Free Republic

The ‘retirement ideal’ has been changing for years. Older people are increasingly unretiring, changing the shape of this life stage.Picture retirement in your head. It’s a laughing, grey-haired couple sipping piña coladas on a white sand beach; perhaps they’re getting some liquid courage for their sky dive later. Not a care in the world, their only responsibility is getting their grandchildren good gifts for their birthdays. It’s a beautiful fantasy – and for many retirees, present and future, it’s just that: a fantasy. The concept of retirement as we know it is changing, and has been for a long time....

The Mexican president's refusal to attend a U.S.-hosted summit because of disputes over the guest list highlights how Latin America's leftists are pursuing an increasingly independent foreign policy from Washington. President Andres Manuel Lopez had said he would not go to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week led by U.S. President Joe Biden unless all governments in the region were asked. On Monday, he followed through as Washington said it was not inviting its antagonists Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua on the grounds of human rights and democratic shortcomings. Lopez Obrador's firm line over the past few...

[37:13] Legend of popular history Mike Loades provides Dan a detailed run down of Henry V's famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and how his men were more a band of brigands than a 'band of brothers'. They discuss the arms, the armour, the tactics and the popular myths today associated with the battle, thanks to the immortal works of Shakespeare and Laurence Olivier.Historian Mike Loades Debunks 'The Agincourt Myth' | October 24, 2021 | History Hit

Resolution sets forth cisgender women's right to female-only spaces based on their assigned sex at birth.Last month, congressional Republicans introduced a House resolution that recognizes a person’s “biological sex” as a distinct legal category deserving of certain protections. The resolution, dubbed the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” affirms that, for legal purposes, “sex” means only a person’s biological sex — either male or female — at birth, and distinctly defines the terms “woman,” “girl,” and “mother” as referring to humans assigned female at birth while “man,” “boy,” and “father” refer to humans assigned male at birth. The House version of the...

Explanation: Will our Milky Way Galaxy collide one day with its larger neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy? Most likely, yes. Careful plotting of slight displacements of M31's stars relative to background galaxies on recent Hubble Space Telescope images indicate that the center of M31 could be on a direct collision course with the center of our home galaxy. Still, the errors in sideways velocity appear sufficiently large to admit a good chance that the central parts of the two galaxies will miss, slightly, but will become close enough for their outer halos to become gravitationally entangled. Once that happens, the two...

School board candidate Heather Fletcher says she checked out the books to make the library a "safe place for children."A candidate for public office in Maryland says she checked out all of the books from an LGBTQ Pride Month display at the Brunswick Public Library so that others wouldn’t be able to see or read them and to prevent children from asking potentially uncomfortably questions. Heather Fletcher, a candidate for the Frederick County Board of Education, claims she checked out 20 books from the display last Tuesday to make the library a “safe place for children.” She told the Frederick...

In a stunning admission, CISA reports that voting machines are vulnerable to tampering and hacking. After two-plus years of denials from multiple government officials, politicians, and the legacy media, the much delayed Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report “identifie[d] vulnerabilities affecting versions of the Dominion Voting Systems Democracy Suite ImageCast X.” The report warns the vulnerabilities present in the system software represent risks that “should be mitigated as soon as possible.” CISA also reported that ” it has no evidence that these vulnerabilities have been exploited in any elections.” CISA Director Jen Easterly stated the same in a Tweet...

The author said 'there was a need for more books that celebrate the joy of being gay, and contain jolly stories of life in single-sex families'A series of new children's books that contain same-sex families as characters will be given free of charge to primary schools in Wales. They are being published by Peniarth - part of University of Wales Trinity Saint David - which was established in 2009 as the university's publishing wing. It has since become one of the main publishers of Welsh and bilingual books and educational resources in Wales. To get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed...

Parents and students rallied outside of Granada Hills Charter High School on Tuesday to protest a policy that will bar unvaccinated students from participating in graduation ceremonies. Granada Hills Charter has maintained its vaccination requirement despite the Los Angeles Unified School District delaying the vaccination mandate until July 1, 2023. According to the school, 99% of eligible students have been vaccinated.

The struggling Minnesota Twins have arrived in Toronto with regular right fielder Max Kepler and relief pitchers Emilio Pagán, Caleb Thielbar and Trevor Megill on the restricted list to comply with the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The four players will miss the three-game series against the Blue Jays. Canada requires anyone traveling to the country to have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, the second one at least 14 days before entry. Kepler will lose $111,264 of his $6.75 million salary, while Pagán loses $37,912, Thielbar $21,429 and Megill $11, 662.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a vote of confidence on Monday triggered by lawmakers in his own Conservative party amid widespread anger over a series of lawbreaking parties in Downing Street during the country’s Covid-19 lockdowns, marking the latest road bump in a tumultuous and polarizing premiership dominated by the pandemic.

U.S. natural gas fundamentals remain bullish as above-normal temperatures drive cooling demand and dwindling supplies that would’ve been used for the next winter season cause market tightness, sending futures for July delivery soaring 9.5% to $9.340/mmbtu as of 1315 ET.Houston-based energy firm Criterion Research sheds more color on the natgas fundamentals driving prices higher. They report a combination of factors, including above-average temperatures in the Lower U.S. 48, natgas demand, slumping natgas production, and below-average national stockpiles, which have driven July contracts above $9. The Lower 48’s weather outlook has come in warmer this morning, with the latest models showing...

Just days after Russia attacked Ukraine on Feb 24, Finnish entrepreneur Sissi Moberg found herself scouring the Internet for courses that could teach her skills to help defend Finland in case of a military attack. "I felt very sad for the Ukrainians. And then I started to worry about Finland and thinking what could I do about this," the 46-year-old mother-of-four told Reuters. Within weeks, Moberg was on a course intended for reservists and learning how to use a gun and move on a battlefield.

Master falconer Rodney Stotts has written a book about his life path from drug dealer on the streets of Washington to wildlife expert, hoping to inspire others to take solace in nature. "I went from 'flipping birds' - selling cocaine - to flying birds, and the destruction that I used to cause in that life," Stotts said. "I'm just trying to make up for it." In his new memoir "Bird Brother," the 51-year-old credits the "healing power of wildlife" for transforming his life.

Residents stuck inside a compound nearly a week after Shanghai's much vaunted reopening following a virus outbreak shouted at hazmat-clad officials on Monday (Jun 6), as fears grew that some city neighbourhoods were being locked down again. Authorities in the financial hub eased many harsh restrictions last Wednesday, after confining most of the city's 25 million inhabitants to their homes since late March, as China battled its worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. But hundreds of thousands have not yet been allowed out of their homes, while others have immediately been placed back under local lockdowns after a brief liberation...

"Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them;...

Things that make you go, "Hmmmm....."Original link: "https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/6/us-congress-mulls-action-on-gun-control-following-mass-shootings"

American businessman and politician from Virginia Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) says he quit the Republican Party because the GOP has veered away from conservative principles and toward conspiracy theories and a cult of personality devoted to former President Donald Trump. “I think the party left me some time ago,” Riggleman told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, adding that he quit due to the GOP’s “belief systems.”

For days the United Nations has been in (so far unsuccessful) talks on cobbling together an agreement on plans to unblock Black Sea grain exports from Ukrainian ports, including controversial discussions with Russia, which has stood accused of ‘weaponizing’ global food supply with its military blockade of key ports. Moscow has in turn charged that Ukraine said ports, making tanker traffic impossible, while also saying the West must ease sanctions if it hopes to get crucial grain exports flowing again. UN officials have said President Vladimir Putin’s offer to lift the blockade if sanctions are dropped is “complicating” the already...

One of the hallmarks of a bully, of a cruel human being, is attacking people who don't always have the political power or resources to defend themselves. We saw a good example of this in 2019, when the Trump administration, in a remarkably cold move, attempted to kill federal funding for the Special Olympics. If you've never seen the Special Olympics, which gives athletes with certain intellectual disabilities the opportunity to compete in several different events, it is a remarkable thing to watch. These Olympics don't just represent the best of sports. They represent the best of humanity. The motto...