Free Republic

For four years now, either as a physical virus or as a looming threat, the COVID-causing pathogen SARS-CoV-2 has been the elephant in every room—sometimes confronted and sometimes ignored but always present. While once we dreamed of eradicating COVID, now much of society has resigned itself to SARS-CoV-2’s constant presence—a surrender that would once have been unthinkable. Worldwide, there were more than 11,000 reported deaths from COVID between mid-December 2023 and mid-January 2024, and more than half of those deaths occurred in the U.S. In that same time frame, nearly one million cases were reported to the World Health Organization...

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) peddled a story to Politico of how suddenly she came face to face with rampant inflation when she was recently grocery shopping and says she put back a package of bacon when she saw the price was $9.99 per pound.

Posh dinners at a cost of €490 euros per head as rest of Paris struggles under lockdown. Even as Parisians continue to struggle under lockdown, members of the French elite, potentially including government ministers, have been caught attending rulebreaking secret restaurants in the French capital. French TV channel M6 aired secretly recorded footage of clandestine dinners taking place at an “underground restaurant located in a beautiful part” of Paris. The clip shows guests at the restaurant without masks openly kissing each other and violating social distancing rules. There also appears to be no restrictions on the number of guests allowed....

Today Project Veritas released a second investigation exposing more Obamacare navigators counseling applicants to lie and cheat the health care system by erroneously reporting income status, health history, and more. Critics said the first video was an isolated incident so we decided to visit with even more navigators funded by your American tax dollars. What we found was disturbing and showed a clear pattern of fraud through the Obamacare navigator program. Obamacare navigators counseling undercover journalists saying, To get a lower premium, I wouldn't include it ... that's my money." "Don't put it on there." "You don't have to claim...

As both major parties gear up for the big push toward November's midterm balloting, accusations are flying in many states and districts that one party or the other is recruiting phony candidates so as to distort voter turnout. The idea, most of the accusers allege, is to pick off favored opposition candidates by filling their primary slates with candidates who either poach from their voter base or sow confusion on the ballot, thereby producing a weaker nominee to run against in the general election. Last month, for example, Democrats cried foul over the outcome of the South Carolina primary vote,...

H1N1 flu is running rampant throughout the U.S., and the country will have received only 25 percent of the vaccine that was expected by the end of October, Sen. Joe Lieberman told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday. The grim news was the focus of a special hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, at which three Cabinet secretaries were called to address the panel: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. As of last week, there were more than 5,000 cases of flu reported, compared to 7...

MBTA officials say rampant absenteeism is hurting bus and subway service, discouraging riders, and eating away at the agency's finances by forcing it to pay overtime. ...about 35 percent of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's roughly 6,000 employees were absent for 11 or more days in 2004, and 16 percent were absent 26 or more days. Khalida Smalls, coordinator for the watchdog group called the T Riders Union, said yesterday that excessive absenteeism directly affects passengers. ''People stand at their bus stop at 4:45 waiting for a bus that doesn't show up," ...

Could all problems cause move by US to take aggressive action. Could problems justify such moves? Maybe.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man is trying to get rid of his pennies - all 1 million of them. Ron England bet his brother 30 years ago that he could save a million pennies in exchange for a dinner in Paris. And he did, eventually stacking up 20,000 rolls that fill 13 boxes in his garage. Now that he's moving, England wants to cash in the $10,000 in coppers, which weigh 3.6 tons, but is having a tough time finding someone who will take them without a price. ``I've been working seriously for the past two weeks to get...

Sexless marriages 'rampant' in Asia November 14 2002 at 11:33AM Singapore - Sex education in Asia is hobbled by social, religious, and cultural barriers, with even university-educated couples not consumating their marriages because they don't know how, experts say. There are also couples who believe a woman can become pregnant from mere kissing and cuddling, the experts attending an international congress on sexuality told a news briefing on Thursday. The lack of sex understanding in Asia runs so deep, they want a regional strategy to address the problems. "In the Asian context, there are more myths and misconceptions surrounding sexuality,...