Free Republic

Dear Job Applicant, It was wholly a pleasure to be asked to look over your writing samples and offer my appraisal of your prospects as a writer of opinion. I am much complimented. And hasten to send you a few notes for future reference: --Offer the reader original, even provocative, thought. Don't settle for the conventional clichés employed by your side of the political spectrum, whatever it may be. Be ideologically unreliable. It's more interesting. For both you and the reader. Think your subject through, don't just react the way you're expected to. Or appeal to the lowest common...

In May 2013, John Rosemond — America's longest running newspaper columnist—received an astonishing order from the Kentucky attorney general: Stop publishing your advice column in the Bluegrass State or face fines and jail. The attorney general and Kentucky's psychologist licensing board believe that John's column, which is syndicated in more than 200 papers nationwide, constitutes the "unlicensed practice of psychology" in Kentucky when it appears in a Kentucky newspaper. Kentucky's crackdown is part of a national surge in the abuse of occupational licensing laws to censor advice. On July 17, 2013, John joined the Institute for Justice to fight back...

Advice giving, especially unsolicited, is tricky. Being on the receiving end can be annoying and make us defensive. But giving advice can be frustrating, as well, particularly when the intended beneficiary of our wisdom makes it clear it isn't welcome—or takes the same recommendations we've been giving for months from someone else. The whole advice issue is typically hardest to navigate with the person we know the best: our spouse or partner. In a series of six studies that followed 100 couples for the first seven years of marriage, researchers at the University of Iowa found that both husbands and...

I'm in the process of interviewing for a job and the application lists references (which I listed) but they want to talk with former employers. NE has a law stating that former employers can talk about former employees (within certain bounds). A few years ago, I had falling out with a former boss where she verbally snapped at me (within ear shot of other workers). In addition, I was having problems with my father's health (terminal cancer) and the closing out of his estate (messy situation). I explained my condition to the HR department and I offered two weeks notices....

Dear Dave, Can you please define “necessities” in today’s world while trying to get out of debt and live on a budget? Matthew Dear Matthew, Whether you’re talking about the world today or 50 years ago, necessities haven’t changed. Necessities are still food, shelter, clothing, transportation and utilities. We’re talking about needs versus wants. The problem is that many people were never taught that there’s a difference between the two—a big difference. Most people have enough food to eat and a decent place to live. Those are necessities. I’m not talking about eating out or having a big, fancy house....

I just took the plunge and purchased a small travel tailer (25 ft.) My wife and I will use it for mostly stationery camping at a lot we own on a lake in Northern VT. We have all of the power and water hook-ups there, and it will be our vacation and weekend home for the summer. The trailer is brand new and has all of the normal, mid range functions: Refrig, TV, stereo, Queen bed, one slider, shower, etc. I am writing to ask other trailer owners what things they would get at the outset to make their lives...

President Obama’s labor-secretary nominee Tom Perez has a long association with CASA of Maryland, a group that serves immigrants and runs day-laborer centers. Perez was on CASA’s board from 1995 to 2002, and while it doesn’t appear he’s had any official ties since then, as a Montgomery County Council member Perez promoted a day-laborer site that was ultimately run by CASA. An example of CASA’s attention to illegal immigrants can be found in a booklet that was updated in 2008. The booklet, which can be viewed on CASA’s website here,

Zurprise, zurprise: Zbig wouldn´t go to war to stop Iran getting nukes. On Morning Joe today, Jimmy Carter´s former national security adviser had some advice for President Obama: tell Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that America will not go to war against Iran. Attacking Iran´s nuclear facilities would surely be an act of war. Yet doing so might well be the only way to prevent the ayatollahs from getting the A-bomb. Unfortunately, neither Joe Scarborough nor anyone else on the panel including daughter Mika asked Brzezinski

Advice for the Young Rhodie by John deWitt One of the more plaintive and persuasive comments to date on NRD came from reader “Dan III”, responding to my post a while ago on asset allocation in Obama’s America. In so many words, Dan III suggested that a post more responsive to the average American’s circumstances would be more useful than the one I had written.More than 90% of the comments I’ve moderated on NRD have been very welcome and I think about all of them – thank you, readers. Since Dan III’s comment, I’ve been thinking about what advice I’d give...

Any of you guys (or ladies) self-employed, and have your own S Corporation? What kind of tax deductions are you allowed to take? I have an accountant, and he's going over all of my deductions, but I'm trying to find more. For example, I pay for my health insurance - and the accountant says that tax deductible. So it stands to reason that my prescription medication (which I pay for out of my own pocket) should be tax deductable too.

Okay, the Coupon Stars have properly aligned again so I can get pretty much any food I want for FREE for the next few weeks. I already have a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka which I traded for in my South Florida Barter King guise and will supplement that with iced coffee in order to stay awake until late at night watching the returns.So what snack food would go good with these drinks? I don't want anything too heavy. Just light and fun to eat. Sushi sounds like a good idea but what else? I am open to suggestions.

The Mitt Romney campaign announced Wednesday it has stood up a Military Advisory Council made up of more than 300 retired generals and admirals who are ready to do battle for the Republican nominee. "I am deeply honored to have the support of so many of our most accomplished military leaders," Romney said in a statement. "Together we will restore our military might and ensure that America can defend and protect our interests, our allies, and our people, both at home and abroad. I will never forget that the greatest responsibility of an American president is in exercising the role...

I'm looking for some advice on trying Indian (like Raj Kuthrapali Indian, not "come to our casinos" Indian) food for the first time.

Let's get it started in here. The Romney team may not have thought of everything. What are some important things you think Mitt should get across? I'll start. First off, we are in enemy territory with these moderators always. So Mitt needs to answer his own questions FIRST, and spend a few seconds at the end of his response to truly slap an answer down to the idiot question actually asked. Mitt needs - NEEDS!- to get the word SOCIALIST or SOCIALISM in there. He doesn't need to call Obama one, but he needs to say something like "controlling and...

In a not-so-subtle rebuke of President Obama’s tendency to offer unsolicited recommendations on how Europeans should handle their debt crises on Sunday evening, Germany’s finance minister suggested that perhaps His Munificence should focus on his own problems before trying to fix everybody else’s. Wolfgang Schaeuble told public broadcaster ZDF in an interview late Sunday that “people are always very quick at giving others advice.”He says: “Mr. Obama should first of all take care of reducing the American deficit, which is higher than in the eurozone.” An unfortunate and embarrassing truth — the EU’s debt-to-GDP ratio is well over eighty percent,...

As far as diet goes, I believe you should adhere to the old adage “everything in moderation” and avoid extreme regimens of all kinds. I don’t know what you think of this counsel, but North Carolina’s position seems to be the following: I just broke the law. Blogger Steven Cooksey found this out the hard way — when the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition ordered him to take down part of his diet-advice website. The 51-year-old resident of Stanley, North Carolina, became passionate about nutrition after a 2009 hospitalization during which he learned he had Type II diabetes and was...

wedish State TV (SVT) has made its own Undercover Mosque as part of the investigative series call Uppdrag. Translated from Swedish by Nicolai Sennels, Sydsvenskan, May 16: "Women advised not to report to the police": With hidden cameras and secret telephone recording equipment, two women went to the country's ten largest mosques to ask for advice regarding polygamy, abuse and sex without consent. Tonight's Uppdrag, broadcast on SVT, documents that the advice of the mosque's representatives are often contradictory to Swedish law. ... Six out of ten mosques advised the woman not to report the beatings to the police. At...

My nine year-old nephew has been diagnosed with Adrenocortical carcinoma. My sister lives near Madison, Wisconsin, and is seeing a doctor there for him. He is on mitotane and probably some other drugs I'm not aware of. Apparently the prognosis is not good, like a one-in-five chance of making it through five years. A friend of mine mentioned the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia; apparently one of the best pediatric cancer specialists works there. My sister is doing everything, and I mean everything. Supplements, massage, Reiki therapy, in addition to everything the doctors recommend. She also has him enrolled in clinical...

Glenn invited people who had lived under communist rule to GBTV tonight. What advice did they have for people here in America?

I am a 52-year-old mother of three children - a 24-year old grad student, a 21-year old college senior, and a 13- year-old 7th grader. I am a public school teacher of Math to 7th graders. I am concerned about the welfare of our country, our Constitution, and the hope (NOT Obama's) for our nation. PLEASE help me to understand what is happening to our country. I am dismayed by the garbage I am hearing and reading. I have been involved in local politics. I could NOT suffer the bullsh*t, so I resigned from the county Republican Executive Committee, after...