Free Republic

Chaz Andrews has wanted to join the Army since he was 19, but he has failed the service's academic test more than 10 times over the past decade. Now, at age 29, Andrews thinks he has a real shot to pass, thanks to a new Army program that gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards. “I didn’t want to give up on it,” he said during a recent break in his classroom schedule at Fort Jackson, where he is one of more than 300 recruits who have been allowed...

All or nothing at all -- three-quarters of a country never appealed to him, nor did the idea of a political entity called Northern Ireland that was created in 1920, comprising the six northeastern counties of Ireland in the province of Ulster. Gerry Adams is still adamant about the need for a united Ireland. As a political entity, the Republic of Ireland, first called the Irish Free State, was created in 1922. On November 18, 2017 the 69-year-old Adams, president since 1983 of Sinn Fein, the left-wing political party, announced that it was time for a change and that he...