Free Republic

Fifty years after Yugoslavian President Josip Tito founded the Non-Aligned Movement, the economies of the association's roughly 120 nations have grown in excess of 5% per year on average, while larger developed economies in North America, Europe and Japan have slowed to a crawl. Yet, it's easy to forget the investing potential of these emerging markets, spread throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. When investors have sought to gain exposure to less developed economies, they've largely focused on Brazil, Russia, India and China, mostly ignoring the dynamic growth that has been taking place beyond the "global top 20." But you...

Many school districts allow employees to accrue unused sick days without limit and cash them out upon retirement. In the Detroit district, for example, such a policy cost the district $12.5 million in unused sick leave in 2010-11. It’s a major problem, but too many school districts are only taking baby steps to correct it. In the small Holton, Michigan district, support personnel earn one sick day for each month worked. They’ve been allowed to accrue unused sick days without limit and cash them out upon retirement, or take extended leaves for any reason. But now school officials are patting...

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President Barack Obama and the Senate are considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. "Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability (POI) to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be...

Last week the inside pages of the daily newspapers mentioned something that should alarm every American taxpayer. The little noted expiration of the two year old payroll tax break of 2011-12, and the consequent increase of the Social Security payroll tax from 4.2% of wages paid to 6.2% of wages paid became effective on New Years Day, 2013. The roughly 140 million Americans on corporate payrolls will see their take-home pay shrink commensurate with their income. Those earners at the poverty level will see a $ 234.00 yearly tax increase, while those in the highest income bracket subject to the...

Goldman Sachs And The Big Hedge Funds Are Pushing Leverage To Ridiculous Extremes By Michael, on January 14th, 2013 As stocks have risen in recent years, the big hedge funds and the "too big to fail" banks have used borrowed money to make absolutely enormous profits. But when you use debt to potentially multiply your profits, you also create the possibility that your losses will be multiplied if the markets turn against you. When the next stock market crash happens, and the gigantic pyramid of risk, debt and leverage on Wall Street comes tumbling down, will highly leveraged banks...

This infographic is floating around Facebook.And according to PolitiFact (and the FBI) it’s true. Our rulingThe post uses data selectively, ignoring the significant role of handguns in gun violence. But the statistics it mentions are solid. FBI data backs up the Facebook post’s claim that in 2011, more people were murdered with knives, “hands or feet” or “clubs and hammers” than with any type of rifle. We rate the statement True. You can read the whole assessment here.  

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) -- The U.S. Marine Corps, known for turning out some of the military's toughest warriors, is studying how to make its troops even tougher through meditative practices, yoga-type stretching and exercises based on mindfulness. Marine Corps officials say they will build a curriculum that would integrate mindfulness-based techniques into their training if they see positive results from a pilot project. Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired concept that emphasizes active attention on the moment to keep the mind in the present.

It appears that my contest between the United States and United Kingdom for the most inane government policy how has to be augmented by a new contest between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Just yesterday, I mocked Maryland officials for suspending two little boys for the horrific crime of playing cops and robbers (and noted that this is not the first time such stupidity has been displayed by Maryland school officials).Preferred Weapon of al Qaeda Apparently, the pencil-neck bureaucrats in Pennsylvania are jealous that their neighbors are getting a lot of attention, so they’ve branded a five-year old girl as a terrorist...

I first saw the USFA ZiP .22 on USFA’s website and it immediately caught my attention. Why? Well, for starters it is unique—very unique. It captures the imagination, finding something truly new in firearms development is a bit of a rarity. John Browning and Paul Mauser can still say that most firearms are mere modifications of designs they pioneered 100 years ago. So on that merit alone, I wanted to check out this pistol. Secondly, being mainly polymer and uber-lightweight, this gun fills a niche for the survival crowd. It would fit easily in a backpack, truck or tackle box,...

People have an incredible knack for self-preservation that nations sometimes, surprisingly, lack. The United States of America is not unalterably locked into future bankruptcy, taking you and me and hordes of other innocents down together. But the road to that fateful — if not in ways “fatal” — day now lies stretched before us like a superhighway. Indeed, it is the path of least resistance. “For all the bitterness in Washington these days,” Ezra Klein wrote last week in the Washington Post, “it’s easy to miss the broad consensus that undergirds our contentious politics.” That consensus, as Klein notes, has...

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.....because of a lack of enthusiasm for Obama's inauguration, the WH was trying new initiatives to sell tickets......an inaugural concert was canned because there were not enough big acts. Streisand and Bon Jovi said they couldn’t make it. The Inaugural Committee then announced “new talent” for the inaug balls. Chris Cornell, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson were added to the Alicia Keys, Katy Perry and Usher lineup.

The Talk Shows January 20th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): David Plouffe, adviser to President Barack Obama; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas; David Axelrod, adviser to President Barack Obama. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Plouffe; Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under President George W. Bush; Dee Dee Myers, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton; Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas; Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio..THIS WEEK (ABC): Plouffe; actress Eva Longoria, co-chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. STATE OF...

A Virginia lawmaker who drew gasps from his colleagues when he brandished a borrowed AK-47 during an anti-gun speech Thursday was found guilty in 2002 of committing a vicious 1999 assault, was sanctioned for legal misconduct while prosecuting a rape case, spent six months in jail for contempt of a federal court, and saw his law license revoked in 2003. Democratic Delegate Joseph Morrissey brought the rifle to the floor of the House of Delegates to demonstrate how easy it is to carry firearms in Virginia. Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert interrupted Morrissey’s speech to ask him to remove his finger...

Last week featured the shocking revelation that two athletes had lied to the whole country for years in order to become rich and famous. This is the same thing that politicians do except without the exercise regimen. Moral theater is an odd event in a country which has mostly given up on morals. In the absence of any notion of right and wrong, the only truly punishable offenses involve hurting people's feelings. That includes famous people "betraying our trust" by doing something that we didn't expect them to be doing thereby deceiving us into liking them for the wrong reasons....

Are You Fresh for Everything? "Jesus answered and said to him, ’Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’" —John 3:3 Sometimes we are fresh and eager to attend a prayer meeting, but do we feel that same freshness for such mundane tasks as polishing shoes?Being born again by the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, and as surprising as God Himself. We don’t know where it begins— it is hidden away in the depths of our soul. Being born again from above...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures Shield of Abraham...Mogen AvrahamGenesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.

Like a lot of Californians, Stockton businessman Matt Davies, 34, expected that when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the new administration would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries operating under a law passed by California voters in 1996. After all, as a candidate, Obama contended that he saw federal enforcement against medical marijuana as a waste of resources. On Oct. 19, 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden released a memo that instructed the Department of Justice not to focus federal resources "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use...

Obama to take private oath in brief family service President Barack Obama's private swearing-in will be a brief, sparsely attended ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House. White House spokesman Jay Carney says Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath of office on Sunday just before noon, the time required by the Constitution. Obama's family will attend along with a few reporters, and Obama isn't expected to make a speech.