Free Republic

2031 is likely the next 2012. No, the Mayan calendar hasn't been reinterpreted -- but the Social Security Administration's statistical projections have, and it's not looking good. A new study by professors Gary King of Harvard University and Samir Soneji of Dartmouth College finds that the Social Security Administration's (SSA) $2.7 trillion trust fund that is supposed to fund the retirement of baby boomers, will be exhausted in 2031 -- two years earlier than the SSA's original projection. Indeed, 2010 was the first time in more than 25 years that Social Security ran a deficit; spending $49 billion more in...

Leonard Pitts Jr.: How black is black enough? BY LEONARD PITTS JR. | Published: January 16, 2013 I suddenly find myself concerned about my blackness. It had never occurred to me to worry about it before. Then came the incident last month on ESPN's “First Take” program that initially got commentator Rob Parker suspended and then, last week, fired outright. It seems Parker, who is black, analyzed what he saw as the insufficient blackness of Robert Griffin III, rookie quarterback for the Washington, D.C., football team that is named for a racial slur. Having returned their team to relevance for...

A sweeping set of gun control proposals laid out by President Obama on Wednesday is adding more fuel to a growing national debate, and one local lawman is raising concerns that the proposed legislation is unconstitutional. Madison County Sheriff Blake Dorning told WHNT News 19 that his office will not enforce new gun control legislation if he feels those laws violate the Second Amendment. Dorning said he has serious doubts about President Obama’s latest proposals, stating that any gun laws which do pass would have to be in line with the U.S. Constitution and Alabama state law in order to...

The American economy has had little to cheer about since the 2008 financial meltdown and the resulting recession. Recovery has been feeble, and many states continue to struggle. One bright spot in the general gloom, however, is Texas, which began shining long before 2008. Not only has Texas created jobs at a stunning rate; it has also — pace critics such as the New York Times' Paul Krugman — created lots of good jobs. Indeed, the rest of the nation could turn to the Lone Star State as a model for dynamic growth. Texan job creation has far outpaced the...

OXNARD (CBSLA.com) — Almost a year after Oxnard Unified School District removed Stacie Halas from her classroom for having a porn past, CBS2 and KCAL9 obtained a 48-page document revealing what went on at a closed-door competency hearing. Halas, 32, admitted she did porn for about nine months before being hired at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard. She told a panel she only took the porn work because of financial hardships. (She appeared in XXX videos under the name Tiffany Six.) Suraya Fadel, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said the document revealed Halas not only had money woes of her...

Appearing on The O'Reilly Factor last night, Florida Senator Marco Rubio said President Obama "doesn't have the guts" to admit that he doesn't believe in the Second Amendment and that his new push for gun control is something he's been wanting to do for his entire political career. “I actually believe the president doesn’t have the guts to admit he doesn’t believe in the Second Amendment although he states that he is. The Second Amendment is in the Constitution. I didn’t write the Constitution, neither did you, neither did he. If he doesn’t want the Second Amendment to be in...

As CEO of Braintree-based Greater Media, Peter Smyth is always reluctant to change a radio station’s format. It can be upsetting to fans, frustrating to workers and expensive to pull off. But it was hard to argue with the numbers. Smyth tells me the that plunge in ratings for WTKK over recent years prompted him to start seriously considering dropping the station’s talk format as long ago as last spring. Those discussions eventually led to the Braintree company’s decision to switch from talk to a rhythmic adult contemporary music format earlier this month, branding it as Hot 96.9. “We couldn’t...

Full Title: Upcoming Pipeline Capacity Additions Will Facilitate Continued Growth in Crude Oil Shipments from Midwest to Gulf Coast This Week in Petroleum Continuing growth in U.S. crude oil production is causing significant changes in the way crude oil moves within the United States. The Midwest (PADD 2) has been one of the major sources of this production growth, especially from the Bakken formation in North Dakota. Pipeline flows from PADD 2 to PADD 3 will increase over the next two years as several major pipeline projects, starting with the Seaway Pipeline's current capacity expansion, are completed. As PADD 2...

To judge from his surly demeanor and defiant words at his press conference Monday, Barack Obama begins his second term with a strategy to defeat and humiliate Republicans rather than a strategy to govern.-SNIP-The push for gun control is more a symbolic gesture than a serious attempt at governing.Something better can be said about Obama's call for immigration law changes. The need for some change is clear.That was also true in Obama's first two years, when he did nothing to advance legislation on the subject when Democrats had a solid majorities in Congress.The question is whether Obama wants legislation or...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkl0gSOu3QM

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid plummeted to a five-year low last week, a hopeful sign the job market may be improving. But much of the decline reflects seasonal volatility in the data.</p> <p>Weekly unemployment benefit applications fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the lowest level since January 2008, just after the recession began. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 359,250.</p>

President Barack Obama is featuring eight Americans as "citizen co-chairs" of his inauguration, a new role created to highlight his first-term accomplishments with examples of lives that have either been improved by his actions or inspired his presidency. Inaugural planners say the honorees include a woman with a brain tumor who no longer is denied health care for a pre-existing condition; an autoworker who got her job back after the General Motors bailout; and a gay pilot-in-training kicked out of the Air Force before the president repealed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Inauguration officials said Wednesday that the...

9. Chandler, Ariz. > Violent crime per 1,000 people: 2.86 (14th lowest) > Poverty rate: 8.2% (6th lowest) > Adult population graduated from high school: 91.5% (13th highest) > Credit rating: Aaa (stable outlook) > Population: 236,775 Chandler is one of the newest large cities in the U.S. The city was incorporated in 1951, but the population did not truly expand until very recently. In 1980, Chandler, which is located within the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, had a population of 30,000. Now, it has a population of 247,000. There are countless examples of cities that experienced this level of growth,...

BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT **World Exclusive** **Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT** At the last minute, at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, NEWSWEEK magazine killed a story that was destined to shake official Washington to its foundation: A White House intern carried on a sexual affair with the President of the United States! The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that reporter Michael Isikoff developed the story of his career, only to have it spiked by top NEWSWEEK suits hours before publication. A young woman, 23, sexually involved with the love of her life, the...

Newswires reported lunchtime Thursday (UK time) that a spokesman claimed 34 hostages and 14 kidnappers have been killed in air strikes against the Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria. Islamist militants attacked the facility early Wednesday morning, taking dozens of hostages. Statoil and BP, who operate a joint venture at Amenas, confirmed Wednesday and Thursday that they have several workers at the facility. According to the AFP a spokesman for the kidnappers, speaking through a Mauritanian newswire, Algerian military aircraft attacked the facility in what appears to have been an attempt to free the hostages. The spokesman warned that the...

A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed after a fight broke out at the end of a high school basketball game at Chicago State University. Tyrone Lawson was shot around 9:20 p.m. outside the gymnasium near 95th Street and King Drive, according to Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien. Shortly before the shooting, an argument had broken out in a handshake line after the game between Simeon Career Academy and Morgan Park High School, police said. The argument spilled into the parking lot and someone pulled out a gun and shot Lawson, officials said.

"Growing up in South Bend and somehow managing to graduate from Notre Dame makes me a lifelong fan, like it or not. It’s unconditional love. Any ND fan can tell you how painful that’s been over the past 20 years. And then came the miracle year of 2012… But just when we finally caught a break and went undefeated, all hell broke loose… continued on website...

Even small changes in solar activity can impact Earth's climate in significant and surprisingly complex ways, researchers say. The sun is a constant star when compared with many others in the galaxy. Some stars pulsate dramatically, varying wildly in size and brightness and even exploding. In comparison, the sun varies in the amount of light it emits by only 0.1 percent over the course of a relatively stable 11-year-long pattern known as the solar cycle. Still, "the light reaching the top of the Earth's atmosphere provides about 2,500 times as much energy as the total of all other sources combined,"...

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead! But is Presidente Hugo Chavez of Venezuela still alive? In what might be a case of life imitating art, could the vice-president of Venezuela be attempting to replicate "Weekend At Bernie's?" To refresh your memory of that entertaining comedy movie, two young insurance executives are desperate to maintain the fiction that their boss, Bernie, is still alive at his beach house. The Venezuelan vice-president, Nicolas Maduro, is now ruling Venezuela in Hugo Chavez's absence especially since he was given the blessing as El Commandante's successor in December when we knew for sure that Chavez...

Iranian warships will be deployed to the Mediterranean sea, the Red Sea and other regional waterways, Tehran’s navy said on Wednesday. The move will put Iranian firepower at Israel’s doorstep, and likely raise tensions in the already skittish region. … The Iranian navy has steadily expanded its international presence since 2008, when it began patrolling in the Gulf of Aden to protect commercial vessels owned or leased by Iran against piracy. Last year, two Iranian warships for the first time in decades traveled through the Suez Canal, extending Iran’s naval reach to the Mediterranean Sea. …