus he could right now be walking the streets and doing the things he loved when he was alive and a free man." "Maybe I shouldn't be so glum,"...

California Governor Gavin Newsom (Dem.) has been playing politics with the Wuhan virus. When he first ordered a short lockdown to “flatten the curve,” Californians played along despite the economic destruction because the virus was new, and the predictions were scary. They played along when the lockdown didn’t stop. They played along when Newsom locked the elderly up in nursing homes to die. They played along when Newsom boldly quashed constitutional rights. And then, suddenly, Newsom announced that mass riots were okay – and, by the way, if you’re not rioting, you’re still locked up. Having been lied to and...

Californians are still free to attend their house of worship. But they’re forbidden from singing or chanting. Updated COVID-19 guidelines issued Wednesday by the state Department of Public Health require churches and other houses of worship to “discontinue singing and chanting activities.” In previously allowing religious organizations to reopen in late May, the state merely said these institutions should “strongly consider discontinuing singing, group recitation, and other practices and performances.” Health agencies such as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say shouting or singing can spread the coronavirus just as easily as coughing or sneezing. California’s health department...

California’s Christian-hating governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has now decreed that Christians will no longer be allowed to sing hymns of praise in church because OMG CORONAVIRUS! Newsom has directed his goose-stepping Department of Public Health to silence churches under the department’s newest set of draconian coronavirus rules. According to the CA DPH, churches are required to “discontinue singing and chanting activities,” the Sacramento Bee reported. This is an update to previous language that only suggested that churches should “strongly consider discontinuing singing, group recitation, and other practices and performances.” Latest: Report: Schiff’s Staff Knew In February About Russian Bounties...

"The State of California has banned singing in any indoor religious services, even with masks on, under new guidelines issued by the Department of Public Health to control the spread of the coronavirus. The new guidelines state (emphasis added): Even with adherence to physical distancing, convening in a congregational setting of multiple different households to practice a personal faith carries a relatively higher risk for widespread transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and may result in increased rates of infection, hospitalization, and death, especially among more vulnerable populations. In particular, activities such as singing and chanting negate the risk- reduction achieved...

Californians are still free to attend their house of worship. But they’re forbidden from singing or chanting.Updated COVID-19 guidelines issued Wednesday by the state Department of Public Health require churches and other houses of worship to “discontinue singing and chanting activities.”In previously allowing religious organizations to reopen in late May, the state merely said these institutions should “strongly consider discontinuing singing, group recitation, and other practices and performances.”  Health agencies such as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say shouting or singing can spread the coronavirus just as easily as coughing or sneezing.California’s health department agrees, and as Gov. Gavin Newsom begins...

There’s no better way to get a window into the complicated world of a musician like Scott Stapp than by listening to their music. Scott Stapp’s latest album, The Space Between the Shadows, which dropped back in July, is driven by the song “Purpose for Pain.” The standout single mines the tumultuous period the singer endured since his last record in 2013 for inspiration. “Purpose for Pain” clearly carries a potent message, with a chorus that hits with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer: There’s gotta be more / Cause this life is insane / Gotta turn this around /...

Songs of musical rodents may offer insights into human conversationIn the understory of Central American cloud forests, musical mice trill songs to one another. Now a study of the charismatic creatures reveals how their brains orchestrate these rapid-fire duets. The results, published in the March 1 Science, show that the brains of singing mice split up the musical work. One brain system directs the patterns of notes that make up songs, while another coordinates duets with another mouse, which are carried out with split-second precision. The study suggests that “a quirky animal from the cloud forest of Costa Rica could...