Free Republic

Daniel Andrews would wield unprecedented power to declare pandemics and enforce emergency laws under legislation set to replace Victoria’s controversial state of emergency framework. Under legislation to go before parliament as early as Tuesday, the Premier would have the power to make a pandemic declaration following consultation with the chief health officer, and extend it in three-month blocks for as long as he considered it necessary. The state’s chief health officer would be stripped of the ability to make special orders, with that power to be transferred to the health minister. It would give the government virtually unlimited capacity to...

Dan Andrews could be given unprecedented power to shut down Victoria at will during a pandemic under sweeping proposed laws. Revised State of Emergency legislation would strip out independent health advice from the decision-making process during pandemics. And instead, the new laws would hand all control over to politicians without the need for doctors to sign off the public health orders. Even if there were no cases in Victoria, the premier would be able to shut down businesses, restrict movement, ban public gatherings, and enact quarantine. The new pandemic powers would last for blocks of 90 days at a time,...

EBay Inc., the online auction company with 180 million buyers around the world, earned $34 million of profit in Florida in 2014, according to state auditors. At Florida’s official corporate income tax rate of 5.5 percent, eBay should have paid more than $1.8 million in state taxes -- enough money to hire 40 new teachers. But records show eBay actually paid $18,810 -- not even enough to hire one. It’s not an isolated example. Auditors say Sanofi Pasteur Inc., one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, earned an estimated $55 million of profits in Florida between 2008 and 2013 --...

A young Instagram influencer has whinged that learning about World War 2 harms millennials’ mental health. Freddie Bentley, 22, said he thought the schools’ curriculum on the devastating conflict should be cut back because it was “so intense”. Bentley, who appeared on The Circle, told Good Morning Britain today: “It was a hard situation, World War 2, I don't want anyone to think I'm being disrespectful.” He added: “I remember learning it as a child thinking ‘Oh my God it's so intense’.” He thought that any mental health issues a youngster may have could be worsened by learning about the...

Cheer up, American millennials! I mean, seriously, CHEER THE **** UP! Oh, I know you’ve had a rough week ever since Donald Trump won the election. But it’s time to get a grip. STOP crying. STOP taking personal days off work to ‘process’ what happened. STOP huddling with your equally distraught buddies in Starbucks over your Venti Iced White Chocolate Mocha. STOP howling away on social media about how unfair life is and how it’s the end of the planet as we know it. STOP updating the exact number Hillary won the popular vote by, because it doesn’t bloody matter....

The iconic writer reveals the shape of things to come, with 45 tips for survival and a matching glossary of the new words you'll need to talk about your messed-up future. 1) It's going to get worse No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop. 2) The future isn't going to feel futuristic .... (continued)

Brig. General Janis Karpinski sets an appalling example for no one to follow. She commanded Abu Gahraib prison in Iraq and awful things happened on her watch. This, in and of itself, didn't make her an absolute failure. It was how she responded, that made her an unrestricted loser. The time for Janis Karpinski to protect her career was before the abuses took place. She ran the prison, she should have controlled, observed and documented everything that General Fast and General Sanchez did inside the prison. Instead, she stood aside and was not even on site when many of the...

The writing's on the wall - and it's not very polite, reports Charlotte Edwardes in Chamonix. In this pretty ski resort that hugs the foot of Mont Blanc, an ugly Anglo-French conflict is brewing. Local residents are aggrieved at what they call l'invasion anglaise - an influx of Britons buying apartments, setting up businesses and acting as if they own the place - and they are fighting back. Until a few days days ago, the spray-painted insult "Putain les Anglais" (F--- the English) could be read on a wall. "English go home" is sprayed on car bonnets and walls of...