Free Republic

On Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough said Democrats’ “intellectual laziness” and “groupthink” are making them “lose elections.” Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks said, “The truth of the matter is, we need more people that actually think differently than the masses. We need more people than just sort of 20 to 1 liberals to conservatives, and we need to be on top of that and see this as an opportunity to get more ideological balance. Why? Not because we believe that you have to go 1 to 1 in fairness, none of that. We don’t need affirmative action for...

In a new interview with Us Weekly, Marie Osmond opened up about motherhood and defended her choice to not to leave her eight children an inheritance. 'Why would you enable your child to not try to be something? I don’t know anybody who becomes anything if they’re just handed money,' the show business vet, 63, said.... ....She was filming an episode of The Talk when she noted, 'I think you do a great disservice to your children to just hand them a fortune because you take away the one most important gift you can give your children, and that’s the...

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala (WALA) -- As COVID restrictions continue to be loosened, there is a major problem affecting many restaurants in the area. It is a staffing problem. “It seems like nobody wants to work these days,” said Maurice White, Owner of Big White Wings in Prichard. White hired one person recently, but is still searching for six more. “Very frustrating when you know the bills are coming and you’re not making the money to accommodate the bills coming cause the bills are not stopping,” he said. While the signature Stupid Fries and wings continue to draw crowds, White says...

President Obama's re-election team has already been lauded for its mastery of data and organziation, but a feature in today's The New York Times looks at another secret, and more subtle, weapon: Behavioral science. Reporter Benedict Carey talks to some of the members of the campaign's "COBS" team, an informal group of unpaid advisors who shared their knowledge on the latest academic research and theories on how to influence the public's knowledge behavior. Publicly, the group—which it gave itself the name of "consortium of behavioral scientists"—where just friendly volunteers offering advice. None of the social scientists and psychologists who took...

The number of acres of U.S. farmland held by foreign-owned investors has doubled in the past two decades, raising alarm bells in farming communities. American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities. When the stock market tanked during the last recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland....

FULL TITLE: Court hears how four-month-old boy's maggot-infested body was found in a baby swing after he went unchanged for a week and died of extreme 'diaper rash' as his father faces trial for murder An Iowa father's murder trial has begun after his infant son's body was found maggot-infested in a baby swing after dying from diaper rash last year. Four-month-old Sterling Koehn had been in the same diaper for nine to 14 days when his body was found in the swing August 30, 2017, at his parents' apartment in Alta Vista. The baby's father, 29-year-old Zachary Paul Koehn,...

As a society, we have done millennials a disservice. An entire generation of young people in America came of age during a decade of sluggish economic growth, and as a result, many are skeptical of free enterprise and capitalism. A stunning 2016 Harvard University survey of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Millennial support for avowed socialist Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary was proof that young people today aren’t enamored with capitalism. During the Obama years, the 18-29 age group heard countless presidential speeches railing...

Why aren't millennials eating cereal? Apparently, it's just too much work. Almost 40% of millennials surveyed by Mintel said that cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice, because they have to clean up after eating it, reports the New York Times. Instead, younger consumers are turning to convenient options with minimal cleanup that can be eaten on the go, from yogurt to fast-food breakfast sandwiches. Cereal sales dropped 5% from 2009 to 2014, despite the fact that more Americans are eating breakfast than ever before. ...

There have been a lot of protests from minority students on college campuses who are angry about the alleged racism they feel from the schools they have chosen to attend. But when you read this article in the Times about minority unhappiness at Amherst, a lot of it sounds like mental anxiety, even illness, created by affirmative action: Hundreds of students crammed into Amherst College's Robert Frost Library for a sit-in against racial injustice that turned into a confessional, as one black or Hispanic student after another rose to talk about feelings of alienation and invisibility on campus. They wanted...

What is Sloth? It is More Subtle and Devilish Than Mere Laziness By: Msgr. Charles PopeOne of the more misunderstood of the cardinal sins is sloth. This is because most see it merely as laziness. But there is more to sloth than that. Let’s take a moment and consider some aspects of the cardinal sin we call sloth.The Greek word we translate as sloth is ἀκηδία akedia (a = absence + kedos = care), meaning indifference or negligence. St. Thomas speaks of sloth as sorrow for spiritual good. By it, we shun spiritual good as too toilsome (cf ST...

Reddit users were asked “What’s the laziest thing you’ve ever done?” And one former sailor’s response is so incredible we had to share it. We usually only write about Alabama-related things, so let’s just assume this took place aboard one of the Alabama-built Littoral Combat Ships. I was once on a US military ship, having breakfast in the wardroom (officers lounge) when the Operations Officer (OPS) walks in. This guy was the definition of NOT a morning person; he’s still half asleep, bleary eyed… basically a zombie with a bagel. He sits down across from me to eat his bagel...

Christina Briggs, 26, from Wigan, says she hates her large size But she wants help from the government to lose weight She's on benefits and can only afford to buy junk food and takeaways She said being fat is not her 'fault' as 'healthy food is too expensive' An obese mother-of-two who lives on benefits says she needs more of taxpayers' money to overhaul her unhealthy lifestyle. Christina Briggs, 26, from Wigan, says she hates being 25 stone but she can't do anything about it because she can only afford junk food. Meanwhile, exercise is out of the question because...

On the average day, an unemployed American is more likely to be shopping—for things other than groceries and gas---than to be looking for a new job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 18.9 percent of Americans who were unemployed (in surveys conducted from 2009 through 2013) spent time in job search and interviewing activities on an average day, according to BLS. Yet 40.8 percent of the unemployed did some kind of shopping on the average day--either in a store, by telephone, or on the Internet. 22.5 percent of the unemployed, according to BLS, were shopping for...

If you want to get some idea about why President Obama has not formulated a strategy for defeating ISIS, take a look at . . . Thursday. Yes, Thursday. On Wednesday night, reporters were given Obama’s Thursday schedule. It did not mention a meeting between Obama and his national security advisors. Just before 10:00 am, we received word that he would convene a meeting with the National Security Council at 4:00 pm sharp. It sounded portentous. Such meetings aren’t normally scheduled so hastily or announced to reporters. Then, at about 1:45 pm, 45 minutes after the daily briefing was supposed...

One of the more misunderstood of the deadly sins is sloth. In the wider culture sloth is often equated simply with laziness.But sloth has a lot more subtleties than simple laziness. In fact, sloth can sometimes manifest as workaholism and other frantic worldly activities and busyness.This is because sloth is most fundamentally defined as a “sorrow or aversion to the good things that God offers” such as a moral life, and deeper spiritual fruitfulness etc. There are some who find such things unappealing, and instead of joyfully accepting these gifts, they are sorrowful toward them or averse. One way to...

High levels of benefits for the unemployed do not lead to a lack of motivation to find work, a Europe-wide study has found. University of Edinburgh researchers found benefit levels had “no effect” on the wellbeing of those without a job. Researchers found some countries with the most generous benefits also had some of the most despondent unemployed citizens, and vice versa. Their paper covered 28 countries across Europe. It compared how unemployment affected people’s life satisfaction levels. …

During the great depression, when there were even fewer jobs than there are today, there were still a great many men who refused to go on the dole, which was what welfare was called under FDR. That was only 75 or 80 years ago, but today, as you’ve probably noticed, their kids and grandkids can’t wait to start living off the efforts of others. Whether it’s seniors in Florida signing up for food stamps they don’t need, young people in the inner-city assuming they’re entitled to be supported by others because clowns like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson keep telling...

<p>First Lady Michelle Obama has played the role of Felix to her husband’s Oscar during their entire 20-year partnership, President Obama revealed.</p> <p>“I had this little bachelor apartment that Michelle refused to stay in because she thought it was a little, uh . . . you know, pizza boxes everywhere,” President Obama says in April’s Vogue.</p>

After years of trying to figure out who Barack Obama is, I think I have found the solution. I've read countless stories of various theories which describe him as (1) a communist, (2) a Muslim, (3) an anarchist, (4) a New World Order proponent, (5) a narcissist, or even (6) an anti-christ. Though after watching his behavior the last few years and reading all I could on his background, I believe that the motivation behind Barack Obama is that he has no ambition, and what drives him is a life of leisure with wealth and no responsibility. Rather than a...

In his continuing quest to find the “real killers” of America’s prosperity, President Obama is now testing out the idea that laziness lies at the root of the prolonged recession we’re in. “Look, we in government have been going all out trying to get the economy moving,” the president told an audience of campaign supporters. “In the last two years the federal government has spent more than it ever has before. We’ve generously handed out money left and right. We’ve added new guidelines and procedures to virtually every segment of industry in an effort to direct businesses toward a more...