Free Republic

For the first time in 4 years, Americans are living longer lives, according to recent data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Life expectancy for Americans increased by 0.1 year, from 78.6 years in 2017 to 78.7 years in 2018. The increase was largely due to declines in lung cancer mortality, infant mortality, and deaths from unintentional injuries such as drug overdoses and accidents.

Here is Time Magazine’s Person of the Year: Time’s Person of the Year is a 17 year-old girl who: – Was born in to great white privilege in her racially-homogeneous country of Sweden; – Has lived a prosperous and privileged life provided to her by her neglectful, attention-seeking parents, both of whom are performers and radical leftist activists; – Has been used and abused by every adult who has ever held influence over her life; – Is currently being held up as a poster child by the radical climate alarmist community in order to advance its globalist/socialist political agenda; –...

The lifespan of a game is measured in hours. A team comes and goes in a season. A player lasts no more than four years; these days, if he's good and stays healthy, three. But a coach? A coach is different. Coaches define eras. In a sport in which we root for laundry, a coach humanizes those colors, becomes as much a symbol as the mascot. The first four men selected among the 150 Greatest Coaches, as selected by our blue-ribbon panel of 150 media members, administrators and former players and coaches, span more than a century of the sport....

There is a lot that Chick-fil-A has done right. Earnings per store or AUV's (average unit volumes) are at the top of the QSR50 at 4.4 million. To put that into perspective the average unit volume of a Subway store is a paltry $422,000... ...3. You own nothing and build no equity. This one is huge. In a typical franchise arrangement after you have spent years working hard and building up a business when it's time to retire or move on you can typically sell that business or pass it on to your family. Successful franchises can be worth millions....

Sen Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) edged past former Vice President Joe Biden in a new poll gauging support in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Warren has the support of 27 percent of Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic while Biden had 25 percent in the Quinnipiac survey released Wednesday.

Tech moguls Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos all scored on the bottom half of the scale for trustworthiness, according to analysis conducted by global brand consultancy Landor. The CEOs of major tech companies face an interesting and challenging public perception. They can sometimes seem like celebrities, generating a certain buzz and excitement among people. But business scandals and other issues can prompt that same public to see them as untrustworthy. A study by consultancy group Landor looks at some top tech moguls and their companies to learn how consumers view them. . . . Among the tech moguls...

Cybersecurity expertise might be the key to a generous salary, according to a new ranking of company salaries.Palo Alto Networks tops a list of the 25 highest paying companies in America from career site Glassdoor, coming in with a median salary of $170,929. That puts it ahead of Nvidia, where the average employee takes home $170,068 per year.Here's how the rest of the Top 10 shakes out, with median total salaries listed. Palo Alto Networks: $170,929Nvidia: $170,068Twitter: $162,852Gilead Sciences: $162,210Google: $161,254VMware: $158,063LinkedIn: $157,402Facebook: $152,962Salesforce: $150,379Microsoft: $148,068 (See the complete list on Glassdoor.)Tech companies dominate the list and many are based...

Chick-fil-A has whipped past rivals to become the third-largest restaurant chain in the US. The chicken chain's massive growth in 2018 moved itto #3 on the ranking of the largest US restaurant chains with $10.46 billion in Americansystemwide sales, according to Nation's Restaurant News analysis published Monday. McDonald's maintained the No. 1 spot, with $38.52 billion in American system-wide sales. Starbucks held on to second place with $20.49 billion. Chick-fil-A moved up from the No. 7 spot on last year's Nation's Restaurant News' Top 200, passing Wendy's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Subway. Chick-fil-A's system-wise sales grew 16.7% in 2018,...

Attorney General William Barr’s nearly hour-long interview with CBS News’ Jan Crawford last week was full of fascinating details about the special counsel probe, the debunked Russia collusion theory that roiled Washington for years, and Barr’s investigation into how the FBI and Department of Justice used the “bogus” theory to investigate the Trump campaign.The interview was downplayed by the media, which is implicated in perpetuating the Russia hoax Barr is investigating, and which came in for criticism from Barr for its failure to care about violations of civil liberties. Here are the top 28 take-aways from the interview.1. Mueller ‘Could Have...

Chick-fil-A is set to become the third largest fast-food chain in the United States as their signature chicken sandwiches and waffle fries continue to soar in popularity. Over 50 years after opening the first restaurant in the Atlanta area, Chick-fil-A's sales numbers have risen significantly, bested only by McDonald's and Starbucks, according to food-service consultancy Technomic Inc, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The company remains privately-owned. “We’ve been pretty consistent in how, over multiple decades, we’re going to take it slow and steady,” said Mark Moraitakis, a Chick-fil-A senior director, speaking of the company’s growth. “It’s paid off...

Fox News won the cable news ratings race for the 69th consecutive quarter over MSNBC and CNN, according to Nielsen Media Research numbers released Tuesday.

Not long ago, I wrote about the most overrated hits songs of all time. I love compiling lists like those because they allow me to get in touch with my snarky side as well as rant a little. In that post four months ago, I mused about doing a list of overrated artists. Well, the time has come. Here are the ten most overrated musical artists of all time. Don’t get me wrong: I like some of the music by some of these artists, and though there are only a few bands and solo performers I completely despise, you’ll find...

The year 2018 is likely to have been the fourth warmest year on record, a scientific group pronounced Thursday -- and joins three other extra-hot years since 2015 that suggest a leap upward in warmth that the Earth may never return from in our lifetimes. The warmest year on record for the Earth’s land and oceans was 2016 -- by a long shot, thanks to a very strong El Nino event. That’s followed by 2017, 2015, and now 2018, said Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist with Berkeley Earth, which released the findings. “2018 is consistent with the long term warming...

Anything, and everybody white is racist nowadays. Who knew that the 1953 Chevy Corvette that came only in Polo White, with white wall tires, was the ultimate in racist symbolism? We are covered in the white down of racism every day.

It wasn’t all bad news at the box office this past year. The movie industry as a whole may be boringly left-wing, but occasionally a conservative message breaks through, sometimes intentionally and sometimes accidentally or because filmmakers simply applied themselves to telling the truth. Here are ten films that brought conservative concepts to the multiplex in 2018, ranked according to conservative firepower:

20. "We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great. We have not reached greatness." — CNN host Andrew Cuomo 19. “And it would be a short war [between the government and gun owners who refused to give up their weapons], my friend. The government has nukes. Too many of them. But they’re legit. I’m sure if we talked we could find common ground to protect our families and communities.” – Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) 18. "'Don't vote for the ching-chong!" — Detroit Rep. Bettie Cook Scott on Asian opponent 17. "'But I can't afford...

The world can sometimes be an amazing place, full of beauty, charity and as the founder of the website in question, Rob Solomon puts it tikkun olam (Hebrew for repairing the world). One of those places, if you’re looking for a replenishment of your faith in humanity, is a site by the name of GoFundMe, which is a platform where people can ask for help and get it from people just like them. It can help with education to dealing with national disaster and anything in between. The site itself has seen a great deal of success, with a reported...

Brace yourselves … the U.S. Census Bureau just shared some information about the counties with the highest household income in the nation, and you’re in for a major shock: U.S. Census Bureau ✔ @uscensusbureau Highest counties by median household income (2013-2017): -Loudoun County, Va. -Fairfax County, Va. -Howard County, Md. -Falls Church City, Va. -Arlington County, Va. https://go.usa.gov/xPuUe #ACSdata

Microsoft is the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company, surpassing Apple for the title. Microsoft passed Apple in market cap again during intraday trading Friday, after jockeying for the top spot for most of the week. Microsoft surpassed Apple for seconds or minutes at a time all week, but Apple consistently beat out Microsoft in market valuation at market close. At Friday's close, Microsoft held an implied market valuation of $851.2 billion, based on an outstanding share count of 7,676,218,736 shares as of Oct. 19, according to the company's most recent SEC filing. Apple's market valuation, based on an outstanding...

College football rankings for week 11 have been released. Alabama remains the top-ranked team, while West Virginia, Syracuse, and Boston College made significant leaps in the polls. Washington, which clipped Stanford, 27-23, moved into the AP Poll at No. 20. Syracuse, who defeated Wake Forest, 41-24, surged nine spots to No. 13, due to a combination of their win and losses from other ranked teams. Boston College vaulted seven spots to No. 17 on the strength of a 31-21 victory at Virginia Tech. The Orange and Eagles both made 11-point leaps in the Coaches Poll. NC State, Iowa State, Michigan...