Free Republic

In one of this year's most intense international competitions, the United States has come out as best in the world — and this time, we're not talking about soccer. This week, the top-ranked math students from high schools around the country went head-to-head with competitors from more than 100 countries at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And, for the first time in more than two decades, they won. Po-Shen Loh, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and head coach for Team USA, says the competition is held over the course of two days. Students work on three...

Full title--- America's favorite fast food chain is Chick-fil-a while McDonald's is at the bottom of the heap in new survey The annual American Consumer Satisfaction index polled 70,000 people for their opinions on various consumer offerings, including fast food. In its first year on the index, the Southern-born, Christian-run sandwich chain debuted at the top.

Chick-fil-A is America's favorite restaurant. American Customer Satisfaction Index’s 2015 Restaurant Survey named Chick-fil-A the most-loved restaurant in America. The company scored an 86 out of a possible 100 points in customer satisfaction, beating Chipotle and Panera Bread. Chick-fil-A's secret? Having the perfect blend of great food and excellent customer service. Fast casual companies like Chick-fil-A are successful because they, "typically offer better ingredients, freshness, and more developed décor," according to the report. Chick-fil-A not only beat all other chains in customer satisfaction, but it also took ACSI's top rating in dining experience as well. The criteria evaluated for this...

New study shows where we drink the most, and who’s doing it. A new study has been released that tells us a lot about our nation’s drinking habits. Which states drink a lot? Which house the most teetotalers? Where do you fall? See below:

50. Florida When putting together a list such as this, there can be some temptation to defy popular expectations, and go against the grain. However, Florida’s awfulness resume is so staggeringly impressive that it couldn’t go any other way. You were born for this. Embrace it. 49. Delaware Dogfish Head, one of the most enduring jokes from Wayne’s World, and… that about covers it. Even people from Delaware don’t really fight back all that hard when you make fun of Delaware. 48. Ohio Getting LeBron back only further cemented its position as the Florida of the North.

The 50 Sexiest in TV News 2015 We spend a lot of time here at Mediaite watching national news on TV. So, as we approach summer 2015, we thought now would be the perfect time to share our list of the 50 Sexiest in national TV News. While this is certainly a list of physically beautiful people, remember, being sexy isn’t only about looks. It’s also about how they cover the news and in many cases, having something to say and not being afraid to say it. Whether you agree with them or not, love them hate them (or maybe...

Here are 200 of the highest-paid chief executives in American business. The list comes from the Equilar 200 Highest-Paid CEO Rankings, which lists the compensation of the chief executives of 200 public companies with a market capitalization of at least $1 billion, that filed proxies by April 30.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Emma and Noah were the most popular baby names in 2014. Among girls, Emma was followed by Olivia, Sophia, Isabella and Ava, according to the list released Friday by the Social Security Administration. For boys, Noah was followed by Liam, Mason, Jacob and William.

With Ted Cruz announcing and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio soon to follow, it’s time to start handicapping the horses and making enemies. No point in wasting time on the Democratic field. There is none. The only thing that can stop Hillary Clinton is an act of God, and he seems otherwise occupied. As does Elizabeth Warren, the only Democrat who could conceivably defeat her. On to the GOP. First Tier: 1. Marco Rubio. Trails badly in current polls, ranking seventh at 5 percent, but high upside potential. Assets: Foreign policy looms uncharacteristically large in the current cycle, and Rubio...

Newsmax is out with our 2015 list of the 50 top conservative blogs. The Internet now allows anyone who cares to invest the time and trouble to become a political commentator with, potentially, many times the readership of the most long-established syndicated columnists. The media elite, from the Big Three Networks to the local newspaper, have suffered a collapse in influence and a hemorrhage of revenues as Americans simply click on their favorite bookmarks for informed opinions about the events around them. ....snip.... 5. Free Republic - “Working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud...

The San Francisco metropolitan area has the highest percentage of the adult population who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) of any of the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, followed by Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas. Variation in the percentage who identify as LGBT across the largest metro areas is relatively narrow, with San Francisco's percentage just 2.6 percentage points higher than the national average of 3.6%, and the lowest-ranked metro area -- Birmingham, Alabama -- one point below the national average. The top 10 includes metro areas from every region of the country except the Midwest. Given...

For more than a decade Hollywood lied to the American people in order to justify a string of critical and box office flops aimed at undermining our troops and then-President George W. Bush’s efforts in the ongoing War on Terror. Clint Eastwood’s pro-War On Terror masterpiece “American Sniper” has not only grossed more than all of those films combined, over the weekend it out-grossed every other film released in 2014.

Scott Walker and Jeb Bush head a crowded field of prospective Republican presidential candidates in the latest national poll released Thursday. Walker, the Wisconsin governor, polls at 18 percent, and Bush, the former Florida governor, is at 16 percent. The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, has New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 8 percent each; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 7 percent; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 6 percent each; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 5 percent; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum at 2 percent; and South Carolina Sen....

Currently, American Sniper ranks as Warner Bros’ fifth-highest-grossing film in domestic box office ever. It sits behind only The Dark Knight ($533.3M), The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1M), Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($381M) and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone ($317M). Warner produced Sniper with Village Roadshow. American Sniper is the seventh Warners release to cross $300M domestically, and one of only 50 films to ever pass the milestone.

According to New Mexico 2013 state population estimates, 46.4% of New Mexicans were Hispanic, and 41.3 % were White, so why do Hispanic women account for the majority of abortions in the state? Hispanics in New Mexico In New Mexico, reporting of legal induced abortion became law in 1977, and 1978 was the first full year of reporting. The number of abortions reported in New Mexico in 2013 was 3,408. This is an 8.7% increase from the 2012 number. In 2013, 67.6% of abortions in New Mexico were to women who were less than nine weeks pregnant and 86.0% of...

Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper's "American Sniper" is now the war movie to top all war movies. At the domestic box office, the movie -- a dramatic retelling of real-life sniper Chris Kyle's four tours of duty in Iraq -- has made almost $250 million. That's enough to pass "Saving Private Ryan," which was previously the country's highest-grossing war movie.

As February begins, it is time again to look at the rankings of conservative websites. Using Alexa's web analytics and monitoring a suite of over 100 sites, here are the top 40 conservative websites for February 2015 based on their U.S. rankings.

1-   Ted Cruz2-   Allen West3-   Ben Carson4-   Rick Perry5-   Marco Rubio6-   Mike Pence7-   Michele Bachmann8-   Scott Walker9-   Bobby Jindal10- Rand Paul (if I have to) What say you?

The most heavily armed county in the US is (drum roll, please) – Faribanks North Star Borough, Alaska. Second place goes to Tooele County, Utah and third is Nez Perce County, Arizona. City-Data.com compiled the list (We should note there’s no source posted for the city-data list) and Reddit user Ramsesses_Deux created the map. Texas, one of the most gun friendly states in America, is surprisingly not one of the top 10 most armed counties. The Lone Star State’s first entry is Harris County at no. 73. 1. Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK, pop. 82,840: 59.1% 2. Tooele County, UT...

The Hollywood Reporter calls it a “shocker” that a patriotic movie by one of the best directors working today, about an American hero who kills jihadists, is really, really popular. To me, that sounds like a formula for success, but Hollywood still thinks tender stories about gay males coming of age are what the public demands, along with cartoonish special effects-laden, nine-figure-budget mind candy.