Free Republic

If we understand the simple dynamics of value creation, total compensation costs and the cost-basis of doing business (general overhead), then we understand why employment isn't coming back in the U.S. It is impossible to understand job creation without understanding value creation and labor/overhead costs. People hire other people when their labor creates more value than it costs to hire them. When labor costs are high, the value created must also be high; it makes no sense to hire someone if doing so generates a loss. When labor is cheap, the bar of value creation is lowered, and so the...

The Boy Scouts of America is considering ending its national ban on membership based on sexual orientation. Under the revision being considered, the different religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be able to decide for themselves how to address the matter, CBS reported Monday. Troops would have the option of either maintaining an exclusion of gays or opening up their membership. BSA spokesman Deron Smith said under the proposed change... "the Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents." Leaders of Troop 64 in Charleston said they would defer to...

Ray Lewis’ final season and Baltimore’s run through the AFC to the Super Bowl has been described as destiny or a fateful miracle, but it appears as though Lewis’ recovery from a torn triceps was aided by the use of a banned substance. Sports Illustrated reported that among Lewis’ many treatments for his torn triceps, suffered Oct. 14, was a deer-antler spray, which is banned by the NFL. Philly.com published quotes from the SI article from phone conversations between Lewis and Mitch Ross, the owner of “Sports with Alternatives to Steroids” (S.W.A.T.S.).

Very few prominent Iowa Republicans have endorsed same-sex marriage rights since the Iowa Supreme Court's 2009 decision striking down the state's Defense of Marriage Act. Every Republican now serving in the Iowa House and Senate is on record supporting a constitutional amendment to reverse that court ruling. When former State Senator Jeff Angelo created the Iowans for Freedom movement in 2011 to support marriage equality as consistent with conservative values, only a handful of Republicans signed on. One of them, Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, was later warned against seeking the GOP nomination for the special election in Senate...

hear arguments on the Justice Department's claim that the lawsuit should be thrown out because the issue is a fundamentally political one that must be sorted out between the legislative and executive branches.

BALTIMORE — A brave Staten Island GI, who underwent a stunning double-arm transplant, beamed with optimism today as he showed off his new limbs. In an amazing scene of triumph over tragedy, 26-year-old Brendan Marrocco pushed his own wheelchair into a room at Johns Hopkins Hospital and told reporters he has a new lease on life. “It’s a life changing thing,” said the smiling Marrocco. “It feels amazing. It’s something I was waiting for for a long time.” Marrocco received the rare transplant on Dec. 18. For now, Marrocco can’t use his new hands because it’ll take months for nerves...

I need a suggestion for a program without a steep learning curve to position photos with descriptions on a page and print them. Other than short descriptions there's no text.

Automobile manufacturers and the oil industry on Tuesday released the results of laboratory tests showing that gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol caused fuel pumps and parts to fail, raising the specter of faulty check engine light readings and more frequent breakdowns for cars that use the blend. The American Petroleum Institute cast the report by the non-profit Coordinating Research Council as fresh evidence that the Environmental Protection Agency should rescind its 2010 decision to approve the sale of the so-called “E15″ blend for 2001 and newer automobiles. A previous study by the Coordinating Research Council, which counts API as a...

There is no war on terror for the Obama White House, but there is one on Fox News. In a recent interview with The New Republic, President Obama was back to his grousing about the one television news outlet in America that won’t fall in line and treat him as emperor. Discussing breaking Washington's partisan gridlock, the president told TNR,"If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News...for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it." Alas, the president loves to whine about the media meanies at...

Today's statement from Liberty Counsel: PRESS RELEASE Contact: PUBLIC RELATIONS - 877-810-1776 or Liberty@LCAction.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 29, 2013 The Time to Forge a Just Immigration Consensus is Now Mat Staver, Chairman of Liberty Counsel Action, responds to the bipartisan immigration reform proposal. Washington, DC – “It is time to forge a just immigration policy that acknowledges that we are both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. Our current immigration system is broken and it needs to be fixed. We need to secure our borders. This is a matter of national security. We need to enforce...

A Fort Lauderdale woman was convicted of heading an identity theft tax fraud scheme that netted $11 million in federal tax refunds and involved the filing of approximately 2,000 fraudulent tax returns, federal prosecutors said. Alci Bonannee, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, faces a prison sentence of up to 351 years as the primary leader in the identity theft ring, prosecutors said.

Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the powerful National Rifle Association, will tell a Senate panel on Wednesday that the federal government should not enact any new gun-control laws. “Law-abiding gun owners will not accept blame for the acts of violent or deranged criminals,” LaPierre is scheduled to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a new version of the assault weapons ban on Thursday. And it’s already looking like a lost cause. Most everyone agrees that the ban is the most ambitious and politically difficult item on President Obama’s and Vice President Biden’s gun control agenda. And there is increasing evidence that it will be cast aside in favor or more doable proposals. Below, we look at four reasons why. 1. Joe Biden is downplaying it The same day that Feinstein introduced the bill, Biden suggested that magazine sizes were the most important part of a gun control package....

Papa John’s pizza has been hounded by the media for comments supposedly made in response to Obamacare — that food prices were on the rise, that franchises would face closure due to escalating health care costs, that workers’ hours and positions would be sliced. Only problem: The comments, attributed to CEO John Schnatter, were never made. That’s according to a Politico report about the efforts of Papa John public relations firm Sitrick and Co. to track down bloggers who’ve covered the supposed comments and ask for edits.

<p>The pair receive £1,473 per month in benefits or £17,680 per year.</p> <p>This works out at £340 per week, which includes £140 housing benefit, £60 child tax credit, £20 child benefit and £110 Jobseekers Allowance.</p> <p>Weekly outgoings include £60 on food, £22.50 on TV, £3.50 on their TV licence plus utility bills, which the pair say they receive no help with.</p>

Conservative talk radio host and scholar Mark Levin assailed MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Monday for slamming Sarah Palin and implying that Palin--and the Tea Party--was fading away and losing influence. On Monday morning, Scarborough joyously claimed on MSNBC's Morning Joe that Palin and the Tea Party did not represent the future of the conservative movement and implied those like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did. On his talk radio show, Levin said Scarborough "can't hold a candle to Sarah Palin." Levin said Scarborough's attack on Palin represented "cowardice," was "cheap," and symbolized a co-host playing to his liberal "media...

Sen. Lindsey Graham wasn’t impressed with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s testimony at the Benghazi congressional hearing, telling Fox News that she “got away with murder.” “Hillary Clinton got away with murder in my view. She said they had a clear-eyed view of the threats. How could you have a clear-eyed view of the threats in Benghazi when you didn’t know about the ambassador’s cable coming back from Libya?” the South Carolina Republican told host Greta Van Susteren Monday on “On The Record”.

A controversial soccer game between a Jerusalem team and a team from Um el-Fahm ended Tuesday night without incident, with the Jerusalem team winning 5-0. The game was played under the watchful eye of some 600 police officers, who were equipped with anti-riot gear on the possibility that tensions could mount between Jewish fans of Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabee Um el-Fahm. In a game last week, Beitar fans protested against the possibility that their team was rumored to be considering signing two Muslim Chechen players, with fans calling out racist slogans against Arabs. Three Beitar fans were arrested. Beitar initially...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked Tuesday to name her most lasting regret from her time as secretary of state, referred to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. "My biggest question to you was, firstly, are you planning on writing your memoirs already? And if you are, following in the footsteps of Madeleine Albright in hers -- where she says that her lasting regret was in Rwanda -- what would you say was your lasting regret?," Clinton was asked by a British Pakistani student during her Tuesday morning "Townterview," one of a number of farewell...