Free Republic

The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product, crossing a once-unthinkable threshold, on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II. As of March 31, the country’s publicly held debt was $31.265 trillion, while GDP over the preceding year was $31.216 trillion, according to data released Thursday. That puts the ratio at 100.2%, compared with 99.5% when the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That figure will likely climb for the foreseeable future because the federal government is running historically large annual deficits of nearly 6% of GDP, which add to...

My father has been a pilot for all of my life of 50 years. He seems to latch on to ideas such as the flat earth theory that betrays everything that he was trained in aerial course plotting. True north? Magnetic North? Distant mountains rising from the horizon during the flight etc. He finally believes that the international space station exists after I insisted that he join me on a clear night to watch it go over. He seems to be obsessed with the notion that doom and destruction are always nearing. He's been like chicken little about gun control...