Free Republic

While layoffs were near record lows in July, according to the Labor Department, headline-making cuts at some of the biggest companies — like Apple, Best Buy, Ford and Walmart in the last few weeks — might make you question the stability of your own job. Half of employers say they already have reduced overall headcount or have a plan in place to do so, according to PwC’s latest pulse survey of 722 U.S. executives in August. There’s not a ton you can do to keep your job from being eliminated, but there are a few ways to make the transition...

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life—money, power, jobs, university admission—should be distributed according to skill and effort. The most common metaphor is the ‘even playing field’ upon which players can rise to the position that fits their merit. Conceptually and morally, meritocracy is presented as the opposite of systems such as hereditary aristocracy, in which one’s social position is determined by the lottery of birth. Under meritocracy, wealth and advantage are merit’s rightful compensation, not the fortuitous windfall of external events. Most people don’t...

An Irishman's first drink with his son While reading an article last night about fathers and sons, memories came flooding back to the time I took me son out for his first pint. Off we went to our local pub only two blocks from the cottage. I got him a Guinness. He didn't like it, so I drank it. Then I got him a Kilkenny's, he didn't like that either, so I drank it. Finally, I thought he might like some Harp Lager? He didn't. I drank it. I thought maybe he'd like whisky better than beer so we tried...

Heather Friesen, 26, had a GoPro strapped to her head as she fell down the sheer rocks at the Ka’au Crater Trail, cheating death — but suffering a collapsed lung, 10 broken ribs and a fractured scapula. Saying that time slowed down as she fell, she said her “friends were freaking out that I was going to die” but she knew she would make it. She added, “I found out there had been others before me who fell from the same spot and died, and I know that God saved my life that day.”

The Colts' odds of winning the Super Bowl this season plummeted at sportsbooks after quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement on Saturday night. PointsBet moved Indianapolis's Super Bowl odds from 12/1 to 50/1, while the Colts' win total shifted from 10 to six. Additionally, PointsBet moved the Colts from favorites to win the AFC South to the worst odds to finish first in the division. The Colts' +600 division odds are behind the Texans at +140, Jaguars at +225 and Titans at +325.

Air France Flight 66 suffered an uncontained engine failure in September of 2017. The engine failure occurred while the aircraft was flying in the proximity of Greenland. Some of the missing engine parts are very important for the investigation into the incident. Accordingly, at this time, the hunt continues for the missing Air France A380 engine fragments in Greenland. As CNN reported, “the entire front part of the engine, including the large fan and engine’s casing, completely sheared away.” the French investigation authority BEA has stated that “Quite early in the investigation, it was established that the recovery of the...

NASHUA — The mysterious New Hampshire woman claiming to have won the $560 million Powerball ticket sold last month is losing about $14,000 a day in interest, according to the attorney who is trying to fast-track a court hearing in the case. The woman has not yet submitted her winning ticket to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission in the hopes that a Hillsborough County Superior Court judge will allow her identity to remain a secret — even though she already signed her name on the winning ticket purchased at Reed’s Ferry Market in Merrimack. New Hampshire Lottery Commission rules and...

On Tuesday night against the Cubs, Piscotty endured the worst trip around the base paths probably ever. It started with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Piscotty was hit on the right elbow by a Jake Arrieta pitch.

Houston prosecutors dropped all charges against Planned Parenthood whistleblower David Daleiden and his partner on Tuesday. Daleiden was the force behind a series of undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood executives conspiring to traffic body parts harvested from aborted babies.

To thwart a bear attack, make yourself look bigger and scarier.This is how you escape from a bear attack. Ralph Perrson was walking with his wife and dog in the woods when he noticed his dog was barking differently, the Swedish outlet The Local reported. Suddenly a large Eurasian brown bear ran out of the woods and charged at him.Fortunately for Perrson, he knew bears are much more scared of us than we are of them. Standing his ground, he raised his arms and let out a primal yell. The very startled bear spun right around and ran back into...

Andrew Luck’s legend is growing. Sure, there’s buzz about how he has thrown for more yards in his first three seasons than anyone in NFL history. Or the fact he’s led the Indianapolis Colts to the playoffs in each of his NFL seasons, after clinching a spot this year with Sunday’s win. But among NFL players, the gossip around Luck concerns a peculiar brand of on-field chatter so confusing and brilliant that no one knows quite what to make of it. “In all the years I’ve played football I have never heard anything like it,” said Washington Redskins linebacker Ryan...

Reacting to the American people’s decision to grant President Barack Obama another four years in the White House, Sean Hannity, during his syndicated radio show on Wednesday, warned Americans: “You get the government you deserve.” The conservative thought leader also urged his audience to stop moping and carry on the fight for conservative ideas and principles in an impassioned monologue. “We lost a tough election,” he said. “And it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time. But the country will come calling, at some point, for conservatism” either on the issue of national security or economic...

Horse racing was dealt a devastating blow on Friday morning. Trainer Doug O'Neill confirmed that his horse, I'll Have Another, won't run in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday afternoon. O'Neill confirmed that news on The Dan Patrick Show. O'Neill cited injury as the reason the horse won't run in the race. "It's his left front leg," O'Neill told the show. "This morning, he looked perfect. I took him and did a little something with him and after training, the swelling came back." O'Neill also said that the horse looked like it was suffering from tendinitis. I'll Have Another was looking...

As he approaches the task of uniting the Republican party ahead of his all but official general election campaign, Mitt Romney will benefit from the same reality that's worked to his favor the entire race -- the composition of the Republican field. Specifically, Romney is fortunate that he had to beat out Rick Santorum to claim the nomination rather than Sarah Palin. When Romney decided to seek the presidency for the second time, his moderate to liberal record in Massachusetts was bound to trigger a challenge from the right and set up a showdown, framed in shorthand, as the establishment...

It wouldn’t matter whether it was at the gambling mecca of Vegas, or, as in the case of Behar Merlaku, at a little-known casino in the tiny Austrian town of Bregenz – if the bells and lights on the slot machine I’m on start ringing and flashing, telling me I’ve won $57 million, then of course I’ll be planning my retirement. But when Swiss national Merlaku went to claim his jackpot, owners of the casino simply said there’d been a “software error” and that the 26-year-old was therefore not entitled to the big money prize. Instead they offered him $100...

By now, this won't be a surprise to anyone: Baylor's Robert Griffin III is going to win the Heisman Trophy. By our reckoning, he's going to get approximately 2000 points - 71% of a perfect unanimous #1 vote. (This year, 2781 points is perfect.) That total would rank Griffin among the top 15 all-time biggest winners of the Heisman Trophy - roughly on par with Tim Tebow (70.5%) and Doug Flutie (71.1%).

In this second update, we're up to 141 ballots - with 359 first-second-third votes on those ballots. For the tenth year in a row, we're going to attempt to project the outcome of the greatest individual award in sports, the Heisman Trophy. We've been right nine out of nine years.

Gov. Rick Perry's presidential bid would thrust the Texas economy and all of its glorious complications into the national media spotlight. The record is gloriously complicated, indeed. From the right, you should expect to hear that Texas accounted for a third of national job creation between May 2010 and 2011; that more Fortune 500 companies call Texas home than any other state; and that Texas consistently wins every "top state for business" award out there. From the left, you should expect to hear about how the state has one of the country's worst records for children with health insurance, teen...

Jul 20, 2011 — Will the Texas governor elbow his way into the crowded presidential race? Longtime Perry watcher Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune talks about why he thinks Perry will run and what kind of candidate he'd be. [snip] We spoke with the Texas Tribune's Evan Smith about the man he has followed since the early 1990s. A former editor of Texas Monthly magazine, Smith says he's convinced Perry will make a run at the White House, and tells us why other Republican hopefuls should be worried.

U.S. forces finally found al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden not in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan's border, but in a million-dollar compound in an upscale suburb of Pakistan's capital, with his youngest wife, U.S. officials said early on Monday. They were led to the fortress-like three-story building after more than four years tracking one of bin Laden's most trusted couriers, whom U.S. officials said was identified by men captured after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. "Detainees also identified this man as one of the few al Qaeda couriers trusted by bin Laden. They indicated he might be living with...